Kate McGee Balagia
@McGeeReports
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Investigative reporter for @TexasTribune. Formerly higher ed. Past life in public 📻 in IL, DC, TX, NV, NY. [email protected]. DM for Signal.
Texas
Joined December 2010
Well, this is awesome but I’m honestly most excited about being featured at a table with Goldlink. @washingtonian
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NEW: Texas A&M University says Kyle Rittenhouse has not been admitted as a student this summer or fall. Rittenhouse said on the Charlie Kirk Show Friday he would be going to Texas A&M.
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Rittenhouse made a similar claim about Arizona State University — only for officials there to later say that he had never applied.
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UPDATE: Kyle Rittenhouse now says he is attending Blinn College this year after Texas A&M said he was not accepted for the summer or fall. A Blinn spox said he has applied but has not yet enrolled.
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New: a bill has been filed in Texas to prohibit counties from putting a polling place at a college or university. It follows another bill filed earlier that would require counties to put a certain # of polling places on college campuses depending on enrollment size.
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The Texas Senate is debating SB 16, which prohibits a professor from forcing a student to adopt a certain political belief. Sen. West is grilling Sen. Hughes to present evidence of this issue happening in Texas. He is unable to do so. #Txlege.
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Texas players also said an athletic official told them he received emails from alumni threatening their future job prospects in TX. Former Longhorn Caden Sterns tweeted earlier that alumni said players should look for jobs outside of TX if they didn’t participate in the Eyes.”
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But students are not backing down. Dozens of students who give campus tours to prospective Longhorns are refusing to work this week over a dispute about a plaque with “The Eyes of Texas” lyrics hanging in the Admissions Welcome Center.
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Texas A&M put a prof on leave for allegedly criticizing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in a talk. @DrBuckinghamTX daughter was in the class. Buckingham called Patrick. He called @tamusystem. Within hrs, prof was on leave. W/ @James_Barragan
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New: UT football players were told in a meeting with athletic officials they must stay on the field for the Eyes of Texas going forward b/c donors were upset.
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NEW: The @TAMU faculty senate executive committee passed a resolution today reaffirming support of tenure & academic freedom and standing with @Faculty_UT #txlege #txed
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Last night, I was reminded of the intimacy of radio when my boyfriend spent the better part of the evening refreshing @NPRKelly's twitter to make sure she was okay in Iran. "I spend every afternoon with her," he said.
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NEW: @UTAustin President @JCHartzell says in message to UT community that removing tenure would "would not only cripple Texas’ ability to recruit and retain great faculty members, it would also hurt Texas students.".
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Dan Brinks, dept chair at UT Austin, offers some damning testimony on impact of the threat to eliminate tenure so far. He made 6 offers this year. All said no and said tenure was a factor.
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This comes after a @texastribune’s story revealed dozens of donors threatened to stop supporting @UTAustin financially if it got rid of the “Eyes of Texas.” Students had asked the school to axe the song over its potentially racist origins: .
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A text message between @TAMU president banks and former interim dean of arts and sciences as part of the review over McElroy. "I assume all texts were deleted."
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.@SMU prof Michael Harris on @DanPatrick's proposal to eliminate tenure for new hires:. "I guarantee there are university leaders across the country that are making a shopping list of who they're trying to steal from the University of Texas if this goes through." #txlege #txed.
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"UT needs rich donors who love The Eyes of Texas more than they need one crop of irresponsible and uninformed students or faculty who won't do what they are paid to do" . Emails show wealthy alumni supporting “Eyes of Texas” threatened to pull donations.
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Breaking: TAMU System Chancellor John Sharp is directing all universities to remove DEI statements from hiring requirements and student admissions. Story to come.
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NEW: 911 transcripts filed in updated “Trump Train” lawsuit Friday reveal San Marcos police refused to send escort to Biden bus. Lawsuit expands list of those sued to city of San Marcos & 2 police officers:.
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Some context: UT-Austin officials have stood by “The Eyes” over pleas that the university distance itself from the song because it originated at a minstrel show where students likely wore Blackface. Alumni and donors have pushed the university to keep the song.
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Some news: starting 10/19, I will be the new higher ed reporter at the @TexasTribune! Thrilled to head back to Austin & work at a place I've long admired, but sad to leave my wonderful friends at @WBEZ during these very weird times. Plz prep the breakfast tacos for me though. .
