The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - June 17, 2022

Episode Date: June 17, 2022

This week on The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup,” the team discusses what there is to see at the Texas GOP Convention, Mayra Flores flipping a congressional district in South Texas red, Uvalde Police Chief Pete Arredondo’s response to national scrutiny, the role of guns in the Texas governor’s race, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Speaker Dade Phelan’s cooperation on school safety proposals, Senator Cornyn’s bipartisan gun control deal, a federal judge striking down the Biden administration’s lenient deportation guidelines, the Texas ERCOT grid surviving triple-digit temperatures, a court petition to remove the Midland County district attorney, and a West Texas operation to rescue 70 child victims of human trafficking.  Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie Taylor here on the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. Right now, I am in the exhibit hall at the Republican Party of Texas convention at our booth. We're here following all the party happenings and interviewing a slew of candidates and elected officials. So stay tuned for a special edition of the podcast next week and check out who all stopped by to chat with us. But back to this episode. This week, the team discusses what there is to see at the Texas GOP convention. Myra Flores flipping a congressional district in South Texas red. Uvalde police chief Pete Arradondo's response to national scrutiny. The role of guns in the Texas governor's race.

Dan Patrick and Dade Phelan's cooperation on school safety proposals. Senator Cornyn's bipartisan gun control deal, a federal judge striking down the Biden administration's lenient deportation guidelines, the Texas ERCOT grid surviving triple-digit temperatures, a court petition to remove the Midland County District Attorney, and a West Texas operation to rescue 70 child victims of human trafficking. We have a very fun podcast. Almost the entire team joins us, so make sure to listen in. 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. Thank you so much for listening and enjoy this episode. Well, howdy, folks. Mackenzie Taylor here. We have quite a full house. We are in Houston right now for the Republican Party Convention. I literally have Annie, Brad, Connie, Hayden, Daniel, Isaiah, Matt, and Rob all here with me. It's awesome. Connie, are you excited? I am so excited to be here with you all. Connie, you wanted to go and relax in your room. Yeah, but I'm not gonna. I'm gonna be here with you all. Connie, you wanted to go and relax in your room. Yeah, but I'm not gonna. I'm gonna be here with you all. This is fun. You're being so good. We're so excited

that you're here. We've had a pretty big day. So we're in Houston because the Republican Party Convention is happening this week. We're all here to watch what goes on, report on what happens, talk to readers and listeners. It's really fun. It's exciting for everybody to get to be out here. But some really exciting stuff also happened exciting for everybody to get to be out here. Um, but some really exciting stuff also happened today. Isaiah specifically relating to a story that you wrote very unsuspecting, uh, 2 30 AM this morning. Who, what happened? Uh, Elon Musk commented on social media on a story that I put out for, um, Meyer Flores winning the, uh, special election for Congress in South Texasxas yeah let's

just say traffic has been crazy all day which has been really cool and all these stories coming out now about musk and desantis and his support for desantis and his support for floras like that all stemmed from his getting involved in like the thread of our tweet which is pretty cool the texans pretty awesome the texans pretty awesome we love it well we have a lot to get into so we're going to go ahead and jump right into these stories. We'll come back to the Musk tweet later on and the result of that race specifically. But Brad, let's talk about convention. You wrote a piece earlier this week giving us a preview. Talk about some of the highlights. I mean, this is a huge convention, huge political gathering, the largest in the country. Walk us through what we should be expecting this week. So yeah, I think the unofficial official number is about 10,000 GOP delegates from across the state are making their way to Houston this week. There are some notable themes, some hot topic stuff, and some more in the weeds issues that the more in-tuned GOP listeners would be interested in. First and foremost, though, the fact that the sitting Republican governor of Texas is

not currently slated to speak at convention, that is not unheard of, but next to unheard of, is very surprising. We've talked about it on the podcast in the last week or two uh we broke the story about the governor not being either a sponsor or slated to speak at convention um he has did donate his campaign did donate uh they started they did a direct sponsorship of an undisclosed amount after the story came out but he is is still not slated to speak. So as of now, that's how it's going to be. And that's something that is certainly notable. Second is Matt Rinaldi, chair of the Texas GOP, currently is no challenger.

We don't know if that's going to change. It sounds like it probably won't. At this rate, if you haven't been campaigning and talking to delegates, you don't have a chance. So odds are, unless something really strange has been going on behind the scenes, Rinaldi is going to take the reelection to the Texas GOP chair, um, pretty smoothly. And, um, there was, however, I did talk to Tim Wesley over the weekend and he's the former, uh, GOP, Texas GOP historian. And he ran in the land commissioners race. He was a second place finisher. Uh, he said he was considering it. His name had been floated. He did not jump in yet. He has not jumped in yet. And we're recording this Wednesday night.

Wednesday night. So a couple days ahead of time. So who knows what will happen in the next couple days. Yeah, that will happen on Friday on the floor when the delegates cast their ballots. And so things can change on the floor. But right now, pretty straightforward. Pretty boring so far in that department. Also, the vice chair. woman's race in texas if you have a man as chair of the party you have to have a woman as the

vice chair and or vice versa and so um there are three candidates running for that hamlet perez jackson the former vice chair under James Dickey. Then you have Dana Myers, and she is the vice chair of the Harris County GOP. And the third is Adrienne Pena Garza. She is the Hidalgo County GOP chair. That's kind of up in the air. We don't know how it's going to finish. They are currently whipping votes among delegates for their race. And that'll be something that probably comes down to the wire on the floor yeah a couple other things more broader um the legislative priorities what do they do

which ones do they keep which ones do they remove i heard um something about the power grid being in addition obviously in 2020 that wasn't really an issue that people paid attention to yeah now I heard something about the power grid being an addition. Obviously, in 2020, that wasn't really an issue that people paid attention to. Now it will be. So that will likely be among the eight, I think, is the number they're going to settle on. Legislative priorities that the party will then advocate during the session next year. Also something to look at is the platform. How do they finagle over the 320 different platform items?

