Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pardons man who shot and killed armed protester at Black Lives Matter demonstration in 2020



Republican Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott issued a full pardon for a man who was convicted of murdering a protester at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in 2020 in Austin.

A jury found Daniel Perry guilty of murder in April 2023 after deliberating for 17 hours in the eight-day trial.

Perry claimed that he shot Garrett Foster in self-defense as protesters were banging on his car. Foster, who was a former mechanic in the U.S. Air Force, was legally armed with an AK-47. Perry said that Foster had aimed the gun at him when Perry shot and killed the man.

Prosecutors relied on witness statements that contradicted Perry's account and also on posts that he had made on social media that they characterized as racist.

'Corrects the courtroom travesty ... and represents true justice.'

On Thursday, Abbott overturned the jury's decision.

“The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles conducted an exhaustive review of U.S. Army Sergeant Daniel Perry’s personal history and the facts surrounding the July 2020 incident and recommended a Full Pardon and Restoration of Full Civil Rights of Citizenship,” wrote Abbott.

“Among the voluminous files reviewed by the Board, they considered information provided by the Travis County District Attorney, the full investigative report on Daniel Perry, plus a review of all the testimony provided at trial," he added. "Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney."

Perry had been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Democrat Rep. Joaquin Castro from Texas excoriated Abbott over the decision in a post on social media.

"Before Daniel Perry murdered a veteran in 2020, he told a friend he 'might go to Dallas to shoot looters.' A year before, he wrote, 'to bad we can’t get paid for hunting Muslims.' @GovAbbott’s alliance with white nationalists is putting dangerous people on our streets," wrote Castro.

The family of Foster's fiancée, Whitney Mitchell, also released a statement decrying Abbott's decision.

"It sends a chilling message about the value of human life and the strength of political influence, eroding trust in the institutions meant to protect us," the statement read. “We stand today, heartbroken but resolute, in our call for a justice system that serves the people without bias and without undue political influence."

Doug O'Connell, the attorney for Perry, said he was "thrilled and elated" to be free.

"Daniel Perry was imprisoned for 372 days and lost the military career that he loved. The action by Governor Abbott and the Pardon Board corrects the courtroom travesty which occurred over a year ago and represents true justice in this case," said O'Connell.

Travis County District José Garza, the prosecutor criticized by Abbott for convicting Perry, issued a fiery statement lambasting the pardon.

“The Board and the Governor have put their politics over justice and made a mockery of our legal system. They should be ashamed of themselves,” Garza said in part.

"They have sent a message to Garrett Foster’s family, to his partner, and to our community that his life does not matter," he continued. "To the family and friends of Garrett Foster, and to the people of Travis County, we will not stop fighting for justice.”

Here's more about the pardon:

Gov. Abbott pardons Daniel Perry after he shot, killed protester in 2020 www.youtube.com

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NYC Mayor Adams threatens to impound buses transporting migrants into sanctuary city



Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday new rules regarding migrant buses arriving in the sanctuary city.

Adams followed Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's lead by enacting new restrictions in an attempt to thwart Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott's busing efforts.

Last month, Chicago implemented regulations concerning where and when buses can drop off migrants, Blaze News previously reported. Bus companies that fail to comply with the restriction could have their vehicles impounded and face up to $3,000 in fines. Johnson claimed that the companies responded to Chicago's rules by cutting off communication regarding drop-off times and locations.

On Wednesday, Adams decided to implement similar restrictions. According to his new executive order, bus companies transporting migrants to New York City must give city officials 32 hours' notice. Migrants must also be dropped off between 8:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. Monday through Friday at one designated location. According to Adams, 14 "rogue" charter buses carrying migrants arrived in one evening.

Companies that refuse to comply with Adams' order could be charged with a class B misdemeanor, which includes penalties of up to three months in prison, a $500 maximum fine for individuals, and a $2,000 maximum fine for corporations. Buses may also be impounded.

"We've begun to see another surge of migrants arriving. We expect this to intensify over the coming days as a result of @GovAbbott's cruel and inhumane politics," the mayor posted on X Wednesday.

Adams noted that he is "proud to stand with" Johnson, and he renewed calls for the federal government to step up and address the migrant crisis.

