Texas

A former bus driver has sued his employer for allegedly discriminating against his religious beliefs and terminating his employment.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) represents Edwin Graning, a former driver for the Capital Area Rural Transportation System (CARTS), which is a nine-county transit service that often provides transportation in rural areas surrounding Austin, Texas. Senior attorney EdwardEdward White (ACLJ) White tells OneNewsNow the driver was dispatched in January to transport two women to a Planned Parenthood clinic.

"He called up his supervisor and said, 'You know, I'm an ordained minister...and Planned Parenthood does abortions. And I don't know if this lady's going there for an abortion. However, if she is, I want nothing to do with that,'" White accounts. "And so in effect, he was asking for his supervisor to just get one of the other CARTS drivers to pick up this woman"...

Arizona school children are told they can't pray in front of the Supreme Court building ... Two University of Texas Arlington employees are fired for praying over a co-worker's cubicle after work hours ... In Cranston, R.I., a high school banner causes controversy when a parent complains it contains a prayer and demands that it be removed.

There are more legal challenges to prayer in the United States than ever before, says Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist organization whose business is booming as Americans increasingly tackle church vs. state issues.

"We've never had more complaints about government prayer," Gaylor says. "We have just hired a second staff attorney in July.  read more »

Fired-up Republican activists in no mood for compromises threw out their party chairwoman Saturday, then bucked Texas Gov. Rick Perry by pushing for a crackdown on illegal immigration similar to Arizona's new law.

Some delegates at the Republican state convention also called for a nonbinding resolution calling on House Republicans to oust their own speaker, Rep. Joe Straus of San Antonio, considered too moderate for many of the bedrock conservatives meeting in Dallas this weekend. Convention organizers ruled the Straus resolution out of order.

While the convention began Friday with scripted unity and Democrat-bashing speeches, its final hours were marked by division and heated debates over GOP policy priorities...

(CNSNews.com) -- Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas is holding a gala next month to raise money for its new abortion clinic, which will be specially equipped for performing late-term abortions.

The April 30 event is being billed as a “historic event” to celebrate the opening of the 78,000 square-foot facility and the 75th anniversary of the Texas Planned Parenthood operation. Tickets for the fundraiser range from $25,000 for a table of 10 to $350 for individual seating.

The event will also honor Melanie Gray and Mark Wawro: husband and wife, successful attorneys, and significant financial supporters of Planned Parenthood.  read more »

Pro-life and religious leaders will gather in Houston, Texas, next Tuesday to oppose the second-largest abortion clinic in the world.

Lou Engle, originator of the pro-life group TheCall, is organizing the event, and he describes the renovated bank as a strategically located abortion supercenter.

"Its third floor is dedicated to late-term abortions," he describes. "It's 78,000 square feet, and it's right in the middle of three neighborhoods that are 80 percent Hispanic and the other is 80 percent Black-American."

Engle tells OneNewsNow he believes God wants to raise up an answer to the targeting of minorities for abortions by Planned Parenthood and others...

DEVELOPING: A pair of mass shootings at Ft. Hood military post in Texas left at least 7 dead and 20 wounded Thursday, and one suspected gunman is on the loose, the Army said.

A massive manhunt was under way for the suspect at large, Fox News confirmed, and one person was in custody. The New York Post said that there were two shooters at the Army post massacre; other reports said there were three...

Planned Parenthood has been shut down in the Texas panhandle.

American Life League's (ALL) Stop Planned Parenthood, or Stopp International, says it took a long time, but their campaign against Planned Parenthood finally got some results. "For 12 years in the Texas panhandle, there has been a fight against Planned Parenthood," he notes. "Planned Parenthood, in 1997, operated 19 clinics in the Texas panhandle"...