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New on the @KenPaxtonTX front: An amended lawsuit filed by 4 whistleblowers claims Austin real estate developer Nate Paul helped Paxton remodel his house and gave a job to a woman with whom Paxton allegedly had an affair:.
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NEW: @GovAbbott has instructed the Texas School Safety Center and @teainfo to start conducting "in-person, unannounced, random intruder detection audits on school districts" to find "weak points" and see how quickly they can enter without being stopped.
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NEW: @UTAustin has blocked access to TikTok on its WiFi network following Abbott's directive to ban the app on government devices. Students will not be able to access TikTok if connected to UT networks
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These reporters had nearly 2 decades of experience combined covering Texas. Today, they were pushed out, along with their editor who not only made their work sing, but helped so many reporters stumbling through the dark to see the light. Such a disservice to our readers.
Two of the greatest journalists I’ve ever had the privilege of working with. @alexazura @jsmccullou We were all laid off today as @TexasTribune attempts to reverse financial and leadership tailspin.
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The FBI is looking into an incident on I-35 Friday where a “Trump Train” surrounded a Biden campaign bus.
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BREAKING: @TAMU president M. Katherine Banks resigns amid fallout from failed hiring of journalism professor:.
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New: The head of the Journalism department at Texas A&M says Kathy Banks misled the faculty senate in their meeting about her involvement in McElroys hiring, saying she interjected herself in the process atypically.
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And recently, more than 170 faculty have signed a new petition calling for the song’s removal. Read more here.
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Tensions are boiling at UT-Austin over "The Eyes of Texas" school song, where students are refusing to work and a man with a gun crashed a virtual event. NEW: .
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Update: TAMU confirms it has settled with McElroy for $1 million.
Breaking: @TAMU and Kathleen McElroy have reached a settlement over the attempt to hire her to run the school's new journalism school.
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New: Speaking publicly for the first time about the Oct. Biden bus incident, @WendyDavis--who was on the bus-- says the incident should've served as a warning before last week's U.S. Capitol insurrection: .
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BREAKING: Wendy Davis, Democrats sue Trump supporters who allegedly followed and harassed the Joe Biden campaign bus in Texas for political intimidation:.
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Starting a new job remotely means moving my office from the bedroom to the kitchen table. So stoked to be joining the @TexasTribune today! Texas: what higher ed stories should we be covering? Email: mcgee@texastribune.org
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@TexasTribune @UTAustin “They said y'all don't have to sing it. But y’all have to stay on the field. Y’all have to go over there and at least show fans appreciation for coming out and watching you guys play.” - junior linebacker DeMarvion Overshown told the @texastribune.
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We reported on the influential donors who rallied UT Austin officials to keep the song last year:. AND.
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Just this week, a threatening incident was reported to UT-Austin police where a student-led online event about “The Eyes of Texas” was crashed by an unknown man on camera wearing a bandana over his mouth and nose and who appeared to be loading a large gun.
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This #txlege session had Real Housewives energy: a ton of money, bickering, a shirtless photo on Twitter. Plus, an arrested senator, an expelled representative and an impeached attorney general. And it’s not even over yet.
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NEW: #txlege Dems write letter to @GovAbbott calling for special session to consider potential legislation in the wake of mass shooting in Uvalde
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Top Texas A&M officials were involved in botched recruiting of journalism professor, who will receive $1 million settlement.
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Of course, my first byline back in Texas is football related: UT Longhorn band won't play "The Eyes of Texas" at the UT-Baylor game this weekend. #hookem
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@TexasTribune @UTAustin Athletic Director Chris Del Conte said in a statement that players were asked, not forced to stay on the field. He said he hadn’t heard of alumni threatening players’ job prospects if they didn't participate. Tom Herman could not be reached for comment
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What an election, Chicago. My fave part of last night was when a local TV cameraman told his coworker that my BEZ colleague and I should move our "obsolete ass" to make room for more TV cameras. #radioforever.
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Some personal news: I am joining the amazing @WBEZeducation team as their new higher ed reporter. Grateful to @wamu885 for my time in DC. And to the @npr_ed team for a wonderful reporting partnership last year. So excited to make some great radio in Chicago!.
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Sen. Hughes says neither he nor his staff looked at Florida's Stop Woke Act when drafting SB 16.
