The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - April 10, 2026

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free "Remember the Alamo" hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.Patrick Calls on Republicans to Unite Behind Either Cornyn or Paxton, Warns GOP Could Lose Texas HousePatrick, Burrows Announce Texas Will Pursue Independent Ibogaine ResearchTexas Lawmakers Support Congressional Resolution Affirming State Sovereignty in Border DefenseTexas Rangers Open Criminal Investigation Into Camp Mystic Over 2025 Flooding, Patrick Urges It Remain ClosedTexas Education Freedom Accounts Draws Nearly 275,000 Student Applicants in First YearDeceased Iranian General’s Nieces Detained in South Texas ICE FacilityFormer Sanger ISD Police Officer Placed on TEA Do Not Hire Registry Following Child Sex Abuse ArrestTexas Couple Loses Parental Rights to Infant Daughter, Claim Court Followed Unlawful ProceduresHouston Man Sentenced to 13 Years for Child Pornography Charges After FBI InvestigationSeven More Texas Districts Propose, Confirm School Closures

Well, happy Friday, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The Texans Weekly Roundup. I am your host, managing editor Rob Lauchess, joined here today by our wonderful reporters, Mary Aliso Bar, Meredith Dyer, and Hannah Brewer. How's everybody doing this morning? Doing well. It's fun to have you back, Rob, hosting. Thank you. It's good to be back. McKenzie lets me host occasionally, but it's always fun. Well, this is kind of an early morning podcast. Yeah, Thursdays, we always had a joke that Thursdays were like the busiest days in the office.

And I think that as we record this Friday podcast on Thursday, that has come true yet again with, what is it, don't we have like multiple legislative committee hearings going on right now? Yeah, and then stuff like that. I'm going to a political event later this morning. Thursday is just always a busy political day for some reason. Yeah. You'd think it would be Friday when everything drops at the least, in the least convenient time. But it seems that everybody in an effort to be convenient just saved it all for Thursday instead. So that's the day when everything really hits the fan. Right. Did everybody have a good week otherwise? Yeah. I'm in Austin.

Oh, for what? For Texas Public Policy Foundation, the Policy Summit. That's been really interesting. And good to see people in person. Very nice. I think Meredith will even be hearing a little bit from you about the Texas Public Policy Foundation and what a major state legislative leader may or may not have said. So I will certainly be looking forward to that. We too.

Absolutely. And I believe is it true that by the time this podcast goes up, the Artemis II landing will have already made it? or is that scheduled to be in the evening? Does anybody here know? I think it's supposed to land around 7 p.m. central time on Friday. So when the podcast goes out in the morning, yeah, it'll be that evening that Artemis will hopefully be landing. Apparently that's one of the more risky parts of the mission, so hopefully it goes well. It's crazy to think that, like, you know, taking off from the earth is not that bad, but it's getting back.

That's the real issue. know that's the tricky part. Well, with that, there is no time like the present. So Mary Elise, a congressional resolution has drawn support recently over state sovereignty regarding state borders. Give us the details on that. Yeah, this is an interesting congressional resolution. I got to speak to the author of this resolution, Congressman Jody Orington.

And so this is a resolution that essentially reaffirms that states have a constitutional right to defend their borders in the case of an invasion. So this was introduced in Congress by Arlington. He said to act as future supporting material if this issue in the future is one day taken to the Supreme Court of the United States. So Arlington, he's like we covered before, he's serving his fifth term, his fifth and last term. because he's retiring. But he was able to collect support from some different Texas leaders for this resolution

that he had introduced previously, but recently there was a bit more support out there for this resolution. So there's 25 Texas state lawmakers that have been showing their support for this and then several other state leaders. So Arlington explained this resolution as using Texas's

and then other border states experience under the previous administration, under President Joe Biden's administration, as kind of context for this resolution. And he described that period of time as allowing a, quote, invasion of people, drugs, and all kinds of criminal elements. So he said that this resolution, just to be clear, wouldn't establish a new law, but it affirms what the Constitution says, Arrington said, about the sovereign right of every state to be able to defend itself in the circumstance of an invasion.

So he had introduced this during the 118th Congress, and then he reintroduced it in 2025 during the 119th Congress. And when it was first supported, it's worth noting, he had support from every member of Texas's United States House Representative Delegation, so all of our Texas members in the U.S. House, and then over 60 congress members in total kind of through their support behind this resolution. So it had some significant support there. Arlington said, you know, of course he hopes that this doesn't occur, but he said a future, quote, invasion and endangerment of the citizens of a number of sovereign states

under another Democratic president who takes a different approach to the border than President Donald Trump is doing right now. He said that's possible. And then if or when that happens, he said, SCOTUS will then most likely be faced with making a decision on state's authority on the issue. So he wanted to provide supporting material through this resolution. He said, quote, there will be a case that will go all the way to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court will then look for definitional clarity from Congress about what an invasion is and about what constitutes eminent danger for states.

He said he explained to elucidate that and to bring. greater clarity and congressional intent. It's important that the United States House and Republicans who are leading the House pass this resolution to inform what will be no doubt a case that will be precedent for decades, if not centuries, to come. There were several legal challenges that Texas faced when it was attempting to address the heightened border crisis that was under the Biden administration, clashing with the Democratic administration and their approach to the border.

there was a legal challenge from the United States Department of Justice. They sued the state over Texas's legislation, which had been passed back in 2023, and it prohibited essentially any foreign national from illegally entering the state between ports of entry and in violation of federal law. But once Trump took office, of course, which was expected, the DOJ withdrew its opposition to the case because it was this entirely different approach to the border with this new administration. Arrington said that there was lack of clarity on the constitutional right of each state, which kind of allowed the DOJ to, quote, obstruct and harass Texas seeking a closed border.

