The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - July 31, 2026

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion.Religious Liberty, Online Gaming Child Safety Added to Texas Senate Interim ChargesTexas to Reinstate Stricter 2021 THC Rules Starting July 31Gov. Abbott, Challenger Hinojosa Spotlight Data Centers in Gubernatorial CampaignsTexas Senate Committee to Review Decade-Old Data Center Tax BreaksTexas Senate Mulls End to 13-Year-Old Tax Break for Data CentersHouston ICE Shooting Victim's Van Did Not Contain Illegal Drugs, Harris County DA Confirms5th Circuit Partially Upholds Block on Enforcing Texas SCOPE ActAbbott Appoints 21 Educators to Newly-Created Texas Classroom CommissionDel Rio Grand Jury Indicts 11 Over Deaths of Illegal Aliens Smuggled in Shipping ContainerDallas Mayor Asks Officials to Cut Spending, Avoid Tax Hike as City Hits Revenue SlumpEnjoy what you hear? Be sure to check out our articles at The Texan and leave us a review!Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.

Crumble cookie is releasing a new hot Cheetos cookie. It is a cookie with cream cheese and flaming hot Cheetos. And I think lime crumbled on top. And I believe it's probably somewhere in the range of like three to four thousand calories, if I had to guess. But I'm curious to know who would try this because I would. Who else would try it? Well, I'm neither crazy or Mazikas, so I'm not going to do it. Well, howdy folks.

Welcome back to another episode of the Texans' Weekly Roundup Podcast. I'm your host, Senior Editor Rob Lauchess, and joining me today are reporters Mary Elise Obar, Meredith Dyer, Hannah Brewer, and Isaiah Mitchell. And also joining us, joining us this week at the Texan actually is our new assistant editor, Henry Alexandrov. Henry, how are you doing today? They're right. How are you?

I cannot complain. I'm very glad to have some help on the editorial front. You do not know how much of a blessing you have already been to the Texan in terms of helping me out so that I'm not juggling so much stuff at every given time. So yeah, if you'd like to introduce yourself, tell the listeners a little bit about yourself and what you were doing before the Texan. and I'm sure they'd love to know. Yeah, so, I mean, I was born and raised in Ukraine,

but then I came here as a teenager. I attended the University of South Florida. Then I worked as a reporter at first, and then an editor for the Oracle, which is like a very local publication news website in the Tampa Bay area. I also wrote some articles for chemistry reform and the college fix. I worked for just the news in D.C. I, what else?

Our headline news I wrote for them for many years and also edited articles for them as well. And then also I'm for Ohio. News which is again a self-explanteria news website

about what's happening in Ohio and then I currently live in Florida but obviously I'm going to move as soon as possible to Austin. Well fantastic. Yeah, it's great that you had a background in covering state political news in particular since that's what we do so much of here is trying to trying to do everything through a Texas angle, you know, so we were very happy to see that you

had a background in covering state political news in particular. But I wanted to open it up to our reporters, if anybody had any questions for Henry to get to know them a little bit better. Yes, I was, you mentioned moving to Austin. I'm curious, have you been to Texas before? And if so, what was that experience like? If not, what are you looking forward to or interested in seeing about life in Texas? I've been to Texas before. When was that? I guess December of 2021, if I remember correctly.

I've been to all four major cities. I've been to Houston. I've been to San Antonio, Austin and Dallas. I liked Austin, not the downtown area. It was a really pleasant experience, but overall I like the city. I like San Antonio. Dallas, I don't know,

it was just kind of a big city. I was a huge fan of that. And I don't like Houston at all. Well, I mean, maybe it's a good city from the perspective of a person who lives there for various reasons, but as a tourist, I don't like it because there was nothing to see there. So, yeah.

I was saying somebody who grew up in Houston, I understand where you're coming from, you know. I do too. The weather is, yeah, Mary-Aleese also being from Houston. The weather is a little. I love in Houston for four years, yeah. It's rough. It can be rough.

Yeah, I expect to, the last time I checked, you guys in Texas have a dry climate, so you don't really have a humidity. So, in floor it's a huge thing so even if you know if the temperature role is low the humidity is going to be like 90 something percent so it's always going to be it's horrible it's really it's really bad so um i expect to um not supper special during the summer months i will tell you austin is uh much drier than houston to say the least so the weather i remember moving here and

thinking like, wow, it's hot, but you know, you could still wear a long sleeve shirt if you wanted to, which is not something you can do with Houston. Yeah. Yeah. You were a long-sleeve shirt. What's going on? Yeah. I remember my father and I went to Arizona and everybody was saying, oh, Arizona, it's really,

really hot out there. And it was hot, but you can walk down the street and, you know, you feel the temperature, but, you know, you could, you know, you can breathe air, you know, it was possible. So, yeah, that's a good thing. I expect that. I went to school at Texas A&M, which is like two hours from Houston, three hours from Dallas, two hours from Austin. And everyone would always joke that our colors were,

instead of maroon and white, they were maroon and sweat stain because it was disgusting. Yeah. Terrible. Yeah, it is a little bit bad. Well, let's see. Does anybody else have any questions for Henry? Oh, I'm sorry, Hannah, go ahead. No, we're just glad to have you in Texas soon, Henry.

Thank you. And I'll say one upside is that session starts in January. So you'll have at least a couple of months where even if you're having to walk in a tie in a nice shirt, the weather won't be horrible. Although like the tail end of session might get a little bit miserable, depending also on how many special sessions there are. But you'll survive. Yeah. Can you imagine Go ahead.

Yeah, I just want to say, I can tolerate it if it's just during the summer. So about from June to August, it's going to be really hot. I can tolerate it. But when it's all year long, like in Florida, it's really, it's no bueno. Yeah. Yeah, at least in Austin around January, it does have a kind of nicer, like, drier and cooler weather. But as you mentioned, Mary Elise, it is good that sessions do not start in, like, June. Because that would, you see everybody in those, like, white linen suits.

