The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - June 30, 2023

Episode Date: June 30, 2023

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free Texas flag hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://go.thetexan.news/texas-flag-hat/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=weekly_roundupThe Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion. Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast. This week on The Texan’s Weekly Roundup, the team discusses: The Texas House and Senate advancing their property tax relief plans in the second called special sessionMitchell Jordan defeating Krissy Clark to become mayor of PalestineFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign rally with Texas officialsThe Vatican investigating Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, a critic of Pope Francis and Joe BidenThe U.S. border patrol’s drop in illegal immigrant encounters after the end of the Title 42 A Texas appeals court considering a Galveston homeowners associaton’s ban on short-term rentalsA Texas judge sanctioned for not officiating same-sex marriages heading to the state Supreme CourtOdessa negotiating with the Texas GOP executive director to become city managerFour additional suspects charged in the nation’s deadliest human smuggling incident in San Antonio last yearA biology professor fired for student complaints over his comments on religion and genderThe Texas law enforcement who went to Poland to conduct training on human trafficking prevention

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. This week, the team discusses the Texas House and Senate advancing their property tax relief plans in the second called special session. Mitchell Jordan defeating Chrissy Clark to become mayor of Palestine. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis rallying with Texas officials. The Vatican investigating Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, a critic of Pope Francis and Joe Biden. The U.S. Border Patrol's drop in illegal immigrant encounters after the end of Title 42. A Texas appeals court considering a Galveston Homeowners Association's ban on short-term rentals. A Texas judge sanctioned for not officiating same-sex marriages heading to the state Supreme Court.

Odessa negotiating with the Texas GOP executive director to become city manager. Four additional suspects charged in the nation's deadliest human smuggling incident in San Antonio last year. A biology professor fired for student complaints over his comments on religion and gender. And the Texas

law enforcement who went to Poland to conduct training on human trafficking prevention. As always, if you have questions for our team, DM us on Twitter or email us at editor at the texan.news. We'd love to answer your questions on a future podcast. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Howdy, howdy folks, Mackenzie here with Brad, Cameron, Hayden, and Matt. I want to start right off with talking about the difference in approach to an, you know, a moment meant for empathy by two of our reporters here in this room. I have a nasty bruise on my forearm. Gnarly. It is gnarly. It is. I mean, yeah. Yeah. It it's it's pretty nasty it has changed colors it's gone from purple to green to yellow to green again it's it's pretty nasty it's the size like i don't know

it's like two inches in diameter three inches on your arm yes i do if it did have to be amputated how would you continue to do your job i'd probably just get AI to do it for me. Yeah, voice to text. And voice to text editing must be awful. Delete, comma, add, period. Like, that must be awful to edit with your voice. Or I would just become an incredibly proficient left-handed texter. I'm going to continue with my story now.

Okay. So it has changed a lot of colors. I was telling the boys about it here and Hayden kindly slacked me and said, does it, does it hurt? Like, and I was like, Oh, thank you so much for asking. As the bruise gets more gnarly looking, it heals and it gets better. So while it looks the worst, it feels a lot better. Hayden was like, Oh good. I'm so glad. Like he was just being very kind. Meanwhile, at the exact same time, Brad just slacked me. And I will remind you, my bruise is currently green slash yellow. Okay. Brad slacked me a picture of Fiona from Shrek in her full ogre form and just said, you soon.

I mean, it's like you're getting the green version of the Michael Jackson treatment. Oh dear. Dear, dear, dear roads. I don't even like looking at it. Like is just nasty it does it looks like it's painful yeah although to your point bruises look worse the less they hurt so yeah i'm glad the pain

is subsiding i my husband and i were taking the top like the hard top off of our car so we could go around in the sun and the wind and have fun with the top off of our car. Turns out I'm just not meant for such hard labor. It really, really made it nasty. But anyway, Hayden, thank you for your concern. You're welcome. And your kindness. Brad, thanks for humbling me. Hey, always happy to.

Continually. Yeah, truly, truly it is. Well, let's go ahead and jump in to the news here. We are going to start with Brad. The second special session began this week. There was very little time between special sessions here. About two hours. Yeah, I think. Something like that. And it's revived this very lengthy stalemate between the House and the Senate on property taxes. Give us an update on where we're at. Well, it seems like we've seen this episode before. The two chambers convened and began to move their respective plans for property tax relief

on Wednesday. The House filed the exact same bill. It passed on the first day of the first special, a compression-only plan that allocates $12.3 billion toward rate compression, specifically $12.3 billion toward rate compression, specifically $0.162 of rate compression, lowering the school district maintenance and operations rate. That bill was sent to committee and then passed out of committee quickly, but the body did not pass it through the lower chamber like they did a month ago when they passed it through

and then Siney died, trying to force the Senate to accept that deal. The Senate, meanwhile, passed all the way through its chamber on Wednesday the same proposal they passed last week, which was a $12.7 billion combination of compression, a $100,000 homestead exemption, an increase in the franchise tax exception, and a reduction in the school district voter approval rate so now we have the senate having passed its the house is probably going to pass its when it

reconvenes next week it sounds like and we'll see you know where it goes from there but maybe we have some light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe. Maybe, I don't know. I don't know either. Was anything new added? Is there anything new on the table? So the Senate added one facet to its draft plan, a restriction against political subdivisions dropping their local option homestead exemption, which is a mechanism that allows taxing units

to establish an up to 20% homestead exemption off the top. That is, it seems, in addition to whatever the homestead exemption is the state has. So, like, right now, there's a $40,000 homestead exemption for school district taxes, and the Senate is trying to raise that to $100,000. It sounds like this 20%, or up to 20% exemption is in addition to that. Senator Paul Betancourt, who authored the bill, said this was in response to Pasadena ISD's cancellation of its 10% local option homestead exemption. And the school district did that recently

in anticipation of the legislature raising the state homestead exemption. So seeing room to drop its exemption because the state's about to increase its. The school district voted to do that. So within this bill, there's a restriction on that. Then the big item on the floor, Senator Roland Gutierrez and the rest of the Senate, after about an hour and a half of deliberations, tacked on an addition to the constitutional amendment, it would provide a one-time supplemental payment to teachers. That amounts to $2,000 for an urban teacher and $6,000 to a rural teacher. It's the same that was in SB 9 during the regular session, which did not pass.

