The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - February 17, 2023

Episode Date: February 17, 2023

🇺🇸 PRESIDENTS DAY SALE 🦅 Get a subscription to The Texan for only $5/month billed annually—this weekend only: https://thetexan.news/register/?level_id=3&coupon=321328 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: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s 30 priorities for the Senate this sessionTwo similar bills to mandate and subsidize the production of dispatchable generationThe 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting suspect pleading guilty to over 90 offensesA bill to create a fund to subsidize water supply for lesser populated areas of TexasThe Texas State Teachers Association promoting a “Week of Action” for Black History MonthThe State of Texas’ challenge to federal “Waters of the United States” regulationsAttorney General Ken Paxton joining a lawsuit against the ATF over pistol bracesThe Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol chief testifying to Congress that the U.S. lacks “capacity” to handle illegal immigrantsThe two Texas Democrats in Congress who opposed allowing noncitizens to vote in local D.C. electionsTexas lawmakers asking Paxton to investigate the City of Dallas over its new abortion resolutionThe Medina County Republican Party censuring a Republican CongressmanThe firing of Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk and his nearly half a million dollar severance packageThe San Antonio City Council using eminent domain to build an expansion of the Alamo Museum

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here, and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. This week, the team discusses Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's 30 priorities for the Senate this session. Two similar bills to mandate and subsidize the production of dispatchable generation. The 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting suspect pleading guilty to over 90 offenses. A bill to create a fund to subsidize water supply for lesser populated areas of Texas. The Texas State Teachers Association promoting a week of action for Black History Month.

The state of Texas challenged to federal Waters of the United States regulations. Attorney General Ken Paxton joining a lawsuit against the ATF over pistol braces. The Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol chief testifying to Congress that the U.S. lacks capacity to handle illegal immigrants. The two Texas Democrats in Congress who opposed allowing non-citizens to vote in local D.C. elections. Texas lawmakers asking Paxton to investigate the city of Dallas over its new abortion resolution.

The Medina County Republican Party censoring a Republican congressman. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. questions for our team, DM us on Twitter or email us at editor at the texan.news. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Well, howdy folks. It's Mackenzie, Hayden, Matt, Brad, and Cameron. We're all here. I've already been put in my place being told my jokes are not funny so far this morning. So I'm doing great. Put in your place. think that makes us sound a lot more evil than we really are well because hayden anyway i was like hayden you should mention this on the podcast and he was like man i don't want to be like left out to dry i want folks i i want to know it's gonna go over well and i was like you guys leave me hanging all the time when

i tell jokes because you said hayden i want you to make i want you to say that thing that you just said about elon musk and we're all gonna go ha ha ha and i thought what if they don't and then i just told this joke like i thought it was funny and then nobody laughs people are gonna think this podcast is so staged after this conversation that anything we talk about is like prepared beforehand well that's what i do we're we're frauds before we go on i just go on chat gbt and say write a script for the podcast exactly i just recently learned what chat gbt is it's i it's incredible oh my gosh it's i've been going on it for the past few weeks and they've been attempting to jailbreak it to give so because right now chat gbt it's only

allowed to give certain responses but people have been putting in different prompts trying to get it to go rogue exactly and they've been successful but the developers have been uh patching some of these responses so it can kind of go back to base level but people on the internet they're way too smart for that so that's crazy that makes me laugh it's way above my pay grade but regardless anyways hayden didn't you see something on twitter this week about we're still gonna do it you mentioned it it was funny well i didn't see it this week it was a long time ago stephen colbert made a joke that elon musk needed to either change his name or come up with a line of men's cologne i actually think it's really funny and it was just funny the second time

well that's why it was it was funny when i originally told it but i was afraid we wouldn't be able to replicate it so i laugh at everything i if i'm i'm poor at many things i'm but i'm a very good audience for the most part oh that's pretty very good audience for my stand-up comedy routines practicing for a stand-up comedy career that will never ever happen was that poorly timed no it's perfect okay that. Okay. That was good. Man. Okay. Well, this has already been delightful. Let's move on to the news. Matt, we're actually going to start with you.

The highly anticipated legislative priorities for the Texas Senate were released this past week from Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's office, revealing a lot of insight on what direction the session is going to go in. Talk us through what the Lieutenant Governor had to say. Well, Monday, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick released the priorities for the Texas Senate showing what the top 30 bills would be. In releasing the priorities, Patrick took time to elaborate on how during his time in office as Lieutenant Governor, he's increased the number of priority bills, but also explained that just because an issue didn't make that list

of top 30 issues, it doesn't mean that it's not going to be passed and it doesn't mean that it's not going to be a priority and kind of explained how there's a lot of important issues facing the state. But he's got to pick 30 top ones. So here you go. Anyway, he added that most will pass with bipartisan support, which I thought was a interesting little addition at the end of the press release, because a lot of issues that were contained in the priorities are shared issues with the Republican Party of Texas, whether part of the platform or part of their legislative priorities, namely

increasing the offense of illegal voting to a felony, banning child gender modification, prohibiting obscene material in public schools and public school libraries, and school choice issues. Now, I thought we could take a quick look at the 30 different bills and run through them in my auctioneer voice. Senate Bill 1, of course, is the state budget. Senate Bill 2 is restoring voter fraud to felony. 3, increasing the homestead exemption. That's something that Patrick's talked quite extensively on how during his time as lieutenant governor, he's increased it up to up to, I believe, about forty five thousand where it is now.

