The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - December 8, 2023

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free Gonzales Flag t-shirt 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, the team discusses:The Texas Legislature adjourning sine die after the fourth special session of 2023A shooting that killed six by a suspect who was bailed out of jail by an interest group in 2022A lawsuit from a woman claiming to require an abortion challenging Texas’ pro-life lawsThe Texas attorney general suing the U.S. State Department for allegedly censoring conservative mediaThe mayor of Austin and district attorney of Travis County’s letter requesting federal investigation into Austin policeThe Travis County district attorney facing a citizen petition to have him removed from officeThe latest meeting in Austin of the Texas GOP’s State Republican Executive CommitteeHouston ISD’s state-appointed superintendent claiming the district has over 100 schools with “D” or “F” ratingsA Texas state representative pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges of impersonating a public servantThe results of November’s constitutional amendment election being delayed due to election contestsERCOT approving a new emergency electricity pricing tool to cut costs for consumersAnd more. 

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here, and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup. This week, the team discusses the legislature adjourning Sinai after the fourth special session of this year, a shooting that killed six by a suspect who was bailed out of jail by an interest group in 2022, a lawsuit from a woman claiming to require an abortion, challenging Texas' pro-life laws. The Texas Attorney General suing the U.S. State Department for allegedly censoring conservative media. The mayor of Austin and Travis County District Attorney writing a letter requesting federal investigation into Austin police. The Travis County D.A. facing a citizen petition to have him removed from office. The latest meeting of the Texas GOP's State Republican Executive Committee. Houston ISD's state-appointed superintendent,

claiming the district has over 100 schools with D or F ratings. A state representative pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges of impersonating a public servant. The results of November's constitutional amendment election being delayed due to election contests. ERCOT approving a new emergency electricity pricing tool to cut costs for consumers. Texas receiving almost a billion and a half dollars to manufacture weapons for Ukraine. And the city commissioner sentenced to prison for accepting bribes for water treatment contracts. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Well, howdy folks. It's Mackenzie here with Brad, Matt, Cameron, and Hayden.

We're off to a great start today as we always tend to be. Cameron, we were just talking about the woolly mammoths and how all bets are off because I approved a story about a woolly mammoth this week. Brad then made some snarky comment to which i've already forgotten but um tell brad really fast what this woolly mammoth situation is all about well we haven't put it out yet i don't know like the details i actually don't i do not i was just told they're like trying to do some genetic cloning or something along those lines. And apparently they're also going to be trying to do a genetic cloning of a dodo bird. I did hear that. Is that right? I thought dodo birds went extinct a long time ago.

So did woolly mammoths. Yeah. But the thing with these woolly mammoths they keep finding them completely intact encased in ice that's wild you know all the fur and all that oh wow yeah that's wild like food still in their stomach really interesting stuff so preservation right there i remember watching a discovery channel special 20 years ago where they were talking about how they were finally going to clone a woolly mammoth. So now we're just finally getting to this or have they been slow rolling this? And all we got was that dumb sheep instead.

You know, I want a Jurassic Park where we can go see some dinosaurs or something. Yeah. Brad, you were nine years old, eight years old, almost nine years old and watching History Channel Woolly Mammoth specials? Discovery Channel. Excuse me. Right after my dad and I watched for

the 50 millionth time some World War II episode on the Battle of Midway on the military history channel so thank you very little battle of midway is phenomenal so fair fair um okay well gentlemen why don't we go ahead and start our podcast also merry christmas to our listeners i frankly get to say it without any ridicule from my office mates which i'm very excited about more holly and kim that's really where it comes down as ho Holly and Kim are the ones to keep me in line with my Merry Christmas.

Well, I'm just surprised you haven't played all I want for Christmas by Mariah Carey yet in the office. Overrated Christmas song. Really? Yep. Hot take, but overrated Christmas song. Okay.

Yeah. A rare good take from Mackenzie. Let the games begin. I was about to say, well, we'll pivot away from somebody to somebody else. But Brad is my first story for this podcast, so I have to continue to talk to him. So here we go. Brad, let's talk about the fourth special session. The curtains closed this week on what seems to be the final special session of this year.

How did it all finish? So legislature passed two border-related bills during the fourth special session of this year. How did it all finish? So legislature passed two border related bills during the fourth special session. One appropriates $1.5 billion for construction and maintenance of border barriers, including the state's border wall, plus a $40 million appropriation for overtime costs associated with DPS's surge patrolling of the colony ridge development in Liberty County. We heard a lot of discussion about how that can be addressed, some proposals. But really what they settled on was funding more overtime patrol. I wrote a piece a month ago or so on that DPS surge.

You can read about it, what they're doing. But that was the legislature's main response to the Colony Ridge situation. Additionally, well, those were the only, sorry, additionally, there was the creation of a state penalty for illegal entry from a foreign nation. And those were the two bills that passed the session. There were a number of others that did not make it across the finish line. Some of those are the creation of an additional appropriation for a school security fund along with a bill to expedite the process of contesting elections. An abruptly filed response to multiple legal challenges in courts against constitutional amendments that just passed last month. The state is now opposing those in court, and we'll see how they turn out.

The state seems pretty bullish on their ability to swat those down, but we shall see. The biggest moment of the session, however, occurred on the friday before thanksgiving when the house finally had a floor vote on school choice it resulted in um the education savings account provision of this education omnibus being stripped 21 house republicans joined the chambers democrats in stripping that provision from the omnibus bill killing it for the time being. We see responses to that. There were questions about maybe a fifth special session to try and force that through, though the votes seem just not to be there right now. So for now, that's it. It seems like there will not be a fifth special session, though things could always change.