So he said if a state's sovereign authority in this issue and protecting its border is fully recognized in practice, states like Texas would have been able to put up barriers along the border. So you kind of talked about what it practically would look like if this softening. sovereign authority was recognized. He noted that SCOTUS had been involved in Biden's DOJ litigation that was against Texas and its placement of razor wire barriers, which we covered the Texan to secure its southern border with Mexico. There was also in January, 2024, SCOTUS issued an order that lifted an injunction, which had been put in place by U.S. 5th Circuit in December, 2003, which prevented the Biden administration from

removing the state's barriers, the razor wire barriers. Arlington said, we don't have any question whatsoever, any hesitation whatsoever for every sovereign state that they don't have to be passive victims of a failed federal government. They can engage and they can exercise that sovereign constitutional right to protect their citizens. One individual that we also spoke with that was involved in this resolution and he kind of worked with Arrington to help him craft this. resolution was John U. He served as deputy assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush,

and he, like I said, assisted Arlington in crafting this resolution because he said it could serve as supporting material for future Scoti's case on the issue. So he said that the House Representatives could make its own findings of fact that failures at the border rose to the level of an imminent danger that would justify a state's exercise of self-defense. This is John use speaking. Such a set of findings might bolster Texas's case in the courts as well as its political case to the public. So the recent support that was shown for this resolution in particular was in a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives. It was led by the Texas Public Policy Foundation. TPPF, CEO, Greg Sindelair, wrote the first page and signed it, and then there were over 100 different Texas

leaders, Republican leaders who signed on to it saying we support this resolution. So it included the signings in this letter included 24 Republican members of the Texas House of Representatives, and then one state senator, which was Adam Hinojosa. And then also we saw Texas GOP Chairman Abraham George signed on, and then every member of the Texas Senate Republican Executive Committee. and they essentially said to the U.S. House, please pass this. We think that this doesn't diminish federal authority, but that it clarifies, they said, constitutional reality.

So we'll see how this resolution ends up panning out in Congress, but it's gotten a little bit of traction here with these Republican leaders, trying to push it forward in kind of a case where you see some state lawmakers kind of weighing in on a congressional issue, because of course this is something that would affect them very closely in the state of Texas. Well, thank you very much, Mary Elise, for that great roundup of the issue. It's funny to see what comes back in politics, how this invasion rhetoric that had been so prominent, I think, back in 2024 and even in 2025 coming back yet again.

But of course, in order to pass this kind of resolution at the congressional level, the Republicans have to hold Congress. Meredith. Yesterday, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick gave a speech at the Texas Public Policy Foundation Policy Summit. They got quite a response from people on Twitter regarding the U.S. Senate. You were there, if I recall. So tell us what happened. Yes.

So anyone that's seeing Dan Patrick speak in person knows that he's quite animated and he brought a prop, which reminded me of like a. Sunday school lesson a little bit like a sermon illustration almost. So he had a bubble, like bubbles that he blew on stage and was talking about like good bubbles and bad bubbles. So he was talking to a all Republican conservative crowd. And so he was celebrating the things from the past session that had been good bubbles as he called them. So he talked about just different wins for the, for Republicans. He talked about school choice. He talked about pro-life bills. He kind of gave some history of like how it used to be in the Senate and how it is now and the ease of passing things.

And so anyway, he's speaking a lot. But the main things that got people's attention were his discussion of the current U.S. Senate race and weighing in on that. And then also some comments that he made about how that could affect Texas and the Texas House as well. And there were some things about property taxes all added at the end. But the main thing is he was just giving more of like with a warning tone. and like really focusing on the idea of party unity being very important and people supporting

each other regardless of their feelings about their candidate winning or not. And so he first talks about how he's been speaking with Trump about what's going on in Texas. And he says that Trump, he says Trump knows America can't exist without Texas being read. And then he goes on to say, the world cannot survive without a strong America and America cannot survive without Texas being read, which was Patrick's words. So then he goes on into the Senate race, challenging these two John Cornyn and Ken Paxton to encourage their supporters to vote for the Republican nominee. So we have this runoff coming in May. This has been very contentious. We have a lot of coverage on it on the Texan. It's just a lot going on there. And it's been tons of back and

forth. And he called it, I believe he called it one nasty race. And just, he said, I wish they'd spend the next five weeks or six weeks, quite frankly, running positive ads on why they should be elected, because it's not helping our party by tearing each other apart. So he just issues this challenge to them like, okay, I'm challenging these guys. I'm calling them out. Like, if Cornyn wins, Paxton needs to encourage his people to vote for him. Paxton wins. Cornon needs to do the same. he said that the 10 or 15% on either sides that might turn out and not vote could essentially enable James Tallerico, the Democratic candidate to win and saying that like if Republicans lose the U.S. Senate or lose this seat, they could lose the entire Senate.

So they just need to be united behind whoever wins. So then he kind of turns it towards a more state level. And Lee Wamskahn is in the crowd. And so he's pointing to her and talking about her race in Senate District 9, Texas Senate District 9, which was a runoff to fill former Senator Kelly Hancock seat, which was open, and it resulted in Remit, Taylor Remit, I think if I'm saying that correctly, with him winning that race, which is, you know, it had been many, many years since a Democrat had won in that area. And so Patrick just emphasizes the importance of party unity, and he really does, he says,

I'm not going to say his name, but then he says the name John, which is John Huffman, the Republican that was knocked out in the first round and just said, like, he didn't support her. And so if he would have, like, she could have won. And he goes on to just speak about remit, you know, that he's this, he called him a 33-year-old single guy no one ever heard of who just slapped his name on the ballot for the heck of it, calling him an unknown and just going on to just say like this race showed almost like, you know, that we lost this race. And so the Democrats, he even said and George Soros will pour hundreds of millions of dollars, you know, into the state of Texas.