You know what I mean? Right. And you're required, I think, to wear, you have to have a tie on, right? To be on the House floor and walking over, I think probably for the Senate, too. So. Yep. For men on the House floor, coat and tie. You can wear sneakers, of course, as some lawmakers do. You know, the coat, the tie, or a full suit. and running shoes.

So now, of course, if you are running all over the house floor, kind of makes sense. You know, Representative Matt Schaefer did that a lot. And I think it's, I think it's kind of a look, you know. I think it works. I agree with that, Rob. I'm all for the suit and sneakers look, to be honest. Thank you, Hannah.

I like it when people agree with me. I appreciate that. Absolutely. Well, Henry, we are very excited to have you as part of the team. and I know all the reporters are happy because, you know, I already try as my best to tear all of their drafts to shreds. So the fact that I have you there to help me with that and tear it to shreds twice as much fills my heart with joy. And I know fills their hearts with terror. So I think we're going to make a great team.

Well, with that, let's get right into the news for this week. Mary Elise, we will be starting with you. A few Texas Senate interim charges were added this week by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. Tell us about him. Yeah. Yeah, just pivoting from that pretty brutal comment you just made about a drafts, we're going to switch on over to interim charges. Dan Patrick, like you said, did issue seven new interim charges for the Senate. So he's already released on two different occasions, interim charges.

And of course, these are kind of what largely defined this timeframe between. the 89th legislature and then this upcoming 90th legislative session, which like we said, kicks off from January, 2027. Because they're going to be, you know, these issues that he's selected, they're going to be studying them, they're going to be researching them, and holding different committee hearings as they've already been doing as they prepare to be able to shape legislation for that upcoming session. So they know, you know, what those bills are going to look like, what bills they're going to be filing moving forward. So in this new list, there were seven new charges. First of all, Patrick charged the Senate Business and Commerce Committee with preventing unfair online ticket sales practices. So he asked just that they evaluate how online ticketing platforms are currently operating.

And then to take a look also at the level consumer transparency involved in this process, and then ask them to evaluate, okay, where do we need to make some magic? adjustments in the state's law regarding this, these online tickets sales. So to study this and then evaluate where some adjustments might need to be made, what are some bills maybe that need to be filed on this topic? Then we saw him issue a charge to a couple charges to the Senate Religious Liberty Committee, which he actually established in March. And it was given kind of three focus areas.

So there was studying the current state of religious liberty and then monitoring the implementation of legislations related to this topic and then educating Texans on religious liberty. He was referencing, he specifically referenced one piece of legislation that was sponsored by state senator, authored by state senator, Phil King last legislative session. This is Senate Bill 1049, and it implemented a statewide approach to religious release laws, and that required school districts to essentially establish a plan for exempting the absence of students who attend times of religious instruction. So he referenced this in his charge to the Senate Religious Liberty Committee. Like we've covered a bit, Patrick did serve as the chair of President Donald Trump's commission on religious liberty.

He oversaw several hearings this past year on this topic. So this is the topic of religious liberty has definitely been a focus for him. especially over these past couple months. Also, the Senate State Affairs Committee was tasked with the protection of minors online, specifically in the gaming world. And then also another charge that was included in the State Affairs Committee is protecting Texas families for undergoing divorce custody proceedings. And so he was suggesting that Texas families are suffering, you know,

those who are involved in this are suffering from an unnecessary burden of, quote, inefficient or inconsistent divorce and child custody proceedings. But that charge related to Texas children protecting them online is kind of a similar focus that we saw the Texas House issue that called for an examination of those online gaming platforms to make sure, to evaluate if they're targeting minors and to make sure that, you know, if that's happening, what's legislation that we need to create during this next session to address this issue? So we'll see, we see already that the Texas House and Senate kind of united on this subject. So I would imagine they're going to be working pretty closely on addressing the protection of minors on online gaming platforms.

In general, the subject of protecting minors online is kind of a more uniting subject. But we'll see kind of how it's broken down, what bills are filed related to this topic and kind of where everyone stands on this. So yeah, I'd recommend you check out the piece list all of the interim charges in there. But you can also go look at our other pieces where we're. we've covered the other charges that Patrick has issued a couple months ago, as well as Texas House Speaker's charges. And it gives you kind of a good idea for the groundwork that's been laid headed into this 90th legislative session. Well, thank you very much for your coverage, Mary Elise. Always interesting to see how online child safety just continues coming back again and

again and again as a major political issue in, of course, not just federal politics. but state politics as well. So thank you very much. Speaking, Meredith, about an issue sort of tangentially related to child safety. You know, always like to find a good segue between the pieces, but THC, there is an important date for THC in Texas coming up. Tell us the details. Yeah, so this goes back a few years. And so this is where I bring out my timeline hands and I start doing this. So the Texas Department of State Health Services, they're reinstating definitions for THC, which is always fun to say when you look at it, tetrahydro-canobinoles.

Well, good job. Or a marijuana and marijuana extract from an previous 2021 revised scheduled of controlled substances. So in 2021, they had revised these definitions narrowing down very, like quite a bit, what wasn't exempted anymore. In 2020, they had exempted any THC type, including Delta. 8, 9, 10, THCP, as long as it was hemp derived. And then in 2021, they just really narrowed that down to, say, up to 0.3 percent delta 9 THC in hemp. And then very similar wording for the marijuana extract as well. And so when that happened, that set off quite a bit of legal flurry. There was a lawsuit.

