The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - August 21, 2026

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

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.Austin ISD Faces Potential State Takeover After Two Campuses Receive Fifth Failing RatingsAbbott Endorses Ban on Foreign Funding, H-1B Visa Workers in Texas SchoolsU.S. Attorney Announces 'Project Safe Schools' Initiative for North Texas'Dirty, Filthy, and Vulgar': Patrick Assails Explicit Books in Public School LibrariesTexas Lacks Statewide Record of Water Use, Local Tax Breaks for Data CentersMinnesota Sues Abbott Over Failure to Extradite ICE Agent Charged With AssaultBo French, Jon Rosenthal Vie for Vast Share of ‘Unsure’ Voters in Railroad Commission RaceVIDEO: Dr. Lindsey Hendren on Texas Pulse Polling, U.S. Senate Race, Leading IssuesEnjoy what you hear? Be sure to check out our articles at The Texan and leave us a review!Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.

It was pretty awkward, but also very funny because it was just see these THC snacks flying from Dan Patrick's hand into the crowd. But that's, yeah, that moment is why that press conference has kind of been talked about. And I was glad to be there to witness it. It was a unique moment for sure. It's kind of like, you know, having objects thrown at you, especially when they're THC. It's like you're literally getting stoned. That's incredible, Rob. We're all podcasts.

Hi, everybody, and welcome to the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. I'm reporter Meredith Dyer, and you might be wondering, where is Rob? He is with us. Almost made of sound. He's still with us. Hello. Yes. And I'm also joined by reporters Mary Lisa Barr and Isaiah Mitchell, but also we have a new reporter that we'd like to introduce to you, Stephen Kupuska.

He has come to us from Virginia. He just got into town this week. We put him to work immediately. You'll see that in the podcast. podcast. So, Stephen, can you just give us a little bit of background? Like, where have you been? What have you been up to? Tell us about yourself. Sure, sure. So I was previously working at, at Be American Spectator. I was covering the White House there, among other things. And I had, I lived in the D.C. area for about four and a half years before I recently moved to Austin,

Texas. So, you know, it's a bit warmer here. So that's been a transition. But I'm happy to be here. And we're happy to have you. As reporters, we definitely want to ask a couple questions so that we and other people can get to know you a little bit better. I always ask everybody about birth order. And also if they feel like they are the typical birth order placement, like as a youngest, I am a typical youngest. It's true. So where are you at in your birth order and your family? And do you feel like you fit that mold? So I'm the oldest. And, you know, honestly, I'm not really sure if I fit that mold.

Like, what is that mold? I actually don't know. A little more type A, I would say a little, like, and obviously as the youngest, I'm thinking about my older sister. I'm like, oh, she's like, yeah. Organized. Organized, responsible, right? These are, Rob, do you want to chime in with any positive qualities that you possess?

Always like talking about my positive qualities. But yeah, no, I have one younger sister. And, yeah, I think I guess the stereotype is that the oldest is, yeah, responsible, organized, you know, they get stuff done. And the youngest gets away with everything. I mean, no, bossy is another one. No. So, yeah, do any of those ring a bell with you? Or are you kind of like, nah, I'm a little more, a little out of that.

I plead the theft. Okay, okay. Marylees, what do you got? Well, I'm kind of in a unique situation because I'm from a pretty big family, and so I'm the third youngest. So I guess you could call me like one of the younger ones. And I don't know if I would fit the mold. I don't know what the, what's the stereotype for like one of the younger children in a very large family?

I don't know. The birth order book didn't have a lot of examples of 10 children. I'm not going to lie. Yeah, that's what I figured. I'll just say well-round. Well, there you go. I mean, that's exactly what it is for the youngest of, for part of the younger cohort of 10. I mean, forgotten, not included. No offense, Maryle's. Wow. No, I like to go with well-rounded because you have all of these people above you who have all this experience that they share with you. And then usually like at least some of the bigger families I've been around, the joke is that like the younger kids kind of take all of the like positive qualities of the older siblings and they're just like the more well-rounded.

individual. So I'll go with that. So we didn't, yeah, we did not forget about you. What is your question for Stephen? What do you kind of want to know? I would love to know, I guess, which political figures in Texas politics were you already really familiar with, who kind of was already on your mind of like someone that's kind of high profile in Texas? Are you, were you aware of like many state senators or state representatives? It's always interesting to hear kind of what people's perception is of like the different figures moving and shaken in Texas politics. Oh, yeah, that's a really great question. Like, obviously I was aware of like the statewise that had, that had a national importance, like, you know, Habit and Paxon and I suppose Patrick's

to a somewhat lesser extent. And also many of the federal representatives. I did know who Dustin Burroughs was, but in terms of like a ranking file, state representatives, state senators, that's a bit more, a bit more hazy, I guess. Yeah, makes sense. Totally fair.

I think you're doing pretty good there because a lot of people who live in Texas do not know who Dustin Burroughs is or even know that they have a speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. So doing pretty good. It's very true. I only knew Greg Abbott. And even then, what I knew about him was pretty limited.

Isaiah, what do you got for Steven? Well, I heard that, well, you're from Connecticut originally, right? Afraid so, yes. Okay. I heard that Connecticut is famous for pizza, New Haven pizza. I just want to know, I mean, Texas has foods. that it's famous for. And I'm half proud of a lot of them,

but I also feel like they're a little bit tourist-fied in the minds of the rest of the state, even among people who like them. You know, I'm thinking about barbecue, for example. And so whenever I talk about barbecue with somebody who's not from Texas, I always get something like, oh, and you hate sauce, right? You never put sauce on it, and I love barbecue sauce, stuff like that.

