The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - July 21, 2023

Episode Date: July 21, 2023

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free Texas flag hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://go.thetexan.news/texas-flag-hat/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=weekly_roundupAlready a subscriber? You can also purchase a Texas flag hat in our store at store.thetexan.news. 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 issuing a gag order on all parties in the Ken Paxton impeachment trialGreg Abbott defending Operation Lone Star against claims that officers mistreated illegal immigrantsThe funds Texas Republicans raised following Paxton’s impeachmentU.S. Sen. Ted Cruz introducing a bill to ban the use of “Latinx” in documents from government agenciesDan Crenshaw and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pushing studies on psychedelic drug treatments for veterans with PTSDTexas lawmakers criticizing the Biden administration’s attempt to force Texas to expand MedicaidThe Kemah City Council hiring a former Odessa official who was fired for interfering with an investigationTexas Rep. Four Price announcing he will not seek re-election next yearUvalde mayor Don McLaughlin announcing his run as a Republican for a moderate Texas House districtThe February DWI charges against Texas Sen. Charles Schwertner being dismissedTexas localities preparing for solar eclipse tourists in OctoberElon Musk’s X Corp. suing four Dallas “John Does” for allegedly scraping Twitter dataThe Odessa City Council’s investigation into a data breach via an ex-employee’s email account

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 issuing a gag order on all parties in the Ken Paxton impeachment trial. Greg Abbott defending Operation Lone Star against claims that officers mistreated illegal immigrants. The funds Texas Republicans raised following Paxton's impeachment. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz introducing a bill to ban the use of the term Latinx in documents from government agencies. Dan Crenshaw and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pushing studies on psychedelic drug treatments for veterans with PTSD. Texas lawmakers criticizing the Biden administration's attempts to force Texas to expand Medicaid.

The Kima City Council hiring a former Odessa official who was fired for interfering with an investigation. Texas Representative For Price announcing he will not seek re-election next year. Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin announcing his run as a Republican for a moderate Texas House district. The February DWI charges against Texas Senator Charles Schwartner being dismissed. Texas localities preparing for solar eclipse tourists in October.

Elon Musk's X-Corp suing Ford Dallas John Doe's for allegedly scraping Twitter data and the Odessa City Council's investigation into a data breach via an ex-employee's email account. As always, if you have questions for our team, DM us on Twitter or email us at editor at thetexan.news. We'd love to answer your questions on a future podcast thanks for listening and enjoy this episode howdy folks mckenzie here with brad cameron hayden and matt one day i'm gonna go opposite your names and it's gonna

be shocking also i think i say that once a year that i will go opposite and shock you with an order in which i call your names and then i don't so shocking i am trembling with anticipation of that day how's your mustache today about the same as it was last week okay explain to me do you just at this point you just let your stash grow or do you trim it uh only on the like sides i haven't trimmed it got it so you trim it in its so it stays within its confines. And I'm glad that you are not putting air quotes around the word mustache. Brad, I have dignified your mustache. Still legitimizing it. I am.

And I have dignified it in its entire existence. Okay. Yeah. So don't hold this one against me. It is coming in strong. I don't think that's true, but thank you. Well, it took a little while. I'll take it, I guess.

I'm convinced Brad just, I said this yesterday, just grew the stash to elicit reactions. Positive or negative. I don't think he cares that much. If that's the case, we definitely gave him what he was looking for. And now we're talking about it for the second time on the podcast publicly. No, first and foremost, I just wanted to see how it would go okay and second the reactions have been funny has matt seen your matt hasn't seen your stash he wouldn't know well i mean he is out in west texas so of course not yeah unless he watched the uh video with paul bettencourt that's true

plug that right there folks go listen to that on yeah Yeah, to see the mustache. Yeah. That's the value of it. Aside from Senator Bettencourt's. I don't recall seeing a mustache. Yeah, well, definitely. That's because it was so scant. Wait, Matt, you don't recall seeing the mustache on the podcast? Incorrect. Oh, boy.

That's pretty brutal, Brad. Yes. Yes yes it is okay well that's my assessment of the situation as well brad also did walk in today with his aviators on and his mustache walking in and like an army green shirt and it gave i don't know a certain vibe i can't quite um remember what like you just got off a helicopter i for one don't know what that word means because it is a gen z slang that i refuse to acknowledge what vibe yeah that one yes that one he won't even repeat the word exactly he won't even say just yes he'll say that one well i feel like i have one foot in the millennial generation and one foot in the generation z generation so i like how you said generation

z and not gen z i meant to say gen z but i just well went with it it's just shortened we're millennials millennial hayden's yeah you're probably right on the right on the line because i've read that gen z some people say it begins in 95 some people say it begins in 97 and i was born in 97 yeah so i am right on the line between millennial and gen z well we'll have to do some research maybe we'll talk about that at the end we have talked about this on the podcast before but it was something like two years ago so we are probably due for another rehash of this about the same time brad started growing his mustache sounds like okay sounds like riveting conversation it certainly does okay well let's jump into the news here hayden we're gonna start with you there's been plenty