But for now, the primary is the next thing on the horizon. Yeah. So where does that leave the legislature? So Governor Greg Abbott is already in full swing endorsing against some of the 21Rs who voted to strip ESAs and has indicated that some races could see as much as $1 million in spending by him on the challenger's behalf. I don't think it's likely that he'll get heavily involved or even endorse in every one of those races. It varies depending on how serious the challenger is probably. But there are some that he's already jumped into right away. One of those that sticks out is hd 55 hillary hicklund against hugh shine that one's going to be a pretty high profile battle i think um but the governor has jumped into that and i think that's a candidate that you could see him dump a significant amount of money into

meanwhile the lieutenant governor and speaker of the house remain embroiled in a bloody feud that's been raging at least since the electricity repricing debacle in 2021. But it's encompassed far more than that now. And we even saw Dan Patrick hold a presser on Tuesday in which he again called for Phelan's ouster. And while he didn't endorse Phelan's challenger, David Covey. He said that voters should ask their reps if they support his speakership and if so, vote for their challenger. Legislators have been in session for most of this year

and they're all sick of each other and angry about various things that happened this year. Now they have a couple weeks before Christmas after which primary season jumps into sixth gear. We're already seeing that happening right now. The filing deadline is Monday. So after that, we will have a full and complete picture on what the primary ballot will look like next year.

Absolutely, Bradley. Thank you. Hayden, coming to you, what did Bexar County officials have to say about the shooting suspect recently accused of killing six people. Tragically, this week, there was a series of shootings that resulted in the deaths of six individuals. A suspect was apprehended in the capital murders of these six people, which took place in Bexar County, down in the San Antoniotonio san antonio area and here in austin travis county area an austin police officer and an austin isd police officer were also injured and a third person was injured as well those are the basic facts of the killings this week, Bexar County officials addressed the issue because it was reported that the 34-year-old male charged with murdering these people had previously been in custody in

Bexar County on misdemeanor family violence charges and was released from custody in early 2022. The Travis County, forgive me, the Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar and the district attorney there in Bexar County, Joe Gonzalez, addressed the public about this rather scary series of occurrences that took place. Certainly. What were the circumstances of the suspect's release from jail in 2022? Sheriff Salazar provided an outline of what happened. As I mentioned, these were misdemeanor charges of family violence, as I understood it. He was accused of assaulting his parents and siblings. The sheriff outlined the encounters that police had with this suspect. He was taken to jail. He was later bailed out of jail by an interest group called

the Texas Organizing Project. This is a group that advocates for more lax bail policies. These were low-level misdemeanor charges, as District Attorney Gonzalez explained, so the bail amounts were relatively low. He was released from jail in early March of 2022, according to the sheriff. The next day, he cut his ankle monitor. The sheriff noted that at that time, it was not a crime to cut one's ankle monitor off of the ankle. It was a violation of the bond conditions, obviously, but it was not a criminal offense. Since then, the Texas legislature and Governor Abbott have enacted a law that makes that act itself a felony offense. with this individual during a mental health episode, their options were limited because these were not felony warrants. When they had this encounter at the home of the suspect and his parents, he was naked. He was not making sense. He was erratic. And because these were misdemeanor warrants, this wasn't like an episode of CSI San Antonio where they could just bust down

the door, go in and drag him out in handcuffs. The sheriff said they were concerned that they would have some kind of violent confrontation with a person who was having a mental health episode, so they were unable to take him into custody regretfully. Reporters asked the DA and the sheriff if they intended to return any campaign donations they received from Texas Organizing Project, this group that bailed the suspect out of jail. The district attorney denied ever taking any money from this group. The sheriff, however, did confirm that he did take a donation from the group, but he contended that this group did nothing wrong by helping the suspect exercise his constitutional

right to post bond. And he did nothing wrong by accepting this group's support during an election. So he said he will not be returning any of the campaign cash that he received. Did the governor have anything to say about this? Governor Abbott did publish a statement. This person is sitting in jail on capital murder charges. It is extremely unlikely that he will be released on bond again. Governor Abbott did publish a full statement. I will not read the whole thing as it was quite lengthy, but the governor more or less said that he and his wife are praying for the victims in this case.

He said, quote, Texas is a law and order state and violence will never be tolerated. End quote. There you go, Hayden. Thank you so much for your coverage. Cameron, we're coming to you. A Texas woman is claiming she needs an emergency abortion. You were at the courthouse earlier today watching all of this go down. Tell us about this case. That's right.

This was a lawsuit that was filed earlier this week, and we had a emergency hearing just 48 hours after it was filed. So, and really the most recent developments, like you mentioned, I went down to the courthouse, they actually weren't letting reporters in the courtroom. Everything was live streamed. So, I was watching the arguments and the judge did end up And this woman involved in the case was experiencing complications with her pregnancy, where she was diagnosed by a physician who was a part of this lawsuit as well and stated that it was unlikely for the baby to survive based upon her medical professional evaluation. And this filing announcement came from the Center for Reproductive Rights. They're also involved in the Zorowski v. Texas case, which has been argued in front of the Texas Supreme Court. The woman involved in this case

said that she has been experiencing cramping, fluid leaks, and the baby was actually diagnosed with a condition that would end up causing it to be stillborn or only survive for a few minutes or hours or days. And so during the initial arguments today that we heard, the state was saying that there was an attempt by the attorneys representing Cox to make a move from an objective measure to a subjective belief in that the standard for seeking a medical exemption for an abortion is stated in the law. They also noted that in the lawsuit, there was no mention of the hospital or their potential liability in this case. And for Cox representation in this case, they were quite frank saying there was clearly a medical issue and that the physician had made a good faith medical judgment. And ultimately, like I mentioned earlier, the restraining order was granted.