So I guess I would just ask you, if New Haven Pizza, Connecticut Pizza, lives up to the high, or if you have a more complicated opinion on it. I know. I mean, it's a one true pizza, I would say. That of Chicago stuff,

that doesn't count. I'm sorry. Offending Rob here. Them's fighting words. I know. I'm a fan of Chicago-style deep dish pizza. I think it's pretty good. It is,

honestly, there's a reason why Texas is not known for its pizza, because, like, the only Texas-style thing I could think of would be, like, pizza with barbecue sauce instead of tomato sauce and chicken on it.

And I don't think even a lot of Texans really like barbecue pizza. No. Yeah. We got back to food. Someone commented online that we have these food hot takes. And so yet, here we are. Maybe we're about to head into lunchtime. Maybe that's why we're always thinking about food.

That's true. Yeah. So to jump, thank you so much, Steve, for sharing with us. We will obviously be getting to know you over the course of the months and years that we all work together. So this week, you were busy, Steve. I was busy with a lot of education.

education stuff. So we're going to kind of jump into the first part. We're going to talk about some education things and then we'll get to some other larger topics as well. Just to give a quick little update, Austin ISD, which I have been reporting on and following, and it's been people of always have been on it in case there might be a state takeover. It's kind of been poised for that. They released their T, the T.EA released their accountability ratings last week and they did receive two campuses had five consecutive failing ratings. And so that is something. that can trigger a state takeover. There is something I wanted to clarify.

And even as you're reporting, you have to remember, state takeover is what can be triggered. But there's another option of just closing the campuses, which is not used as commonly. In the last year, we've had four state takeovers. So we're really used to that being the case that they go to. But there is an option to close the campuses. And as the commissioner, T.A.

Commissioner, Mike Marath, kind of has been reminding everyone as they're asking about Austin. I asked him at a press conference last week about Austin. these are what they call preliminary ratings and everyone statewide can go appeal a rating and there's a 30 he kind of walked us through it's in the article like 30 day appeals deadline 60 days for the tea to kind of go through and make sure all of those are correct so there is some time they can act quicker than that you know 60 day situation i know that last year forworth was taken over in october so it was a little bit quicker um i just want to note that this 90 day situation brings them after the election day So that is something to keep in mind. Taking over one of the major ISDs during an election cycle would be very interesting, especially when Abbott's gubernatorial, we have their favorite word, gubernatorial opponent has made public education and school takeovers

is one of her main priorities and main pillars of her campaign. So we will not, it sounds like we won't really be finding out. We'll see if a ratings change, if they decide to do. just close the schools, which would bring Austin ISD up to, I think, 13 school closures at this point within this year. So that's a lot. So that's just a quick update on Austin ISD, but Steve and I did like a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday press conferences about educational things. And so Steve, you went to your first press conference, which was with Greg Abbott. So big introduction to Texas politics. You got to see the governor in person at Texas Public Policy Foundation. Give us a rundown

on kind of what that was like and what people should know from that press conference. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, something that you mentioned that representative, Injoza has been focused on education. Abbott also has. So he led into this press conference by talking about all the things that he is, that he's done on education from a record funding for it last year to the teacher incentive allotment program to raise teacher pay. And the two measures that he's, he introduced or opposed rather, he framed it as a way of safeguarding the education system from a foreign influence. So the first thing that he proposed, I was banning of Texas public schools from accepting a foreign funding. And the impetus for that, a case that he specifically raised was that the Austin ISD had actually accepted money from Qatar to fund their Arabic language program. And that's obviously raised a lot of national security considerations. And also something that he mentioned there was the Hanfus Institute's access. at various schools in the States.

The Confucius Institute obviously has ties to the Chinese government. And so that was one part of it. The second measure that he proposed, I was banning H-1B visa workers from working in Texas public schools. And that follows on a previous measure that he put in place in January, which was a freeze. on hiring new H-1B visa workers in that Texas public schools. And so if the state legislature agrees and passes a legislation that is calling for here,

Texas would actually be the first state to ban H-1B visa workers from the public education system. Yeah, I know that this has come up in the past. I know like Dallas ISD has been known to have quite, they have a program. And there's other ISDs in charter schools as well that will advertise that they have HB1 visa programs. So was there anything? How was the press conference in general seeing the governor in person, were you able to, did you get a question in there?

Was it, like you knew a little bit about Abbott coming into it, right? Yes, I guess. I mean, I will say that coming from the White House press room, It was definitely much smaller. There were many fewer people there. People there were less obstreperous. Like I could have probably gotten a question in, but it was just kind of in your first day, right?

We're not the White House? What? No, that makes total sense. So yeah, so you went there on Monday. On Tuesday, I went to a press conference in Dallas. And this was the U.S. Attorney's Office of North Texas, was having a press conference. conference about an initiative that they are starting called the Project Safe Schools.

And it's an initiative that's basically about investigating abuse charges into public schools, which is always horrible to listen to. And so it wasn't, it's good that they're doing it, obviously, and you're glad about it. But some of the examples that they were using the things that they're looking into are, I actually teared up a little bit. I know I talked about crying. I didn't burst out into tears, but it was a really horrible situation that is one of their parts of this initiative, it's what they call a coordinated enforcement actions against Forney ISD,

a civil settlement, and then a criminal charges against a former principal and teacher that basically the principal coaches the teacher on how to change his name, how to go from different school to different school. And he specifically targets nonverbal special education children. That's where it gets you. And anyone they targets, and they really went into detail of like he's targeting people that cannot report on him. And you just think about. about what that is and how horrible, how horrible that is. So they are talking about that situation, all those allegations, those pending charges and litigation, and just that they're looking into other districts.

