All posts tagged: Texas

Texas Sues Allstate Over Its Collection of Driver Data

Texas Sues Allstate Over Its Collection of Driver Data

The State of Texas sued Allstate on Monday, accusing the insurer of illegally tracking drivers by way of their phones through a subsidiary called Arity that claimed to have the “world’s largest driving behavior database.” “Allstate and Arity paid mobile apps millions of dollars to install Allstate’s tracking software,” Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general, said in a statement. “The personal data of millions of Americans was sold to insurance companies without their knowledge or consent in violation of the law. Texans deserve better and we will hold all these companies accountable.” In a statement, Allstate denied that the company had done anything illegal. “Arity helps consumers get the most accurate auto insurance price after they consent in a simple and transparent way that fully complies with all laws and regulations,” the company said. The New York Times reported last year that information about people’s driving behavior was being collected via smartphone apps, such as Life360 and GasBuddy, and sold to Arity, an analytics company founded by Allstate. Arity was able to analyze the data …

Texas Museum Responds to Outcry over Sally Mann Photos of Children

Texas Museum Responds to Outcry over Sally Mann Photos of Children

After several Sally Mann photographs were removed from a show at Texas’s Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth amid controversy, the institution has finally responded, issuing a brief statement on the matter. The Mann photographs were removed after some locals and politicians claimed that these images were “child porn.” The Dallas Express, which published several articles reporting on locals’ concerns, previously reported that there was a police investigation surrounding the works as evidence for alleged child abuse, but the museum had not responded to inquiries about it until now. Related Articles Mann has regularly faced controversy about her depictions of children. She became known for photographing her home in Lexington, Virginia; some of her shots have featured her own children in the nude. These photographs do not depict sexual activity. “An inquiry has been made concerning four artworks in the temporary exhibition Diaries of Home. These have been widely published and exhibited for more than 30 years in leading cultural institutions across the country and around the world,” a spokesperson for the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth …

Meta Follows Elon Musk’s Lead, Moves Staffers to Billionaire-Friendly Texas

Meta Follows Elon Musk’s Lead, Moves Staffers to Billionaire-Friendly Texas

“Executives are doing everything they can to create an environment conducive for actions they want to take, absent review or accountability from actors like our courts or legislators or others,” she says. Since taking over X, formerly Twitter, Musk has become one of Trump’s most important allies, backing his campaign financially and lending the full weight of his own platform to promoting Trump’s talking points during the campaign. He has since sat in on meetings with foreign leaders with the president-elect, and weighed in on staffing choices for the new administration. Other tech leaders have taken note, cozying up to Trump and donating to his inauguration fund. But even before the election, other tech companies were following X’s lead in rolling back policies and protections that had previously been in place. For his part, David Greene, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says that Meta and other social platforms would likely have to comply with state laws regardless of location. And relocating staff to Texas doesn’t mean all its supposed moderation problems will …

Sally Mann Photos Scrutinized as ‘Child Porn’ by Texas Officials

Sally Mann Photos Scrutinized as ‘Child Porn’ by Texas Officials

Photographs by Sally Mann on view in a group exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas have been decried by locals and elected officials as containing what they have deemed as inappropriate depictions of children. Sally Mann has spurred controversy for years over her photographs of her rural Lexington, Virginia, home, which include nude depictions of her underage children. In 1992, the New York Times Magazine cover article, “The Disturbing Photography of Sally Mann,” for instance, detailed a federal prosecutor having informed Mann that “no fewer than eight pictures she had chosen for the traveling exhibition [“Immediate Family”] could subject her to arrest.” Related Articles The Fort Worth exhibition, titled “Diaries of Home,” and co-organized by chief curator Andrea Karnes and assistant curator Clare Milliken, features the work of 13 women and nonbinary artists who, according to the museum’s website, “explore the multilayered concepts of family, community, and home.” The website includes a warning that the show features “mature themes that may be sensitive for some viewers.” Mann’s family photographs were dubbed …

Babies Being Found in Dumpsters After Texas Abortion Ban

Babies Being Found in Dumpsters After Texas Abortion Ban

Two years on, the consequences of the Texas abortion ban are almost too grim to contemplate: amidst a surge in infant mortality, babies are being found discarded in dumpsters, ditches, curbsides, and garbage trucks, the Washington Post reports. This year, there have been at least 18 cases of abandoned infants in the state, according to Texas Department of Family and Protective Services figures cited by WaPo. That’s more than double the number documented ten years ago, the newspaper notes. “There apparently has been… a little bit of an epidemic on this,” said a sheriff’s official for Houston’s surrounding county, where the body of an infant was found in a roadside ditch this summer, as quoted by WaPo. The morbid discovery was made by a landscaping crew. The Texas ban, which went into effect in 2021, is considered the most draconian in the nation. It makes no exceptions even in cases of rape or incest, leaving women with no legal means of stopping unwanted pregnancies. And according to independent research from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, the …

