Greg Abbott

Greg Abbott's Domestic Partner Benefits Ruling Greeted With a Shrug

At first glance -- and second, and third -- Attorney General Greg Abbott's opinion on Monday that cities, counties, and school districts are barred by the Texas Constitution from offering health benefits to the domestic partners of employees would seem to be a stumbling block on the road toward equa ... More >>

Attorney General Greg Abbott Rules that Domestic Partner Benefits are Barred by Texas Constitution

Voters didn't mince words in 2005, when they added Article I, Section 32 to the Texas Constitution. "Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman," it says. "This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical ... More >>

Texas Sues the Feds, Part Infinity: Greg Abbott Wants to Take Greenhouse Gas Challenge To Supreme Court

Last summer, Texas, Big Oil interests, the automotive industry and other assorted industrial polluters were dealt an unambiguous defeat in a legal challenge to dismantle greenhouse gas regulations. The Feds, a federal appeals court panel ruled, were "unambiguously correct" for setting limits on carb ... More >>

Greg Abbott Wants To Make Texas' Interim (And Still Probably Unconstitutional) Redistricting Plan Permanent

As you may recall, Texas' 2011 plan to redraw political boundaries was so brazenly partisan, so undeniably bent on reducing minority influence, and the evidence was so mountainous and convincing that a federal court didn't even bother cataloging it all in its ruling against the state. "The parties h ... More >>

Greg Abbott Backs DNA-Testing Bill, Continues Unprecedented Streak of Reasonableness

Greg Abbott's acting strangely. It wasn't even two weeks ago that the Attorney General seemed to have given up his day job suing the Obama administration and just started trolling liberals full-time. But then, in a turn that was completely unexpected, Abbott was seized by an bout of reasonableness ... More >>

The Titus County Attorney Wants Texas Attorney General to Help Him in His Fight to Keep Bringing His Old Dachshund to Work

Titus County is a little spot on the far northeastern part of the map, comprising some 32,000 people total. Belle is a infirm, chocolate-colored, 16-year-old dachshund. She also lives in Titus, and it appears that she's made an enemy. Belle's person is named John Mark Cobern; he also happens to b ... More >>

Google Admits to Snooping on Texans' Unprotected Wireless Networks

Turns out, those camera-mounted compact cars Google dispatches to prowl America's streets haven't just been collecting the panoramic Street View images that help make its maps feature so incredibly useful. Nope. As the search giant admitted yesterday, those cars have been gathering email addresses, ... More >>

Abbott Goes After Watkins! It's The Demagogue vs. The Nose Thumber in a Cage Smackdown! Who Cares!? Not Me!

The big news in local politics today is supposed to be that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has publicly slammed Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins over how his office handed of a civil suit. Yeah. Sorry. Somehow this doesn't rise quite to the level of man-bites-dog for me. More like ... More >>

Attorney General Greg Abbott Has Stopped Lawyering, is Now Just Trolling Liberals

Attorney General Greg Abbott posted the above political ad to his Facebook page this afternoon. We present it without comment, other than to wonder if Abbott and Glenn Beck have ever been seen in the same place together. Think about it.

Minority Leaders Rallied at City Hall Today to Explain Why Texas Needs the Voting Rights Act

The U.S. Supreme Court began hearing arguments today challenging the constitutionality of and need for Section Five of the Voting Rights Act, which requires Texas and other southern states with a history of suppressing the minority vote to get pre-clearance from the Feds before implementing changes ... More >>

Attorney General Greg Abbott Just Challenged President Obama to a Skeet Shooting Contest

Last week, in an interview with the New Republic, President Obama said something about his love for skeet shooting, the subtle art of throwing a clay disk up in the air and shooting the hell out of it. "Up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time," the president told the magazine. He was tr ... More >>

Texas AG Announces "Choose Life Advisory Committee" to Distribute Money Raised by Those Anti-Abortion License Plates

In May of 2011, in the midst of various other anti-abortion measures, Texas lawmakers approved SB 257, authored by Representative Larry Phillips, a Republican from Sherman, and Senator John Carona, a Republican from Dallas. The bill allowed for the sale of state-issued specialty "Choose Life" licens ... More >>

After Chest-Thumping Over International Election Observers, Greg Abbott Admits Texas Sovereignty In No Danger

In an exercise in states' rights fetishization, the Texas Legislature tasked Attorney General Greg Abbott with figuring out whether international organizations are usurping Lone Star sovereignty. If you'll recall, there was an ugly scene leading up to the 2012 presidential election, wherein Abbott, ... More >>

Greg Abbott Invents War on Christmas, Declares Victory

Despite its vaguely official-sounding name, the Christmas Bureau of Austin & Travis County is not a branch of local government. It's a nonprofit charity, one that purports to help needy individuals and families during the holiday season. That seems to be what the organization did from 1964, when it ... More >>