And basically giving districts, they have a website and like a self-disclosure form and different things that they're really trying to promote of, okay, if anything's happened, if you have districts or people know of things that you have not reported, like kind of we're giving you a chance right now, like come forward. and it's better to come forward now than to be found out by some type of investigation. And so there was members from the FBI. There was a district attorney from Kaufman County, Texas Rangers. There was the TEA Inspector General of Educator Misconduct.

Levi Fuller was there who we had the chance to interview earlier this year when they appointed him. And so it's kind of an all hands on deck and they're trying to present and not trying to, but they're presenting this. United Front that, you know, federal, state, and local should all be working on this and should all be doing something to help protect children. And so this also just kind of comes on the heels once again of Abbott last week, making an announcement of proposing an idea for a new law that he would like to see where it would be like 10 years and registered sex offense status for anyone who has what they called an improper relationship between educator and student. They haven't fully defined that. So that'll be interesting. But just the idea of continued, like, layers upon layers for, like, can you make too many laws to protect children?

And basically it's like, no, we're going to keep making more, doing more. So that is encouraging to hear, obviously, the details are horrific. So that was Tuesday. So then we go back to, we go to Wednesday. And then, Steve, you have another press conference. So you get to see the governor and the lieutenant governor in person at press conferences, your first week. Obviously, we all know, and we'll get into this a little bit, that Patrick's press conferences are a little more lively, usually than Abbott's. He loves a prop as well, which

you'll get into as well. So, Stephen, yeah, what was going on with Patrick? Why did he call this press conference? And what did we learn? Yeah, so it was kind of interesting because we didn't really know why Patrick I was calling this press conference. And actually at the Abbott Press Conference, people were kind of talking about that. And what the word on the street was was that if a topic isn't known, it will probably be, there will be fireworks,

so to speak. And what the press conference ended up being about was a series of books that are present in Texas public libraries that Patrick was talked about how they were. The specific phraseology that he used over and over again was dirty, filthy and

vulgar. And he was really hammering this stuff. Actually, he actually brought some of those books and actually handed them out. I'm not sure if you could see this. I guess not. It's being censored even now. What is that one titled, Stephen?

So this one is titled, let's talk about it. The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being Human. And Patrick actually handed these out to all of the reporters that were in the room. And he brought in Bonnie Wallace as well, who's been a, she's been very, very opposed to this kind of thing and has been someone who very much wants these books out of these classrooms. And she spoke on them for a while as well. Yeah, I've seen Bonnie Wallace in person at SBOE, and I also have seen some videos. And recently she was like escorted out of Houston ISD's meeting.

And say what you want. There is a lot of like online discussion right now. Is this like, this topic relevant? That's kind of the thing. It's like with all the things going on, which we're going to get into some data center stuff and some different interim charges and the things that we're looking to do. Is this really what we should be focusing on? That's kind of the chatter. But it is uncomfortable, I will say, when she and we can't read these.

like, I'm not going to ask you, Steve, to read those excerpts, and we cannot, we're not going to read them. When she reads them in a room full at SBOE of adults and children, it's uncomfortable. Yeah. So it's, it's an interesting subject to get into and just a little light reading, I guess, for you the other night. I think something, oh, sorry. Yeah, go ahead. Well, I was just going to say, something else interesting about the story, right, is that, you know, Patrick, from what I saw from Steve's excellent Twitter, thread talking about the story. If you haven't, if you weren't able to attend the press conference, which I don't think most people were, then you should definitely check out Steve's thread on Twitter where you can basically feel like you were there. And so something that Patrick is,

you know, is always trying to emphasize is that he's saying this is not censorship, right? He said, anybody can get these books. It's not like they're banned from being read in the state. it's just that they don't believe that public school libraries should carry these books. They're saying this is, you know, this is taxpayer dollars being spent on these products. So that should not be available. They're saying in a public school library or especially not in like a middle school library. But this goes all the way back to, you know, attempts in 2023 to do this. But it's characterized as like censorship or a book ban.

And it's not, you know, it's not removing the ability to read. the book at all. It's just saying that the school district itself shouldn't carry it. But Steve, speaking of the previous attempts to do something like this, if I recall correctly, you got an interesting question in at the press conference talking about the

Reader Act. Yes. So I actually asked Patrick how, in his view, what he was proposing here was different than the redirect. And he had some very harsh comments on it. He said that he knew that like it it wouldn't it wouldn't really work and you know that it was found unconstitutional or or parts of it were found unconstitutional. And and he said that this time, um, um, what he was proposing would work.

We also mentioned, I think you said in the text, um, the tweet thread that it was like he wanted to propose like knocking down a rating if people didn't comply, stuff about budgets. I mean, he really is trying to. get to the heart of like hit people where it hurts. You take their money, you affect their rating. We were talking about ratings earlier today. I'll drive through places. There's billboards of like what T-EUA ratings they have in towns like you see them all over. So it's something they're very proud of. So he's really trying to figure out what would make people actually comply with this. And so it'll be interesting to see what that legislation amounts to. Yeah, Steve. Yeah. And you know, something else that he had asked is, you know, someone asked him, um, if there was either, even one of these books present in one classroom, would that be enough, in his view,