And then he went on to say, we're going to have a tough time holding the Texas House. I think our sentence in good shape and taking nothing for granted. So that, in turn, immediately on Twitter, House Speaker Dustin Burroughs, who will be speaking as well at the same function. So by the time this podcast is out, I'm sure there will be responses from him. and what he said. But he did respond on Twitter and he said, you know, we will not lose the Texas House. We will fight to retain every Republican seat. I look forward to the fall campaign where we get to talk about Texas's prosperity under Republican leadership. And I trust the voters of Texas to

continue to vote for conservative government up and down the ballot. State rep Christina Morales from Houston also responded on social media. She said, Dan Patrick is telling Republicans there are in trouble this November. And for once, he's telling the truth. So she just goes on to say, you know, that grievances against Texas Republicans. They've spent years pleasing Trump, catering to corporations. She said rewarding their wealthy donors. And just goes on to say that, like, we, the Democrats, have never been closer and we are not slowing down. So it was just got a lot of traction and a lot of people talking. And it's definitely been a point of discussion of these upcoming elections and like how safe are Republicans and do Democrats actually have a chance here. So that definitely

yeah, we'll be keeping an eye on that and what is said by boroughs. And so there's more in the article. There's, Patrick talks about his idea for property tax reform, specifically focusing on the homestead exemption, over compression, and just saying like this is the way that it has to be, or should be done. It has to be done this way because it's guaranteed in the Constitution. And he goes through some of the logistics of the finances of how much it saves for Texans. So yeah, go ahead and check out that article for a little bit extra about school choice and property taxes. But Dan Patrick is always getting those headlines. I remember when I first started, it was the week that he threw out the little like THC snacks at people at the press conference.

And so that was my introduction to him. And this same in person for the first time did not disappoint. That's how he, that's his style. Yeah, I was about to say when you said he brought the props that reminded me of the THC snacks where he was. was passing those out and tossing them at reporters. But he tossed one. It was underhand. It wasn't a throw.

It was like a toss. But, yeah. I make it sound like he's... Yeah, the THC was... Go ahead, Mary Liz. I was just going to say, he threw it to a reporter. That was kind of pretty close to him, but then the reporter missed it, so then it ended up being a pretty awkward situation.

Because then everyone was kind of like, oh, okay, and then he picked it up. That's funny. Well, yeah, the THC issue definitely a big one that was top of mind in the previous session for Dan Patrick. But Hannah, there is another plant-based drug that might be getting more traction through the House and Senate. Let's see here. Update us on what's happening with Texas Ibogame research. Am I saying it correctly, Ibogame? I believe so.

I believe so. Ibrahimine. Yes, speaking of Dan Patrick and drugs, Dan Patrick in Texas House Spear, Dustin Burroughs, made a joint announcement last week that Texas has allocated $50 million toward its own research into ibogaine. So Ibrahimine is a naturally occurring psychoactive drug that's found in like central and West Africa, but it's been used in treatment for PTSD and brain injuries, addiction, and it's gained to following among the veteran community, but it's still illegal, like broadly illegal in the U.S. So it's been advocated for quite a bit over the last year with testimony from wounded soldiers

given to Texas leaders, including that of Marcus Lattrell, who's a former Navy SEAL. And last year, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission selected UT Health, like as a the maker of a two-year-long research program into the drug, but recently the HHSC has said that no proposals met the laws requirements. So Burroughs and Patrick are moving forward and have stated that they intend to fully fund the program and will work in partnership with our great medical research teams in Texas to conduct the research. Also last week, former governor Rick Perry and Americans for Ibegain CEO. We're featured on the Joe Rogan podcast, talking about the drug, talking about research,

and also talking about the plans for drug research in Texas. So that's that's Ibegain for you. It's pretty shocking to think that they'd be talking about a plant-based drug on the Joe Rogan experience, but I guess, you know, in this crazy world, anything is possible. But yeah, it seems really interesting, especially as you know, said now you mentioned La Trell is that um is he a relative of congressman Morgan Latrell yes that is his I believe his twin brother and so Morgan Latrell has also been involved in advocating for advocating research in Texas

there you go I didn't realize we had two sets of twins in our congressional delegation with um what is it Trevor and Troy Nels and now I guess more the Latrells I wonder if we have more twins than the average congressional delegation from Texas. But... Big state. No, it's true. Everything is bigger in Texas, right?

Including, perhaps, Meredith, our school choice program, is that true? Because if I recall correctly, on March 31st, the student application window close for the Texas Education Freedom Accounts Program created by state law last year. Give us an update. Yes. So there was an extension to the deadline. And on March 31st, it was, there was another attempt to try to extend it again. But the court was like, no, it served as purpose. We got what we need. So it ended with two, sorry, well, I can't talk. 274,000, 183 applicants. So almost 275,000 people were interested in this program. I walk through, and I'm not going to go through all of it right now, some of the reasons for that extension and we have a lot of coverage that's linked in there from the text and there was some um some issues related to muslim schools being included or feeling like they were not included in the program and some legal lawsuits and then of course and back and forth

a nice little dose of um personal uh grudge match style stuff between a couple candidate or couple um elected officials that eventually now has wrapped up at this point i don't know about their personal stuff, but this, uh, the deadline is done now. And so, um, yeah, it ended and it was, people are using this number now and saying that, you know, we're going to be taking, because it's, there's, a lot of students are not going to be included on the program. They don't have enough. It's only one billion dollars that have been set aside. And I've seen, you know, nine, 90,000 or like under 100,000 students will be a part of the initial first year of the program. And so, um, I, um, I,

talk to the spokesperson, Travis Pillows for the TIFA program, the Texas Education Freedom Accounts Program. And he was just talking about, like, he said, in the coming weeks, we're going to face a really tough period where we're going to have to turn tens, hundreds of thousands of Texas families away and tell them we don't have money for your child in year one. And he just talks about, it does, the first group is going to be from those priority tiers of low-income students and students with disabilities. I know there's been, there is, is and will be a lot of ongoing discussion about who applied to the program, who is getting the money, who is benefiting from it. And so, but it does appear that the first two tiers will fill up that, like, allotment of students.