of commentary from all sides of the ken paxton impeachment. And Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick took a drastic step this week. Tell us about his gag order. Attorney General Ken Paxton is under 20 articles of impeachment that the Texas House passed in May of this year by a vote of 121 to 23. He is suspended from office until his trial, which is scheduled for September 5th. And Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick serves as the presiding officer of this trial. in this are no longer allowed to speak about it to the media or do anything that might influence the trial and imperil its impartiality. The text of the order states, quote, any member of the court, member of the House of Representatives, party to the trial of impeachment, witness in the trial of impeachment, or attorney, employee, or agent of any of these individuals shall not furnish any statement or information, or make or authorize making of an extrajudicial

statement that a reasonable person would expect to be disseminated by means of public communication, if the person making the statement knows or reasonably should know that it would have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing the trial of impeachment, pose a serious threat to the constitutional guarantees to a fair trial, or impair the court's ability to maintain a fair and impartial court, end quote. In essence, the order prohibits attorneys, their employees, or anyone from speaking to the media about this trial holding pressers or doing anything in public view that could influence the senators or otherwise threaten the impartial nature of this proceeding. What justification did the lieutenant governor

offer for issuing such a sweeping mandate? Patrick attached an exhibit to the gag order that he advised senators not to read that contained some examples of statements that had been made by both parties calling this impeachment a sham on the part of the attorneys for Paxton. And then those representing the house board of managers have called Patrick, excuse me, Paxton, in essence, a corrupt politician that has gotten away with crimes for years. And what Patrick called an inflammatory rhetoric on both sides of this in view

of the examples that he cited and his authority under the impeachment rules, he issued this gag order on the basis that it is necessary to preserve a fair and impartial trial. And remember, this is something he cited in the gag order. This is not a traditional jury or a traditional trial in which there is a venire that they can draw from to replace jurors that have been tainted, for lack of a better word, with outside information. In a real trial, the judge could have the option of dismissing a juror and then replacing that juror with an alternate or somebody else from a potential pool of jurors. But Patrick does not have that option because the Senate Court of Impeachment is composed entirely of elected state senators.

Angela Paxton is the only one so far who has been disqualified from voting and she will not be replaced. The other 30 senators will simply vote without her. So this is not a traditional trial. It's not a traditional jury. So it raises the stakes for imperiling the impartiality of the so-called jury. And while the court of impeachment and Patrick can do what they can to create a fair proceeding, this process by its nature cannot be totally fair because it is a political process composed of political actors. So Patrick seems to be doing everything he can to make the proceeding and the trial itself fair without. Without overstepping his bounds yeah i just i learned so much from you guys i just had to google what venire means which is a panel from which a jury is drawn this is very interesting i was on a venire in march but i didn't get picked

well i was pleased because it meant that you were still around to cover a lot of things that you were in the middle of covering, but it would have been fun for you, I think. Okay, did the order have any immediate consequences? Well, attorney Tony Busby, one of the lawyers representing Paxton, said that he would have a news conference at his office in Houston.

Hours later, Patrick issued this gag order and Busby later canceled that news conference. So it had the immediate effect of quashing this news conference that Busby had intended to have at his office there in Houston. And I have to imagine that those two events are related. It might have been the straw that broke the camel's back, but I can't imagine that Busby just happened to announce this news conference hours before Patrick issued this gag order. And Busby cited the gag order as the reason he was canceling the news conference. The order cited, the order said that those in violation of it can be held in contempt of court and sent to the county jail or face a fine of several hundred dollars.

However, I do want to point out that this order did not cite any criminal statutes. Paxton's lawyers are contending that this is a criminal proceeding. They have said that in court documents because of statements made in previous impeachment trials and because of the terminology that is being used, conviction or acquittal. But in the interest of intellectual honesty and clarity, this is not a criminal trial. They are arguing that it is a criminal proceeding because they want the due process protections of the Constitution to apply to Paxton and they want more protection for him. They want him to be treated as a criminal defendant. But this is not a judicial proceeding that is happening in a courtroom in the Texas judiciary. It is a political process that is playing out per the Texas Constitution. And there is a lot of the same lingo involved because it's the closest analogy available. But for the sake of complete honesty

to the public, Paxton cannot be sent to prison or fined or convicted of a crime as a result of this proceeding. So the most that anyone can say, honestly, is that this is like a criminal proceeding, but it is not the same thing as being charged with a crime and tried in a court of law. So the immediate consequence of this order was that Busby canceled this news conference and that the consequences of violating it could be held in so-called contempt of court. But I do want to continue to point out that the consequences of violating it could be held in so-called contempt of court. But I do want to continue to point out that the Texas Senate is not a court. It is a court of impeachment per the Constitution for the purpose of this proceeding. And that gets confusing.