That is going to be probably pretty tense, especially on certain items. One thing that could be pretty tense is the adoption measure. A faction of the GOP wants to include homosexual couples in the advocation of proliferating adoption in the state of Texas. Currently, it explicitly excludes them. So that has been something that has been identified in the past. We'll see if there is a notable move to do that. And then finally, the censure rule. Nothing really changed in it that that I heard from some of the people on the rules committee. But that was as controversial because it's been used to basically finger wag at Governor Abbott. Yeah. Also, previous house speakers. Yeah. Chairman Chris Patty, which if not, if it wasn't the only thing that caused him to not run for reelection, it was certainly a big part of it. His home county censured him. So that's something to keep in mind. They're going to be there's a group that wants to strengthen it, give more power to the party on that issue. And there's those who want to neuter it. And I don't think much has been done on it so far, but it's,

you know, it can always happen. We'll see. And I'll just quickly plug something. We're going to jump out on, on our website tomorrow. Um, something pretty notable happened in the rules committee, uh,

regarding open and closed primaries. And, um, we'll have that on the website by the time this podcast goes up. Yeah. Check it out more about it there, but, um, a lot going on and there will continue to be a lot going on. And we'll have that on the website by the time this podcast goes up. Yeah, check it out. You can read more about it there. But a lot going on, and there will continue to be a lot going on. And real fast, just so listeners are clear, the purpose of convention is basically for delegates who are chosen by their districts to come to the Republican Party convention, decide on the platform issues that will be pantomount to the discussion of what Republican Party leadership should consider legislative priorities, which oftentimes the chairman goes down to Austin

to advocate for and elected chairman leadership of their party. So it really is kind of an administrative get together of thousands of Republicans here in Texas to make sure that those items are taken care of. It's very social. There's a lot of booths. There's a ton of different companies, candidates who come into town as well, and advocacy groups that talk to voters all week long. There's a lot of business that they have to do every two years, and this is where they do it. Lobbyists are here to do it as well.

Lobbyists are in these committee rooms talking through the legislative priorities and platform planks and all that as well. So lots to keep an eye on, and our team is here to do just that. Bradley, thank you. Isaiah, let's get back to the story we've already alluded to. Readers have probably already heard about this South Texas congressional seat that flipped from blue to red this week. Tell us about that special election and what the district covers. Yeah, so this is the 34th congressional district of Texas. It spans a swath of the Gulf coast all the way down to Cameron County, our southernmost

county in Texas, which is part of the Rio Grande Valley proper. And it has been historically democratic for quite some time. A quick search. I found this website a little before publishing that accumulated all the congressmen that had held that seat in since the 80s. And there's only ever been one Republican victory, and that was in 2010, the last time that was redistricted. So it's been under Democratic control for quite some time, like most of the political seats, state and federal, in that region. Yeah.

So it's pretty significant for a Republican to take it. The candidate who took it is a Republican named Mayra Flores. She did win the March 1st primary to become the nominee. However, on the Democratic primary on March 1st, the candidate that won on the Democratic side is current sitting congressman for a neighboring district, Gonzalez, represents, I want to say, 16. But the congressman who holds District 34 right now, the Flores District 1, Philemon Vela, retired pretty abruptly. And so that triggered a special election, giving Abbott the power. Well, I'll back up. Triggering a special election is the governor's job to call it.

And Abbott used his disaster powers under the emergencies that he has declared for COVID and for the border to say that this election could be held on the date that it was held. You know, just last week. Or for our listeners. Time confuses me on the podcast. It's odd. I know. It's odd. Yeah, In June. And that gave Republicans an edge because the election was held under the current district map, which leans Democratic, but not nearly as much as the new map that they approved. we'd have a voting population that 63% of which voted Democratic

based on voting data from the past two elections. And for this one, under the current map, that number is 54%. So it still is Democratic, but that lean is a lot slighter under the current map that Flores won. Yeah, certainly, which is a huge part of that significance. So talk to us about, and like you were saying, these special election wins for a party that is kind of unsuspecting of of that win it all comes down

to turnout which we talk about all the time it's such a like a ridiculous uh platitude but in special elections that is the case it all like you can 100 if you spend more money for one party's candidate influence heavily much more so than a regular election much more so than a regular election so how do things look for flores in november well like i pointed out um regular elections for this district starting in this november it's it's going to encompass a different voting population and because of new boundary lines and that population is going to be much more democratic so that's something to take into account something else to take into account is that the founding fathers were some smart cookies.

And the way that they've set up elections means that elections underneath the presidency tend to counterbalance whatever party holds the presidency at the time. So that's another trend to look out for, which is a fancy way of saying that generally Republicans do well in lower elections, including Congress,

when a Democrat is president and vice versa when a Republican is president. So there's that. But statistically, it's going to be a much harder challenge for Flores to keep the seat than it was to gain the seat in the first place because of the new district maps. Absolutely. It's very interesting. And that was what, you know musk tweeted at our article you wrote this piece and musk confirmed he voted for flores right yes yeah and said that he's going to be voting republican in november which is fascinating in and of itself well yeah and i believe he said flores was the first republican that he voted for wow wow i want to say yeah and there were several other tweets after that he basically just got in the thread of the tweet and just started responding

to people so it was quite fun to watch that happen. So Isaiah, thank you for that coverage. Hayden, we're going to come to you and talk more about Uvalde. Talk to us about some of the highlights of Chief Arredondo's defense of his actions on the day of the shooting. Today at the convention, one of the banners that I noticed was a giveaway for a free gun. I think one of the topics that is on the minds of delegates here in Houston is the right to keep and bear arms because the political issues that have been coming out of the Uvalde shooting are whether the government should restrict firearms. Absolutely. And at the center of this is whether the police had the ability to protect the school children

at Robb Elementary School. And if they did, did they make the right decisions that could have saved lives? And there are theories out there that if they had done things differently, more life would have been lost. And there are theories that if they had done things differently, more life would have been lost. And there are theories that if they had perhaps tried to confront the gunman sooner, that lives would have been saved and those 19 children and two teachers would not have been killed.