And he wants to up it to seventy thousand additional property tax relief, increasing the business property tax exemption, adding natural gas plants, continuing to improve the electric grid. Number eight is the school choice measure. Number nine is increased teacher pay. Tens, the 13th check for teachers, keeping our schools safe and secure. That's the school security measure, banning children's exposure to drag shows, protecting children from obscene books in libraries, ending child gender modification protecting women's sports banning critical race theory i'm a slow auctioneer i was gonna say where's the auctioneer voice you also sound bored reading them you sound like you were bored out of your mind reading these 30 items i'm sorry it's been a long week

uh do the diversity equity and inclusion policies and higher education, ending academic tenure, removing district attorneys, removing judges, rural law enforcement assistance and a host of other issues that you can check out and read on the Texan dot news. Did you see what I did there, Mackenzie? I did. You plugged it. I love it. I love a good website plug. It's my favorite kind of little segue on the pod here. Very true. Worth going and checking out. A good mix of, you know, Republican Party priorities with some of, you know, Patrick's more niche issues like rural law enforcement funding. And lots of spicy issues

that we can Texas ledge over in the coming days. Exactly. Bring it on. Thank you, Matt. Brad, we're coming to you. Some notable bill filings this week included three pertaining to ERCOT, two specifically addressed building new natural gas generation. Talk to us about the details. State Senator Charles Perry, Republican out of Lubbock, and State Rep Matt Shaheen, Republican out of Plano, have filed similar but not quite identical bills to create an electric generating facility fund that would subsidize the construction of dispatchable generators on the ERCOT power grid. ERCOT, of course, makes up just over 90% of the state's power grid use there are two other regional power grids that touch far east texas and

far west texas in the panhandle so this strategy tracks with one of lieutenant governors lieutenant governor patrick's priorities that is ensuring new natural gas generators will be built in the coming years to cope with growing population however among the states the senate's priority slate announced this week sb6 is aimed at that end as well building new natural gas generation specifically not sure how these will compare with that more blessed version but it may be very similar. To the final outcome. But this is an increasingly used strategy. Because of this massive surplus. That far exceeds.

The spending cap. The ability to spend all this money. So they have to quote get creative. And one of that is creating. Amending the constitution to create these funds. With which they can disperse. And use for specific specific purposes so we're going to see that used a lot i think this year there was another bill filed this week that would pair closely with these other proposals give us those details so where these previous two uh versions hope to incentivize the development

of natural gas plants through subsidization hp 2288 by representative jared patterson republican out of frisco would attack the issue more directly his bill would prohibit the sale of renewable generated electricity on the ercot market after 2030 the argument by patterson and those on his side on this issue is that renewable companies undercut the prices of thermal generators on the market because of lower prices due to both zero fuel costs doesn't cost anything to harvest rays from the sun or the wind. And also those two sources get massive government subsidies, specifically the production tax credit from the federal government that's the largest of all these subsidies and so this is trying to basically set an end date on um on when the uh the puc and the state must do whatever it's going to do, uh, to,

you know, eliminate the over-reliance as they see it on, on renewable power and build more natural gas generation. And so setting this hard deadline would conceivably force the issue. Um, we see no, no other, uh,

discussion of this kind of thing, uh, from like the PUC, but it's something to watch, especially if it can gain any traction in the legislature. of many different legislators who have expressed concern or outright criticism of the performance credit mechanism and its ability to actually accomplish what state regulators want, which is building new natural gas or other dispatchable power generators. There you go. Brad, thank you for your coverage. Hayden, a federal case against the perpetrator of the 2019 El Paso shooter is coming to a resolution. Tell us about his guilty plea. Last week, the perpetrator of the 2019 shooting at an El Paso Walmart that claimed the lives of 23 people and hurt 22 others, pleaded guilty to 90 federal crimes, and he could be sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences. He agreed to that possibility, although his formal sentencing will take place

at a later date that is to be scheduled by a federal judge. He was convicted of 45 hate crimes and 45 violations of federal firearm laws. He was convicted under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Acts, which was hate crime legislation, I believe, enacted in the early 2000s or late 90s. And the namesake of this bill, James Byrd Jr. was an African-American man. He was murdered in Jefferson County on account of his race. And the state of Texas has since executed two of the people who murdered Byrd. Matthew Shepard was a college student in Wyoming who was murdered because he was gay. That was an interesting case. The prosecutors had said that he was killed because he was being robbed. And then the defense lawyer argued that he was killed because he was gay as if that somehow made it better. But those perpetrators were also convicted and sentenced to life in prison. So that's the background for the hate crime legislation that the shooter was convicted under because this was not a garden variety crime.

But obviously hate crime legislation is controversial because it classifies crimes different ways, but that's a rabbit trail that we won't get on right now. But the sum and substance of it is he was convicted of 90 hate crimes or 90 federal offenses total. And that's in the federal system. He has not been tried yet on the state charges that he could face. So he is technically still facing the possibility of the death penalty because the state of Texas has not tried him yet, although the federal government declined to seek a death sentence. So he is only facing the specter of life in prison and he is

only in his mid-20s. So that would be 60 or 70 or 80 years in prison, however long he has left to live. The Justice Department certainly had some strong words for this individual. What did the Attorney General Merrick Garland have to say? Well, Attorney General Garland highlighted some of the disturbing pretext or pre-incident indicators in this case he the perpetrator was an admitted white supremacist who stated that his motive in killing these people was to deter hispanic people from coming to the united states he said he admitted that he hoped to kill everyone he shot. He killed 23 people and he shot 22 more. So he was bent on killing 45 or more people at that Walmart. And he posted a manifesto prior to the crime explaining his goals of killing Hispanic people. It was just, it's a terrible, just the worst type of crime.

