The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - June 19, 2026

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

The Texan’s Daily Rundown brings you a quick recap of the latest stories in Texas politics so you can stay informed with news you can trust.Want more resources? Visit The Texan for complete access to our in-depth articles, newsletters, videos, podcasts, and more.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to follow us and leave a review!

Well, howdy folks. Today is Friday, June 19th, and you're listening to the Texans' Daily Rundown. I'm the Texan senior editor Rob Lauchess, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, 46 Democratic Texas lawmakers sent a letter to the State Board of Education, asking them to postpone votes on the state's revised social studies standards and mandatory reading list, saying that, quote, both have been compromised in ways that warrant immediately, attention. The revision process for the social studies Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS, the state K-12 curriculum standards, began in 2023. The Texas Education Agency also released a statewide required literary works list in January. State representative Salman Bojani

told the Texan, quote, the broader issue is that curriculum decisions affecting millions of Texas students are being shaped by an ideological agenda. And parents and educators, deserve to know that legislators are paying attention before final votes are taken. SBOE chairman Aaron Kinsey said that Republicans must, quote, stay united, reject Democrats' radical amendments and pass strong pro-America, pro-Texas history standards. Next, a large load working group meeting was held by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas on Friday to discuss Aircott's batch zero framework. After the Public Utility Commission of Texas on Thursday announced approval of the batch zero process for connecting large loads to the grid.

The stability of Texas energy grid has been in question recently as data centers flocked to the state. The large load working group is responsible for developing and recommending policies to facilitate the reliable and efficient integration of large loads, typically structures like data centers, industrial plants, and cryptocurrency mining facilities into the Aircot system. Aircott's batch zero structure simultaneously studies proposed projects that hope to connect to Texas electricity grid. On Thursday, Aercott reported that they are currently tracking more than 438,000 megawatts of new connection requests from large users, and that 90% of those requests come from data centers. The batch study process aims to, quote, ensure large electricity users only connect in quantities and locations the Texas transmission grid can support. In other news, the Dallas City Council voted on June 17th to use up to $2 million from its reserves

to conduct due diligence for an alternate location within the Central Business District for city operations to move away from the current City Hall. Councilmember Chad West, who made the motion, asserted that the move will allow the city staff to gather information about other locations for City Hall in order to provide an apples-to-apples comparison between the cost of relocating and the cost of repairing the current building. City manager Kimberly Tolbert told the city council that the next steps for the city staff would be to evaluate up to four potential sites and come back in August with those results for an additional vote on which direction the council prefers. The city attorney confirmed that the motion did not allow city staff to negotiate any terms for an actual lease or purchases for an

alternate location. West emphasized that approving the motion did not equate to a vote to leave the current City Hall. The motion passed by a vote of 9 to 5. Last but not least, a Texas-based company played a critical role in the rescue of two-downed helicopter pilots that were rescued from the Strait of Hormuz in early June. Serronic Technologies, headquartered in Austin, is the manufacturer of the 24-foot Corsair autonomous vessel that was deployed to rescue the pilots. President Donald Trump blamed the Iranian regime for shooting down the Army AH-64 Apache helicopter. In its first public use of the Corsair Autonomous Surface Vessel, or ASV, the United States military was able to find and rescue the stranded pilots. U.S. Central Command spokesperson Captain Tim Hawkins confirmed the rescue

using the maritime drone to defense scoop. He said that the Corsair picked up the pilots and, quote, transported them to another location on the water, where they were then hoisted up to a helicopter for further transport. Thanks for listening. To support the Texan, please be sure to visit the texan dot news to get full access to all of our articles newsletters and podcasts