But Chief Pete Arradondo of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department, the small police department of about five or six officers, sat down with the Texas Tribune and gave an exclusive to them, giving part of his side of the story and what is probably some of the things that he's telling investigators. But it's also important to note that he sat down with his lawyer. It's probably true that he senses that he could be in trouble, and he told what was going through his mind when he went into that school without his radio, when he went into that school believing that he was not the on-scene commander, and instead that he was going to go and try to confront that teenage murderer himself. Those are just two of the things that he told the Tribune. And he went into detail about his upbringing and background in Uvalde

and his emotional connection to that community. And this is all part of his defense for what he did that day as the public and elected officials criticized him for his actions on the day of the dreadful shooting that took place in South Texas. Yeah, absolutely. Very interesting to watch these, I don't know, claims come forth from different people who were witnesses of what happened, at least in some degree. Talk to us about, real quickly, about some of the other investigations that are underway. Multiple levels of government are investigating what happened in Uvalde,

and official reports are forthcoming. The results of these investigations, I'm sure, will be more detailed than the media reports that have been coming out. The federal government, the U.S. Department of Justice, is investigating this, and they have announced subject matter experts. The Texas legislature is investigating this. Speaker Dade Phelan launched a committee with subpoena powers to inquire fully into what happened in Uvalde County.

And that committee met for the first time on Thursday in executive session, and they are due to take more testimony this coming Thursday in executive session from law enforcement sources. So we have all levels of government, including the Texas Rangers, investigating what happened in Uvalde. An executive session being behind closed doors. Public won't be invited in on those conversations. Hayden, thank you so much. Brad, let's continue on this topic. As Hayden said, gun policy has been front and center lately, but especially in the Texas gubernatorial race. You wrote a piece on that. Walk us through what you wrote. It is certainly the issue and it will probably remain the issue for the remainder of the election between Governor Greg Abbott and Democrat Beto O'Rourke.

So on this specific set of issues, Governor Abbott has been more tempered about specific policy responses. He has not laid out a plan. He said things that need to be done, like schools need to be safer. Investigations need to be conducted. He has ordered investigations by various agencies, Texas Education Agency, DPS, any other law enforcement agency in the state. And I think that is the results of whatever that conglomeration of investigations is, what's going to be compiled into his plan whenever we reconvene for special session, especially with his list of emergency items that the legislature can then take up earlier than normal. I would assume that at least a couple of these things are going to be,

Evaldi-related things are going to be on that list. He also has, at the NRA convention, he mentioned that the gun laws already in place are not being prosecuted enough. A big example of this is straw buyers, people who buy a gun for their boyfriend or girlfriend who is legally prohibited from purchasing a firearm, whether it's because they're a convicted felon or whatever. That is something that prosecutors across the country, not just in Texas, do not pursue and do not pursue in any meaningful quantity. That's also something that Beto O'Rourke has listed out.

But Abbott did not specifically say that, but that is the kind of thing that people mean when they say laws already in the books are not being enforced. Right. O'Rourke, he has laid out a far more specific plan. They include red flag laws. We saw that become a suggestion

in sessions passed by the governor himself and then it never really went anywhere because Lieutenant Governor Patrick did not want to move on it. And then just kind of petered out. O'Rourke has also called for safe storage laws and universal background checks, expanding background checks to private gun sales specifically. That's the main desire, especially among Democrats. But by far, the most sweeping policy recommendation is somehow to, quote, remove AR-15s and AK-47s from the community. He has tempered that by saying it will probably require, if they can even do it, require some compromise because the odds that Beto O'Rourke gets in there

with a Democrat House and Senate is basically zero. So, but that is something he wants to do. He wants to, in the constant flip-flop on this issue, especially during his time in the political limelight, he's changed it multiple times, but it started out in 2018.

He doesn't want, he's not interested in taking anything away fromight. He's changed it multiple times, but it started out in 2018. He doesn't want, he's not interested in taking anything away from people. He flipped during the presidential race and he flipped again at the beginning of his governor's race. And now he's back to full on removing these guns. So we don't know exactly what that would entail, whether it's a buyback or confiscation straight up. I don't know.

But that's the road right now that he's talking. Yeah. And that is probably the the it's definitely the biggest issue but it is the one he's placing the most emphasis on too um and that will continue throughout this race once they convene for debates i guarantee you if it's not the first question asked it will be pretty darn close to it um in each debate so uh we'll see where it goes. But this this is not going away. Absolutely. Thank you, Bradley. Now, folks, I have a very exciting next reporter that we're going to talk to. We're going to introduce you to the newest member of our reporting team, Matt Stringer. Matt, thank you for joining us. First of all, we're so excited to have you.

Howdy, and I'm glad to be on. Now, Matt, we'll get into this more later on. Matt is out in West Texas right now, and he's reporting both on statewide news and West Texas news for us. And Matt, you wrote a story, I believe, like a week ago that really has gotten a lot of attention from readers. A lot of folks have been very excited to read this story. Operation Lost Souls was a joint effort between multiple law enforcement agencies that resulted in the recovery of 70 children, including victims of abuse and human trafficking. Talk to us about this story.

Yeah, this was really an alarming story that was the result of a multi-agency investigation that was originated, focused on the West Texas region, spanning from El Paso to the middle of the Odessa area and even San Angelo. But the investigation took investigators all over the country, up to Chicago, and even across international borders into Mexico as they looked for these missing children and ultimately recovered just a staggering number. It's really kind of surreal because, you know, understandably with juvenile crime victims, you know, there's not going to be any names or photos or anything like that. And so just seeing it in type, it's such a staggering thing. So Operation Lost Souls included local sheriff's offices, local school district police departments, along with agents at the Department of Homeland Security and other federal partners. that helped provide therapy, medical care, counseling, you know, to these juvenile victims

that, according to federal officials, were largely human trafficking victims, runaways, that sort of thing. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for reporting on that. And we're excited to continue to have more stories at The Texan from Matt Stringer. And we'll hear more from you in just a little bit. Daniel, we're going to come to you now. Senator John Cornyn announced a new deal again relating to gun reform measures and mental health in the aftermath of the Uvalde shooting. What are the details? and has had, among the Republicans, he's had quite a few deals on gun-related issues. A few years ago, he actually worked on a bill called Fix NICS, NICS being the National Instinct Criminal Background Search System. I totally butchered that acronym, but it's a butchered acronym anyways. Because it doesn't actually spell NICS.

