The 2003 Texas redistricting of Congressional districts led by Republican Tom DeLay was called by the New York Times "an extreme case of partisan gerrymandering" a group of Democratic legislators the "Texas Eleven" fled the state in a quorum-busting effort to prevent the legislature from acting but was unsuccessful the state had already redistricted following the 2000 census Despite these efforts the legislature passed a map heavily in favor of Republicans based on 2000 data and ignoring the estimated nearly one million new residents in the state since that date Career attorneys and analysts at the Department of Justice objected to the plan as diluting the votes of African American and Hispanic voters but political appointees overrode them and approved it. Legal challenges to the redistricting reached the national Supreme Court in the case League of United Latin American Citizens v Perry (2006) but the court ruled in favor of the state (and Republicans), La Porte The Houston Office of Protocol and International Affairs is the city's liaison to Houston's sister cities and to the national governing organization Sister Cities International Through their official city-to-city relationships these volunteer associations promote people-to-people diplomacy and encourage citizens to develop mutual trust and understanding through commercial cultural educational and humanitarian exchanges. . As of 2018 Texas had a gross state product (GSP) of $1.8 trillion the second highest in the U.S. Its GSP is greater than the GDPs of Canada Russia South Korea and Spain which are the world's 10th- 11th- 12th- and 13th-largest economies respectively. Texas's economy is the fourth-largest of any country subdivision globally behind England (as part of the UK) California and Japan's Kanto region Its per capita personal income in 2009 was $36,484 ranking 29th in the nation, Houston received the official nickname of "Space City" in 1967 because it is the location of NASA's Lyndon B Johnson Space Center Other nicknames often used by locals include "Bayou City" "Clutch City" "Crush City" "Magnolia City" "H-Town" and "Culinary Capital of the South".[citation needed].
. Uptown Houston 1940 384,514 31.5% The Texas Ignition Interlock Law went into effect during September 2015 This law requires judges to order ignition interlocks for all drunk-drivers with a Blood Alcohol Level of 0.15% or greater. Since the passing of this law the drunk driving related death rate in Texas has decreased by 8.5%, German Irish and English Americans are the three largest European ancestry groups in Texas German Americans make up 11.3 percent of the population and number over 2.7 million members Irish Americans make up 8.2 percent of the population and number over 1.9 million members There are roughly 600,000 French Americans and 472,000 Italian Americans residing in Texas; these two ethnic groups make up 2.5 percent and 2.0 percent of the population respectively in the 1980 United States Census the largest ancestry group reported in Texas was English with 3,083,323 Texans citing they were of English or mostly English ancestry making them 27 percent of the state at the time. Their ancestry primarily goes back to the original thirteen colonies (the census of 1790 gives 48% of the population of English ancestry; together 12% Scots and Scots-Irish; 4.5% Irish South 90% were Protestant and 3% Welsh = 67.5% British; 13% were German Swiss Dutch and French Huguenots; 19% African-American Colin Bonwick the American Revolution 1991 p 254) and thus many of them today identify as "American" in ancestry though they are of predominantly British stock. There are nearly 200,000 Czech-Americans living in Texas the largest number of any state.
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