And so the next steps happen, like, throughout the summer. There's different deadlines for, like, parents will have to choose their schools that they want, that they want to go to. There's a window for that. And then there's a window of, like, the funding will start going. out and then additional funding will go out like later in October and in April. And so the rollout just continues to go through. And I'm very interested. It's on both of the interim charges for the House and the Senate to discuss this program. And yeah, it'll just be interesting to see like what happens next legislative session. They really are going to be bringing this like waiting list as they call it to show like there's a demand like we want more. We want it to be bigger. Which is something

Patrick had commented on yesterday just about like $1 billion allotted to this versus like $40 billion for Texas public schools, which he said, he claimed that they had not taken any money away from. So there's a lot of money in Texas. We'll see where it all goes. And if it ends up getting rerouted a little bit more towards the TFA program, if they're able to get like to expand the program. There you go. Yeah. Almost 300,000 students supplying for that is crazy.

And if I recall correctly, they prioritize low and middle income to your students. Is that right? Yes. It was, oh, the middle income part, is that what you're saying? Well, because there was this whole concern about, you know, the idea that this program is primarily, you know, the criticism from Democrats saying this program is for, and not just Democrats, of course, but also some anti-school, some anti-school choice Republicans saying that the program was for, you know, the program was for, and not just Democrats, of course, but also some anti-school choice Republicans, saying that the program was for, for like upper class students to get their private school tuitions, you know, paid for by the state government. Yeah.

So the first 30,000 applicants qualified for the first priority tier, which does include low and middle income, but it's for students with disabilities. So you would have to have a learning disability to be for and be middle income, middle class, sorry, middle income students, not middle class, middle income. And then an additional 79,000 applicants qualify for that second. tier of just like being in the low income. So they, Travis Pillow was talking about like we even

will be turning away students that are low income because the disabilities from the low and middle are first and then comes just low income with no learning disability. So we will see students that are low income that will get turned away. Gotcha. Well, thank you very much for the reporting on that, Meredith. Let's see. I think we're back to you now, Hannah. Dan Patrick is staying on the In the leads of the first half of our podcast, tell us about the new investigations happening with Camp Mystic in response to those July 24th weekend, or July 4th, I'm sorry, weekend from last year. Yes, Dan Patrick is on our radar this week.

He sent a letter on Wednesday to Texas Department of State Health Services, Commissioner Jennifer Schuford, saying that he was doubling down on the DSHS, not for the USHS, not issuing a license to Camp Mystic this season. So he's claimed in the letter that they've been soliciting and accepting applications and the summer plans can be found on their website with like them detailing safety rules and things like that. Mary Lees wrote about this in February, but he sent a letter in February, a very similar letter to the DSHS, again, imploring them not to license the,

camp for operations this summer and he criticized the camp for not acknowledging the tragedies on their public facing website or acknowledging the deaths and the remaining girl who's missing and so the DPS he referenced this in his letter as well but the DPS announced that the Texas Rangers are joining the investigation as a criminal investigation so this is a new development in the story and the camp reportedly submitted their for a licensure renewal in March at the end of March. So this news was all coming about within the same few days or a week or so.

Thank you for that rundown on that very serious issue, Hannah. I believe also there are now, did you say there are three investigations going on right now into Camp Mystic over what happened and how those 25 campers and two counselors died during that flooding disaster? Yes, so there's the criminal, like now the criminal investigations with the Texas Rangers and then the ongoing legislative investigations and the investigations that are being overseen by the DPS and the DHS. Gotcha. Well, thank you very much for keeping us updated on that issue. Now, Mary Elise, turning to another criminal investigation. A man from Houston is headed to prison after an FBI investigation. tell us why? Yeah, this is along the lines of a story that we covered during the last podcast last week.

So disturbing, I'll just preface it with that. But this is a Texas man who's headed to federal prison for multiple child pornography-related convictions. This is after an investigation was conducted by the Houston branch of the FBI. So this is Joshua Finney. He was originally arrested in the summer of 2024 for receipt of child pornography. He's going to spend 13 years in prison over 13 years, so exactly 160 months, for counts that include the distribution, receipt, and possession of child sexual abuse material. C-SAM, which we covered last week, like I said, a case involving that.

Very disturbing, of course. He was originally flagged by the FDA as they were investigating a case that got a lot of attention here in Houston where there was a Houston, former Houston Gallery Mall employee who was arrested in December 2023 for sexual abuse of toddlers and other small children. And the FBI, as they were taking care of that case, they were able to link the two to, link these two different cases together because they allegedly exchanged the CCM online. The FBI continued this investigation into what they called a dark web forum, which was also kind of similar to the story that we covered before having to do with this kind of online web forum where this activity is happening and this material is being exchanged between members.

so this was after the individual, the gallery and mall employee was arrested, but then it led them to Finney's activity on this forum where he's communicating allegedly with various predators. The DOJ said that in some of the text messages, Finney discussed having sex with minors and received several such images and videos. His internee did want to clarify that Finney his arrest arose from an FBI investigation involving a separate individual so that

gallery a mall employee who's been charged with sexual exploitation of children and then his attorney noted that Mr. Finney is not a co-definney in that case like this is this is separate but Finney has been ultimately in prison he's being sent to prison so one aspect of this investigation was the forensic examines that was done by law enforcement. So they searched Finney's residence, which was in spring, Texas, and it showed that he was in possession of whole variety of content that depicted some really horrible things with children under the age of 12.

