The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - August 18, 2023

Episode Date: August 18, 2023

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free Texas flag 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. This week on The Texan’s Weekly Roundup, the team discusses: Republican Texas Rep. Matt Schaefer announcing he will not run for re-election in 2024Sen. Ted Cruz and his Democratic challenger Rep. Colin Allred sparring over a federal semiconductor lawU.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson’s confrontation with police over a seizure victim at a Texas rodeoPornhub and other sites suing the state over a law requiring age verification for “sexual material harmful to minors”New accusations against Ken Paxton, including that he used burner phones and Uber to have an affairGov. Greg Abbott unveils a new nuclear power plant project in Calhoun CountyThe Texas House’s Select Committee on Educational Opportunity and Enrichment releasing its initial reportGov. Greg Abbott announcing wildfire disaster declarations for 191 of Texas’ 254 countiesPlano ISD’s plan to implement a school marshal program to comply with state lawThe state attorney general finding Franklin County’s solar farm moratorium likely “invalid and unenforceable”Texas opening up sale and renewal of state hunting licenses for the upcoming seasons

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here, and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. This week, the team discusses Republican Texas Representative Matt Schaefer announcing he will not run for re-election in 2024. Senator Ted Cruz and his Democratic challenger Representative Colin Allred sparring over a federal semiconductor law, a Texas congressman's confrontation with police over a seizure victim at a Texas rodeo. Pornhub and other sites suing the state over a law requiring age verification

for sexual material harmful to minors. New accusations against Ken Paxton, including that he used burner phones and Uber to have an affair. Governor Greg Abbott unveiling Dow's new nuclear power plant project in Calhoun County. A special Texas House committee releasing its initial report on educational opportunity and enrichment. Governor Greg Abbott announcing wildfire disaster declarations for

191 of Texas's 254 counties. Plano ISD's plan to implement a school marshal program to comply with state law. The state attorney general finding Franklin County's solar farm moratorium likely invalid and unenforceable. Texas opening up sale and renewal of state hunting licenses for the upcoming seasons. And the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association adopting a zero percent rate increase for 2023. As always, if you have any questions for our team, DM us on Twitter or email us at editor at the texan.news. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Howdy, folks.

Mackenzie here with Hayden, Cameron, Brad, and Matt. I just want to say that, have you guys ever seen Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron? Have I talked about this on the podcast before no you haven't it's one of my favorite movies growing up it's a disney movie unbelievable soundtrack brian adams the songs stick in my head to this day this is like a 15 year old movie can you sing one for us here i am this is me hold on oh no we're gonna get no look up the lyrics and sing it well I want to hear the live concert um it's Hans Zimmer and Brian Adams oh my gosh it's so good I'm actually gonna play in the background of this podcast this is sounding vaguely familiar

brian adams come on people i can't believe we're starting the pod off right now with this actually i don't think we've ever done this before. Let's not talk about the news. Let's just listen to music the whole time. Let's just listen to Brian Adams. It's relaxing. I've literally never heard that song before. Oh my gosh.

This is a new experience. Let me get to the chorus. Oh gosh. Y'all never heard this? Also, we might get in trouble for playing this i don't know how this works copyright infringement i feel like this might be problematic but we're not profiting off of it so i like we aren't doing any this is fair use act business we're analyzing it for for educational reasons that's exactly right my point being that um so that song has been stuck on my head but just generally speaking I've been singing a lot of phrases lately. I've just been singing a lot of phrases, much to the chagrin of y'all. And I do want to say that it has been when I was on vacation, my sweet, sweet sister-in-law, who listened to this podcast occasionally, would sing phrases. And so my husband started to do it

because he does it when he's around her. And now I'm just doing it all the time. So I've just been singing phrases around the office. So you picked up the habit. I did. I did. You did it a lot yesterday. Yeah, I did it a lot in the last 30 minutes

as we were preparing to record. Which it makes it more fun. Does it though? It's a stress reliever. It's, it's comic relief, especially when things are hitting the fan, which they did a little bit.

We have a lot going on this week, folks. I also do want to make the announcement up top. We've had a lot of behind the scenes changes for our website at the Texan. So if you have any, um, we've had very few issues so far for subscribers, but if you do have something,

reach out to support at the texan.news or call our office line. We have an awesome team. Maslin and Daniel are killing it. So I want to make sure that you guys are taken care of and have access to everything you need to have access to. But we're still learning the back end of the website for at least us reporting team. We're still figuring it out. But anyway, so we'll just see how many times i i stress seeing phrases in this podcast i'm placing the over under at four four yes okay hayden cameron

well the over under you got to pick over or under oh i forget well you can't bet because you control this oh okay that'd be like um what would that be called if I were to involve myself? Gaming the system. I don't know. Okay. I thought there was a more technical term. Doing what the Iowa and Iowa State college football players did this past year where they bet on games they played in.

See, I'm above that. Pull a Pete Rose, as it were. Yeah. I'm listening to a book. I'm listening to a book right now and the the author says, as it were in every chapter. Yeah. I think of you every time. And I forgot to tell you this week.

Okay. Over under Hayden of four times. Can I, can I say that it's going to be exactly four? Cause that sounds like a good number. Okay. Cameron, any thought? I wasn't listening. What's going on?

Cameron's doing work. Over under of me singing phrases for Brad guest during the pod, during the pod. I feel like we're already over when we start recording. Are we talking from this point forward? Yes. I'd say over easy. Okay.

