With about six weeks until the March 1 primary election, there is some confusion over new laws and mail-in ballots. As of last week in Tarrant County, out of the 2188 mail-in applications, 490 were rejected. In Collin County, out of the 1800 mail-in applications, 150 were rejected.  In Dallas County, out of the 5201 mail-in applications, 549 were rejected. In Denton county, out of the 930 mail-in applications, 264 were rejected. “Look at your application for ballot by mail. It is new this year. If it does not have a space for social security or your driver’s license, that is an old ballot,” said Nicholas Solorzano, Dallas County Elections Dept. Communications Director. One of the issues elections administrators are seeing is mail-in applications using the old form. The new form has a space in the top right-hand corner for new information. You are now required to include either your driver’s license or state-issued id number, or social security number.  However, whatever you enter, must match what you entered when you registered to vote, or your ballot, will be rejected. “You can choose one of the two but recommended to people you use both because let’s say you registered 10 years…

State and federal authorities announced Thursday that they arrested and charged more than two dozen people for taking part in a multistate shoplifting ring that made off with more than $10 million in stolen goods over the past few years, most of which was over-the-counter medications. U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson in Tulsa and Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor announced state and federal charges against 29 defendants. Johnson said 25 of those charged had been arrested and four others were still at large. Prosecutors said the defendants took part in a conspiracy to steal mostly over-the-counter medications from retailers such as Walmart, Costco, Walgreens, CVS and GNC in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. The ringleaders would then arrange for the sale of the items on websites such as Amazon and eBay. “Consumers and businesses incur a high price for thieves who commit larcenies and profit by selling their stolen goods to well-organized theft rings,” said Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin, whose department launched its investigation in 2019 after an organized crime investigator from a pharmacy retailer shared information about bulk thefts from its Tulsa-area locations. “Thieves should take notice. Tulsa is not going to capitulate and allow criminals to disrupt…

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick tested positive for COVID-19 last week, his office announced Monday afternoon, days after he said Americans would gather for Christmas regardless of recommendations amid the ongoing pandemic. Patrick’s office said the lieutenant governor experienced mild symptoms and has subsequently tested negative for the virus and is completing his quarantine period. “His symptoms were mild and no one else in the household was infected. He continues working from home and will return to a public schedule by the end of the week,” said Allen Blakemore, Patrick’s campaign senior advisor, in a prepared statement. Patrick’s announcement of a positive test comes about 10 days after he was a guest on FOX News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight where the subject was the upcoming Christmas holiday and recommendations that unvaccinated people consider changes to their holiday plans, including avoiding indoor gatherings or wearing masks, amid the ongoing surge of new cases of the omicron COVID-19 variant. On the cable show, Patrick said told the host the left has no hope and that the Biden Administration was the “blue Grinch that wants to steal Christmas” from Christians. The lieutenant governor’s office did not say where or when Patrick is believed to have…

A Texas board that had unanimously supported a posthumous pardon for George Floyd over a 2004 drug arrest in Houston backpedaled in an announcement Thursday, saying “procedural errors” were found in their recommendation months after leaving the decision to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The unusual reversal was announced by Abbott’s office two days before Christmas, around the time he typically doles out his annual pardons. The withdrawn endorsement was met with outrage from a public defender who submitted the pardon application for Floyd, who spent much of his life in Houston before his death in 2020 under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer. Allison Mathis, an attorney in Houston, accused the two-term governor of playing politics ahead of Texas’ March GOP primary elections as he faces challengers from the far right. Floyd’s name was withdrawn along with two dozen other clemency recommendations that had been submitted by the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles. In a letter dated Dec. 16 but not released publicly until now, the board told Abbott that it had identified “unexplained departures” from its process of issuing pardons and needed to reconsider more than a third of the 67 clemency recommendations it sent to Abbott…