The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - May 1, 2026

Episode Date: May 1, 2026

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free "Remember the Alamo" hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.Texas Lawmakers React to Attempted Assassination of Trump, Cabinet at White House Correspondents DinnerTexas Redistricting Map Upheld as U.S. Supreme Court Reverses Lower Court DecisionOne Month to Texas Runoff Elections: Key Contests to WatchTalarico Leads Cornyn, and Paxton by Wider Margin, in New Poll for U.S. Senate RaceFourteen Indicted for Alleged Texas-New Mexico Permian Basin Oilfield TheftState Rep. Briscoe Cain Challenges 'Obscene' Books in Deer Park ISD LibrariesTrucking Companies Face OAG Investigation for Allegedly Skirting English Proficiency Requirements‘The Next Right Thing’: Investigators, Camp Mystic Owners Testify at Texas LegislatureParents of Camp Mystic Survivors, Victims Testify Before Texas Legislature, Blast Eastland Family’s LeadershipPaxton Chinese birth tourismBexar County Judge Indicted for 'Official Oppression' Resigns, Accepts Lifetime Prohibition from Judicial OfficeHere's Why Multiple Texas Public School Districts are Extending Their School Years

Well, howdy folks and welcome to another edition of the Weekly Roundup Podcast. I'm here with Hannah, Meredith, and Mary Elise. What a slate of awesome ladies I'm with today. I feel like usually have Kim or Holly and there are, you know, and then today we've got three of y'all. This is so fun. But I'm pumped to be back with y'all. And quick announcement, quick order of operations to get out of the way up front. This will be wild to say.

but my last weekly roundup podcast recording, at least for now, and Rob will be taking over as the host of the podcast going forward week to week. I'm taking a little bit of a backseat and letting him take over the range of some of those more forward-facing commitments specifically so that I can be more available for my kiddo and my family. So just as a heads up, a little bit of a transition here, but we've slowly been making that transition with Rob hosting, you know, on and off over the last little bit. Hopefully this is a smooth transition for our listeners as well, but it's bittersweet and a while to think that this is the last at least standing recording that I'll be part of for

now. So ladies, thanks for joining me on this one today. I appreciate it. We can go ahead and jump into the content here and get cracking. We actually have quite a bit to go through. Mary release. I know that there, last weekend we had some major news come through out of D.C. I think it was wild to watch these headlines and folks start to react and, you know, clips come out on Twitter, but there is yet another attempt on the president's life. Give us the details here. Yeah, like you said, it was well to observe, at least just in the online world. I first saw, I think, an ex post from one of the reporters that was present at this event, the White House Correspondents Association dinner, which was being held over the weekend on Saturday night, saw an ex post

from one of the reporters there that just said it appears that Trump and several members of his cabinet have been rushed out with security. So as you said, this was another attempt on the president's life and on most members of his cabinet. He had several members of his cabinet who were present at this dinner. Of course, there was quite the response afterwards. So just a couple of details about how this kind of panned out. So this was the annual dinner being hosted by the WHOCA, which is this nonprofit organization that is made up of media members who cover the presidential administration. So during that dinner, there were several shots heard outside the main ballroom where folks were seated beginning their dinner. And that kind of prompted

the United States Secret Service to rush over pretty quickly to President Donald Trump. First Lady Melania Trump and then several other cabinet members who were there, had them essentially get on all fours and get them out of the, out of sight. No one was injured as a result of the gunshots. There was one Secret Service member who was struck by around in the chest. Thankfully, that was deflected because he's wearing a bulletproof vest, so nobody was seriously injured. Other than some injuries folks talked about of just, you know,

as they were trying to get under tables and chairs, et cetera, bumping their head, but nothing serious, which is good. So the suspected gunman is a teacher from California, and he says, and this manifesto, which was reported on, has not been confirmed by the FBI that this was a manifesto, but this is a widely circulated manifesto that he, this individual wrote that he was targeting all administration officials that were present at the dinner, which was several,

although he did specifically say that he was not, interested in taking out the FBI director Cash Patel, just kind of interesting note there. So that was first reported on by the New York Post that manifesto. He's called them targets, prioritized from the highest ranking to the lowest. So at the dinner, we had present, Vice President J.D. Vance, White House Press Secretary Caroline Lovett, who herself was, I believe she's nine months pregnant, was at the dinner. So this was just a pretty wild scenario because also you have Trump at this dinner with a lot of people who you could say don't get along very well together. I mean, Trump and the mainstream media, they're all on this room together having this fancy

