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The Texas Mid-Terms: The Urgency of it All

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Visit the League of Women Voters Texas here “The history of the country is the story of organized people against organized money.”  - Clayton Tucker, candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner Next week, early voting begins in Texas. The stakes are high and I doubt seriously that we’ll see a Blue Wave. We might get a Purple Bruise, though, which I’d be pleased with. At the very least, Talarico may well beat Paxton and Gina Hinojosa is running one point behind Abbott for governor.  All of that said, I am cautiously and not overly-optimistic about the mid-terms here. As Sharon Williams pointed out in an email recently, “Texans are notorious non-voters. In an election as important as the 2024 Presidential Election, turnout here actually fell by almost 6%. And if you think those voters fell out in equal measure between Republicans and Democrats, you would be kidding yourself.  Republicans are much more likely to cast ballots than those on the more progressive end of the spe...
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Flooding in Nepal: part one, local aid and how you can help

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It’s been nine years since floods broke out on the Nepal-India border , and four since Kathmandu was hit with an earthquake in June of that year, and now, most recently, the country is faced with devastation from floods in Rasuwa, the effects of which have rippled outward from the region. It’s difficult to visualize or put into words what this means, so I am deferring to reporting from my friend Hemraj Dangal in Kathmandu, who has been organizing relief efforts. What follows is a timeline from the initial flooding of 26 August. I asked Hemraj to send me this to give some idea of the scope of the disaster from someone on the ground as well as to shine some light on those relief efforts and how others can help. Hemraj and his team have been concentrating on helping the displaced in    Bidur Ward 5. Bridges have been washed out in surrounding wards and overland travel is still precarious. The broader scope is that over 84,000 people have been affected and to date, 1400 deaths hav...
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