to knock the whole school system down a grade? And he said yes. So he's really emphatic on this. Okay, that's very interesting. As a former teacher who has put together a class library, they are not checked by, I mean, in my experience, what's in your, so that's, that'll be very interesting. Maybe I'm sure they'll be pushed back about that. And also, the idea of, well, then will there be legislating? Yeah, this, like, you start pulling at a string that could potentially affect quite a few things because I put together a library and obviously I don't have anything inappropriate in it, but nobody came and checked my books. So that's, that'll be very interesting and how that's, like, enforced. So yeah, love a Patrick press conference. I haven't

been to a press conference yet with him, but I have seen him at convention where he, he loves a prop, basically. So he has these books, right? He has the posters in the books. He hands the books out. Mary Lees, you've seen him. You had a really interesting description of what the press conference that you remember the most is. Well, this is, I mean, lots of reporters referenced this in the Texas political world, this specific press conference. It's kind of well known. But it was about THC, but we didn't know what the topic was. Like Steve was saying, you know, he went into this the other day and essentially nobody knew what it was going to be about. But since there wasn't really clarification on what it was about,

we all kind of assumed, okay, this is probably going to be interesting. He had put on there that beverages and snacks would be provided. So I think there were definitely some disappointed people there. I mean, I wouldn't have turned down a snack if there had really been them at the press conference. But anyways, we showed up. We showed up. We'd eat a snack. Oh, come on.

We show up. And there's a kind of like a long table. And there's something lumpy underneath a dark blanket. And lots of people had, you know, different ideas about what that looked like. It kind of looked like maybe there was somebody laying under the blanket. I don't know. We were all speculating for like 10 or 15 minutes about what is under this. Anyways, when the press conference started at some point, Dan bailed it.

And it was THC beverages and snacks. And then Dan Patrick gave his whole. spiel about the issue and the legislation, everything that was going on because that was super contentious at the time during session. And then he was kind of talking about, you know, would you take this, blah? And then he at one point threw the snacks into the crowd at one of the reporters who failed to catch it. So it made it even a little bit more comical because he didn't catch it fell in the ground. It was just, it was pretty awkward, but also very funny because he just see these THC snacks flying from Dan Patrick's hand into the crowd.

But that's, yeah, that moment is why that press conference has kind of been talked about. And I was glad to be there to witness it. It was a unique moment for sure. It's kind of like, you know, having objects thrown at you, especially when they're THC. It's like you're literally getting stoned. That's incredible, Rob. Probably be here, all podcasts. I know, yeah, I've seen Dan Patrick.

We saw him with his car. at the convention he brings a car he got a musting and he had it with his leather jacket and then he also at the tppf summit he had bubbles like a big bubble one that one didn't hit as well like big bubble bad bubble good bubble i wasn't following as much but um yeah i think that he i don't know if i read this or he said it somewhere it was like the idea if he hadn't been like um like a politician maybe he would have been like a pastor at a megachurch or something i feel like i've heard that in passing as a joke or something. Don't quote me. But it just made a lot of sense, though, when I did, when I've seen the props and things like that. I will say just in general,

I think bringing a prop, no matter how ridiculous it is, it does make people like remember your point better because especially for those like visual learners, you know, like nobody forgot that press conference with the THC snacks and beverages. And the bubble's also stuck in people's minds, although I wasn't there for that one. So I don't remember the content. Yeah. When I think you got to remember that Dan Patrick got his start in radio and TV and he did stunts, like, for example, painting himself blue in order to support the Houston Oilers, right? I mean, this kind of thing, he is, he is familiar with, you know, stunts and props and things like that that I think keep attention on him in the issues that he thinks matters. So, you know, there's, there's,

there's showmanship, right? Tusha, Dan, it's true. So press conferences can be memorable or not. Also, hearings can be memorable or not. We've started to have more hearings as interim hearings have picked up and we're kind of heading towards more heading towards the 90th. And a couple of you went to some hearings or want to give us some updates on that. I know Mary Lease, you've been following the public health hearing. And I think you said it was getting a little good as you were following it. So give us just a quick update on what we can expect from your piece on that. Yeah. Well, your average person might not have been super interested in this. I particularly am interested in this topic, but I do think, I do think it probably would capture a fair amount of people's attention. They're right now discussing,

and they have a couple different topics that they'll address in the public health committee, which is going on as we're recording. So this is Thursday afternoon. So I'll be listening back to, I'll be back on that committee hearing listening to it after we finished reporting. But they're discussing social media and its impact on youth and mental health, et cetera. they were discussing some different legislation that's floating around that's being challenged legally and some different legislation they've tried to pass at the federal level related to, you know, protecting children on these online spaces. One that was referenced, it was past last session that's been been all over the place in court

that we've covered a bit at the Texan is the App Store Accountability Act. And so that requires age verification for users. And so that one is controversial because folks are arguing about, is this constitutional that we're requiring kind of this digital ID or this form of digital ID or digital verification of your identification? But then also, you know, people are making all the points about the impact to social media on young people. And then other people are arguing that this is more of a battle that needs to be. fought on the front of parents and not so much the government stepping in here. So a lot of the same

conversations are kind of happening at this public health hearing, although for the most part, it just seems to be as the witnesses are speaking and sharing about some of the results of social media and the impact and the different things that they've seen happen to the young people. In general, the lawmakers sitting up there are just kind of expressing shock. And I think that's a big part of this issue is a lot of the people who are pushing for some of the reform, like one of their first tasks, it seems, is to educate the older generation about what social media really is and kind of how the algorithm works. Because it is such a new thing and it's hard to express, hard to fully, like, educate everybody

of all ages about what it really is. And then, you know, because you have to know that to be able to respond appropriately, legislatively. Anyway, so a lot of that going on during hearing and some of the lawmakers are saying, you know, like, I'll admit it. like I'm older. I had no idea that this is how the algorithm works or whatever. And there were one particular, yeah. Oh, no, go ahead.