And so the Senate is now tacking on this teacher. It's not a pay raise, but teacher bonus to this property tax plan. I don't know how that's going to fare in the House with points of order, germanness of the call or whatnot. But it'll be interesting to see. And it's something the legislature was going to address at some point, whether it was tied to school choice maybe in that special session or now we see possibly tied to property tax relief.

Yeah, absolutely. Brad, thanks for your coverage. Hayden, we're coming to you. We've been covering a wild mayoral race in East Texas for a couple of months now. What was the result of the runoff in Palestine? Palestine voters elected Mitchell Jordan, mayor, with 54% of the vote in his favor compared to his opponent Chrissy Clark's 46%. Ironically, Clark also received 46% in the May 6 election, finishing first in a race with three opponents. Jordan received 41% of the vote in the May 6 election, advancing to the runoff with Clark. And only a few weeks later, he came in first and will be sworn in as Palestine's new mayor very soon. It seems that Jordan was able to consolidate Clark's opposition. He defeated her

by only 129 votes in a town with almost 19,000 residents. And if there's anything about local politics that always blows me away, it is the ability for a handful of voters to direct the trajectory of an entire city of thousands of people. And I think this slim margin in a low turnout election really illustrates that. Absolutely. And it's important for people to remember that your vote, especially in these elections, certainly does count significantly. What were some of the highlights of this very bizarre election season in Palestine? Give us a little bit of background. Give us a little bit of a history on what's been going on here. You called it wild a few moments ago, and that is really a good descriptor because this race had accusations flying in both directions. One candidate withdrew because he feared for his family's safety. He withdrew before the May 6 election.

And on the morning of the election, he claimed that someone started firing an AR-15 outside his home and the Palestine Police Department had to come out twice and pick up shell casings out in front of his lawn. I said Jordan and Clark both faced similar accusations, although they both approached them really differently. Those who have listened to this podcast before know that Jordan has been open about his past and said that he had a misdemeanor conviction in his late teens of producing a false ID during a traffic stop. And he said that the prosecutor and the DA had him enroll in school as part of his plea agreement, and it changed his life for the better. Clark, however, had a 2005 identity theft charge that was really shrouded in mystery. And she said that it was dismissed and it was dismissed,

but there were still questions about it. She also had a tax deferral that the city council, that spurred the city council to amend the charter to ensure she wasn't disqualified, even though that tax deferral was legal under state law. So it seems that she was not able to overcome many of the issues in the election. Jordan said that his priority as mayor will be the city's water infrastructure to ensure its safety and to prioritize taking care of the city's senior citizens and veterans. Did Clark have anything to say about the results? She had to attend a city council meeting just a couple days after losing to Jordan. She thanked her supporters from the dais of the city council.

She is currently on council. Jordan is not, and her term isn't up until next year. So she will be serving on council and have to defer to Jordan as mayor. She said that she wanted to thank her supporters. She did not directly congratulate Jordan or wish him well in any way, but she did concede that he won the election and acknowledged his victory. There you go. Well, Hayden, I'm sure this is not the last we will hear of Palestine, but for now, the runoff election is over. Matt, we're coming to you. The presidential election is fully underway and candidates are now coming to Texas to court voters and introduce their platforms. The most recent candidate is

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. What was the focus of his trip to the Texas border? Governor DeSantis held the first campaign policy introduction event for his campaign to gain the 2024 presidential nomination, holding a town hall style event in Eagle Pass, Texas, which is a border community that's been heavily impacted by the border crisis. DeSantis explained how he plans to deputize local and state officials to enforce federal immigration laws if elected. And one of the more controversial moments was his use of deadly force policy, explaining in his words that if law enforcement catches a drug-carrying cartel member attempting to cut through the steel border wall, etc., they're going to end up stone

cold dead, saying in situations like that, he plans to authorize law enforcement to use lethal force. He also stated that states have a right to repel an invasion, pointing to the seriousness of the current situation is rising to that level and to take matters into their own hands whenever the issue has risen to the level of severity as the border situation is now. DeSantis was joined by Texas Congressman Chip Roy and State Representative Matt Schaefer, as well as other local officials during the event, highlighting that key Texas support. DeSantis has been consistently polling in second place to frontrunner former President Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election. Awesome. Thank you, Matt, for your coverage.

Cameron, we're coming to you. Bishop Joseph Strickland is someone who we have written about a couple of times before. Tell us about the most recent happenings with him. Yeah. So Bishop Strickland from Tyler, Texas, like you said, was previously in the news when he signed his name to a letter condemning the worldwide response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the government overreach and its infringement on personal freedom. Now he has continued to stay in the headlines when just a few weeks ago he led a prayer march outside Dodger Stadium in LA, where he and other activist groups were protesting against the Dodgers Pride Month celebration, where the baseball team

hosted a trans nun group at the stadium. He's also caught the ire of Rome when he's been critical of the Pope on social media, and Bishop Strickland has also criticized the Biden administration. So what's new now is the Vatican has launched an investigation into his diocese, where they will look into him and his administrative leadership. Yeah, absolutely. So has there been any insight into what is happening with the investigation? Well, some sources inside of the congregation have told some other news outlets that interviewees were asked about the social media activity of the bishop, and they did interview the bishop himself. But despite what might seem like serious accusations, The bishop has said he isn't making a big deal about it. Interesting. Well, thank you for your coverage there. We'll certainly keep an eye on that

investigation. Hayden, coming to you, the federal government published its illegal immigration numbers for May. Was there a spike in enforcement encounters after the end of Title 42? There sure wasn't. There were a lot of fears that there would be an increase in illegal immigration and enforcement encounters after Title 42 ended. Title 42, of course, was the COVID-19 policy that allowed the rapid expulsion of illegal immigrants. That policy ended May 11, and enforcement encounters, in fact, went down. Customs and Border Protection said there was an 8% decrease in encounters from April to May. There were just over 183 arrests in April