It's granted powers, but it's not become a court by the traditional or constitutional definition. Correct. And the reason that's so important is because of the consequences of the outcome of this trial. It's important that people understand that Paxton is not on trial for his life, liberty or property. The Senate cannot do anything to him other than remove him from office and ban him from running for office again. There's some privileges at stake, certainly, but no rights per se. Okay. Well, Hayden, thank you so much. Bradley, we are coming to you. Campaign finance reports were filed this week. Give us a rundown on what they showed. State officials had a 12-day window between the session moratorium ending, session moratorium on fundraising ending, and the finance deadline itself on June 30th. Governor Greg Abbott raised a large amount of money to put it lightly shocker 15 million dollars i think i mentioned that in the last podcast because he'd announced it already he has 23 million cash on hand his top donor was one million dollars from kenneth fisher

an investment capital billionaire who recently moved to texas from washington state hey yeah there you go. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick raised $4 million, including a quarter million from Fisher and one million from Defend Texas Liberty PAC. That is former state rep Jonathan Stickland's PAC. And that group also provided Patrick with a $2 million loan. It's a lot of money. So we'll see. A lot of times those loans get forgiven. Uh, other times they don't. So I, I did hear that the maturation

of that loan is before the next election, which is interesting. Um, but I guess we'll see how it plays out. Not sure what the terms are there. But additionally, in his first period after getting impeached, Ken Paxson raised $1.7 million, including $500,000, from fitness chain magnate Gary Heavan. And then speaker Dade Phelan raised just shy of $1 million during the period, including $75,000 from Dallas businessman Harlan Crowe. So those are the top officials in the state generally, what they brought in during this 11, 12-day window. Yeah, absolutely. So this also includes numbers for non-elected officials or groups. Give us a rundown of that.

So comparing the two parties, Texas GOP raised $75,000 in this recent period, and it was like April 27th to June 30th. Now there was no fundraising moratorium for them because they're not a state elected official. So their overall numbers for the entire year was $1.4 million. They also were pretty active in the May local election, so there's a lot of spending there for school board races and whatnot. Compare that to the Democratic Party in Texas. They raised $60,000 in this recent window, $400,000 all year. So quite a million dollar difference between the two in total raise this year. And that total raise also includes federal PACs. And I think we're going

to get a better picture, I think, of the federal filing deadlines coming up. So once that's in, we will have even more of a picture of what these two parties raised. On the non-party organization front, Texans for Lawsuit Reform pulled in a, I wouldn't say surprising, but a very large $6.7 million. That organization always has a lot of money at its fingertips, and they divvy it out to especially state house members. Defend Texas Liberty that I mentioned earlier, they raised $3.5 million. And then the Associated Republicans of Texas, which is a group that is going to be targeting five,

specifically, in addition to other things, but mainly five Democrat-held state house seats that are probably competitive, either that are competitive or look to be competitive. And so a lot of this money we're going to see flowing out of these coffers into candidates or on behalf of candidates, spent on behalf of candidates as we enter the 2024 election cycle. But this is the first glimpse into what the picture is going to look like. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Brad. Hayden, Operation Lone Star became the subject of scrutiny this week after a report from the Houston Chronicle. Walk us through some of the allegations in the article. Operation Lone Star has been in the headlines this week after

the Houston Chronicle Hearst newspapers published some allegations that were contained in an email by an unnamed state trooper, including that superiors in DPS had ordered state troopers to more or less push foreign nationals or illegal immigrants back into the Rio Grande instead of allowing them to cross and providing them appropriate medical aid. Content warning, some of this is a little bit rough, so if you have small ears, maybe ask them to leave the room. take place included a mother being caught in the razor wire while she was having a miscarriage and being doubled over in pain. And this caught in the razor wire, a Texas guardman, National Guardsman allegedly pushed a four-year-old girl back out as she was trying to cross. And she ended up passing out from heat exhaustion. And in another case, a teenage boy was trying to cross and she ended up passing out from heat exhaustion. And in another case,

a teenage boy was trying to get around the razor wire and he broke his leg and had to be carried by his father. There were other cases described in this article of people having their legs cut open by this razor wire. And as they were trying to circumvent it. Some very violent graphic things were described in the Houston Chronicles piece, and it provoked a lot of reaction from public officials and others. State Senator Roland Gutierrez, who is a candidate for U.S. Senate, asked for the federal government to investigate, which they reportedly now are. Beto O'Rourke, Governor Abbott's opponent in the 2022 election, called Abbott a murderer and a ghoul, and he asked President Biden to intervene in Operation Lone Star. Strong words from some Democrats there. Thank you, Hayden. The Texas

Department of Public Safety had a lot to say about this. What details did officials share about the logistics of security devices along the border? We spoke with Lieutenant Christopher Olivares, who is a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety. And these allegations implicated both the Texas Military Department and DPS, but he spoke for his department and said that all of these barriers and security devices are conspicuous and clear to people who are on the other side of the river. He said that there are loudspeakers broadcasting messages in Spanish urging people to approach a port of entry instead of crossing illegally. I specifically asked Lieutenant Olivares if there are any devices on the southern border that are

designed to surprise or trick people. And he unequivocally said that they are not designed to surprise, trick, or drown anyone. And I specifically asked as well if there are any troopers being directed to deny medical care or water. He said, quote, no, that's absolutely false. It's quite the opposite. In fact, we've dedicated medical staff that's been working around the clock even prior to this alleged incident that took place. We've told troopers to use their judgment based on medical needs, but at no point has any trooper been told not to provide water or medical aid. He added that DPS has also performed, quote, numerous rescue operations of migrants, end quote. Did the governor's office have any response to these allegations? including the Texas military department, again, denying that any claim that state troopers are

