The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - May 12, 2025

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

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Howdy folks, today is Monday, May 12th 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, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's 2022 accusation that Google collected, very sensitive information like biometric identifiers has culminated in a $1.375 billion settlement from the tech company. Paxton wrote in a statement released on Friday, in Texas, big tech is not above the law.

For years, Google secretly tracked people's movements, private searches, and even their voice prints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won. The settlement is the conclusion of two separate lawsuits against Google. Next, at the behest of one of Texas' U.S. senators, the U.S. Department of Justice will open an investigation into a controversial new Muslim-centric community outside the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Senator John Cornyn stated last week that Attorney General Pam Bondi will begin an investigation

into the East Plano Islamic Center's epic city following a letter issued by Cornyn that urged both Bondi and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon, to push for an investigation to quote, explore whether the proponents of the proposed development are abiding by existing federal and state prohibitions on the enforcement of Sharia law. Epic City, a proposed Muslim-centric residential community in Josephine, incurred increased

attention in recent weeks as multiple state officials have launched their own investigations into the property development. In other news, two bills broaching contentious social issues took the stage in the Texas House of Representatives on Saturday night, one requiring insurance companies to cover adverse results from gender modification procedures and detransitions and the other codifying male and female as the sole biological sexes in state law. House Bill 229 which provides a definition for male and female in state code and declares them as the two existing biological sexes was carried by Representative Ellen Troxclair through numerous points of

order and hours of heated debate on the House floor. It eventually passed along party lines with 86 votes in favor, 36 against. Prior to HB229's debut, Senate Bill 1257, the upper chamber's companion to Representative Jeff Leach's House Bill 778, set the stage for transgender-related discussion, as the legislation requires insurance companies to cover adverse effects on gender modification procedures and quote, detransitioning services, if the company concurrently covers gender transitioning services. Also, the Tarrant County Republican Executive Committee voted on May 8 to censure freshman Representative John McQueenie.

For some of the actions, he has taken since joining the Texas House of Representatives, seeking a penalty of keeping him off the Republican Party primary ballot for 24 months. The censure resolution starts by listing his votes in support of Representative Dustin Burroughs as Speaker of the Texas House and the resolution to allow Democratic Chairs of House Subcommittees. Following this vote, the resolution accused McQueenie of, quote, lying to his constituents by sending communications through text messages and social media claiming that he voted to ban Democrat Chairs.

McQueenie did not attend the Tarrant County GLP meeting where the resolution passed, arguing his attendance was impractical given that there were only 26 days left in the 89th legislative session at that point. Last but not least, the Supreme Court of Texas last week revived a dismissed case filed

against the city of College Station in an opinion that could be a bellwether for the future of a 2023 law governing extraterritorial jurisdictions or ETJs and the authority of the state to reign in local government. The opinion stems from a 2022 lawsuit filed by the Texas Public Policy Foundation on behalf of two Brazos County residents who reside outside of city limits but within College Station's ETJ. Although residents Shanna Elliott and Lawrence Calkel cannot vote in city elections and do not receive city services, as part of the ETJ they are subject to city ordinances, a regulatory structure they say is unconstitutional.

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