dinner. But I think in a way it was probably, at least temporarily a bit unifying because nothing like kind of staring in the face of danger in that way can kind of, nothing like that can be quite as unifying. So you just, they, we saw all of these different press folks that were all in this room with Trump and then, you know, they all had to duck for their lives, et cetera. And then afterwards, Trump held a press conference about two hours after it happened and they all came into the room. They were all in their formal gowns. And Trump was, and his administration were in their black tie outfits. But it seemed like they were all, you know, just pretty relieved, of course, because you're so close to shooter, that's just, it's pretty terrifying. But we saw a lot of our Texas

lawmakers weigh in on this. Overall, everyone was just saying, we're very glad that everyone is safe. All the attendees and that Trump and his administration are safe. And then just talking about, like James Tolariko weighed in on this, he said political violence is unacceptable in every form, and we have to continue to call it out wherever it rears its ugly head. And then some individuals, such as Congressman Michael McCall, more focused on their concern that we had so many high-ranking individuals in the administration all gathered in this one spot.

There was one head table where we had Trump, Levitt, First Lady, vice president, we also had our Department of Defense Secretary that was pretty close over there, so some really high-ranking individuals. So he was raising concerns about that and saying that maybe the Secret Service needs to reconsider that are having the vice president, at least and the president together.

It's something like that. So you can check out the piece for some more reactions to this event over the weekend. But yes, another attempt on the president's life. Thankfully, nobody was injured. And then a big public format and context as well. So thankfully, like you said, no one was injured. It could have been a very different story. So Mary Least, thanks for your cover.

Meredith, let's come to you here. An update from the Supreme Court for the state regarding Texas's a little bit controversial redistricting map, this mid-decade effort by Republicans here in the state. Walk us through the news. Yeah, so this is, if you've been reading anything about Texas politics, and you're not a stranger to this case. Back in August, just as a little quick reminder of what's happened,

They redrew congressional maps ahead of the 26 elections. The goal was to expand Republican advantage, and it brought a lot of criticism from the Democrats. And obviously, there was the whole quorum break and everything connected with it that was ongoing for a long time. And what happened after that was an El Paso-based federal panel rules that it's unconstitutional, finds that they're using, alleges that they're using race improperly in redistricting

and dividing its citizens along racial lines. And so last November as well, the Supreme Court steps in, they issue a temporary stay, which allows Texas to keep using this map while the case is being reviewed. And so then in December, the stay, temporary one becomes permanent. The concurring opinion was by Alito Thomas and Gorsuch. And basically the key argument being that the partisan advantage was pure and simple. It wasn't racial. it was for the reasons of partisan advantage.

So they were emphasizing that it was politics and not race that was driving that decision. They said there was a strong inference that the state's map was indeed based on partisan, not race. So there was dissenting judges that pushed back would be Kagan, Sotomayer, and Brown Jackson. They just were confirming what the El Paso court had said, just that they believed that it was dividing the citizens by race, that they said that the order disrespects the work of a district court. And so recently in the last week, there was a final Supreme Court decision where they officially reversed the lower court ruling and they're allowing the Texas map to remain in place for the upcoming elections. And so there was a response

from the Texas House Democrats. Chair Gene Wu was just releasing a statement saying that He believed that the Supreme Court had protected. He said Greg Abbott's racist map and gave Donald Trump exactly what he demanded. They talked about stolen seats, weaker black and brown or black and Latino voting power and a rigged path. And so they said that this decision really stung and ended by saying that it's not the end of the fight. So this isn't just a Texas issue. This is a national issue. There are other multiple states that are also redrawing their maps for similar types of partisan gain on both sides.

And so this is just part of a national story. Absolutely. One step forward for this story as we continue to watch it. And we're going to thanks for your coverage. Mary Alie, so let's talk about the runoff elections. We really are getting closer and closer. It seems like just yesterday it was the primary. But yeah, I reckon the run down is one of the top races to watch as we enter this final month for campaigns.