along the southwestern border. That doesn't include stops at ports of entry. And in May, the number was 169,244. And again, that includes arrests between ports of entry in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Enforcement encounters dropped after the end of Title 42. Troy Miller, the acting commissioner of CBP, said, quote, as a result of comprehensive planning and preparation efforts, there has been a significant reduction in encounters along the southwest border since the return to full Title VIII immigration enforcement on May 12, end quote. The agency said there were 98,850 encounters before the end of Title 42 on May 11, and after that date there were 70,394, and then more than 35,000 individuals were stopped at ports of entry. So that's a little bit of the picture of illegal immigration

in May. And we have the Texas specific numbers on our site at the texan.news as well. Tell us about some of the staff shakeups at CBP lately. There have been some personnel changes at CBP and DHS lately. Deputy Homeland Security Secretary John Tian stepped aside to spend more time with his family. ICE Acting Director Tay Johnson is also leaving at the end of this month. Chief Ortiz left recently, and he's being replaced by Jason Owens as Border Patrol Chief, and Acting Deputy Commissioner Kerry Huffman is also departing as well. So we've had some staff shakeups in the Federal Border Guard Department here lately. Absolutely. Hayden, thank you so much for your coverage. Brad, coming to you, there's a court case down in Galveston that pits an Airbnb vendor against a homeowners association.

Give us the details. The first appeals court will consider a case between Cottonwood Trail Investments, which owns a home in Pirate's Cove. Okay, I love these names. Cottonwood Trail is, sounds like it's, um, like some, some... Cotton Eye Joe. No, um, what was the little, the little rabbit storybooks that you... Little Bunny Foo Foo? No.

Hopping Through the Forest? No. The really beautifully illustrated... We're really lost at sea here yeah we really lost at sea like a pirate like a pirate like a pirate's cove okay so i keep going i'll i'll potentially come back to this okay just good names all around noodle on that props oh thanks anyway cottonwood trail investments owns a home in pirates cove that it rents out on a short-term basis using airbnb and uh home away and the other party in this is the pirates property owners association cottonwood purchased the home in 2019 and quickly began renting it out. We see a lot of these investments across the country, especially after the boom for the short-term

rental industry during the pandemic. But after the operation of the short-term rental began in 2020, homeowners in the neighborhood circulated ballots to amend the HOA covenants to ban short-term rental operations in the neighborhood. It said that if you're going to rent it out, it has to be for a minimum, I think, of three months. So obviously that does not jive with the purpose of Airbnb or similar such services. So that ballot initiative succeeded, and Cottonwood then sued the HOA, and that's the case that we're seeing right now. What are some of the arguments for and against?

So the HOA contends that the proper process for amending the covenants was followed. Throughout the state, HOAs are opposing STRs on the grounds that they bring nuisances, such as drunks and noise at all hours of the night, to the neighborhood. They say in their petition, quote, Would it change the character or personality of this community if everybody's house is essentially a hotel that can be booked by the public at large at any time for any reason? The association's position is that it absolutely would change the public at large anytime for any reason, the association's position is that it absolutely would change the characteristics and personality of the neighborhood.

However, the plaintiff argues that property rights allow them to use the home, the property, however they please, and that this post-facto policy change violates the understood status quo at the time it was purchased the the rules of the game at the time this home was bought um what does post facto mean after the fact oh easy yeah thanks you didn't take latin in high school did you no although it's a very typical thing for homeschoolers to do i also just figured a lot of our listeners don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I figured you would have known, but. It's pretty self-explanatory post facto, but I wanted to ensure. Stems.

Yes. Great. Anyway. So. How many years did you take Latin in high school? I actually didn't. I took Spanish. Really? Oh.

Yeah. I wish I'd taken Latin. I took Latin. I thought I had another person here who took Latin. No. I got excited. In middle school, we did stems a lot, so we learned root words for, just root Latin terms for words today.

Yeah. And that was part of it. Anyway, at the heart, the plaintiffs, the homeowner, says, writes in their petition, at the heart of this case, therefore, lies a simple, profound question. If someone buys land in reliance on a specific bundle of rights reflected in restrictive covenants, can the other owners in the subdivision, who are equally on notice of those same rights and the original scheme of the development, which included them, summarily take those rights away. So I go into a lot more detail about the arguments in the piece.

I recommend you read that. This is especially pertinent because the Texas Supreme Court denied a request for review from a few other cases, very similar cases to this back in October. So basically the courts punted on it and sent it back to the appeals courts who ruled in favor of the HOAs. So either the appeals court here sticks with the trend and sides with the HOA, then we probably don't see anything at the Supreme Court having to make a decision on this, or they buck the trend and maybe triggers or forces the Texas

Supreme Court's hand to decide on this. But it's a very interesting issue combined with the third rail that are homeowners associations. Anyone that lives in a neighborhood with a homeowners association knows how rigid and quite frankly ridiculous some of them can be but not all of them are and so this is a an odd situation well this is i was seeing the story about airbnb um that their revenue is collapsing right now. Have you been paying attention to that? Yeah, the bubble.

I think I've mentioned this a bit in the piece, but it seems like the market is very saturated. So you had all these people throwing investments like Cottonwood Trail thinking it would be a good place to stick some of their capital, especially during the pandemic when everything was going haywire. And the one thing that basically was kind of rocketing up was the vacation industry

because you can work from wherever now after everyone went remote, but now so many people have gotten the business that prices are dropping but also the ability to make money on this is kind of disappearing probably also because people are returning to offices yeah so yeah i mean anything else to add on that? Yeah, well, Austin is actually third on the list in the change in revenue per available listing. Their percentage drop was 46%. Wow. Yeah, so it's all over the country, Airbnb revenue loss. Everyone saw it as a pretty reliable, really risky investment yeah back in 2019 2020 and now it is flip being flipped on its head right very risky well didn't the founder of airbnb go on

like um a month's long stint of staying at different airbnbs didn't i you guys know what i'm talking about i okay let me look this. Maybe I'll bring it up at the end. Also, it was Peter Rabbit. That's what the pictures or the books I was thinking of. Mac just had to get that in. We couldn't drive past that. Yeah, exactly. Matt, what was that? I literally said

Peter Rabbit. Oh, I missed it. It's so hard. I will say it is very hard with headphones to hear anything Matt says. And I also have to keep the volume up on my computer I just hope I don't get emails during the podcast I close on all my windows but sometimes sometimes things happen I should just bombard you with messages so it keeps sending yeah I closed on slack I closed on everything but yeah I don't know okay maybe I wrong here. I'll find this and see if I can figure it out. But I don't want to spread fake news.