And the, the violence of this case was extreme. And attorney general Garland pointed to all of that in the sentencing. But it seems that the, the federal case is reaching a resolution. Like I said, the formal sentencing is still to be scheduled. Thank youden brad we're coming to you there was a bill filed pertaining to water supply projects by senator charles perry tell us about it

so similar in nature to his electricity fund we just discussed perry has proposed a water for texas fund that would facilitate financing for water supply and utility piping refurbishment projects for specifically rural areas defined as places with less than 10 000 people in population and mid-sized cities defined as municipalities with up to 150,000 people in population. So the fund, if created, would be managed by the Texas Water Development Board, which is in charge of all of the mapping out the state's water plan, identifying projects that it will do, such as, take for instance, the Marvin Nichols Reservoir up in northeast Texas

that would supply water to DFW mainly. We've written on that and talked about that before. But Perry told me he hopes for $3 billion total in this fund, $2 billion for the leaky pipes line item, and $1 billion for supply projects. But the final amount is not decided yet. As with all of this discussion around the surplus, nothing really is final. Probably the most materialized line item would be for property taxes at least right now it's identified as roughly 15 billion dollars now you can get into debate on how much of that applies to past property tax cuts and how much applies to the next set but regardless uh all of this money that um that is being proposed for expenditure from the surplus is very much up in the air we don't know how much is going

to go to each so on this perry said it is estimated that over the next 50 years our state could be short 7 million acre feet of water that's how they measure water supply it's about 2.2 trillion gallons and according to the twdb over 136 billion gallons of water are lost each year to leaks in our infrastructure. It's time for the state to put up real investment in our water infrastructure and ensure Texas has sufficient water supply as we continue to grow. Got it. So in terms of the big picture, how big of a need is a fund like this? this according to the water development board there are just over 1300 plan projects in the state water plan for areas with less than 10 000 people and uh if i recall correctly the total number of projects was around 3 000 um and so of the the projects that fall within areas with 150,000 population or less, it's about 1,900. So they say that, I asked them why this is such a big need for these smaller population areas.

They said less populated or more rural areas tend to have smaller systems and fewer staff who often wear multiple hats in their roles. They may not have the staff resources that larger systems have, nor the funds readily available to invest in water projects. A smaller system means less revenue in, um, uh, fees, utility fees and whatnot.

And then further than the quote access to financial assistance through the state is essential to less populated areas, being able to complete water infrastructure projects. So namely in the quote, access to financial assistance through the state is essential to less populated areas being able to complete water infrastructure projects. So, namely, as the state population booms and that spreads out across the state, its lagging water supply development must be addressed. Lawmakers are taking that view. It takes decades to build new reservoirs such as the marvin nichols reservoir that i mentioned um and they are often politically tense propositions entailing uh taking land from one area building a reservoir and using that water to supply an entirely different area we get these regional fights in this and um that is among the many reasons why it's so difficult

to build new water supply there you go bradley thank you cameron we are coming to you yes the texas state teachers association tweeted out some information on a week of action for black history month what does this week of action mean so the t, they tweeted out a link to something called a imagination lab listening project. Sounds great. Well, it was for five days of webinars that was a direct link to an organization called Black Lives Matter at school. And so what's interesting about about these webinars well they were explicitly promoting things like uh celebrating globalism uh medicare for all and i just thought this was kind of interesting to explore because you would think the tsta would be promoting things related

to topics in school but um this was something that this is being taught to sorry this is being taught to teachers or this is being taught to students this was for resources for teachers so they can incorporate it into their classroom so uh this was sort of a rabbit hole sort of story for me. You can follow it in a lot of different directions. Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of information here. So some of this information you found tells a lot about, you know, a bigger picture of what's being taught here in this week of action.

What else did you find? Well, like I was saying, you go down some rabbit holes with some of these stories, and this was one of them. So, one of the speakers on their theme day on Tuesday was about celebrating globalism and collective value. Well, one of the speakers at this webinar was promoting ideas about neocolonialism and global racism. And so there was also a pre-reading for one of these webinars that connected you to a group called Equity or Else. And this group, Equity or Else, would promote ideas on this pre-reading that was about reallocating police budgets and promoting the

idea homes for all. And so, again, following this trail as it goes along, the TSTA is also an affiliate of the National Education Association. Well, the NEA also posted an article about this week of action. And in this article, they were having a discussion with another teacher, and they were discussing the ideas of culturally relevant education and how to teach white supremacy, or how to deal with white supremacy rather. And so as you can see, these what were otherwise known as French ideas are making their way into the mainstream of education and involved in the curriculum with the teachers in the classroom. So this is something I know the legislature has been paying attention to. We have been paying attention to here at the Texan. So just something to follow. Certainly.

