The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - December 6, 2025

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free "Remember the Alamo" hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/ The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion. Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.This week on The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup,” the team discusses:Texas Secures Temporary Win Against Federal Interference With Razor Wire Border Protections‘Whole New Texas House’ Says Phelan’s Chief of Staff on Proposed Chamber ReformsTexas Appeals Court Denies Rehearing Motion in 2021 Blackouts Case Against GeneratorsFreeman Martin Sworn In as New Texas Department of Public Safety DirectorTexas Accuses BlackRock, Other Financial Firms of Conspiring to Close Coal Power PlantsTexas Files SCOTUS Brief in Pornographic Website Age Verification LawsuitPaxton Lawsuit Alleges South Austin Homelessness Center is 'Nuisance' to CommunityToday in Texas History: Sam Houston Steps Foot in Texas

I think that's a pretty notable case. The Attorney General's very busy Thanksgiving week. There's a lot going on. Why they would announce this the day before Thanksgiving? Yeah, it was Wednesday. I have no idea. Now, they got a bunch of people to cover it, so that's fine. But, like, what are you doing?

Who chose that? It provides great discussion fodder over Thanksgiving dinner. Over some mugs of gravy. Yeah. Well, howdy, folks. It's Mackenzie here. Wow, Mackenzie here. Mackenzie here.

With Brad. Mackenzie's here. With Karen. And Mary Elise. How's it going, guys? Doing great. It's been a fun week. I want to know if people can hear Bradad's mouse click on during the podcast recording yes turning tweet alerts on and i don't understand why for an hour

a week you could not just use your mouse pad like your tracking pad on your laptop how you get carpal tunnel for an hour a week at the expense of our using the mouse pad is a lot of you yeah you should get a mouse maybe i know this because our original editor drew white just freaked out about it constantly and he had wrist problems but i hate wrist surgery rallies with this yeah um well that's that's great i hope that our listeners ears aren aren't compromised because of the clicking. No, I don't think that's it. Podcast listeners are specific about their audio. Trust me.

Well, they probably wouldn't have noticed it if you didn't bring it up, but here we are. I don't think that's true because I've had multiple people mention it to me. We all know that. Well, how was everyone Thanksgiving? mention it to me um well how do how's it run thanksgiving cameron you were in uh i was in california um flew in to central california to visit my dad he lives in san luis obispo uh right on the ocean there that was really fun fun. Got to see my brother. We did some hikes and did a little turkey trot on the beach. The day of Thanksgiving. Was it like an organized turkey trot or was it a family turkey trot? Oh, cool.

On the beach. That's so awesome. Yeah, so that was fun. And then drove five hours north to Sacramento. Saw my mom and got to run along the American River and spend a lot of time outside. So that was really fun. And I know we had some discussions in the, I think it was on the previous pod about Thanksgiving food. Yeah. I did have turkey. It was delicious. I had prime rib. Ooh.

Another great selection. Protein option. I love when folks add an additional protein option into their Thanksgiving regimen. Well, on the day of Thanksgiving, instead of actually cooking a Thanksgiving meal, me and my family went to a brunch buffet. Oh, fun. And so it was packed. There was lines around.

Yeah, no cleanup. And they had everything you could ever want Thanksgiving related, but they also had like a pasta bar. They had a taco bar. So you could really just have your pick of anything. That sounds delicious. Bradley, how was your Thanksgiving? Did you have a mug full of gravy i poured a mug full of gravy onto my plate and all the food that was on it yes

i would also want to shout out representative elect mitch little for um what i believe was a very apt roast of you on twitter for you saying publicly and choosing to share this with the world that your favorite Thanksgiving food is gravy. I was being sarcastic. No, you were not. Yes, I was, Mac. No, you were not. And I don't think that's a wild pick, though.

I was being hyperbolic for effect. Now, I will defend to my grave the importance of gravy. Oh, yes. That was not what you said originally. That was not the debate. You've got to learn to read between the lines. We've known each other for five and a half years, and you take everything I say literally? Brad, I want to go back and listen because I do not care. Do you remember it being sarcastic? I don't remember it being sarcastic. No, but I will defend Thanksgiving gravy. I will too.

I love gravy. But I would never say it's my favorite Thanksgiving food. I don't take a fork in it. Well, it's like the sixth man on a basketball team, like the sixth man. They're not in the starting lineup. It's not turkey. It's not stuffing. It's not a main component.

But it's incredibly necessary for the success of a team. I wouldn't say it's the sixth man. It's the role player. Yeah, the sixth man. No, but you have a role player in the starting lineup. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. He's not on the bench.

Yeah. Who's the coach of the Golden State Warriors? Steve Kerr. Like Steve Kerr when he was on the Bulls. bench. Yeah. Who's the coach of the Golden State Warriors? Steve Kerr. Like Steve Kerr when he was on the Bulls. Yes. Right? That's gravy. I actually knew the answer to that sports question,

and I wish I would have headed my way in. But I also feel like I operate in the sports world like two years behind, so I was like, if he's changed, I'm going to look really foolish. Mary Elise, how was your Thanksgiving? It was great. I was actually going gonna say I agree to a certain extent with Brad that the gravy's at least better than most turkeys. I think that, um, the Thanksgiving meal in general needs gravy to make it delicious. Um, because in general,

it's kind of dry, but I had a great Thanksgiving. Yeah. Lots of time with family. That's awesome. Well, and I, I agree that gravy is very important, but I do not count it as like a food. This has been your favorite topic to bring up over the last three weeks. It hasn't. Okay. I feel like there's a lot of hyperbole in that statement. Oh, it's almost like I use hyperbole quite a bit. Yeah, because you're an inaccurate speaker.