On the video live stream, Cox and her husband were both on screen. They had an emotional reaction to that. And what was interesting, the judge in this case said that it would be shocking and a miscarriage of justice for the fact that Cox wants to be a mother and is experiencing medical complications with her present pregnancy. So this was a lawsuit that came about this week. We had an emergency hearing and a judgment on the temporary restraining order. There has been no word yet from the attorney general's office at the time of this recording, but we can expect something to come out, I am sure. Absolutely. So you spoke with, um, or heard from some pro-life organizations that had very different perspectives on what the situation required. Could you give us a little bit of

insight into the arguments from the pro-life side of the argument? Yes. So right after the lawsuit came out this week, the organization Texas Right to Life also put out a press release in response saying they recognize the heartbreak that Ms. Cox is experiencing and that the answer is, quote, not to end the child's life because of the baby's disability, but state law does anticipate the serious risk to the mother. So this is indicative of what is laid out in Texas pro-life laws, such as the Heartbeat Act, where doctors are not to be civilly liable for performing abortion if the physician believes a medical emergency exists that prevents compliance. So this is because of the pro-life laws in the state. It was an interesting judgment during the hearing. So we will likely see an appeal, I'm sure, but we will follow up if that ever does come. Absolutely. Cameron, thank you so much for your coverage. Matt, coming to you,

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is alleging the Biden administration is using a tool of warfare to censor conservative media outlets in a new lawsuit. Give us the details. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a joint lawsuit along with co-planists The Daily Wire and The Federalist, both online media platforms, suing the United States State Department, alleging that the abuse of an office within the State Department called the Global Engagement Center is abusing a program intended to be used on foreign state actors to stop propaganda and misinformation from being used against the United States, and is using a technology developed under this program against

domestic media outlets that are disfavored by the federal government. In short, the lawsuit describes how the government created multiple censorship programs that work to deplatform, shadow ban, and discredit and demonize certain American media outlets. It essentially did this by partnering up with big tech and social media platforms, etc., etc. It argues that some of these mechanisms were not just surveillance tools for the government to monitor and identify the potential propaganda and disinformation coming from foreign actors, but rather characterized the technology as being developed as a tool of warfare used to shape public opinion and perceptions that has been misappropriated and misdirected to be used at home against domestic political opponents and members of the American press with viewpoints conflicting with federal officials.

Both of the co-plainiffs in the suit, the Daily Wire and the Federalists, say that they have suffered a loss of revenue and reduced circulation as a result of being targeted victims of the program. They're seeking a court order preventing the administration from continuing the censorship, and they say that it violates their First Amendment rights. Well, there you go. Matt, thank you so much for your coverage. I appreciate that so much. Hayden, we're coming to you. Why are elected officials in Austin calling for a federal investigation of the police? Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice requesting that federal investigators open an inquiry into the actions of law enforcement officers during the 2020 demonstrations and riots in the days following the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota. District Attorney Jose Garza, by way of some political background, won his Democratic primary against the incumbent Margaret Moore in early 2020

on a campaign pledge to pursue what he would call accountability for officers suspected or accused of misconduct. Then there was the unrest that occurred in the summer of 2020. Dozens of officers were accused of various types of misconduct, specifically relating to the use of less than lethal rounds of ammunition that were said to injure demonstrators or rioters during that time. Mr. Garza opened a series of investigations into officers accused of misconduct, and those investigations resulted in many officers being indicted. However, at this time, the mayor and district attorney Garza are asking the feds to have their own investigation and perhaps bring federal charges against officers who were accused of misconduct. Essentially, they're kicking it

upstairs. In this letter that these two elected officials wrote, they said, quote, the parties seek DOJ review to help provide transparent closure for the community to ensure that justice is done and that any response to similar protests in the future will not result in unnecessary or unlawful use of force, end quote. Did this happen in tandem with any other announcement? It did. The Travis County DA dropped charges against 17 of 21 officers who had previously been indicted. Many of these officers, as I understand it, believe that they are the target of a political persecution. Justin Barry published a statement. He was one of the officers charged. He was also a Republican candidate for state representative here in the Austin area. Mr. Barry published a statement thanking his family, relying on his faith, again, invoking the idea that he is the target of a political persecution. Obviously, that concept is debatable, whether one believes he is guilty of the first degree felonies of which he was accused. And I believe there were first degree charges against him. Part of Mr. Berry's statement was, quote, today, 17 of us have had our first degree felony charges dismissed. These charges carried potential life sentences in prison, a life where a wife sees her husband in a cage as a political prisoner.

A child left fatherless in a world that desperately needs present fathers. Streets void of the very sheepdogs they need immensely, end quote. So Mr. Berry pushing back against Mr. Garza as these charges against him were dropped and the charges against these other officers were dropped amid a very heated debate over the Thank you so much for covering that for us. Matt, we're coming to you. A new state law allows citizens to seek the removal of rogue prosecutors. And now the Travis County District Attorney is facing one of these first removal lawsuits filed by an Austin citizen. Give us the details. Jason Salazar, who is a former Republican candidate for Travis County judge and sheriff, filed a lawsuit in state district court against Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza, seeking his removal from office by using the new state law to rein in rogue prosecutors. The law allows prosecutors, such as district and county attorneys, to be removed who have a policy refusing to enforce certain state laws. Salazar cites examples of Garza's well-known policy not to prosecute certain levels of possession of drugs,