One particular phrase has been being thrown around is that you can't out parent the algorithm. There was one psychiatrist that is a witness there. He's speaking and he's talked about the different young people that he has counseled and the different content they've been shown and how it's affected them. And he's speaking about their screen time. and how, you know, he's one patient who has an average of 14 hours per day, screen time. But then he also is saying he's like, but, you know, I'm not an expert on, you know, what laws we should be making. But he said as a parent, I'm just not going to get my kids social media, maybe not even a phone.

So it brings up a lot of really interesting aspects of this whole, like where the parents rule, the government's role, et cetera. So I'll keep watching that. And then you can look for our piece on that for more details, what goes. down at the hearing. Yeah, it's definitely, I mean, the social media with phones, they say that like in the future, maybe we'll look back on it like cigarettes or something. How could you just give your child something that you now we know is so harmful and it seems so innocent at the time or for people to engage with? So it is interesting that older lawmakers are having to learn how younger people use social media because it is very different. Very, yeah. Okay, so another hearing

that, and I call this everybody's favorite topic, Isaiah, you were listening in to state affairs about data centers, about water, about all the stuff. So give us, yeah, give us a little rundown. What did you learn? What should we know? Did it get spicy? It did. It did. There was a little dash of spice. We've had meetings before that were real dog piles when it comes to data centers. And so a meeting last month of the Senate Finance Committee saw a test. testimony from a spokesman for the Data Center coalition, and the members just took turns grilling this guy. And that wasn't quite what happened at the Texas House meeting this week, but we heard from members of several state agencies, including Erkot, the Electric Reliability

Council of Texas, and the PUC, the Public Utility Commission of Texas, along with TCEQ, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and some others, to address the concerns about power and water. Those are the two of the big things that a lot of Texas residents are concerned about when it comes to data centers. And early this month, people have heard a million times by now probably. Governor Greg Abbott asked these agencies to audit all upcoming data center projects, so those that are in the process of connecting to the grid.

And among other information that Abbott asked him to obtain, he wants these agencies to learn which of these projects are benefiting from state at local tax breaks. And so the hearing I was just talking about last month in the Texas Senate was mainly about the state tax break that passed in 2013. We talked about that in previous podcasts. But a lot of counties and municipalities have also extended local tax abatements, tax incentives, some kind of public financial assistance. And lawmakers grilled the head of the PUC and head of Aricot on how they're going to collect this information. And so Chris Turner, in particular, asked them, are they able to undertake that kind of review of local tax incentives and abatements? If you think about how many cities and counties are in the state of Texas, not to mention other kinds of local government entities, it's a little bit of a dizzying task.

And Pablo Vegas, who heads Erichot, told Representative Turner that they've basically just been carrying out surveys. And so in his words, he said that it'll have to be attested. to by the companies that are providing this information. So in other words, they're relying on data center developers and companies to provide information about their tax breaks. And we learned from TCEQ representatives that there's a similar gap in knowledge when it comes to water usage. And that one got a little bit spicier.

The state repritcher, Pena Raymond questioned a panel of officials who represented the TCEQ and the Texas Water Development Board. and he just got a little heated in his questioning. And he wanted to know specifically when data centers, when they apply for a permit about wastewater, do these agencies collect information on how much water they're proposing to use and whether it's potable, like the quality of the water? And we learned that TCEQ, the statute doesn't require them to deal with TCEQ,

EQ all the time, like in every occasion for one thing. And we learned from Temple McKinnon, who's got a directorial position at TWDB, that the only survey she's aware of that's asking those questions right now is a survey conducted by the PUC. And so in both of these cases for, you know, tax breaks and for water usage, lawmakers learned that the state is gathering information on this, but it's reliant on the testimony. of the data centers themselves. And a lot of the frustration that we heard from citizen activists, from some local officials that came and testified was about the opacity of the development process by

some of these data center companies, not all of them, because we also heard from a few data center developers who showed up in person, talked about their projects and where they're located. And we heard from an official, one from Childress County, for example, who said that she's had nothing but a good experience with the data center companies that are setting up shop in her neck of the woods. And they've been very cooperative about traffic and other municipal and county concerns. But we've also got some that are operating primarily through LLCs whose names don't really reflect the true corporate ownership of the company. They are speaking and operating in local

government meetings through representatives that are bound by NDAs not to disclose who the actual company is. Lovely. So there can be a lot of mystery for some of these companies. And in San Marcos, we saw a city council member testify specifically about Cyrus I. Something else, you know, if you want more spice, is that. Always. Representative Ancia and some others quipped from time to time that they heard a lot from

the data center executives in particular and also others that they're good actors and they're bad actors. and then she has said just once in this committee said I'd like someone to come up and say I'm the bad actor because everybody that I've been hearing from says I'm the good actor and they're always talking about these other companies that are mistreating the law or whatever

none of them I want one of them to show up so a lot of suspicion about data center development as is to be expected and a lot of the frustration from lawmakers on the committee really had to do with the state's method of obtaining this information about Texas and some water. So for what I'm hearing, it's like the data and the information we have is like not keeping up with what's happening. And so they're trying to obtain it and they're trying to figure out where they can get all this, where can we get accurate data from? And people are like slow down, slow down because they're not finding it.

