We continue hosting Chris' new podcast for Progress Texas through the month of August! If you're liking it, please subscribe to the Progress Texas Podcasts feed on your favorite platform, which will be its permanent home.

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

A Second Amendment group is waging a legal battle to allow the sale of a gun modification device that enables machine gun-style rapid fire: ⁠https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/forced-reset-triggers-illegal-machine-guns-atf-gun-102402318⁠

A former judge who donated to a recent Ken Paxton opponent declines an invitation to participate in the upcoming impeachment trial: ⁠https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/19/dan-patrick-marc-brown-paxton-impeachment-adviser-counsel/⁠

U.S. Senate hopeful Colin Allred reports from a week-long listening tour of Texas: ⁠https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/inside-politics/texas-politics/democrat-colin-allred-travels-texas-listening-tour-us-senate-campaign/287-52952df5-eea1-4ea9-a310-6aab87c09c33⁠

GOP governors from a bunch of flyover states will join Governor Greg Abbott at the border today for a press conference about....something: ⁠https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/governor-kristi-noem-to-join-other-republican-governors-at-texas-border/⁠

New HISD superintendent subjects teacher and students to a musical play about...himself: ⁠https://www.texasobserver.org/houston-isd-takeover-the-musical/⁠

Our new heroes, The Ru-Publicans, are on a quest to buy a billboard in Austin mocking our state's new drag show ban: ⁠https://www.texasobserver.org/houston-isd-takeover-the-musical/⁠

Texas A&M University Police say they will no longer make small-possession pot busts: ⁠https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texas-a-m-marijuana-18303293.php⁠

...While a cannabis decriminalization push gets going in Lubbock - proving that conservatives enjoy a tasty buzz too: ⁠https://www.marijuanamoment.net/activists-in-another-texas-city-kick-off-effort-to-decriminalize-marijuana-with-signature-gathering-underway-in-lubbock/⁠

A scary piece on scary televangelist Kenneth Copeland and the "Prosperity Gospel" movement in Texas: ⁠https://www.texasobserver.org/these-christians-think-god-needs-you-rich-and-to-rule-the-world/⁠

ERCOT implores Texans to cut back the AC for a second time in four days: ⁠https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/20/texas-ercot-conservation-request/⁠

...While an all-too-brief rain spell and temperature drop appears to be headed for South Texas on Tuesday: ⁠https://www.ksat.com/weather/2023/08/16/tropical-wave-expected-in-the-gulf-of-mexico-next-week-heres-what-were-monitoring/

Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our work at ⁠https://progresstexas.org/⁠.