Duncan Agnew, The Texas Tribune

Despite spending hours trying to get a vaccine appointment, Wanda Davis still doesn't know when she'll be able to see her children again. The 81-year-old has been trying to get a vaccine so she can leave her Kingsland home, about 60 miles outside Austin, and safely visit her family. But it hasn't been easy.

She said she doesn't have internet access at home, and she has had trouble navigating the computers at the local library. When she called multiple pharmacies, none had appointments available. After calling her local pharmacy, she is finally on a waiting list. But she still doesn't know when she'll get the vaccine.

Davis said the unorganized system has created obstacles for vaccine access, especially for elderly Texans without internet access. She thinks local officials need to do a better job providing information about where vaccinations will be offered and what days people should sign up for them....

Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

After major technology and social media companies this month banned former President Donald Trump from their platforms and dumped conspiracy peddling accounts and the app Parler over their respective roles in inciting the deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol, Texas Republicans portrayed the moves as discrimination against GOP voices.

But many lawmakers did so without acknowledging or decrying the role Republicans and social media played in stoking the baseless conspiracies that fueled the insurrectionists' vicious anger at the outcome of a free and fair election.

Much of the Texas GOP's post-siege rhetoric depicts the technology and social media companies' moves as the "censorship of conservatives," even though the actions were in response to credible evidence that communications were inciting violence. And legal experts agree that these tech companies are exercising their full legal rights to moderate anything on their platforms. That means some GOP politicians' vows to take legal, congressional and legislative action now put them in the rare position of advocating for something they typically oppose: more regulation of companies operating in a free market....

Federal agents have charged the former Houston police officer who allegedly joined a violent mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol with knowingly entering a restricted government building and engaging in disruptive and disorderly conduct, according to media reports Tuesday. An affidavit written by FBI Special Agent Amie C. Stemen named the previously unidentified officer as Tam Dinh Pham.

In a press conference last week, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said he had notified federal authorities about Pham's presence at the Capitol riot after seeing Facebook photos linking Pham to the pro-Trump supporters. Pham then agreed to meet with FBI agents at his home in Richmond on Jan. 12.

According to the affidavit published by media organizations, Pham told the agents that he had traveled to D.C. from Houston on Jan. 5 for his wife's business trip. He initially denied entering the Capitol, but admitted to attending the Trump rally earlier in the day. However, federal officials found photos of Pham standing in the Capitol rotunda in the deleted photos section of his phone. One agent warned Pham about making any false statements, and Pham agreed to cooperate for the rest of the investigation....