Watch: Trans man who aged out of Texas foster care says politicians are vilifying LGBTQ+ kids
As Kayden Asher tumbled through several foster placements, Texas leaders intensified their efforts to regulate the lives of LGBTQ+ people. Full Story
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William Melhado
Night General Assignment Reporter
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William Melhado is an Austin-based general assignment reporter. He originally joined the Tribune in 2022 as a Poynter-Koch fellow. He previously worked as a staff writer at the Santa Fe Reporter, an alt-weekly newspaper in New Mexico. Before pursuing a career in journalism, William worked as an educator for five years and taught science at a public high school in the Bronx, New York and taught at international schools in Tanzania and Nepal. A native of Boulder, Colorado, William graduated from Middlebury College with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and earned a master’s in secondary science education at CUNY Lehman College.
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![Kayden Asher poses for a potrait on Nov. 19, 2023. Asher was placed under the care of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services at 15, after coming out as a trans man. He says he was discriminated against during his time in DFPS. Before his 18th birthday, he asked to be moved to Austin, where he found an affirming placement and was able to start hormone therapy.]()
Credit: Greta Díaz González Vázquez/The Texas Tribune -
Faculty petition to hold no-confidence vote in UT-Austin president after protest response
President Jay Hartzell defended the response but faculty criticized the presence of armed state troopers. Fifty-seven people were arrested. Full Story
![Protesters link arms on the campus of UT-Austin on April 24, 2024.]()
Credit: Julius Shieh for The Texas Tribune -
Police arrest more than two dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators on UT-Austin campus amid tense standoff
Gov. Greg Abbott expressed support for the arrests, which come amid tensions on college campuses across the country over the Israel-Hamas war. Full Story
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Credit: Julius Shieh/The Texas Tribune -
Texas politics leave transgender foster youth isolated — during and after life in state care
Support once afforded LGBTQ+ foster kids has vanished and a culture of silence has blanketed the agency tasked with raising children growing up in the system. Full Story
![Isabella Morningstar asks Marcus Anthony, a case manager at Thrive Youth Center if they have received any updates on her new birth certificate. She looks over his shoulder as he navigates the shelter’s email for any information about Morningstar. She has had a difficult time updating her paperwork to her current legal name, since she left the foster care system.]()
Credit: Greta Díaz González Vázquez/The Texas Tribune -
Texas inmates are being ‘cooked to death’ in extreme heat, complaint alleges
With the threat of another hot summer ahead, advocates asked a federal judge to declare 100-degree-plus conditions in uncooled Texas facilities unconstitutional. Full Story
![Telford prison on Tuesday, March 21, 2017, in New Boston.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Texas criminal appeals court removes Tomas Gallo from death row because of his intellectual disability
The court re-sentenced Gallo to life in prison for the murder of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter. Full Story
![The Huntsville Unit Texas State Penitentiary houses the execution chamber of Texas and is located in Huntsville on Jan. 31, 2024.]()
Credit: Maria Crane/The Texas Tribune -
State district judge recommends overturning Melissa Lucio’s death sentence
In a rare joint statement, the district attorney and the defense agreed that prosecutors withheld evidence that could point to a Rio Grande Valley woman’s innocence in the death of her toddler. Full Story
![Melissa Lucio was convicted and sentenced to death in 2008 for the murder of her her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez.]()
Credit: Courtesy of Melissa Lucio's attorneys -
Texas criminal appeals court takes man off death row over intellectual disability
Since Randall Mays was sentenced to death in 2008 for the murder of two sheriff’s deputies, his lawyers have argued his intellectual disability exempts him from execution. Full Story
![Guard towers are located around the Polunsky Unit on Jan. 31, 2024.]()
Credit: Maria Crane/The Texas Tribune -
Montgomery County directs citizen board to review, and potentially remove, library books
The county north of Houston adopted the guidelines amid a growing number of book bans in school districts and a new state law that supporters claim protects children from inappropriate material. Full Story
![Books at Vandegrift High School's library on March 2, 2022.]()
Credit: Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune -
Feds arrest five men accused of smuggling illegally purchased guns to cartels in Mexico
The men were charged with two criminal offenses, including straw purchasing of firearms, created by the 2022 bipartisan gun safety bill authored by Sen. John Cornyn. Full Story
![A Springfield Saint Victor AR-15 rifle is displayed during the National Rifle Association annual convention in Houston on May 27, 2022.]()
Credit: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
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