You can read the article for some more details there that maybe I won't say now, but a total of 170 images and 260 videos per the DOJ. He primarily used Telegram as the means of disqualification. distributing and receiving this material. The indictment against when he was made public in the spring of 2025 in May, and that was when he was officially accused of receipt, distribution, possession of child pornography. He was also included in an announcement by FBI Houston in May 2025 that we had covered back in the spring in 2025. That said that six individuals had been arrested for their participation.

alleged participation in a criminal ring for sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of children. And so this was actually a coordinated national operation called Restore Justice Operation that resulted in the arrest of over 200 alleged child sex abuse offenders and the rescue of 115 children. So this was this operation that happened nationwide. And so Finney was noted within this announcement. made by FBI Houston, although they did say that he was a separate case from five others. He's more of a separate case in this situation.

So it's not determined where he's going to spend the majority of his imprisonment, but he is being sent to prison. He's currently in custody right now. And then once he does serve the 160 months, he'll have a decade in which he'll be out on supervised release with a variety of restrictions that are going to be aimed at keeping him off of the internet and keep him away from interacting with minors. Well, thank you very much for your reporting on that very serious topic, Mary Elise. Thank you. Hannah, turning to you next. Two Iranian women were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and put in a South Texas facility. Tell us what happened.

Yes. So the niece and grandniece of the D.C. Major General Koste, some Szilimani were arrested by federal agents in LA last week. The girls were transferred recently to a South Texas ICE detention facility. And the mom and daughter, so it's a mom and daughter, have reportedly been outspoken in support of the Iranian regime on social media. They are also reported to live a lavish L.A. lifestyle. So there's pictures you can see online, like since. I don't know when, but the Instagrams have been deleted.

But people have, you know, taken photos. They're online just in nice cars and all these things. But reportedly, they have been really critical of the U.S., calling it the Great Satan, denouncing America on social media. So Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, made an announcement about their arrest saying that Suleimani's niece, Hamida, denounced America. on social media as the great Satan. So they have had their green cards revoked and are currently, as far as we know, in South Texas, ICE detention center, their uncle, Kassan Szilimani in 2020 was assassinated outside the Baghdad airport in a drone strike under the First Trump administration.

It was so interesting seeing this because I remember when that happened. I remember that was this huge thing that happened. And so to see that these are his niece and grandniece is kind of wild. He was considered the architect of the IRGC's proxy arms. We called the Kuds Force, which funneled support, and weapons and money to groups like Hamas and Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and various Shia militias inside of Iraq. So he was widely considered one of the most powerful men in the IRC.

But this is just one of many arrests that the U.S. has begun to make. So I actually just saw on Fox News that Marco Rubio announced that he would detain between 2,000 and 3,000 Iranian men and women who are related to the regime here in the U.S. Yeah, I was going to say about Marco Rubio, didn't he have? a comment about the arrest of Soleimani's relatives. I think he mentioned something about them, about their social media activity. So yes, Mark Rubio, in his press release, he referenced the various posts they made,

stating that Soleimani Afshar, Afsahar, not sure. I'll say Hamida. Can I just rewind a second? I'm so sorry. Marco Rubio stated in a press release that Hamida had celebrated attacks against the American military, and he stated that she was an outspoken supporter of the totalitarian terrorist regime in Iran. Powerful words.

Yeah, the whole Iran story, I think, I don't know about y'all if on Tuesday night, y'all were also expecting the end of the world. You know, one of those questions like, do I, you know, do I keep to my evening routine or do I shake it up just in case the world comes to an end? You know, I saw people in the gym on Tuesday afternoon because it's like, what are you going to do, right? But yeah, thank you very much for your reporting, Hannah, on that. You know, the Iran war seems like something on the other side of the world, but of course it does have, you know, it does have an effect on things going on here. So thank you for bringing that to all of our attention. Meredith, turning next to you.

The Texas Education Agency placed a former school police officer on the Do Not Hire Registry. Tell us more about this situation. This has been happening. We've seen a few more of these public announcements about the Do Not Hire Registry. We don't cover every single situation of educator misconduct at the Texan because unfortunately we would be busy. constantly it's been happening a lot. But this was a former ISD police officer, which is a little bit of a different situation. It's just interesting, like someone who holds a peace officer license, that's there to keep the children safe, which teachers are as well, but was placed on do not hire

registry after there were four different charges. And the TEA let us know what they are, that he was arrested on charges, including a proper relationship between an educator and a student, sexual assault of a child, sexual performance by a child, and a decency with a child by sexual conduct. And they were all secondary-degree felonies. This had, the arrest had happened in January in Denton County. And then in, but back in November, the superintendent of Sanger ISD, Tommy Hunter did tell the parents that a district police officer had been accused of inappropriate conduct with a secondary student, and then he was immediately placed on leave. And there was an investigation conducted with Sanger ISD and the police department, and then he was placed on the do not hire registry.

And so, T.E.A. Commissioner Mike Marath just talked about, like he said, we will use every tool available to ensure that those who commits such acts are held accountable and prevented from reentering any school system. And so this is something that back in February, they named Levi Fuller as the Inspector General of Educator Miscondek, which we were able to talk to him at that time about what, what does he want to do in this position? What does he see going forward? And why is this position important? And he highlighted that this specific, the idea of the do not hire registry and making sure that people get on get onto that list as soon as possible. Because I'd asked him, like, what are some things that you want to fix about the current way that things are being done? And he just talked about Senate Bill 571 relates to requirements, notices, and liability of reporting within schools from professionals, principals, superintendents. And so he said that,

one of the things that came out of SB 571 is that if an educator is arrested once they're fingerprinted, it would go through the entire system. And he said, this begins a process of automatically putting that alleged educator administrator on the do not hire list immediately once they're arrested, they're out of the schools. And so he said, you would hope that this would be something that didn't need to be changed, but we got that in place now and that's going to expedite a lot of this stuff, meaning a lot of these issues that have been happening. And so, Yeah, we are hopeful that we will see more of this and that with him being in this position and having an actual official position devoted to this issue, that we'll start to see more people

on the do not hire list and out of the schools where they won't be able to harm children anymore. Well, it is unfortunate that it happened, but it is good, obviously, that they were able to catch this guy and, yeah, hopefully won't be employed by any school districts at any point in the near or distant future. So thank you very much for your reporting on that, Meredith. Turning back to you, Hannah, a Texas couple has apparently lost parental rights to their daughter after a jury trial last month. Last month, I'm sorry.