Is that correct? That's basically it. And to be fair to the state, It's been taken a little bit by surprise by this breakneck development trend. And so we learned in the Senate Committee last month that it was really in 2021 when the number of data centers in the state under development really just began to shoot up. And so you could think of another industry and pound the desk and demand why the state doesn't keep a comprehensive map of, you know, some of the resource that another industry relies on. and I assume it would be much the same situation, you know, a developer to see that it was going to like exponentially grow. Right. And so, you know, could the state have prepared a database beforehand comprehensive statewide about what kind of water and how much water each data center is going to use? I suppose it's possible. But that would require a lot of forethought. And so this is the situation that we're in now. Yeah. Rob, what were you going to add?

Yeah, I was just going to say that, you know, there's been a lot of very harsh words thrown around about data centers. I think a lot of people, if you take social media seriously, would rather have like a toxic waste dump in their backyard than like a data center in their town. But you mentioned Representative Raymond Isaiah. And there was one point that I thought was really interesting where he was, I can't remember who it was exactly he was talking to. I think it was during public testimony, and there were some people who were testifying, they were criticizing a data center development. And he just said, so are you opposed to data center development in general or not? Like, do you think these should just be banned in the state? Is that pretty much what he said, Isaiah?

Yeah, that was an interesting exchange because, as I've said before, he signaled some criticism about data centers in general, data center development and how it's done. he would probably say that's a fair way to describe his position. But he was talking to a citizen who I believe came from the Gulf Coast area. I don't remember which town, but the two complaints that she had were data centers going up near neighborhoods and also in rural areas. And Raymond's line of questioning was basically exploring where else is left for a data center to go. And they had a bit of a back and forth.

and you can tell that he didn't want to be brusk, especially with a citizen. It's one thing when you've got other public officials at the panel. But yeah, he seemed to be pursuing the obvious question of, well, if you don't want them polluting stars out in the country, and if you don't want them humming near your children's school,

then it's not clear where else they could go. So that's how I would sum up that exchange. which you also, this is just a side note, you had said that somebody held up a phone, right? Yeah, Chairman King. Who can give these up, right? Which we just have to give a shout out to Isaiah, who does not have a smartphone.

And I see that as a very positive. Let's see it. Let's see it. Beautiful. I would say dumb phone, but. Look at that. That is awesome. But, you know, and I have like two friends that have also given it up.

There's like the light ones that are kind of, they give you directions, but that you on the internet. There's like things. that people try to do, obviously. But we just got to give a shout out to Isaiah who has resisted. He doesn't need the data centers like everybody else does with his phone. And so it's true. I feel very smug about it. His chairman king did. He held up his smartphone and said, I don't know anybody who's given up one of these things. He also said not once but twice that he would go back to 1985 in a heartbeat, which I thought was funny. He named that specific year.

I just wonder what if it has any special significance for him in his life. I just said a follow up question. What happened in 85? One interesting thing when we were talking about education heavy that related back that I've done a little bit of a look into, and I know that I believe Abilene ISD, I think, presented some testimony. I don't know if they were there or not, but school districts have jumped in on this idea of wanting to be involved in the process of data centers, whether it's like affecting their town and their area and if they're around it, like physically. and then also the idea of some of the tax-related issues that come into this,

that there's some groups that argue negatively that it'll, I'm going to try to get this right because this is campaign or school finance for you. There's two different types of the tax issues. One's for the day-to-day. And if the data centers drive that tax revenue up, it would push them into recapture where the state would start taking some of that money. There's that aspect. And then the other aspect is a positive one that I've actually heard,

and I don't want to quote him incorrectly, but Brad Buckley was talking about the positive, like potentially a potential positive one time of interview with Bullpen about, he just brought it up on a side note. And it made me think that some of them, when they come in and they bring up the other side of school finance, which would be paying off the bonds, which the state is not allowed to recapture, that potentially could help them pay off their bonds quicker because they make up this large percentage of the tax base in that sense. If I'm getting that wrong, but the idea is some, school districts are like pro and con. It could be do positive and negative things for them as well. So it's data centers, taxes, school stuff. It's all just kind of mixed in in a lovely mush right now that we're trying to detangle. It is. Yeah, it's a lovely mush. A lovely mush. On that note, an economic development spokesman from Red Oak, Go Hawks, came to the meeting and pointed out that the taxable value of the city right now, their overall property valuation adds up to 2.9 billion, and the data centers that they know for sure in the pipeline,

like that they know for sure will go up, will add $11 billion in property value. And they've got another $30 billion more, you know, down the line after them in terms of added up value of data center projects. And he said that last year, Red Oak lost $7 billion worth of property value in these projects because, as he said, we couldn't get them energized. and so they met with some opposition in some form from Aircott and the PUC about connecting to the grid. And as a consequence, if you want to put it this way, Red Oak lost $7 billion worth of property value from these data centers.

And so we heard that perspective at the meeting as well, that when one of these projects goes up, that there is a boost in land value, real property value, that accrues to the benefit of local governments, including spools. No, it's definitely, there's some people that are in favor of them. I've also just seen some, like, comments online of, so if you're old and you want to sell your property and someone wants to give you, fill in the blank, you know, millions and millions of dollars, like, isn't that your, you know, should we demonize these people?