But regardless, it's not. I'll just never get rid of the visual of Brad taking a spoon to some gravy and eating it up. I have never done that. Yeah, but that's what it sounded like when you talked about it. That's the visual you gave us and gave our audience. Roll the tapes somebody maslin maybe possibly um if you really wanted to troll people on twitter you should have just posted like a soup bowl full of gravy with a spoon saying ready for thanksgiving with a ladle like pouring it into the bowl gosh um we We also have exciting news. Mary Elise, we are so excited.

Session's just around the corner. It's like a little over a month away, but January's less than a month away. And you're going to be joining us here in Austin to help cover the session. We're so excited to have you. It's going to be awesome. Are you excited to come to Austin? Are you feeling like, what am I in for? What are you feeling about coming here to cover the session? Overall, I'm very excited. I will say I'm very curious to see what the podcast will be like in person. I'm guessing there'll be less technical issues, but it'll be fun to be a part of the, the conversations that happen because usually I'm just observing it from another screen. It's hard when you're remote to butt in and know, yeah. And know when to do so it's,

it's a lot harder. So we'll be excited to have you at the table. Um, it'll be awesome, but yeah, it's going to be amazing. So folks be on the lookout. Mary Lisa's on her way to Austin.

Woo. Woo. Okay. Well, uh, we're seven minutes in. So we're like, uh,

seven minutes past when Brad wishes we had turned to our news coverage. On the porn of the podcast. Yeah. Is it not? But i wouldn't have been able to lambast you over your gravy proclivities so you like to do that more than anything else it's true um but we're starting with mary lease mary lease you are heading off the podcast here texas made some progress in its struggle with the federal government over razor wire border protections Tell us about it. Yes. So the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it was last week that the Biden administration must stop cutting or interfering with Texas's razor wire barriers along the southern border. And this was a reversal of a lower course decision that had ruled in favor of the federal government. It had allowed them

to interfere, take down wire that Texas had set up. And then it also denied, this lower court denied Texas's request for a preliminary injunction against government. So to stop them from taking down the wire while the case proceeded in court. And Texas then appealed this to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and said that the Biden administration's actions, they saw them as blatant and disturbing subversion of law and order. And the court last week approved Texas's request for a preliminary injunction. That was on November 27th, so it was the day before Thanksgiving. And just a little bit of background, back in January, Texas had chosen to defy the Supreme Court's order that

federal agents may go ahead and cut down razor wire barriers, interfere with the implementation of razor wire at the border. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott was posting on social media showing that Texas was not going to stop putting up razor wire, posting pictures, and he got a lot of support from governors, Republican governors across the nation. And that was back in January. So this temporary injunction granted by the Fifth Circuit last week was granted officially in the favor of the state of Texas, of course, and against the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, United States Border Patrol, and then all related federal agents to those agencies. Governor Greg Abbott had some comments to say about this, of course.

He said that overall, Texas will continue to hold the line, referring to the border and protections put up at the border. So this will be, yeah, this will be interesting to see if there's any more pushback or if this is just kind of how this plays out, especially with the new president coming in in just a month. So yeah, it's been a struggle. Absolutely. And with the legislative session coming, there's a lot that could happen in terms of Texas and border security. And we've talked about it before, but even the mass deportation effort of the impending Trump administration, there's a lot to consider here and a lot of moving parts. So Mary Elise, thank you for your coverage there. Bradley, you were on a panel this week and you also watched a panel this week at the same event where Speaker Phelan, chief of staff among some other chiefs of staff, let me get my plurality correct,

had some very interesting things to say. Tell us about them. Yeah, it was quite a day. I think I texted you during the first panel that I was there to watch, which is what we're talking about, and said, this is a goldmine. Yeah. line yeah so it was put on by the professional advocacy Association of Texas basically an association for lobbyists and so they were trying to get a preview of what the next sessions gonna look like and the panel that we're talking about here it was of the chiefs of staff for the top three officials in the state, the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the speaker. And of course, as we talked before, chief of staff for the speaker of the house, Dave Phelan, now is Mike Toomey, longtime lobbyist himself, and even further back than that, once a state rep.

And he had some very interesting things to say. Basically, the message he was getting to the group of lobbyists was business as usual in the Texas House is over. And basically the message was we're going to try and speed things up a lot more than we have in the past. The House naturally works a lot slower than the Senate for two main reasons. One, it has 150 members, and they nominate their leader amongst themselves. The individual who runs the chamber is not elected statewide like the lieutenant governor is. And second, Republicans do not have a supermajority. And so that enables the Senate to move a lot faster. Now, there's a

lot of criticism that the House just moves slower than it even needs to, given those circumstances. And, you know, I think there's truth to that. And I think Toomey's statements here really are a testament to it as well. And so also this is happening three days before the House Republican Caucus votes on their endorsed candidate for Speaker. So you can't divorce that from that outside context of the Speaker's race. A couple things he said specifically to the lobbyists. All the things you remember about the House, how the House works, throw it out. It's going to start really fast. No good bill for the texas is going to die because we ran out of time it's going to be a whole new house he mentioned a couple things about

house rules changes specifically on points of order he wants to see he hasn't said he doesn't know if it's going to happen there's going to be huge debate the second or third day of session over the rules. And that's where this will play out. But a lot of bills died last session on points of order, especially related to background and purpose statements within the bill analysis document. And he specifically noted that one as something he'd like to see changed. So overall, he actually another one he actually probably the biggest thing he said was that committee assignments will be released by the end of January. And I think he indicated early in the first week or the first