Rick Perry Gave Greg Abbott a Gun For His Birthday, Because of Course He Did

Yesterday was Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's 55th birthday, and it brought with it the question of what to give a man who has selflessly devoted his life to suing the federal government. A PACER gift card to cover all those pesky filing costs? A guaranteed slot in the Republic of Texas' cabine ... More >>

Texas Nationalist Movement Would Like to Secede Now, Please

Everyone has their own way of coping with or celebrating the results of last night's election. For his part, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott doesn't appear to have made good on his threat to arrest any European election monitors (who are, by the way, due to give a news conference in Washington t ... More >>

The Washington Post Sees Striking Similarities Between Greg Abbott and Vladimir Putin

At first blush, it wouldn't seem that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott have much in common. The former is an ex-KGB agent who, through a bizarre combination of dictatorial repression and sheer animal magnetism, has cemented his status as Russia's de facto leade ... More >>

Texas AG Greg Abbott Warns Hillary Clinton to Keep European Election Monitors from Messing with Texas

On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, in a bit of international chest-pounding, sent a strongly worded letter to the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe threatening criminal charges if the group carried out a hinted-at plan to show up in Texas come November 6. ... More >>

Report Predicts More Shutdowns of Coal-fired Power Plants, But Not in Texas

Rock-bottom natural gas prices have forced the wonks over at the Brattle Group to revise their national prediction for the number of coal-fired power plants likely to retire in the coming years steeply upward. And when we say steeply, we mean by some 25 gigawatts, or roughly enough electricity to po ... More >>

Harris County Is Drowning in Drunk People's Blood. Dallas, Thankfully, Is Not

Last week, Harris County District Attorney Patricia Lykos asked Attorney General Greg Abbott for some advice. County law enforcement has dutifully taken blood samples from suspects in certain intoxication-related offenses (driving drunk with a child in the car, for one) as required by state law. No ... More >>

Appeals Court Says Texas' Redistricting Maps Are Discriminatory; Texas Vows to Appeal

When the Texas legislature passed new redistricting maps in 2011, it sure seemed that the lines had been drawn to dilute the power of Democratic-leaning Hispanic voters in favor of Republicans. State leaders swore that wasn't the case, but, rather than taking them to an unfriendly Justice Department ... More >>

Rick Perry: "Aliens" Still Not Eligible for Public Benefits In Texas

It's a pretty basic equation: When the Obama administration does something, Governor Rick Perry's against it. When at all possible, his administration will refuse to implement in Texas whatever policy change the feds have made. Expanding Medicaid? He's not going to do it here, no matter how many mil ... More >>

AG Greg Abbott's Daughter Killed Something, and He Posted a Photo to Prove It

That girl you see above with the gun and dead antelope (or is it an oryx? Unfair Park is baffled by nature) blackbuck is Audrey Abbott. That guy you see in the Jeep, grinning, is her dad, Attorney General Greg Abbott. I don't really have a lot to add, save what our AG wrote on his Facebook page. "Pr ... More >>

Trial to Determine if Texas' Voter ID Law Is, In Fact, Racist, Begins Today in Federal Court

Last May, Texas joined the growing roster of states with a voter ID law requiring those seeking to exercise their most fundamental civic duty to present a state-issued ID before casting a ballot. Like a driver's license or, this being Texas, a concealed handgun permit. And that was that, at least ... More >>

Texas AG Greg Abbott Is Suing the Feds Over the Women's Health Program

We realize you're probably too busy side-stepping puddles of green puke to give much of a shit about what's going on in Austin. Nonetheless, we feel obliged to note that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a lawsuit late yesterday against the federal government over its decision to withdraw fed ... More >>

Feds Think Texas's Voter ID Law May Be Racist, So the State Sues to Implement It Right Away

Given Texas's dicey history with electoral rights, the Obama Administration has expressed concern in recent months about the state's new Voter ID law, which requires voters to bring government-issued identification to the polls. So the state, naturally, is suing to put the new and allegedly discrimi ... More >>

Supreme Court Tosses District Judges' Redistricting Maps, Says Texas Needs a Do-Over

​Back in November U.S. District Judges Orlando Garcia and Xavier Rodriguez down in San Antonio drew up new congressional and state House and Senate maps, since they so hated the ones submitted by the Texas Legislature. The judges claimed the state willfully ignored the state's growing Hispanic pop ... More >>

Texas's New Sonogram Law Is Going Into Effect Immediately. As In: Right Now.