That's a rant for another day. It's a whole other time, yes. Anyways, the issue at hand today deals with kind of the response to Evaldi. Of course, a lot of Democrats on the Hill and as Brad alluded to here in Texas are pushing for greater gun control measures. In response to that, there's also been quite a lot of talk about so-called mental health reforms or funding for different kind of programs related to that. And so the bill that Cornyn is working on, kind of leading the negotiation on this, being from Texas and having worked on issues like this before, deals with both of those issues. There's quite a few different little bullet points on there in the announcements that they made. However, I'll note that there is no text available

for the legislation yet. And that could, the actual text of it could slow it down depending on what they actually decide goes into the bill. But the bullet points in the announcement, some of the notable things, of course, is support for red flag laws at the state level. Instead of the House actually passed a bill that would implement red flag laws at the federal level. And Cornyn's legislation would, instead of implementing one at the federal level, would give money to states at the local level to implement these red flag laws there. There's some questions about what that would actually look like though other gun related measures uh included in this list of things that could be in the legislation uh include uh crackdowns on criminals who illegally evade licensing requirements um by trying to redefine or clarify the definition of a ffl a federal firearm licensee and also cracking down on criminals who quote illegally straw purchase and traffic guns another thing related to guns that is included in the announcement

are enhanced background checks for buyers under 21 years of age so like the shooter uvalde who purchased a gun at the age of 18 that if someone did that again they'd have to go through a more rigorous background check than what is currently did he purchase it himself the uvalde shooter do we know this was been reported um from my understanding that's what happened there's been talk there was some mention about a handgun at some point in the very early stages yes yeah it was like the first press conference i haven't heard any more about that individuals who are under the age of 21 can't buy a handgun they can they can buy a long gun uh so it has been reported that he bought a long gun or two i think um as well as ammunition for it but But yeah, so there's that. Yeah.

The other thing that is gun related is closing the so-called boyfriend loophole. Essentially, there are people who, if they commit domestic violence, then they can be prohibited from purchasing a gun. They can fail a NICS background check. But the current definition of that excludes, at the federal level excludes uh or it's defined so that it's a person in a relationship that is either basically marriage yeah so um if you're just dating someone that doesn't necessarily

fall into it but then of course the the becomes, where's the line of boyfriend versus not being a boyfriend? Um, so that, that is something else that they're tweaking, uh, with this legislation or attempting to tweak. Uh, and those are the real, the, the big gun related measures. And then, like I mentioned, there's a lot of, uh, funding for different, uh, so-called mental health programs at various just different levels. Also, telehealth investments, quote, invest in programs that increase access to mental and behavioral health services for youth and families in crisis via telehealth. So that's just an interesting thing to go in here. And then funding for school safety resources. So according, I can't speak.

It's been a long day. I woke up at five. I am tired. I'm going to go to sleep after this podcast. Just hit the hay. Just go right to bed. I think everyone here, we're literally like half the people here are falling asleep. Yeah.

I understand. But it's okay, guys. Don't worry. We have a fun game to play at the end. And I will attempt to have enough energy for all of us. That's the goal. Sorry, Daniel. Continue.

Let me see if I can read this again. You're doing so well. So the other thing that I was going to highlight, you can also just go to the article and read it. Read it. Click on the link to Cornyn's Advancement and see all these bullet points yourself

and see what he's saying. Basically, Cornyn is for, Cruz cruises against and we'll see what ends up happening yeah i mean yeah that's that's that's very simply yeah there you go well thank you daniel very much and we'll continue to watch what goes on there with that very specifically bradley we are going to talk to you and you know we just talked about the federal level what kind of has been going on uh response to Uvalde. After a brief difference of opinion here at the state level, Speaker Dade Phelan and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick have agreed on a set of initial responses. Tell us the details.

So Patrick initially called for a $50 million expenditure for bulletproof shields that would be outfitted for every school law enforcement officer. I think it's gone back and forth a bit in the language of whether it being clearly the school law enforcement or just law enforcement in general. Regardless, bulletproof shields for law enforcement. And he wanted to get it going immediately. That way, in case there's a backlog on shipping or manufacturing, they could get as many as they can in the hands of law enforcement before the school resumes in the fall.

So initially, the way they would pay for this also is through the legislative budget board's budget execution process. Basically, they can move already appropriated money from one part of the budget to another, from one agency to Texas DPS if they're the ones purchasing these bulletproof shields. So that's the way they do it. It's usually used for emergencies. Speaker Phelan initially pumped the brakes on the call for immediate approval. He didn't poo-poo the idea itself, just the hastiness of Dan Patrick. But it was less than a week later that he came out and with his own letter announced that he was backing the proposal.

Not only just the proposal itself, but the immediate action. And he laid out eight other ideas. Among those were emergency response training for law enforcement, extra training pertaining to what Daniel said on the federal side, expansion of telemedicine and mental health care services. And then also money for silent alert systems in schools. Patrick backed most of those, and I'm sure they'll kind of meet in the middle somewhere. Maybe the other two get addressed down the road in session. But what was kind of the two heads of the legislative chambers being at loggerheads, They're now not. And especially on the bulletproof shields issue.

So I expect that will be that purchase, appropriation shift will be done soon whenever the LBB meets next probably. And they'll be off to the races on that. And then implementing whatever other expenditures they want among

this array. And also, as I said said it's not the only thing they're going to do they're going to do probably multiple things during the legislative session when they reconvene in january we don't know what they will be but we will see well last uh before last session at this time folks are talking about emergency powers now we're talking about uvalde two very different kinds of intros to a legislature yeah and also right before governor abbott released his emergency items the power grid collapsed so that was added to the list and things happened and off to the races they went yes yeah absolutely as it were um hayden we're going to talk about some border news here and walk through again, of course, more of what is going on down south.

