The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - August 27, 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy, folks. Today is Tuesday, August 27th, 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 two campaigns for the U.S. Senate in Texas hit the road this weekend for events, taking their respective messages to voters in what's become an unexpectedly tight race at the top of the state's ticket. Venues were packed for Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Colin Allred as supporters turned out across the state. Cruz's Keep Texas, Texas tour kicked off in Georgetown at Mesquite Outfitters and proceeded on to Waco, The Colony, Tyler, Beaumont, and Cypress. But the largest crowd over the weekend came for Allred's home turf launch of the Women for Allred initiative. Allred is running a markedly

Starting point is 00:00:59 different campaign than his 2018 predecessor, Beto O'Rourke, and it's a deliberate change of Are you tired of missing critical updates in legislative hearings? Frustrated by the overwhelming flood of new bills and the challenge of staying informed as they change? Introducing USLedge, the revolutionary artificial intelligence solution designed to transform how you track and analyze government meetings and legislation. USLedge allows you to search, pause, rewind, and review transcripts of public meetings live. That's right, live. Anytime, anywhere. USLedge uses cutting-edge AI technology to monitor and analyze thousands of bills in real time, providing you with personalized summaries and instant notifications. Check us out at uslege.ai. That's U-S-L-E-G-E dot A-I. Now returning to your daily Texas news. Next, in a newly released

Starting point is 00:01:58 undercover video, a lawyer who defended the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in a federal lawsuit admitted that the government agency had exceeded its authority in online statements regarding the use of ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic. Isaac Belfer, a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice's Consumer Protection Branch Civil Division, said, quote, It's okay for FDA to communicate information about the drug, but it's not okay to take the next step and actually tell people you should not take this drug. Belfer's comments were captured in a video by Project Veritas and published Tuesday, in which he discusses his work

Starting point is 00:02:38 to defend the government in a lawsuit filed by Houston's Dr. Mary Talley Bowden and Drs. Robert Apter and Paul Merrick. The suit alleged that FDA statements were interfering with the doctor's ability to treat patients. In other news, the Texas Secretary of State's office will send multiple staff members to Harris County to inspect records and procedures and assist the elections division during the 2024 general election, citing multiple issues uncovered in a state audit of the county's management of past elections. According to a press release from Secretary of State Jane Nelson, the SOS will, quote,

Starting point is 00:03:15 assign state inspectors to Harris County to perform checks on election records, including tapes and chain of custody, and will observe the handling and counting of ballots and electronic media during the November 2024 election period. SOS will also send staff to assist the county for the duration of the election period, from 14 schools, has adopted an addition to its free speech guidelines that will make it policy for schools to refrain from officially endorsing or opposing political or social issues, leaving such matters to the individual expression of its community members. An addition to the free speech statement reads, quote, nor is it the role of the UT system or UT institutions to adopt positions based on political or social passions or pressures. Institutions should not, in their

Starting point is 00:04:12 official capacity, issue or express positions on issues of the day, however appealing they may be to some members of the university community. It continues, quote, this has no bearing, of course, on freedom of speech of individuals in the university community, and only relates to official university statements, functions, ceremonies, and publications. Last but not least, families of 346 passengers who were killed in two separate Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes requested that the court reject a plea agreement submitted by the U.S. Department of Justice and Boeing, arguing that it, quote, improperly conceals the deadly consequences of Boeing's crime. Last January, a door plug in an Alaska Airlines Boeing jet was ejected, resulting in a gaping hole on the side of the airplane while it was in midair. While no injuries occurred, the DOJ discovered four months afterward that Boeing had preached

Starting point is 00:05:09 its previously entered Deferred Prosecution Agreement, which followed the determination that Boeing had made misleading statements, half-truths, and omissions, allegedly leading to the two prior deadly crashes in 2019. The DPA included a settlement of over $2.5 billion. On Friday, August 23rd, the victim's representatives requested Judge Reed O'Connor of the Northern District of Texas Fort Worth Division to reject the proposed plea agreement on the basis that it placed the court in a take-it-or-leave-it position, advising the judge to leave it and reject the, quote, rotten plea. Thanks for listening. To support The Texan, please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - August 27, 2024

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.