And a Travis County District judge issued an injunction in November 2021 to order the DSHS to remove those definition modification. So, okay, we're not using those. We're going back to the old ones. They were way broader. Obviously, we went through the whole legislation. The DSHS produces a note of compliance in 2022. Okay, we're on board. We're doing that. Obviously, we go through the 89th legislative session where there was an attempt to have a THD ban, which Governor Abbott vetoed, and they were not able to work out anything. And they've picked that up again. We've seen hearing. I know Hannah had done some reporting as well on just different groups. that are talking and really trying to set up the 90th session for the way that they would like it on either

side. And so in May earlier this year, the Texas Supreme Court reverses that 2021 injunction, upholds the DSHS authority to have those more limited and narrower definitions. And then June, they mandate issues, formally dissolved the injunction. And then in July 11th, they reinstated officially the 2021 definitions via Texas Register noticing, July 31st, this effective date, and formalizing that, which would be on Saturday, tomorrow if you're watching the podcast, there will be no longer available quite a few different products, THC-related. So there are groups that are, you know, putting out dispensaries and places that are putting out kind of like almost like a last call, like if you want certain things.

You've got to come get them. Some of the comments were kind of interesting for that, but just like these things will not be available. And obviously, I mean, I also saw in some comments and people confuse, like, not understanding all of this legal process because it takes so well to really dive into it. So we really try to kind of lay it out an article of how do we get here and why is this July 31st date important? And I know as we approach the session, we keep saying looking to session, but I mean,

looking to session, it is, it's, I'm curious where THC will land as like data centers. just amp up and school stuff and budget, all this stuff is really amping up. I'm just curious where like THC is going to fall on level of importance because it's pretty important last session, but I feel like it's starting to kind of drop down the list a little bit for some people. I'm sure it's number one for others, but for others it's not as important. Well, thank you very much for your coverage on that, Meredith. Certainly interesting to see what will happen if, for example, this session, they will,

in fact, pass a bill that will pass Governor Greg Abbotton. it's muster and not to get another veto. But I am so glad that you brought up data centers because Hannah, your story will be up next on Governor Greg Abbott and his Democratic opponent, Gina Hinojosa, recently speaking on the data center topic and kind of making it part of their gubernatorial campaigns. I always love the opportunity to say the word gubernatorial. Give us the details. I appreciate you saying it because I pronounce it wrong in my head every single time. So now I'll just hear your voice going gubernatorial.

Yes, data centers. Is anyone else tired of them yet? Not me. Data centers are continuing to be a growing issue being addressed more and more by Texas lawmakers, including Governor Greg Abbott and his Democratic opponent, state rep, Gina Hinojosa. So several times Hinajosa has publicly challenged Abbott on X, saying that he needs to call for a moratorium on approvals for new data center builds.

until he calls for a special legislative session to address the issue. And she's even said that he started the data center madness and has the power to stop it. But in her most recent set of public challenges, she told Governor Abbott that he needed to enact the moratorium to ensure that data centers are built with American union workers. She also stressed that she wanted transparency with water and electricity usage, which is something that's come up a ton in hearings this spring. And before that, she restated that she wanted to see professional certified licensed people building the sites. So her priorities in this issue seemed to reflect a lot of the elements we're seeing in hearings like transparency about electricity usage and water usage.

But she's also kind of added this inclusion of supporting union workers and also getting rid of the, quote, rich subsidies that Greg Abbott has approved of. she's said about transparency, that quote, we need to make sure that people have a seat at the table, including those people who are in rural communities. So her campaign is largely supported by union organizations. And so I feel like we're also seeing her pull some of those worker elements in that haven't really been talked about anywhere else. And it's definitely a bipartisan issue, but you see them highlighting different. aspects of the issue. And Abbott's primary focus seems to be less on the builders in the buildings, but more focused on the critical power generation and transmission aspects of it. So he recently disclosed a response from the PUC and Aircott to his directive that they would ensure Texas ratepayers are not shouldering the cost of data center grid load. He's commented that the bill shouldn't be made in rural neighborhoods before. And a press secretary for his office told us that the reason Abbott directed the PUC and Aircott in such a way was to require data centers to pay their own way, bring their own power, reuse their own water,

and lower residential electric bills. So he also announced last week that the company Diode and Henderson County decided not to build because they didn't meet the standard that he had set. So we're also just seeing him with an increase in participation in this conversation, which marks a pretty big shift for him and the state as policy related to development. And the state has typically been very pro-business. And in March, I believe, he signed a federal national rate pair protection pledge, which is a national pledge that has been agreed to by data center companies around the nation. And it addresses infrastructure, development, and power generation with the aim of protecting rate pairs,

which is something that Abbott has been harping on whenever he makes public comment about this. So this issue will continue to mark the governor's race, the gubernatorial race, as it is bipartisan. And I'm curious to see how the campaign priorities will shift around this as it seems like they're just kind of starting to develop. Well, thank you very much for your coverage, Hannah. I hope that everybody listening is not yet sick of hearing about data centers because this week, the Texas Senate Finance Committee actually had its own hearing about data centers, which was covered by Isaiah. So, Isaiah, tell us about the lead up to this committee hearing. Tell us what was talked about. Tell us what was talked about at the hearing.

What's going on? Absolutely, Rob. And I apologize for any ambient noise that might come through. I am in the field fixing to go to a gubernatorial campaign stop. And so I'm in public right now. But yes, as Hannah pointed out, the legislature and Abbott are under pressure to do something about data centers. And the Senate Finance Committee, which is an influential committee, chaired by Joan Huffman, met on Monday to discuss not just data centers in general, but a particular law passed in 2013 that grant. It's them a tax exemption for tangible personal property.

And so that's physical equipment that's purchased for necessary use in a data center. That's one of the conditions of law. And specifically, the tax break is a sales tax break. So the state foregoes taxing the actual purchase of this equipment if it's necessary for a qualifying data center. So it's going to be a certain size and so forth. And the funny thing is in 2013, this law passed unanimously through the House, and it passed the Senate 23 to 8. And all eight opponents of the bill were Democrats, but there were three Democrats who also joined the majority in passing the bill. There really wasn't a lot of floor discussion when it did pass if you just go back and look at the footage.