"We are proud to have helped nearly 60 percent of the more than 161,000 migrants who have come through our intake system move out of shelter," he stated. "But cities cannot continue to do the federal government's job for them. We need federal and state help to resettle and support the remaining 68,000 migrants currently in New York City's care and the thousands of individuals who continue to arrive every single week, and for Governor Abbott to finally stop the games and use of migrants as political pawns."

As a result of Johnson's efforts to slow down the buses, Abbott's office began flying migrants into Chicago. Fox News Digital reported that Texas is also flying migrants into New York City.

Renae Eze told the news outlet, "The hypocrisy of Mayor Adams is astounding. Mayor Adams had touted New York City's self-declared sanctuary city status, then sent his own buses of migrants out to small towns in New York. Texas has only transported about 32,000 migrants to New York City, while President Biden has been flying planeloads of migrants all around the country and oftentimes in the cover of night."

"With millions of residents, New York is only dealing with a fraction of what our small border communities deal with on a day-to-day basis," she continued. "Until President Biden steps up and does his job to secure the border, Texas will continue busing migrants to sanctuary cities to help our local partners respond to this Biden-made crisis."

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Republicans demand answers on alleged 'race-based rationing' of monoclonal antibody treatments



Republican lawmakers are demanding answers from the Biden administration after a viral video purportedly showed a man being denied monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19 because of his race.

In a letter to Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, 14 House Republicans led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) asked the Department of Health and Human Services to clarify why the administration is rationing the supply of monoclonal antibody treatments.

The letter is a follow-up to a previous inquiry from Roy asking HHS whether or not there was a "current or expected shortage of any monoclonal antibody treatments in the U.S.," a question Republicans said the Biden administration never answered.

"Despite HHS saying it is 'dedicated to transparency throughout this effort' multiple attempts from Congress to better understand HHS's role in regulating the mAb supply chain and distribution have gone unanswered," the lawmakers wrote on Tuesday.

"Now, we have heard of instances of individuals being refused mAb treatments, with a recent case regarding a man in Texas being refused treatment based on the color of his skin. Current Emergency Use Authorization guidelines list criteria for high-risk individuals including 'for example, race or ethnicity' in considering who receives treatment,'" the letter states.

The Republicans are referring to a viral video posted to Twitter by Harrison Hill Smith, a Texas-based blogger and self-described "Constitutional Extremist and Libertarian Nationalist" who claims he was "denied medical service because of [his] race."

Denied medical service because of my race.pic.twitter.com/FgtO3oiSPG

— Harrison Hill Smith (@Harrison_of_TX) 1636828763

In the video, Hill reportedly interacts with a Texas Department of Health and Human Services worker who told him he does not meet the eligibility criteria for receiving mAb treatment. The worker told Hill he is under 65, healthy, has no underlying medical conditions that put him at high risk for COVID-19, and as such "research shows that you should be able to fight off COVID."

When Hill asked if he would qualify for the treatment were he "black or hispanic," the worker said, "that's right."

Monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy is a treatment for COVID-19 that studies have shown is effective at reducing the risk of hospitalization and death for patients with mild to moderate illness who receive early treatment. The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for mAb therapies to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 in adults and children older than 12.

In September, when mAb treatments were in high demand among seven red states, the Biden administration announced it would take over the distribution of mAb treatments to "maintain equitable distribution, both geographically and temporally, across the country." CNN reported at the time that Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana accounted for 70% of monoclonal antibodies orders.

The guidelines for the state-funded Regional Infusion Center that operates in Tarrant County, Texas, say patients must meat at least one of several criteria to be eligible to qualify for COVID-19 therapeutics. The criteria includes being older than 65, being overweight, pregnant, having one of several preexisting health conditions, or being in a "high risk ethnicity group (Latino or Black)."

According to Roy's office, those Texas guidelines are based on federal guidelines that state "race or ethnicity" are among medical conditions or factors that may place individual patients at high risk of developing severe COVID-19.