and another case he announced his refusal to enforce the state ban on abortion. He also cites Garza's blanket policy to present charges against police officers accused of misconduct to the grand jury, saying his singling out of law enforcement constitutes a violation of their rights to do process and is discriminatory in nature. Specifically, it talks about how the grand jury system is very one-sided. Jurors only hear what Garza accuses the officers of behind closed doors. In detail, it goes on to explain how Garza's campaign was elected on a platform to refer all misconduct allegations against law enforcement to the grand jury, and in practice, he's presented

cases before the investigation was complete. Salazar alleges Garza has violated his duty not to present cases in which probable cause was never established. Now, Salazar has self-represented himself in this case, meaning he doesn't have an attorney representing himself. And after an initial hearing, if a judge decides to allow it to go forward, a jury will ultimately decide whether or not to remove Garza from office. There you go. Matt, thank you so much for your coverage. Bradley, coming to you this past weekend, if you were on Twitter at all and tuned into State Politics at all, I'm sure you saw something about the SREC, the State Republican Executive Committee was quite busy. Brad,

give us a rundown of what happened. So the Texas GOP Executive Committee's quarterly meeting was jam-packed. It included a censure of Representative Andrew Murr, who spearheaded the impeachment effort against Paxton, the advancement of a censure resolution against Speaker Phelan, debate over and action on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, and the potential of a texas question on next year's primary ballot the mer censure allows the party to drop its impartial posture in that race though it really doesn't matter anymore as mer is not seeking re-election this has ended up being more of just a statement of condemnation essentially the. The same thing could happen, though, with Phelan, if the body has an emergency meeting next year, probably in January or February, to give final passage to that resolution that was passed by two county GOPs in his district, Orange and, I believe, Jasper. And so the SRAC resolutions Committee advanced that out of their body, but due to public notice requirements, the full body can't approve it until an emergency meeting is held later. waded into Phelan's race, endorsing the speaker's challenger, David Covey, in his personal capacity.

If the SREC does adopt this, it will make clear what we kind of already know, that the apparatus of the Texas GOP is very much against the sitting house speaker and is going to try and unseat him in the primary. Yeah. And this is, you know, the timeline for this is notable and important as the primary is the first Tuesday of March. So the SREC, if they want to make any sort of statement officially in light of Phelan and his primary challenger, that's the timeline they're working with. And so a vote sooner rather than later would benefit those in favor of it. What happened with the anti-Semitism resolution that was on the docket? So the body passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and reaffirming support for Israel in the war against Hamas.

But the most heated debate concerned language that would have forbade the party's association with anyone, quote, who espouses or tolerates anti-semitism after back and forth similar language was eventually stripped from the final resolution there was two different resolutions the first one was tabled indefinitely that had that language the second one um had this language stripped and it um it was a string of events that featured heated debate over the language's necessity matt rinaldi said that he isn't he doesn't think it's necessary because he isn't aware of any associations with anti-semites and anyone who espouses pro-naazi views and also criticism about how broadly the word tolerate could be stretched. On the counter, numbers like Rolando Garcia and Kristen Bentley, two of the higher profile SRAC members, I would say, argued quite a bit that this was necessary and not a difficult vote to take it should have been done

we saw lieutenant governor dan patrick come out afterwards and criticize the lack of inclusion of this language uh he said that they should uh remediate that at the next whenever this emergency meeting comes up uh speaker feeling came out and issued his own more fiery condemnation. So for once, those two are actually on the same side on something. We'll see how long that lasts. But this whole thing, though they weren't mentioned explicitly, the debate was ostensibly about the Defend Texas Liberty scandal that we've talked about. Of course, that conservative PAC whose parent consulting firm hosted back in October, Nick Fuentes, a right-wing gadfly and anti-Semitic commentator. over within the party over the last couple months and it um it culminated in this we'll see if there's any further developments but you have two very clear sides in this those that are more

friendly to defend texas liberty after this and those that very much want to publicly cut ties with them in every possible way it's just a question of who wins out in this. And really, I'm not sure how much of it's really going to matter, but yeah. So yeah, lots to consider. Matt, do you have something to jump in here? I just wanted to throw in that amendment that Brad was talking about. It failed extremely narrowly. Like I think it was like 31,

29, 32. Yeah. 29 to 32. Yeah. I noticed, uh, over the weekend that,

uh, the two SREC members from Senate district 31, Tisha Crowe and Thomas Warren, uh, Crowe was unable to attend the meeting. So her vote was vacant. And then Warren put out a statement saying that he had a proxy serving that weekend. And if he'd have been there, he would have voted in favor of

the amendment. And I think between those two, if they show up at the next meeting, I think that'll flip it, if I'm not mistaken. So it would go from narrowly failing to narrowly passing. There you go. Okay, so Brad, what about the Texit issue? Was anything brought up relating to that? So the SREC Resolutions Committee did not advance a proposed ballot question on Texas independence in an initial vote. I believe the wording proposed somewhere along the lines of should texas reassert itself as an independent nation uh they the committee only approved 10 of these ballot questions these things are just basically polls that are placed on ballots um questions of opinion of the electorate, has no statutory policy effect whatsoever. But it would be a pretty big step to get that on the ballot and actually have a pretty firm understanding

of where Republican voters fall on this issue because polling has been pretty scant. That's been a big effort by the Texas nationalist movement, which is pushing this. But ultimately, the item only got three votes in the initial stage when process and place the question on the ballot. The deadline to turn those signatures in is, I believe, Monday. And so they are determined to do that, and they say they have enough. They say they have pre-checked these signatures for validity to ensure it gets on the ballot. TNN President Daniel Miller said, This isn't a setback. This is a mistake by the Texas Republican Party.