You already gave us a full length album. That's true. When the pod started. You're right. Well, that could mean that she has it out of her system wow i do feel more relaxed i don't know i've been singing a lot over the past 24 hours hayden's the only one who's joined me i did ask hayden said how can i help you yesterday when i seemed stressed and i said sing me a song and he obliged i did i didn't remember all the words to the song i was trying to sing, but I did sing. Why don't we just not talk about the news and just ham it up this podcast? Yeah. That's exactly what our listeners come in to hear every week. Hayden,

we will start with you though. Are you ready to talk about the news? Are you ready to talk about the news? Yes, I am. Well, maybe not because the first time you asked me that question, it didn't register. We're so on it today, folks. Thank you for being with us in this very long intro. OK, to the news. Hayden, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus announced he would not run for another term in 2024. I'm saying that phrase.

Tell us more about Representative Matt Schaefer's announcement. State Representative Matt Schaefer, who has been a leader among conservatives in the Texas House and has consistently ranked highly as one of the most conservative members of the legislature, announced that he would not seek another term in the legislature. Schaefer tweeted his announcement. He said, quote, It's time for the next conservative leader to be the voice of House District 6 in Austin. God instituted civil government. He chooses its leaders and he has called we the people to be good stewards of authority. So to God be the glory for the privilege to serve my fellow Texans in this capacity for 12 years. End quote. It feels bizarre that Schaefer is making this announcement because I lived in

the Tyler area when he was first elected, and I still think of him as the new state rep because he first assumed office after defeating the late Leo Berman in 2012 in the Republican primary. Berman was the incumbent. Unfortunately, he sadly passed away in 2015. Schaefer then faced a serious challenge from a well-financed opponent, Skip Ogle, in 2014. He was a local businessman who was seeking to unseat Schaefer after his first term, but Schaefer handily defeated him with 61% of the vote. And that was 2014, the last time that Schaefer faced any serious opposition. So he has held the seat and has easily been reelected ever since. He's had a couple more Republican primary opponents, but they never really posed any serious challenge to his

incumbency. Schaefer said other things in his announcement, but I think the real highlight here is the fact that he's almost been in the legislature for 12 years. He was the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, and his legacy in the legislature is really being one of the most conservative members and being at the helm of many conservative victories. Did Schaefer discuss his plans for after he leaves office? Schaefer said that he would consider running for the Texas Senate if incumbent Brian Hughes chooses to pursue a higher office. Hughes, of course, was also elected many years ago in the Tyler area. And I will put this out there. Governor Abbott may soon have to appoint a new attorney general. And it's unclear at this time who that could be. Brian Hughes is definitely someone who could fill that position and is somebody that I'm sure Abbott will consider.

He's been mentioned in insider circles. You know, this is not something we're just, you know, pulling out of thin air here. You're literally thinking back on conversations or things we've heard from folks. Hughes is also somebody who has been on the front lines of a lot of conservative legislation, such as the heartbeat bill and election integrity legislation. So it would follow that somebody like Hughes would be considered to be the one to defend Texas in court because many of the lawsuits that Texas faces concern those types of victories. Republican Daniel Alders already announced he is running for the seat with Schaefer's endorsement. The announcement came just a day or two after Schaefer said he would not run for reelection. Alders is already positioning himself as the candidate of choice for Schaefer's supporters

and the one who would succeed him as the conservative representative for the Tyler area. House District 6 is an R72% on the Texans' Texas Partisan Index, indicating a strong leaning toward Republicans. Tyler is one of the more heavily populated areas in East Texas, but it is still a very conservative district represented in the legislature. Matt Schaefer, a very prominent member of the House Freedom Caucus, leaving the legislature after 12 years. Big news. Big news. And he would often serve as a mediator, between the more conservative portions of the Republican caucus and the Speaker. He authored a couple of big pieces of legislation during his tenure that

you mentioned in your article and referenced here, but that is a role that he's been filling in the last two sessions specifically since Speaker Phelan took office. So we'll see what happens in that dynamic going forward. Hayden, thank you so much. And can I just say also, Schaefer's style is unique because a lot of the time it seems that the Republican caucus is divided between the people who are more aggressive with their conservative stances and those who are more moderate. But Schaefer has seemingly been able to maintain that conservative record while being very judicious about, for instance, how often he approaches the back mic and how outspoken he is. And he has definitely chosen his battles over the years. But Schaefer's style, I think, is unique among lawmakers. And his

emphasis on strategy many times in the legislature is very intriguing. And so it's always has always been interesting to watch him operate legislatively. Yeah. Hayden, thank you. Brad, coming to you, microchips have taken a part of the 2024 U.S. Senate race spotlight. What happened this week? It was kind of an obscure topic to grab the headlines, right? Yeah. But it did. Representative Colin Allred took aim at Senator Ted Cruz over his no vote on the 2022 CHIPS Act,

which applied $52 billion in grant subsidies to manufacturers to build semiconductor operations stateside probably unsurprisingly there is more context to this um cruz explained in an interview that he favored tax credits over direct subsidies through grants to accomplish the same goal the evolution of the legislation which culminated in the CHIPS Act, had that, was something that changed frequently and culminated in this very large subsidy. Cruz voted against it for that reason, even though he supported the tax credit, which is also in effect alongside those subsidization grants. Fast forward to this year, and microchips are back on the table in Congress. Back in July, Cruz negotiated an agreement with Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, a Democrat, for a tweak to the

NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act, which we often see become this Christmas tree-like piece of legislation. We're all, you know, there were, when I looked through, there were 900 amendments on this thing, not all of which were tacked on, but that's the kind of massive ship of a bill we see go through with the NDAA. But Cruz negotiated, one of those amendments, Cruz negotiated a change that fast-tracks environmental permitting for semiconductor manufacturing projects

by removing a provision favorable to blue states over red states. That provision would have allowed companies seeking this approval to bypass the National Environmental Policy Act requirements, NEPA, if they're building in a state that has its own version of NEPA, which states like California and New York do, Texas does not. And so Cruz argued that this allowed for Texas to be more on a regulatory, even playing field with those states,

which he then says would result in Texas getting more of these semiconductor plants because of its friendly business environment with, at least relative to California and New york lower regulations lower taxes and so um i'm not sure how long how much staying power this issue has in this race it's probably kind of a flash in the pan but it did draw some you know some some attention recently yeah absolutely cameron do you see an ad well i think the microchip discussion is really interesting. I agree with you. Does the average person, though? Probably not. Well, if you bring it out into the context of where do the majority of microchips, where are they produced?