Yet again, it\u2019s not @GovAbbott or #TxLege setting race-based rules\u2026 it\u2019s the feds. This is why we\u2019ve been aggressively fighting them (CDC, HHS) on rationing monoclonal treatments. Now we must dig into this - there should not be race-based rationing of care. #HealthcareFreedomhttps://twitter.com/chiproytx/status/1459601432248733708\u00a0\u2026

— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) 1636846665

The Republican letter asks Becerra to explain if there is a shortage of mAb treatments that makes rationing necessary and whether race or ethnicity is a factor in determining who gets rationed care.

"If there is no supply issue, as your Department's silence would indicate, then why is HHS rationing the treatment? Additionally, under no circumstance should an individual be turned away from receiving medical care due to the color of his or her skin," the letter states.

"Refusing to care for an individual based on the color of his or her skin raises very serious questions about potential violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Any guidelines, regulations, directives, or policies of any kind causing any doctor to deny access to care based on skin color should be immediately prohibited by your Department."

The lawmakers gave HHS a Nov. 29 deadline to respond to their inquiry.

HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Texas drops coronavirus restrictions, opens all businesses 100%, ends statewide mask mandate



Texas is fully reopening and the statewide mask mandate will be rescinded this week, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced Tuesday.

"Effective next Wednesday, all businesses of any type are allowed to open 100%," the governor said at a news conference announcing an end to restrictions imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19. Abbott said declining hospitalization rates across the state and increased distribution of virus vaccines were reasons to end the coronavirus restrictions.

@PatrickSvitek @GovAbbott Here is Gov. Abbott's announcement to open Texas and end the mask mandate https://t.co/3RyGdMVXvD
— The Recount (@The Recount)1614715696.0

"Texas is in a far better position now than when I issued my last executive order back in October," Abbott explained.

He indicated that if a private business still wishes to limit its capacity or enforce other virus safety precautions, the business would be free to do so without a government mandate.

"It is their business, and they get to choose to operate their business the way they want to," Abbott said. "At this time, however, people and businesses don't need the state telling them how to operate."

NEW: Issuing an executive order to lift the mask mandate and open Texas to 100 percent. https://t.co/P4UywmWeuN
— Gov. Greg Abbott (@Gov. Greg Abbott)1614715821.0

Earlier Tuesday, Abbott reported a new record number of 216,000 Texans were vaccinated against COVID-19 in a single day, noting that Texas is now distributing more than 1 million vaccine doses per week.

"This is a big reason why hospitalizations are at the lowest level in four months," the governor tweeted.

Today Texas will report a new one day record for the number of people receiving vaccines—more than 216,000.We are… https://t.co/yZ7PhvCecj
— Greg Abbott (@Greg Abbott)1614702993.0

Under Abbott's previous executive orders, Texas businesses were required to keep their occupancy at or below 75%. In areas where 15% of available hospital bed occupancy were taken up by coronavirus patients, legal max occupancy was reduced to 50%.

The new executive order will permit businesses to open at 100% occupancy, though it gives local officials in areas where COVID-19 cases are high the ability to implement "COVID mitigation strategies" at the local level.

"If COVID hospitalizations in any of the 22 hospital regions in TX rise above 15% of the hospital bed capacity in that region for 7 straight days, then a county judge in that region may use COVID mitigation strategies in their county," Abbott said.

"However, under no circumstance can a county judge put anybody in jail for not following COVID orders," he added. "And no penalties can be imposed for failing to wear a mask."

As Texas moves to reopen, federal health officials are warning states that it is still too early to lift coronavirus restrictions as new variants of the contagious disease are not fully understood by health experts.

"Please hear me clearly: At this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained," U.S. Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Monday. "I am really worried about reports that more states are rolling back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from Covid-19."

According to the Austin American-Statesman, more than 3.5 million Texans have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, amounting to about 12.7% of the state's total population. Nearly 1.9 million people are fully vaccinated.

State Democrats are begging the governor to keep the statewide mask mandate in place.

"To prevent additional struggles and suffering, we need consistency and clarity, not carelessness and confusion," said state Rep. Richard Peña Raymond in a letter addressed to Abbott. "If we all do our part to wear face coverings, we can ultimately get back to business and realize a return to normalcy."

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) applauded the governor's decision.

"With greater access to vaccinations, better treatment options, and decreasing hospitalizations rates, the Texas approach empower citizens to exercise personal responsibility about their health in the fight against COVID-19," Phelan said in a statement.