Talk to us first about the nature of immigration policies that the federal government announced in September. Article 1, Section 1 of the Texas Constitution says, Texas is a free and independent state subject only to the Constitution of the United States, and the maintenance of our free institutions and the perpetuity of our union depend on the preservation of the right of local self-government, unimpaired to all the states. I read that because it captures the two sides of this debate. First, that the state of Texas is subject to the U.S. government's immigration priorities. The nature of the guidelines that were announced in September is that deportations will only be focused on those the U.S. Department of Homeland Security believes are a special security risk or a special public

safety risk. The state of Texas, however, contends that this is lawlessness, that people in the U.S. illegally should be deported, and that there doesn't need to be some newfangled criteria for deporting an illegal alien. challenge this action in federal court because, in their view, Secretary Mayorkas's point, and I say Secretary Mayorkas, the leader of DHS, his point that the limited resources Congress has allocated for border security should, in effect, be rationed for the worst of the worst cases and deport those individuals, Paxton and the folks iniana believe that that reasoning is erroneous and they sought a ruling in texas and louisiana's favor striking down mayorkas deportation guidelines so talk to us about what judge judge tipton ruled and how he decided in previous cases judge tipton is an appointee of former President Trump, and this goes to the incredible groundwork, good, bad, or otherwise, that the Trump administration

and his supporters did to secure judicial positions so that even when a Democrat took office, there would still be authority there for the federal government to implement conservative policies. Judge Tipton has ruled in the past that Biden's 100-day deportation freeze was illegal, and he struck that down on administrative procedure grounds, much like he did this instance. He struck down Secretary Morkus's deportation guidelines on the basis of the Administrative Procedure Act and other federal laws. So once again, the Biden administration has suffered a loss to its immigration agenda,

hat tip to the appointees of President Trump from conservatives. Yeah, very interesting. So talk to us then about the role that COVID played in deportations. It's important to point out that there's a difference between a deportation by immigration and customs enforcement and an expulsion under Title 42, which was invoked at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as we know. There were only 59,000 or so deportations by ICE in fiscal year 2021, reported CBS News. And that is at least one of, if not the lowest numbers in U.S. history. But one of the reasons for that is in combination with the more lenient deportation guidelines, the federal government has been turning people away, rapidly expelling them

because of the COVID-19 pandemic under Title 42 of the U.S. Code. And of course, going along with the theme, Mayorkas has been unsuccessful in getting this policy torn down because a federal judge has once again ruled that the Biden administration cannot proceed with the immigration policies that it campaigned on before he was elected president by the American public. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Hayden, thank you so much for that. Bradley, we're going to talk about the grid shocker again.

You and Hayden here with the shocking beats. This past weekend, the grid sets an all time record and lasted this heat surge just fine. Talk to us about the conditions and what they were like throughout the weekend. So it was very hot in case everyone wasn't already aware of that. But when it's really hot, that means ACs are cranked up to 11. And then that means more electricity is used. And so summer in Texas is when more electricity is used than any other time in the state. But the only thing that did happen this week was they set a new all-time record for demand at one time on the ERCOT power grid, and that was just shy of 75,000 megawatts.

Other than that, nothing happened. Even though a lot of people love to make a story out of it, I just feel like I'm writing the same story all the time about how nothing actually happened. And I get why people are worried because of February 2021. It's totally understandable, but the grid performed fine. They had, I think it was slightly over 10,000 megawatts in reserve capacity at the time of peak demand. And yeah yeah so nothing really happened other than setting a record which will probably be bested later on this summer we're only in june yeah the projection earlier this year that ercot put out for the summer peak was like 77 000 megawatts so slightly more yeah um some people are projecting gets higher than that since we're hitting this record

in june yeah maybe it doesn't usually like the hottest month of the year i'd say right you know in texas but um the ercot said at that time of projected peak demand probably in like august of this year they will have about 91 000 megawattsts of generation. That is, I can't do the percentage math in my head, but there is roughly 110,000 megawatts of overall capacity on the grid at the same time. So almost all of what is available on the grid will be available at the time of peak demand. And so they expect no issues. In 2019, they approached,

the grid conditions were tighter, but nothing happened. Unlike what we saw in California, where they actually instituted rolling blackouts. In Ohio right now, there are blackouts for grid integrity reasons. Basically, there was so much demand that they didn't want to overload the transmission lines and have them explode. So things like this happen. But in Texas, what happened in February 2021, it's likely not going to happen this year or for a long, long time. One other aspect of this is that renewable power has been a talking point on both sides, both left and right. On the left, they love it. On the right, they don't like it. And wind, especially because it's so variable. At the time we hit the peak on Sunday this week, wind was producing a large amount. I think it was like

25,000 megawatts of its 31,000 capacity. But a couple of days earlier on Friday, it was producing both lower than its own projections and lower than solar, which has a third of its installed capacity. So that right there shows us variability. It can be a great asset and it can hurt you. So the political maneuvering over this will continue. The legislature is probably going to, at least some of the legislature, I just talked to Representative Jared Patterson today on our podcast at the convention that will go out at some point. He was talking about trying to solve the market distortion, as they say, that allows wind to make money selling electricity at negative prices

that then crowds out thermal generation development. And so this is not going away, as with many of these issues we're talking about. But just know that this, it is not as dire a circumstance as many people want you to believe because that helps a lot of mainstream media is saying a lot of things right now about what is actually happening that is yes there's a lot less well one there's a lot more nuance i think if we boil down you're saying there's a lot more nuance to this issue than what is being reported by mainstream media surprise surprise and also that there's a lot more nuance to this issue than what is being reported by mainstream media. Surprise, surprise. And also that there's a lot more nuance to the issue of renewable energy than either political party might have you believe.

If there's one thing, if you read my Power Grid stuff, I hope you take away, is that there's more nuance to this than is out there in the mainstream outlets because they don't have an incentive to provide that. Yeah. They're just rattling for clicks enter brad johnson there you go yeah there you go thank you bradley matt you're uh wrapping this podcast up for us in terms of the content section let's talk about a crazy west texas story where a midland district attorney there's a court petition for uh removal. Talk to us about what led to this petition being filed. Yeah, we just have all kinds of out there news coming from West Texas. So this story has a very tragic background. In 2019, there was an incident where

in the middle of the night, this guy, David Wilson, a Midland resident, businessman, his family was asleep in their home. Unbeknownst to them, the silent burglar alarm goes off. They get no notification. Midland Police Department doesn't attempt to call the house or anything like that, like they usually do, like with my burglar alarm, et cetera. And so police arrive at the house, no lights, no siren. The police officer apparently opened up the front door and said police officer, but it was a big house and he was upstairs and said he never heard anything. And whenever they did hear somebody downstairs trying to come in, he thought it was a burglar. So he fired one shot and killed the officer.

