The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - April 17, 2026

Episode Date: April 17, 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.Congressman Tony Gonzales to File 'Retirement from Office' on TuesdayNew Statewide Hemp Restrictions Temporarily Lifted by Travis County JudgeCornyn, Paxton Both Say They'll Support U.S. Senate GOP Runoff VictorDART Withdrawal Elections Set in Addison, University Park, and Highland Park$8,000 Fines Finalized for Quorum-Breaking Texas House Democrats at Friday Committee HearingState Board of Education Cuts About 100 Titles from Proposed TEA Required Reading ListFort Worth Housing Nonprofit Praises Tarrant County's Outsourcing of Community Assistance FundsFormer Godley Police Chief Arrested for Alleged Prostitution Conspiracy, More Arrests ExpectedAustin ISD Projects $181 Million Budget Deficit for 2026–2027 School YearTrump's Religious Liberty Commission, Chaired by Dan Patrick, Concludes Last of Seven HearingsPaxton Announces FTC Settlement With Major Advertising Companies Over Antitrust AllegationsTexas 'IVF Academy USA' Launches Hybrid Expedited Training Program for OBGYNs

Well, howdy, folks, and welcome to another episode of the week roundup. I've got quite a crew with me here today. We have Mary Elise, we have Hannah, we have Kim, and we have Meredith, all joining us on an episode. We have a lot of news this week. So I'm going to go ahead and just jump right into it. Hannah, let's start with you. Let's talk about some hemp rules that went into effect on March 31st. Of course, this is a huge topic of conversation after the legislative session last year with state leaders really going to bat.

on this issue. Walk us through this update. Yes, so a Travis County judge enacted a restraining order that temporarily lifted the hemp restrictions that went into place on March 31st across Texas. So the new hemp rules went into place last month and it effectively made certain smokeable hemp products illegal. So those hemp products are pre-rolled joints in T-C-H-A-Lower, both smokeable products. The state of Texas legalized him in 2019 after the federal 2018 Farm Bill, which went into effect on the national level. During the 89th legislature, Governor Greg Abbott vetoed the banning THC Texas bill at the last minute and after a lot of debate between him and other legislators, including Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. So the Farm Bill distinguished hemp from marijuana and defined him as containing no more than he. 0.3% delta 9 THC on a dry weight basis. So THC, Delta 9, THC is the ingredient in hemp that intoxicates

users. So hemp manufacturers in Texas found a loophole in the law and began producing hemp with higher levels of THCA, which is an ingredient that converts to Delta 9 THC when it's burned or smoked. So this is all the nitty gritty details of why this was legal. up until this point. So the new rules clarify that the 0.3% rule applies across the board to THCA, THC, and the interstate import of hemp with higher THCCA levels is also not permitted. So Judge Maya Gamble granted a temporary restraining order after a lawsuit was filed by the Texas Hemp Business Council, along with other Hemp distributors against the DSHS, which claimed that Texas's new rule expanded the regulatory scheme beyond the scope of the legislature.

So in the lawsuit, they argued that the rules about the interstate import restricted materials intended for processing, that they were sort of cut off at the knees because the new rules also edited in-state testing requirements, which made it to where they claim they were effectively foreclosed in-state production of consumable hemp products. So the hemp industry reportedly generates about 10 billion in economic activity and supports around 50,000 jobs statewide. Additional hemp news is the Texas Poison Center has reported in the last year that there's been a high increase in cannabis-related calls, especially since the legislation was passed

in 2019. And these have most significantly been among youth and children since it was passed. So we'll see what happens. I love that you clarified to the different terms because I think a lot of the conversation around what's illegal and what's legal and what's legal in any state across the country is really like, okay, we have Delta 9, we have this level of THC, like things don't make sense. And so I encourage folks to go read your coverage and make sure they're up to date on exactly

all that, just the legalities of it, but it's interesting. And I think that's where a lot of the conversation between state leaders has notailed is, okay, what do we focus on? what do we not hemp is an industry marijuana is a different thing t hc is a factor like all those things are make the issue far more complex so you know thank you for your coverage um we're going to go to mary alice here let's talk about major resignations in congress this week this is a story been following for a while both you and matt stringer have both covered this story um so walk us through this huge development in congress yes there's been a lot of federal news this week specifically

on the congressional side in the United States House of Representatives, we saw two members of Congress resigned from office essentially effective immediately. These included our Congressman Tony Gonzalez, who's been involved in a lot of different scandals involving sexual harassment of former employees. Congressman Eric Swalwell announced his resignation on Monday, so he's a California member of the House of Representatives. He resigned on Monday following sexual harassment allegations. Gonzalez had already dropped his re-election bid in March, which we have covered extensively, and that was amid all the fallout from the scandal involving his late district director, Regina Santos Avelas. Messages between the two showed that the two, excuse me,

that he was allegedly pressuring the staffer into a sexually inappropriate relationship. She did eventually die through self-emulation. So this story has been all over the news in recent months. But initially, Congressman Gonzalez said that he was going to not run for re-election. So that made Brandon Herrera the Republican nominee for Congressional District 23. But then Congressman Gonzalez amid all of the Swalwell scandal, and after Swalwell announced that he'd be dropped. out of his race for California governor and as well as him announcing his resignation from Congress, Gonzalez put out a statement saying that he would file for retirement on Tuesday.

Now that left some wondering what the timeline might look like for that retirement, because he didn't use the, he didn't specifically use the word resigns. Some folks are wondering, is he just referencing that he'll be eventually retiring from Congress? or does this look like more so an immediate resignation from Congress? It did ultimately turn out to be an immediate resignation. It was effective, I believe, on midnight, at midnight on Tuesday. For Swalwell, it was a little bit earlier in the day, but he did resign from Congress officially.

And his post saying, explaining he's going to be following for retirement, Gonzalez said, everything and God has a plan for us all. When Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement from office. It has been a privilege to serve the great people of Texas. It's worth noting that there was an additional incident recently, I believe it was last week that San Antonio News reported on, which detailed his alleged sexual harassment of a female campaign staffer years earlier before this alleged harassment of Santos Avalis. And there are other stories that are still coming out even after Gonzalez has resigned from the daily mail.