being directed to mistreat people. And of course, it is their role to protect the integrity of this operation. But it is important to remember that this Houston Chronicle report was based on an email that was obtained by another source. They did not speak directly to the trooper who wrote the email. And the identity of that trooper, of course, is not known to anyone except for the Houston Chronicle and Hearst newspapers. There you go. Thank you, Hayden. Cameron, coming to you, Senator Ted Cruz has teamed up with fellow senators in an attempt to rid government documents of the term Latinx. Tell us about those details. The Respect for Hispanic Americans Act is an effort by Cruz and Marco Rubio

that will prohibit any government agency from using Latinx in official communications or government forums. In a statement, a joint statement, Rubio claimed that though Latinx is being tossed around by progressive elites, well, he's kind of right. It's not catching on with the average Latino American because according to Pew Research, just 3% of Americans describe themselves as Latinx. And only 23 percent of Latino adults have even heard of the term. And so there's also an effort in the U.S. House as they have introduced the Reject Latinx Act. Yeah, absolutely. Cameron, thanks for your coverage on that. We're going to stick with you here on some more federal news. An interesting coalition and a very interesting topic, psychedelic drug research for military members.

Give us those details. Yeah, so Rep. Dan Crenshaw has called this a real wild coalition because his partner in this push is the progressive Rep. AOC. Well, their aim is to introduce an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that will allow for research into clinical trials for military members so they can study how psychedelic drugs can be used to recover from trauma suffered in war. Is this something that has research behind it? Yeah, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies

has actually conducted clinical trials that were approved through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, that's the FDA, where they used MDMA, which is commonly known as ecstasy, for PTSD with veterans. And they conducted a two-month trial where they found 88% of participants experienced a significant reduction in PTSD symptoms, and 67% no longer met the criteria to be diagnosed with PTSD. What is the status of the amendment? Well, they had to do some narrowing to make it fit into the NDAA. But there's going to be some negotiations.

And Crenshaw said he's hopeful that he can work with the Senate to get the language reverted back to its original language. There you go, Cameron. Thank you. Brad, coming to you, the Biden administration is again trying to force Texas into expanding Medicaid. What's going on there? After its previous attempt failed in the courts, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Joe Biden has revived a proposal made originally under the Trump administration that would prohibit hospitals from pooling together their funds to help each other make up for financial losses associated with Medicaid uncompensated care. Essentially, these hospitals take Medicaid patients who generally can't pay their bills.

If they are in Medicaid, enrolled in Medicaid, the federal government will then reimburse for a large portion of those costs. And so if that money doesn't come in, that's a pretty significant loss, especially in rural areas and especially on the border and more inner city parts of the state. So those are places where the hospitals rely more on Medicaid than in others. Much like the health sharing ministries used among some faith communities, this program or this practice serves as a kind of quasi-insurance policy against the federal government failing to reimburse hospitals under the program. By socializing this risk, you avoid largely catastrophic financial situations. And that can apply to an individual doing it, pooling with other individuals or families, and it also applies to these hospitals. Without that capability,

it's estimated the state would have to come in and make up for the losses to the tune of $8 billion. Wow. What are state officials saying about this? Republicans and Democrats in the state have been united in opposition to the maneuver. At a June press conference of state senators, both R and D, Senator Brian Hughes, a Republican, said Texas has relied on the safety net and we can't have the rug pulled out from under us by unelected bureaucrats of any party. Democrat Senator John Whitmire added, addressing the Biden administration, I share your frustration that Texas has not expanded Medicaid, but if this is a measure to try and force us to reconsider our Medicaid policy, don't go down that path. That is not the way to get people to change their minds on Medicaid expansion. We've seen ever since it really started in 2013,

Texas has rejected the idea of expanding Medicaid. I go into detail on why in the piece, but briefly, they A, don't want, Republicans in the state don't want the additional regulation that comes with it from the federal government. And B, even though the federal government will be paying more in percentage-wise of these Medicaid costs if they expand Medicaid, it will also expand the pool of people eligible and increase baseload costs. So that's kind of the two-pronged reason why the Texas Republicans have avoided it so far. But it's always brought up by Democrats during the legislature,

this past legislative session. It was rejected again in, I think it was a budget vote there's a test vote on it and so and they try maybe to expand it a little bit here a little bit there or maybe yeah and and it's interesting to watch those votes go down yeah yeah doubt it's going away anytime soon this this debate yeah it won't so but now there's a new fight on this and we'll see where it goes maybe it goes like the last one did where there was a waiver. Way too complicated to get into details on it. But the Biden administration retroactively unapproved the waiver. And that happened in 2021.