That would go against our whole mantra here. Yeah, fake news does stop here. It does. So I'm going to stop right here. And it tracks. On that note, hey, listeners, if you're enjoying our podcast, subscribe to The Texan right now while you're listening. We're not funded by corporate interest or big donors, so we rely on the subscriptions of everyday Texans to keep doing our jobs.

When you subscribe, you'll get access to all our stories as soon as they're published so that you can stay informed, up to speed, and ready to vote at the ballot box. A subscription is $9 monthly, but you can save by purchasing an annual subscription for $90, which comes out to just $7.50 per month. A new product alert. New subscribers will get that Texas State Pride flag hat with all sorts of color options to choose from. For more details, visit the texan.news forward slash subscribe or click on the URL in the description of this podcast. Boom.

There you go. Cameron, I think we even have a color that would match your shirt right now. Heck yeah. I need a new hat. Yeah. There you go cameron i think we even have a color that would match your shirt right now heck yeah i need a new hat yeah there you go and speaking of cameron after the supreme court ruled okay well bergafell yes i had to really think about that for a second it's been a while versus hodges in 2015 some counties in texas decided to refuse issuing marriage licenses one judge in waco is now having her lawsuit taken to the Texas Supreme Court. Tell us about these details. Yeah, so Judge Diane Hensley in her office in McLennan County was one of those counties. But she did provide referrals and

alternatives for couples who were seeking licenses. She said because of her devout Christian beliefs, she needed to remain faithful to that tradition, and so she would not be carrying out ceremonies. And the State Commission on Judicial Conduct caught wind of this, and they have launched an investigation into her, which has led up to this lawsuit. Okay, so what's the latest? Well, they announced this, the arguments were going to be heard at the Texas Supreme Court, but no date has been set yet. But her lawyers have told the Texas Supreme Court that they disapprove of the previous dismissals by the appeals court, and that it may not be fashionable to publicly disapprove of same-sex marriage as it once was, but that is not a reason to question the impartiality of a

judge. Fascinating. And folks, definitely more detail at thetexan.news. Feel free to go and read Cameron's story there. Matt, we're coming back to you. The city of Odessa has been on the search for a new city manager for several months, and that search may be over after the council voted to tap a top state Republican Party official for the post. Give us the details. The Odessa City Council voted in December

to fire their now former city manager, Michael Marrero, after two new council candidates had just been elected in the November elections to the council, creating a super majority on council of members who were backed by the local Republican Party for office. The council has now been on the hunt for the past six months, reviewing some 50 applicants from around the nation for the spot, before finally deciding this past week to unanimously vote to enter into a contract agreement to hire John Beckmeyer, who notably serves as the executive director of the Republican Party of Texas. We spoke with At-Large City Councilwoman Denise

Swanner, who said his leadership and business skills were exactly what they were looking for, noting that his business background was very diverse and complete, and highlighted how state and national party leaders are frequently tapped for major government roles, including the White House, because party organizations are similar to running a major business that requires strong business skills and the ability to navigate public policy issues and complex government matters. Beckmeyer will continue to serve as the executive director for the state Republican Party until his management contract is finalized, with some expecting that to occur over the next month.

Until then, interim city manager Agape Bernal will continue to hold the office until Beckmeyer is sworn in. Once he moves to Odessa to become the new city manager, he will leave his post as the executive director of the Republican Party of Texas. Yeah, absolutely. Tell us a little bit, Matt, about the reactions from both the state party officials who've worked with Beckmeyer and maybe some local party officials in the area that he is potentially going to be employed. Well, chairman of the Texas Republican party, Matt Rinaldi, reacted to the news on Twitter writing, uh, essentially that, um, uh, our loss is their gain, that he had tremendous amount of respect for John and a new that John was

wanting to potentially be able to do that. So he was very happy and excited and pleased for the news. So that was a positive reaction. Also, local party officials were very excited about the news with Hector County Republican Party Chair and SREC woman Tisha Crowe applauding the decision of council, saying that Beckmeyer is somebody she's known for a number of years and he's somebody who she knows to be a uniter. While there's a lot of people that are skeptical of bringing in somebody from a specific party, she said, you know, he's been somebody who's been able to proven to bring people together and that he brings these government and public policy skills to the table

that will help the city tackle major issues. Uh, we also got some reactions from the local Democrat, uh, party leaders. Um, I don't think I'll quote exactly, uh, the language that was used in reaction to the news of Beckmeyer's contract hiring. But I will just characterize it as saying that the chair of the Hector County Democratic Party was not pleased at all. Yes, that is a fair statement. Absolutely, Matt. Thank you so much for your coverage. Hayden, coming to you. Federal prosecutors charged four more people in last year's deadly human smuggling case in San Antonio. Who were the four defendants? Last year, a tragedy occurred after 66 individuals were smuggled into the state of Texas in a tractor trailer without any air conditioning. It ended with 53 people dying,

48 on the scene, and an additional five victims at the hospital. The Department of Justice announced that another four people are facing up to life imprisonment on charges of conspiracy and smuggling leading to death. These are four Mexican nationals ranging in age from 28 to 53. Two other people have already been charged, including the driver of the vehicle last year. At the time, the DOJ said that those two defendants could face the death penalty. However, this time, these four Mexican nationals who have been charged, the DOJ said, are facing a maximum of life imprisonment. So continued a criminal fallout from what was the deadliest human smuggling case in American history. What were some of the most shocking details of these crimes? The DOJ said that at least some of the defendants who coordinated the use of the tractor trailer and the placement of these individuals in the vehicle knew that the tractor trailer did not have a working air conditioning unit and that these human beings would not have ventilation in the 100 degree Texas heat, which is punishing as it is.