Yeah. So we're officially less than one month away from Texas's runoff elections. I think a lot of folks are probably looking. forward to these elections, especially in some pretty key races where there's just been so much campaigning going on. And I think folks are pretty eager probably to have their candidate for their party nominated and to get to work for the November election. So at the top of the ticket, of course, we have the United States Senate seat. And so we've got in the GOP runoff because there won't be a Democratic runoff. For U.S. Senate, we've got incumbent Senator John Cornyn against Texas Attorney

General Ken Paxton, and that race has been top of mind for folks in Texas politics, of course. They successfully weeded out Congressman Wesley Hunt back in the March primary runoff, but neither of them came in with a majority of votes, although Cornyn did come in first with 43 percent, and then Paxton was behind by about three percentage points. So those two will be facing off on May 26 for the runoff, which is a pretty significant race. We saw a lot of news recently about Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick was kind of stepping in and saying that he'd like to see either candidate promise that they're going to support the other one, whichever one that wins for the sake of GOP unity, especially he said, you know, to be able to have a good plan for

defeating State Representative James Valerico when it comes to November because he's a Democratic candidate. He won't be having to face somebody in the runoff because he did receive a majority of the vote in the Democratic primary. And we did see that both of them, both Paxton and Cornyn said essentially that

they'll support the Republican ticket. Paxton were clearly spelled out, I will support Cornyn if he wins. And Cornyn just reiterated, I will support the Republican ticket. And they both said, of course, but I anticipate that I will win, and that I won't come to that. Then statewide, we have on the GOP runoff between Representative Chip Roy and State Senator Mays Middleton for Texas Attorney General.

And so those two came out, and Roy was in first place, and the Milton was in second place, and they went up against State Senator Joan Huffman and then former U.S. Assistant Attorney General Aaron Wrights. And so those latter two were pushed out, and that, Now we've got Middleton and Roy who will be facing off during this runoff. They've been, you know, a lot of their campaigning has just been kind of critiquing the other one about their voting records or just their general records and their time and their respective positions. So that's the Texas Attorney General Racebook for the GOP side. Then on the Democratic side, there will also be a runoff between state senator Nathan Johnson.

and he'll be facing off against the former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski. So those two will see both a Democratic and a GOP runoff happening there for Texas Attorney General. There's also GOP runoff for a Texas Railroad Commissioner, which is another pretty important race here. So there's incumbent Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright, who's being challenged by former chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party, both French. A French led with 34. percent of the vote during the primary, and then Wright got 32%.

So they were pretty close there, so we'll see how this runoff pans out for them in May. That's just less than a month away. So Railroad Commission, and then congressional, there are a handful of congressional district primary runoffs that will be happening. We just mentioned a couple of the pretty high-profile ones in our piece. So we've got the Congressional District 9. that's a pretty closely watched congressional race that's happening here, GOP runoff race.

So we've got candidates, Trump endorsed candidate Alex Mueller, and then state representative Briscoe Kane, who will be facing off on May 26th. And of course, those two came out as the top two in a crowded primary, which is why they're proceeding to the runoff. So we've got Miller and Kane there, and then we've got, Congressman Al Green will be facing off against Congressman Christian Menifee in the Democratic primary.

Green is running in the redistricted CD-18 that now makes up a portion of what used to be what he represents right now, CD-9. And that's where Mueller and Kane will be duking it out, CD-9. Minifie defeated former city council member Amanda Edwards in a special election runoff. our readers might remember to fill the unexpired term of Congressman Sylvester Turner who passed away. So he won that special election, represents CD-18. And that was when the new redistricting map was not in effect yet. So that's worth noting. So with Congressman Wesley Hunt, of course, running for U.S. Senate, which he didn't ultimately make, of course, to the runoff.