So in the first biennium after the law passed, the amount of tax revenue that the state let go through this exemption was 14.6 million. and now the state expects to forego $3.3 billion for the next biennium just because so many more data centers are being built. And so that's what the Senate took up on Monday. And as you could expect, there was general bipartisan distaste for the law in particular, but a lot of that is animated by disfavor for data centers in general. And on the Democratic side, Senator Chui Hinojosa and Senator Carol Averado both expressed concerns about water usage and also about how many jobs these projects actually create permanently. They create temporary construction jobs, but some senators were skeptical about how many of those jobs actually stick around, which is one of the economic benefits that supporters of the tax break sake justifies the exemption. And on the Republican side, Senator Colchorst and Senator Huffman had overlapping critiques.

In addition, of course, they're also skeptical about the state letting all this money go and how much money in tax order to the state's losing. What sort of uses that money could fund if the state had it in the next biennium? And so the committee discussed obstacles to repealing it. you know, what kind of controversy if I say it might land end, if it just decided to do a cold turkey repeal this exemption, or phasing it out, things like that. So the committee heard from an analyst

from the comptroller's office, Brad Reynolds. Our own Brad Johnson posted his trademark, duck pointing at himself mean, because there's a lot of Brad talk among the politicos when Brad Reynolds just took the mic. But we heard from the comptroller's office, we heard from Dan DiOrio, who is representing the industry, the data center coalition, which is a trade organization. And we heard from an activist who is opposing data center development in Madagora County.

And something that some listeners might not be aware of is that according to DeOrio, data centers devoted to AI still only account for about a fourth of the supply of data centers that we have. And a lot of the Russian development actually started in 2021 when remote, work took off and companies needed more cloud storage. And that still accounts for the lion's share of data centers that exist today and that are being built according to DiOrio. And so AI is only a portion of the current data center trend. So from 2014 to 2020, the amount of revenue that the state was missing out on due to this

exemption was relatively small. But something else was interesting that was pointed out by the Comptroller analyst was that the data set of developers immediately exceeded the state's expectations. The information that the legislature had when they passed this law assumed that one facility would be built each year that would certify for this tax break. And it was actually between, you know, it was usually like two to three from 2014 to 2020 to 2020. And from 2021 onward, that's when the hockey stick hit, as Senator Betancourt called it. So that's the background behind data center development in Texas, a lot of the money behind it. And it gives a strong signal that there is going to be some kind of legislative action that takes place in data centers.

That's incisive political commentary that you were hearing here first at the Texan. To be specific, Governor Abbott, before the committee convened, publicized the letter in which PUC and Ericott, which are two state agencies that, pertain to power usage, recommended three discrete changes for the legislature to consider. And those were expanding the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act to cover large data centers, clarifying agency authority to establish new reliability rules for data centers, and requiring data centers to register with both of those agencies to the status accurate information about the water and electricity consumption.

And until then, until session at least, probably unless it's a special it's called, we'll just have to wait and see what happens, Rob. And wait and see we shall. And if you at home want to wait and see what's going on, you can, you don't have to wait. You can see because you can follow Isaiah on Twitter X, whatever you want to call it, and follow the rest of our reporters, of course, for updates on all the biggest issues in Texas, including a lot of these interim committee hearings of which there are only going to be more as we get closer and closer to session. But thank you very much for your coverage, Isaiah. Meredith, turning next to you for an issue that was a dominant issue last. session and might make a reappearance again this session, the Texas Education Freedom

accounts are currently in mid-rollout, and you were able to speak with two families who are navigating this new school choice program for Texas. Tell us what you learned from those conversations. Well, I learned a lot. It was very interesting to talk to people firsthand about what it's like to use. I mean, we've talked about this before. You have discussion about something, public outcry, public whatever, but da-da-da, that makes it to the legislator, it makes it through everything, and then finally it's actually happening. So it's very interesting to talk to two different families who, and I'm going to details about, I have more in the article, you can kind of walk through each of their stories, but they each had multiple students with disabilities, and

between the two of them, there was a combined, they kind of took all the options. They opted in for some kids out for other kids, charter school, for one kid in homeschool and private school. I think that like between all of their children, there were quite a few different options and really a true illustration of school choice where they needed to look for what they needed for each of their children and had to take it on a case-by-case basis, which included opting out or not taking a significant amount of money from the state for that just because they weren't able to either find a school that worked or that their child would be accepted to or that they were comfortable with. So there are a lot of different things going on there. So right now Tifa is in the middle of rolling out the program. gram. And so people are getting, some of them have gotten 25% of their initial funding. The deadline for that is also July 31st. Speaking a little tie in there. Another July 31st date. That'll be the deadline to, you know, choose the school and make sure that everything that you're all like enrolled and accepted and ready to go. The rest of the funding comes in October and in February. So yeah, it was, it's just, it's, when it's, when it's, when it's, more real and it's a person and a human and a kid that you're hearing about and the things that they need and all the steps they had to go to to get their individualized education plan to go to different schools to be satisfied with certain parts of the process or dissatisfied with others saying that they're even if they didn't sign up or opt in to everything they're going to

try again the next year so yeah there's just a lot of nuance to these stories and it was it's always nice to have a human perspective to a legislative issue that's been debated. So yeah, next session, we've already talked in multiple times to people from TFA, specifically spokesperson Travis Pillow. And he has mentioned that they're taking that the rather large waiting list that they have and bringing it and asking for more funding due to the demand. So we will definitely see it next session. Well, thank you very much, Meredith, for your coverage on that issue. Of course, whether or not they continue to expand the program, given the fact, if I recall correctly, that the demand did outpace the supply of funds. And am I right that it went to a lottery or

was it selected on a different tier by tier basis? They technically did go to a lottery, but it was actually a lottery within a tier. So it was more that they went through the first tier, which would be students with disabilities within a specific amount of under a specific amount of income for the family. And then when they got to the second tier, which was just income based on the lower income based side, they had so many that they did a lottery because within that second tier of income, they weren't able to provide. They only had so many spots left. So there was even like people that qualified income-wise, there were the second tier of, what's the word,

priority, that they did not get in to the program. And they're shifting. I feel like we've updated it now and then. There's some shifts sometimes of like people opting out, so that opens up funds. And so then they go to the waiting list and figure out. People decide homeschool that immensely drops it down by at least eight or more thousand dollars.