So Swallow first dropped out of the California gubernatorial race after the San Francisco Chronicle reported that there was an ex-staffer who, there were several but one of particular accused of sexual assault during her time of employment and other forms of sexual harassment. And then pressure really mounted from members on both sides for him to resign. The Health Ethics Committee launched an investigation, as we've covered the House Ethics Committee also looked into Gonzalez's case. They investigated him. Yeah, so Gonzalez was kind of looped into these calls for Swalba's resignation. We saw some Congress members say, you know, we need Swalba out of the House. We need him to resign immediately, and then some kind of included Gonzalez in those calls for. resignation. So as of now, Republicans have a majority of 216 to Democrats, 213 in the U.S. House. And so these resignations are pretty significant, of course, to have members of Congress just stepping out in this way after these scandals arise. But it'll be interesting to see if

this is kind of setting a tone moving forward in Congress, if this is going to happen to other members or if this is all of this sort of scandal that we're going to see for a while. Well, wild news out of D.C. Mary Elise, thanks for covering that for us and encourage folks to get the, you know, A-to-B coverage on our site at the Texan.News. There's a lot here and a lot of detail. Mary Lees, we're going to stick with you here. There's been a lot back and forth lately in the U.S. Senate GOP runoff. Explain to us why that's the case. Yeah, more federal news this week, specifically in the U.S. Senate race, we saw Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick kind of positioned himself in between the two

U.S. Senate Republican runoff candidates, which is, of course, Senator John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. While he was speaking at the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Texas Policy Summit on April 8th, Patrick warned the Republicans in the room about what he sees as increased division within the GOP and talked about this Senate race in particular and called it nasty and talked about how he'd like to see more of a positive outlook moving forward in this race or a more positive approach to campaigning from the candidates moving forward. He did specifically ask the candidates to promise that they would endorse whoever wins this runoff in May so that they can kind of...

to coalesce, the Republicans can unite around the Republican candidate into, in order to avoid the Democrat having more of a stand when it comes to the November election. Paxton did confirm on Tuesday during a TV interview that he would support Cornyn in the case that Cornyn wins their runoff in May. He said, quote, though, I do not expect that he's going to win. I expect to beat him, but I would absolutely support the Republican nominee over the the Democrat. He told this to reporter Aaron Davis, who sat down for an interview with Paxton about this subject. Something that Patrick said during his speech that he was concerned about was that if around 10 to 15 percent of either Paxton or Cornyn's voter bases don't

turn out come November Democratic nominee for this race, James Tullerico, he said, would likely win the U.S. seat. So he was saying that's why this is so important for you to be able to unite the individuals who will vote for you and to be able to get them to rally behind the other candidate when it comes time for it in November. Patrick also made waves during that speech, which we covered when he warned the Republicans might have a tough time holding the Texas house in the general election. Speaker Dustin Burroughs did respond to that and said, Republicans won't lose the house, but did agree we need to be united here. So in response to Paxton's promise that he'll endorse Cornyn in this TV interview when he said that.

Patrick said in a post, he made an ex post and responded and said, you know, last week I said the only way James Haldrico could win in November is if the loser of the Cornyn-Pakson runoff does not endorse the winner to help defeat the Democrats. And then he thanked Paxton and said, You've shown you understand this race is bigger than either candidate by saying you'll endorse Cornyn if he wins. And then he kind of directed his comments that Cornans,

specifically and said, will you commit to endorsing Pakistan if he wins a runoff? We have to unite as a party to keep Texas red in November is what he said. The Corning campaign did respond with a video clip on Instagram that Cornyn had made the statement on the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show in March. And this was when the senator was asked whether he expected support from Pakistan or if he would offer his own support when he came down to it, depending on who wins the runoff. He said, first of all, I expect to win, so this is from Cornyn. But to answer your question, I've worked most of my adult life trying to build the Republican Party both at the state level and at the national level. So he said, I would support the Republican ticket.

Okay, well, May is coming up sooner than we can imagine. So folks, stay tuned for more coverage on the U.S. Senate race at the Texan. Kim, let's come to you. this is a very interesting story. I loved reading it this week. Texas has its own gold depository and it started offering commemorative coins, but there's a lawsuit going on specifically about those. Tell us more about that. I did find this story fascinating too, McKenzie. So Texas precious metals, which is a Texas company based out of Shiner, has its own private precious metal bouillon brand and has sued acting controller of public accounts Kelly Hancock for infringing on its intellectual property rights and exceeding its statutory authority in operating the depository by offering

its own gold and silver coins. So just an overview, I asked Texas precious metals chief executive officer Terrick Sob kind of how he would explain what he thought the biggest issue involved in this case was. And he said he believes it's fundamentally a case about the state's involvement in for-profit enterprises. He noted that Governor Greg Abbott often refers to Texas as a very business-friendly state, and yet he finds it a competing interest with their private business for the state to be involved in issuing these coins. Texas precious metals has been in the business of the bullion business since 2011, and they have 4.5 million of their coins in circulation. Now, in December, Hancock announced that the Texas Bullion Depository would issue

Texas Lone Star coins and Texas Redback Gold Notes. He called them commemorative coins, promotional to try to get interest in the Texas bullion depository. Well, Texas precious metals sued the state seeking a preliminary injunction. The hearing is today, so we hope to report on that after we find out the results of that. But they're seeking a preliminary junction to stop the state from designing and selling and distributing these kinds of coins. because Texas Precious Metal says they have a trademark for the geographic outline of Texas just on bullion. They say, you know, we're not claiming to have a right to the geographic outline in Texas for every application, but on gold bouillon coins, we have a trademark for that.