And it led to a court case that then caused the thing to be dropped entirely. Awesome. Thank you, Bradley. Hey, listeners, if you're enjoying our podcast, subscribe to The Texan right now. We're not funded by corporate interests or big donors, so we rely on the subscriptions of everyday Texans to keep doing our jobs. When you subscribe, you'll get access to all our stories as soon as they're published, so you can stay informed, up to speed, and ready to vote at the ballot box. A subscription is $9 monthly, but you can save by purchasing an annual subscription for 90 bucks coming out to just $7.50 per month. New subscribers will also get that free Texas State Pride flag hat with all sorts of color options to choose from. I believe

it's navy, black, maroon, red, or pink. For more details, visit the texan.news forward slash subscribe or click on the URL in the description of this podcast. I also want to note for existing subscribers, this is an item that's available in our store. So go to thestore.thetexan.news. I think it's like $26 plus taxes and shipping, but it's a great hat. Check it out. Awesome. Matt, we are coming to you next. This was a joint investigation between reporters Matt Stringer and Holly Hansen here at the Texan. And quite fascinating to watch two stories y'all are very familiar with intersect. So give us those details. Oh, that's right, Mackenzie. I'll start with Holly's side of the

story, where she'd been covering where the Kima City Council down in Galveston County had voted in early May to fire their city administrator, which for a general law municipality is synonymous with a city manager. Our research then showed in mid-May the city contracted via simply a signature by the mayor with Clear Career Professional Consultants, an executive search firm hired to both find a new city administrator and, a more interesting fact, have one of their employees act as the interim city administrator. Neither of these actions were approved by the city council. Fast forward to July and the consultant recommended former Odessa city manager Aaron Smith to be the next city

administrator. And that is where our stories crossed. I previously covered the Odessa city council where they fired their city manager and city attorney this past December. Shortly before being fired, former Odessa City Manager Michael Marrero had hired Smith as one of his assistants. The day after Smith's boss was fired, Odessa Mayor Javier Hoven signed an agreement with T2 Professional Consult consultants to begin searching for a new manager, just like how the city of Kima hired a consultant to find theirs. But in this instance, Smith filed criminal charges against Hoven, claiming the contract was illegally entered into.

Our research shows that the Open Meetings Act generally accepts professional service agreements, such as hiring an attorney or professional executive search consultant like this, from requiring council approval. Regardless, the city council ultimately ratified the contract, and later the Texas Rangers rejected the criminal complaint made by Smith against Hoven. Fast forward to now, Smith is set to become the city administrator under the same circumstances he alleged was a criminal act in Odessa. However, this latest circumstance carries the unique element in that KEMA also contracted for the consultant to act as the city administrator, something both state law under the local government code and the KEMA city ordinances requires the city council to approve, raising legal questions. Smith presently has a wrongful termination lawsuit against the city

of Odessa, claiming his firing for refusing to cooperate in an unrelated investigation was an act of retaliation for his criminal complaint against the mayor. Now, Holly and I are both going to continue to monitor this story for any updates from the lawsuit in Odessa to the hiring of the consultant in Kima. So we'll be sure to keep you all informed as we find out new details. Absolutely. And folks, I want to reiterate that this is phenomenal, phenomenal reporting by Matt and Holly and fascinating to watch their areas of the state they're so familiar with overlap in this way. So Matt and Holly, thank you both for your reporting. Brad, coming to you, there was another retirement announcement in the Texas House this week. Who was it? State Representative For Price of Amarillo, a Republican, announced

that after seven terms, he would forego re-election in 2024. He said, quote, I have represented the 87th House District for seven sessions in the Texas legislature, and I'm deeply appreciative of the community's overwhelming support since first being elected in 2010 his hg7 contains eight counties in the panhandle including the north half of amarillo uh it is as far as our texas partisan index goes it's rated r 80 which means it's heavily heavily republican so whoever replaces him will will almost without a doubt be a Republican. Price is the fourth member of the House to forego re-election next year. And he is one of 13 House Republicans to have voted against both school choice test votes. So he'll still be in the legislature this fall when they take up some form of school choice.

But after that, we'll probably see a pretty big fight centered on that issue in the election next year to succeed it. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Bradley. Hayden, coming to you with some more election news. A very prominent South Texas mayor is making a run for the legislature. What spurred Don McLaughlin's candidacy? As Brad just mentioned, there have been a number of incumbents who have announced they will not seek re-election in the coming cycle. One of those incumbents is Democrat Tracy King. He is a fairly moderate Democrat from South Texas. He represents Uvalde and the surrounding areas. The district is a toss-up on the Texans' Texas Partisan Index, and in the 2022 cycle, it became more Republican.