They're produced in Taiwan. And we're on the cusp of geopolitical conflict with China over this area that is producing microchips so we want to onshore that production that's the purpose of these bills yeah that's the aim or the con the greater context and we saw it happen in texas the legislature passed its own version well the samsung plant and taylor being a huge part of discussion about this headlines all over the place when that was announced yeah and sherman uh exceeded that like samsung when it announced was the largest economic development project in the state's history and then i believe um the texas instruments one is almost double the investment of the samsung one so you have these massive projects already coming

to the states and state leaders and federal leaders want more. There you go, Brad. Thank you. Hayden, coming to you now, Congressman Ronnie Jackson recently found himself in handcuffs at a rodeo in the Texas Panhandle. How exactly did that happen? Congressman Ronnie Jackson, who represents a congressional district that extends from Denton up into the Texas Panhandle, was at a rodeo in White Deer, which is a small town in Carson County, which has about 6,000 people and is near Amarillo. A 15-year-old girl started having a seizure at the rodeo. And I would say that this is much like when anybody has a medical emergency in a crowd. A lot of people started to huddle around her and it's unclear from the body camera footage of what everybody was doing or who everyone was, but it's a scene that is probably familiar to most people.

They were huddled around her, leaning over her, that type of thing. Jackson is an emergency room physician and he was one of the people who showed up and started trying to offer assistance. However, when EMS arrived, they asked law enforcement to clear the scene. And in the course of doing that, a state trooper, Trooper Young, put Jackson in handcuffs after officers say they told him repeatedly to step away from the patient so EMS could put her on the gurney and tend to her. Jackson claimed in the video that he was not told to back up before being placed in handcuffs. And he later said that he was being prevented by, quote, incompetent and, quote, law enforcement officers from providing medical care to a 15-year-old girl. That's how he ended up in handcuffs, and he was released from detention and allowed to leave with his party in his vehicle. Give us a rundown of some of the most interesting statements in the incident reports published by the County Sheriff's Department. Carson County Sheriff's Department

published multiple reports from multiple officers who responded in various agencies. And one of the quotes that really stood out to me was one of the deputies wrote, quote, Jackson was bright red. His eyes were bulging and he was close enough to my face that I could feel the spit coming out of his mouth landing on my face, end quote. And I will just say that there were lots of F words and various other vocabulary words involved in this incident. And officers described him as irate. And he can be heard on the body camera footage saying that he was going to complain directly to Governor Abbott. And he kept saying things like, well, in fact, I'll just read the quote. One of the officers wrote in the report that Jackson said, quote,

Do you know who the F word I am? Get these F word handcuffs off me. And another officer wrote that he continued to make an obscene gesture at the trooper who had placed him in handcuffs. After Jackson got into his vehicle, he continued to flip off this officer, according to the report. Clearly, Jackson was furious about this, what had happened. And they have very different versions of events in terms of what led up to this conflict between what Jackson thought was the right thing and what the sheriff thought was the right thing. The conclusion of the report authored by the sheriff and many other officers was that all of the officers involved acted appropriately considering Jackson's actions. And the sheriff, Tam Terry, characterized it as a conflict of who was in charge of the situation.

Jackson, and this was my impression after I reviewed the body camera footage, Jackson very much seemed to believe that he was in charge of that situation because he was an emergency room physician and the EMS employees that showed up should have been answering to him and the officers should have been deferring to him. But the law enforcement contended that EMS had asked them to clear the area so that EMS could do their jobs. And Jackson should have immediately complied with that request. And that seemed to be the core conflict in the situation. And Jackson had plenty of things to say after the fact, too. Yeah. So how did Jackson respond to the allegations by the sheriff?

He apologized for his language, but that was the only thing that he apologized for. He did not say that any of his actions were inappropriate. In fact, after the body camera footage was released, he said, quote, I'm glad the video was out. It shows the incompetent incompetence of the authorities and their complete disregard for the young girl in distress. We have the best sheriffs in the country here in the Panhandle and North Texas. Unfortunately, the sheriff in Carson County is not among them, end quote. This is the same sheriff that claimed Jackson told him he would, quote, bury, end quote, him in the next election. And the trooper that put him in handcuffs also said and other officers observed

that Jackson had said he would beat him. So this was very acrimonious situation. And Jackson stands by his actions that night. There you go, Hayden. Thank you. Cameron, coming to you next, a new law that will require websites with sexually explicit material to institute age verification measures is set to go into effect, but a group of adult entertainment websites are suing the state over it. Tell us about the lawsuit. Yeah, so this group of adult entertainment websites are pornography websites, the majority of them involved in this lawsuit. They're calling this new bill unconstitutional and unenforceable. The bill will require a website that intentionally publishes sexual material harmful to minors to verify the user's identity either through a digital identification or a third-party verification system

that uses government-issued identification. And these websites must be at least one-third sexual material harmful to minors. So this will exclude many social media websites just because of the sheer amount of content that are on those sites. That was one of the things pointed out in the lawsuit. Also, the lawsuit claims that the intention of the bill will not ultimately come to fruition just because minors, they call them digital natives, and they have an ability to circumvent many of the age verification measures that might attempt to go into place to block them from entering those websites. Has similar legislation been tried in other states? Yeah. In two other states, Louisiana and Utah, have similar age verification laws in place. And companies like Pornhub, which is involved in this Texas lawsuit, have actually restricted access to Utah residents due to that age verification law.