They also claim that they don't believe that the Texas Boulon Depository was given authority to do what it's doing to authorize this coinage. So they're arguing to the judge that there are several reasons why this injunction should be issued, including that consumers need protection. And Saab also mentioned that he thinks that there's a small group of politically motivated individuals who may be trying to develop a rival to the Federal Reserve located in Texas. So he has some pretty interesting takes bigger than just the arguments. in their lawsuit. I want to continue on this topic, Kim,

but I want to pull back the curtain really quickly on something, you know exactly where I'm going to this, Kim. We have a podcast docket where we list out the stories that we're going to cover that week. The reporters put in their outline of their topics, often putting questions for me so I can kind of go along with their train of thought and make sure we hit the notes that we need to hit. And there is an ongoing debate at the Texan,

whether it's Comptroller or Con, controller because it's spelled one way, it's pronounced another. I think there's like a little bit of a dividing line, but Kim specifically, this is the question she wrote down for me. How has the quote phonetically spelled controllers, unquote, office reply to the allegations and she's over there snickering because she knows it's funny because I'm one of the people who says comptroller. So Kim, I am going to humor you and I will say it exactly how you wrote it.

Thank you. because it's the correct way. I think I'm the only one at the Texan on this side of the issue, but I am older than all of you, and it's controller. I know, I know. Well, Anne, in Houston, there's actually the control. Like, it's spelled out. Like, there are, I think that's part of it.

It's the same office. They just spell it differently. They spell it differently. Exactly. Back to the story. In response to these allegations, the controller argued that the legislature did give authority to the Bouillon Depository to issue coins in 2019. The Bouillon Depository was created in 2015, but he said in 2019, additional legislation did give them this authority to do this coinage. He also said that they are not trying in any way to distribute legal tender of any kind, that these are commended.

and like I said, promotional for the awareness of the depository. And the controller also filed his own lawsuit against Texas precious metals. So there are two lawsuits. There's a Texas precious metals lawsuit against the controller's office, and then there's the controller's office suing Texas precious metals. And so right now, the main action is in Texas precious metals lawsuit. They're the ones having the injunction hearing on Thursday. but the controller is seeking a declaratory judgment that says that the state has the right to use its shape

on and other symbols and insignia on these coins. So anyway, there's a lot of good information in the story. It's a very fascinating case, in my opinion. I hope our readers will go look and keep an eye out for updates that we continue to report on as the case proceeds. Well, Kim, thanks so much for covering that for us. really encourage folks to go read that story and stay up to date as she continues to cover. It's fascinating all around. So Kim, thanks for your coverage. Mary Elise, we're coming to you. Another ongoing story. It's been going on for about a year at this point. Fines were finally decided this week for Democrats who broke quorum last summer. This is specifically related to the redistricting

effort by the Republicans in the legislature. Tell us how they were determined and what defined ended up being. The Texas House of Representatives did decide the fines for members of the Democratic Caucus within the Texas House who broke quorum during the summer 2025. They determined what these fees are that these members will pay as a result of their absence from the House. So this was after a House administration committee meeting, which happened on Friday. It lasted about six hours. And after they had discussed the topic, members voted on a party line to approve the fine. So it was a five to six vote. So the members of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, which we covered during the summer of 2025,

they broke quorum during two special legislative sessions, specifically to delay a vote on the GOP-favored congressional redistricting. and then also to just raise awareness around the topic and the legislation. They fled to different Democratic-leaning states, specifically Illinois. The map did ultimately pass the legislature, as we know. And then the quorum-breaking members who were a part of those trips were later informed that they had accumulated a certain amount of fines during their absence, which was 9,354. So those were the costs that were incurred for their failure to,

appear for those 14 days, which they were told by state representative Charlie Garron, who he's the chairman of the House Administration Committee. He let them know that in January, that fee. During the committee meeting on Friday, there were two Sundays that were struck from the total fines that took about one grand off of the original cost. The members were told that they would have to pay. The final amount of fees were determined by the end of the hearing. resulted in absentee members' charges being at a total of 8,354 per person,

which is just about $1,000 less than what they had originally been told. Out of the expenses, 118,000 of those were incurred for Texas Department of Public Safety details needed throughout the whole situation. And then the specific absence-related fines made up 303,000. of that over 8,000 per member cost. When members gave their closing statements after the hearing had conducted primarily behind closed doors and what's called an executive session, members were able to give kind of closing statements their thoughts on the fines and what they had discussed. State Representative Joe Moody has some pretty strong words for his colleagues. He warned against partisan hyperbole.

He said that has a very real cost too. Quote, Americans just like us from both sides of the aisle have been murdered over politics in the past year. We can't play any part in bringing that to Texas. If we do, one day we'll be sitting in a room like this talking about the death of someone we worked with, someone we looked in the eye and broke bread with,

and yes, sometimes disagreed with. Then he encourages colleagues to just keep to the facts that they heard in the room next door without fanning the flames that we cannot control, he said. Before they approved the fines, there were a couple of different amendments that were put forward by the vice chair of the House Administration Committee, Cheryl Cole. One of them would have just entirely struck the assessment of all fines and costs against members who were absent.

And she introduced this on the grounds of the committee had not given the members due process per the Texas Constitution and then the Texas House's own rules. But it did eventually pass, and we saw different Democratic leaders kind of responding to this. One of particular Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair, Gene Wu, he said that, originally said he indicated that Democrats might fundraise to cover the quorum break cross, regardless of House rule. Then in response, a spokesperson with Texas House Democratic campaign, campaign committee kind of clarified in a statement and said,

they're raising money to reelect all of our incumbent members, what they choose to do within the bounds of applicable law when the campaign committee makes campaign disbursements is up to them. And then clarified, we're not fundraising to pay the fines and is unable to pay the fines directly on the behalf of members. Something notable here because he's in such a high profile State Representative James Tolariko that we mentioned a little bit earlier on in the podcast.

He did not give a statement when he was offered to give a closing one at the hearing, but there was a fundraising email that his team sent out just pretty much right after the fines were approved and kind of centered on this topic saying that Texas Republicans are punishing Democrats called these fines outrageous. He says larger than the yearly salary I get from the Texas House. We also included a statement from Gene Wu, who state representative Gene Wu, who chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus,

he stated that if leadership is going to impose penalties, Texas House Democrats deserve timely notice, transparent records, and a meaningful chance to respond. He said that that didn't happen today, meaning the day that the hearing was held, we made the decision to break quorum to defend fair representation for Texas, and we would make that same decision again.