It was D53% in 2020, but it is now R51%. Right on the line there. Don McLaughlin announced he would seek the Republican nomination in the district, and he is facing the mayor of Pleasanton, Clint Powell, in the Republican primary. As far as I know, no Democrats have announced for the district so far. McLaughlin has been in the statewide spotlight before. What are some of the things he's known for? McLaughlin was at the forefront of the news conference about the Uvalde shooting. And he accused O'Rourke of trying to exploit the event for political gain. So if the name Don McLaughlin sounds familiar,

that's probably where you've heard it before. He was very vocal about the uvalde shooting and coordinating resources he even supported some moderate reforms but he is still a proponent of gun rights certainly called um beto o'rourke son of a biscuit those were the words he used that is not exactly what he said but for the podcast that is a toned down version of what he said. Definitely made huge news and certainly very vocal representative of his community. Brad, we're going to come to you after months of inaction. We finally had a development in the DWI charges against Senator Schwartner. What was announced? The attorney for Senator Charles Schwartner told the Austin American Statesman this week that Travis County Attorney Delia Garza has decided to drop the DWI charges

against the senator stemming from a February incident. On the night of February 6th, Schwartner was pulled over and arrested after officers said he was glassy-eyed and slurring his words and swerving in his vehicle. This happened in Austin the night before an important power grid committee hearing in the Senate the next morning. Schwartner was absent from that hearing. A March court date was set, but then pushed back to August,

and now likely will never happen. Before that date was reached, these charges have been dropped. Garza has not yet said why, but it's not yet said why, but it's not going anywhere now. So I guess it's water under the bridge as far as the legal issues go.

Yeah, well, we were unsure at the time of whether Senator Shortner, who serves as a very prominent chairman in the Senate, what that would mean for his chairmanship, but seems that everything is back to normal. Yeah. There you go um hey matt i had to think about who we're going to see matt i'm coming to you next texas is in a very unique

position on the globe to be ground zero for two approaching astronomical events give us those details texas will see two solar eclipses in the next year. The first will occur this October and the other one in April of next year. Numerous Texas communities in the path of the eclipse are preparing for a tremendous amount of eclipse tourism, with hotels and campgrounds booking up for the dates. So tell us about some of the communities with Eclipse events. We featured the city of Kerrville, which is right in some of the best region to view the Eclipse. They are holding a river festival in concurrence with the Eclipse time.

And they, as well as several other cities, have also launched websites full of information regarding the events. And they list links to hotel recommendations, campgrounds. They highlight restaurant options, events occurring in their communities in conjunction with the eclipse, and also provide safety information for how to best view it, where the best viewing areas are. We list high, we highlight some of those details in the story, but also want to give a shout out to the city of Junction who read our story and reached out to us, letting us know they plan to have an amazing event in their community, which also lays in the best path.

Yeah, very interesting story from you, Matt. Are there different types of eclipses? Yes. In October, we will see an annular eclipse, which is where the moon passes in front of the sun during its furthest point from the Earth, failing to fully cover the sun, leaving a ring of fire around the edges of the eclipse. Whereas next year, we'll see a total eclipse, where you will actually see total darkness and the best spots of the shadow. Both events will last several minutes, and officials have described these events as life-changing and other prominent language to discourage how just awesome of a moment it is.

Officials are also warning viewers to be prepared on numerous fronts. First, don't view the sun with your own direct eyes or through regular sunglasses. Get certified, bona fide eclipse viewing glasses. And I'm sure you can probably get those on Amazon and different places. And NASA and the state of Texas also have websites where they highlight some recommendations for those sort of things. And we cover that in the story. But also, whenever you're viewing the eclipse, be prepared for the outside elements, as it can get pretty hot outside in Texas,

believe it or not, regardless of whether it's October or April. So for more details about this awesome event coming up, check out our story at the Texan. Absolutely. I just went on Amazon to find eclipse glasses and it says anywhere from $1,250 to $450. But I think that's just for like a mega pack of a button it looks like if you went to a 3d movie like those little paper glasses you get in the movie theater it's pretty cool yeah basically that's what they are i remember back in 16 or 17 we had one and um i viewed it through some of those little paper 3d glasses and it's pretty cool I actually like these better. They're like little, like they're welding glasses.

They look like welding glasses where you like flip up the little guy, the little eye guys and flip them back down. You don't even need an eclipse to wear those. That's a fashion statement. That's a fashion statement if I ever saw one. That's right. My dad actually went into the shop and got his old welding hood and viewed it through that.

That's a smart move right there. Matt, thanks for your coverage. Cameron, we're coming to you. Since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, I think we should add Elon Musk to just one of your beats here at the Texan. You and Matt, you and Matt go back and forth. Well, honestly, everyone I think has written about Elon Musk in this office. But since he purchased Twitter,

he has continued to find himself in the center of controversy. Tell us about this latest development. Well, Elon's newly formed XCorp. He's suing four unnamed John Does in Dallas for what the lawsuit claims is data scraping. Scraping is a form of unauthorized data collection that uses automation and other processes to harvest data from a website or a mobile application. So if our listeners remember the tweet reading limit that was implemented on Twitter a few weeks ago, this was the reason for that.

We hear the phrase data scraping in news often. How long has this been around? Well, I did some digging and found in 2022 the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed a previous decision that it is not illegal to scrape publicly accessible data. But prior to that ruling, in 2020, a Texas judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that data scraping can be considered unjust enrichment under Texas common law. So this new lawsuit will be the first real test for XCorp and Musk for how data scraping will be handled in Texas courts. And for any of our listeners worried about data privacy or data security, this is something you'll be wanting to follow. Yeah, absolutely. Cameron, thank you so much. Matt, circling back to West Texas,

the city of Odessa has made a lot of news recently. And most recently this week, you attended a press conference regarding a data breach. What are officials saying? That's right. So as we kind of touched a little bit in our joint story earlier on, the city of Odessa fired their city manager, Michael Marrero, and their city attorney, Google accounts, et cetera, et cetera. I forget what all the city listed. We'll fast forward to this past month, and the city was working on fulfilling a public records request by a local news media outlet whenever they discovered that the former city attorney's email account was regularly being accessed.