So there's a lot of fluctuating as people are figuring out what they're doing, which is something these parents talk about is you get funding, and you're like, okay, great. And then you go and you look and there's only two or three schools available. Only one of them is going to accept your child for whatever different reasons for their needs or they feel comfortable with. So then you have to make, you kind of, it starts to limit down your options. Well, thank you very much for your coverage on that story, Meredith.

As you said, it's going to continue being relevant. So definitely make sure everybody listening to follow Meredith's coverage because TIFA isn't going anywhere. But Mary Elise, you this week, we're able to help provide an update to a story that Holly wrote last week. There was an update in the shooting case of an illegal alien from Mexico who was fatally shot by an ice agent in Houston. Give us the details on that. Yeah, like you said, this is a story Holly has been covering, but we just had a little update here this week. she had covered that previously a warrant had indicated that the vehicle driven by this legal alien Lorenzo Sagaldo Arajo, that he was an individual who was killed by ICE agents in Houston, but the warrant had indicated that his vehicle may have contained illegal drugs. The Harris County District Attorney has now confirmed that the substance was not drugs. And then Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia has said that the substance,

was instead electrolytes, which is what his family was claiming when the warrant came out and said, this indicated that it was potentially drugs. He was shot on July 7th by ICE agents, and then, of course, we saw all of those investigations or all those calls for investigations to be launched, the public outcry. But we saw the investigations launched by local, state, federal authorities, in response to all these concerns around the circumstances. surrounding his death. He was attempting to evade arrest when he was shot.

And according to ICE director, David Ventrilla, he weaponized his vehicle and an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer. Various individuals are questioning whether ICE's story is accurate or not. And, you know, lots of different individuals want to see an independent investigation of this. A lot of Democratic lawmakers have called for that. But this is just the update on, you know, this arrest warrant affidavit that was filed, which we covered, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on July 14th.

And it was there that it indicated an FBI agent who was examining the scene observed, quote, three plastic bags containing white crystal-like substance in the middle of the dash in between the driver and the passenger side. And that was in a white Ford cargo van that was allegedly being driven by Arajo at the time of his death. the FBI special agent had said he believed that those packages he discovered were consistent with, considering his training, methamphetamine, which is, of course, controlled substance. But then in a social media post on July 24th, Harris County District Attorney's Office, confirmed that that substance, which was found in his van, tested negative for narcotics or illicit drugs. But they did not comment further on the test results.

They said investigation is pending, but they did notify his family because they thought they had a right to know. So we'll see as they, you know, if they'll comment further on the test results, Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia saying that it was electrolyte mix. We'll see, you know, if Harris County District Attorney's Office comes out and is able to confirm whether it was electrolyte mix. But right now we just know that it tested negative for narcotics. So that's an important update there in this case involving this legal alien who was fatally shocked. Well, thank you very much for the update, Mary Elise. I think it was very important to kind of provide more information on that, considering the fact that, you know, what was in that warrant that, you know, this agent thinking that it might have been methamphetamine would have really changed, you know, the direction of that story and changed, I think, a lot of the way people were thinking about it. So thank you very much for giving us an update on that. Hannah turning next to you.

Part of Texas's Scope Act was recently blocked by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. What's the law in question and what does what is the court done to the enforcement of the law? The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently handed down a ruling about the Scope Act or the securing children online through Provincial Empowerment Act, which is like really a long thing to say. So it's really good that I came up. with scope instead. Scope Act. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in support of a Texas law that requires users to register their ages when downloading an app, but against a requirement for digital service providers to monitor and filter content for minors. So both portions of the law were

previously challenged by two groups. One was called students engaged in advance in Texas, and the other is called the Computer and Communication Industry Association. So both groups challenged these two different aspects of the Scope Act. But a two-to-one decision came down to a law put in place in 1996 called the Communications Decency Act, and Section 230 of that Act provides legal immunity to online platforms for content posted by their users. So the challengers came in arguing that constitutional law was being violated,

but the court found that statutory law was actually the bigger issue, and they moved forward with a ruling that will block the monitoring and filtering aspect of the law. So a little background on the Scope Act. It was passed during the 88th legislature, and it's intended to protect minors from harmful internet content and exposure to harmful content, including substance abuse, bullying, stalking, sexual exploitation and abuse, eating disorders, and other related topics. The Scope Act covers a wide range of topics, but these were two that were challenged. court and one was found at fault. Texas policy research wrote an article on the decision with recommendations for legislature. In a like this quote, they said, as a 90th, Texas legislature

convenes in January 2027, policymakers should remember that protecting children and protecting liberty or not competing objectives. Good public policy should accomplish both. All righty. Thank you very much, Hannah, for your coverage on that story. Certainly interesting to see, as we mentioned earlier, online child safety. It's going to continue being a big issue, and I'm glad we were able to bring it back. So thank you very much. Meredith, turning back to you for an exclusive piece from the Texan that we put out on Wednesday earlier this week. Governor Greg Abbott has appointed 21 educators to the newly created Texas Classroom Commission. Tell us about the Commission and tell us about the Commission and tell us about its new appointees.

