The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - January 22, 2026

Starting point is 00:00:04 Howdy, folks, today is Thursday, January 22nd and you're listening to The Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans managing editor Rob Lauchess, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, a Corpus Christi jury has acquitted a Yuvalde consolidated independent school district police officer on all charges related to the 2022 mass shooting event at Rob Elementary that resulted in the death of 19 children and two teachers. Adrian Gonzalez was charged with 29 counts of abandoning and endangering a child, to which he pleaded not guilty. On Wednesday, January 21st, the jury returned a not guilty verdict on all counts after about seven hours of deliberation. According to the indictment issued in 2024, Gonzalez, by act and omission, intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, and with criminal negligence, place children younger than 15 years of age in imminent danger of bodily. injury, death, physical impairment, and mental impairment. He allegedly failed to engage,

Starting point is 00:01:11 distract, or delay the shooter, and failed to follow and attempt to follow his active shooter training to respond to gunfire by advancing toward the gunfire. Prosecutors argued that Gonzalez did not follow his training, thus endangering the lives of the students and teachers in the elementary school. Next, U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett and State Representative James Talarico are running for the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas this year, with a debate scheduled for this weekend. Crockett and Tala Rico will have a televised debate this Saturday at 2 p.m. at the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Convention in Georgetown. The two are competing to run against the eventual Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, be it incumbent Senator John Cornyn, Attorney General

Starting point is 00:01:59 Ken Paxton, or Congressman Wesley Hunt. Crocket, who represents much of Dallas and Texas, Tarrant counties, released an internal poll this week that placed her in the lead over Tala Rico as the favorite for the election. The poll, conducted by and for her campaign, had her projected to lead with 48% of the vote compared to Tala Rico's 33%, with the remaining undecided. Crockett's poll was released just a few days after an Emerson College poll, sampling 413 likely Democratic voters, found Tala Rico leading the Texas primary at 47% compared to Crockett's 38%. In other news, by a unanimous vote, the Dallas County Commissioner's Court approved a resolution posthumously affirming the innocence of Tommy Lee Walker, a black man convicted of the murder

Starting point is 00:02:47 of Venice Lee Parker in 1954 in Dallas. On Wednesday, January 21st, the Commissioner's Court held a special meeting to hear a presentation by Dallas County District Attorney John Cruz and representatives of the Innocence Project about the indicators of a wrongful conviction of Walker. This is the first posthumous exoneration that the Innocence Project has worked on, according to Chris Fabricant, Director of Strategic Litigation. Since 2008, it has assisted in the exoneration of 11 people who were convicted in Dallas County. Cruz-Ots' office, through its Conviction Integrity Unit, conducted a review of the case and reported that they found evidence that Walker's constitutional rights

Starting point is 00:03:29 had been violated in several ways. Last but not least, the Northeast Independent School District is considering legal action against the Texas Education Agency over the district's method of enforcing a state law regarding cell phone usage during the school day. House Bill 1481, commonly referred to as the cell phone ban, came into effect on September 1st, 2025, stating that all public and open enrollment charter schools must, quote, adopt, implement, and ensure the district or school complies with a written policy prohibiting a student from using a personal communication device while on school property during the school day. According to Northeast ISD's website, students must, quote, turn off and store their personal electronic devices out of sight during instructional class time.

Starting point is 00:04:17 Phones are allowed during non-classroom periods, which includes passing periods, lunch, and before or after school. It continues, quote, the law allows each district to define what school day means within its local context. The TEA placed Northeast ISD under a corrective action plan on November 6th and called for them to ban all cell phone usage district-wide during the school day. The district has until January 31st to comply. Some Northeast ISD schools have chosen to enforce bell-to-bell cell phone restrictions, but not all. Thanks for listening. To support the Texan, please be sure to visit the texan. News and subscribe to gain full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - January 22, 2026

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