And not only that, but other city data accounts were being accessed and somewhere around 200 documents had been downloaded. Now, they didn't specifically name her as the one who was doing it, but the council met and voted to request the Odessa Police Department initiate a criminal investigation and request either the Texas Rangers or the Texas Attorney General's office to investigate, with one official telling me that an unauthorized breach of a government computer database is actually a felony under Texas law. Now, during the press conference, I asked Mayor Hoeven if the account belonging to Brooks was the only one that had been accessed. And he said, no, they believe one other belonging to a former official has also been accessed, but they're still compiling the information on that investigation. And he stopped short of naming who it was. And once again, the city isn't naming anybody in particular. They're waiting for law enforcement to conduct the official investigation and announce who they have determined as accessing these accounts. is both have threatened litigation against the city, as well as the city attorney has filed a racial discrimination complaint with the federal EEOC commission. So one of the concerns was that perhaps data that could be used against the city was being accessed. Now, we'll continue to monitor this story and for any updates and see what the law enforcement determines, who law enforcement determines access to the accounts and whether or not any criminal charges are pressed.

There you go, Matt. Thank you so much for your coverage. Gentlemen, we are going to move on to our tweetery section here um brad why don't we start with you stick on the political topics here so we talked about representative for price's retirement or impending retirement and after that happened i saw a tweet from a legislative that just said five slash five, five out of five. And I thought, oh, I've seen that before. And I realized that it was a subtle message about the Bonin resignation, Speaker Dennis Bonin back in 2019 when the Empower Texans quid pro quo recording was released and that eventually led to Speaker Bonnen deciding not

to run for re-election. And I'm sure everyone who is familiar with Texas politics is familiar with that situation but uh kind of the the thing that got the snowball rolling on the speaker not running for re-election was a joint statement by five GOP chairman at the time who announced they were withdrawing their support for the speaker and uh with price leaving that he is the last of those that is still in the legislature uh that was for price dan huberty lyle larson chris patty and john frullo those other four have all left at various points actually i think they all left last session in 21 but now for price leaving but it shows you that things are not easily forgotten in the texas capital and not only divisions among republicans or democrats but divisions intra-party divisions are very strong especially among the party that is in the majority and has the power.

Because they have more to argue over. Yep. Yep. And, but, you know, this was noticed. And the staffer was just the one to tweet it out. I guarantee you everybody in those circles is well aware and is, those on Bonin's side are enjoying this a little bit of of a moment for him but um yeah it's it was interesting it's interesting to see brings me back that was one of the most you covered that yeah back in the day that was really really crazy it was one of those stories that changed every 15 minutes yeah yeah kind of like when the Paxton thing was unraveling.

It's very similar to that in the speed at which it went down. It was a very wild situation. Yeah. And there's still ripple effects from it happening. Absolutely. Okay. Matthew, we're coming to you next on what I believe is kind of a follow up to a previous tweetery that you had.

Yeah, so I got some breaking news. Bring it on. I did not win the billion-dollar lotto. Matthew, I'm so sorry. I know. I am, too. What would you have bought? Like, first big purchase.

You know, actually, I don't remember if i discussed this or not but you know for two dollars you can buy one of these billion dollar lotto tickets and get the best night's sleep dreaming about all the things that you would buy uh with that uh with that cash have you ever tried that no but you mentioned it on the pod last week or the week before this is a game you play off as an event some some lucky fellow in california actually finally managed to win the pot and i just had to laugh about this uh tweet from this entire account uh that mocks uh the federal reserve chairman but he posted a forbes article that says winner of $1.28 billion lotto gets $433 million after tax. So the taxes are like a 60-40 cut because I guess it was a little bit more steep because he's in California.

Yeah, I'd guess. I don't know how that works. So because I believe they have a state income tax, so the IRS is going to get their cut and the state of California is going to get their cut. Whereas if you're a winner in Texas, I think you were going to get about $550 million. I saw after the winner happened, an old tweet, a bit of news popped up on the Twitters and it was of a 2019 winner in jamaica who wore a scream mask to collect his winnings that way his family didn't know he won no way oh my gosh yeah wow that's pretty that's smart it's it's something i don't know, you hear all these stories about how miserable it can be to actually win the lottery.

Obviously, outside the fact that you have lots and lots of money. But having family members, people you haven't spoken to in years coming to you asking for money, and friends. That part is not enviable. Yeah, that makes sense. I think the most important thing, regardless whether you win the lottery or you just become very, very successful in life and all that sort of stuff, is just be very mindful not to let money change who you are. That's very true. Also, I do want to say that at any point in the podcast, you have what? Unless the money makes you better. What, guys? unless the money makes you better what guys no I was just laughing at Matt

I thought sometimes I get paranoid because you guys laugh at me so much no you and Hayden are always laughing back and forth over something that's true the gloves come off wait how did I get wrapped up in this well because Hayden we like to giggle worth over something. That's true. The gloves come off.

