"More than a century has passed since 110 Black soldiers stationed at Camp Logan were convicted of mutiny, murder, and assault in the 1917 Houston Riot, with 19 of them executed at Fort Sam Houston. Now those convictions have been overturned."

"It can't bring them back, but it gives them peace," said Angela Holder, whose great-uncle, Cpl. Jesse Moore, was one of the executed soldiers. "Their souls are at peace."

Archive link: https://archive.is/JEtyF#selection-1009.0-1023.171

LUBBOCK — May brought an unusual sight to the arid High Plains — rain, and lots of it.

Parched lands that previously begged for water welcomed the downpour. Farmers, who were still recovering from the drought-ridden season before, could finally sigh in relief.

Then came the cruel irony — the rain didn’t stop for weeks. The same water people prayed for all year was now flooding farmers out of their fields and stopping them from planting their crops on time.

Now, as the entire state sees blazing temperatures that only keep climbing, farmers are questioning if the whiplash-inducing weather will lead to another busted year.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2090869

The U.S. Justice Department has threatened legal action against Gov. Greg Abbott over the 1,000-foot floating barrier that the state deployed in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass earlier this month.

“We write to inform you … that the United States intends to file legal action in relation to the State of Texas’s unlawful construction of a floating barrier in the Rio Grande River,” the Justice Department said in a letter sent to Abbott’s office on Thursday. The department gave the state until 1 p.m. Central on Monday to avoid legal action by responding with a commitment to remove the barrier.

“The State of Texas’s actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government’s ability to carry out its official duties,” said the letter, which was signed by Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim and Jaime Esparza, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1877973

https://archive.is/9S88t

One woman could barely get words out through her tears. Another ran to the restroom as soon as she was done, wordless, wretched sobs wracking her tiny body. A third threw up on the witness stand.

These are believed to be the first women in the country since 1973 to testify in court about the impacts of a state abortion ban on their pregnancies. They almost certainly won’t be the last.

Speaking to a packed Travis County courtroom Wednesday, three women detailed devastating pregnancy losses and said medically necessary care was delayed or denied due to their doctors’ confusion over Texas’ abortion laws.

https://archive.is/uGALK

A majority of workers at The Trevor Project, a widely-praised nonprofit dedicated to preventing suicide among LGBTQ youth, decided to come together this spring and unionize as Friends of Trevor United. About a month later, they celebrated when management at the nonprofit agreed to voluntarily recognize their union.

For Trevor staff, their union is the best way to support LGBTQ youth. ​“We all come to this work with so much passion for the mission to end suicide among LGBTQ young people,” says Turzillo. ​“We want to have the resources and the support to do our jobs well.”

https://archive.is/Kn2Sl

University of Houston researchers have unearthed an ancient Maya city hidden deep within the jungles of Campeche on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The more than 1,000-year-old city—now dubbed Yucatan Ocomtún, which means stone column in the Maya language—was uncovered by a team led by Juan Carlos Fernandez-Diaz, co-principal investigator with the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) at U of H.

https://archive.is/Kn2Sl

University of Houston researchers have unearthed an ancient Maya city hidden deep within the jungles of Campeche on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The more than 1,000-year-old city—now dubbed Yucatan Ocomtún, which means stone column in the Maya language—was uncovered by a team led by Juan Carlos Fernandez-Diaz, co-principal investigator with the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) at U of H.

https://archive.ph/fxPMZ

The fight in Atlanta over Cop City, a massive police training facility, has turned into ground zero for overlapping crises facing our country: the climate emergency, vast political and economic inequality, ever-militarizing police forces and systemic racism.

If we want a democracy healthy enough to solve these crises, it’s worth paying attention to what is happening in the South River Forest.

On May 31, in a disturbing move shortly before Atlanta’s City Council approved more funding for the facility, Georgia law enforcement arrested three members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which provides activists with legal support and bail money.

https://archive.is/2CsfM

House Bill 2127, which takes effect on Sept. 1, will do away with local rules that require water breaks for construction workers. The cities of Austin and Dallas, for example, require 10-minute breaks every four hours. San Antonio officials had been considering a similar ordinance.

“We are human beings who need respect,” Martínez said. “We really need to be allowed to work without problems, without any barriers … Believe me, we are dying inside those buildings when they take away our water and our [break] time.”

https://archive.is/eyjmY

“We are looking for better safety conditions and relief from the heat,” Mele said. “None of the UPS trucks and buildings are air-conditioned."

"The biggest concern for our union members is their pay and their safety,” Marielly Ortiz, secretary with the union, said. “We want to make sure they are working effectively and safely.

NASA called the soaring heat "part of a pattern of increasing global temperatures, as a result of human activities, mainly carbon dioxide emissions."