SUMMARY: In Austin, questions about liability in crashes involving robotaxis have arisen. If a driverless vehicle, such as Tesla’s, is at fault, passengers may be liable, particularly in Level 2-3 vehicles where driver input is required. Texas laws, including Senate Bill 2205 and House Bill 3026, regulate autonomous vehicles, with state control over rules. Level 4 vehicles, like Waymo’s, may not hold passengers accountable, as these cars can operate without a driver. Passengers in such vehicles are not responsible for accident-related procedures, with the company providing insurance contact details. As of May 21, Waymo is the only robotaxi service in Austin.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square contributor – (The Center Square – ) 2025-05-21 14:09:00
A North Texas district court ruled in favor of Texas in its lawsuit against the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) over Biden-era bathroom and pronoun policies. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that EEOC guidance, which redefined “sex” under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, was unlawful. The guidance required employers to accommodate “gender identity” preferences, such as bathroom and pronoun use. The court struck down both the 2021 and 2024 EEOC guidance, ruling it exceeded statutory authority and contradicted Supreme Court rulings. Paxton hailed the decision as a victory for common sense and the rule of law.
(The Center Square ) – A north Texas district court has ruled in favor of Texas in a lawsuit brought against the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over its Biden-era Enforcement Guidance on bathroom and pronoun policies.
Last year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the EEOC, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and other federal officials to block an EEOC guidance that redefined the meaning of “sex” in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, The Center Square reported.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court Northern District of Texas Amarillo Division, the same court where Paxton filed a lawsuit in 2021 to block similar EEOC guidance, which the court struck down.
In 2021, the EEOC issued guidance requiring employers to allow exceptions for employees with stated “gender preferences and identities” to use bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, dress codes and personal pronouns contrary to their biological sex. Texas argued the guidance was unlawful and increased the scope of liability for all employers, including the state of Texas, which employed roughly 140,000 people in September 2022, according to the state comptroller’s office.
The lawsuit was later amended to include the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a defendant after the agency promulgated a new rule threatening to cut federal funding to states that prohibit “sex-change” procedures on minors and classify the procedure as child abuse. Biden administration guidances would have allowed biological males to use women’s facilities and abolished sex-specific workplace dress codes.
The court struck down both rules, vacated the 2021 guidance and issued a binding declaratory judgment between the EEOC and Texas.
A similar ruling was issued on Thursday by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. The 2024 guidance sought to redefine “discrimination” to include “gender identity,” opening up private and state employers to lawsuits if they didn’t adopt sweeping “transgender inclusive policies” and comply with “pronoun police,” Paxton argued.
“The Biden Administration unlawfully tried to twist federal law into a tool for advancing radical gender ideology by attempting to force employers to adopt ‘transgender’ policies or risk being sued,” Paxton said. “The federal government has no right to force Texans to play along with delusions or ignore biological reality in our workplaces. This is a great victory for common sense and the rule of law.”
Kacsmaryk’s 34-page ruling says the EEOC exceeded its statutory authority and its guidance was “inconsistent with the text, history, and tradition of Title VII and recent Supreme Court precedent” and vacated it.
He also rejected EEOC’s arguments, said it misread the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v Clayton County, “cited no binding authority for its metastasized definition of ‘sex,’” and contravened Title VII by defining discriminatory harassment to include transgender bathroom, pronoun and dress preferences. He also said if Congress wanted to redefine “sex” in Title VII to include “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” it would have. “But it did not,” he wrote. “Congress has the power to amend statutes to add accommodations, EEOC does not. Yet that’s exactly what the enforcement guidance does.”
Kacsmaryk also listed sections of the guidance that he said are unlawful and vacated them.
The Trump administration EEOC is unlikely to appeal the ruling.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Right-Leaning
The article predominantly frames the EEOC and Biden administration policies regarding gender identity and workplace accommodations in a critical light, consistent with conservative perspectives on these issues. The use of phrases like “radical gender ideology,” “delusions,” and “pronoun police,” which are direct quotes from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, emphasizes a dismissive stance towards transgender-inclusive policies. The selection and presentation of legal arguments and rulings that invalidate federal guidance on gender identity also align with conservative legal interpretations. While the article reports facts about court rulings and legal disputes, the language and framing favor the Texas government’s viewpoint and legislative conservatism, contributing to a right-leaning ideological perspective rather than neutral, objective journalism.