But his district 38 is going to see a GOP runoff between John Bonn, and then Shelley Dezavos. Bonk does have an endorsement from Trump and took first place in that March primary with 48% among a pretty crowded primary nine other candidates. Some other rather high-profile congressional runoffs that will be happening on May 26th is a Democratic primary runoff

between former Congressman Colin Allred and Representative Julie Johnson. Something that happened, I think it was yesterday, day that we didn't put in this piece. This piece is a little bit older, but Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett did come out and endorse Allred in this race. So that's significant there. Congresswoman Crockett, of course, lost in the Democratic primary to Tala Rica. So Allred is running against Congresswoman Johnson there. And that's in Congressional District 33. And then one that we've covered so much that won't be having a runoff,

but initially was set to, was in Congressional District 23, Congressman Tony Gonzalez was originally going to be facing off against Brandon Herrera. The two were going to be in a GOP runoff this May. But then with all of the scandals that we've covered with Gonzalez's sexual harassment allegations, there's quite a story there, but eventually led him to drop out of the race. And then ultimately, he did resign from Congress, essentially effective immediately. So because of this, Ferreira is now the Republican nominee for CD 23. So you can check out the piece for some more info on some of these races.

We also link to Secretary of State Jane Nelson's website where you can find just some more some local information on if you want to find a sample ballot for yourself for the primary runoff because it is less than a month away so you can be prepared. Absolutely. Mary Leaves, thank you. And we have up on our site to information for all 24-4 cameras. counties. So make sure if you don't know where your poll in places or what that looks like for early voting in election day, because oftentimes those locations are different, make sure to go check that out.

Mary Lees, thank you. Meredith, speaking of these runoff races to watch, there's a new poll for U.S. Senate with some very interesting results, walk us through them. Yeah, so as Marylees was saying, the Republican primary for U.S. Senate runoff is coming up between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton. walked through Wesley Hunt being eliminated, and it's just this very, the most watched, one of the most watched Senate contests in the country probably right now. And just a little background as well. Earlier in the last month, we know that there have been a lot of warnings and a lot of discussion about party unity, as these two, like Mary Lisa was saying, they say they're going to support each other, but there's a lot of worry and concern from people like Dan Patrick

and even Trump chiming in and giving their opinions about, you know, we have to make that this does not go the wrong way. And so there had been some really large fundraising numbers from James Talleyco, massive, 27 million in quarter one for 2026. And comparing to the two Republicans, it was Cornyn with 9 million and Paxton with 2.2 million in that first quarter. And then ending cash on hand was Talarico with 9.9 million, Cornyn 2.6, and Paxton had eight. So there's this new poll from the Texas public opinion research organization, they surveyed 1,865 likely voters. So yeah, the article covers these key voter blocks where Tala Rico really had some significant leads with black voters, Latino voters, even college educated voters. So just check out our coverage

of that for the specific, specifically against Cornyn and specifically against Pax and how much he was leading in this poll. And amongst Mod. It's in Independence as well. The poll showed him coming out significantly stronger against the two candidates. They even did, like, it's a really interesting poll that has multiple different types of breakdown. So I definitely encourage as well. We link that in there. Just showing that Cornyn and Paxton have a lower net favorability compared to Greg Abbott, Donald Trump, generic,

just literally a generic Republican candidate. So they show a lot of comparisons of different people. people that they kind of when they sized them up against them, they were still having lower favorability. So after this May 26 runoff, we're going to start to see some new numbers as Republicans kind of rally around the candidate that's chosen, whether, and we'll see whether these candidates really can unite supporters behind their former opponent, like they say that they will. So we'll be looking for some new poll results in a couple of weeks. Absolutely. These are really the numbers people are looking at ahead of the runoff or how these candidates are tied up in millions of millions of dollars

of opposition campaigning against each other match up against this Democrat. So we'll keep an eye out for sure. Marita thanks for reading us through those numbers and certainly go read all of the details at the Texan.mooze. Hannah coming to you. You recovered a hearing last week that relates to a story that you now covered. Walk us through this recent oil field theft case. Yes, so 14 men were indicted in an oil field theft case.

So the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas announced that 14 conspirators were indicted for alleged transport and theft of crude oil across the Texas, New Mexico border. The criminal activity took place in the Permian Basin, which is responsible for nearly 40% of all oil production in the U.S. And is shared between Texas and New Mexico. Both. Also last week, lawmakers, including Jody Arrington and August Lugar, as well as leaders in the oil and gas industry in Midland and Odessa, made a trip to D.C. to discuss regional priorities dealing with oil and gas production. So the Texas defendants in the oil theft case are Randall Reed of Electra, Texas, his father, James Reed, who's also of Electra, Texas, and Christopher Harris of Seminole, Texas. and the other defendants are located in New Mexico. But according to the U.S. attorney's office, the defendants conspired to steal crude oil from the Permian Basin,

store it on land that one conspirator leased from the U.S. government, and then the oil was sold to other conspirators well below the market value set by West Texas Intermediate pricing. Randall and James are a father-son duo who co-owned Reedcoe Enterprises, which is an oil refining company based out of Electra. Reed Co. specializes a little bit ironically in purchasing crude oil, refinement solutions, and environmental sustainability. Michael King, who represents Randall Reed, said to the Texan, our legal team is actively reviewing the charges filed against Randall Reed and that they are committed to vigorously defending Mr. Reed's rights.