These are the different sides of it. one more side note about this was was tanya tucker there again tony Tucker did show up um not to talk about data centers oh what was she she talking about 7 0765 yeah the perian basin reliability to me did she talk about data centers last time or was she only talking about permeant basin i don't remember okay it's just when she shows up there people are excited and it makes me laugh just because i do know who she is i'm not and i like old country but it just makes me think maybe like in a few in years from now like gen z will be like oh my gosh ella langley came to

her you know whatever so that's i think the equivalent for some people which is really nice that'd be fun because they're like whatever she's saying that they're like asking her extra questions and you can just tell that everyone's excited so good for them um so okay so we had data centers a couple more things to wrap up we want to talk about that are happening um mary lice you wrote a piece about Abbott being sued over failure to extradite an ice agent that was charged with assault by Minnesota. So give us the rundown. What's going on? This has been a little bit in the past, so it's coming back up again. What's going on? Yeah, well, just give you all kind of a brief recap here. You could check out the piece for more details. And we'll keep following it, of course,

because this is a situation. I think that will probably have some more developments. But like you said, Governor Abbott is being sued by the state of Minnesota over not allowing the extradition of an immigrant, immigration enforcement agent and ICE agent, who was criminally charged in Minnesota for his role in an assault case, a non-fatal assault case. This is Christian Castro, an ice agent. So he was charged back in May by Minnesota for this incident that happened at the very beginning of the year. This was when he allegedly fired at a closed door. He allegedly knew that there were people behind that closed door. One person was shot in the leg. That was the, that was the only injury sustained. So then he was charged by Minnesota with one count of falsely reporting a crime,

that one, and then four counts related to second degree assault. You know, DHS described this as a defensive action and said that the individuals have been violently resisting his advances. So kind of some conflicting narratives there. But he is being held currently in Texas in Cameron County. He was arrested by Texas Rangers and towards the end of May. And that was after those criminal charges were filed in Minnesota. And then there was that nationwide warrant that was issued by Minnesota governor Tim Walts. So the next step in this whole process was on August 13th, Minnesota Attorney General wrote to Abbott and was her

that he signed the extradition documents by Monday or warning that he'd be, you know, taken legal action. And they did soon after they filed a lawsuit against Abbott on Tuesday. And they're saying that this is something that's his, this is Abbott's duty, his ministerial duty to execute a governor's rendition warrant for Castro. And they're saying that typically before now, the two states kind of work together pretty quickly to fulfill these extradition requests. And so they're saying that Abbott's violating the U.S. Constitution. And then they also pointed out that they're concerned that Castro could be released from custody

under state law if Abbott just goes ahead and does not sign for extradition, and that could be as soon as August 26. Abbott was asked about it, and he said essentially, I'm not going to sign this until, and then he kind of shifted a little. bit to talking about the extensive child care fraud that we heard about in recent months that was alleged in some Somali immigrant run child care facilities in Minnesota. So we kind of shifted ears to that and say, I'm not going to sign until they reference or they acknowledge, you know, the waste that's happened here or the fraud. So it doesn't look like he's in any sort of a rush to be

signing his extradition paper. So we'll see what happens. But, yeah, Yeah, we'll keep following it because, you know, August 26th, he, Castro could be released as soon as then. And surely Minnesota will have a response. But, yeah, there's an active lawsuit now. Okay, sweet. Another thing that we're going to go into with you, Isaiah, is you looked at both French and John Rosenthal and the railroad commissioner, a commission race, which if you haven't followed this race, I spent some time earlier this year with the primary. It is an interesting one. So, Isaiah, what did you write about this week specifically related to this race?

It is interesting, though compared to previous Railroad Commission races, it's a little dull, if anyone remember his house and some previous ones have gone down. You have a little bit of a larger backlog than I do. This one's been interesting to me because of some of the personalities, but maybe you'll have to fill me in later. Yeah, yeah, big personalities. these. And so the railroad commission of Texas is a bit misleadingly named. It was initially authorized to regulate railroads, but now only regulates oil and gas. And so this is, I mean,

it's always relevant because this is a huge industry for Texas. But energy policy is also especially a big deal this year on account of data centers. And on top of that, people are paying a lot more attention to oil prices on account of the war in Iran. And that is really, you know, a huge underlying economic factor for cost of living in general because we use petrochemicals to make somebody products. We try and support them using petrochemicals and so forth. So energy is really in the spotlight this year right now for this election cycle. And there's not a lot of people who know about, who have a firm opinion of who they want in the railroad Commission. It's not really that newsy. That's the case every year. It's a bit of a down-ballot race

among statewide races, but I think it's noteworthy considering how important energy is to voters in general this year. So the Republican nominee, Bo French, an investor, has a three-point lead over the Democratic nominee, John Rosenthal, who's a state rep and a former engineer. And that's according to a survey of likely voters conducted at the end of July by the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research Center at Texas Southern University. And specifically, that's 44% of respondents saying that they like French, 41% say they like Rosenthal. And that's the slimmest lead of any statewide Republican that has a lead. And so the exception to that would be Kim Paxton, who lagged his Democratic opponent, James Tolariko, by two points at the same poll. But of statewide Republican nominees who are in the

lead in their races, both French's lead is the slimmest margin. What's interesting is that he also has a higher share of unsure voters in his own party than any other Republican nominee. And so of self-identified Republicans, 11% said that in this race, they're not sure about which candidate to pick. And Rosenthal has got similar numbers, but other statewide Democrats and other races do as well, because they generally poll lower this year on name recognition, except for Tyler Rico, who's got big name recognition. overall, the race has the biggest share of unsure independence on the ballot. So 43% of self-identified independent respondents say that they're unsure, and that's the case for French as well as for Rosenthal, so they're tied in that metric. And as to be expected, you know, as you can deduce from the data we've already talked about,

both candidates pulled pretty poorly for name recognition among likely voters. So 67% of respondents said they don't know enough about French to form an opinion, and 83% said the same thing about Rosenthal. So every year this is a race where candidates struggled to communicate the job of the office to voters and then to communicate

their own identity to voters for the most part. But it's interesting that this is taking place now when, for example, the average voter probably has a good idea, a better idea than in previous cycles about Wadich and the relationship

between cooling and energy use and data centers and the Permian Basin Reliability Plan. Energy is a big deal right now. Price of oil, you know. And so the Railroad Commission of Texas kind of has an opportunity to take the spotlight, and we're still waiting to see it do that. And, I mean, both French, he eked out. I mean, it was like 50-point.