Uh, and it was an absolute travesty that just, um, just, uh, everybody in Midland was just, um, in a, in a terrible state over. I remember it very expressly at the time. Uh, fast forward, uh, Midland DA, Laura N DA Laura Nodoff brought murder charges against Wilson and took the case to trial. And he was acquitted by a Midland jury after review of the facts of the case. Fast forward all to now, two attorneys for Mr. Wilson have filed a rather interesting process in state district court in Midland County to remove District Attorney Laura Nodoff from office. What this petition is, is it's formed under a provision in the Texas local government code that allows you to get a court order or actually have a trial reviewing on certain grounds, certain elected officials, including district attorneys. And that trial will go to a jury. And if they find that elected official guilty, they can be removed from office. The Texas Local Government Code sets out some different guidelines, including misconduct and incompetency in office as part of the grounds that these petitions can be filed.

I did some research. I couldn't find where a case has been successful and or even filed. I know there's a couple of new organizations out there that have filed some of these cases, but I'm not saying there isn't one out there. I just did some looking and I couldn't find it. So I'm thinking that this is a pretty rare thing. So they're citing a couple of different things in the case. First of all, it goes back to the night that the shooting happened after police did the initial sweep of the house, which they're allowed to do under the law. They're supposed to then go back, according to the plaintiffs,

to get a warrant to do a more extended investigation. And they're saying that Nodolf showed up without a warrant and participated in an investigation at the house and that that demonstrated incompetency and then participated in the interview whenever he was arrested. whenever she took the case to the grand jury to get the indictment for murder, that she held up a document in front of grand juries and said, this is a contract that Wilson had with his home security company that says that he specifically did not want to be contacted if his burglar alarm goes off, and that this was evidence that he set the wheels in motion for this terrible tragedy to happen.

And they're saying largely based on that, you know, they were able to secure the indictment. Well, the plaintiffs are saying it was proven that no such contract existed. And if that's the case, then she misled the grand jury. Now, once again, Justice, he was innocent until proven guilty. She's innocent until proven guilty. There's two parts to this case. One, they're asking the district judge to go ahead and temporarily suspend her from office. And so if a judge grants that motion, he actually has the power to suspend her as DA and appoint somebody as acting DA during the duration of this trial. And then if the jury finds her guilty, she will be removed

from office as district attorney. If they rule in her favor, then she'll go back to being the incumbent district attorney. Wow. That is a wild, wild story. And folks, certainly there are a lot of details. Make sure to go to the Texas. up news and read that story from Matt Stringer. Matt, thanks for bringing that to our attention. Absolutely. We appreciate it. Awesome. Well, folks, let's let's let's let's get some energy in this place.

Connie, are you ready to help me? Yes, I am. Let's go. Let's pick this up here. Let's go. Well, first of all, I do want to say the almost the whole team is here. But Kim and Holly are not here. And Holly lives in Houston.

She's unable to make it today. She'll be with us throughout convention, but she's not here on the pod with us. Kim is up in North Texas and not here with us this week. So, Kim, we miss you. Holly, we miss you here tonight. And we're excited to see you very soon. But ladies, I can speak for Annie, myself and Connie. We wish that there were more girls in this room.

Definitely. Definitely. Every day. On that note, I also want to make a quick announcement that is very, very exciting. Actually, we need to make sure that Daniel has a mic so he's able to say things back to me if I blaspheme his name. But Daniel will be transitioning out of his role as a reporter here at the texan period bye

but it's very exciting because somehow he is still going to stay with us and still going to, you know, stick around and deal with all of us who will against Daniel will be starting this coming Monday, our new marketing manager and marketing and media manager here at the Texan. So Daniel one, congratulations.

We're so excited for you and excited to have you in that position. And two, why are you leaving me? He wanted to work under, under you. He doesn't work for me anymore. I want to work under you. I want to get a broader experience of different personalities. And I will.

We are pretty similar. It's really true. For all things, Connie and I are very similar and we're also very different. That's right. Absolutely. So it'll be fun. So Daniel, we're excited. I'm particularly excited. I am excited. If you've been following the Texan and you see lots of photos um oftentimes i am the one behind the camera so that's been fun 99% of the time yeah we also like brad and hayden have taken some phenomenal pictures as well that you'll see as

well yeah um awesome but i do enjoy doing the photography and so it seemed like a logical step to do more of that well and even in the transitions we've had on the team daniel has in large part taken over a lot of this role already he edits the podcast he takes the photos he handles the editing of the photos he has ideation for stories and ideas for how we can you know get the texan out there in front of more people so it really was kind of just a natural transition. Absolutely. And, but like Kim said, many people will be sad not to be able to read your stories.

Although maybe, I don't know, I say things and then Mackenzie kind of always gives me a face. I say, but maybe Daniel will still write for us. And then Mackenzie will raise her eyebrow at me. Oh, or maybe not. I don't know. Maybe I should just not say anything.

Well, in an ideal world, I would love that to to happen but we know how much work this job takes absolutely this job takes a lot of work and so daniel will and also i understand how hard it is to have one foot in one department the other and another it's you're right cool so but daniel if you ever get the itch let me know and i'll be very excited about it i can write about the texas partisan index yeah well and that daniel's had a huge hand in all these new products we've offered the war room our tpi election trackers those are all daniel things too and that's all you know part of this job description originally so we're very excited that he's going to be transitioning even if i'm uh a little bit sad about it too

so on that note we also have uh some pretty new team members and And Annie, you're not new. You've been here six months. You've been here a long time. But you've never been on the pod. And part of that is because you travel around the state with Connie. And you talk to a lot of different people on the road about the Texan. You talk to them about subscribing, our mission. And you keep Connie in line. The hardest part of all, yes.

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we're both kind of a all, yes. Yes, absolutely. We're both kind of a mess, actually. So, I don't know. Which we will get into. No, we won't. We'll talk about it a little bit. It's really embarrassing. Yeah.