early in the last week of January tripping over my words so that's that would be about two weeks earlier than they were released last session and I think even earlier than that compared to feelings first session in 21 I think even earlier than that, compared to Phelan's first session in 21, I think it was even further delayed back then. So a lot of changes there. One more that he mentioned was that the speaker intends to refer a thousand bills to committee on the first day that that process begins. I'm not sure if that happens on the very first day or the first day that they have committees. But regardless, they're going to refer a lot of bills very early. And those poor House clerks that are going to have to read all those off on that one day,

pour one out for them. Yeah, that's first reading, right? So when you hear first reading, second reading, third reading, when you are watching bills go through the process, that first reading is that referral. Yeah. So that's way up from 50 per day last session which is just the house bill or the bill number and then the relating to

clause that's it right and then saying which committee it's going to yeah yeah so um not sure how many they're going to do each day following that but there's right now 1,400, almost 1,500 bills filed in the House. So they're going to have to do a lot to make up that ground. And God help those clerks. They are already operating as auctioneers. They can read off those sheets of paper with those bill referrals. Why do you think, Brad, that Toomey is using this kind of messaging going into a session when there is so much at stake for the speaker and the gavel and, you know, there's no guarantee of who will assume that position come January? Well, first of all, Phelan is acting like he's going to be the speaker. And you know what? He is the speaker until he's not, right? He is the incumbent. He's got the advantage there now. He's facing a very

stiff challenge. Right now, from David Cook, there's a lot of rumblings about a third candidate going into the caucus process. Really, nobody knows how this is going to end up. But Phelan is acting like he's going to retain the gavel. He listed out, he announced that the priority bills, there will be 150 of them. It's a pretty big change. So he realizes that there are changes that need to be made to how the House works going into this session. Reforms, if you will. Reforms.

And there's a bunch of demands put out by those in the reform camp. There's a contract with Texas. They have their own list. There's others from the various other groups, factions within that group. So there's going to be a lot of debate over this because people are, even members, even members that support Phelan think that he dropped the ball procedure-wise last session quite a bit. It's going to be a huge debate over parliamentarians. We talked about that a few weeks ago. It's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out,

but this is Toomey making his pitch for retaining Phelan as Speaker, finagling the messaging so that it shows Phelan is willing to compromise on reforms to the procedure of the House. So that's ultimately why this is being said. And also, Toomey's just giving forewarning to the lobbyists that were in attendance, which was interesting talking to a few of them afterwards because a lot of them, like, they love the rules to kill stuff. Now, that's not just lobbyists. That's members, too. love the rules to kill stuff now that's not just lobbyists that's members to members use rules to kill things basically the

entire process is designed to kill more bills than it passes right and that's how the Constitution set it up so there was also though the next panel that this thing before the one I was on were lobbyists talking about how things have changed. And there is a lot of burnout among lobbyists right now just because of, well, first of all, five months of bruising session last year in 23. And then four specials. It's just a cluster. And I've heard people float, we need to limit the number of bills that are filed instead of 50 bill max.

And as someone who has to read through all these things, I find that pretty appealing. God bless him, Jeremy Kitchen at Texas Policy Research just put out today a whole spreadsheet. He went through every bill filed so far. So really good resource. So 50 per member. That's one idea I've heard.

I don't know. It's probably not going to go anywhere. Well, it's an interesting idea because it would also help with the election process where let's say there you have two very similar candidates that are running for a house seat well if they can only file 50 bills they could have 50 ideas and present that to the public so they really know like when i get into the legislature these are the 50 ideas yeah campaign topic yeah instead of coming up with 50 ideas. Yeah, the campaign topic. Yeah. Good luck coming up with 50 ideas. Well, instead of just speaking in like vague terms and, you know, these big promises, it could be very specific about these 50 ideas. Yeah.

It would be interesting. I do think that there are, I mean, there are some members who file hundreds of bills and there are some who file 10. So it's very different just depending on the member and what they how they choose to approach the session so this would not affect you know some members at all and again this is all very we're just talking about hypothetically but um it would affect some members far more than others yeah i don't think it's going to go anywhere but it is being talked about so um but yeah overall this is going to be regardless of who wins there's gonna be a very different session in terms of how things go and what we're accustomed to

um you know how long it takes for things to really ramp up and start um they're gonna hit the ground running as fast as the house can it sounds like so um yeah i was fascinated by that and right before we started recording it was interesting because we saw trent ashby um come out in support of david cook if you want to quickly talk about that yeah so ashby actually i was i was surprised by this but i i should say it's notable i wouldn't call it groundbreaking. Like some of the defections would be if they came out. Ashby has had a tenuous relationship with leadership in Phelan. He was, first of all, he ran against Phelan for speaker in 2020.

He was kind of the last or one of the last nominees. I think Jeannie Morrison was the last one. I think you're right. Before Phelan declared victory. Among the, I guess, more moderate group of members. I mean, it's not wholly so, like very some, but generally I think that you can break it down that way. He couldn't get the votes.

Phelan got 76 well more than 76 and declared victory but Ashby has kind of fixed that relationship it seems he got a couple priority bills I think he handled the broadband priority bill last session and so

this is definitely notable him coming out and saying, not only do I back David Cook, not only do I oppose certain things like Democratic chairs or whatever, he said, I'm backing Cook himself. So yeah, that's a notable defection going into the caucus. Yeah, absolutely. And I think, too, you know, a member like Ashby who may have political differences, policy differences with someone like Phelan is taking the temperature of the House and saying, okay, who could potentially be somebody that may align more with what I'm going for, which is interesting that it's Cook. I think that's very notable that it is Cook that he's choosing to throw his support behind because the, you know, coalition behind Cook arguably has been more conservative in whatever consideration that would be, right?