They did sue the state of Utah and it was dismissed by a judge in the state. Got it. Thank you, Cameron. Bradley, Cummey, or no, Hayden, I'm so sorry. I realized I almost skipped over your story, Hayden. That would have been tragic. It wouldn't have been that bad. Attorneys presenting the case for removing Ken Paxton as attorney general filed new motions detailing additional claims against Paxton. What were some of the highlights? This actually would be pretty tragic not to talk about this. It is pretty interesting. Yeah, this is a big story this week. filing that paxton allegedly used a fake uber account to travel that he had jointly with

nate paul who was the real estate developer what was his name dave p i think it was dave p yeah and paxton used this uber account according to the impeachment attorneys to travel to the apartment complex of the woman with whom he was having an affair. He also had fake email accounts and had burner phones that he used to try to carry on this affair and other actions obscured from view. This was just a portion of some of the exhibits that were contained in these motions. They also made various other arguments, including the allegation that Paxton pressured his subordinates to author an opinion to protect Paul's companies from foreclosure proceedings. The document that in question was published in the middle of the night after impeachment attorneys say Paxton personally edited it and published it. I believe it was in the early morning hours of a Sunday morning to protect Paul's properties from foreclosure after his after Paxton's subordinates had already offered an opinion that the foreclosure proceedings were legitimate, Paxton asked them to go back and redo the opinion so that it would have a favorable outcome.

That is the allegation that the impeachment managers are putting forward. The motion emphasized that there are tens of thousands of open records requests, and it is highly unusual for the attorney general to personally involve himself in an open records request. And the motions painted a more detailed picture of Paxton's and Paul's alleged corrupt relationship. This is all a preview of evidence that will be brought at the trial because many of the arguments that Paxton has made has hinged on the idea that there was no evidence to back up this impeachment proceeding. So it seems that the impeachment managers are bolstering their case before the trial even begins. And of course, Paxton is less than three weeks away from a trial that could end his

political career for good here in Texas. What are some of the other arguments the lawyers made in their filings? There are a few big arguments that are at the center of this, one of which is that Paxton is saying this is a criminal proceeding and he is entitled to all the protections of a criminal defendant. Many of the motions that Paxton's team has brought depend on that argument. And the House impeachment managers, attorneys replied that this is neither a civil nor a criminal proceeding. It is a unique proceeding laid out by the Texas Constitution. And by the way, it is a singular event in Texas history thus far. This has never happened before for an attorney general.

That was in rebuttal to Paxton's statement that this is impeachment for conduct before the current term is being misinterpreted. And even if it is being interpreted that way, the Texas Constitution's authority to give the legislature the power to impeach an elected official for misconduct supersedes the state law that Paxton says precludes impeachment in this case. And all along, Paxton's team says that he cannot, has been saying that he cannot be impeached for any conduct that took place before the current term or before the current election. I've seen the argument go both ways. They say that Paxton, Paxton's conduct was not fully publicized and that there are details that have not been made public. And therefore, the public cannot possibly forgive Paxton for something that they did not know happened. And this trial is the way to publish

all of those facts and let not only the public make an informed choice, but allow the Senate to make an informed decision on these articles of impeachment. So those are some of the arguments that were made by the impeachment attorneys in response to Paxton's contentions. Awesome. Thank you, Hayden, for your coverage. Cameron, we are coming to you. The anticipation of a school choice special session, man, there's just so much happening or looming over us with the impeachment trial that I sometimes forget we have a whole other special session, at least one coming up. But it's becoming more real as the House has now released an initial report on educational opportunity. Give us those details. Yeah, so this committee was made up of 15 members of a bipartisan group, and they focused on three broad areas in this report.

One being ensuring all Texas youths enjoy equal educational opportunity and the freedom to obtain a quality education regardless of circumstance. Two, improving outcomes for Texas public school students and meaningful support, supporting educators and educational institutions, and three, modernizing assessment and accountability measures for Texas schools educating K-12 students. The school choice focus came in the form of recommendations that it should clearly outline student eligibility to ensure success and target certain student populations to ensure that each program participant is assessed to make apparent academic outcomes. They continue to emphasize reporting student eligibility and ensuring fiscal responsibility when it comes to the possibility of instituting a parental or

school choice program. There is also a focus in the report on improving student academic achievement, which they say early interventions are needed. Got it. So were there any reactions from lawmakers? Yeah. So attached to the report were letters from different House representatives. I'll pick on Rep. Harold Dutton a little bit. He was very clear and outspoken in his letter when it came to school choice. In his letter, he said that all educational efforts must exclude support or any recommendations with underlying efforts to create a voucher system. So even though school choice, it had a lot of ups and downs during the legislative session, didn't end up passing, there's still pushback from people inside the legislature. So the debate continues