Measles is spreading in West Texas, with El Paso seeing a high rate of adult infections. Although typically affecting children, two-thirds of the cases in El Paso are among adults. The county’s high vaccination rates for children, with 96% of kindergartners and 98% of seventh graders vaccinated, may be helping protect the younger population. Public health officials are now targeting adults for vaccination, as many may not remember their immunization status. Measles can lead to serious complications like pneumonia, and El Paso’s proximity to Mexico, where the outbreak has also spread, raises concerns about further transmission.
In El Paso, measles is infecting more adults than children
“In El Paso, measles is infecting more adults than children” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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As soon as measles started spreading in West Texas, El Paso health officials began preparing schools and day care facilities for the day the virus would inevitably arrive.
But now that it’s here, it’s not kids who are making up the brunt of the cases — it’s adults. Two-thirds of El Paso’s cases so far are among people over the age of 18, and only 7% are among school-age children.
Anyone unvaccinated can contract measles, but it tends to hit children first and hardest. Most children are not fully vaccinated until they are five years old and they spend more time than adults in congregate settings where the virus can spread quickly. More families of young children are opting out of vaccines, leaving them exposed.
Gaines County, the epicenter of the outbreak, followed this traditional path, starting with school-age children before spreading to adults. Almost six months into what is now the country’s largest measles outbreak since 2000, Texas’ 722 cases are about evenly spread between the three age groups the state divides them into: under four, 5-17 and adults.
El Paso stands out for its high rate of adult infections. The county only has 56 cases so far, the third-highest among Texas counties but still too small of a sample size to conclude much, public health experts say. But if this trend holds, it may be a credit to El Paso’s high vaccination rates among kids — 96% of kindergartners and 98% of seventh graders are fully vaccinated for measles, higher than the percent required to maintain herd immunity. The state does not track adult vaccination rates.
“That is one of the protective factors that we feel is helping us,” said El Paso public health authority Hector Ocaranza. “But still we’re going to continue to see cases of measles that are going to be clustering in some of the schools or day cares that have low immunization rates.”
These surprising initial statistics have required public health officials to change their outbreak response on the fly. They’re aiming more of their vaccination events specifically at adults, especially as many health care providers who serve adults do not have the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine on hand the way pediatricians do.
“Most of the adults, they don’t remember whether they’ve had the MMR vaccine,” Ocaranza said. “They were kids, and nobody has a shot record.”
Adults unsure of whether they were vaccinated as children can safely get another round of the shots, said Patsy Stinchfield, past president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a measles expert.
“If you did have two [shots] already, it will only make your full antibody cup even fuller,” Stinchfield said.
Older adults especially should consult with their doctor about their immunization status, she said. People born before 1957 are presumed immune, since the virus was so common back then, but some people who got an early version of the vaccine between 1963 and 1967 may not have gotten the same protection as later shots.
The exceptions, she said, are people who are immunocompromised, pregnant women or the tiny minority of people who have had a bad reaction to the vaccine in the past. Those people are counting on everyone else’s vaccination status to keep them healthy.
Healthy adults are generally able to fight off the worst of a measles infection, but anyone who gets infected runs the risk of it morphing into pneumonia or worse, said Ben Neuman, a virologist at Texas A&M University. Three of the five hospitalizations in El Paso so far are in adults.
And anyone with measles will spread it in the community, potentially to children too young to be vaccinated who are especially vulnerable to the worst outcomes, like encephalitis, deafness, blindness and permanent brain damage.
“Especially kids two years and under, their immune systems are just bad at everything,” Neuman said. “We’re all sort of helping them out with our herd immunity.”
Neuman said it’s possible that El Paso’s high rate of adult cases is “the first sign of something weird,” but he anticipates the data will start to look more normal as more people get tested.
El Paso borders the Mexican state of Chihuahua, where the outbreak that originated in Texas has taken hold due to the large Mennonite communities in both places. Ocaranza said measles doesn’t respect borders, and he anticipates it spreading vociferously on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico line now that it’s in El Paso.
The messaging is the same, whether it’s children or adults who are testing positive, in Mexico or the United States, he said: Get vaccinated.
“We welcome anybody who needs the vaccine,” he said. “We can vaccinate regardless of their place of residence, regardless of their immigration status, regardless of the ability to pay … Everyone needs to join forces to stop this.”