Who's it embarrassing for, though, Connie? Who's it embarrassing for? Anyone in Steely, Texas, at the Tonys that saw me fall. I'm sorry. Twelve stitches later. 12 stitches later. 12 stitches later. I am okay. Annie's life could be a sitcom.

We talk about this all the time, that things just happen to Annie that should not happen to most people. Yeah. And here she is. But we're going to muddle through it, aren't we, Annie? One day at a time. That's right. That's right. And Matt somehow has decided that Daniel is putting things in Slack that are distracting me.

But Matt, you're welcome. You're on the team. Somehow we just have all boy reporters in Austin and you are our first male reporter out in the other regions of Texas that deserve just as much, if not more attention than what we have going on at the Capitol. It's okay to say West Texas. We're excited about that. West Texas. Well, Holly about that. West Texas. Well, Holly and Kim, they're in Fort Worth and Houston. And you've talked about Rob before on the podcast.

100%. Rob's been on the pod. He's a veteran. Yeah. I hope that he was going to be mentioned too. He was number four. But, oh my gosh. Because we're growing.

We're growing. We're transitioning. We're just- People are like growing into new roles. Elon Musk is tweeting at us I mean come on that's pretty awesome yeah I will say all of the Twitter interaction from Elon woke me up at 3 a.m. yeah my phone was vibrating so that's how much yeah power Elon Musk yeah it's pretty amazing wild um Rob are you ready to join in the the

party too you totally ready for it? I am absolutely ready for it. How has a convention been for you so far? Good so far? My feet hurt after standing up for so much. Okay, don't talk to Annie or I or Connie about feet hurting when we have girl shoes and Annie has 12 stitches in her foot. She came at you hard on that one, Rob. Wow.

I think the night is getting late and McKenzie's feeling sassy. Well, really, her more was talking so much for such a long time, started to make my throat kind of hoarse. So I'm really hoping I don't wake up tomorrow with a sore vocal cord or something like that. You've got to be in the booth talking to people. It's true. Well, I do want to shout out Isaiah and Rob. Everyone was awesome manning the booth today, but those two are really going hard selling the Texan and talking about it. talking to people it's true well i do say i do want to shout out isaiah and rob everyone was

awesome uh man in the booth today but those two are really going hard selling the texan and talking to folks and it was really awesome so thank you both for that okay connie i want to play a game with you let's do it okay we're gonna play who's most likely oh god okay so i'm gonna ask you a question and you're gonna say who of us here and you can include holly and kim as well oh okay um and in phil include phil really i'd say so okay well because he really likes the podcast he does he listens to he loves the podcast as do i connie you never listen to it don't say that i just shushed everybody out there listening i just put my finger to my lips to say don't say that and then mckinsey says it

i'm just we're just gonna pass over that i'm being very connie you told me that rules are not to be followed earlier today i did i did but anyway move on so i'm gonna ask you a question and you're gonna say who the people here is the most likely to do the such thing okay who's the most likely to trip over themselves annie why is that because she has tripped over herself do we really know what she tripped over even i tripped over the projector she tripped over the projector and why she has 12 stitches in her foot and i watched it and it wasn't that i did too i saw you. And it was like no big deal.

And then she's got blood everywhere and had to get 12 stitches. The photos were very gross. It was harrowing. I actually think we have to make a fact check correction. She no longer has the 12 stitches in her foot. That's true. She doesn't. They're out now. That's true.

How does it feel, Annie? How are you doing? It's gross. I miss the stitches. Honestly. Oh my gosh. It doesn't seem right. That was not a hard one, Mackenzie. That was not a hard one.

Okay, well, I'll make it a little more difficult. This is not difficult at all. Who is the most likely to get rid of their smartphone and go back to using a flip phone? Well, Isaiah, duh. Why in the world would you ever say that, Connie? Tizzy, I... Okay, the world would you ever say that, Connie? Okay, what are you going to say? I'm actually the least likely because it's impossible for me to abandon a smartphone now,

considering I don't have one. Was that a trick question? I mean, yeah, the way it was phrased. No, not at all. Oh, okay. I'm making it a trick question right now. Oh, okay. He's doing his reporter gotcha thing on. Oh, I see.

I see. No, we don't do that at the Texan. Exactly. But he's doing it now, so we've got to train it out of him. There you go. He's developing a bad habit. I know y'all too well. Come on.

Come on, Mackenzie. Who is most likely to be the first one up in the morning? Brad? Yeah. Duh. That's about right. I got to in the morning? Brad. Yeah. Duh. That's not right. I got to say it's probably Brad. Yeah.

Yeah. Who's the least likely? Phil's got me beat though. Yeah, he does. He gets up at like 5 a.m. I can't do that. Yeah. It's true.

Although this morning we were all up at 3 a.m. because of Elon. Yeah. Because of the Twitter. Because of the Twitter. It was crazy. Who is, okay, this is interesting. Who is most likely to make it as a contestant on a national

talent show annie go on stop trying all of a sudden annie stops and turns around like oh this is me no you've already been called um you can say the same person twice oh i can you can so so somebody that has a talent to be on it yeah wait wait say it again say how did you say it again the um mckenzie how did you say who is the most likely to make it as a contestant on a national talent show and also y'all can all pipe pipe into if you think after after connie after connie gives her answer brad hot brad oh okay you've okay Mackenzie I'm gonna say Mackenzie oh my gosh yeah what do I do on stage nothing I'm just tall oh yeah I'd be like I'm really long who maybe it would be Isaiah because he plays instruments. 100%. The mouth part, to be specific.

Okay. Next on his list is the nose flute. The nose flute. Is what? Does that exist? The nose flute. Yeah, that exists. The nose flute?

That's a thing. I live in the heart of his head. He would know more than anybody else. Please, let's not talk about this. I don't want to. I just looked up a video and I'm already regretting it. Okay, i got it i i'm taking back my mckinsey answer that's good because i know it would not be me anybody have any thought on that everyone agree with isaiah yeah yeah connie's like yes you all do agree with yes i think isaiah is disagreeing i have a feeling

i have a feeling like daniel would do somehow and I have no basis for believing this, but that he would be a really funny mime, just sort of. He would be a really funny mime? A mime. A really funny mime. This is my response. I apologize for that. Daniel has nothing to say to that. For those who can't see, I mime no.