Just four days after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Rick Perry's favorite law -- the one requiring women to get a sonogram, listen to a fetal heartbeat and hear a verbal description from a doctor of the sonogram image before they can get an abortion -- is street legal, the court issue ... More >>

State Maps Stayed, Texas AG Abbott Now Wants Supremes to Delay Candidate Filing Period

Carol Kent's hoping to run for House Disrict 107, if there is a House Distict 107.​As we were leaving the office Friday, word came down that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (and former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement) got what they wanted from the U.S. Supreme Court: a ruling that, for now, ... More >>

As Promised, Texas AG, Paul Clement Have Asked Supreme Court to Stay Court's New Maps

​Yesterday we gave you the heads-up: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has brought in former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement to try to throw out what they claim are the federal court's "unlawful redistricting maps." And, right on cue, they've filed their emergency stays with the U.S. Supreme ... More >>

Paul Clement's To-Do List Just Got Longer As He Tries to Toss Texas's Redistricting Maps

​On Wednesday we got our first look at the new-look Texas maps drawn by the court, which is attempting to rectify the U.S. Department of Justice's concerns that the state Legislature is attempting to keep Hispanics from voting for Hispanic candidates, especially in Dallas-Fort Worth. To which Texa ... More >>

Dickey's So Angry About Redistricting Map She Wants Texas Attorney General, DOJ to Intervene

Photo by Mark GrahamMaurine Dickey​No doubt you recall Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey's blow-up over that redistricting map sprung on her during commissioners court a couple of weeks back. Long story short: She'd agreed to one map, only to have John Wiley Price give her, at the last sec ... More >>

DA Craig Watkins Not About to "Told Ya So" Over AG's Ruling About Hiring Outside Counsel

​As you may be aware, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has issued a ruling intended to put to rest any argument over who has the authority to hire special outside counsel to represent Dallas County in civil matters -- the Dallas County District Attorney or the county commissioners court. Two fol ... More >>

Now Objecting to the Sale of Your Texas Rangers: Attorney General Greg Abbott, Comptroller

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott​Once again, the Texas Rangers Baseball Partners Information Site provides us with a wealth of morning must-reads -- chief among them, the 12-page objection filed yesterday in Fort Worth bankruptcy court by the Texas Attorney General's Office and the Texas Comptro ... More >>

A Few Do's and Don'ts Learned During the 2010 Republican Party of Texas Convention

Photos by Patrick Michels​Happy Sunday, Friends! While you were out having a nice, relaxing weekend full of neighbors and sun and beers and loveliness, I was at the 2010 Texas Republican Party Convention having a blast talking about 'Murka and stuff. It was a fun- and camo-filled two days, but I'v ... More >>

Tomorrow, Texas AG to Make Case That Gay Divorce is Gateway to Gay Marriage

Attorney Pete Schulte and the petitioner still known as J.B. on The Daily Show in January​Mark it down: 2 p.m. tomorrow, George L. Allen Sr. Courts Building. That's when the Fifth Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments for case No. 05-09-01170-CV -- otherwise known as In the Matter of the Marri ... More >>

Governor Rick Perry 's Lame Statement About Child Support Tells Us All We Need To Know About Republican Ally Greg Abbott

Danny Fulgencio​In the current paper version of Unfair Park, we detail the lengthy battle between Robert O'Donnell and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who extinguished O'Donnell's child support collection business after several courtroom victories. Despite the efforts of Abbott and his off ... More >>

In the War of Attrition Waged by the Texas Attorney General Against Robert O'Donnell, There Were Unintended Consequences

Buzz Gives '09 a One-Fingered Wave Goodbye

City Misses Samuell Trust Reports Deadlines; Texas AG Threatens Dallas With Legal Action

Once a popular hangout at the Samuell Farm, the Pavillion is a rotting, open-door shell of its former self.​Long story short: Since March 2008, the Texas Attorney General's Office has been investigating precisely how well the city of Dallas is taking care of the park properties and money left to t ... More >>

Texas AG Tells Cali Women to Take Their Fuel Magnets and Blow 'Em Out Their Gas Tank

Three years ago, we ran a piece in the paper version of Unfair Park about a scam called BioPerformance Fuel -- otherwise known as mothballs you were supposed to drop into your gas tank to rev up mileage per gallon. The Texas Attorney General didn't take kindly to that. Which didn't stop two Californ ... More >>

Just Because, Texas Watchdog Sifts Though AG's Open Records Opinions

Just to see what's open and what ain't these days, Texas Watchdog's Jennifer Peebles sifted through a stack of November 12 rulings handed down by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office concerning open records requests. Today, she posts the results.About half of the opinions concern requests gen ... More >>

Mayor Tom, City Council to Take on "Renegade Towing Companies"

Dallas Sues Texas AG Abbott Over An Observer Open Records Request

Strong Arm of the Law

Running on Fumes

You've got to have balls to sell BioPerformance's hot product--mothballs

Oh-Five Alive

Not so public

Don't read over a fibbie's shoulder

Our Pal

We'll never tell, despite the Supreme Court

Tax Dollars at Work

Hey, armed robbers need bullets, too!