The Texas Senate on Tuesday gave initial approval to a much-anticipated bill aiming to tamp down on the mailing of abortion pills into the state. The bill, if signed into law, would create a new pathway for enforcing Texas’ strict abortion ban. It would allow regular citizens to file civil lawsuits against anyone who distributes abortion pills within Texas or anyone who mails abortion pills to Texas. In other news, Texas’ business-friendly climate has helped make it the “headquarters of headquarters.” With Dallas becoming what Christopher Kleinert, chief executive officer of Hunt Realty Investments, recently called an “epicenter for financial activity,” many Fortune 500 companies are planting down roots in the region, or adding to their Texas operations; the sale of lab-grown meat has been banned in Texas for two years as part of Senate Bill 261. The law states that “a person may not manufacture, process, possess, distribute, offer for sale, or sell cell-cultured protein.” Although its production and use were not widespread in the state, some believe its ban violates people’s constitutional rights, impacting what consumers can and can’t purchase; and cases of COVID-19 are spiking in Texas as a new variant spreads across much of the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID variant XFG, nicknamed Stratus, accounts for three-fourths of COVID cases in the U.S.

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