The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - July 19, 2024

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

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Howdy folks, today is Friday, July 19th, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans reporter Cameron Abrams, and here's the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, former President Donald Trump and U.S. Senator J.D. Vance formally accepted the GOP nominations for president and vice president of the United States during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, for now setting the stage for a rematch against Democratic President Joe Biden in November. Democrats are currently set to formally nominate Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris during their national convention next month. However, it comes amidst a frenzy over whether Biden should step aside, sparked by his debate performance last month. On Thursday, Biden's campaign denied the validity of numerous reports that the president was considering dropping out of the seat in light of growing calls from leaders asking him to step aside.

Next, another Texas Democrat has joined the ranks of voices calling on Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to step aside before the upcoming national convention in August. Rep Mark Veasley added his name to a joint letter sent to Biden with three other Democratic lawmakers, including Reps Jared Huffman, Chuy Garcia, and Mark Pocan. The letter begins by praising Biden's decades of public service, including his accomplishments as president. But the letter quickly takes another direction, writing, quote, it's now time for you to pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders. In other news, the worldwide IT blackout that rocked the country on Friday, grounding air travel and disrupting Internet service was caused by an Austin-based security firm.

CrowdStrike, which serves some of the world's largest IT systems, initiated Schwab, Visa, Capital One, Bank of America, Google, Netflix, YouTube, USPS, Ticketmaster, and several airlines, including United and Delta. into allegations that Texas Children's Hospital used Medicaid funds to provide child gender modification treatments to minors. Phelan called the allegations, quote, extremely concerning. In the letter addressed to the Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner, Cecile Irwin Young and HHS Inspector General Raymond Charles Winter, Phelan requested information on whether TCH or any Texas medical provider has submitted claims for Medicaid reimbursement related to, quote, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, gender reassignment surgeries, or any other related gender dysphoria service. In addition, new filings in a federal lawsuit against the city of Kima claimed former Mayor Carl Joyner has provided, quote, perjurous statements as the plaintiff's attorneys have provided emails alleged to contradict an affidavit signed by Joyner and provided to the court by a Texas Municipal League attorney. Quote, defendant's counsel has submitted a blatantly false sham

declaration signed by KEMA's former mayor, Carl Joyner, to mislead the court in hopes of securing a dismissal, wrote attorney Brian Kilpatrick, continuing, quote, the court should give no weight to this false testimony. Kilpatrick represents Matthew Plasek, a property and local business owner who sued the city after a former building code officer revoked certifications of occupancy and closed a four-story in July 2021. Located in Kima's Lighthouse District on 6th Street, the building housed part of Palpa's Tiki Bar and two residential floors that have been operating as bed and breakfast rentals for two decades. Furthermore, the City of Dallas Office of Homeless Solutions received more than 1,000 calls for service requests over the past 30 days.

Citizens can request services from the city via Dallas's 311 program, which includes the phone number, a mobile app, and a web portal. Services available include code compliance concerns, sanitation, parking, street repair, and other non-emergency services. The Office of Homeless Solutions operates a rolling 30-day dashboard of service requests, which is categorized by area of request. The office had 1,014 requests over the past 30 days, 914 of which have been closed and 100 still open. Last but not least, the University of Texas at Austin's Texas Institute for Electronics has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, otherwise known as DARPA, for $840 million award to fund the development of, quote, the next generation of high performing semiconductor microsystems for the Department of Defense. The award is a complement to a $552 million investment to TIE from the Texas legislature, which brings the total to $1.4 billion for the project. According to the agreement between TIE and DARPA, the funding will be used for open access research and development, including a prototyping facility that will be used to create defense systems.

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