and with the special session coming up, it's going to heat up again. Yeah, no kidding. My goodness, it seems like it's so far away, but here it comes. Thank you, Cameron. Brad, coming to you, alongside the CEO of Dow Corporation this week, Governor Greg Abbott, unveiled a new project to build a nuclear generation plant. Tell us about it. Dow Corporation and X Energy officials unveiled the 320 megawatt small modular nuclear reactor plant to be built at the chemical manufacturer's Seadrift location on the Texas Gulf Coast. The project will include four reactors and is expected to be online before the end of the decade. The project will supply Dow's plant with electricity, the electricity it needs to operate,

and any excess generation will be sold back into the air-cry grid. Pointing to wind power's problems generating at peak times of the day, Abbott said this project will betray baseline power. Quote, there is either going to be more power on the grid or less power taken from it as a result of this plant. According to X Energy CEO Clay Sell, it will be the first SMR of its kind deployed outside of China and Russia. What does this mean going forward? With the SMR breakthrough, the panelists liken the current state of the nuclear industry to the wind industry in the 90s that boomed into a large share of the state's energy portfolio. For decades, Texas' nuclear footprint has remained flat at around 5,500 megawatts with its north and south Texas plants. But with their very large upfront cost through capital expenditures and lengthy construction time,

investors have not seen a new scale large utility plants through nuclear as an investment with a reasonable return and therefore the plateau of development. But X Energy CEO Clay Sell says he sees in 20 years this strategy of SMRs being replicated 10 times over in Texas, generating more baseline power that can be relied upon at all points of the day than we currently have to rely on. There you go. Brad, we're going to stick with you here. Give us a quick rundown of the governor issuing a wildfire disaster declaration for many of Texas's counties. Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 191 counties across the state for wildfire threats. The Texas A&M Forest Service shows over 70 current wildfire, this is as of I think Monday,

70 current wildfire incidents across the state, five of which are active. The Fire, Weather, and Avalanche Centers map shows many more. Abbott said, I issued a disaster declaration to surge the deployment of additional resources and assistance to 191 counties currently experiencing dangerous wildfire conditions. As we continue currently experience dangerous wildfire conditions. As we continue to respond to wildfire conditions across the state, Texas is ready to provide any additional resources and aid to those communities. The Texas Drought Monitor shows much of the state in some level of drought and only the northern panhandle and the northeast corner of the state in normal conditions the worst part of the state is in central texas it's where the drought is worst more than 95 fire departments across the 75 cities have been deployed under this to to combat these wildfires so it's developing situation but if a declaration is made for 191 counties that's it's like 75 of the counties

it's like yeah 254 a ton i think it's literally like 75 according to the quick math i just did on my phone well i'm not gonna check it which could be unreliable because yeah okay wow you have a calculator at your desk though and you do a really good job of calculating i use that graphing calculator more than i ever did in school yeah there you go cameron we are coming to you well brad thank you i should thank you thank you brad yeah thank you i feel bad for berating on the potty last week so i'm being really nice okay okay great you don't feel bad for berating him on the pod i actually do if you can hear i'm gonna give you five Pinocchios for that one. Oh my gosh.

I did actually. Cause I was right out of the gate. Came at him real hard. All the pranks you levied at Brad while he was gone. Oh yeah. I don't think he's found one of them still. Anyways. I'm not listening to you right now. Great.

Awesome. Cameron, we are coming to you. Schools will be required to have an armed guard on school campuses. And some schools have made steps toward complying with that already. Tell us about Plano ISD and their school marshal program. Yeah, so like you said, the bill will require public school boards to make sure at least one armed security officer to be present on every district campus during school hours. The bill also allows for alternatives if a school is unable to find personnel that qualify. Well, Plano ISD found itself in that situation, and they have started a school marshal program for their school campuses that do not currently have a school resource

officer. Wow. So what all went into the resolution for the school marshal program? Well, the funding is allotted in the bill, which comes through the school safety allotment. And the school marshals will be licensed. They will have to pass a psychological exam and they will have to complete refresher training every two years. Wow. There you go, Cameron. Thank you for your coverage. And folks, I do want to say also that as we've launched this new version of the website, this also means that subscribers have many more options for following reporters, for following certain beads. We will be launching another new feature that will be very convenient for a lot of folks here soon as well. So as we

always say, we always say it's a good time to subscribe, but it really is a great time to subscribe to The Texan with all of our new features just to make your lives easier and following our coverage and specifically our awesome reporters. So go to thetexan.news, subscribe right now. I bet you can subscribe and press buttons on your keyboard way better than I can speak right now. So, you know, you got a lot going for you. Bradley, we are coming back to you now. The Office of the Attorney General released a legal opinion assessing a county's moratorium on solar farm development. What did it say?

It said the 180-day moratorium on constructing or operating a commercial-scale solar farm in Franklin County is likely to be found invalid and unenforceable by a court. That was written in the non-binding legal opinion of the Office of the Attorney General this week. The opinion reads, We find no statute specifically authorizing a county commissioner's court to impose a moratorium on a solar facility. The ordinance by the Franklin County Commissioner's Court was passed last October by that body in opposition to one solar farm in particular, but the prospect of others as well. And to make its case legally, the ordinance cited state code granting the county the ability to regulate factors that affect the construction and maintenance of public roads. The OAG found no basis for this under current state law.

But they decided to test the boundaries anyway, and they revoked the moratorium shortly after when the county attorney suggested that they may be liable for any lawsuits brought in consequence of this moratorium, and the county attorney then submitted the opinion request to the Office of this moratorium. And the county attorney then submitted the opinion request to the office of the attorney general. And so as of right now, I think the moratorium is not in effect. But depending on how certain things play out, you may see it come back. The commissioners wanted a waiting period to study put do a study on how this would affect things in the county there was also a lawsuit going on by a couple landowners

that um that do not want the solar farm near their properties and they say it's a public nuisance so a lot of development there that could have ramifications for the rest of state especially because texas has about 30 000 megawatts of uh solar farm projects in the queue over the next like five six seven years um so we could see a lot more of this conflict happening or less of it happening depending on how this shakes out so there you go there you go bradley thank you matthew coming to you on a story that got phil burton very excited um turning to the great outdoors texas parks and wildlife had an announcement this week for those anticipating the fall hunting season give us a rundown those who hold texas hunting licenses from last year may now renew them for the upcoming 2023-2024 hunting season.