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Since everyone is talking about Harlan Crow due to ProPublica's great reporting on him and Clarence Thomas, a reminder of Crow's behind the scenes involvement to create the Liberty turned Civitas Institute at UT Austin:.
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2/3 of Texas respondents wouldn't recommend colleagues take positions in Texas. 57% cited the state’s political climate top reason for wanting to leave Texas, followed by anxieties about salary and concerns over academic freedom by @williammelhado:.
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NEW: @UTSA is shifting most classes online for at least the first 3 weeks of the semester, citing rising COVID cases. The campus will remain open. They're also introducing mandatory testing for all faculty, staff, students. Details to be announced.
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Texas’ higher ed boards are mostly filled with people who’ve donated to Gov. Abbott(~70%). A Tribune analysis found deep pocket donors(who individually give 6 and 7 figure amounts) are heavily concentrated on larger boards, including UT, A&M, UH & THECB
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New: Texas Christian University (@tcu) is now requiring masks indoors for fall semester as COVID cases rise in Tarrant County. Vaccines still optional, but community encouraged to share vaccine status with school.
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NEW: The TAMU Board of Regents will hold a special board meeting Sunday evening to appoint an interim president at Texas A&M and "authorization to negotiate a potential settlement of claims of Kathleen McElroy."
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We’re now at the “pretending we’re taking public transit” portion of our quarantine.
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.@UTAustin faculty want clarity from admin about the proposed Liberty Institute, saying Patrick's tweet contradicts what university leaders had told them about the new center: .
I will not stand by and let looney Marxist UT professors poison the minds of young students with Critical Race Theory. We banned it in publicly funded K-12 and we will ban it in publicly funded higher ed. That’s why we created the Liberty Institute at UT.
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Thread: I took a look at what kind of information Texas public universities share on their websites about reproductive healthcare. Here’s what I found.
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Some Texas Republicans decried Capitol insurrection — but didn’t connect the violence to their own rhetoric.
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Update: @TAMU leadership is clearing the air: the much-disputed Lawrence Sullivan Ross statue, honoring the former university president and Confederate general, is staying put:.
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New: The Rudder Association, a group of Aggie alumni dedicated to preserve the school’s core values releases a statement on their response to McElroy’s hiring at @tamu:
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ICYMI: In Oct, @wendydavis was on a Biden bus in TX that was swarmed by a caravan of Trump supporters. Now speaking publicly about the incident for the 1st time, Davis says the skirmish should've been a warning before last week's riot in D.C.
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Long thread: . I’ve received many emails over the past few weeks asking for more information about UTMB’s role in the censuring of @TAMU prof Joy Alonzo. Background:
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NEW: a Travis County district judge has denied AG Ken Paxton's motion to dismiss in the whistleblower lawsuit filed against him by fmr employees. Temporary injunction hearing will resume 4/5. Previous coverage here:
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“I work 60 hours a week and I don't see my child, I don't see my husband, so that I can come and care for you while you yell at me because you're upset that you have a disease that I told you how to prevent in the first place.”
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Breaking: @TAMU and Kathleen McElroy have reached a settlement over the attempt to hire her to run the school's new journalism school.
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@tamusystem According to the report, most faculty interviewed said the Ross statue should be moved and not remain the centerpiece.
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@tamusystem @TAMU The 6th most mentioned theme was to maintain the statue: 25% participants want it to remain, remain 75% want it moved or removed.
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Eight months after George Floyd’s death, Texas students say many of their demands for racial justice and inclusivity remain unmet and change has been too slow.
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Undocumented college students will now be eligible to receive emergency aid as the @usedgov releases $36B in federal stimulus $ for higher ed today:.
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Updated story with more details about the @tamusystem board members debate about McElroy's announcement and former president Banks texts with the former interim dean contradicting what Banks told the faculty about her involvement in the hiring fracas:.
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Go follow @erinmdouglas23 who is covering the heck out of this winter storm for the @TexasTribune, including this vital piece of fact-based reporting:
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NEW: West Texas A&M President @waltervwendler, TAMU System Chancellor John Sharp and the A&M Board of regents have been sued by WTAMU students over Wendler's decision to cancel a campus drag show. Story TK.
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The UT Senate of College Councils has sent a letter to @UTAustin with set of demands for fall semester:. -impose a mask mandate.-provide hybrid class options.-classes w/ 50+ students go online.-inform students exposed to positive case.