Me and Rob were up, like, all night with that one waiting to see. That was like 50-point something. It was very slim, and it kept like, it really wasn't, we weren't sure about that. And that was in the primary runoff against incumbent Jim Wright. And I think we made a good point that, like, you said, sometimes the failure to communicate with the job, like description and title is because, and Beau French, when I interviewed him at convention, was clear that he talks out a lot of non-job-related topics, especially Islam in Texas. And that's, like, one of his biggest things that he likes to really talk about. And we asked him, like, if that doesn't relate to the job necessarily, like, you know, what do you say to people kind of that are asking, like, why are we discussing this? And for him, it was just that it's important to people and the people want. And I've heard this. I interviewed a local mayor that said the same thing, like people want people that will discuss everything kind of because we're putting everything on the table. So they want to know who you are. So even if it's not related to my job, I'm going to talk about it. Rob, what were you going to add? I was just going to add how interesting it is that, you know, this time last year, Beau French was not in the good graces of the, I think, Republican Party as a whole.

One of the most controversial things he did was he made that Twitter poll asking, you know, who is a bigger threat to America, Jews or Muslims? And from what I understand, I think what he wanted to suggest was that it was Muslims, right? because there are, I think he was trying to push back, I believe it was trying to push back on, you know, the kind of anti-Semitism that you do see online. But, yeah, he made this poll. It was very controversial. Even if he did have like a context in which he made it, I don't think that context was very clear. And, you know, Dan Patrick, Lieutenant Governor Patrick was one of the people who called for his resignation as Tarrant County GOP chair. I believe Fort Worth Mayor Maddie Parker also called for his resignation. But yeah, it was a very controversial thing. And now, of course, you know, like that great photo that all of the nonjudicial statewide Republican candidates got together at the governor's mansion, you know, this is like the GOP candidates are pulling together, you know. So it's interesting because as you mentioned also Isaiah, you know, this is one of those lesser known races. Most people probably, you know, do think the railroad commission has something to do with railroads. And French still has that three-point lead,

even though, of course, in that same poll, Paxton was two points behind Talley Rico, because, of course, Paxon and Tala Rico are taking all the political oxygen, right, out of the room. So that's the race that, like, everybody knows about. Whereas, I mean, you know, living in Austin, I drive around Austin, I see Tala RICO signs. I see Hinojosa signs. You see Goodwin signs.

You don't see a lot of Rosenthal signs. I don't think quite as many of those. But, yeah, I wonder basically if this race had the same level of, if it was as well known as the U.S. Senate race, I wonder how those numbers would turn out differently. Because, of course, there were a lot of people within the Texas GOP who expressed a lot of criticism of French. And of course, he won that, you know, unlike Paxton, for example, who had a dominating lead in his primary against Cornyn, where he won like 64%.

It was the worst for Cornyn. It was one of the worst showings for a U.S. senator in a primary runoff in decades. Whereas French, yeah, he won by like 50 point something percent. It was super, super, super, super close. So I also wanted to bring up actually speaking of Paxton and Tala Rico, the fact that as we were just, as we're recording this, the Cook Political Report actually announced that they are shifting four key statewide race ratings. They shifted the Texas governor's race between Abbott and Hinojosa from solid R to likely R. And they shifted the U.S. Senate race in Texas from lean R to toss up. So the polling has been very, very close. I suspect that it will be a very late night on election night to see what happens there.

But, I mean, this is, this is interesting. You know, we haven't seen anything like this since Bader O'Rourke challenged Ted Cruz in 2018, where, you know, there were polls that showed that O'Rourke was in the lead, even though, of course, he did not actually, excuse me, even though he did not actually win. But, yeah, I mean, the polling stuff, the polling stuff has been very interesting. And Isaiah, I actually wanted to ask if you could speak just a little bit to the interview that you did earlier this week with Dr. Lindsay Hendren of ReconMR, which was, if I recall correctly,

that was the polling firm that helped with the Texas, I don't know if they helped with or if they did, the Texas Pulse poll that showed Paxton was those two points behind. I thought if you could just tell us a little bit about that interview. Yes. Yeah, Lindsay Hendren is on the team that created the Texas Pulse Polls Poll. And it was a good discussion. We got a little bit into, well, we really dug into the breakdown tabulation. I think something that really undergirds a lot of the most interesting results of the poll is the relative share of independence to Republicans to Democrats among respondents.

And as I recall, it was roughly even among the three. and but the trends that we saw overall, you know, dominated especially by the Talley Rica race, which was the special focus of the poll, were that independents were generally going democratic, you know, especially in the Tala rica race, but also in some others. And yeah, it was fun to get into the data

and talk a little bit more about some other races. I was curious about a regional breakdown. If you go and read the poll, then you'll see if it that alludes to a certain regional breakdown and an opinion on some issues. And so I was curious to hear a little bit more about that. But it was an informative discussion, so go check it out. Yeah, and on that note, we are, I think, 74 days from the general election.

And Mary Lees, you were saying it's like 60, I should know this, 60 something from early goading, I can double check. I said 60, but now I'm questioning myself if it's like 60 or 61. You have these emails, right? People are like, yeah, reminding us. So as we count down towards the general election, we thank you for joining us on the podcast and we'll see you guys next week. 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, visit us at the Texan. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting us an email to editor at the Texan. News.

Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.