The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - August 1, 2024
Episode Date: August 1, 2024Want to support The Texan and help us continue providing the Lone Star State with news you can trust? Subscribe today: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/The Texan’s Daily Rundown brings you a quick re...cap of the latest stories in Texas politics so you can stay informed with news you can trust.Want more resources? Be sure to visit The Texan and subscribe for complete access to our in-depth articles, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, videos, podcasts, and more.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review!
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Howdy folks, today is Thursday, August 1st, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown.
I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lausches, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas
politics. First up, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit permitted the state of Texas'
Bowie Barrier in the Rio Grande
to remain in an en banc ruling Tuesday night. A district court previously issued an injunction
ordering Texas to move the barriers to the riverbank. Texas appealed, and a three-judge
panel sided with the federal government. Then the full court overruled the panel and stayed
the injunction, pending their final review of the district judge's injunction.
The decision issued on Tuesday found the district judge abused his discretion by issuing the preliminary injunction ordering the buoys removal and ordered that the injunction be dissolved.
An ancillary opinion from Judge James Ho endorses one of Governor Greg Abbott's main border
contentions, that the state is being invaded by illegal immigrants.
Overall, the court's ruling was more procedural than substantive on the case's full scope,
that the U.S. government's argument that the 1,000-foot stretch of water constitutes a navigable water under federal law is unlikely to succeed on its merits.
But Ho's part-concurrence, part-dissent opinion takes a different route,
fully endorsing the state of Texas' invocation of the much-debated Invasion Clause.
Next, 10 Texas Congress members have issued a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging him and the Department of Justice to investigate allegations of Medicaid fraud related to child gender modification at Texas Children's Hospital.
In previous months, multiple whistleblowers have come forward alleging that Texas Children's
falsified medical records and accused it of, quote, unlawfully billing the state Medicaid program,
end quote, for the purposes of child gender modification. The letter highlights both Texas
Senate Bill 14, which bans child gender modification in the state, and the whistleblower allegations.
In other news, the Houston Police Department published a report Tuesday on an investigation into hundreds of thousands of criminal incidents suspended between 2016 and March 2024 under a Code for Lack of Personnel, or SL, that included assault, sexual crimes,
and even homicides. Acting Police Chief Larry Satterwhite presented findings to the Houston
City Council on Tuesday and answered questions for nearly three hours on the 264,000 cases.
Created by Executive Assistant Chief Tim Ottmeier and Assistant Chief Donald McKinney, and approved by then-Act But according to Satterwhite, HPD leadership
failed to set parameters and guidelines for its use, even after former chief Troy Thinner
reportedly said the code should not be used in 2021. Also, a foreign national has been
indicted in Houston for selling and distributing counterfeit cancer drugs across the United States. Sanjay Kumar, a 43-year-old of
Bihar, India, is facing charges pressed by a Houston grand jury for selling fake versions
of various oncology drugs. Kumar was arrested on June 26 while on a related business trip in the
U.S., claiming it was to, quote, conduct further negotiations, end quote. While allegedly expanding his counterfeit cancer drugs network,
the United States Department of Justice announced Kumar's indictment on July 25th
as one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit drugs,
as well as four counts of trafficking in counterfeit drugs.
According to the DOJ, Kumar and his co-conspirators have coordinated the sale and distribution of tens of thousands of dollars worth of fake cancer drugs in the United States.
In addition, Texas Central Railroad owes delinquent property taxes in several counties along the proposed high-speed rail route from Dallas to Houston. According to a press statement released by Texans Against High-Speed Rail,
the company owes over $950,000 in taxes, interest, penalties, and attorney's fees for Taxier 2023. In Harris County, the bill totals over $224,000, and in Grimes County, $218,000.
In response to an inquiry by the Texan, Texas Central said, quote,
We are constructively working through funding with our partners, and all taxes will be paid
as they have been in previous years. Last but not least, over 100 years before Texas won its
independence from Mexico, the first election on Texas soil was held in present-day San Antonio for alcaldes, or justices of the peace.
Visit TheTexan.News to read about this first election between Spanish settlers, today in Texas history.
Thanks for listening.
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