But enclosed in a trailer without any AC, that is a death sentence in itself. And as I mentioned, 48 people were already dead when they were found by first responders there in San Antonio. The DOJ said in its news release, quote, concert to transport and facilitate the transportation of the migrants, sharing routes, guides, stash houses, trucks, trailers, and transporters in order to consolidate costs, minimize risks, and maximize profit. So this was, in short, a pure business operation for selfish reasons that cost 53 people their lives. And the DOJ is going after the people responsible. Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you, Hayden, for that coverage. Cameron, we're coming to you. An adjunct biology professor in San Antonio has been fired for unacceptable, quote unquote, lectures. Tell us about what happened. So Dr. Johnson Varkey at St. Phillips College received a termination letter calling what he has been teaching unacceptable and mentioning complaints about his classroom behavior. Apparently, he had been teaching biological sex is determined by chromosomes, which prompted some students to walk out on his class and submit complaints to the college. Some of the complaints

also mentioned he would use religious language in his class. Some additional details of the case is he has not previously received complaints in his 20 years of teaching, and all this while he has been a volunteer associate pastor and hosting a Bible teaching radio ministry. So what's happening now? Well, his legal representation has told the college that they have until July 5th to reinstate the professor, or they intend to take legal action in federal courts. Yeah, absolutely. So what is happening now in all of this? That was it. That was it. That was it. Sorry.

I saw you looking down, so I just kept going. Oh, okay. Cameron, tell us more about this story. Please continue. There's not a whole lot that we can edit. We should just leave that in. We should not edit that out. Okay, that's left in, no edits happening there i will say we very very rarely um edit this podcast like occasionally we do if we edited out all of our mistakes this podcast would be so boring yeah it's very true so we're just gonna leave that one in that one was a pretty that one would usually be reason for an edit as i

was looking at my phone and anyway trying to figure out what else we talk about to fill time because we are going very speedily through our stories we're just we're just peeling back the curtain i can help you out there because i have another story to talk about okay well i would like i would like for you to talk about it we're gonna go to matt and then we're gonna come to you and then we're gonna tease another matt story that's the plan just so all of you know what the plan is sounds good our readers know we're really tearing down the fourth wall the listeners know the plan out too we're really going back on the curtain here okay matt we're coming back what's that matt it's all about me now that's right um matt a waco texas-based non-profit is

helping officials connect around the world to combat human trafficking. This is a very unique story we wrote this last week. Tell us about the recent event with Texas officials in Poland. Well, a multinational nonprofit founded in Waco, Texas, is helping officials across the globe organize against human trafficking. And a training program in Poland this past week is highlighting some of what the organization does. Unbound Now, founded in 2012 by Susan Peters, is a faith-based nonprofit that facilitates training programs to combat human trafficking and provides victims services to survivors of human trafficking. As part of this organization's training program, several law enforcement officials from Tarrant County

provided training to police, prosecutors, social service workers, all in a Together Against Human Trafficking conference in Poland. The Texas officials participating included Kevin Turner, who is the coordinator for the Tarrant County Human Trafficking Task Force, District Judge Gary Coley, and McLennan County Prosecutor Elizabeth Busey. Now, all of these officials released statements on the training, including Judge Coley, who noted that while there are differences between the two countries' justice systems, the event showed that both nations were interested, were invested in this global fight against this crime. Quote, I believe our trainings in Poland make meaningful progress in expanding the successful collaborative model we have been using in Texas.

Judge Cooley issued a statement after the event that we obtained. He also added that while there are differences between our country's laws and the structures of our justice systems, there's a shared desire to make systemic changes to both eliminate labor and sex trafficking. Now, Unbound Now founder Susan Peters also released a statement on the training trip indicating the program's positive impact, saying, this was an exciting time. This exchange trip in Poland is allowing our coalition to have an international reach. We believe that just as the coalition has fostered collaboration, expanded victim-centered care in our community, it can do so in communities across the world. Now, according to Unbound Now, there's an estimated 50 million victims of human trafficking worldwide. In our research on this story, we found a 2018 study noted that in Texas

alone, there's roughly 300,000 victims of human trafficking, with nearly 80,000 being minor children. Unbound Now has several offices across Texas, including one in Austin, and now has international offices in Indonesia, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Poland. Wow. Quite an interesting story, and it's fascinating always to see some officials from across the world banding together to fight human trafficking. So, Matt, thank you so much for your coverage. Hayden, I didn't know if you know, but we're coming to you now. No, I knew.

I was aware. That's really good. That's why I put my little story right under Matt's in the content docket. And we did announce it both to ourselves and to our listeners. We did, yeah. So everyone knows what's happening. The State Department recently told its employees about a new opportunity that will be unveiled in San Antonio and other cities. Tell us more about this diplomat program.

We obtained a communication that was sent by the Department of State to its employees announcing a new opportunity for them to go to San Antonio and other cities across the country and participate in the Retta Jo Lewis Local Diplomat Program. It is designed to promote global issues and other climate change and other global issues. It will be unveiled in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Cleveland, Ohio, Dearborn, Michigan, Hoboken, New Jersey, Kansas City, Missouri, San Antonio, Texas, San Diego, California, and St. Louis, Missouri. The purpose of the program, according to the communication that was sent to State Department employees, is to, quote, inspire civic efforts and encourage public school curricula to promote global issues such as democracy, climate change, education, economic development, entrepreneurism, safety and security, health,

energy, disaster preparedness, and human rights. And that was just one of the things that one of the purposes that was laid out for this program. The Department of State did not tell its employees whether there would be specific policies that would be promoted under these banners. But it did say that local diplomats will build connections with chambers of commerce and other business organizations in these cities, and that they would have relationships with the media. They will also work directly with elected officials