You have a lot of the members who are on the super far right portion of the caucus aligning behind Cook, the reform group, like that's who has pushed Cook to where he is currently, right? So Ashby aligning with that. It's just very interesting politically. And I understand what you're saying in that there is, it's not groundbreaking, but I think it's incredibly notable that he would align with Cook in that way, especially after, like you said, kind of finding a place within the Phelan speakership over the last couple of years. One more thing I will mention is

Trent Ashby is in, I believe, Robert Nichols' district. There's a lot of talk, Senator Robert Nichols, a lot of talk about Nichols stepping down. We're not running for re-election in 26. And so that's going to open the door for various people to run for that

Senate seat. And Ashby's name has been mentioned. So if he game this out, if he backs Phelan and pisses off the Lieutenant Governor, he could not get the Patrick's endorsement or support for that position. Now, that's all hypothetical.

Who knows if Nichols is even going to not run for re-election, but... There are conversations happening. And that's definitely a consideration. These guys, of course, are looking out for their political future. Always. Yep. Always, always. Well, interesting stuff. Bradley, thank you.

We're going to stick with you. There was another update in the long-running string of post-blackout litigation. What happened? The first court of appeals in Texas denied a motion for rehearing on Bonk. you there was another update in the long-running string of post-blackout litigation what happened the first court of appeals in texas denied a motion for rehearing on bonk meaning in front of the full court rather than just a three-judge panel in a dispute from hundreds of customers against dozens of power generators originally there was a lawsuit filed alleging gross negligence by these generators and various other electrical companies seeking damages, basically, for those incurred by these people during the 2021 blackouts. The trial court dismissed a couple of the claims against these companies, but then allowed a few others to continue, including gross negligence.

And then that was appealed by the companies, and they secured a dismissal of these charges in front of a three-judge panel. So basically, this is a motion to rehear it in front of the full nine-judge panel. That was dismissed. So basically I'm not aware of anything that would allow this to continue. It's probably done, but I'm sure there might be something. Maybe it's appealed to the Supreme Court. I'm not sure but you know there's been this web of post blackout litigations all over the place you know whether ERCOT has

governmental immunity whether the PUC is the only jurisdiction which you can one of these companies, various levels, bankruptcy cases, you know, it's all over the place. The amount of money that exchanged hands where it wouldn't have had this not happened is, you can't, I don't know if you can really calculate it. It's just massive. So of course there's going to be a lot of litigation.

This isn't the end of it, but it is another step. And we're starting to see the dominoes settle on all this litigation following the blackouts. What did they say? That was Justice Peter Kelly. He said in his concluding summary, Texas legislature rearranged the electricity generation and distribution markets in 2002, creating a raft of new economic relationships, benefits, duties, and obligations. Our common law should be allowed to grow to accommodate those changes. The panel's holding prevents that growth. Basically in the original decision by the three-judge panel, they prevents that growth. Basically in the original decision by the three-judge panel they found that there is no liability for these companies to maintain electricity supply for customers with whom they have no direct relationship because the way the system is set up is the generator

generates the electricity, gets sold on the wholesale market to a retail electric provider. That retail electric provider pays a transmission company to deliver it. And then the retail, the rep, charges the customer, the end user. So the one who has the direct relationship is the retail electric provider so basically the court ruled that you can't sue here there's no grounds because they're not actually the ones providing you service or guaranteeing you service that's the reps so technical question yeah so this line of generators to the wholesale market to retailers to the end user. Is there companies that own the entire line of this electricity process or are they all individual entities? So there used to be.

You used to have vertical integration where one company would own all steps. Right. But when deregulation happened at the turn of the century, that changed. And the reason they did that was to try and, first of all, allow, because you had these massive companies basically control whole swaths of the state. There was no choice. There was no, you can go shop around like you can with, can with you know your doctor and so they tried to introduce that and they have and so especially if you can't do it here in Austin because everyone's it's a municipal utility but if you're up in Dallas you can shop around you can get encore someone else or whatever so the that changed when they deregulated the market.

And so, that was when the tie between the end user and the generator was broken. And so, that was the justification made by the court originally. And then Kelly's case is kind of like a living constitutional case. I mean, it's not about the Constitution, but it is about law and what law meant at the time. And he is of the opinion that it should evolve as things develop. That's different from a strict constructionist position. But, yeah, that's kind of the legal fight and disagreements behind this substantive decision. Good stuff.

Broadly well done. Cameron, I feel like you're story number four, but it feels like so long since we've talked on this podcast. I know. We started off with gravy discussions, and now we're talking about the electricity grid, and now we're going to talk about something completely different. Totally different.

So the new Texas DPS director has been selected and sworn in. He's on the job. Tell us about it. Yeah. So the selection came down and it's going to be Lieutenant Colonel Freeman Martin, and he will be the new director of the Texas Department of Public Safety. He's actually becoming the first Texas Ranger to lead the agency in its history. And this comes after the previous Texas DPS director, Steve McCraw,

announced back in August that he would be stepping down. And just for some background for people who are wondering, Martin has served in a variety of different roles with DPS, first as a Texas Highway Patrol trooper, then ascending to the ranks of corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, and captain in the Texas Rangers. He was the regional commander for the Central Texas region and deputy director of Homeland Security Operations. So he's now on the job. and during the swearing-in ceremony, McCraw was there, Governor Greg Abbott was there, and they both spoke lovingly of Martin and the work he is going to do. So criminal justice and enforcement is a big issue for Abbott, and it appears it'll be,

Freeman Martin will be continuing on that mission for Abbott moving forward. So just a development there for people. Yeah, certainly a very influential position in the state and worth knowing who's at the helm of it. Yep. Thank you, Cameron. Bradley. Texas's tumultuous relationship with BlackRock hit another bump. What happened?

