The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - July 3, 2025

Starting point is 00:00:00 Good afternoon. Today is Thursday, July 3rd, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texan senior reporter Brad Johnson, pinch-hitting for Rob Lausch's today, and here's the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, the 2026 election cycle is taking shape in Texas. Spots up and down the ticket are filling up with new candidates, known entities, and campaign retreads. Visit thetexan.news for a rundown of where things stand at the statewide level for Texas. Next, former Harris County District Attorney Kim Aug is not going away quietly, now being ordered to appear in court this month over her public comments on the murder of a 12-year-old

Starting point is 00:00:41 girl in Houston last summer. In an interview with Fox26 Houston earlier this year, Augs said that Franklin Jose Pena-Ramos, one of the two men charged in the 2024 sexual assault and murder of Jocelyn Nungare, had been accused of raping another woman in Costa Rica. Augs' revelation about the case drew protests from defense attorneys for Pena and Johan Jose Martinez Rangel, as well as from prosecutors under the new district attorney Sean Teary. Both groups say they have filed complaints against her with the State Bar of Texas, and defense attorney Lisa Andrews asked district court judge Josh Hill to hold Aug in contempt

Starting point is 00:01:15 of court for allegedly violating a gag order. Aug has hired attorney and state rep Mitch Little, who submitted a letter to the court last week stating that some of the facts about Nungare's murder are already public. In other news, federal and state officials are taking action to combat the spread of New World Screwworm, a pest that can pose serious and sometimes fatal damage to livestock and wildlife. In mid-June, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced a, quote, sweeping five-pronged to combat growing NWS

Starting point is 00:01:46 issue in the announcement Rollins stated eight point five million dollars would be allocated to create a fly dispersal facility at the Moore Air Base in mission the u.s. took efforts to eliminate the NWS in the 1950s and by 1966 it was considered eradicated according to the Wildlife Society. The strategy used then and again now was to release sterilized male NWS by the hundreds of millions into the population so that these sterilized males may with the female NWS and produce no offspring. Also a slew of flood mitigation projects approved by Harris County voters after Hurricane Harvey

Starting point is 00:02:24 devastated the reason in 2017 are likely to be cancelled or delayed due to a significant funding shortfall, including multiple projects with federal matching funds. During a commissioners' court meeting last week, Harris County Flood Control District Executive Director Tina Peterson confirmed that the estimated shortfall for completion of the projects is $1.342 billion, which will leave an estimated 80% of projects proposed in the 2018 bond referendum unfunded. Commissioners voted along party lines in 2019 and again in 2022 to rank the proposed projects according to a prioritization framework that includes consideration of a social vulnerability

Starting point is 00:03:02 index. The framework shifted from targeting areas with the most damage to those with lower average incomes and more minority residents. Commissioner Adrian Garcia motioned to commit funding for all current and future needs for projects that fell into the first quartile of the framework's rankings, but Commissioner Tom Ramsey protested that the formula was flawed and unfairly penalized projects in underserved neighborhoods in his precinct. Last but not least, more than half of Texas public schools are experiencing a decline in enrollment, with charter schools emerging as the leading alternative for families.

Starting point is 00:03:35 58% of traditional Texas public school districts saw enrollment decline from fall 2019 to fall 2024, according to a report by Texas A&M University's Private Enterprise Research Center. While Texas saw almost 8% growth in the state's overall population during this time, public school enrollment fell 1% while charter enrollment grew by 29.4%. Although some districts reported increases, their growth was not enough to offset the shift toward charter schools. Among major Texas districts, notable declines occurred in Houston at 16%, Fort Worth at 15%, Austin at 11%, and Dallas with 9%. PS, the Texan staff is off to celebrate Independence Day, so have a happy 4th of July and check back in on Monday, July 7th for the next edition of the Daily Rundown. Thanks for listening. To support the Texan, please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access

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The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - July 3, 2025

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