and the administrations in those cities that they are participating in. And Rita Jo Lewis, or maybe Rita, pardon me, it may be Rita Jo Lewis. I'm not sure how to pronounce her first name, but the namesake of the program was active in the Democratic National Committee. She was on the National Finance Committee for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2016. She was also the special representative for global intergovernmental affairs during the Obama administration. And she represented DC as an outlarge committee woman. In fact, when she ran for the rules committee in the DNC, she said, she touted her bona fides in the party. She said, quote, as a former Obama Biden political appointee,

and as a political director for President Bill Clinton in the party. She said, quote, as a former Obama-Biden political appointee and as a political director for President Bill Clinton in the White House, I have a deep understanding of the DNC rules, policies, and procedures, end quote. So the namesake of this program is active in progressive politics, and she is currently the president and chair of the Federal Export-Import Bank. So that's the namesake of the program. And those in the program will be called embedded ambassadors, and they will work directly with elected officials in these cities. Quickly, tell us a little bit about Mayor Ron Nirenberg. Well, I mentioned San Antonio is one of the cities where this program will operate. Mayor Nuremberg is not a Democrat because in Texas, mayors and other local officials are nonpartisan. So at least nominally, he is not a Democrat, but he is

an active supporter of progressive stances on many issues. He supports abortion rights, and he supports gender modification procedures, access to those procedures for minors. He issued a proclamation back in 2019 celebrating the 80th anniversary of Planned Parenthood South Texas in San Antonio. And Nirenberg also implemented mask mandates and other restrictions like many elected officials during the COVID-19 pandemic. He opposed the GOP election reform bill, and he supported an effort by Democrats to preempt legislation like that with a federal bill. And when he was sworn into office, he prioritized a climate change action plan and San Antonio's participation in the Paris Climate Accord. So Mayor Nuremberg there in San Antonio has a history of actively supporting progressive policies as well.

There you go, Hayden. Thank you so much. Matt, we're going to come to you. You actually this morning interviewed a member of Congress. We'll release that as a special edition of our podcast sometime next week. Give us a little bit of a teaser as to what you spoke about and who you spoke to. Oh, well, I had the pleasure of speaking with Congressman Jody Arrington for the first time, a representative that covers a large area of the Permian Basin in West Texas from Big Big Spring to Abilene, all the way up to Lubbock. And is actually a pretty important role in the House of Representatives as chair of the Budget Committee. And had a front row seat during the recent negotiations, along with Speaker McCarthy, in crafting the recent budget proposals. So we went over a wide variety of issues, from issues that are important to his district in Texans, from the oil and gas industry to infrastructure. We talked about some major national level news stories with the House looking at

recently voting to refer articles of impeachment to an investigative committee to review. And we discussed some of the elements there that have come to light and that congressional investigators will be looking into. And it was just kind of an all-around interesting discussion. I think one of the issues I could tell that the congressman was very passionate about was fiscal issues. The long term strategy for the country, he's indicated he's very concerned about, you know, the national debt. And he kind of went in and talked about some of the positive attributes that they were able to score in the recent budget proposal that he, to characterize, is essentially going to start helping turn the ship. And that's from, you know, noting that things have been on a very bad

trajectory, fiscally wise, with the growing national debt things have been on a very bad trajectory, uh, fiscally wise with the growing national debt, et cetera. So a very interesting detailed, um, a conversation with the Congressman. And we even managed to get a little bit of time in to discuss the, uh, 2024 presidential elections and get Congressman Arrington's, uh's take on what's going on. So we'll be rolling out with that interview pretty soon. And you won't want to want to miss that on the Texan. Absolutely. Thank you, Matt. Brad, real fast, our last story before we pivot to our tweeteries this week. Tell us a little bit about a House member's spouse who may or may not have taken his place this week. Yeah. So right before the House started moving its

property tax plan on Wednesday, announced that Representative J.C. Jaton has been moved to active duty in the Texas National Guard. He's going up to sounds like Oklahoma for four months or so to go through basic training and there's a provision in the constitution that allows members if they are actively deployed for more than 30 days to designate a temporary replacement and jeton picked his wife fanny uh for that position who was um uh sworn in on Wednesday, and she will serve the rest of this, the rest of the time that J.C. Jeton is out of state on active duty. So last I saw, this occurred was in, I think, 2009, but it occurred about a handful of times during the U.S. war in Afghanistan and Iraq

because members were in the armed forces and being deployed overseas. Can members just select anyone to step in their place? Yeah, and from what I saw, each member designates someone before the session starts as their and do they have to get approved i think the speaker has to green light it yeah and most members it seems choose their wives it's an extension of their family maybe a little bit more easily palatable not just like expected i trust my neighbor a ton yeah i'm sure that's possible but yeah i don't think it's been tried so yeah absolutely matt do you have something to jump in here? Yeah, I just, I actually kind of read up on this a couple years ago because a friend of mine called me and said that her state representative had asked if she would be one of the stand-ins for state representative.

And she's like, I've never heard of this. Have you ever heard of anything? I she's like, I never heard of this. Have you ever heard of anything? I said, no, I didn't. So I went and I looked and I'm sure enough under the government code and the constitution, there's a requirement for all members to make a list of people who will be called on to be state representative in the case of an emergency or they can't make it or whatnot. And they file that with the clerk of the chamber every session. And I think there's like five or six names on it or something like that. And so in the case that the representative can't show up, they start at number one and they work their way down.