You really paused for effect there. I also had trouble getting my words off my tongue today. It's a Thursday. Attorney General Ken Paxton announced he and 10 other attorneys general sued BlackRock Vanguard and State Street in federal district court in Tyler, Texas. They are alleging basically conspiracy and market fraud by these companies to buy up enough shares of companies that own coal power plants and pushing them away from coal power, whether it's retiring older plants or moving investments to wind and solar. The brief said, quote, each defendant has individually

acquired substantial stock holdings in every significant publicly held coal producer in the United States. Each has thereby acquired the power to influence the policies of these competing companies and bring about a substantial lessening of competition in the markets for coal. And each has used the power to affect a substantial reduction in competition in coal markets. The suit points to agreements like the Climate Action 100+, that each of these three signed on to in 2021 when it came out. Basically a decarbonization commitment. And they were in there for a year or two. I think Vanguard's still in it,

but BlackRock and State Street have since withdrawn. But we saw this big push back then on the ESG issue to get all these companies on board with decarbonization. Now there were other kinds of things like push towards certain progressive social policies, but the climate, environmental, energy side of things was really what got this first started. The plaintiffs are asking the court for forced divestiture of each company's coal plant holdings and to fine the defendants $10,000 per violation under the texas business and commerce code uh it's also notable that the suit kind of combines it's in federal court so it's not a

state court but they they use the texas violate or ledge violations as the ground to pick the venue basically everybody venue shops whether left or right. They pick a friendly court that they think will go their way initially. And so, but that's not the only, the Texas law is not the only one invoked in here. There's violations alleged in, I think, Wyoming, a few others. I can't remember off the top of my head, but it's kind of all over the place. And that's why you have 10 other attorneys general joining this so ERCOT the basis for this is ERCOT currently

has 14,000 roughly megawatts of installed coal and lignite capacity and about half that is usually operating at any given time that's down from around 20,000 megawatts of coal capacity in 2015. There has been a deliberate move away from coal power. First, on the environmental side, it's less clean than in terms of emissions, carbon emissions, than certainly wind and solar and natural gas. But I think the more impactful reason that coal has been sidelined is the availability and cheapness of natural gas. And natural gas, because it has fewer emissions, those who are looking for reform, who are willing to compromise instead of you know just go straight forward wind solar they will be friendlier to natural gas because of that fact but also it's just been because of the the cheap price of natural gas it's been a more favorable investment so that's the main thing the attorney general here is alleging something else um could be part

of it we'll see what comes out in discovery but uh i think that's a it's a pretty notable case the attorney general is very busy thanksgiving week there's a lot going on why they would announce this the day before thanksgiving yeah it was wednesday i have no idea now they got a bunch of people to cover it so that's fine but like what are you doing who chose that it provides great discussion fodder over Thanksgiving dinner. Over some mugs of gravy. Yeah. Brent, what did BlackRock have to say about the suit? They told me, quote, BlackRock is deeply invested in Texas's success.

On behalf of our clients, we have billions invested in Texas Energy, partnering with the state to attract investments into the Texas power grid, which is what they're referring to. What they're referring to there is the partnership with Lieutenant Governor Patrick in recruiting investment for the Texas Energy Fund to build natural gas plants. That was a big story when that happened. And further, they added, in helping millions of Texans retire with dignity, Black Rocks Holdings and energy companies are regularly reviewed by federal and state regulators. We make these investments on behalf of our clients,

and our focus is on delivering them financial returns. Every time BlackRock has been accused of divesting from the oil and gas industry, they point to the literally billions of dollars they have invested in Texas oil and gas. Now, the argument... They have a diversity of investments. They do. Now, the argument is that they're saying one thing publicly and doing another. Yeah. And even just saying things can affect moves in the world of capital.

For sure. Bless you. Bless you. Bless you. Yeah, I'm pretty much done there okay great i just wasn't i wasn't sure i wasn't reading the room correctly thank you bradley for your coverage yeah brad gave a thumbs up but people can't hear that so i'm letting them know cameron yes ready to chat again let's do it lieutenant governor dan patrick making some waves proposing a statewide THC product ban. Tell us about it.

Yeah, so he made this announcement in a press release where he says that Senate Bill 3 in the upcoming legislative session will, quote, ban all forms of THC and keep these unsafe products off our streets. He mentions issues related to retailers sending or selling these THC laced products that are supposedly targeted to adults but have fallen into the hands of children, he says, and has exposed them to dangerous levels of THC. Patrick touches on how THC-containing beverages could possibly have, as he says, three or four times the THC content than marijuana purchase from a drug dealer. So the Texan was able to clarify that SB3 would not eliminate the compassionate use program. And what that is, is in the state, qualified physicians can prescribe low THC cannabis to patients with certain conditions, which include things like epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder, or an incurable neurodegenerative disease. Got that out.

But the issue here is there was a bill that was passed in 2019, the Texas Hemp Farming Act, that legalized the industrial farming of hemp and removed it from the state's list of controlled substances. Consumable hemp products sold in Texas cannot contain more than 0.3% THC, which can include products such as candy, food and drinks, topicals like lotions or cosmetics. And there's CBD that includes these low levels of THC but also like I mentioned industrial hemp but also cannabis derivatives such as Delta 8 and Delta 9 which are permitted for sale in Texas. Patrick expects the bill to have as he says broad bipartisan support in

the Senate we shall see marijuana legalization has had a lot of support across the country, and there's been a number of bills over the past few sessions trying to open up the aperture of what is the allowable amount of THC. The aperture. I like it. And there's been a number of localities that have attempted to decriminalize marijuana. So we'll see what the appetite is in the upcoming session for a reversal on how the country at large has been sort of moving. I wrote a story a couple months ago about how there was rumors that marijuana is going to be removed from a schedule one drug because it is still a federally illegal drug despite it being decriminalized or

legalized in individual states. So I think this is going to be a you know a large uh largely talked about piece of legislation um brad here put it out on social media on x last night and caught quite a bit of feedback on it gosh the comment section was blown up. With Grinches. What the heck is that? Look at the comments section of my tweet on that. There's like 15 Grinch memes. Yeah. And they're all smoking pot. Is this because he's green?