Wait, how did I get wrapped up in this? Well, because Hayden, we like to giggle. We do, on occasion. You guys have the inside jokes on the Slack. We do. We don't even. I think we just think the same things are funny. We do carry on inside jokes, though. I am, maybe.

Perhaps we should let people in on the inside jokes so they don't feel left out. Open up our hearts a little bit. Listen to your heart. What was the song you were singing earlier? Totally Eclipse. That was a different one. Totally Eclipse of the Heart.

Yeah. Matt, when you were talking about your eclipse story, Hayden was mouthing, Total eclipse of the heart. Yeah, that was pretty good. Cameron, this one is really interesting to me. It's piquing my interest because all I see is this little preview phrase here and I don't know what this means.

Well, I think I know what it means. There is a group of territorial hawks in Austin that have been attacking postal service workers to the point where the U.S. Postal Service has actually had to pause mail delivery service in a few areas. Oh my gosh. So I can't, this was, and this is being reported nationally i saw this in axios this is usa today these hawks are attacking people in austin what is happening we have orcas attacking people orcas are not attacking people why did you open that door cam Cameron? We have hawks attacking people. I was going to open that door, but I was just going to say, if the hawks ever team up with the orcas, then look out world, because they're going to have a Navy and an Air Force. Some by land, some by sea, you know? That's what they say.

Yeah, well, I don't know what's going on. The animals are fighting back. Yeah. Yeah. I'm watching this video and this is pretty this hawk straight up dive bombs this poor guy so quite something well i don't think it's in our part of the part of the city but who knows um hayden what do you have this seems like a nice little thing to end on here there's an account called Jokes that tweets really bad jokes, but this one made me chuckle.

It says, I told my wife to embrace her mistakes. She gave me a hug. Oh, gosh, that's so sad. That's actually not good to end on at all. That's really sad. Oh, boy. I need to quickly think of something else to say. No, that's funny so if you're looking at me you think i'm gonna well no i'm thinking about all the mistakes i've

i've embraced i expected you to say something witty there i don't know why but that's probably i think that's the point you you are a disappointment we should embrace brad uh that's probably the second divorce related joke that i've made during the tweeter resection in recent memory that's pretty sad hayden that's kind of my thing now i guess don't make it your thing don't do it please send me divorce jokes no h sparks at the texan.news i want to hear your divorce jokes so that i can read them aloud maslin just sent me a picture okay so if you at any point heard during the podcast today, a little dog whining, it's because I brought in our dog Poncho to the office as I'm handing him off to Brad today.

And Maslin. Permanently. No, never. But I texted Maslin and Rob who are not in here recording with us. And I was like, can one of you like I don't know distract Poncho he's whining more than usual because I've locked him out of the podcast room and he wants in and she just sent me a picture of him basking on the lawn of the Capitol it looks like he did not and she said that yeah he's just basking in the sun

that's a good picture it looks like it belongs on a postcard is like a professional photographer so she knows what she's doing but it's pretty cute anyway if you do hear a dog whimper we're so sorry we bring in the background um just a pathetic little little friend who doesn't like separation very much also i forgot to mute my computer so y'all might hear a slack notification i wasn't gonna bring it up, Peyton. I was going to let it slide. Mac is not pleased with me. I don't care.

It's literally every week my calendar event makes a noise on my computer. Ding! Yeah, every single week during the podcast. So I have no room to criticize. Oh, I'm sorry. Are we making inside jokes again? Was that an inside joke no comment also when you said embrace mistakes on the on the docket here hayden i thought it

was going to be about us embracing the mistakes we make on the podcast which we certainly need to do and poor maslin has her work cut out for her today today she has a lot of work yeah and like it's not that much typically like if an hour-long podcast if you have few And it's not that much. Typically, like an hour long podcast, if you have a few edits, it's not a big deal, but it's a lot for us. Frankly, earlier with our debacle, it wasn't the mistake. It was how long it took us to figure out how we were going to fix it. Yeah, that's that was probably the worst part. Exactly. Brad, any final thoughts from either you or your stash? It's hot outside. I thought you were used to it by now.

You complain every summer, Mr. Ohio, but I thought you were getting used to it this summer because you said so. I said I was getting used to being sweaty. That's not what you said at all. That's exactly what I said. Roll back the tape. That is exactly what I said.

Roll back the tape. Were we recording? Thank you. Yes, it was said on the tape. That is exactly what I said. Roll back the tape. What year is this? Thank you. Yes. It was said on the podcast. Okay. I don't think he said, I think he said he was just getting used to the heat. I don't think he said he was getting used to being sweaty.

I don't think so. Okay. Well, we should actually roll the tape. This is really worth hashing out, by the way. Yeah, it is. This is probably the least consequential thing we've talked about today. I guess here's a parting message. It's almost the weekend.

That's it. That's it. Okay, great. Well, folks, thank you for listening 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.

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