So we'll see what if there's more response to these fines, how members decide to go about this, who decides to pay, who decides to kick up a little bit more dust. But only time we'll tell how this is really going to pan out. Mary Lees, thanks for covering that for us. We appreciate it. Kim, we're coming back to you. Some member cities in the Dallas area rapid transit system.

I've had issues with funding for a while. Tell us about upcoming elections in three of those cities. That's right, McKenzie. We've been reporting about this for some time. Several cities in the Dallas area of rapid transit, also known as DART system, have been concerned about the amount of funding they are giving to the DART system and the amount of services they're getting back from that funding. And three cities have decided to continue with withdrawal elections on May 2nd. Those are Addison, University Park, and Highland Park. Now, DART did reach a negotiated agreement with other cities earlier this year that over the course of six years would return $360 million in funding to member cities. And so Irving, Plano, and Farmers Branch were satisfied with that agreement, and they canceled their withdrawal elections. But like I said, Addison, University Park, and Highland Park are continuing it theirs. Each of these cities has information on their websites.

We linked to those, which give a lot of information about how much funding they've been putting in, what their continuing obligations would be to DART, even if they would choose to withdraw if the residents vote by a majority to withdraw, they will have continuing obligations. They cite, like, the services they receive from DART. I thought it was interesting that University Park and Highland Park, I think has one bus route up Preston Road. That's all the services they have in their cities from Dart as far as a major route.

So they also talk about their continuing plans to provide transportation services for their residents, especially focusing in on the needs that their disabled residents may have who need special accommodations. They do plan to try to create some kind of system that would help their disabled residents that may need help with transatlable. So there's an upcoming election. If you live in Addison University Park and Highland Park, I encourage you to pay attention. It also affects the other cities who will remain in DART.

So just keep an eye on that. We'll continue covering it. Kim, thank you for following that for us. We appreciate it. Meredith, coming to you. In January, the TEA proposed a required reading list, the State Board of Education or the SVOE, as we often refer to it as, to it as has been working toward finalizing. You were in Austin last week following this first hand,

saw some of the action. Phyllisena wants to new with the list. There's been a lot of both support and criticism money toward this list in the last couple of months here. And so walk us through the result. Yeah. So this list is a little bit of a lightning rod for really strong opinions about what it should or shouldn't be. And so yeah, in January we reported on this list, it was roughly 300 titles between kindergarten through 12th grade of required reading that would turn eventually into state standards for language arts that students will be tested on. So it's not just recommendations, but it's going to turn into tested material. So people have are very strongly for or against it. And so it comes from HP 1605 from the 88th Texas legislature in 2023,

which said that the SPOU would specify a required reading list and at least They said one source per grade level. So it turned into a much larger project, which is where people are pushing back against. One of the reasons for, just as a little background, one of the reasons for this list that the TEA said was because of the, like, within your student mobility rates are about 16% in Texas. So if students are traveling between schools or moving, they would have like a very standard list of books that they would be reading between these schools. They wouldn't have to switch as much. But originally, so initially right off the bat, when the list comes out, people have issues with the length of the list. They have issues with the lack of diversity, they say.

That there are Bible stories or passages included was also pretty controversial as well. And so, but the SBOE members that are voting on this and that are looking at the TEA's list, like one of them, Will Hickman said, like, these are common stories referencing the Bible stories that are part of cultural literacy. and I know that one of the, one of, I think it was Julie Pickering even mentioned the like this good Samaritan law and like knowing that story, knowing why that law is called that, knowing why that, how that affects our everyday life, where we get the things that we talk about in culture. And so I was there last week for the day of public comment, which started at 8 in the morning. I left at 10 at night and I got a text from someone else that was there that it went until 11-ish, I think. and it was half for this literacy list about six or seven hours and then the other half was for

social studies which we're also going to have a piece coming out soon about that but um yeah there was lots of people there to talk about it um and had other concerns as well like the one of the larger things that really did affect them pairing this list down was the teachers and the administrators and people from the education world coming in and just giving practically how long it would take to teach some of these, all of these sources, that there wasn't enough time within the year, just practically they wouldn't be able to do that. They have other things that they need to do. And then, like I said, a lot of people with the Bible stories. And then very commonly, people would, on the opposition to the list, would talk about, they used the almost the same exact wording every time. And it was that

they wanted students to be able to see themselves in books and that classic books that were written a lot of old white man quotes were quote unquote, we're thrown around are not interesting to the kids and that students, they won't engage with them, they won't learn if they have to learn these books. And so at the end of the day, the SBOE ends up,

they had had an amended list earlier in January that Will Hickman had proposed. And then they had another amended list that Kevin Ellis, one of the members, proposed. And they ended up choosing Kevin Ellis's list, which took about 100 titles off, so it's down to about 200 titles. So they voted along party lines, all of the Republicans voting for and all of the Democrats voting against it to push this list to a final vote in June. And yeah, I mean, Texas is one of, there aren't many states that are

doing something like this. And even Kevin Ellis, who they voted on his list, spoke to that and just said, like, one of his quotes was, as far as I know we will be the only state in the country that has a list such as this. There are other states, many other states who have these recommended reading list, but to my knowledge, there's not one that would have a required reading list as robust as this will be for every common, will be common for every student across the state. So we'll see in June if this list makes it through or if it gets another, another hack or how many people still show up to continue to like fight for against the list. Absolutely.