I guess. Yeah. It's very strange. I feel so out of touch with the kids these days. The youth. It seems like the public is pretty fired up about this. So if that translates to what the debates on the floor will look like, it'll get pretty heated. So I'll be interested to follow this and keep people updated. Absolutely. Big news. Thanks, Cam. Mary Elise, we're coming back to you. Texas filed a

brief with the U.S. Supreme Court last week about some spicy subject matter here. Tell us more. Yeah, so this is another one of those big news pieces that dropped right before Thanksgiving. I believe this dropped on the 26th. So Texas filed a brief with the Supreme Court, along with multiple advocacy groups, state senators, I believe it was around 15, and other individuals. And the brief was to uphold Texas state law that pornographic websites must use age verification. This has been ongoing between Attorney General Ken Paxton and certain pornography companies since a certain House Bill 1181 was passed in 2023. It essentially requires that websites which intentionally publish sexual material harmful to minors to verify the user's

identity either through digital identification or through a third-party system that uses government-issued identification or else be subject to fines, penalties, other consequences. The pornography platforms, including Pornhub, argued that the House Bill 1181 would be a violation of the First Amendment rights against freedom of speech. They filed a lawsuit with an adult entertainment advocacy group called the Free Speech Coalition, FSC, and it was filed against Texas. FSC asked that the United States District Court of Texas, it was the Austin division, they asked that they deem the law unconstitutional and unenforceable, referring to HB 1181. And initially, the judge did side with FSC, but then Paxton appealed it to the Fifth

Circuit Court of Appeals, and that stayed the FSC's injunction and allowed that the law could go into effect in Texas. The companies then appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which led to this situation where Texas and a number of others have filed a brief with the Supreme Court, which led to this situation where Texas and a number of others have filed a brief with the Supreme Court, along with Senators Angela Paxton, Paul Betancourt, and then groups such as Them Before Us. FSC said that its main issue with this bill, with this law, is that it's forcing its users to share their sensitive personal information to gain access, which they're arguing is an ineffective, unsafe, and unconstitutional way to approach it.

And Paxton said, pretty straightforward, he said, let me put this simply, these companies do not have a right to expose children to pornography. And so Texas, after they, since they filed their brief, they will present its arguments to the Supreme Court on January 15th. So that's not too far away, just a little bit over a month. So we'll definitely be watching that closely. But I'd recommend reading the story to get all the details about the history of kind of this struggle between Paxton and these companies.

Paxton, again, at it with over the last week with all sorts of legal action here. So Mary Lee, thanks for covering that for us. Cameron, Paxton, again, is suing an Austin nonprofit, alleging it has contributed to issues in the community. Tell us about it. And like you mentioned, another lawsuit that came out the week of Thanksgiving. This time he sued Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center, a South Austin-based nonprofit organization, alleging that it is, quote, operating as a common nuisance in violation of Texas law. And I think it's worth reading a portion here of the lawsuit. It says, quote, in South Austin, a once peaceful neighborhood has been transformed by homeless drug addicts, convicted criminals, and registered sex offenders. These people do drugs, incited children, publicly fornicate next to an elementary school, menace residents with machetes, urinate, and defecate on public grounds, and generally terrorize the surrounding community. Quite a statement. Yes, very strong language used there, and the issue of it being

located next to an elementary school came up multiple times as I was reading through the lawsuit, so that was a point of focus for the Attorney General, and there was a statement released by the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center where they said quote it is regrettable that the Attorney General Paxson took this route especially during the week of Thanksgiving but Sunrise intends to keep offering services to people in our community who need them and Sun navigation center described itself itself as offering pathways to housing for people experiencing homelessness moreover it says that its work is rooted in quote christian faith and that it quote actively works towards dismantling the

systems that perpetuate inequity in our community so So I think this is an important lawsuit for the people of Austin who, if they walk around the city, they do see the homelessness is still an issue. You know, me and Brad had an interaction a little while ago. Oh, my gosh. But, yeah, we'll see which way this lawsuit goes, if it actually makes any changes, if it's going to have broader implications. I'm not sure. But I think just bringing the issue of homelessness back to public light where people are discussing it once again, I think is important. Just one aspect. Absolutely. Cameron, thank you. Folks, if you did not tune in on Thanksgiving week to some of our Texas history content, I'd super encourage you to go check that out.

We love our history here at the Texan. And I think one of my favorite uh pieces from last week was a podcast conversation between assistant editor rob lausches and justice ken wise um really great conversation and encourage folks to go listen we did something similar with justice wise last year and he's very gracious to continue to come on so definitely go check that out and listen but brad this week on monday you published um a sam houston history piece give us a little teaser of that so monday december 2nd was the 192nd anniversary of sam houston stepping foot in texas obviously he is one of the biggest names in state history for various reasons not least of which is winning the Battle of San Jacinto

and securing independence, then serving as state's president, eventually governor, I think senator too, right? I think so, yeah. Basically everything. Came from Tennessee and big ally of Andrew Jackson. Just a fascinating guy overall. And you can read more about Sam Houston and his impact on the state in the article on the Texan. Good stuff, Bradley.