Or, alternatively, if you don't have a license and want to purchase a new one, you can also do that now too. Texas Parks and Wildlife announced this week how hunting licenses have gone on sale across the state, noted that for those renewing the licenses, their existing ones will expire at the end of the month. Now, there's two ways that hunters may obtain licenses now. The old-fashioned one way that we're all familiar with, which is going to a local retailer and purchasing the old paper license. Or, Texas Parks and Wildlife now offers a fancy new digital license purchased through an app that you can download on your phone. In addition to the digital license, if you choose to go that direction, hunters may also get the outdoor regulations manual,

although paper copies will still be available at vendors if you choose to go the old-fashioned route like I do. Speaking of new regulations, a lot of new ones will be detailed in that manual, and we've been covering some of them at the Texan, including a new law set to go into effect September 1st that prohibits the discharge of a firearm into or from a navigable river. Some hunters were upset to learn about this new law, saying it would take a lot of prime hunting land off the options to hunt. Supporters, however, say it was necessary to prevent poaching in certain counties. Other regulations that hunters will learn about in the new upcoming manual, or the newly released manual, I should say, it's already out,

include new chronic wasting disease inspection stations across the state where hunters will be required to have their deer tested for CWD. Another mandatory reporting requirements have been expanded in certain counties for the taking of certain types of buck and antlerless deer. Once again, those counties apply to specific, or those regulations apply to specific counties only. One regulation during our editing process caught the attention of copy editor Rob, and that was a license to hunt feral hogs using a drone. Although I'm not entirely sure

that people are going to be using a drone with a I'm not entirely sure that people are going to be using a drone with a gun mounted to it. I think it's just for finding the hogs, but who knows? I may be wrong. They may actually have drones with guns. Maybe that's a separate story idea.

Fun fact, two points. Go ahead. I said, where there's a will, there's a way. Well, one fun fact that we did cover in the story is that 2.7 million hunting licenses are purchased each year in Texas. The proceeds from this go to fund wildlife habitat restoration and the restocking of fish and game populations and to fund Texas game wardens. As the 2023 hunting season gets closer, keep an eye out for our coverage on the latest news and updates for those that enjoy the great outdoors. Absolutely, Matt. Awesome. Thank you so much for your coverage, Brad. Last story of the day, the Texas Windstorm Association's

annual rate setting meeting, I'm sure it's a barn burner, has become a source of criticism from some Texas lawmakers. How'd this year's go? It was a barn burner. There was a lot of very unhappy people there at that meeting. TWIA, which is a state, it's a quasi-state public entity. It's an insurer of last resort for windstorm and hail damage. Um, and you are,

it is at least partially requirement to have coverage under TWIA to get a mortgage down on the coast. So, uh, every year they have this, um, every year they have this rate setting meeting where they decide how much to raise rates in order to compensate for the increased cost in providing this coverage. But again, this year they voted to – the board established a 0% rate change.

And there was a lot of criticism from lawmakers about TWIA, the prospect of raising rates. One of the committees within TWIA recommended a five percent rate increase for residential and an eight percent rate increase for commercial and last year they raised rates by five percent in each of those categories. Lawmakers object that this is an overly burdensome cost, and the agency is not responsive to homeowners and policy owners in the area. One of the big fights in legislature every two years is coastal lawmakers try and move the TWIA headquarters from Austin to somewhere in the coast. That way they are experiencing the same things that everyone else is in the coastal bend.

But one thing TWA cautioned was that a 2023 analysis by their actuarial team found that current rates were, residential rates were 20% too low to be actuarially sound. And that number was 22% for commercial. So therefore, there's not enough money coming in, according to them, to make sure that their books are adequately balanced. And so this has caused a tug of war between various interests. But this year they adopted the 0% rate change, which all of the coastal lawmakers are taking as a big win. But sure enough, the same battle will be fought next year, and we'll see what happens then.

Absolutely. Thank you, Bradley. Let's move on to our tweeter-y section here. Hayden, we're going to start with you. Well, that's quite a surprise. I did not think you were going to start with me. Also, I think I giggled at Tuya. Matt definitely giggled at Tuya. That being the name of the insurer of last resort on the coast it just is kind of a funny name you should raise that to them okay i'm sure they care

she should raise that raise that issue oh let them know well no i know you meant it just it sounded funny it was very very formal way of saying of saying it reminds me of the hamilton song raise a glass to freedom that's where are we that was three was that two or three that's just one oh we're still at one we're at one i've been very disciplined okay i'm sorry hayden that's okay 538 tweeted about joe biden's approval rating and it's an aggregate of many different rating services. According to FiveThirtyEight, I almost said Abbott. See, we're in state politics so much that when I think chief executive, I think Abbott because we spend 90 percent of our time talking about state.

