The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - February 9, 2026

Starting point is 00:00:04 Howdy folks, today is Monday, February 9th, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans managing editor Rob Lauchess, and here's the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, State Board of Education members Brandon Hall, Tom Maynard, and Julie Pickren expressed serious concerns regarding widespread student walkouts in protest against U.S. immigration and customs enforcement's actions across the country. In a February 6th letter, to Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath. The letter said, quote, over the past week, there have been numerous troubling instances in which students were allowed, and in some cases, apparently encouraged, to leave school grounds as part of organized political

Starting point is 00:00:50 demonstrations. Hall, Maynard, and Pickren commended the TEA for acting proactively in issuing guidance for school systems, outlining their responsibilities and the consequences of walkouts to educators and students. The TEA explained how state law, quote, prohibits school systems from supporting or opposing any forms of political activism that disrupts learning during the school day, end quote, and also prohibits educators from, quote, encouraging or facilitating student departures from a class or school activity to engage in any form of political activism. Students, teachers, in school districts that do not comply with state law will be subject to consequences, the agency said. Students will be marked absent and schools will lose daily attendance funding for allowing

Starting point is 00:01:36 or encouraging students to walk out of class. The TEA will investigate or pose sanctions against teachers who facilitate or encourage walkouts. Next, eight of the 15 seats on the State Board of Education are up for election this year, with four incumbents seeking re-election and three seats being vacated by current board members. The March 3rd primary will determine each party's nominee for the November 3rd general election ballot. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the primary, a runoff will be held on May 26th. Visit the Texan. News for a preview of who is on the ballot for the March 3rd primaries. In other news, 60 Republican members of the Texas House of Representatives issued a statement in support of detransitioner Soren Aldaco's case against her health care

Starting point is 00:02:23 providers involved in providing her gender modification procedures as a child, which is set to be heard by the the Texas Supreme Court on Wednesday. The lawmakers also affirmed their intent to refile legislation expanding the statute of limitations for child gender modification malpractice-related lawsuits as soon as filing opens up for the 90th legislative session on November 9th, 2026. In July 23, Aldaco sued a counseling group and other health care providers involved in her gender modification procedures, which included a double mastectomy for $1 million after she came to regret the surgeries as an adult. Court documents state that she first received life-altering cross-sex hormones at the age of 17. Last but not least, a 36-year-old Texas man was indicted last week

Starting point is 00:03:11 for threatening to assault and murder the president of the United States and unnamed agents who work for immigration and customs enforcement. Francisco Jesus Meena of North Richland Hills was indicted by a federal grand jury on 10 counts of threatening a federal official. If he is convicted, Mena could face up to 96 years in prison. Between May 13th and May 25th, 2025, Mayna allegedly made several threatening posts on YouTube about killing President Donald Trump, such as, kill Trump and pay me, I will kill Trump, according to an affidavit filed by task force manager Michael Lugo with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He also posted threats to ICE officers, such as, quote, I stabbed an ICE agent in 2009.

Starting point is 00:03:57 I saw his own face asking me to stop. I would love to do this again. End quote. Thanks for listening. To support the Texan, please be sure to visit the texan. News and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - February 9, 2026

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