A really funny mime. A really funny mime. That's going to's gonna get a quote but that was pretty good oh my gosh okay who is the most likely to be late because they stopped to pet a dog that is mckinsey that is mckinsey that's true that's true i actually didn't think about myself when i went down and then as i saw it more i was like oh that one is me that's true. I actually didn't think about myself when I went down. And then as I saw it more, I was like, oh, that one is me. That's true. Okay. Who is most likely to land on the New York Times bestsellers list?

Oh, that would be Daniel. Tell us why, Connie. Because Daniel has... Written books. Yes. He doesn't call it a book though you call it a like a novella theatrical podcast it will be a book oh okay it will be a book right now it's a i'm calling a theatrical podcast because oh okay that's its current form got it okay that's really

good stuff um i also think rob with could be uh could write a book one day. He could be what? I feel like he could write a book one day. Oh, awesome. I'm sorry, Daniel. Go ahead. Why not you, Connie? Why not me what?

Write a book. That brings... I would just rather rant on Twitter. If we took all of Connie's Twitter rants, we could sort of print them out edit them down that would be yes that's true question then to you connie or or mckenzie which one of you said that it would be me who would also write about all right mckenzie what kind of book would i write to end up on the new york times bestseller list that's a good question i think you have a lot of um philosophical thoughts and and words that you say and then i think i just can't say things earlier today i

said talking because it was a mixture of spoken and talked that's a separate that's a separate thing um but i just think you would have a lot to say in a book well thank you very much words that i say will be coming out of this i don't know off the top of my head which which day daniel's book will be published but it will be the day before that that's pretty smart words that i say i like that hmm who is most likely to lock themselves out of their place well isaiah i swear these are just questions i googled you cannot google which of us would be more likely to walk yourself out of the tops of tops what who's most likely to questions and i picked the ones that were very obvious

answers i feel like is it really locking yourself out if you can climb up the balcony and break into the window? This has happened multiple times with Isaiah. Multiple means more than two. So it's only happened twice. No, multiple means more than one. That's totally false. No, multiple means more than two. I'm pretty sure. No, I'm pretty sure it just means two.

One or more. Like, more than one. Okay. Well, it's not like it's an everyday occurrence, which is not quite the case. It's not quite the case. That's true. more than one. Okay. Well, it's not, it's not like, it's not like it's an everyday occurrence, which is not quite the case. It's not quite the case. That's true. That's fair.

Okay. Oh yeah. Go ahead, Rob. Do you have something to add? I was going to say the word multiple is derived from the Latin. Oh my God. This is why I hate you in my book. Y'all are such nerds.

Multi, root meaning many, and plus meaning fold. So if multi means more than one, then I think you'd have to so if multi means more than one then i think you'd have to say that that means more than one not more than two oh my oh if y'all could only see isaiah's face right now it's getting late okay i have i have i have though. Most likely to follow the rules. That would be Hayden. 100%. Don't you think, Hayden? I disagree. You disagree?

I so disagree. You're not speaking right now because you don't have a mic in front of your face. Okay. I broke a rule earlier today, so... Oh, my gosh. But see, even how you said that makes me think... I don't think this is a good question. But even how you said that makes me think that this is true. He's like, guys, no, I did. I broke a rule. today so i don't think this is a good question but even how you said that makes

me think that this is true he's like guys no i did i broke a rule i did i broke a rule annie has told us how severely illegally hayden drives do y'all not remember this what annie you've only ridden with me in the car once how would you know oh brother but no i really do think hayden is the most rule following even just because he's yes he literally he's like a little angel because he's also just really nice to me and the boys are not always nice to me hayden is polite but hayden marches to the to the beaters of a different driver i gotta say that's true hayden's blazing his own trails but he's really that's he does blaze his own trails he's very much a maverick

but he is a very also a rule follower and he's very nice and respectful and nice to me maybe that's just what i'm projecting and real following it's just hayden being very nice to me not that it matters any of you other boys okay um most likely to drive a pickup phil oh yeah actually that would also be matt stringer that's right yeah matt tell us about your team west texas there you go texas have you taken your pickup on any cool excursions uh yeah i go down to our place in the mountains in fort dais all the time and oh that's so cool i'm around off-road in it awesome gosh that's amazing i like that you actually use your truck to go off-road too i feel like a lot of people who own trucks do not do that. I learned to drive a stick on a Tacoma, and it was sad.

I was bad. Fun facts. I like it. Okay, Connie. Who is most likely... This is the last one. Okay. Who is most likely to become president?

What do you mean? Wouldn't the next president? No, like of us. Oh! i forgot the game for a minute i went into like political oh my gosh we're talking who's gonna be the next president oh i was looking to become president i feel like i'm uniquely qualified having been the uh former two-term member of the Electoral College and presiding chairman of the Electoral College, I have unique experience in selecting presidents. I feel like we're literally in a presidential debate right now. Yeah. Definitely Connie, by the way.

Yeah, it's pretty obvious. Yes, it's me no i wasn't thinking me interesting that's why i put that at the end you were the thing senator in the texas senate she was president president connie burton just give me a day just give me a day at the helm we say Empress Connie is what we really want at the end of the day Empress Connie okay folks are you guys ready to go to bed now yeah so if y'all didn't know I mean you said it right at the beginning Mackenzie it's been

a long day for everybody it's late now um we're all kind of or I'm fading y'all maybe aren't but I'm fading um so uh yeah it's been it's I'm fading. So, yeah, it's been, it's been fun and everything, but it's time to wrap it up. It's like, stop. Yeah. Questions.

No, that part was fun. Actually, all of it was great. I love listening to all of everybody talk about their articles. Did you like listening to a full episode of our podcast? Okay, so,

why did we start this up again okay oh man it's just too easy another day i'll talk about it on the podcast okay but not today okay that's fair that's fair gentlemen ladies i like saying ladies too that's so nice isn't it nice andy it's lovely okay thank everyone, for being here. Holly and Kim, we missed you. Folks, thanks 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.

Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting an email to editor at thetexan.news. We are funded entirely by readers and listeners like you. So thank you again for your support. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.