And it's, you know, these are some of the biggest, hottest political topics of the day being taught and kind of furthered in these in these organizations that directly impact what students are being taught. That's exactly right. Public schools. So interesting, important for the legislature to know about. uh they'll continue to address it one way or another republicans and never crowds will have very different opinions on this so thank you for that information gentlemen president's day is just around the corner i do want to throw myself under the bus here i as a high school student decided that i would learn at the time there were only 44 presidents hayden's looking at me because he knows he's a he's homeschooled as well he just knows a president's rap so at one point i could wrap

the 44 presidents you could wrap them i could wrap them that's incredible i found a rap on youtube i memorized it and later on i taught um u.s history for middle middle school students for a while and it was a requirement that they learn it as well that's awesome did they hate me for it absolutely did i make them sing it to me yes did they remember they did well and i actually i just saw one of my students former students at um my sister's wedding recently and he said he still remembered one the gettysburg address which i made them memorize and the rap And he's now like 20, you know, in his early 20s and living life and being a young professional. I took great pride in that. All that to say, for President's Day, I recommend you go listen to the rap and memorize it if you would like. I will definitely be here. Hayden. I had a song or I was taught a song to

remember the presidents, but it definitely wasn't a rap. will say that do you have like a 50 you guys know the 50 states song do you guys are like or proposition songs this is all very homeschooled yeah mac and i had a whole conversation one day about shirley english yeah which was called shirley grammar i'm sorry well no you may have had shirley english mine was called shirley grammar they changed the name i don't know yeah we aren't that far apart in age so maybe i'm just old you know it's a nerdy conversation when two people start bonding over the grammar curriculum that was used in fifth grade mylanta peas in a pod regardless because president's day is coming up here at the texan we are going to offer you a discount just for this coming week sixty dollars

for an annual subscription which breaks down to $5 a month. There will be a link in the podcast description of wherever you are listening to this podcast. Make sure to go to the texan.news. Check out an article for free if you want to, but this is a limited time offer. So we recommend you go take advantage of this $60 annual subscription today. Very important. Thank you, folks. Brad, we're going to turn to you here. Texas has sued the Biden administration over another EPA regulation. What's the issue here? So the federal government is trying to push through a more strict version of the waters of the United States called colloquially WOTUS, that would open the door for much broader regulation of property deemed to be connected in some fashion to, quote, navigable waterways. Now, that definition is already quite broad, but under the application by the Biden administration, it could be applied to drainage ditches that are not even filled

with water year round. How that is a navigable waterway beats the heck out of me, but hey, that's the issue at hand. And so Paxton, Attorney General Paxton, the state of Texas, have sued the Biden administration over this. The Attorney General said when filing it, quote, the environmental extremists who wrote this unlawful rule have no interest in respecting our sovereignty or our natural resources for this administration. This isn't about environmental protection. It's about federal control over states like Texasas and we aren't going to allow it the epa's intent in this more this broader regulation is to more effectively prevent pollution in bodies of water whether it's streams rivers lakes ponds the ocean anything like that and so that's kind of the two that intent often and we'll talk about an example of this in a in a second often

clashes with property rights uh just like the issue of eminent domain does and so um those are basically the two sides of the of the coin here and uh we'll see where it goes but um the state of texas is once again suing the federal government surprise surprise is it just paxton opposing this no so the texas farm bureau has joined a lawsuit opposing the rule uh with the american farm. A spokesman told me about that. The rule is so broad, in any place where water collects and flows, even if it's dry most of the time, could be left to federal government regulation. And the bigger challenge in this is that this proposal comes just before the U.S. Supreme Court will make a decision in the case Sackett v. EPA.

And that issue centers on this couple in Idaho who purchased a plot of land by Priest Lake up in the Panhandle in 2004, roughly, I think. And they were going to build their home on this land. But the EPA came by once they started the plans and almost began to break ground and said, no, you're not allowed. This is land that's adjacent to a navigable waterway. Now, if you look at the map, and I linked to it in the piece if you want to see it, Reason Magazine drew up a diagram of it. But the property is surrounded on three sides by houses and then a drainage ditch on the fourth and between the lake and the house or the the prospective house the plot of land for the sackets

are like a dozen houses so this is not a new well it would be a new development on this plot of land there are already multiple houses in this area and so it's a really strange situation the sackets have already won uh about a decade ago in court uh actually at the supreme court against the epa on a smaller aspect of this rule but now they're going back to basically uh cut off the entire thing and um we should hear we should have an opinion of ruling on that by the end of this term there you go thank you bradley matthew we are coming to you lawsuits are piling up against the biden administration we have another one here recent decision to um this particular one relates to a recent decision to add a popular firearm to the list

of very highly regulated guns under the National Firearms Act. With the latest seen gun owners of America teeming up with once again, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton give us these details. So Paxton and gun owners filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration's Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, adding to several other active cases before federal district courts in Texas and across the country, challenging the decision to use the federal registry to redefine firearms featuring pistol-style braces as short-barreled rifles. Now, short-barreled rifles are one of the categories of firearms under the National

Firearms Act that are subject to, I guess, more extreme regulation than ordinary types of firearms in that you have to pay a $200 tax, undergo a extensive background check, and sometimes it can take over a year before you're approved whenever you actually go to buy one, and then you're in the federal registry as listed as owning that particular firearm, and then there's all kinds of extra regulations that are involved as far as who can possess the firearm, who can shoot it, etc., etc. So the background on these pistol braces, we've discussed previously in our other stories, but to kind of recap, it's something that's featured on a lot of AR-style rifles, etc., which allow, they fall into kind of an odd realm in guns, and it's because of the peculiar history behind the National Firearms Act.

