The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - December 12, 2024
Episode Date: December 12, 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!
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Howdy folks, today is Thursday, December 12th, 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, there are two gravitational forces at work in any legislative body,
always in tension with each other and always locked in a
zero-sum tug of war, the desire to socialize the credit and to individualize the blame.
In Washington, D.C., this comes most prominently in the form of Congress, the Article 1 branch,
prostrating itself at the feet of the Executive, the Article 2 branch, and the Court, the Article
3 branch. War powers have been outsourced almost
entirely to the president. Budgets begin with and run substantially through the executive branch.
Massive decisions on policy are placed in the laps of nine justices, who then must ascertain
the meaning of rules written decades or centuries ago, or choose to throw the past meaning out the
window entirely. But that's DC. The same dynamic takes
on a different flavor here in Texas, and it is a central issue in the race for the House
speakership. Visit thetexan.news to read senior reporter Brad Johnson's full story on the state
of the Texas House speaker race and the push to reform the chamber's rules. Next, Attorney General
Ken Paxton has announced a new investigation into a variety
of different social media and artificial intelligence companies. Paxton stated,
quote, technology companies are on notice that my office is vigorously enforcing Texas's strong
data privacy laws. These investigations are a critical step toward ensuring that social media
and AI companies comply with our laws
designed to protect children from exploitation and harm.
Fifteen companies are part of Paxton's investigation, and he names Character.ai,
Reddit, Instagram, and Discord among those being targeted for further inquiry.
In the press release, Paxton highlights the Securing Children Online Through Parental
Empowerment, or SCOPE,
Act, which was passed during the 88th legislative session. In other news, the city of Dallas has
been given notice of impending legal action for its failure to enforce the camping ban against
homeless people. The notice was sent by the attorney for Dallas Hero, the group behind two
of the recently adopted city charter amendments. In a letter to
the mayor and city council, Art Martinez-DeBara gave the city 60 days notice of a claim under the
new charter amendment for the city's non-enforcement of Texas Penal Code Section 48.05, which prohibits
camping in a public place without the consent of the authority governing the place. Dallas Hero
asked the city
to take three actions, develop a plan to begin immediately enforcing the camping ban, communicate
its plan and timeline clearly to the public, and ensure that Dallas policies and ordinances
align with state law. The action by Dallas Hero would be taken under the newly adopted charter
amendment, Proposition S, that passed with
55% of the vote in November. It allows residents of Dallas to bring an action against the city for
its failure to comply with state law, the city charter, or city ordinances. It also includes a
60-day notice requirement. Last but not least, Texas colleges and universities continue to be a
battleground for free speech and open debate, and now the Foundation for Individual Rights fear of causing controversy, end quote,
and more than 25% of faculty report they are, quote, frequently self-censoring in conversations,
end quote, with administrators, other faculty, and students. The survey was conducted among
nearly 6,300 tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure-track faculty across 55 four-year colleges and universities in the U.S.
On the University of Texas at Austin campus, 68% of faculty, quote, support adoption of
institutional neutrality, end quote, and just 35% feel very secure about academic freedom on the UT
Austin campus. 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.