Thanks for being there in person and thanks for covering that for us. We appreciate it. And let's talk about last fall's budget cycle, Tarrant County decided to eliminate its Department of Human Services, made some big headlines, and make a grant to a nonprofit that could administer the program instead. Tell us about the results so far. You're right, McKenzie, last fall, the Tarrant County Commissioner's Court voted four to one to eliminate the Department of Human Services and give the money directly to, a nonprofit in the hopes that it would be more efficient in getting the money directly to those in need. And so Carol Klossack, the CEO of the Center for Transforming Lives, they were the recipient of $2 million in grant funds. She gave a report to the commissioner's court this week, thanking them for this grant and helping show what they've been able to do with it, including helping so far in just the first five months of the process, hundreds of families avoid eviction.

and pay their utilities. The money is directly used for those who are in need to pay rent and to pay utilities. She gave an example. They actually showed a video. It was very moving of Lisa Lowry, a 57-year-old grandmother who was taking care of her three grandchildren, three young grandchildren, I think, five, three and one temporarily while her son was unfortunately in rehab. And she made a video thanking the commissioner's court for the way they had done this process because she received assistance very quickly to help her get over the hump. She said through tears that she thought they were going to be homeless at Christmas time. She has a job, but just the extra burden of the three children and the expenses and were just eating into her budget. And so she sought help from the Center for Transforming Lives and was able to get it very quickly and get over that hump.

So back to the report by Carol Klossack. The first five months of the program, they've been able to distribute already $880,000 out of the $2 million and help 440 households. And a remarkable statistic that several of the commissioners remarked about was that for every dollar spent, $0.89 of it goes to direct client assistance. So that's a very high percentage going directly to those in need. and in addition, the money is distributed within six to nine days of an application being approved, so there's not a lot of lag time for those who are in need. They expect that they'll spend the full $2 million in grant money by October 1st, if not sooner, and will help at least 1,000 households in Tarrant County.

And just to contrast those numbers that I just reported, in the 12 months preceding when Tarrant County had been administering the program, They only spent about $1.2 million out of the $2 million and helped about 691 families, and only $0.28 of every dollar went to direct client assistance. So some very different statistics when administered by a private nonprofit versus the county. Klausik said they're getting lots of applications for assistance. Every time they open the portal for applications, they close it as soon as they get 200 applications. They only want to take the number of applications they can process.

adequately, quickly, and with careful discretion. And so they close it after 200 applications. She said the last time they opened the portal, it only took 35 minutes to get 200 applications. So there are a lot of people seeking assistance from them right now. Commissioner Manny Ramirez, he's the commissioner for Precinct 4. He praised the efficiency and effectiveness of the program so far. He said, you are delivering more to taxpayers with less government and that was exactly the point.

So we'll keep an eye on how this continues to go, see if other reports are brought to the commissioner's court, but so far it looks like it was a program that gets more money to the people who are in need with less bureaucracy. There you go. Kim, thank you for following that for us. Always interesting to see the results of these big moves made by local officials.

Mary Lease, coming back to you, this is a story you took a little while to track down some of this information. It's wild. The police chief of a Texas city was arrested for his alleged involvement in a prostitution conspiracy. Give us the details on this case. Yeah, this case drew particular attention because it did include a former chief of police of godly. And there was another member who was also an officer of the godly police department.

And so they were, as you said, arrested for their alleged involvement in prostitution conspiracy. and also led to the arrest of another suspect with ties to the officers. There were a couple different suspects involved in this whole prostitution conspiracy. There was an arrest affidavit that we were able to obtain on Friday, and this showed that a search warrant was first conducted in the residence of godly residence, Michael and Ashley Catcherside that was on March 31st, and that was there that they found evidence, investigators that suggested that the married couple's promotion of prostitution was going on.

They also, through this, were able to link the two officers to the illicit operation. Investigators, while they were looking at the catcher side's residence, they found several electronic devices, they said, which revealed, quote, a large volume of evidence supporting an ongoing prostitution conspiracy between the two. Ashley's burner phone, they called it, allegedly contained correspondence between former members of the godly police department who were identified as former police chief, Matthew Cantrell, and then former officer Solomon Amatoia, as well as several other clients that were involved in this. Amatoa was arrested on April 2nd after an arrest warrant was

obtained following the investigator's review of Ashley's devices, where the correspondence, as we said, linked the two specifically. showed the police officer soliciting and agreeing with Ashley for sexual acts in exchange for favors, which included babysitting Ashley's children and other favors on several occasions. Cantrell later had his residence searched, and that was during the ongoing investigation on April 3rd, and that was five days before he was officially arrested for promotion or prostitution. Amatoa did speak with the Texas Department of Public Safety. He confirmed that he and Contrell were well acquainted with the Catchersides while they were employed at the Godly Police Department.

Contrell, per his arrest affidavit that we reviewed from Johnson County District Court, was allegedly pimping his wife, and it said some of her clients would pay while others wouldn't. He also admitted to subscribing to Ashley Catcherside's only fans, which is an online subscription platform, frequently, used for pornography. Investigators found further evidence of him also soliciting services from several other prostitutes online. And so Michael and Ashley Catcherside, which were the first ones to have the residents searched during this investigation, they're accused of having led this operation for nearly eight decades. This has been going on for a while, which is what the investigators are alleging. And a press release that was put on, put out, excuse me, on April 8th, the day that Cantrell was arrested,

Johnson and Somerville County District Attorney Timothy Good, put out a statement, he said, his office and the DPS are actively conducting a joint investigation of the, quote, ongoing criminal activity involving the catcher sides and then these former members of the godly police department. Good also alleged that in addition to these acts of promoting prostitution, the godly police department Wallander Chief of Police

Cantrell's direction conspired with the catcher sides to compile information on local public officials and private citizens that they perceived as adversaries which included members they said so far this is who they know

were considered adversaries godly city council the godly independent school board the former mayor and former chief of police whom Kentrell had replaced there's a lot of rather wild details in this piece I'll say

So I recommend that readers go check it out at the Texan. News for sure. It's a little bit longer than what I could cover here. That gives you kind of the basics idea of this alleged prostitution conspiracy and its involvement with these law enforcement, former law enforcement officials. We also give a little more history on these individuals' background. So you can get idea of where this is coming from. Truly a wild story. Mary Elise, you know, folks, I'd encourage to go ahead and read her story at the Texan.