Originally, the National Firearms Act, or NFA, was seeking to outlaw handguns and machine guns and suppressors. And before the act was, well, leading up to that, they wanted to make sure that they didn't in run, people didn't in run the ban on handguns. So they created this classification of gun called short barreled rifle so that you couldn't cut down your rifle and have a de facto handgun. Well, before the law passed, you ended up having handguns removed from it. So not subject to this heightened regulation, but the short barreled rifle classification was left in there. Fast forward, more types of firearms are designed. So you end up with these unusual circumstances where you can have an AR-15 with a barrel shorter than 16 inches. And up until recently, the ATF said these pistol-style braces were A-OK, and that if you

put it on there, we'd consider your firearm legally a pistol, which is A-OK to own, and all you have to do is just be legally qualified to own a gun. Now they're reversing course on 10 years of precedence and saying that pistol brace constitutes a short-barreled rifle, and you either have to turn it into the ATF, remove it from your firearm, or destroy your firearm, or you have 120 days to register it with the ATF. Well, I think they're waiving the $200 tax stamp for now. And during that grace period, make it a registered SBR. So gun owners, kind of an interesting case, has teamed up with the Texas Attorney General. They say that their case is the more comprehensive case out of them all that has been filed,

saying that they're arguing the extensive case precedent and history behind the Second Amendment and the case precedent recently set by the Supreme Court in the recent Bruin case. And they are also arguing that their case goes into more varied constitutional aspects, including how it violates provisions like an unconstitutional exercise of taxing authority by Congress. So, none of these cases before federal district courts have been ruled on yet It'll be very curious to see what happens Whether or not any of these courts grant the preliminary injunctions and block the rule But all of these gun owners, plaintiffs filing these suits are very hopeful and optimistic considering the extensive precedent that was set recently by the U.S. Supreme Court. So we'll keep an eye on that and see how those cases develop. Absolutely. Thank you, Matthew.

A lot of Texans watching that very closely. Hayden, let's pivot to the border here. In a congressional hearing, the border chief of the Rio Grande Valley sector commented on border patrol operations and made some news. What did she have to say? Congressman Tony Gonzalez questioned the chief, the recently appointed chief of the Rio Grande Valley sector and asked her about the effectiveness of various approaches. He asked her about repatriation flights, specifically whether they are effective in deterring unlawful immigration. And she said that they are effective. He referenced specifically what happened in the Del Rio sector as thousands of Haitian illegal immigrants crossed the border, and the

repatriation flights or deportation flights resumed shortly thereafter, which reduced the flow of illegal immigration in that instance. Chief Gloria Chavez also commented on another issue. I'm going to read the exact question that Gonzalez asked her. He said, does the Border Patrol currently have the capacity to permanently house all migrants for the entire length of their asylum process? Her answer was, absolutely not, Congressman. We do not have that level of capacity in our facilities. And Gonzalez proceeded to comment on her answer, saying that it is about a five-year time span for an asylum case to be resolved, and it could even take longer, depending on where the person came from. But Gonzalez also said, quote, that is the danger of an agency like yours that is meant to catch

terrorists, fentanyl, real-time situations, and putting you into processing centers, end quote. So he was having her comment on something that has been a touchy subject in the GOP lately. There you go. No, certainly. Asylum claims have been a sore point in the Republican caucus. What is the background of the fight over these claims among Republicans? Well, Representative Chip Roy, as we've talked about before, introduced a bill that would require the Department of Homeland Security to either detain or expel someone in the country illegally or an asylum seeker while that case is being resolved. Roy asserted that this was merely a restatement of existing law and it reinforced protocols similar to Title 42 expulsions. But

Gonzalez came back and said that that would virtually ban asylum in his view because this is not possible. So it would shut down the asylum process because we can't have people here. And if they can't seek asylum and remain in the country, then they can't seek asylum at all, is Gonzalez's interpretation of Roy's bill. Democrats repeated his line about banning asylum at a recent hearing because it really lends credence to a Democratic talking point about Republicans trying to shut down asylum instead of creating pathways for people to come here legally. Democrats often say there's no line to get into as a retort to Republicans saying people should wait in line and do it the right way. But this has been an argument, a disagreement in the Republican caucus,

and I frame it that way. It's really Gonzalez versus the rest of the Republican caucus. I'm sure there are some Republicans who are quietly agreeing with him, but this has primarily been him going to bat against others in his party. He was the only one in the Texas delegation who did not sign on to a border security framework that Roy was a part of and other Republicans were a part of in december so this is an extension of this ongoing feud about immigration and border security absolutely thanks so much for your coverage matthew back to you the washington dc city council how do you have a city council for a district you know what i mean well they had to call it something you're right uh they recently passed a law allowing non-citizens to vote in their local elections, and the U.S. House of Representatives took action to pass legislation blocking this law. And notably, only two Texas Democrats voted to block this U.S. law. Give us those details. Well, District of Columbia, which is governed by a city council that, I don't know, it's kind of an interesting situation.

They have authority that's akin to a state legislature, but their city council, I don't know, maybe that's a story for another day, recently adopted a law called the Local Resident Voting Rights Act of 2021, which allows non-citizens, including those illegally present in the country, to vote in their local elections. And that includes for the offices of mayor, D.C. attorney general, city council member, and a few other locally elected offices there that are all very powerful in the District of Columbia. Since D.C. is subject to federal oversight, being a federal district, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives filed legislation to block the new law, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support on February

9th in a 260 to 162 vote. The resolution carried support of every Republican and 42 House Democrats, notably including two Texas Democrats, U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar from Texas's 28th Congressional District and Representative Colin Allred from the 32nd Congressional District. We reached out to both representatives for comment and asked them why they broke from the rest of their state's delegation for their party on this. But we have not heard back. But every other Democrat from the state of Texas voted against the resolution that would ultimately block the law from going into effect. Now, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz from Texas has also filed the resolution in the U.S. Senate, which hasn't been taken up yet, last I checked. But if Congress is successful

in passing the resolution, it will block the D.C. law from going into effect. There you go. Matt, thank you for your coverage. Cameron, we're coming back to you here. Yes. The city of Dallas passed a local resolution. Why is it getting state level attention? Well, Nate Schatzlein and colleagues called on Ken Paxton to investigate after the city council passed a resolution that, in quotes, ensures abortion for anyone who needs it. And they are saying this is in conflict with the state law. Okay. So is this new or what is different about this issue?