So this commission was announced earlier this month, and they released the official list of who's all going to be on it. They were described as exemplary public school educators from across Texas, and the goal is to develop practical classroom-informed recommendations. We're actually, like, talking amongst ourselves about what specifically some of these vague statements mean in press releases. And for this one, they don't give us a lot. of specifics about like exactly a topic that they're going to be talking about. What they do

frequently is reference back to a few of the things that they accomplish education-wise in the 89th legislature. Well, like, wow, today is my on my day, legislature. And so kind of in a way trying to show like these are things we've done in the past and we want to do, you know, similar things like this, whether it's the expanding the teacher incentive allotment program is one thing they reference quite a bit, which is a program that for qualifying teachers who are performing at higher levels, they will be able to receive additional pay. And another one was teacher compensation, which was part of the big, the large education bill. And then discipline in Texas classrooms, which is also a bill last year that

gave teachers more freedom to, you know, remove children from rooms if they needed to or things like that. And so we don't exactly like pinpointed what they're going to be working on, but the idea is to gather them together, have them start meeting during the interim and making recommendations to the governor, to EA, and to the legislature as well. We kind of run through the group about two-thirds of them, have some kind of experience and working on whether it's a state board, a task force, some kind of being a state-appointed member of a program. And so we kind of just walk through some of their experiences with that. So you can tell that some of them have done something like this before or even there's anvil of them that are currently serving on multiple boards or task forces.

And then about a third of them, there's nothing reported that they have specifically worked in a situation like this. We also have a 2021 Texas teacher of the year from Dallas ISD. And there is one charter school representative from the IDEA public schools in El Paso. overall public schools from ISDs. And this is something that when this was announced, we saw Burroughs and Patrick and obviously Abbott speak out about the importance of this. Dustin Burroughs was just saying, you know, these teachers play such a foundational role. And so I'm looking forward to what they're going to do and like how we're going to work with

them to build on the progress that they had made last legislative session. And then Patrick just talks about like it's important to empower them. to help make recommendations to improve public education, which is so, and this is like, the two sides of this are, this is common in educational spaces and that teachers complain that they don't have a seat at the table. They want to be a part of like, of the conversation. On the other side, when they are, I know like a state rep, Gina Hinojosa, who we've been talking about who's running against the gubernatorial candidate, who's running against Abbott and it's a Democratic nominee. I had really strong words about the time.

of him making this type of commission. She said that Abbott should be ashamed by starting in another election year commission to say what everybody already knows. The best thing we can do for a child's education is put a great teacher in the classroom. And so she just was saying that, which we are dealing with like quite a bit of teachers. She called it an exodus of teachers living in the classroom. Those were her words, which is true. There is a lot of attrition within Texas teachers.

And then she said, now we have more uncertified teachers joining the purpose. profession, then certified educators. So she, I mean, she goes on. She's like, I'm going to fire Marath. I'm going to put an educator in that position. She does not hold back education. Public education's a pillar of her campaign that she has been really driving home. And so all of this comes as the big three have also directed state agencies to cut their, you know, basic budget request by three percent, but leaving out the foundation school program, which is the primary source of state funding for Texas public school districts and the Texas Education Freedom Accounts, which is the ESA program we were just talking about. So everybody else has to cut, but they're like, we're not for those who are protecting it.

And just making it a big statement in their press releases and when they're talking about it, that they really want to protect, as Abbott says, Texas's historic investments in public education and teachers. Well, thank you very much. I'm sorry, Meredith. Thank you very much for your coverage on that story. As you mentioned, the gubernatorial race keeps popping up again and again. I just wanted another excuse to say gubernatorial, but thank you very much for your coverage on that story. Mary Elise, now turning back to you, a grand jury recently indicted a group of individuals for an alleged human smuggling scheme. Give us the details on that story. This smuggling operation has some details that, you know, can be a little bit difficult to read, but I'll just focus here on these 11 individuals who were indicted by a grand jury in Del Rio for their alleged role in this smuggling operation, which did result in the death of seven illegal aliens who were locked in a shipping container in May.

Some of our listeners may have heard that story or read about that story a couple months ago, but now we've seen, now we see 11 individuals who have actually been indicted by a grand jury. The indictment was handed down just last week and charging the 11 defendants with orchestrating this human smuggling operation where they allegedly used the shipping containers on cargo trains to transport illegal aliens into various locations into the U.S. from Mexico. This specific operation began in the spring of 2023 and they continued through to the spring of 2026, where during the second week of May, the illegal aliens were being trained. transported in a sealed shipping container, had no ventilation. The press release from the DOJ described, and after the trainery arrived in San Antonio from Del Rio, the defendants allegedly left the scene. They fled the scene after they discovered what the DOJ described as the aliens in peril,

discovered their physical state after they had been in the shipping container with no ventilation. I think our listeners are probably familiar with how hot it is, during this time of year in May, if you're traveling in a closed shipping container. But when the train arrived in Laredo on May 10th, a worker at the Union Pacific Rail Yard found the individuals, deceased individuals. There's some more details in there you can read. Six of them, one of whom was actually a minor, was a 14-year-old, were found deceased in that container, and another individual was found on the train tracks back in San Antonio.

disturbing story here. Two of the defendants that are included in this indictment are at large. Two individuals who've got U.S. citizen Karina Garcia and then the Mexican National Sephirino-Kosia, so the DOJ is shared that they are still at large. But the authorities actually arrested the first suspect in the situation just days after those illegal aliens were discovered, deceased. And then eight others were just very recently arrested. the week before this indictment was handed down by the Del Rio grand jury.

So you can check out this piece here. This is a development in this story where we saw these lives taken in this human smuggling operation. But there are now 11 individuals who are facing this indictment from a grand jury. We'll see if those two individuals are arrested. So we'll keep following this. Well, thank you very much for your coverage on the story, Mary-Aleece. Isaiah, turning to you for our last story of the week. The mayor of Dallas has asked officials to cut spending and avoid raising taxes as the city hits a revenue slump.