He also said the client maintains his innocence and that they look forward to addressing the charges in court. Brandy Young and Russell Lorffing, who represent James Reed, stated to us, an indictment is merely an accusation and is not evidence in this case, and it does not reflect the full or accurate story. They also appear to be claiming innocence, and they stated, we look forward to having the opportunity to prove our clients innocence in court. Oilfield theft has been a recent topic of law enforcement discussion. Last year, House Bill 48 was passed,

which created the Oilfield theft prevention unit within the department. Department of Public Safety. And last week, the Texas House Energy Resource Committee hosted a hearing on how oilfield theft is being dealt with, how the committee is dealing with oil field theft in how House of 40 is being implemented in the state. They also discussed rising oil prices, the impact of the war in Iran and the blockage of the Hormuz Strait, and DPS Captain Tim Murphy stated, it's going to be a lot more lucrative to steal at this point in the game.

we saw an example of that this week. But the DPS noted to the Texan that it remains engaged with tracking and mitigating oil field theft related crime in the basin. No, Hannah, wild story. And the oils of death is, I mean, this is something you don't think about unless you're following these kinds of stories. So Hannah, thank you for covering this for us. Meredith. Let's come to you as the representative, Briscoe, Kane, making some news this week on an issue involving library books, specifically violating state law and Deer Park ISD of his district, fill us in on this issue. Yeah, so the law in question here is SB 13, which was passed in the 89th legislative session, which reshapes how school libraries are operating. So it did

things like gave a lot of parental access to what students were checking out, ability for parents to restrict books access for their children, and then the creation of these local library advisory councils that would assess and look into books that potentially violated the law that were obscene or did it had inappropriate content. And so, yeah, so we see that a state rep is going to kind of lend his voice and jump into this type of issue, which normally is handled at a local level at school board meetings. And he did speak with us at the Texan. So in the article, we talked with him about, you know, why he was getting involved and why this was important to This law has received pushback because of certain groups, like, for example, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.

It's about free speech. They'll talk about limiting students' access to educational materials, the idea that libraries are now outdated and slow to add new books and the importance of that for them. Also, they also believe this law is unconstitutional. It was unnecessary, unconstitutional and unworkable, which was a quote from them. Briscoe Kane is taking action because, and he wrote a letter in April, I believe it was the crap. Okay, I don't use that date. Okay. He wrote a letter where he's talking about saying these books have no business being available to minors,

and he really felt that the taxpayers deserved an apology for spending their money this way. So he identified four titles in his letter. Interesting enough, it was interesting. They all were about girls. It was living dead girl, me Earl and the dying girl, suicide notes from beautiful girls and a girl like that. And they were really, he was focusing on like explicit and very sensitive sexual content. We, I really highlighted one in the, in the article that from the book Living Dead Girl, where they're really, he writes in his letter that there's prolonged sexual abuse, rape and sadistic torture of a young girl. Common Sense Media rated at 17 plus, specifically for, this is their quote,

quote, sadistic, sexual, physical, and emotional torture of a child on nearly every page. So these are pretty, we didn't quote some of the things in the article, and you can see that in his letter. That's linked. It's very, very explicit. So he said that Kane was saying, you know, parents raised concern first. He said that they did it quietly. And then eventually they came to him saying, like, these books are still are there.

And so they were looking for them to be removed. So he said that he believes there are at least a dozen books that have been flagged. and he said that at least four of them were prohibited from being in Texas prisons. And he just, you know, really wanted to get attendance and accountability and local governance and showing up and lending his voice at the meeting. I briefly checked in with his staff and then also watched a little bit of the meeting on Monday. And so there were quite a few people from both sides that were there. So there was a lot of public comment about that.