Biden's approval rating has been underwater since August of 2021. That was, of course, when we withdrew from Afghanistan as a country. His disapproval rating, according to FiveThirtyEight, is at 54.5%. His approval rating is at 40.7%. Not great for an incumbent president heading into an election year. And his disapproval rating has been above 50% for quite some time now yeah spicy stuff cameron we're coming to you oh i did oh wait you don't have a twittery i didn't i haven't been on twitter today that's crazy that cameron hasn't been on twitter today that tells us a lot about his day

cameron is on he's online we've talked about this before I am but uh no it's been busy over the past few days you've been in we haven't seen you for two days you've been in a courthouse yes yeah that story will be going up very soon by the time this podcast goes out tease us with the topic of it really fast the ban on child gender modification treatments yeah there's a hearing because there's a lawsuit shocker people suing the state trying to block it from uh going into effect so over the past two days there's been hearings is it's effective date september 1st too yes yeah okay so we're in just days away interesting well cameron thank you you're welcome we'll count that as your tweeter-y because you tweeted on that.

Reporters have a tendency to wander into courtrooms and trials now and again. They do. It's very true. Matthew, we're going to come to you. You've had a heck of a weekend. I have. It's the culmination of a whole summer's worth of toil on my part. And I saw a tweet related about it.

So I thought, what a great opportunity to use that as a year i took the lsat the law school admissions test but i was also finishing up my undergraduate degree at the time and i didn't make the score i wanted so i decided i'd retake it again and i've been studying all summer for it. And I was scheduled to take it this past Saturday and the system crashed. And it left apparently thousands of us waiting for a test proctor who never showed up. So they've rescheduled thousands of us to take it again this Saturday, thusly extending my misery another seven days. So anyway,

I saw a tweet about it from this one guy that I follow on Twitter. That is a LSAT tutor. And he was talking about the, the breakdown of the test was an unprecedented breakdown. And left quite a few students who had, for those who have never taken it, the anticipation for the test is quite stressful. And kind of having an anticlimactic end to the last test session. It's not fun.

But anyway, we're holding on and going to make another stab at it Saturday. That's right. That's exactly right. Well, thank you, Matt. And you're going to kill it. We'll knock it out and it'll be good and done. Bradley, this was a big story this was um i don't know about y'all but i am a big enjoyer of college football big enjoy in case

you didn't know and i'm shocked to hear that one of the biggest college football related movies in the last 20 years is The Blind Side. Whoa. Based on a true story. Or so we thought. Well, it is based on a true story. There's just other questions being brought forward. that is the movie that stars Sandra Bullock in which a kind of wealthy Mississippi family takes a poor

kid under their wing and at least we thought adopted him and he went on to become a I think a two time All-American at Ole Miss played in the NFLfl i think he might still play in the nfl michael or is his name i think he's retired is he retired that's my understanding i'll google it and fact check yeah um but he played a long time and he was a really

good tackle uh protecting the quarterback's blind side hence the name of the movie. Well, this week, I think it was in a Tennessee court, he sued the Toohey's, who were his supposedly adopted family, and said they never actually adopted him. They kind of tricked him or coerced him into signing a conservatorship, which then resulted in him not getting as much money in royalties from the movie that he thought he should i think the number that he put up there was like 15 million dollars i read elsewhere that or a veteran in the from the nfl is worth something like 15 to 20 million the twoies themselves who owned a fast

food franchise are worth like 300 million dollars and so we have very wealthy people suing each other over a substantial amount of money yes how much did the twoies get from the movie do we know like like that was michael's chunk supposedly allegedly well the number that he i think cited in the case was like 15 somewhere between 15 to like 50 50 around probably yeah okay ballpark you know they they were well very well off with that with or without the movie um but it's going to be a very strange case to watch unfold because the movie was literally about the relationship between him and this family that supposedly adopted him or brought them under their wing. I don't know exactly.

But I think this whole story, the whole crux of The Blind Side is that they do, in fact, adopt him at the end. Well, at least we're led to believe that. Yes. And again, that could have been creative liberty. I have no idea if that was reflected as accurate to real life or if that was a creative liberty taken. I don't know and they're i also i was also under the impression that uh they were portrayed as like a pretty close-knit family is oh yeah absolutely and it's awkward yeah particularly him and the mom like that was

their whole relationship yeah it's not under dispute that they did take him under their wing when he had nowhere to go and helped him shepherded him through high school that eventually led him to a career in the nfl beginning you know becoming an all-american and going to the nfl and he is a former uh he's retired okay yeah um so that's not under dispute what's under dispute is whether they actually adopted him how they handled things with money from the movie um he's 34 now and i think last i saw he was still under the conservatorship i think he's 37 which you know strikes as the with the britney spears situation where her father was still her conservator, right? Until very recently.

Brandy needs help. Yeah, so it's very strange seeing these adults still under a conservatorship like this where their assets can be controlled by someone else depending on how it's outlined, right? But very strange. Yeah. And did you see that the brother, SJ, went on a podcast at Barstool?

It was really interesting. Oh, what did he say? Honestly, a lot of it was hard for me to understand what his point was. But he was talking about the family and he was talking about how even recently he'd been in contact with Michael and things seemed fine. And then the next text, it wasn't fine. Like it was it was interesting. I haven't watched it in full. I've seen a few clips.

He like, honestly, I had a hard time following some of what he said. So I don't know, but it made big waves. Yeah. I think a lot of people were a little confused about things he was saying. Not even necessarily because he was withholding information. I don't know if he was or wasn't, but because it, I don't think that's his favorite thing to do is speak on a microphone. So who knows?

Very strange situation. Very strange. Yeah. These family fallouts are. Awful. And yeah, they get very personal. And messy and sad. Yeah, I hate it.