Give us the details on that story. Yes. So a Texas family and a jury trial in March is appealing a ruling that terminated their parental rights. the couple in the group representing them Family Freedom Project are citing unlawful court proceedings in their appeal. So the family's daughter was taken by CPS as a newborn after she experienced failure to thrive, which is basically like really slow weight gain in an infant where they fall to under the like fifth or third percentile.

The couple were unofficially labeled on the autism spectrum by the hospital workers before the baby, was taken. And the Family Freedom Project claims that over the next year and a half, CPS and those associated with a case failed to obtain genetic testing to investigate into the baby's failure to thrive diagnosis. So sometimes failure to thrive can be caused by poor feeding on the parents' part, but it can also be caused by a genetic disposition. So during the year and a half to two-year period in which the baby's been under the jurisdiction of the state, data has shown that the baby's weight did not increase and her diagnosis pretty much maintained across the time period. Eventually, genetic testing was done that the Family Freedom Project claims shows explanations for

the baby's failure to thrive, but these witnesses for some reason were not allowed to witness in the trial. The Family Freedom Project also claims that the judge did not provide the jury with a list of written instructions that informed the jury of the law and a list of questions, which the jury would use to evaluate whether or not the law has been followed. And here they're specifically citing that the jury was not informed of the Texas Family Code's presumption that is in the child's best interest to keep the child with a parent unless there's like evidence that harm might occur to the child, which they're saying there is not because of genetic testing results. So because of these reasons, there will be a follow-up hearing. There's not a date yet.

The family is still waiting. Thank you for your reporting on this issue, Hannah. And just to be clear here, the couple was not going to the hospital as far as we know to seek some kind of autism diagnosis, but hospital staff apparently what, like wrote this on their sheet when they brought their daughter in. Yes, the couple was going for a routine. checkup or to investigate into low weight for their daughter. That's unclear. And then what is reported is that hospital workers were saying that the couple seemed like they were on the autism spectrum. But there's been no formal diagnosis and nothing, like even no moves in that direction. So I see. And one other question I wanted to ask about the

I believe the Family Freedom Project brought up that there is a potential conflict of interest in this case regarding the adoption company To Engage. Can you speak a little bit about that? Yes. So the child is under a foster company called To Engage and the child's attorney, he is married to a woman who is over the, she oversees the adoption and placement of. to engage. And so Family Freedom Project is also saying there's a conflict of interest. The child is being overseen by to engage. The child's a lawyer is married to a woman who is employed by to engage. And so they're also

claiming that there is a conflict of interest. Gotcha. Well, thank you very much for giving us the details on that story, Hannah. It'll be interesting to see how that whole thing plays out. Meredith, back to you. Last book, but not least for the podcast. I know you tend to specialize in education-related topics, and it looks like we have one more education-related topic for this week. Seven more Texas school districts have proposed or confirmed school closures for the coming

years, and we know you've been covering this issue for a while. So what is the latest in this story? So there's a couple of articles that are on the Texan one from December. and one from February where a handful to like five to ten districts per article have announced these closures. So we declining enrollment in public schools in general in the U.S. is a trend, but also in the state of Texas. We've seen this. And just there's so there's a lot going on in education. There's a lot of, there's so many more options for parents. Obviously we just talked about school choice. We talked about the TFA program that's going to be adding to that as well. and could be getting bigger.

We also know that there's, you know, you can apply to go out other districts. You can, districts are opening up to out-of-district students. There's online virtual schools. There's like career and technical education pathways. There's just a lot of different things that could draw a student away from a traditional public school. So those schools face declining enrollment. They have budget deficits that they have to deal with.

they have, a lot of them have these campuses that are not fully, not, they're like, they're not at capacity. And so there might be like 300 kids for like an 800 kid school. And then if you have multiples of those, they have to figure out what's the best way to do this, which starts and it starts with closing schools. Like they all can't stay open and it's very expensive to, to like update them all and keep the lights going and the AC going for all of them. So, um, we've also seen some charter school closures as well, which I linked in there too. So the ones that have approved school closures are Midway ISD voted to close Spiegelville Elementary. They said that it could save them $1.2 million for the district. San Antonio ISD voted to close Rhodes Middle School at the end of this year,

and they're going to rezone them to a school that's going to be in an 1882 partnership, which I had written a newsletter about and linked that as well, which allows outside organizations to run public schools. So a lot of these closures are not just cut and dry like we're closing the school. Obviously, these kids have to go somewhere. And then the schools, districts are also trying to figure out how to sometimes turn around schools. And so they're merging them and they're doing partnerships. And so there's usually more than one thing going on when they close the school. Fort Worth ISD has a pretty extensive plan for closing, I believe it's up to 16 schools over the next few years, but they also, they announced that one of their schools, Days of Vala Elementary will

close early at the end of this school year. And then Austin ISD also has a really large slate of closures. They announced 10 school closures back in November, but they added Blackshire Elementary is going to be closing as well in and will merge, be consolidated with another elementary school in January 2028. So then a few of school districts have just started their proposals and have not voted yet on it, But Flugreville ISD, they have 12 different draft scenarios as this part of this district optimization plan they have, which potentially within these 12 plans includes six schools that could be closed. And they are all elementary schools. And these like approved, if they're approved, these scenarios would take place not until the 2027, 2028 school year. And then Keller ISD has proposed closing four campuses.

they have seen a significant decrease of over 4,000 students in the past five years have left Keller ISD. And so they think that it will save them. They project a minimum of $51.6 million for all these different improvements that they would have to do. And these would take place 2027, 2020 school year as well. And then Harlingen's consolidated ISD is considering closing two elementary schools that would, like I said, they would be merged into other ones. and then while they're merging them, they would be turning them into like a STEM school and the other one into a fine arts academy. And so a couple of things going on there at once.