not news and make sure you have all the deeds. It's quite something. Meredith, coming back to you, here some education news. Austin ISD has received a lot of attention, specifically regarding its very much a growing budget deficit. Give us those details. So Austin ISD increased its budget deficit over this year by about $30 million, which that gets, there are a lot of budget deficits and tons of articles out there as I'm always kind of looking through everything. It's pretty normal to have some kind of deficit at this point, but of this magnitude is unusual. And so just a little background is last year, the 2025-2020-projected budget deficit was $19.7 million. And over the course of this year, as they're ending out the year, it looks like they're going to end the year with a $49 million

budget deficit. And then the big thing is that they're projecting the head into 2026, 2027 with the 181 million dollar budget deficit. So those are some large numbers that they have to explain, obviously, and they have to give some kind of reason for why this has happened. People have questions. There's a lot of concern from the community. One of the biggest things that they touched on, because the district laid it all out in a letter, which sometimes you have to kind of wade through some of these videos and hear all the discussion about it, but they pretty clearly laid out the numbers for people. So, which is interesting. Like they just, I think it was so big. They couldn't, you can't ignore something that large. You have to address it. And so they really

focused on the idea that there were some real estate deals, they said, that were taking longer to close, that they weren't going to capture during this fiscal year. They talked about Austin property values declining that would like give them less revenue in the district, contributing to this $30 million dollar increase. Austin ISD superintendent, Mattias Segrera said for years we've had property growth increase and then last three years it's decreased. They also talked about enrollment decline, which is a huge ongoing issue statewide in every single district. He, Sigura said, credited some of that. He said to changes in immigration. And he said families are leaving. No new families are coming and that is a big number. So last November, Austin ISD had this big.

district consolidation plan that focused on 24 state mandated turnaround plans for districts that were really struggling to meet state standards. And it also included 10 school closures. So they have a lot going on on their plate. This is just another. Austin ISD is something that you want to keep an eye on and we are as well. But there's a lot going on there that just keeps snowballing and it gets bigger and bigger. And so they have some ideas that they're putting out there. They're going to have to make a lot of changes. They talked about how, let's see, they talked about how they're going to have additional cuts, which would include staffing levels, they said. It would include administrative support position ratios, even a 15% potential reduction in non-staffing budget, reducing programs,

eliminating programs. So Segru said, we are no longer at a point where we can protect all things. The cuts are going to impact our ability to serve our students in a way that we see best. So they had some ideas that they threw out there about ways they could have like other revenue streams raise some money facility naming rights billboard advertising charter bus reduction um philanthropic partnerships for fine arts and athletics um even using resource campus designation which is a state program that would give extra funding to some of these struggling schools and so yeah there was one parent who had commented like they went from 50 million at the end of this year to a projected 180 million Like how does that happen?

Mismanagement was the parent's reaction. And this person said that while she's really enjoyed some of her experiences in the district, she is disappointed and unsure like if she's going to enroll her students there in the future. So the district has four upcoming events that we have listed in the article where families can come to sessions, virtual sessions, in-person sessions, budget committee meetings. And so on the 23rd, so next week they're going to be announcing their like potential. preliminary 2026, 2027 budget. So we'll see where that number ends up next week at the meeting. Absolutely, Meredith, thanks for covering that for us. Mary Lee is coming back to you. The last hearing for

Trump's Religious Liberty Commission happened this week. Give us a rundown of what they covered. The last hearing was held for President Donald Trump's Federal Religious Liberty Commission, which we've been following throughout its seven hearings. This was its seventh hearing. But this is this final one, and it was chaired by, as it has been through all the hearings, by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. So it happened on Monday. And it served essentially as a forum for final conversation as the board prepares to present recommendations to the president in May. The hearing was about five hours long and had testimony from various religious leaders and ordinary individuals sharing life experiences of being affected by religious liberty violations,

which is similar to the way that this committee has operated in past hearings, inviting a lot of different folks to come in to offer testimony and a lot of different religious leaders from several different religions. Among the witnesses was Sister Mary Elizabeth from the Sisters of Life Community, which is a consecrated Catholic group of women who focus on human dignity issues specifically. She talked about her experience in serving women who are facing crisis pregnancies, which they specialize in. She talked about the different fruits of their work and referenced this one story of a young man who showed up at their doorstep to volunteer, and he said, y'all were instrumental in helping my mom to have the resources she needed to not have an abortion,

and here I am today. So I just told a couple different stories like that, and we saw that from a couple different of the individuals who spoke. They shared some kind of personal stories such as that. She did highlight a recent religious liberty fight that they had faced in 2022. And this was when she said the state of New York passed a law targeting their ministry to protect, targeting our ministry to pregnant women, excuse me. She said it allowed government officials to force pregnancy centers, but only those who don't perform abortions to turn over internal documents, including sensitive information about the women they serve. She explained why that would be problematic in a ministry such as theirs, because they have a lot of women who come there

to feel safe and then are in refuge from abusive partners and situations, and that was just not feasible. Another speaker on the panel was Heather Rice Minus. She's a president and CEO of Prison Fellowship. She talked about her work with the nation's largest Christian nonprofit. She described as which she said is kind of aimed at equipping the church to serve currently and formerly incarcerated people and their families and to advocate for justice and human dignity for those individuals. She talked about it and says she thinks that's a clear example of how faith-based social services can strengthen the United States and then kind of tied that in with the need for religious freedom, religious liberty within the country. They were both Jewish and Hindu religious leaders who spoke about different forms of adversity.

Their communities have faced. They also just commended the nation's kind of foundational commitment to freedom of religion and acknowledging how important that is. The topic of Muslim Sharia law did come up, which is a topic that has been so prevalent and specifically in Texas politics recently. one of the individuals who spoke to scribes Sharia law as being antithetical to American liberty. He said, we have to be able to talk about this without buying into the lie. We're criticizing Muslim individuals.