Disclosure: Texas A&M University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The article is largely focused on a public health issue—measles outbreaks in El Paso—offering a factual account of the situation and the local response. The language is neutral, presenting statements from health officials, medical experts, and public health data without introducing any political or ideological perspectives. The inclusion of both local and expert opinions further emphasizes the aim to inform rather than advocate for a particular viewpoint. Additionally, the article adheres to a non-partisan stance, highlighting health measures and facts while avoiding politically charged language or policy endorsements.
Three years after the tragic Uvalde elementary school shooting that claimed 19 children and two teachers, survivor families continue seeking justice and change. Jesse Rizo, uncle of a victim, transformed grief into leadership, winning a seat on the school board. He advocates for accountability, transparency, and safer policies, emphasizing the need to honor the victims and empower the community. Though local officials have changed, frustration remains over limited criminal charges against law enforcement. Rizo urges public support through compassion and awareness, hoping lessons from Uvalde will prevent future tragedies and reunite the once close-knit community recovering from profound loss.
Three long years ago, in a southwest Texas town now almost synonymous with the tragedy, something happened in an elementary school so horrifying that it nearly defied meaning altogether, challenging any sense of a guiding plan or greater judiciousness in human affairs. Nineteen children. And two teachers. Gone. Uvalde—a place name to be forever followed by a fraught pause.
What was stunning then, and stunning still, was the almost-immediate insistence on meaning from the families who lost their children. Parents, siblings, tíos, and grandparents suddenly coalesced to push for accountability from both school district leaders and the myriad police agencies whose outrageously disorganized response exacerbated the disaster, and to push for gun control measures that could prevent such a threat to other parents’ children in the first place.
Among that coalition of the bereaved was Jesse Rizo, an uncle who lost his niece, 9-year-old Jackie Cazares. Rizo became a regular at local government meetings, exacting in his calls for justice yet calm in his delivery, along with Cazares’ immediate family members and many other leaders. Last May, Rizo was elected to the Uvalde CISD school board, one target of the families’ diverse demands.
Manuel Rizo, Jesse Rizo, Felix Rubio, Kimberly Rubio. Uvalde families gather at the Texas Capitol on November 1, 2022, for a march to the Governor’s Mansion to demand gun control legislation. (Gus Bova)
Still employed as an AT&T customer service technician (the school board position is unpaid), the 54-year-old Rizo grew up in a family of farmworkers in Batesville, some 20 minutes southeast of Uvalde. He left for Austin as a young man, where he graduated from St. Edward’s University, before eventually coming back home.
Three years since the massacre, Rizo sees some positive change: Public officials and school administrators have, for varying reasons, turned over. And he sees family members reengaging with the district. They signed the final beam of a new school building that, in a different location, replaces the shuttered Robb Elementary building where the shooting happened, and Jackie’s older sister Jazmin, for example, recently appeared in a video with the current superintendent. At the same time, Rizo remains outraged that the local district attorney’s prolonged investigation led to only two police officers facing criminal charges for the shooting response, and he eagerly awaits their trials and the further transparency they might bring.
The Observer spoke with Rizo about leadership, anger, and what can still be done.
TO: When did you decide to run for school board and why?
The massacre highlighted a lot of, I call them areas of opportunity, and when it really dawned on me was when we were at one of the meetings at the auditorium. And I’ll never forget going up there, and I was not a public speaker at all. I was kind of intimidated by the thought of even having to do it. But I remember going up there and questioning the board and questioning [former superintendent Hal Harrell], asking him, basically, what are your plans? … And he had this look about him, and I knew right then and there that there were no policies, that there were no procedures in place for anything remotely close to this. Like, man, they don’t have it together. And so that was the first time that I thought, there’s no way that they’re gonna survive this one, that they [the school board] needed the help.
You were part of a group that obviously felt a lot of anger at the school board. But you felt like you wanted to help.
I learned a long time ago that you can’t come with problems without solutions. You have to come to the table with ideas, and so that was part of it.
Man, when I would get up to talk, I would always ask God that he would send the children’s voices through me. In other words, let their words be spoken through me. How would they handle it, right? Then I knew what I needed to say, and a lot of times I didn’t even have notes.
Thinking back, the last year on the board, what’s been the most rewarding thing you’ve been able to do? And what’s been the most frustrating thing?
