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corabora.bsky.social
Cora Neas
@corabora.bsky.social
820 followers 450 following 970 posts
Reporter covering courts, housing, TX lege, and our queer community. Currently @kxan.com
Views are my own, sometimes jokes. 🏳️‍⚧ Anti-AI
Tips: neasnews @ proton.me
muckrack.com/cora-neas/
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corabora.bsky.social
I talked to the former Teen Mom star who was running for Austin Mayor. She's now running for a city council seat instead.

I asked her how she felt about the incumbent, and she told me she didn't know his name: www.kxan.com/news/local/a...
January 16, 2026 at 2:32 AM
corabora.bsky.social
APD officers have standing orders to comply with ICE detainer requests, but not for admin warrants (which they can't serve). When a request is received, there are five steps officers must follow:
ICE DETAINER REQUESTS The purpose of this order is to establish guidelines for handling ICE detainers. All officers are expected to comply with, honor, and fulfill formal immigration detainer requests issued by ICE. (a) An officer who receives information that a detainee or arrestee in their custody is the subject of an ICE detainer request, will take the following actions: 1. Notify a supervisor. 2. Notify ICE to determine the validity of the detainer. 3. Comply with the detainer request if its validity is confirmed. 4. Inform the person they are being held subject to a detainer (in addition to any applicable criminal charges). 5. Take the person to the Central Booking Facility or other suitable detention facility.
January 9, 2026 at 9:37 PM
corabora.bsky.social
Austin Police responded to a disturbance call. They didn't find a disturbance, but found someone at the scene had an administrative warrant and reported her to ICE.

Agents took her and her U.S. citizen kid, and now her family can't find them.

My latest for @kxan.com: www.kxan.com/news/local/a...
Officers didn’t find an “on-going disturbance” or anyone with injuries, said APD Strategic Communications Manager Anna Sabana in a message to media. The officers “identified an individual with an Administrative Warrant issued by [ICE],” according to Sabana’s statement. An administrative warrant, issued by a federal agency, is not the same as a judicial warrant issued by a court. Administrative warrants allow designated federal agents — not state or local law enforcement officers — to make arrests, but do not authorize searches or entry into a building, according to the National Immigration Law Center. “APD notified ICE due to the Administrative Warrant on the subject,” said Sabana, who cited APD policy. “Federal authorities arrived on scene and took custody of the individual and her child. APD has spoken with ICE, mother and child are together with ICE.”
January 9, 2026 at 9:34 PM
corabora.bsky.social
NEW: Texas AG Ken Paxton is suing Texas DPS over a rule prohibiting religious ads in the Texas Driver Handbook, which doesn't have any ads it.

My story for @kxan.com: www.kxan.com/news/texas/p...
Paxton requests in the lawsuit that the court issue an injunction against the rule. If granted, DPS would not be permitted to reject ads based on religious content. The lawsuit doesn’t ask for the court to require DPS to sell ad space or to remove other prohibitions in 15.131 (2). “If the Court does not grant the Attorney General’s application, harm to Texas citizens is imminent. Defendants continue to administer the Religious Ads Prohibition; thus, the denial of Texas citizens’ constitutional rights is ongoing,” it reads. The lawsuit does not contain any examples of Texas DPS rejecting ads in the handbook.
January 7, 2026 at 11:06 PM
corabora.bsky.social
Next up was a breaking news story from September, where a man allegedly shot a woman and an Austin police officer.

An extremely busy story that needed rapid updates while a manhunt happened, then days later when new info released: www.kxan.com/news/local/a...
December 31, 2025 at 3:59 PM
corabora.bsky.social
My top story on all metrics was this one, my write up on the initial lawsuit filed by Dr. Thomas Alter against Texas State. The school fired him after a self-described fascist circulated a clip of him speaking at a socialist conference:
www.kxan.com/news/local/h...
December 31, 2025 at 3:53 PM
corabora.bsky.social
This is the book itself, Col. IG Starinov's memoir "Over the Abyss"

There's really so little written in English about 1941-1944 partisan operations on the eastern front. For those interested in the subject, Alexander Hill's "The War Behind the Eastern Front" is worth your time
December 29, 2025 at 9:28 PM
corabora.bsky.social
Sometimes you have to buy a book for a single paragraph about a historical event that has haunted your thoughts for a year
December 29, 2025 at 9:19 PM
corabora.bsky.social
X to support the Williamson County GOP chair's second appeal to try to preemptively prevent the Travis County district attorney from charging her with a crime.
The prior opinion said that since she hadn't been charged, it would be improper to enjoin the DA from its duty.
AGAIN THERE'S NO CASE.
Post from X's global government affairs team that reads X is proud to support the legal case of Michelle Evans. Ms. Evans faces potential criminal charges for reposting a picture of a male transgender activist using the sink to wash his hands in the women’s restroom in the Texas State Capitol in May 2023. Ms. Evans did not even take the photo. She merely posted it on X as part of political commentary on transgender issues. Yet, shortly after, the Travis County District Attorney launched a criminal investigation into her post. The First Amendment protects Ms. Evans' speech, yet in a 2-1 vote, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a misguided and dangerous opinion allowing the criminal investigation to go forward. X is therefore assisting Ms. Evans in pursuing an appeal before all 17 judges of the Fifth Circuit. We look forward to the full Fifth Circuit correcting this wrong and preserving free speech, which is the foundation of American democracy.
December 29, 2025 at 5:08 PM
corabora.bsky.social
Avatar: Fire and Ash was a lot like this
Promo image for the Dominick Ladder Match custody wrestling event
December 28, 2025 at 1:05 AM
corabora.bsky.social
December 24, 2025 at 4:43 AM
corabora.bsky.social
The form includes a photo/video upload. Note that 5th Circuit judges ruled last week that taking photos in restrooms is unlikely to be protected under 1A, regardless if someone is transgender.

