The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - March 5, 2025

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy folks, today is Wednesday, March 5th and you are listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lauschus and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, U.S. Representative Sylvester Turner, the former mayor of Houston, has died at age 70 following a nearly three year battle with cancer. Current mayor John Whitmire confirmed Turner's death during a city council meeting Wednesday morning. Whitmire said Turner had been taken to the hospital in Washington, D.C. last night.

Starting point is 00:00:38 First elected to the Texas House in 1989, Turner represented House District 139 in Houston for 27 years before running for mayor in 2015. He was reelected in 2019 following a runoff election. Following the death of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee last year, Turner was chosen by the Harris County Democratic Party to replace her on the 2024 ballot. In election he won handily with nearly 70% of the vote. Turner was diagnosed with a form of bone cancer in 2022, but had rallied and appeared in the Houston rodeo parade

Starting point is 00:01:13 last Saturday before returning to Washington, DC. He attended President Donald Trump's address to Congress on Tuesday evening. Next, President Donald Trump laid out his legislative agenda in a speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, where a number of elected Texas officials took center stage throughout the evening. The fireworks began as soon as Trump entered the chamber.

Starting point is 00:01:35 While he greeted lawmakers and shook hands with Republican supporters, at one point he was flanked by Representative Melanie Stansbury, who held up a sign reading, quote, this is not normal. The sign was quickly seized by Representative Lance Gooden, who grabbed it and tossed it over his shoulder. But soon after he began speaking, Representative Al Green rose from his seat and waved his cane at the president. You don't have a mandate, Green reportedly yelled from the floor. House Speaker Mike Johnson warned the congressman to cease his disruption before calling for him to be removed after Green continued. Stay tuned for more news updates after this short message.

Starting point is 00:02:15 Data centers fuel 364,000 Texas jobs, generate $3.5 billion in state and local taxes, and power essential services like banking, health care and video calls. With 21 connected devices per household and soaring data demands, these hubs drive Texas's booming economy, shape its technological future and keep your data here in the U.S. To learn more, visit center of your digital world dot org slash Texas. Now returning to your daily Texas news, Texas squared off with the federal government at the U S Supreme Court on Wednesday over the nuclear regulatory commission's approval of a license to store spent nuclear fuel at a Permian

Starting point is 00:02:56 basin facility at the center of the dispute is an Andrews County facility that currently stores low level radioactive waste, but sought approval for interim storage of high-level waste, known as spent nuclear fuel. The facility is a joint project between Interim Storage Partners and Irano USA. Texas sued the NRC for issuing the license after the state legislature abruptly banned the practice in a 2021 special session.

Starting point is 00:03:22 The agency had been considering the license for years and the legislature passed the ban at the last minute just before the NRC's planned meeting was held. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Texas in August 2023, finding that federal law does not allow the NRC to issue away from the reactor storage licenses. Also, the initial draft of an $800 million bond proposal for 2026 was presented to the Fort Worth City Council at its work

Starting point is 00:03:53 session on March 4. The largest portion of the bond package, $477 million, or almost 60%, is for streets and mobility infrastructure. Parks and open space are next with 185 million dollars in the package. Other areas for bond funding include the public library and public safety improvements and the animal shelter facility. A complete list of projects can be found on the city's website. Christian Simmons, chief transformation officer for FW Lab, a

Starting point is 00:04:24 division of the city aimed at making Fort Worth, quote, the most livable and best managed city in the country, presented the bond proposal, which she said city staff had been working on for about a year. She emphasized that there will be a floodgate of opportunities both in person and digitally for the public to provide input about the proposed bond package before the May 2026 election. Last but not least, social media sensation Valentina Gomez has taken the online world by storm, amassing millions of views in audacious, attention-grabbing videos chock-full of various slurs and threats against pedophiles and other sexual offenders, first as a candidate

Starting point is 00:05:05 for Missouri Secretary of State and now with her site set on Texas' 31st Congressional District. Visit thetexan.news to read about reporter Mary Elise Cosgrae's conversation with Gomez about what brought her to Texas and her status as the, quote, Michael Jordan of politics. Thanks for listening. To support the Texan please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - March 5, 2025

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