You've been covering a lot of these local tax revenue and spending stories recently and your new newsletter, The Beaten Path, tends to focus on this local government kind of issues. Tell us what's going on in Dallas. Yeah, and thank you for the plug. Go check out the beaten path. So one thing that's interesting about these situations around the Texas triangle is how similar they are, and how much they speak a statewide trend to some degree.

And so in Dallas, the situation that Dallas is facing is that it expected sales tax revenue to grow a lot more this year than it's doing. And so I'm tempted, I think everyone's tempted to use the word like a decline in sales tax revenue. It's really more a decline of the growth rate. But long and short is that Dallas is expected to make a lot more money than it's making right now based on sales taxes. And something that's related to that is that the city of Dallas is at least stagnating, if not shrinking, in terms of population. So the city population shrank last year for the first time since COVID, according to the Census Bureau.

and I believe Dallas County is also undergoing a similar trend more broadly. And so that threatens both future property tax revenue growth and sales tax revenue growth. So Eric Johnson, mayor of Dallas, directed the city manager to draft a budget for the upcoming fiscal year that preserves police funding, but shrinks spending for non-core services. And Johnson also asked the city manager to find ways to raise more revenue. from fees rather than from taxes. So the city doesn't have to raise the property tax rate. And to quote Johnson here, he says at the end of the day, the city's budget has gotten too big. And while some of this growth has been necessary to efficiently deliver core services,

much of it has been growth for the sake of growth or adding new non-core services. Something else that's interesting about Dallas in particular is that one of the reasons why there are some lawmakers who perennially push for local politics to become partisan, literally like to have local politicians list a party next to their name is that city council meetings tend to be courteous to the point of being opaque. And so it can be difficult to tell if you haven't been paying attention for a long time, who's arguing with whom, which, you know, where the battle lines are drawn. And Johnson has pretty explicitly called out the city council or the majority of the city council

for opposing him on certain issues, spending being a big one, police being another big one. And so in the article, I point out a past statement where Johnson essentially called out the city council or accused a city council

having a relaxed approach to spending and claimed that he has had little support for the city council for fiscal restraint. So this directive to the city manager signals possible points of friction between Johnson and the majority of the city council as they discussed the upcoming budget. All righty. Well, thank you very much for your coverage, Isaiah. And we look forward to seeing what will happen in local government across the Texas Triangle. And we'll see if any of that

shows up in the beaten path. Well, unfortunately, because Isaiah, of course, as he mentioned, was traveling to cover an event today, he will not be able to join us for the tweetery section of our podcast. But I have graciously agreed. to cover his tweetery for him for a topic that actually I'm not all that upset about covering. But if anybody else has any tweetery for the week, I would like to pass the floor to y'all. Okay. Well, mine is just, sorry. I was going to say it looks like a lot of us have a very similar topic for our tweetery, but you go ahead, Hannah.

Well, okay, because it was like off the grid this morning. And then when I go on Twitter, everything was just a means about Anthony Fauci. And so my question was, I haven't even looked up yet. Like, what's going on today? That's a great segue into my tweeter. If that's all right, Rob. Anthony Fauci was taken before or he testified before the, what is it, Senate Committee on Homeland Security? That is?

I think so. And so they were, they had him, he was supposed to testify, I think, specifically. typically about the origins of COVID, but he brought an entire team of lawyers who were advising him the whole time, you know, putting their hand on a shoulder whispering. So he pretty quickly started invoking the Fifth Amendment and just every time they asked him a question, he would say, you know, I'm respectfully not going to answer. I'm going to the Fifth Amendment. And even at one point, Congressman Josh Hawley decided to ask him some kind of like silly questions. he asked him, what colors a floor? What colors your tie? What day is it? And so then each time

it felt you to be like respectfully, I'm not going to blah, blah, blah. So it was pretty wild. I mean, the whole, it seems like all the whole internet is just talking about that right now. Yeah. And mine relates to that too because John Federman wore a suit to this hearing, which is a huge deal. I, he's been in sweats. I feel like since I looked it up, it's like been a few years, 23 or something. I know that he had some health concerns. He was at some, depression and different things he had left Congress and come back. I don't know all the details on that. But I've just always seen him in his shorts and hoodie. And so it's just, everyone's like, you know it's serious when Fetterman shows up in a suit. And he looked great, cleans up nice, did not, fairly didn't,

didn't recognize him. So yeah, it's all over the internet. I also particularly love the Chappelle show skit clip about pleading the fifth. So that gave me a good laugh. So yeah, everyone's a lot of clips coming out of this hearing, lots of, lots of clipworthy things. Okay, that's good background because I saw both of those. The Chappelle show and the Sitterman-Kclips. Like, what is going on today? Well, it's kind of like seeing Isaiah in a suit, you know, seeing John Fetterman in a suit. Well, me, you know.

The fact of the thing also just like rustles up all, like, kind of dormant memories or energy that some people had that it's been, you know, five, six years at this point. So I think that there's why the internet's also blowing up of people reposting like, remember when we did this and this and this? And I'm like, oh, don't remind me. I don't want to think about it. Sorry, Henry. Absolutely. Yeah, go ahead, Henry. What were you going to say? Yeah, it's absolutely insane that finally, Fetterman realized that if you're, well, if you're a politician, you're supposed to wear a suit. Finally, for, after all these years, you realize it's kind of a requirement. You're supposed to do that. So, you know, I can sympathize because if I was, you know, a politician, I would also chafe at wearing a suit, to be honest.