Well, as we know, a few other Texas cities have passed similar ordinances. But again, with a lot of these wedge issues, things that are going to get public attention, if you follow the citations on some of these things, you're going to get a depth of information you might not otherwise have. So with this resolution, it quotes, that systemic racism, economic insecurity, and a dehumanizing immigration system are reasons to initiate these new measures. So if you follow this action plan for abortion justice and ask yourself, where does this come from? Well, it was created by a

group called All Above All, and they state on their website that abortion care is available without hurdles or stigma for people of color working to make ends meet, young folks, LGBTQ, and gender nonconforming people. And they say that this action plan they developed seeks to repeal parental consent and notification requirements and remove law and immigration enforcement from medical and healthcare settings and remove all restrictions on abortion care. So you can see how, again, following some of these citations leads you to some weird places. And now that this is getting more public attention, we're still waiting on Ken Paxton to make public comment on if an investigation is going to occur.

Got it. Well, thank you so much for your coverage. Hayden, we've already talked about Congressman Gonzalez a little bit, and he seems to be making a lot of headlines lately. A local Republican Party recently passed documents censoring him. What was the basis for this resolution? Well, like you mentioned, we already talked about Gonzalez and his immigration stances, so I'll keep this brief. Congressman Gonzalez was reprimanded by the Medina County Republican Party, censoring him on account of various votes that he's taken. They took issue with his

vote to certify the presidential election results in Pennsylvania and Arizona. They also objected to his support of a bill codifying same-sex marriage into federal law. They also took issue with his vote against the House Rules package put forth by Speaker Kevin McCarthy. And of course, they did not like his opposition to Roy's bill to require detention or expulsion of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. Gonzalez, like I said, has put himself on the opposite end of many of his Republican colleagues, and this resolution claimed that he has not shown deference to Republican Party principles. The Medina County Party used Rule 44 of the Republican Party of Texas rules,

which allows them to take this course of action. They accused him of, quote, lack of fidelity to our founding principles, our national and state constitutions, and the Republican Party of Texas, end quote. A couple of things I'll note. Gonzalez served in the United States Navy for two decades. When he retired, he was a Master Chief Petty Officer, so he has extensive military service. When he was first elected to Congress, he succeeded Congressman Will Hurd. Also, an important note, Medina County is just one of the counties in his congressional district. So this is not the entire congressional district censoring him. It's just one county in his district. There you go. So what kind of consequences could Gonzalez face because of this resolution? traction and the Republican Party as a whole, the Senate Republican Executive Committee adopted the censorship resolution, it is possible that in the next

primary, they could endorse one of his opponents in the primary and spend money to get him out of office, which generally the RPT does not take sides in Republican primaries. But if they take a censorship action under Rule 44, then that would be permitted. But all of that isn't going to happen because one county's Republican Party did this. It would have to take the entire state party in order for there to be real consequences for Gonzalez. This is mostly symbolic at this stage unless it gains support of the whole party there you go well spicy stuff we love to see when i say we the press i think just loves to see some fun inter-party drama if no one ever fought we would have nothing to do it's so petty but

it's my job now to delve into the petty. Oh, it's the worst, but it's delightful. Thank you for that, Hayden. Brad, the tenure of Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk came to an abrupt end this week. Fascinating. Interesting timing. Walk us through what happened. So by a vote of 10 to 1, the Austin City Council terminated Cronk's employment due to its displeasure with the outages and the city's communication during them earlier this month. Some of the members were also kind of peeved that Cronk seemed to try and end around them by announcing a deal in principle with the Austin Police Association on a four-year labor contract that occurred last week. The day before, they were set to consider a different provision for a one-year extension. So the negotiations on that four-year contract have been ongoing for over a year. in december after the two sides could not come to an agreement on the role of the office of police oversight and the pay uh pay raise for for police officers and so uh those kind of broke down but they quickly started back up in late january early february and they announced this deal

many saw it as kind of a uh hail mary by cronk when it was clear that he might be fired because of what happened during the the ice storm earlier this month but at the meeting on wednesday council fired cronk and approved the directive for a one-year extension uh however the apa austin police association must agree to that and it appears to be a non-starter for the union especially after having reached this deal in principle for a four-year contract and so it opens the door for even more feuding as two competing ballot propositions concerning the office of police oversight's role will come up in may and so i you know what was the last one five years ago there was a dispute five six years ago there's a dispute over the the police contract and uh initially agreed

upon one was torpedoed especially by the reimagined policing activists and now we're kind of back there with with a couple different twists but uh the more that changes the more things stay the same surprise surprise there you go where does this leave after all of this so he served as a city manager for five years and the termination became effective Thursday. As part of his contract, he'll receive about $460,000 in severance pay. That's between a full year's salary and an amount equal to six months of health care coverage in his contract. And so he had just gotten a pay raise late last year about 30 000 was there was the reasoning um cost of living was it a cost of living adjustment or what was the reason it was alongside yeah that

was part of it was alongside the the city council pay raises that they voted on okay that's right and so um yeah they now they have to rather than than paying, well, what's 12 times 30? I don't know. Whatever that number is, it's paid that amount more than they would have had they fired him back then. But obviously, they did not foresee this coming, this happening. So, in the meantime, council appointed Jesus Garza as the interim city manager. Garza is the uncle of current Travis County DA Jose Garza and was the city manager the last time new mayor Kirk Watson served in the position at the turn of the century. Again, more things change, the more they stay the same.