And I did not know that. Wow. Well, there you go. Now we know. Gentlemen, thank you so much for your coverage. Okay, let's move on to our tweeter-y section here. Cameron, why don't we start with you? Some big, heavy-hitting news that happened this morning while we were getting ready to jump on our podcast. Yeah, I got distracted this morning. You know, I sat down, and I didn't think this was going to eventually happen. But yeah, in a 6-3 decision,

the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action race-based admissions policies at Harvard and UNC. And so this is something a lot of conservatives, people on the right have been pushing for. And finally, the makeup of the Supreme Court has sort of led to this point, having this come down. And so I would urge a lot, all of our listeners to go read the opinions, because it really gives some interesting insight i'm gonna write up a big piece about this um that will come out either on friday or this weekend so uh our listeners can look forward to that yeah absolutely also interesting seeing uh justice clarence thomas thomas and katanji brown jackson just going at it yeah in the concurrence and dissenting opinions over this and you know of course they're the only two black members of the uh of scotus

but they were just pulling no punches against each other it's pretty i need to go back and read it yeah absolutely oh my gosh um hayden what you? We're taking a little bit of a departure from political talk here. We are because mine has nothing to do with politics. Fox News tweeted an article about a 42-year-old woman who fell overboard off the 10th deck of a cruise ship in the Dominican Republic. 10th deck? That's like a 10-story building that she fell off of. Yeah. Fox News said in their article, quote, it is not immediately clear what caused the woman to go over the ship's railing on the 10th deck of the cruise vessel, but the woman was reported to have been in the water up to 45 minutes before being rescued, end quote. Oh my gosh. I don't know if she's an incredible swimmer or if somebody threw her a life raft. I imagine somebody had to have thrown her something that she hung on to.

There's no way she was just doggy paddling there for 45 minutes. Especially after falling 10 stories. Yeah. She had to have been given something to grab or something. Well, Mackenzie, she's been bringing up all these orca stories. So maybe the orcas came and saved her. She rode on the back of one of them. It would be like orcas to sink a ship but save a human.

That would be like an orca. Yeah. I will say. That sounds like some orca propaganda. Correct. This article closes with some stats saying that an average of 19 people have fallen off of cruise ships between every year between 2009 and 2019. And then the article closes with this statement of those who fall overboard, only a small number are rescued.

Sorry, even just the beginning of that sentence for those who fall overboard is unbelievably funny. It should not be. It's just very ominous. It's so only a small number are rescued wow it's it's like flashlight under the chin stuff it makes me want to never go on a cruise seriously we were on a cruise for my grandparents 50th anniversary huge giant it was like norwegian cruise or something my first time on a cruise um ever and i believe a gentleman had had some severe life-threatening health episode. I don't know

exactly the details, but a helicopter literally had to hover over the ship and they used pulleys to get him and his stretcher up into the helicopter off of the deck of the cruise ship. It was unbelievable to watch. Like it was a Coast Guard who came and rescued him. And they, I don't know how they calculate this, but they were able to calculate the speed of the cruise ship, which we did not stop. Like we kept going because it's probably easier to calculate the speed of a cruise ship than like a cruise ship just sitting in the water kind of bobbing back and forth and just hovered and when I say how it was like maybe 50 feet from the window where we were watching from and it hovered it used pulley uh coast guard crew came down and rescued him it was the most unbelievable thing to watch and it's just this giant helicopter hovering and going the exact same speed as the

cruise ship to the point where the gentleman in the stretcher barely moved um despite winds and being in the pacific ocean it was unbelievable to watch um because of some bad shrimp yeah i don't know i i wish it was as simple as that he did not look like he was doing very well when he got airlifted out of the cruise ship. But regardless, crazy to think that that's even physically possible. Okay. Well, I'll just go with the orcas since we're teasing the orcas here. Orcas are back at it again. They rammed into a yacht near Scotland, which means that behavior may be spreading up until now. Spain and Portugal had been the sites of these incidents. And Scotland's a good deal away from those areas. So we're unsure if it was the same orcas and they just migrated, which I think would be

a little bit out of character for them at this time of year. I'm not totally positive, but the captain didn't make it home safely. So that is great. And it is interesting. I don't know why. I mean, orcas are unfortunately great and it is interesting i don't know why i mean orcas are unfortunately playful to the extent that i don't know that they know the damage they're inflicting they're also very cruel to their prey but they don't they there are no instances in the wild of orcas ever having killed a human like they just don't attack humans so i don't know what their end game is here with attacking yachts you did show us that video of the orca torturing a seal, which was pretty shocking. Brutal.

But they've never killed or seriously harmed a human. They've saved them oftentimes from sharks. It's odd. So the fact that they... Orcas are smart. I can't imagine they don't see the humans on the boat and recognize what they are, but it's odd. Anyway, they're moving to Scotland. Though the incident shook him up, Rutten made it home safely, says this article from the Smithsonian.

Anyway, pretty interesting. That is fascinating. One possible explanation is that the North Sea orca was a juvenile that simply got curious about the fishing line coming off the back of Rutten's boat. However, the behavior could have spread from the Spain and Portugal subpopulation, perhaps transmitted by very mobile orcas, which is true. Some orcas are transient and some are native. So they live in that area their whole life and some go up and down coast all over. I'm enjoying the tone of the article, though. Don't blame this orca. It

was just youthful impetuosity. He was curious about the line coming out of the boat. If you were a two ton juvenile orca, you'd probably think a lot of things were toys. You'd probably be curious too. Yeah. Don't blame the orca. Exactly. Okay. What should we go next? I'm going to go with Brad's because he said burger what a burger getting sued and he did not bother with the g at the end but he did bother to put the apostrophe at the end that was on purpose yeah clearly obviously and i believe it's pronounced water burger water water burger what a burger that's a debate for another podcast it is what a burger but when i was little i always always called it Whataburger.

Well, I think a lot of people say Whataburger. And I was always so confused why it was misspelled on the sign. Like, excuse me, sir. It's Whataburger. It's Whataburger. Sorry, Brad. Sorry. Anyway, it was a stupid spelling for a stupid case.

The Whataburger... Brad, we're supposed to be unbiased here. Okay. You just listen to this. So I was dumpster diving through court cases earlier this week and found one at the 8th Court of Appeals in Texas. Whataburger is being sued. And they're being sued because after a driver was rear-ended in their drive-thru, and upon request from that driver, the person in the Whataburger drive-thru called the police

and then notified the offending driver that they called the police. And both people pulled up to wait for the police. And during that... Which is typical accident protocol. During that, there was a fight that broke out. Like a fist fight. These two, I think they were women, started beating the tar out of each other. Or at least one started beating the tar out of the other one.

