Texas

The entire U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will review Texas’ controversial voter identification law.

A majority of the judges of the Fifth Circuit on March 9 voted in support of an “en banc” rehearing of oral arguments in Veasey v. Abbott, a case challenging the law. No date for the rehearing has been set.

The case stems from Senate Bill 14, a law passed by the Texas Legislature in 2011, which requires prospective voters to present an acceptable form of photo identification along with their voter registration card in order to cast a ballot.

U.S. Navy caught running guns to Santa Anna

While on patrol off the Mexican coast on Mar. 20, 1836, the Invincible vanquished an enemy man-of-war and seized an American blockade runner on the high seas. It was all in a day’s work for the Texas Navy.

What’s the best barbecue “joint” in Texas? (I’m a language purist and won’t use bar-b-q unless it’s part of the establishment’s name.)

Of course, I don’t have the answer. Thousands of Lone Star wannabe aficionados do not either. I can state one thing with a certainty: Texas barbecue beats Louisiana’s version all hollow. 

Marine from South Texas raised Iwo Jima flag

A young marine from South Texas was one of six American fighting men caught on camera on Feb. 23, 1945, raising the Stars and Stripes on a Pacific battlefield called Iwo Jima.

Harlon Henry Block was born in 1924 at Yorktown and grew up on 40 acres in the Rio Grande Valley. The third of six children, he had one sister and four brothers.