He also oversaw Watson's super pack during the mayoral race so i don't think he will be uh he will not be likely not be made the permanent but the city manager but this will it will take like probably 10 months to find it a new city manager so he'll serve until then there you go we had one more story to go to but we only have 10 minutes left and we have a tweeter and all sorts of things to get through so we're going to pivot to our tweeter section um cameron why don't you start us off this looked really interesting i saw it but i have not done i've not read any articles about it or anything uh well there was a meteor strike here in texas i don't know if anyone knows that happened seems like there's a lot of extraterrestrial things happening.

That's what we were talking about. It's crazy right now. UFOs, balloons. I brought up a story. Green lights coming down from satellites. Save us, Elon Musk. You're our only hope. Well, this is, you know, it's just weird how everything seems to be happening all at once.

I don't know if anyone has any conspiracy theories to what's going on. I'd love to hear them. But this happened early this week and they are saying it was a meteor there is no official reporting that it was a meteor but uh that's what we have so far it they uh caught some things on home security videos and the sheriff down in um hidalgo county did comment on it and say he received reports from Houston Air Traffic Control that they noticed a meteorite spotted over McAllen. So that's what we got. It's it. I don't know. Do you believe in aliens?

Do you believe in aliens? Straight up. Do you believe in aliens? Do you believe in aliens? Straight up. Do you believe in aliens? Uh, yes. He's not saying it's aliens, but... But... Just the vastness of the universe. I think there's other life. Do...

Have they visited us? That's another question. I don't think so. Interesting. Have you seen the pyramids, Cameroneron that's the only explanation right have you not divided the height of the pyramids times i don't know whatever no matter what you multiply and divide by it's aliens. All of my history information. No matter what you multiply and divide by, it equals aliens. Right. Ancient aliens guy, crazy hair. Yes. Yeah.

Y'all sound like the guys that use the Bible to calculate when Jesus is going to return. Yeah. It's true. Well, thank you for educating us, Cameron. We appreciate it. Let's see here. What should we do next? Brad, why don't we go to you

what did you what did you see so it is a happy week here at least for me because spring training is beginning and here you mean there really aren't that many baseball fans in the office yeah even the guy who played college baseball

doesn't give two rips about it cough cough Cameron sorry Joe Hootman there's no Yeah, even the guy who played college baseball doesn't give two rips about it. Cough, cough, Cameron. Sorry. Sorry, Joe Hoopman. There's no camaraderie here. I try to be supportive of Brad's baseball excitement. Also, can we give Joe Hoopman a shout out? He's just awesome.

He's awesome. He'll send us just really nice notes in the mail or he'll buy us coffee in crazy weeks. It's just crazy we have support from listeners and readers like that but he's just like he's here he's the goat he's you should another goat you should explain what that is uh it's acronym for the greatest of all time we're not calling you a hooved little creature i'm sure joe i'm'm sure Joe knows that. It's not happening. Maybe. I didn't for a long time. Anyways, keep going, Bradley. Speaking of GOAT and related to baseball, I wanted to discuss Jacob deGrom, who is the

best pitcher in baseball, at least as long as he's healthy. And he signed a massive contract with Phil's Texas Rangers this offseason. Shout out Phil Burton. Yep. They are ramping up their spending and they're going to be a lot more fun to watch than my team this year because my team sucks. Your team being the

Dodgers? Yeah. Yeah, that's it. I don't understand why you think that's hilarious every time you say it. Okay, keep going. But Jacob deGrom, while he is the best pitcher in baseball, has a terrible health record. Tell us more i saw i saw this i saw this uh headline from barstool and it reads it literally took 54 minutes before jacob de grom had to be shut down due to tightness in his left side 54 minutes into spring training man and he suffered a very minor injury that i think will be fine but so phil's probably

pretty sad phil phil was a bit a bit uh dejected and um uh but i think he'll be fine but 54 minutes that's all it took there we go yeah craziness i mean if we're talking about how quickly you can get injured i think uh the average person could do that i can't throw a ball 100 miles an hour but you know we could go to spring training get injured instantly that's a fun topic that we should delve into one time is like your most clumsy injury like i know immediately mine i've been on a skateboard one time because i fell and scraped myself up so badly that it freaked my parents out i went five feet on the skateboard. Five feet. I ran over our cat with a bicycle.

And it made me fly over the handlebars and skid across the concrete. I think the cat was okay. Wow. That's wild. Cats are resilient though. It came back to the house. It ran

away for a while and then it came back and i don't remember it being injured it didn't die that's what it has since oh well i was not the one who killed it but we should we should talk through that sometime that'd be a good one um well brad thanks for that appreciate it we're gonna pivot to some politics here matt why don't you start us off? Well, I figured we couldn't end the podcast without mentioning the big event today, and that is the State of the State Address that is going to be conducted by Governor Greg Abbott. Tonight at 7 p.m., Governor Abbott will deliver the State of the State Address to share his vision for the future of Texas. It's going tos that provides a list of all the TV stations and online sources for the state address. So be sure to tune into that and find out what the state of the state is going to be. Heck yeah.