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The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents has voted to make Mark A. Welsh III interim president of Texas A&M University & gave the green light to lawyers to negotiate a potential settlement claim with Kathleen McElroy over the bungled hiring.
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Breaking: @tamusystem Chancellor John Sharp is expected to recommend the board of regents name interim A&M President Mark Welsh as sole finalist for permanent position #txlege .
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“So many people have a strong desire to get back to normal, they will treat the opening of the semester as a normal academic year. It’s incredibly far from a normal academic year. We can pretend that it is to some degree. But that’s what’s going on. We’re pretending.”.
New: Texas universities, committed to full returns, face fall terms with surging COVID-19 numbers and no mask or vaccine mandates.
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NEW: UT Arlington adding mandatory COVID-19 test for returning students, faculty and staff by 9/8/21.
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Texas college students living in dorms:. I want to talk to you about what you've been experiencing this week without power or water. DMs are open or email me:. McGee@TexasTribune.org.
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Thread: Texas governors choose who sits on university boards. And Gov. Greg Abbott has continued a trend seen before — especially during the Perry years — to appoint campaign donors as regents. Buckle up for a #tldr breakdown: .
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For the next few(?) weeks, this account will be covering the Paxton impeachment trial in #txlege, along with The Texas Tribune politics team. I'm here in the Senate with my colleagues @PatrickSvitek, @RobertDownen_ and @RenzoDowney. Follow along for updates.
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NEW: Dallas' @PaulQuinn1872 College is reimagining its college admissions. Accepted students w/ 3.0GPA & receive Pell grants can select two family members or friends to enroll with them.
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New: @DanPatrick says he wants to end tenure in Texas higher education, saying its outlived its time. Proposes to end all tenure for all new hires. And amend education code to state that teaching critical race theory is grounds for revoking tenure . #txlege #txed.
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In the wake of my and @James_Barragan reporting on the A&M investigation into opioid expert Joy Alonzo, the Faculty Senate has sent a new letter to acting President Welsh raising Qs about the university's administrative leave policies.
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Before you log off for the holiday: UT-Austin professors say antiracism study halted due to political pressure
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Texas Senators Royce West and Nathan Johnson confirm they are also in DC. Nine Senators were not on the senate floor this morning, but there is still a quorum for the senate to do work when they come back from recess. #txlege . More live updates: .
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@bessbell Educated by Tara Westover. Beautifully written. And timely. (and the Crazy Rick Asians trilogy. It is petty and I am here for it.).
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Brinks said substitute to SB 18 has issues, too. Codifying the process opens the door to micro managing and contents open ended language that can lead to abuses. We cant keep tenure and empty it of meaning thats not going to fool anyone." #txlege.
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A few Eyes of Texas updates landed in my inbox this afternoon:. 1. On Monday, TX lawmakers, NAACP members and @UTAustin students are holding a press conference at the capitol denouncing the school's decision to keep the song.
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NEW: @TAMU professor Joy Alonzo denies claims by TX land commissioner @DrBuckinghamTX that Alonzo told a UTMB class that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick believes kids who die of fentanyl overdoses 'deserve to die.'.
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University of Chicago announces its making the SAT/ACT optional for applicants, the first top-ranked university in country to do so.
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Starting next fall, students @utrgv whose family income is $100K or less could qualify for free tuition, the highest income threshold for such programs in TX:.
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My final story for @wbez/ @WBEZeducation in which I force everyone to listen to Nickelback to learn about how disinvestment in IL unis has made the pandemic an even tougher challenge to overcome
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At press conference at the capitol,Texas Black Legislative Caucus and Texas chapter of NAACP are calling on NFL, MLB, NBA and NCAA to stop hosting championship games in the state until Gov Abbott rescinds his warning to state agencies that DEI policies in hiring is illegal.
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Story: Education advocates criticize Abbott's plan to have school safety officials conduct unannounced intruder drills at public schools. It was one of many mandates he handed down to crack down on school security ahead of next school year.
NEW: @GovAbbott has instructed the Texas School Safety Center and @teainfo to start conducting "in-person, unannounced, random intruder detection audits on school districts" to find "weak points" and see how quickly they can enter without being stopped.
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NEW: Ken Starr, former Baylor president and lawyer who investigated former President Clinton administration has died. He was 76 years old.
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