The party will be forced to verify our petition signatures one by one at their own expense. We look forward to Texas being on the ballot this March. Again, there's no potential for Texas seceding if this gets on the ballot and passes. This is just a question of opinion. But it would be a pretty big step. And this is something the nationalist movement has been working towards for a while. And we'll see if they can get it across the line. Absolutely. Very notable. Thank you, Bradley. Cameron, we are coming to you next. Houston ISD has experienced a roller coaster of events in the past year during its takeover by the state. And now its superintendent appointed by the state. And now its superintendent, appointed by the state, has revealed some new information about an analysis they did

regarding their campuses. Tell us the details. Yeah, I'll just give some brief background real quick. The initial announcement of the Houston ISD intervention took place in 2019 after a Texas Education Agency investigation found almost 50 schools in the state's largest ISD had D or F ratings. And they also conducted an investigation that found elected Houston ISD board of trustees. They had violated the Texas Open Meetings Act and violated laws relating to contracting. So that's just a little bit of background how we got here. But there was a press conference on Tuesday where the appointed superintendent, Mike Miles, indicated that over 100 schools have received D or F ratings for the year. And Miles said that the analysis was done on raw data using a methodology called

the assessment accountability and compliance. To tabulate these scores, he found that there are 52 F-rated HISD schools, 59 with D ratings, and 64 with C ratings. And though Miles said the scores are, quote, unofficial, he stated that, quote, they're accurately based on the raw data, which we have. Yeah, absolutely. So why was this unofficial analysis necessary? Well, what's interesting is the TEA is currently entangled in a lawsuit that was filed over its new refresh program. And school districts have been upset about this. They have filed a lot of schools. A lot of school districts have joined in this lawsuit against the TEA. And just recently, a Travis County judge granted a temporary injunction that prohibits the

TEA from assigning the retroactive performance scores for the 2022-2023 school year until the trial is conducted in February 2024. There you go, Cameron. Thank you so much. Hayden, we're coming back to you now. What was the plea agreement that State Representative Frederick Frazier reached with prosecutors this week. It is not often that I get to use the word sabotage in an article, but this time I did, and it's a lot of fun. State Representative Frederick Frazier pleaded guilty and no contest to charges related to his alleged sabotage of his Republican opponent's campaign in 2022. Representative Frazier pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of criminal mischief. It is a low-level misdemeanor.

We're talking maximum $500 fine, traffic ticket-level criminal offense. He also pleaded no contest to impersonating an officer. These charges stemmed from 2022 allegations. He will reportedly not receive any type of incarceration. Instead, he will face thousands of dollars in fines. He will also be placed on deferred adjudication probation, and he has agreed to leave his post at the Dallas Police Department. Frederick Frazier, in addition to being a lawmaker, is a prominent law enforcement officer in the North Texas area. This plea agreement brings an end to a criminal case that has been pending for quite some time now. And a lot of talk at the Capitol about this for many years.

Let's get into the allegations against Frazier during the 2022 election cycle. Frazier was accused of approaching a Walmart employee and pretending to be a city code enforcement officer in order to ask the supervisor at Walmart to take down Paul Shabbat's campaign signs. Shabbat was his opponent in the 2022 primary. These two men eventually went to a runoff. Frazier decidedly won that runoff. Frazier would later counter these claims by saying that Shabbat had run for office in California and had also accused his opponent in California of sign stealing and sign destruction. Of course, simply because somebody has made the same accusation twice bears no relevance to whether it's true. It could be true

that Shabbat signs were stolen or destroyed in the California case as well, but that was Frazier's rebuttal. And then he ultimately pleaded guilty in no contest to these charges. But Frazier was accused more or less of impersonating a code enforcement officer that was originally indicted as a third degree felony multiple times. So he could have faced lengthy prison sentences if it was two third degree felonies, which have a maximum penalty of 10 years. He could have conceivably received a 20-year prison sentence for this. So he is significantly coming out of this smelling like a rose as opposed to what could have happened in this case. What was the reaction from Frederick and his foes after the agreement? Frederick published a statement, more or less, continuing to fight these charges despite

settling them. He said, quote, this has been a very long and ridiculous process concerned with four signs that everyone acknowledges my opponent's campaign placed in violation of various ordinances and campaign finance rules. But I am ready to put this dispute aside. I am very happy to have this two-year-old issue behind me. At the end of the process, my record will remain clear. I remain committed to serving the people of Collin County, end quote. His opponents also published statements calling on him to resign. He has two primary opponents at this time, Carissa Richardson, and he has another opponent that interestingly has been endorsed by Ken Paxton in addition to Carissa Richardson.

Former McKinney Councilman Chuck Branch has received Paxton's endorsement in addition to Carissa Richardson. However, Governor Abbott backed Frazier for reelection after he helped try to defeat an amendment that stripped school vouchers from the education bill in the most recent special session. So a lot of proxy wars going on here. You have Abbott backing Frazier. You have Paxton backing both of his opponents who have called for Frazier to resign over these accusations. And then Paul Shabbat, of course, came out swinging as well, reminding everyone that Frazier reiterating his accusations that Frazier sabotaged his campaign. Yeah, certainly some spicy stuff, Hayden. Thank you so much. Matt, coming to you, numerous lawsuits were filed challenging the results of the November constitutional amendment election, which is holding up the certification of the results. Tell us about the backlash this

has prompted from certain officials. Petitions filed with state district courts covering multiple counties by pro se or self-represented voters are contesting the results of the November election, which saw numerous proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution. And with those contests, the results of the election will be delayed in that Governor Craig Abbott cannot certify and officially adopt the amendments which were passed. Lawmakers are now trying to rush through a last-minute legislation to speed up the process. The challenges appear to be led by a man named Jared Woodward, an activist who alleges both state and local officials are not complying with election integrity-related laws. The plaintiffs allege that electronic voting machines used in the