We'll have coverage of it. It'll be awesome. Wonderful. Thanks, Matt. Hayden, another political happening. I loved this little, again, speaking of drama, I love this little aside from the speaker this week. Yeah. Attorney General Paxton is apparently about to pay out a $3.3 million settlement for the many lawsuits against him. And it is said to be paid from taxpayer funds or it's going to be

paid from taxpayer funds. Speaker Phelan told CBS DFW that if Paxton wants it to be paid by the taxpayers, then he will need to come before the House Appropriations Committee and make the case for why he deserves to have this settlement paid for by the public instead of, I assume, by him or by his campaign or whatever the case may be. I don't think his campaign could pay it. It would probably have to be him who paid it, but I don't know. Speaker Phelan said he doesn't think it's an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars. So if Attorney General Paxton wants the taxpayers to pay it, then he'll need to convince the legislature to do it. Oof, that'll be a fun little fight to watch.

I'm gonna pivot back to some non-political news. I have been absolutely riveted by the Alex Murdoch. Well, here's the thing. It's written as Alex Murdoch. It's pronounced Alec Murdoch. Don't ask me why. But his trial has been ongoing for coming up on three weeks, if not already hit three weeks. It is a fascinating and awful,

awfully tragic case with lots of details, craziness going on. I'd encourage folks, if you're interested, to go to Mandy Matney's Twitter. She's the gal who's been following this in South Carolina from an independent news organization since way before this became a huge national story. So fascinating to watch and listen to like her coverage very early on. And she's continued and kind of become this big figure in true crime now that this case has become so huge. But the trial is going on. There are multiple live streams you can look up online. Essentially, what happened, Alec Murdaugh is facing charges, double homicide for his wife and son. They're a prominent South Carolina legal family that has been allegedly very much part of the good old boy system in South Carolina. Not even allegedly, they just are part of the good old boy system in South Carolina. Not even allegedly, they just are part of the good old boy system in South Carolina. His father, grandfather, prosecutors

have been for years in the South, particularly in this particular county in South Carolina. And he's on top of these homicide charges. He's also facing, I think, 50 something counts of fraud, which is unbelievable. So he was the attorney for dozens of people. Personal injury largely was what he delved into for these particular cases and wrongful death, etc. Turns out he was pocketing a lot of the money. And at this point, his legal defense is not even bothering to use the word allegedly anymore in these cases it is fascinating there's so many details um and i've been very much riveting uh riveted by the debacle it sounds like it it's fascinating i'm anticipating a netflix series in a few years it's coming out on february 22nd in six days i'm not counting that yes literally are you serious i'm serious they're. Is it really? Yes, literally. Are you serious?

I'm serious. They're already on it. The trial's still underway and they're already producing the Netflix special. I mean, guys, there's a, there, his son was 22.

His wife, um, was also murdered. Um, unbelievably tragic. There had been, there's this whole boat accident that happened several years prior where his son was allegedly the driver where a girl went missing. Hershey was later recovered and she died.

This is why I don't get on boats. It's an unbelievable story. There are multiple missing person and murder surrounding this family. And there aren't a lot of answers. It's shocking. Perhaps it was aliens. It could have been aliens. There you go.

Perfect wrap up but if you're interested in some insane real-time true true crime um i think a lot of folks are tuned in this is probably the biggest trial in the country right now so fascinating certainly not niche but um i'm following it regardless highly recommend looking into it yeah it's wild um it's very wild i immediately told hayden about this podcast because he's my true crime compatriot here i will say mackenzie wrote i'm sorry it's murdoch murdoch it's it's it's written murdoch but it's pronounced murdoch yeah i don't know why murdoch murders in all capital letters on our twittery it's true it. It's just a wild, crazy story. Just,

it's crazy. Also, the murders happened on their hunting property where they specifically have kennels for their hunting dogs. Like this is a very wealthy, prominent family. It's just, it's very,

everything about it just seems like it's out of some crazy novel and it's real and it's happening right now. That's so freaky when when fiction is scarier or when reality is scarier than fiction yeah where you're reading it and if it wasn't real you would you would think that it had been made up yeah i'm gonna guess you're part of the reason we have so many true crime tv channels i actually was telling y'all this earlier i definitely enjoy true crime but i'm not someone who can uh consume it all the time it kind of depresses me so if there's a particularly crazy case or something i'm in the mood i'll re-enter but i'm not a constant consumer of any true crime

podcast or tv or that kind of thing i really enjoy it when I do partake, but I do have to be in the mood or has to be particularly crazy. Anyways. In other news, Marvel's Ant-Man premieres tonight. Really? In 3D. I had no idea.

3D? Is it a new Ant-Man movie? Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania. I had no idea. You're just making up words. After the Avengers wrapped up, it's just like,

I like it. I just don't follow Marvel as much. It's like, There's so many. There are just too many and they're not as, yeah.

I have a lot of opinions I could delve into. There's a Guardians of the Galaxy coming out soon too. I did see that. I do love Guardians. Yeah.

Well, I might have to go see that one. Okay, folks. Well, we have truly blathered this podcast. Thank you for listening. We will catch you next week. Thank you to everyone for listening.

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