I wonder if they have bruises as good as mine. Maybe. I don't think it's possible. Maybe. Okay, continue. Anyway, so, Whataburger is now being sued for notifying the police and then notifying the other driver. I think because... By the offending driver by the

woman who got rear-ended i think if i remember correctly what's the grounds upon which she's making because it's by notifying that purse the person behind she then went up and then started beating the other woman so the offending driver supposedly, according to this allegation in these court documents, is the one who instigated the fight. Yes. Because she got mad that the cops had been called.

Who got mad that the cops had been called? The person who rear-ended the other one. The offending driver. Oh. But the victim is suing. No, the offending driver is suing. Who's suing?

Somebody's getting sued. That's important. Who's suing? The victim or the offender? And did they ever get their Whataburger order? That's the real question. Can you imagine if they... I honestly didn't realize that you could sue somebody for calling the police.

Yeah, that's why I don't understand the grounds of this. Especially in a car accident. Because if there's a traffic accident and two people are fighting... Yeah. Wait, did the fight precede the police call? Or the 911 call? No, the fight came after. Because of the 911 call.-1 call the fight came after because of the 9-1-1 call yeah after the notification

maybe you can sue for that because if it was just a fender bender and somebody called the police maybe her she's alleging that was a frivolous police call is that even a thing a frivolous well actually it is yes it definitely i mean you. I mean, you can... Frivolous, but... If you call the police without a good reason... Yeah, there are penalties for... Well... I don't know if there's grounds to sue someone over that. So here's what a section of the lawsuit says. In failing to warn the plaintiff of a potentially dangerous situation that could occur after an employee told the defendant

that police were called to the scene. They're being, they're alleging negligence by Whataburger. So who is the plaintiff? The plaintiff. This is like a pretzel. I understand. Because that would make more sense

if she's saying by calling the police and then telling the person who hit me, you put me in danger because that obviously would make her angry. So the defendant is one of the drivers. I think the one. Yes. Yes. Which driver? They're suing a Whataburger employee.

I'm still confused. Yeah. Okay. I just want to know which driver. I'm trying to figure it out. It's not clear. Okay, why don't we come back to you and go to Matt's? Because Matt's will make us all a little happy.

This is making us all frustrated. I'm sorry for asking all these questions, but I need to know the answers. Matthew, please cheer us up with some fun Texas lore. So I can't exactly explain why but in southwest texas um we like to have tiny versions of things on the road it's all kind of started with a famous building called prada marva that you've probably seen on your social media at some point uh that is a a art installation out on a highway out in the middle of nowhere uh near Marfa that is a fake Prada store and uh in recent years other uh tiny similar uh brands and businesses have have have mysteriously popped up along the roadside so

whenever there's a abandoned small house or something like that somebody will go and turn it into like one that popped up that was very very popular was a target. And people from all over would come and take their picture at the tiny target. And it got so bad, the property owner had to bulldoze tiny target because he didn't want somebody getting hurt on his property coming to take their picture with it. And everybody was very sad.

So then fast forward, a tiny Buc-ee's pops up in 2022. And it was wildly popular, but the landowner complained and the artist got in trouble, et cetera, et cetera. And it was taken down. Fast forward to recently, another little building was commandeered by an artist

and once again turned into the world's tiniest Buc-ee's. It's this adorable little building with a Buc-ee sign on it. And they even put a, you know, those Texas historical marker signs. Oh, yeah. He put a fake one up that says world's smallest Buc-ee's. Originally established in April 1st, 2022, this Buc-ee's location served the area faithfully despite its lack of operating hours, bathrooms, employees, or a home decor section. It was an important content shop for wary Instagram influencers and other travelers on

the famous Marfa Trail. A shift to e-commerce, rising gas prices, and a worldwide beaver nugget shortage forced the location to close on April 4th, 2022. In 2023, a replica of the original Tiny Buc-ee's was built on this site, and to this day, it continues to draw crowds and civil litigation. Please go to this website to donate to support future projects and the artist's legal defense fund that's fantastic that's so good so i tweeted out a picture of the tiny uh buckies and it uh it went pretty viral it went pretty viral and the news outlets were reporting on it and i think you kind of were the instigator of all that matth. It seemed to, yeah. Sort of snowballed. For some reason, I don't know why, but we just have a tendency out here to create tiny artworks on the roadside. And people all over the place seem to love them.

So I guess they're going to keep doing it. Tiny artwork, West Texas. I love it. Brian, did you find out who the plaintiff is? Oh, dear. Yes. You did. The woman who got rear-ended because the woman who did the rear-ending

started the fight. That makes a lot more sense. The woman who got rear-ended is suing the woman who assaulted her and the Whataburger employee. I think she has a decent case because based on what you've said in the last few minutes, I don't know everything about the case, but if somebody called the police when they didn't

need to and then told somebody... Well, the other thing is they were asked to call the police by the woman who got rear-ended. Oh, okay. Well, then, yeah, that's dumb. The issue is that they notified this other driver that the police were coming, which then caused the fight. I don't think you can sue somebody for that. Yeah, that seems a little... That seems frivolous.

I was sort of empathizing with her, but now it sounds like she's being ridiculous because if you called the if somebody called the police over a fender bender and blew it out of proportion and then told somebody who was upset and then she reacted that might be a good case also isn't it required that the police are notified especially if there's insurance involved like you file a police report and do all this stuff if you have if you're in an accident you have to do it by x days after an accident would depend on the severity of the accident and potentially maybe depends on the driver's preference i don't know that it's like required by law now that i'm i think when i was like 18 i re-earned at someone with a 94 ford ranger and i it barely like his vehicle was a lot more sturdy and i offered to call the

police and exchange information insurance and he was like i'd rather just go i don't want to and i offered so i don't know what the what the accident was but yeah that sounds like a kind of a silly lawsuit yeah for sure okay sure. Okay, Brad, we agree. It is silly. And so does Whataburger. Okay. Well, there's the case there.

Well, there you go. Okay, folks. Well, thank you so much for listening to our blathering this week. We appreciate it as always. And we will catch you on us with next week's episode.

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.