Did they say, how true was that? Because in the movie, Michael Orr is like a superhero, save an SJ in that car accident. That's true. I think that's true. Is that true. Hold on, let me look that up. I don't know. I just remember that scene. He just puts his arm out

and about stops the car. You mean the airbag? The airbag, yeah. He's a big dude. He's an offensive tackle. Massive guy. I wouldn't get in front of him. No. I wouldn't want in front of him. No. I wouldn't want to try and blitz him.

I'd end up pancaked. That is the term for when a lineman puts the corresponding defensive player on their back with a block. Yeah. Yeah, so supposedly the accident did happen. with a block. So yeah. Yeah. So supposedly that the accident did happen. Let me see. Hold on. Hang with us people.

This is a fact check in real time. Did Michael or put his arm out and save ashes? Okay. This is true or false films. Dot. WordPress.com. So this is very reputable. Dot.

WordPress.com. Yes. They can'tcom So this is very reputable..wordpress.com They can't even afford their own domain. Yeah. So we're gonna take this with multiple grains of salt. We're gonna sprinkle some salt on our little snack here. With a brick of salt. Yeah, a brick of salt. Did the accident really happen? Yes. In the movie a distracted Michael Orr doesn't see

a landscaping truck backing out in front of him as he and SJ are on their way to get the new Madden video game that has just come out. The blindside true story reveals that the accident actually happened in icy conditions when Michael's truck skidded. Did Michael really stop the airbag with his arm? Yes. When Leanne came home from the hospital, she delivered the news that SJ was okay and that the doctors were amazed that his facial injuries weren't more severe. It was then that Michael held out his arm to show Leanne that unsightly burn mark that ran down the length of it so again according to amazing yeah pretty wild true or false films.wordpress.com this is a huge plug for them you got to think there's also

more to this feud than just this money yeah it almost never is just the money yeah the money can be them yeah the tipping point exactly but there probably has been trouble in paradise for a while yeah i'll refrain from speculating yeah the oklahoman which looks like a little bit more it's a news site site. It says that the, the, um, scene where Michael stops an airbag from hitting their son wasn't embellished. So anyway, pretty crazy.

Okey dokey folks. Well, we are over an hour, so I'm going to stop and not talk about how bull sharks can be found in fresh water and not bore you. You're into sharks now. With that information. Just big aquatic predators are big.

I'm just fascinated. That is a very specific interest. Yeah. Well, I did listen to a portion of a podcast where someone was talking about preserving the shark population, trying to stop the illegal fishing of them oh like or legal fishing like bull sharks specifically just sharks in general sharks in general yeah but it was tim dillon's podcast he's a comedian he brought on someone so they were just going back they're just hamming it up back and forth well no the guest was uh i forget the person's name it was

uh someone who's like an actor, director person. So Hollywood person. They got their little causes. Yeah. This is one of the causes. Save the sharks. Save the sharks. You know, yeah, I have so many thoughts in my brain.

But bull sharks literally can be found. They've been found in Great Lakes. They will go up the Mississippi River and be found in Great Lakes. So there are sharks sometimes in lakes, which not to freak people out, but it freaks me out. And bull sharks are aggressive. Are they? Oh my gosh.

They're one of the most aggressive breeds of shark. Bull and tiger shark. There's a lot of different kinds of sharks. No bull. Isn't there? There are a lot of different kinds of sharks. Black tip, white tip, bull shark, tiger shark, white shark, great white shark. Yeah, Jaws. Nurse shark.

Jaws did a huge disservice to the sharks. To the shark community. Yeah. It's true. But then they also do attack people sometimes. So, you know, it's not. Are you going to not swim in lakes as often? Now that you know it it's it's not are you going to not swim in lakes as often now that you know this fact here's the thing no because i love a good lake day and mac here's the thing no

now while i swim in particular like i will not swim in the everglades which are freshwater or estuary types of bodies of water. But those also have gators. I'm not a big gator gal. I don't want to be swimming with gators. I don't want to be swimming with gators in Florida. Hashtag gator gal. There are gators in Texas.

That sounds like gator gal. That sounds like an outdoor clothing brand for women. Yeah. That's what it sounds like. I'm going to start one now. Gator gal. What we sell? Don't know. Maybe just prints of gators. I think that's what they call DeSantis supporters'm going to start one now gator gal what we sell don't know maybe just prince of gators that's what they call the santa supporters gator gals

that's that would actually from florida right that'd be pretty fun but gator i'm just not a gator i don't want to swim with those kinds of guys not my friends not my pals um but crocs are way more you're not you're not aggressive than alligators alligators are not nearly as aggressive as crocodiles crocodiles are scary you know what i think the most scary thing is in the ocean please tell me i love this conversation the saltwater crocodiles amen brother okay i just saw a video this morning of a crocodile in like two feet of clear beautiful fresh water or excuse me salt water in the florida keys just eyeing people on the beach just this like 12 foot 15 foot long croc just sitting and

it's eerie because murky water you just i don't know i just assume gators are there this was like clear beautiful salt water well yeah florida keys Florida Keys. Florida Keys, which is beautiful blue clear water. Lots of gator gals there. Lots of gator gals. What's that? They got them in Australia, too. Yeah, they're nasty there, too. Okay, now we're just getting crocodiles. I get to talk about crocodiles and alligators all the time.

When I was having to address a bunch of wedding invitations, I just watched Wild Crock Country on Netflix. That was my show. Okay. And that was how you passed the time. That's how I passed the time. That's exactly right. Okay, folks. Well, thank you for listening and bearing with us. We appreciate you checking in with us each and every week.

On behalf of my... See you later, alligator. See you later, alligator. After a while, crocodile. Okay. On behalf of me and the boys, bye, folks. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review Okay. On behalf of me and the boys, bye folks. Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing 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.