election were not properly inspected and certified by qualified laboratories, and that certain devices that are part of the election voting systems are connected to the internet in violation of a provision in the Texas election code. Under current law, a trial contesting the results of a constitutional amendment election may not be held earlier than 45 days after the election, nor later than 180 days, unless the contestant, specifically Woodward and the other co-plaintiffs, requests an earlier trial date. Senator Brian Hughes, as well as Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, have reacted to this with Hughes filing Senate Bill 6, which amends the current law and requires a trial not to be held later than 50 days after the date of the election, and also shortened the time that appeals may be filed and heard. While the legislation passed the Texas Senate, the Texas House refused to take up the bill and adjourned the special session, signing die. I should mention that it wasn't on the special

session call, and I don't believe Governor Greg Abbott ever weighed in on whether or not he would have added it to the call should the Texas House would have taken it up. But nonetheless, for now, the lawsuit will proceed under the existing laws and the constitutional amendments will remain on hold. Specifically, ones like the landmark property tax reform and retired teachers cost of living adjustments will all remain on hold until the lawsuits are resolved. Now, shortly after publication of our story, the Secretary of State, who is the defendant in these lawsuits, filed a response. So we'll keep an eye on this story and see how it develops. Absolutely. Thank you, Matt. Bradley, coming to you. The state's power grid authority announced a new program ahead of the winter season. What's the program? The electricity

pricing program was given final approval, and it's meant to reduce costs for consumers during times of grid stress. The ERCOT market has a constantly fluctuating price along supply and demand curves rather than a negotiated price up front like most of the rest of the country. That means as scarcity increases, so does the price. After the 2021 blackouts, the price cap was reduced from $9,000 per megawatt hour to $5,000, an attempt to cap the amount of money that electricity can cost. Reduce the cap cap i should say this new epp would reduce that cap to 2 000 megawatts per hour should the state face a prolonged emergency condition it's a way to

prevent the massive cost overruns shouldered during the 2021 event when prices remained at their cap for days on end overall we'll see how if we maybe we won't see for a while how this would affect anything because it would take such a uh a prolonged uh emergency to trigger this you'd have to have um the price at the cap for for 12 hours straight for it to be triggered. And that is, uh, that has not happened much. I should, uh, I'm not sure exactly how, how frequently that has happened, but we saw the in 21, it happened for days on end. So this would be another, uh, you know, fail safe against that, but that will go into effect now. And, um,

we'll see if, uh, they implement anything else before winter starts. Certainly. Thank you, Bradley. Cameron, coming to you, the wars overseas have continued to have an impact here in Texas. Tell us about some of the numbers with how Texas's economy has been impacted by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Yeah. So according to Reuters, documents have been circulating in Washington, D.C. that break down how a few different states across the country have benefited monetarily from the Biden administration's spending on arming Ukraine. Texas has received $1.45 billion to produce military artillery shells and other weapons, while states like Arizona and Pennsylvania have also received billions in investments to build military arms

and ammunition. In August, the U.S. Department of Defense stated that the Biden administration had committed more than $43 billion in, quote, security assistance to Ukraine, which includes anti-aircraft and anti-armor systems and artillery rounds, among many other items. And since then, there's been additional rounds of aid being provided to Ukraine, including a recent announcement that an additional $100 million would be provided. And according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Congress has approved $113 billion worth of aid to Ukraine in 2022. And I found an analysis that was done by a former Marine Corps colonel, and they found that 60% of this total is being spent in the United States. So this is through

the manufacturing and facilities that are being used to produce these. And we did a story actually about the Mesquite City Council approving the construction of a manufacturing facility for General Dynamics, and that industrial campus was going to be costing $60 million. And so there's lots of money being moved around and invested in the United States and in Texas to aid Ukraine in this effort. Some numbers that might be interesting as well to our audience is there's been some resistance to the continued funding of the war. According to a NBC News poll, public sentiment is pretty split on continuing funding in Ukraine with 55% saying they support more funding. But when you examine those numbers along partisan lines, the gap

really widens with just 35% of Republicans supporting additional aid, while 77% of Democrats supporting it. So this is a additional conflict with the Israel-Hamas conflict ongoing as well. So these are things we've continued to report about here at the Texan because they are having local and statewide impacts. Absolutely. Cameron, thank you. Some more spicy news here from Hayden. Hayden, who was the latest person to be sentenced in a South Texas bribery scandal? Sabotage, bribery, these year beats. I feel like I work for the Law and Order Network today, but not Law and Order Network, Law and Crime Network.

A West Laco City Commissioner was sentenced to prison for accepting bribes associated with a water treatment contract deal that was worth tens of millions of dollars. I'll recommend people go read the piece. It's a little bit nuanced and I don't want to spend 10 minutes explaining all the red string that connects to different people involved in this, but more or less this individual got 30 months in prison for his role in this. And he helped a couple of engineering firms fraudulently acquire nearly $39 million worth of contracts to upgrade the city's water treatment plants. How did his sentence compare to some of the other participants?