You know, I wish I could wear, you know, a hoodie and sweatpants everywhere I went. Of course, not when I'm visiting Houston, as we've established at the beginning of the podcast, but, you know, I can sympathize. I remember I got into this conversation actually with, I still remember this was a conversation with friends in college because one guy was like, if I, you know, became a billionaire, I'd have, like tailored suits, I'd be dressed to the nines. I'd go to like, you know, Denny's, like in a three-piece suit. One other guy was like, if I was a billionaire, I would never wear anything other than like T-shirts for the rest of my life because it wouldn't have to because you have the money. You don't have to impress people anymore. Adam Sandler. Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, it's obviously if you, if you're not required by anyone or anything

to, you know, wear a specific tire, obviously. But, you know, there's this concept of gold duty, right? You're supposed to if you're in everybody in your in the place where you work and wears a suit, you must wear a suit. Especially if your employer says you must wear a suit

or any other clothing. You're supposed to wear no matter if you like it or not, right? So boo freaking who, right? But apparently Fetterman decided that for years, for many years, I'm not going to wear a suit.

And then for whatever reason, I'm just going to start wearing it. Well, you know, the guy is, he's a big guy, right? I mean, he's six foot eight. Who's going to make him? You know what I mean? I'm pretty sure he has enough money to hire Taylor. I'm pretty sure. I get if you're kind of a poor guy and you go to Macy's or something, maybe it's hard.

But, you know, even in this case, you know, people somehow find a way. So if some guy who's also like 6, 8 or like around that size, who is as tall as Ferryman, right? He gets a job in a white collar job in an office. And they tell him, you need to wear a suit. Somehow he finds a way to find a suit that fits him somehow. This reminds me of a quote from Remember the Titans, where he tells them all that they look like bums.

And he's like, if you don't have a tie, borrow one from your old man. If you don't have an old man, go find a bum on the street because anybody, they look better than you do. That's a paraphrase. But it's the idea that where there's a will, there's a way. It's not even like, you know, when you be prudent and realize that sometimes you can get it. So, for example, when you see those high school kids who go to the prom and they're wearing a, you know, a tuxedo or a suit and they wear their sneakers, you see the, you know, you turn it on your brain, you realize why they do this because you can rent a tux. you cannot really rent a pair of Oxford shoes.

You cannot do this. You're not going to buy a pair of shoes just for one event. Obviously, if you're not going to go to church, for not going to any other place like this, you're not going to do it. So you're wearing sneakers. So you kind of understand that you're okay, whatever. But if you do this every single day from Monday to Friday,

buy at least one suit, what's the problem? I think that makes sense. I think that makes sense. Because as you said, with sneakers also, I mean, if you're going to be like dancing at the school dance, it makes sense to have sneakers on sometimes rather than, rather than, as you said, some nice Oxford's. But, of course, I don't think they do that much dancing on in Congress,

or at the very least, not where the rest of us can see. But I do want to bring up Isaiah's tweetery now that he's not here, and I can, I do want to make sure that it gets seen. And I think it was actually Meredith or Mary Elise, one of y'all brought this to the attention of the team, but Crumble cookie is releasing a new hot Cheetos cookie. It is a cookie with cream cheese and flaming hot Cheetos, and I think lime crumbled on top.

And I believe it's probably somewhere in the range of like 3 to 4,000 calories, if I had to guess. But I'm curious to know who will. try this because I would, who else would try it? Well, I'm neither crazy or masochist, so I'm not going to do it. It's, you know, even without looking it up, it just sounds bad. It sounds really bad. I don't know.

So some people may want that, but I'm just, it's not my thing. It's only available from July 27th to August 1st. So like this week, this is your last, this is your last opportunity. Rob, chop, chop, up you go. Even just looking at the hot portion, like hot Cheetos, I don't like hot food at all. So that's like the first thing. Second thing, usually when you eat cheap chips, cookies, that kind of stuff. And they say hot, it's either hot, hot like you need to, it's unbearable.

Or it's not hot at all. It just tastes bad. And so I'm just, yeah, they say flaming hot or whatever. And then you taste it and it's it's even you know for me it's not hot at all. So what's the point? I see a pattern. Not that's the point. Hot weather, hot food, not feeling the hot stuff.

Written to know. Yeah, it's, you know, as I said before, it's very ironic that I, you know, I live, I've been living in Florida for 10 years. So it's crazy. But yeah, I'm not a huge fan of hot weather, hot, hot, anything. thing. I like cold. If I had a choice, I would be living in Iceland. So, yeah. Next, y'all are going to tell me that you've never had spicy ice cream.

You never had red pepper ice cream? Didn't know that was a thing. Oh, yeah, red pepper cookies, red pepper ice cream. See, I like spicy food. Spicy food doesn't like me back. That's the problem that I always run into. Yeah, no, I remember Amy's ice creams here in Austin had, it was some kind of spicy honey flavored ice cream.

It was a strange taste, but I thought that the, you know, like the cold cream sort of soothes the burn. But yeah, that was interesting. It's not something that I would try again. And neither I believe if I had this crumble cookie, I would never

need to eat it again for the rest of my life. It would probably stay in your body somewhere for the rest of your life. Isn't there like, you know, isn't it the purpose of you know, hot food so there would be hard? Right? So what's the point that if it's going to, if you're going to eat an ice cream that's going to make it easier, I just, I don't see your point. It's all about, I guess, the most avant-garde ice cream experience, you know, really pushing the boundaries of what ice cream can do.

As an ice cream fan, you know, you got to push the boundary every once in a while. Even though, of course, Amies does still have their classic good Mexican vanilla flavor, which is you got to get that alongside a lot. scoop of the super spicy ice cream to to balance it out. But yeah, so if you're still listening on, if you're listening on Friday morning when this podcast drops, then you have, I believe, at that point, 24 hours to get yourself the crumble, the crumble hot Cheetos cookie. So if that is your preference, then go ahead and get one.

And if not, then, you know, you'll only be competing with like the five other people who want to get one. So it's up to you. But well, thank you to everybody for joining us on this week's episode of the weekly roundup. You can catch us every Friday morning on the texan. News, YouTube, or wherever you get podcasts. So thank you to everybody, and we'll catch you all next week. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, visit us at the texan dot news follow us on social media for the latest in texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by dmming us on twitter or shooting us an email to

editor at the texan dot news tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup god bless you and god bless texas