The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - March 24, 2026

Starting point is 00:00:04 Howdy folks, today is Tuesday, March 24th, 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, the Texas Education Agency announced the appointment of a nine-member board of managers and the selection of a new superintendent for Fort Worth Independent School District. Fort Worth ISD has been under a state takeover since October, which T-EA Commissioner Mike Marath attributed to chronic academic underperformance, citing an increase in, quote, multiple year academically unacceptable campuses. He said that these are schools where fewer than one-third of students are on grade level or less than half show academic growth, conditions that

Starting point is 00:00:51 applied to about 20 campuses. Under the Texas Education Code, quote, if a campus is considered to have an unacceptable performance rating for five consecutive school years, the commissioner shall order one, appointment of a board of managers to govern the school district, or two, closure of the campus. On March 10th, the TEA announced that Dr. Karen Molinar would not be continuing with the superintendent application process, despite public support for her from the current elected board and Fort Worth Mayor Maddie Parker. In a March 24th press release, Marath named Dr. Peter B. Lekada to take over a superintendent replacing Molinar. news. The Dallas Police Department has warned local residents about a text message scam that is being

Starting point is 00:01:40 sent to people in the area purporting to be from the Dallas Municipal Court for traffic violations. The text consists of a photo with a case number signed by a Judge John Smith. According to the City of Dallas judiciary website, there is no Judge John Smith presiding over any municipal courts. The scam text includes a statutory section related to the alleged violation, a hearing location, date and time, and a QR code to scan for paying the unpaid balance. The Dallas Police Department has received reports that some people receiving the text have gone to the municipal courts to deal with the issue or have scanned the fraudulent QR code and made a payment. The Dallas Police Department's social media post states, quote,

Starting point is 00:02:25 The City of Dallas and municipal courts do not request payments via unsolicited text messages or QR codes. Last but not least, in order to comply with a state directive by the Texas Department of Transportation, the city of Dallas said in a memorandum dated March 20, 26, that it would begin working to remove rainbow crosswalks in the city. On October 8, 2025, TextDott informed the city that some of its decorative pavement markings were not in compliance with state standards. Three days earlier on October 5th, Governor Greg Abbott issued a directive to TechSdot to make sure localities would, quote, remove any and all political ideologies from our streets. The directive stated, quote, to keep Texans moving safely and free from distraction, we must maintain a safe and consistent transportation network across Texas. It continued, quote, any city that refuses to comply with the federal road standards will face consequences, including the withholding or denial of state and federal road funding and suspension of agreements with Tex dot. Dallas requested an exemption to preserve the sidewalk decorations, but the request was denied in January. Then the city developed a compliance plan for 30 crosswalks throughout the city.

Starting point is 00:03:45 The removal of the rainbow crosswalks is expected to begin on March 23rd and be complete by April 28th. Thanks for listening. To support the Texan, please be sure to visit the Texan. News and to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - March 24, 2026

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