Well, he got a significantly easier time than some of the other participants in this scheme. There was a former Hidalgo County commissioner who was this person's cousin who received 20 years in prison. So he must have been more of the architect of this because typically the I guess the mastermind gets a better or gets a harsher sentence than the accomplice. But there were other people involved in this who received 20 year and 16 year prison sentences. So much more serious consequences. It sounds like he was involved to a lesser extent. There you go. Still spicy. Hayden, thank you so much. Real fast before we move on to our Twittery section, I want to highlight a few stories from our team not on the podcast this week. Holly Hansen has a story, Harris County Democrats advanced resolution

admonishing District Attorney Kim Og. Great story detailing some of the interparty difficulty and conflict among Democrats in Harris County. Kim has a wonderful piece, historic church built by former slaves, gets city permit approval after more than two years. Really great story, giving some background on that whole debacle. And I failed to mention earlier, as we were talking about the woolly mammoth piece that our team is working on, that Seth Moorhead is the architect behind that story. So certainly keep an eye out for that one. It will be very interesting. Okay.

Treadery. Cameron, I'm going to start with you because I know how excited you are for this portion of the podcast, as you've explicitly said you are. I am excited, but it's just because of how strange it is because I was reading a Twitter thread, this was over a month ago, about this woman who works remotely. And she was saying she loves to go to Panera to do her remote work. And apparently she loves the lemonade there and she would get multiple refills. And she just felt so productive when she was at Panera. She didn't understand why. But she found out that's because she was drinking

these charged lemonades that have 300 plus milligrams of caffeine and she was getting four or five refills on these how many cups of coffee is that that's if if you have a lot 1500 milligrams of caffeine that's like eight cups of coffee i can't imagine having that much caffeine in my system my brain would i have two cups of cold brew and my brain feels like it's gonna explode well so i i thought it was i thought it was a funny story yeah you know i read it moved on well what came across my timeline this week was apparently people are dying oh gosh from drinking too much of this charged lemonade a second person has died.

There's a lawsuit in Pennsylvania about this, isn't there? That's exactly what I pulled up is these individuals are drinking three, four of these charged lemonades. This most recent person fell dead on a sidewalk from cardiac arrest. Oh, gosh. And another person went into cardiac arrest. So this is, I just thought it was so crazy because the FDA advises that there's a limit of 400 milligrams of caffeine per day. I know I get more than that, but I spread it out. Totally. You know, you know, one in the morning, a couple at work. Lemonade you can just down. Yeah. You can just down that stuff. Yeah. Well, so I mean, I need some of it. Stay away, Matt. Stay away from it. So the charged lemonades, this is from an article, they come in 20-ounce regular or 30-ounce large sizes.

And so these are one 20-ounce drink with no ice can contain 260 milligrams of caffeine, and 30 ounce drink can contain 390. So if you are just going up and refilling three or four times, that's thousands of milligrams. And obviously some people's heart can't take that much caffeine. And we're seeing. Caffeine's a drug. It is a drug. I feel wired after two cups of coffee. Yeah. I can't imagine drinking something that was the equivalent of that much coffee.

Yeah. It's crazy. That's really scary. It's scary, but it's just a wild story. Yeah, it is. People dropping dead from drinking lemonade lemonade at panera bread at panera like talk about unassuming cc panera's board of directors or whatever or whatever i don't know what panera has like who makes the decisions of panera but if your lemonade is deadly

that should probably be a wake-up call yeah maybe Maybe just maybe go back to the drawing board on that one. Yeah. Take a little break for some people. Maybe too much of a wake up. Oh, man. Well, Cameron, thanks for updating us on that. That's pretty wild. I'm staying away from Panera's lemonade for now.

Yeah. Hayden, what about what did you see this week well mine is a tweet from newsweek of a republican congresswoman from new york confronting the president of harvard this video is one of those videos that you gain more insight by watching it when the sound is off sometimes Sometimes when you see a confrontation between two people, the body language says way more than the words. So go watch this video without sound. It's really interesting. The president of Harvard is defending the university's policies on anti-Semitism. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is confronting her about Harvard, according to her, not doing enough to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism. And that is obviously a huge topic

right now. Absolutely. For good reason. Well, that's a good one, Hayden. Thank you. Matt, let's go to you, my friend. What do you have for us from Twitter this week? Well, I found some news for you, Mackenzie. I'm ready. It's starting to look a lot like Christmas. But can you guess where it's starting to look a lot like Christmas? Well, I unfortunately have the answer in front of my face, but let me just, uh, Matt, I don't know. Where is it starting to look like christmas well i'm glad you asked mckenzie because it's starting to look a lot like christmas

in the beautiful tropical islands of hawaii and uh did he say hawaii a picture floated across my twitter feed that i had to share uh showing the observatory on top of the mountain on the big island covered in snow. You see the picture? Can you see it? No, I don't. You don't? Hold on. I'm pulling it up.

It's like a winter wonderland. They got like five inches of snow. Oh my goodness. I like your tweet. Well, that's different. That's crazy. Because i've never heard of a winter wonderland being in hawaii and it turns out uh it's kind of a common thing on top of mount and i'm gonna butcher this moana loa anyway i I'm from West Texas. I can't pronounce why. Anyway, uh, it turns out that, uh, yeah. Once a year that, uh, these mountains where the observatories are get a regular dusting of snow. And some years in the past, I actually get quite a bit of snow.