You can love a human being and see that person as created in the image of God. But you have an obligation to understand that that ideology is at war with liberty with religious liberty. And then Patrick kind of responded, kind of clarifying in a sense, he said we'd have Sikhs, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Catholic, Protestants, we've had everyone here because one of the things that the president and I talked about is we respect that all those a different face. He said it's interesting the secular movement attacks all of us. They don't just attack Christians. They don't just attack the Jews. They don't just attack the Hindus that go after everyone, he said. And so these members, you know, had this couple hour long hearing and now they're going to work to finalize their findings

that they have accumulated throughout holding these hearings and hearing from lots of different individuals throughout the country. And they'll present it to President Donald Trump for him to look over and decide what actions should be taken to respond to the issues and just to promote the good that has been discussed so far. Thank you, Mary Elise, Hannah, coming back to you. This week, the Attorney General announced a settlement with a major advertising agencies. what happened here? Yes, so the Office of the Attorney General, along with the Federal Trade Commission or the FTC, announced a settlement with three major advertising companies over alleged violations of antitrust laws.

A multi-state complaint was filed against the company's denser U.S., WPP, Media, and Publicists. And the other states involved were Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, Utah, and West Virginia. So the states in the FTC allege that the companies broke antitrust laws in their dealings with media companies. The trust laws cited were established in the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act and the claims called the company's conduct anti-competitive. So they allege that the companies blocked certain websites from being eligible for ad revenue because they were deemed misinformation sites, meaning they effectively created a brand safety rule that made misinformation websites ineligible for business with the ad companies.

However, the complaint claims that the grounds for these websites exclusion was political, ideological, and social differences. The complaint also described the Big Six advertising ecosystems, stating that the ad agencies collaborate to reduce competition between like-minded agencies to the exclusion of other competition. The FTC states that once a settlement is approved by a judge, the order will prevent the biggest U.S. advertising agencies from restricting advertising based on ideological or political differences. So FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson stated that the unlawful collusion distorts marketplace ideas by discriminating speech that falls below the brand safety floor.

Attorney General Ken Paxton also commented that it was a deeply disturbing violation of antitrust laws. And the companies reportedly agreed to not enforce limitations on advertising, spending based on ideological positions or diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments. They also agreed not to restrict businesses, restrict business with any company based on its news or political or social commentary content. So a WPP media spokesperson told us that they confirmed the settlement on a no-admit or no-deny basis, and they said they were pleased to finalize this agreement with the FTC, which reflects our existing and ongoing commitment to provide our clients with unbiased advice as they decide where to place their media. A Densu U.S. spokesperson also told the Texan that they remain fully committed to operating transparently with integrity and in strict compliance. with all applicable laws. In summation.

Thank you so much for covering that for us. Mary Lease, last but not least, let's talk about IVF, the topic you've covered extensively. It's a rapidly expanding industry, and particularly in Texas, walk us through some of the recent developments that you've covered. Yeah, so this is kind of a shift in conversation, less political, in a sense, but the IVF industry, of course, is advancing a lot in recent years. Specifically in Texas, it's been taking off pretty well. So I covered the San Antonio-based in vitro fertilization IVF training institution.

They are launching this expedited instructional course for OBGYN providers in order to facilitate the incorporation of this technology, IVF more directly into more obstetric practices, essentially to just expand the availability of IVF. So this is IVF Academy USA. They were founded in 1995, formerly known as Embryo Director, and its aim in launching this nearly two-day IVF instructional course, they said, is to close the gap between OBGY and practices having to refer patients elsewhere for IVF procedures, and in turn, quote, reducing referral bottlenecks.

They wrote in a press release on March 27th that OBGYNs are typically the first and the most trusted entry point into reproductive health care, yet historically most practices have needed to refer patients elsewhere for evaluation and early treatment, referencing IVF treatment specifically. So the training is hybrid in about 30 hours in total. It includes a little over a dozen hours of asynchronous online instruction and an individual coursework. Participants would also be required through this course to participate in a hands-on residency focused on clinical procedural training for two days, and that would cover a number of IVF-related techniques and practices.

Graduates would get a certificate of completion, and then essentially what this would do is equip them, with more resources to begin IVF-related evaluation for their patients and then to begin the early stages of the procedures with their patients off the bat. Of course, IVF has become an increasingly political issue as the technology is advancing and it's kind of, we've seen different factions within the Republican Party particularly. You know, we've seen the federal at the federal level, some Texas senators have just been very strong in supporting IVF. And then we seeing kind of some mixed reactions in the Texas legislature, but mostly just not addressing it. So kind of perhaps some factions within the Republican Party of how to address this topic.

Just because of the nature of it, having to do with life ethics, and then kind of posing some pretty fundamental questions about human life, its creation, and then kind of intersection of human rights with the free market. So some pro-life political activists, when we spoke to them months ago about, you know, where's the pro-life event headed next in the Texas legislature after a couple capstone achievements for them. They suggested that maybe IVF will be among the next life ethics-related debates in the Texas Capitol. Like I said, when I was referring to Capstone, it's, they had significant success in their agenda to ban abortion in Texas. They passed a bill employing civil liability for producers.

and distributors of chemical abortion pills during last session. So when I spoke to them back in September, some of them indicated that perhaps restrictions on IVF would be on the future. But from the folks I talked to said definitely not banning it, but perhaps more of a look at keeping track of this industry, placing a couple of restrictions on it. During last session, there was a bill actually introduced by State Representative Daniel Alders,

which outlined reporting requirements for IVF providers, which would include how many embryos are created, how many are discarded, and then what are the reasons for their destruction? Does it have to do with undesired gender, a handicap, or other preferential factors that might go into this? It was ultimately unsuccessful, never received a committee hearing, but it might be indicative of what we'll see in the future on this subject. The founder of the Academy talked about how this program

not just aimed at easing patient access to the technology, but also to facilitate an opportunity for OBGYN practices to essentially build a sustainable fertility service line with a projected annual around 189,000 in gross revenue per practitioner through adding IVF under their practices roof. So just referencing or just speaking on the fact that this will bring in some additional money for OBGYN practices. the Academy was acknowledging that.