He's also the namesake of Houston, in case you didn't know that. Really? Yeah, is that crazy? Whoa, mind blown. Could you believe that? Holy cow. I know. I was going to say, what a coincidence. Whoa, mind blown. Could you believe that? Holy cow. I know. I was going to say, what a coincidence.

There was already a city named Houston in here when he came. Blew my mind when I found out. Dang. I know. Super wild. Well, let's move on to Twittery. Cameron, I'm really interested to know what yours is. Well, there's still fallout from the presidential election.

Data. New data. Lots of data. Lots of discussion. And for those that remember, in the lead up to November 5th, there was briefly a media circus surrounding some previous comments J.D. Vance made about childless cat ladies. Oh, yes. Taylor Swift. Yeah. Well, Taylor Swift signed her Instagram endorsement saying she was a childless cat lady. So this made its way into the mainstream. Totally.

To the very top, Taylor Swift. The very top. Well, now we have more data. did pet owners vote wow in the presidential election is it broken down by dog versus cat versus rodent versus reptile versus fish um amphibian see the the depth you wanted to go right there with these types of pets it gets into cat and dog okay we'll take but not lizards or fish or anything i think i just don't want to discriminate i think cats and dogs are the big you know the big fish i'm with you in the sea well most women voters who only own cats

supported harris so. Vance was right. 59% of those who only own cats, women, went for Kamala Harris. 59? Yep. That's actually lower than I would have expected. Men who own cats or dogs mostly voted for Trump. So I don't know what this tells us about the gender politics dog owner versus cat owner let's see it has it broken down here i have a dog in my lap Just cat owners, 54% went for Harris. Cat and dog owners, 53% went for Trump.

Just dog owners, 55% went for Trump. Interesting. Okay. So I don't know what this tells. Look, I watched Meet the Parents. A classic. Over the holidays. And Robert De Niro's character in that movie has Jinxy Cat, if you remember.

I do. That does the tricks. Yes. Gets lost. Ben Stiller's character has to find his where he paints the cat's tail. But he has some strong comments about dog owners versus cat owners i don't remember them well he thinks a cat is a more intelligent animal you really have to earn its respect its love whereas a dog you know it's essentially dumb you know you yell at it

tucks its head between its legs gets scared its head between its legs, gets scared. Its head between its legs. Never seen that before. Well, tail between its legs. So, yeah, I don't know if that means anything. But with this data coming out, people might be doing some self-reflection. Are you more of a cat guy or a dog guy?

I'm more of a dog guy. Yeah. I had dogs growing up. Got it. No cats. Neighbors had cats. They were mean to me. Yeah.

Yeah. That's exactly my experience. My neighbor's cats were mean to me as well, which may have said more about me as a child than the cats, but regardless, it's the nature of the beast. He's having trouble keeping his eyes open he must be really boring he's falling asleep um uh mary-elise let's go to you next my dear yeah well real quick i wanted to add to cameron's yes when i was at the kamala harris rally there

were a whole bunch of shirts that said childless cat lady for harris um so that was i was surprised at how many there were um i actually met one of them she was really nice but there were a lot at the rally so i was curious how that would pan out um that's interesting okay the onto my tweeterie this is this one's a little bit disturbing, but I'm sure as you have all heard, the UnitedHealthcare CEO was killed. I believe it was yesterday. And they found shell casings on the scene that have messages on them, which I thought was really odd. They say deny, defend, and depose. So online journalists are all trying to kind of figure out what exactly this means, what message they were sending.

But I saw if I can find this real quick as you're talking. Go ahead. I'm sorry I interrupted. Well, that's essentially it. It's just I'm I'm curious what this means. That's not usually it's just it's a curious situation. Yeah, I found it here. Alex Berenson. He is a um journalist author uh he said the shooter of the united healthcare chief executive brian thompson wrote deny defend is deposed on the showcase and slipped at the scene um the words echo the name of a book about how insurers won't pay claims and And he posts a picture of the book,

Delay, Deny, Defend, Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It. That's crazy. Interesting, because I know there's lots of discussion like, oh, was this a professional hit job? Was it personal? Because the video is striking.

Horrific. Yeah. yeah yeah because it looks you see from the the back angle of it it looks like it was done this this guy who did this assassination essentially it was like calm like uh firing this it looked like almost something waiting for him what's the tom tom cruise um movie with jamie fox collateral have you guys seen that movie no oh my gosh great movie tom cruise plays a professional hitman in that movie it's great and this guy was giving tom cruise he was giving tom cruise vibes but i was just looking on x and apparently there there's been photos released by the police where the mask is down by the guy. They haven't found him yet, have they? Yeah, they don't. I also saw an interesting post about this where some kid who was just scraping city bike data.

Did you see this? Did you see this? Did you see this, Mary Elise? Yeah, I mean, I just kind of read the headline. I didn't actually watch the video. Yeah, some kid was just like a personal project, like scraping data about city bikes and where they move and where they're docked and stuff. And he was able to track the city bike

that this killer used to flee the scene when it was docked. Oh, my gosh. You know, there's ways to track everyone. That's crazy. There's information out there. Wow. Interesting. It's wild to me that they don't have him yet in today.

It's really wild to me. Do they know who it is or they have no idea i think they do they've got a picture of his face yeah um i'll need to look but i don't know if they have like a he looks really pitiful right now i don't know if they have we can find that out. Bradley, what you got? So first, I will say that this is a glorious day, Cameron. Is it? Yeah.

Why? Because Scotty Scheffler is back in action. Oh, my gosh. Maslin asked me to say that. It's not my actual tweetery. My actual tweetery is the Texas House Democratic Caucus had their election last night for leadership. And they changed it up at the top and I think in most of the other positions as well. But the big one is at the top for chairman of their caucus.