The most rewarding thing, there’s a multitude of things, but being able to provide a voice for the people that are either afraid or too shy, that want to say things but they just don’t have the courage. And the other part of that, being able to hold each other accountable, and what I mean by that is, the most important thing that you have is the child, right? The children that go to school at all ages. The learning, the safety, being a role model to them, to empower them and to say, you too can speak out.
As far as the challenging part, it’s understanding the language of the school, the acronyms. I understand the philosophy, I understand the methods, but when you get to the nuts and bolts of how things work on a day-to-day basis, that’s a big learning curve. And so how do you tackle that? I’ve been fortunate enough that they’ve asked me to be part of advisory committees. And I go to as many meetings and campuses that I can and I meet with staff and I just sit there and I have lunch with them or I just listen and listen and absorb as much as I can so that when I’m faced with those decision-making things, I’m gonna make a well-educated decision.
A little more big-picture, we’re approaching the three-year mark since the Robb shooting. I know you can’t speak for everybody, but how do you think the families are doing, and how do you think Uvalde as a whole is doing?
As far as the families are concerned, you know, things are still difficult. But I think that we’re trying to make sure that we honor their children, that we honor the teachers, and that we honor the survivors from a school standpoint.
One of the things, I’ll speak to this, man, one of the things where you start seeing the train turn a little, is Felicha Martinez and Abel Lopez [who lost 10-year-old Xavier Lopez], they’ve been volunteering [with a school district food distribution program and Thanksgiving event]. And at the meetings, I’ll never forget, you know, her emotions, especially her, and now several years later she’s giving back to the community, both of them. And if that’s not a testimony of something turning around, I don’t know what is.
You had said at some point, “We used to be a close community. Now it’s like we don’t know each other anymore.” Do you not feel that way anymore?
I think that we’re beginning to rebuild and come back together. And, not too long ago, I kind of analyzed, like, how is it that this is happening? And it took a lot of work. It took a new superintendent. It took a new board. The old chief of police is gone, assistant chief is gone. You have a new city council. You have a new mayor. And everybody, when you go to these meetings, you hear the word transparency, you hear the word accountability, and so everybody’s practicing what they’re preaching, and so we hold each other to that. So it’s mending.
The Robb Elementary memorial in Uvalde in July 2022 (Gus Bova)
In general, what measures of accountability are you still closely watching and waiting for?
The [former UCISD Police Chief Pete] Arredondo and [former UCISD officer Adrian] Gonzales trial that’s coming up—and that the community, just like the rest of the world, sees and acknowledges the absolute failure of the different law enforcement responses. You can only do so much as far as accountability legally. And that is the only two individuals that were charged with anything—[which is] beyond comprehension. I mean, there should have been so many others that were also held accountable, prosecuted. But I’m hoping that these two individuals will be held accountable, whether it’s a prison sentence or some type of discipline.
What happened three years ago really affected, I would say, millions of people, because it was basically one of the worst incidents in modern American history. Is there still anything for people who don’t live there to do to support the families or to support Uvalde as a community?
Definitely. I think exercising something that doesn’t cost any money—and that’s love and compassion. You know, whether it’s through social media or you see them on TV or you run into them anywhere. Just a simple gesture, let the families know that you’re with them and you think about them. To me that’s really important. As far as the gun issue, to me it’s awareness, be aware of your surroundings, be aware of your loved ones, if you see that they’re troubled or whatever don’t just ignore it, don’t let it build up.
You should not allow these kids and the teachers to die in vain. There’s gotta be something that comes out of it. And whether it’s just basic awareness or it mobilizes you or it engages you, you become engaged in some kind of movement, you have to follow your instinct. You have to follow what you think is right, so that somebody else, some other community, some other family member, doesn’t have to go through this. Because it does turn the town inside-out.
This interview has beenedited for length and clarity.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
This content focuses on the aftermath of the Uvalde school shooting, emphasizing calls for accountability from public officials and law enforcement, as well as advocacy for gun control measures. It highlights the perspective of a community leader pushing for reform and vigilance, with criticism aimed at authorities for inadequate response and limited legal consequences. The narrative aligns with concerns typically raised by center-left viewpoints, promoting governmental responsibility, community activism, and gun violence prevention, while maintaining a respectful and solution-oriented tone without overt partisanship or extreme rhetoric.