The founder of the Academy, Dr. Anthony Anderson, said, you know, across the country, patients are waiting longer to access fertility specialists and may never reach that point because early evaluation and treatment pathways are limited. I talk a little bit more about Anderson here in this article, but it's worth knowing that he's kind of known for his use of Toyota production systems and his fertility startup, this is a separate one in Houston, in San Antonio, which is specifically aimed at reforming the IVF process, including reducing the cost of it. Through implementing the Toyota automotive manufacturers' operational philosophy

in order to kind of streamline production in IVF. So this is just a development that we'll be keeping our eye on. We're just keeping an eye on the subject of IVF as it's something that's a little bit more new and has become increasing political and will probably cause some factions in different groups that may have been more united before. Thank you, Mary Elise. Well, let's move on to our tweeterie section here. Meredith, I want to start with you. I'm curious. I think I know what this is I think it was shared earlier, but walk me through your tweetery. So I saw this article on the 74, which was about, the title is as enrollment falls, so immediately, I'm like, okay, I've covered

this. What are we talking about? As enrollment falls, old schools find new life as apartments. And so it's a really fascinating article about what's happening to some of these old schools that are getting renovated and turned into apartments. And so they talk about quite a few different things in the articles. They talk about the article talks about just some examples of high schools that have been turned. They have pictures of them, what they used to look like, what they do look like. They talk about some like crime related to abandoned schools, which is something that I have read and I think I've even reported on when I was talking about Houston ISD and some of their vacant buildings. Fears about gentrification. And then there is a point in there where they do

talk about turning some of these into housing for like lower income housing or affordable housing subsidized for teachers so they can afford to live in some of the areas that they teach in. And I kind of went backwards. I know I had like, I think included an article in a newsletter where Austin ISD is Austin is actually turning a school right now into, it was Allen Elementary. They're turning it into housing. And they do have some units that will be like specifically set aside for teachers. I know that I think Dallas has also mentioned that and like some of their bond things and some proposals.

So it's definitely floated around Texas and and the country of like some teachers can't afford to live in the areas that they teach in. I think I read an article where it's like there's only a handful of states where teachers can actually afford to buy a house in in the state like with a lot of the salaries and averages. So yeah, it was interesting. I also love like traditional architecture and so it's really cool to see some of these beautiful schools turned into apartments. One of them had like a bar, a rooftop bar on the top, which was really cool as well. And there's a couple of areas in Seattle that have some growing up to have some beautiful old schools that I have like love to look at. And I used to think, I think it would be fun to live in there. So I like this article a lot.

That's so, I love when older buildings are repurposed and just like, I think we lost, it's easy to say, because I know it's, it can be a lot easier in some ways when you're looking at the bottom line just to develop a new property. But it's so, I think it adds so much character and we've lost that in the development of our, our buildings and architecture. It's just kind of like cut and dry normal stuff. And some of some of these neighborhoods, like, and I love it because it does create, you know, cheaper housing for folks, it really does, and you can get so much more for your money. But when you're driving through some of these neighborhoods that are just cookie cutter, it kind of just takes some of the joy out of it. You're like, oh, where's our, like, older neighborhoods with kind of character to each house? So I love repurposing something like that. Cam, I want to go to you next. What do you have for us?

Well, since I'm not on Twitter, I thought I'd take this opportunity to highlight my newsletter at the Blue Bonnet Bulletin. This week, it's not about me. It's about the Chalk Talk Code Talkers, which a lot of people are probably familiar with the Navajo Code Talkers. The Wind Talkers was a movie and a book, and they were in World War II.

But I learned that there were Choct Talk Code Talkers in World War I. And I wrote the newsletter about Fort Worth honoring them because they trained at Camp Bowie in Fort Worth. worth before going off to the shores of Europe in World War I. And I talked to one of the great granddaughters and one of the Chalk Talk Code Talkers. So I hope people will go if they haven't already read the Blue Bonnet Bulletin about the Chalk Talk Code Talkers.

And we'll keep talking about the role they played in helping defeat our enemies in World War I. Absolutely. And if you're not subscribed to the Texan to get the Blue Bonnet Bulletin in your inbox every month, that is absolutely something that is worth your time and effort. Please do. There it is. We want to jump in here? Yeah, I was just going to say, I hope that this, this is such an interesting premise for a movie as well when I was reading it. And it was just so interesting about the secrecy behind all of it and not even like their families knowing and things like that. So it's a very interesting read. I love it. Thank you. Hannah, coming to you. What do you have for us? I'm excited.

I'm excited at the description of this one has me on the edge of my seat. Okay, Gertie, a 15-year-old chicken native to Maine is the oldest chicken, recognized in 2026, is the oldest living chicken in the whole world. So she's a senior, so she requires special care, including low purchase, accessible food, and protection from predators. Anyway, I just thought that just made me smile. Wait, did you say 15 years old? She's 15. 15 years old. I think usually chickens live for like six to eight years.

So she's doubled. Oh, that's wild. And our neighbors had chickens growing up, and none of them even lived six years. Some of that was predatory, like raccoons would come get them or things like that. But some of it was, I just don't know how, how great of lives these chickens were living. So, you know, what are you going to do? That's great. You should send me that article because I have a friend named that I call Gertie.

Gertie. The Mediterranean diet. Yeah, she's probably eating, like, fish and eggplant and stuff. Yeah. as all those blue zone chickens do. That's incredible. Well, ladies, thanks for joining me today. We hope that no one can tell that we had technical difficulties.

That's really what I'm hoping, is that this comes off. It's a smooth. Maslin's a magician. No one will be able to tell. But, again, to pull back the curtain just a little bit, there were a handful of minor technical difficulties here and there. Well done, ladies for running through it. Okay, well, folks, thanks so much for joining us on another episode of The Weekly Roundup,

and we will catch you on next week's episode. 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 DM. us on Twitter or shooting an email to Editor at the Texan. News. We are funded entirely by readers and listeners like you, so thank you again for your support. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.