The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn is leading an effort to improve reporting to the national background check system for firearm purchases.
On November 7, just two days after a gunman shot and killed 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Cornyn stood on the senate floor and promised to do something.
“People like this shooter should never have gotten his hands on a firearm in the first place, but either through human error or some failure of the background check system, he was able to that,” Cornyn said. “We need to fix that, and hopefully in doing so we can bring some small sense of justice to the people who lost so much last Sunday in Sutherland Springs, Texas.”
It turned out the shooter should have been barred from purchasing guns, but his conviction in military court for domestic assault was not entered into a federal database.
The bipartisan bill Cornyn introduced Thursday doesn’t exactly create new gun control laws. Instead, it’s focused on ensuring that federal and state agencies are meeting reporting requirements that are already in place. It would also create a Domestic Abuse and Violence Prevention Initiative. That provision would make sure states have resources and incentives to enter information on felons and abusers into the federal background check system.
The NRA has already endorsed the senate bill.
Houston Astros fans could have told you who major league baseball’s American League M.V.P. was going to be a while ago.
On top of leading the Astros to their first World Series Championship in franchise history, sscond baseman Jose Altuve was easily named the American League’s Most Valuable Player Thursday.
The five-foot-six player earned 27 of the 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers Association of America.
The White House is planning to send its latest request for disaster aid to Congress Friday, but the $44 billion package is far less than what Texas and other storm-ravaged states are calling for.
The request will be President Donald Trump’s third since hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria slammed the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean. It would bring the total allocated by the federal government for hurricane relief this fall close to $100 billion.
Texas submitted a $61 billion request to Trump last month for Harvey-related damage, including funding for flood control and navigation projects.
And a correction to a story that aired on Wednesday about the Republican Party of Texas asking all 2018 state House candidates from the GOP to sign a pledge that they would vote as a “unified body” for a new speaker of the House. We incorrectly reported that candidates who don’t sign the pledge could lose financial support from the party. A spokesman for the Republican Party of Texas says it will “support all Republican candidates equally, regardless of form submission.”
And as originally reported, the pledge form is totally voluntary.