One of Texas’ dirtiest coal plants will swap to solar with help from US grant

One of Texas’ dirtiest coal plants will swap to solar with help from US grant

A coal plant in South Texas will shut down and convert to a solar + battery electricity generation facility, with the help of a $1.4 billion grant from the US Department of Agriculture meant to help clean energy while saving rural jobs. The grant will go to San Miguel Electric Cooperative Inc (SMECI) headquartered in Atascosa County, Texas, south of San Antonio, and serving 340,000 customers 47 South Texas counties. SMECI has operated a mine mouth lignite-fired coal plant (named due to its proximity to the mine that supplies it) since 1982. The plant is in the town of Christine, Texas, population 337. But that coal-fired plant is one of the dirtiest in Texas. It’s the fourth-largest mercury polluter in the state, producing around 12 times as much mercury as is allowed by a new EPA rule. It also has two coal ash ponds on site which leech into the local water table and create some of the most contaminated groundwater in the country. Here’s a passage from a 2022 Earthjustice report which analyzed contamination …

How Edna Ferber’s Novel ‘Giant’ Changed Texas

How Edna Ferber’s Novel ‘Giant’ Changed Texas

When Edna Ferber’s Giant was published in 1952, Texans were not pleased. Ferber’s sweeping novel about cattle, oil, and the winds of change brought a reform-minded Virginia woman, Leslie Benedict, to a Texas ranch, where she has the temerity to suggest that the denizens might treat their nonwhite, non-male neighbors a little better. Show some kindness to the Mexican immigrants—or “wetbacks,” as they’re routinely called in Giant—living in poverty down the road. Acknowledge that women might be capable of and interested in thinking about politics. Ferber, a waggish, literary New Yorker born and raised in the Midwest, known for novels including Show Boat and So Big, had done the unpardonable—she had messed with Texas—and Texas let her know how it felt. Julie Gilbert recalls some of the vitriol in her new book. Giant Love: Edna Ferber, Her Best-Selling Novel of Texas, and the Making of a Classic American Film. “Carl Victor Little in his Houston Press review suggested that she be lynched,” Gilbert writes. Little dismissed Ferber’s “‘brand of fiction’ as steeped in backstairs gossip …

Texas makes public education great again (for Christians)

Texas makes public education great again (for Christians)

(RNS) — Last Friday (Nov. 22), the Texas State Board of Education narrowly approved a new elementary school curriculum that has drawn widespread criticism for favoritism toward Christianity. The criticism is warranted, but it’s nonetheless unlikely that courts will find the Bluebonnet Learning Program an unconstitutional establishment of religion. Why? It is at once more innocuous and more insidious than recent moves in adjacent states to inject (Judeo-)Christian religion into public education. It shouldn’t be hard for the courts to turn thumbs down on Louisiana’s mandate that every public classroom in the state display a specific version of the Ten Commandments and Oklahoma’s mandate that every public classroom be equipped with a Bible and every public schoolteacher teach from it. But how will judges address a program that, for example, teaches kindergartners to count by having them number the biblical days of creation? Or consider the program’s fifth grade language arts unit on Christian apologist C.S. Lewis’ novel “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” On the one hand, it’s a classic, widely read and …

Elon Musk’s X is moving its legal disputes to Northern Texas

Elon Musk’s X is moving its legal disputes to Northern Texas

Lawsuits against X (formerly Twitter) will soon be heard in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The shift was first announced last month as part of a broader set of changes to X’s terms of service and privacy policy. Now, with the changes set to take effect on November 15, The Washington Post spoke to a number of legal and tech experts about what the move might mean. X owner Elon Musk also recently moved the social media company’s headquarters from San Francisco to Bastrop, Texas — near Austin — but Bastrop lies in Texas’ Western District. The Northern District, meanwhile, has become a destination for conservative activists seeking to challenge Democratic policies, with 10 of its 11 active judges appointed by Republican presidents. While it’s normal for companies to specify in their terms of service where lawsuits against them may be filed, Cornell law professor G.S. Hans described choosing the Northern District of Texas as “weird” compared to the Northern District of California, which most tech companies choose. Hans said …

Best Internet Providers in Abilene, Texas

Best Internet Providers in Abilene, Texas

What is the best internet provider in Abilene? If you’re living in Abilene, Texas, and looking for the best internet provider, consider CNET’s top pick for most households: Optimum. The Federal Communications Commission reports that Optimum serves over 86% of addresses in the area, meaning this provider’s low prices and reasonably fast speeds are available to most folks. CNET also recommends Vexus Fiber and Rise Broadband for residential internet if Optimum doesn’t serve your address, or if you’re searching for fiber or fixed wireless connectivity. Vexus Fiber is Abilene’s most budget-friendly ISP, with a base plan of $30 per month and speeds up to 150Mbps. Optimum is another strong contender, starting at $40 per month for up to 300Mbps, making it an even better value. And if you’re looking for speed, the fastest internet available in this west Texas town is 5 gigabits, offered by AT&T Fiber for $255 monthly. Best internet in Abilene in 2024 Abilene internet providers compared Provider Internet technology Monthly price range Speed range Monthly equipment costs Data cap Contract CNET …