So there you go. Wow. That's pretty wild. If you're looking for Christmas, go to Hawaii. That's right. Who would have thunk? Um, go to Hawaii that's right who would have thunk who would have thunk we're going to have melancholy kimaka you know melancholy kimaka

okay I'm not going to sing anymore Bradley no I wanted to hear you sing the whole thing yeah well then I would have had to hit even higher note right after and we could have made it the bumper music for the pod maybe I'll do that for Daniel after this but I have to do can't do in front of people we'll listen at the door you probably will okay bradley what do you got so we discussed the anti-semitism and israel debate going on with the texas gop well the texas democratic Party had their own. They adopted a resolution unanimously

this past weekend that called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. And it spilled over into the U.S. Senate race. We saw the two frontrunners in that race, Congressman Colin Allred and State Senator Roland Gutierrez, both issue statements of their own on this. Allred is widely seen as the PAC leader. He's got the fundraising lead. He's got the endorsement lead. But Gutierrez is still a notable official in his own right. So they issued different opinions on this. First was Allred, who said,

we have to, quote, we have to continue to try and get humanitarian aid into Gaza to try and protect civilians. But understanding this is a war of choice by Hamas, he also explicitly stated that he's not calling for a ceasefire at the moment. Contrast that with Gutierrez, who's issued his own statement after Allred's comments made the rounds and said, I support a ceasefire in the region. Perpetrators must be sought out and must face judgment for the October 7th attack and war crimes. Israel has a right to

root out Hamas terrorists and should. Justice must be served for those lost in the horrendous attacks. Further, this is a complicated issue and requires a complicated response. At the end of the day, I choose peace. Israel has a right to exist and so do other states in this region and we owe it to all of humankind to call for peace and justice without continued full-scale bombing of civilians so clearly those two are sticking out different positions there on that and it's not just the republican party in texas that has this as an issue in front of itself with competing factions with different opinions on things that the democratic party is very much in the same boat although for different reasons good stuff bradley thank you for drawing that contrast. I'm nervous to mention my

tweeter because I feel like I have the potential to be lambasted, but I must quickly mention that Taylor Swift was named Times Person of the Year. Pretty wild. If you go and look at the list of folks in the last few years who've been named, she is certainly a departure. Last year was Zelensky and the spirit of ukraine i didn't know the spirit of a country could be named person of the year but it was um mckinsey she's a person that's dating that football player guy i can't remember the football player guy his name huh brad take that one into consideration what do you say do you think this has anything to do with the 2020 election? I'm sorry.

I had to ask. You brought up Taylor Swift, and I'm just saying, political aspirations? I think it's not out of the question. She was a big Biden supporter, wasn't she? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Totally. Yeah, I don't know.

Why did I say 2020 election? I'm stuck four years ago. It took me a second to get what you were saying. 2024 election. Excuse me. I'm just kidding. I don't I don't have anything to say or any thoughts on that whatsoever. I just wanted to back and win. Oh, it did. Okay, good. So I was, see, I wasn't just pulling it out of nowhere. Yeah. I don't know if that, I don't think that's true, but I'm sure there,

I'm sure there's some polling going on behind the scenes. Could you imagine if Taylor Swift ran for president? I can, I can imagine that. I absolutely. Yeah. 2014, there were people who laughed at the notion of Donald Trump becoming president after being a reality TV star.

And I don't think Taylor Swift, who is one of the most renowned artists of all time running for president and winning, is any crazier than anything else that has happened. If we see her popping up on CNN or MSNBCbc we know what's happening we know i just can't imagine she's so she's positioned so well right now i think that would just like be i understand people have those kinds of aspirations it would be such a bad move i feel like to alienate so many people but she already kind of has she could run as an independent and just upset all the apple cards she could 2021 was Elon Musk. Then it was 2020 was Biden and Harris together. Greta Thunberg was 2019.

2018 was the Guardians, a group of journalists who faced persecution. 2017 were the silence breakers of the Me Too movement. 2016 was Donald Trump. Before that, Angela Merkel. The Ebola fighters. Pope Francis. Barack Obama. So kind of give it a Mark Zuckerberg. And Mark Zuckerberg I think is like the closest, well, maybe not, but having a

musician as the time person of the year is quite a departure. Although what would be funny about Swift running for political office is that... Brad, you're interrupting Hayden. I think it was an accident. Yeah. It's nice. I just saw an opportunity to lend a mess. Brad, I'm going to get back to you in a second. four one brad you're interrupting hayden i think it was an accident yeah the funniest thing about taylor swift running for office or getting involved in politics is you probably couldn't talk about her on the pod anymore because then it would be politically

charged and that would be so funny please run for president please run for president Bradley I was just going to say do the 1934 times person of the year I think I know the answer I think I do too based on the face Cameron is making right now I think I know the answer FDR oh 1936

let's see oh no oh no i don't hitler's in there somewhere so clearly this is such a such a uh 38 profound award 38 stalin's on here too hitler and stalin that's really hard to wrap your mind around that the most evil person of all time. Ripped across Europe. Wow. Amazing. But also. Well done, Time. Well done. Time's not. I mean, Time also awarded Donald Trump in 2016.

Like, they're going for the most influential, which is an interesting. That's a very interesting metric. Okay. Well, gentlemen, we do have one more thing. We have our Christmas party or our company Christmas party this week. And I just want to say my white elephant gift is going to be potentially good i don't have it i'm kind of excited about it um because usually i get a really goofy white elephant gift and this one's a little bit better so we'll see how it turns out okay yeah i will procrastinate and

get mine at bucky's on the way. That's honestly will probably be more sought after than anybody who plans. That's less about the procrastination and more that Bucky's just has really cool stuff in its gift shop area. It's undeniably true. I say gift shop. That's probably an understatement. Bucky's has an entire department store in there.

It's like a whole, yeah. Texas themed stuff of all kinds. It's like a whole yeah. Texas themed stuff of all kinds. It's pretty fun. Yeah. There's a lot of home goods as well.

It does. You can get like you can get your mom a very nice Christmas present at Bucky's. Yeah. You really can. Okay.

Well gentlemen thank you for sticking with me. Folks thank you for listening. Merry Christmas and we will catch you next week. Thank, thank you for listening. Merry Christmas, and we will catch you 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, 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 Thank you.