Also, this was just kind of a separate situation that seemed like it related. Northside ISD has got this really big bond in 2022 for almost a billion dollars. And but they've seen declining enrollment in these campuses that they're improving. And so they have actually paused a lot of building improvements on nine different elementary school campuses because it sounds like potentially on the horizon you could infer that maybe there will be some closures or there might have to be some consolidations just because pouring a ton of money into schools that you're only going to close in a year or two is not beneficial to the district and not the best financial decision. So yeah, all of this is part of what's happening with schools

in Texas. Additionally, I reported I added kind of at the end of my article, all the things I talked about all these different options that parents have. We've also seen expanded like free pre-K options, just different things that districts are trying to do to, like to serve the students, either to keep the students in their district or to try to get students from other districts to come to their district. So it's a little bit of a,

there's also a lot of articles that talk about and that I've read a lot about marketing campaigns in these public school districts as well. They're having to really fight for the students to keep them in their districts, prove that they are the best place for them and offer something different while there's so many options out there. So I don't think this will be the last of our school closures that we'll see. It seems to be a continuing ongoing process. Well, thank you very much for that reporting, Meredith.

It seems like this kind of ties in as well, you know, to the Texas Education Freedom Accounts Program with a lot of these public schools, perhaps, you know, feeling like they now have to kind of compete against private schools or homeschooling that might have, you know, be getting more support from the state government in the near future. So definitely an interesting story to cover in the realm of Texas education, which of course will never, I think, run out of things to cover. So turning now to our tweetery section, unfortunately Mary Elise has had to head out. She's I believe you're going to have a good time at her political event that she's going to. But we thank her very much for joining us on the podcast today.

She was going to talk about the Artemis Landing, which I suppose I kind of already spoiled without realizing it by bringing that up at the beginning of the podcast. But I don't know. Have you all seen these photos coming out of the mission? They are amazing. There's one great one of the moon eclipsing the sun or the crescent. Earth, like a crescent moon, they're great. I saw the ones you sent our stuff. It was beautiful.

I could imagine getting a couple of them, like, framed on my wall. Rob, are you a, are you, like, a space, like, I don't know, space. How do you say a space guy? Are you really into, like, my sister loves space movies? That's, like, her favorite, one of her favorite genres. I'm just curious what you think of that. So, I had a friend in college where he and I discussed our theory, which is that there's two kind of kids.

they're space kids and dinosaur kids. I was a space kid. I don't know about your own, but I was not really a dinosaur kid, but I was a space kid. So, of course, there's the intersection with, you know, the meteor that probably killed them also, which of course is the triumph of space over the dinosaurs. But for me, for me, that was, yeah, that was always my favorite. So, Dune 3 is much anticipated by you. Very excited.

I'm very disappointed to learn that. it's going to have an only two hour and 20 minute runtime, which will actually be shorter than the first movie. I wanted it to be three, preferably four hours long, so. Honestly, same. I can watch it down forever. It's so good.

It's so good. Well, there's, one is I fell asleep during June, too. I'm sorry. And the other, I know, I'm a false literary movies person. It's really... I just looked away. Okay. The other thing is

I was going to say is I'm trying I think that the dinosaur space thing not to say that girls don't like those things but that is a little bit more of the like when you teach that's like a boy thing I'm trying to think with the girl version there's definitely like horse girls is one of them somewhere in there female like two things maybe like ballet or I was a gymnastics girl that was my I was like obsessed that was my big thing so I didn't get into either that was what I read and watched if I could all about. Hannah, did you have a thing that you were really into?

Okay, honestly, it was a space girl. So I'm not... That's what I'm talking about. I'm not helping you out here with the... But for girls, maybe like... I haven't met a dinosaur girl. I'll say that. Right. You see a space girl, but I really, truly, I have yet

to meet a dinosaur girl as much as I've met like a bunch of little dinosaur boys that... Maybe the dinosaurs and horses are like on the same level as like animals and jencers. general, you know, whether it's like animals that still exist or animals that don't exist anymore, but it's still like biology, you know? Maybe that's it. Choresquirrels are very different than Dyns Ruppoy.

Anyway, we don't need to get into it. No, I don't think so. But Meredith, I think we should get into your tweetry. So, okay, this is, have you ever read a name so many times, but you've never watched a video about it or said it out loud? This happens all the time. I pre-check stuff, so I don't say it wrong. But Ben Sass, is that how you say his name? Okay.

I was reading his interview. I didn't listen to it, so I didn't. But he, obviously he, like, came on, he's come to, like, the national level of attention a few months back. I don't know how long it's been. It's been a couple months, at least, since he had his cancer diagnosis that was really intense. I mean, it's like, state only has so much time to live. And he's just, I know he's been very outspoken about his face. faith and his journey and just talking it's like this idea of like dying in public where he's very

very public and he opens up a lot so he had a new york times interview that i've i think i'm halfway through reading and i was i'm like wow not to cry you know it's just so touching he's such an inspiring person and a person of faith that really is bold and very courageous even in and like in the interview he had these like side effects of chemo where his face is like burnt like basically this all over and he said it is like burning and like hurt so bad um but he's anyway he's on this podcast sharing a story and talking about what you're going to think about at the end of your life which i know that's like very heavy after we're talking about dinosaurs in space i guess space some of those things do make you think about the end of life you know and how we're all yeah so it's

just those one of those things that gets you thinking and makes you like you said at the end of the world like what would i do or whatever and it kind of you think okay if i did get a diagnosis like how would I live my life? And why don't I do and say the things that I want to while I'm living? Why do we need to wait to die to, like, do those things? So definitely it is worth it. I'm only halfway through, but I can recommend it. That's worth a read.