Trey Martinez Fisher, the incumbent from San Antonio, was running for re-election. John Bryant, who's also in the speaker's race, Democrat from Dallas, was in. And then a late entry was Houston rep Gene Wu. He'd been in the House for a while. Fisher's been in the House for a while. Bryant was in the house for a while. Bryant was in the house for a while, way back when, and then he left and came back last cycle. So they had their vote. Bryant dropped out pretty quickly, it looked like,

and then it went to a vote between Wu and TMF. But eventually it became clear, it seemed to TMF, that he didn't have the votes so he dropped out and woo ended up winning i think the vote the number i saw was there was about four or five votes separating them and it just wasn't budging so if if there's a big difference between woo and tmf what would you say it is where they're from that's it I would say that's a big one the main gripe with TMF from last session was how disorganized the

Democrats were here a lot that they didn't have a plan for anything and I which I feel is an odd statement because I feel like the Democrats especially as we talked about earlier in the podcast, Points of Order seemed like they were on top of that. That's also can be done individually. Like you see that with with Republicans a lot, especially those on the right flank of the caucus. They're just there's a lot of discontent

with how TMF handled things last session and they decided to go in another direction. Gene Wu tweeted a statement after he said I'm honored to have received the support and trust of my colleagues I look forward to working for the members of the Texas HTC to ensure they each have the tools and support they need to pass meaningful legislation for their districts and fight for everyday Texans who deserve a fair shot and a voice in the legislature well what are these tools that they're missing like what do you think he's gonna do differently I have no idea I

mean you can negotiate with leadership more to get things usually kept out of bills and if you're going there as a whole group rather than a bunch of different factions which is very difficult to do you see that on the Republican side right they're divided as well and you get things you want in bills or maybe even keep things you don't want in bills out. Also, you know, this chairmanship stuff is going to play. We're going to play in that. There's also a fight in the Democratic Party,

and I do not know where Gene Wu falls on this, that believes they play ball too much with the Republicans and the GOP leadership. Interesting. John Bryant and Maria Ramos, who are both running for Speaker, are among that. And they want it to look more like D.C. in terms of you have a minority leader and everyone follows suit

and just tries to blow as much up as possible. Generally. Now, it's not on everything, right? You have bills that aren't partisan one way or the other but um here in texas until well maybe it changes next session we'll see but you have a group of uh members who get chairmanships who get say on a lot of the the big ticket items they they get privileges with especially if they've been there for a long time and then there's the have-nots and ramos has been that bryant's in that um i don't know which way woo goes on this um he's now

leading the caucus so he's going to have to provide some direction. But it was shocking, I think, in that Wu does not have the reputation of being that compromised guy. He's often back-miking, talking about how terrible the ideas the Republicans are putting out are. So I think that tells you a

bit of the shift in where this is going to go so i don't know it remains to be seen yeah but um that was a that was a very interesting development yeah absolutely and more than anything i think it shows how how upset people are with how tmf things last year. The approach is so different. Yeah. It'll be very interesting. We interviewed Trey Martinez-Fisher on our podcast. You can go watch that. Yeah.

It was a while ago, but it's still there. Lots of changes in Democratic leadership in Texas, period, right now. So it'll be interesting to see how that affects how they operate as a caucus this next session. Well, with Gilberto Hinojosa he stepped down right yeah do we have any do we know who's gonna run for that chairmanship uh are they still last i saw was the the vice chair announced she was running and then dropped out so i don't know who is running for that yet yeah they're gonna do that in March. So it might not have developed fully yet. I don't know.

But there'll be a few months, I think, till we know. Yeah. Lots of shakeups. Lots of shakeups. I mean, a massive election loss like we just saw. We'll do that. Yeah, absolutely. Well, gentlemen, Mary Elise, thank you guys for joining me.

I appreciate it. Wait, I actually want to talk about a fat bear. Hold on. This is my tweeter. For those still listening, this is why. This is the treat. This is the treat at the end. Meet Fat Albert.

I think Brad sent this to me, actually. Did you send Fat Albert to me? I did. Yeah. Always looking out for you. Yeah. Despite your grievances. Sometimes he contributes things

to my life um meet fat albert he is the heaviest polar bear in alaska the average polar bear should weigh around a thousand pounds though fat albert weighs a whopping 1500 pounds whoa check this guy out that's a fat bear too many coca-colas he needs some bears i'm big he's uh quite the creature and his paws like his paws are like the size of our torsos wow think about that they're just huge anyways that's my uh also in my newsletter this week i'll talk about about haggis, a new pygmy hippo that was born in Scotland, which makes sense because haggis. Y'all ever had haggis? No. Don't recommend it.

What is it? It's like meat and some spices and some like grain uh grain in in intestine so you said this is a pygmy hippo like yes is the mood dang phenomena is still happening on tiktok because i haven't seen it happening not well because that's not really my you know bubble yeah that's not your algorithm bubble. Yeah, that's not your algorithm. Yeah. Is that still floating around in the algorithm, these hippos? I think what is really happening is that a lot of other baby hippos, whether pygmy or not, are being born.

And zoos are capitalizing. Oh, it's saturating the market. Yes. The market is saturated with baby hippos. And haggis is the latest. Okay. Yeah. Well, for those wondering, if you give a a prediction what's going to be the next

animal trend what's something that's sort of popping up that you're keeping your eye on that's a good question baby monkeys you know baby giraffes i think baby giraffes but i'm just partial to baby giraffes because um they're spindly and crazy and I look like them when I attempt to run. On that note, folks, we appreciate you tuning in and we'll catch you on next week's episode. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, subscribe to The Texan at thetexan.news. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to

our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting us an email to editor at thetexan.news. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.