My story for KXAN about this: www.kxan.com/news/texas/t...
By contrast, circumstances in which a prosecution under that subsection would likely be constitutional readily come to mind. For example, it is highly unlikely, to say the least, that there is a First Amendment right to distribute, without their consent, images of a person’s genitalia or other anatomy (whether they be an adult, infant, pre-teen, teen) while utilizing bathroom facilities. It is also far from clear that there is a First Amendment right to capture and distribute an image, without their permission, of a fully clothed adult while in a public bathroom. Think of a celebrity, for example, who ducks into a women’s bathroom to avoid paparazzi or overzealous fans. What if the celebrity were in the restroom simply to relieve and refresh themselves? Is there a constitutional right to follow and photograph that person in a restroom when they are seeking privacy? Is any citizen, celebrity or not, fair game for photos or videos while in a restroom? Does the fact that a person is an elected official change that equation? The law is certainly not clear that politicians may be pursued, even in a public restroom, for the purpose of obtaining and publicizing their image.
December 17, 2025 at 10:12 PM
corabora.bsky.social
My write up for KXAN: www.kxan.com/news/texas/t...
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
December 17, 2025 at 10:00 PM
corabora.bsky.social
Wow a polite chaser!
December 17, 2025 at 4:31 PM
corabora.bsky.social
At the start of a career run, the two uma you pick for inspiration do this
December 16, 2025 at 7:18 PM
corabora.bsky.social
The majority ruling notes that Evans wasn't criminally charged yet so she can't have a restraining order preventing a DA from seeking charges.

The dissent can be charitably described as "interesting":
Is there a person on earth who thinks their conduct at a public sink enjoys privacy protections? If a woman confesses to her friend at the public sink that she has a gambling problem or wore blackface in college, is that conversation somehow privacy-protected? If a man discloses that he’s carrying a handgun in violation of a bar’s concealed-carry prohibition while washing his hands, is that act protected?
December 13, 2025 at 4:15 AM
corabora.bsky.social
Texas DPS banned four trans women from the Capitol for a year, after they used the restroom on 12/6. Troopers also asked others for ID before entering the women's restroom (but not the men's), in what one organizer says is a precedent for enforcement of SB 8.

Read more: www.kxan.com/lgbtq/dps-gi...
December 11, 2025 at 12:45 AM
corabora.bsky.social
Sometimes you strike gold at the used books store
A lightly used copy of the isle of dread, one of the first D&D adventures
December 9, 2025 at 3:07 AM
corabora.bsky.social
I don't always get a chance to do a longer feature piece, but I'm glad that the Texas Archive of the Moving Image let me stop by and chat about the work they do.

My latest for @kxan.com: www.kxan.com/news/texas/h...
November 21, 2025 at 7:38 PM
corabora.bsky.social
A Trump-appointed federal judge in Austin ruled Texas' HB 900 unconstitutional. Again.

TBD on if it'll go before SCOTUS, but here's my latest for KXAN about the 2023 law's two-year court fight: www.kxan.com/news/texas/t...
The Court agrees with Defendant’s premise that Texas has an interest in safeguarding children against sexually explicit material—especially materials purchased with public funds for public schools. But the Court cannot agree with Defendant’s assertion that Plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights are not violated by READER. Defendant’s continued attempt to recharacterize READER is still unconvincing. Both the third and fourth factors favor injunctive relief here. Even though the interest Defendant points to is a good and noble one, that does not outweigh the fact that READER tries to serve that goal in an unconstitutional way.
October 22, 2025 at 8:59 PM
corabora.bsky.social
Blown away by this story from The Texas Tribune. Amazing work by the team over there, and I'm glad they let us republish it to KXAN: www.kxan.com/lgbtq/trans-...
Liz Graff, a law student in criminal justice at the University of Texas at Austin, has felt a shift in how they are treated on campus. Graff is one of a dozen transgender and nonbinary students the Tribune spoke to that describe college campuses as increasingly hostile environments. (Lorianne Willett/Texas Tribune)
October 21, 2025 at 11:52 AM
corabora.bsky.social
Lol
October 15, 2025 at 5:55 PM
corabora.bsky.social
Austin queer bar/venue Cheer Ups got bought by a Florida hospitality group: www.kxan.com/news/local/a...
October 14, 2025 at 4:55 PM
corabora.bsky.social
My latest on this story, specifically Dr. Alter's statement to KXAN, is here: www.kxan.com/news/local/h...
“To be clear, my termination is part of a broader political attack being carried out by the authoritarian far-right to crush democracy and democratic institutions in the United States in general and Texas in particular. But the charges leveled against me by the Texas State University administration do not stand up to the facts; I have truth on my side and I look forward to my day in court,” wrote Alter in his Tuesday statement. A temporary injunction hearing in Alter’s lawsuit is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, according to Hays County court records.
October 14, 2025 at 3:37 PM
corabora.bsky.social
I also asked her about narratives that claim online spaces "turn" kids trans.

She said that's not the case: most of those surveyed were aware of their identity prior to seeking community online.
But Green noted that respondents "wanted to be really clear" the internet didn't make them transgender, gay and/or bisexual. She added that many of the youth said they were upset at the idea that others' influence turned them transgender. Rather, they sought out online support because they were already aware of their transness: "What we've heard from trans young people ... was that these online spaces are really one of the only places where they feel like they can connect to others," Green said. "These were places where they were turning for support, for questions, for community, because they didn't have it in their physical environment."
October 9, 2025 at 2:16 PM