Wow. Very nice. Well, thank you for sharing that. That reminds me, it makes me think of that song. I can't remember the title, but it's like, I went sky diving. Like Rocky Mountain Climbled. Yeah. Like you're dying.

That's the one. Yeah. Hannah, my tweetery is related to yours, but I think you should share yours first. Oh, nice. Oh, amazing. I saw a word on yours that I thought to myself, does that mean what I think of me? So mine was Pope Leo. There's a video of him with the Harlem Globe Trotters, and they're teaching them how to spin up the basketball on his finger.

And it's just kind of cute, and he's like kind of nice. medium at it, you know. So it just made giggle. And I thought to myself, wow, I would be way worse at that than he is. So props. Yeah, I was going to say, Hannah, it's interesting to have a Pope who is from the United States for the first time ever. You know, people are commenting being from Chicago, he has probably eaten more hot dogs than every other Pope combined. So it's crazy to see a Pope who speaks with like an American accent when he's talking in English, you know. I mean, I don't know about y'all, but I was following the papal election pretty closely, and it was, it was, that was very, I would never have expected the American to have won the election,

but there you go. Andrew, like, shouldn't he be wearing, like, a t-shirt and basketball shorts, you know, like our boy from Chicago? Have any of you all ever seen the Harlem Globetrotters? Because I saw them one time. No, I've never seen them. It's a pretty fun time. You know, the level of, the amount of, like, work they must put in to be able to pull off all these basketball tricks is just crazy.

Wow. But it's a lot of fun. I think the only comparable thing I've seen to that is the Trans-Iberian Orchestra. That is fun, too. I have seen them. I saw them do their, I think it was their Christmas thing. Do, like a Christmas show? I think I went to that one. Same.

Wait, I think I've seen them too. And this is, wait, right? They do like, yeah, is it trans-cyprian orchestra? Yeah. Do they have like a video? They have like a big laser light show. A rocking Christmas band. I want to say, now I'm trying to think if I went to something else.

I have like a memory of all the same. Listen, I know. I think, Meredith, we've got to fix your sleep schedule. If you're falling asleep during Dune and, metal music that you got to be zonked out. Maybe it wasn't metal. I think I might be thinking of another one. There's another Christmas thing.

This cannot be. This isn't the one. There's another Christmas and I'll like find it and show you guys later. But there's another Christmas thing that it wasn't rock music, I don't think. Were they from the 80s? It feels like they're from the 80s. I don't know if they actually are, but. What year did you see them?

I will say because I saw them in 2020. I think for me it must have been like, early to mid-2010s. I'll have to look into it and see if that's... Because there's two Christmas things I always mix up that we had... This is how old I am. We had like tapes that... I'll look into it and let you know. But no, I'm bad. I can fall asleep anywhere.

It's a thing. It's nice. Sometimes. But it's not great. I wish I was that way, but I am not that way. I can't. Nap, I can't. I have trouble for. falling asleep when I want to fall asleep. So I envy

all for that. But as we were talking, Hannah, my Twitter is actually related to yours because I, you know, was a history major and medieval history is a big interest of mine. And so there

was a meeting between, that was hyperly reported on between the Pentagon and the Incardinal Christoph Pierre from the Catholic Church. having a big conversation about apparently the Trump administration was putting pressure on the papacy to support, you know, the Trump administration, given that Pope Leo has been a critic of the war in Iran. And the Trump administration, apparently, reportedly, invoked something called the Avignon papacy, which is a fascinating time in medieval history during the 14th century when basically the king of France, had the Pope

like captured and beaten and imprisoned. The King of France is kind of like the super villain of the Middle Ages is what I've learned. It was always kind of one of those like, whoa kind of people. And yeah, had the Pope captured, beaten, and imprisoned. And then

I believe refused to recognize the next Pope that was elected. And that Pope unfortunately died in his captivity. Pope Bonifist the 8th. And then after the King of France refused to recognize the next Pope out of Rome, where he pressured them to elect a different Pope, Pope Clement V, who then stayed in France. And so it lived in the city of

Avignon, and it was called the Avignon Papacy for about 67 years. The Pope, the Pope lived in France and not in Rome. And the eventual, when this system sort of broke down, this would cause the great Western schism of 1378 to 1417 when there were multiple people claiming to be Pope, one Pope aligned with the King of France and one based in Rome. So basically the Trump administration is saying, hey, remember in the Middle Ages one time, a secular ruler had the Pope beaten to death and then kept another group of popes sort of locked up in his own city. So kind of a, you know, a big deal, something that you'd expect maybe some of these, some of the more quirky people in the Trump administration, you know, a historical fact that they might have on hand.

But as a fan of history, I'm always interested in seeing that kind of thing get brought up. It's a fascinating story, the relationship between the Catholic Church and the princes of Europe during the Middle Ages. but I guess it's just proof that that history does not go away, right? It continues to matter years and centuries later, but just not the kind of thing that you would expect to come up in a meeting between, I think, U.S. government officials and representatives of the papacy, but nevertheless, very interesting. That's a thought. We'll have to see what happens with that. Yeah. Keep us update.

Absolutely. Well, thank you to everybody for joining us on this episode of the Weekly Roundup. Tune in next week for the next episode of the Weekly Roundup. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, subscribe to the Texan at the Texan. News. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or share. shooting an email to Editor at the Texan. News.

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