And, you know, this isn't just a deer park situation. This happens all over the state. There are many stories, and this is happening a lot of different, a lot of different meetings. And it is very interesting just to note that the materials that they read when a parent reads it out loud. And I've seen this in person. I've seen it on videos, and it did happen at the Deer Park meeting. They will read it. And it's very graphic, very awkward to listen to.

And even I've seen, I know at Houston in the last couple months, they security escorted a community member out that was reading a book that is available at the student, at the libraries at the school. So that's just interesting to watch that. So we will probably continue to see this as parents become more aware of what's in the schools and are asking for accountability and compliance with SV 13. As you said, lawmakers have already taken a whack at trying to crack down on this and take legislative action. So I'm curious to see how this next session, as there continue to be issues in public schools and, you know, conflict between parents and administration and lawmakers, how this all is enforced. We'll see more proposals from lawmakers that attempt to be more specific or crack down more, personally.

So, Meredith, thanks for your coverage there, Hannah. Let's talk about the opposite of the Attorney General cracking down into trucking companies. Give us the details. Yes, so Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into trucking schools for allegedly providing an adequate training to participants and for pushing students through who did not meet English language requirements. So the investigation will mainly address companies giving commercial driver training to non-English speakers. Paxton called it a violation of state and federal law and an endangerment to Texans. So the federal motor carrier safety administration requires that interstate drivers have to be able to read and speak English well enough to converse with the general public, respond to official inquiries, and understand and read road signs.

Last year, Governor Abbott directed the Texas DPS to enforce a zero-tolerance English proficiency requirement among Texas truck drivers. any order that no commercial driver's licenses were to be issued to individuals who lacked proficiency in the English language. U.S. Senator John Cornyn also recently in March of this year introduced a bill titled Delilah's Law, which is aimed at preventing illegal aliens from receiving commercial driver's licenses. It's named after Delilah Coleman, who is a five-year-old girl who was severely injured in a crash involving an illegal alien truck driver with a commercial driver's license in California. So the company is involved in the investigations are EP Texas Trucking School, Trucker Certified LLC, Fast Track CDLLLC, CDLC, CDLC, CDLC, and Lyndonwood Education

System. And we reached out to all the trucking companies involved in the investigation, but did not receive response from any of them. Some were unreachable and others had disconnected lines. Wild. Wild altogether. Hannah, thanks for covering that for us. And, yeah, lots of different approaches being taken to this. And interesting to watch the Attorney General to get them on the action here. So thank you for your coverage. Well, Meredith, if let's stick with you here, more news from the Attorney General's office here. He filed a lawsuit with Ken Pagg. Attorney General Kempaxson filed a lawsuit against a Houston area postpartum center. This is fascinating. Alleging that it is participating in, quote, birth tourism. Tell us more. Okay. I just want to say before diving into this,

this is a lawsuit that is very interesting and easy to read, actually, if you want to really get into the nitty gritty of it, sometimes when you open a lawsuit and even when you're writing about it, it's just so much legal jargon. But it has pictures and it has like very interesting, really juicy stuff in it. So I just want to make a little plug for clicking on the link to the lawsuit in this article. So Texas Attorney General. General Knaissance this lawsuit. He's targeting it's called De A Postpartum Care Center. And the allegation is that this business facilitated the travel of Chinese nationals to Texas,

specifically to give birth in the US to secure birthright citizenship for their children. So there are alleged multiple violations such as deceptive trade practices, tampering with government records, unlawful harboring and concealment. And then the goal is to hold them accountable under Texas law. and to seek financial penalties and shut down measures even. So the defendants also, in addition to the center, include two individuals who are listed by a Chinese name and then an English name, which Vivian and Danny Lynn are two of the defendants. So they're listed as partners and operators of the center.

And then Vivian is actually listed as a NICU and OBGYN head nurse. And the lawsuit just pointed out that allegedly there are no verified. licenses found in the Texas Board of Nursing License Verification Portal or the Texas Medical Board's online database for either of these individuals. So there is a multi-property setup that the press release lists for different addresses in Sugarland, Houston, Richmond, and Rosenberg. And the state is claiming that there are up to 20 births a day and more than a thousand American-born babies have been, or American-born children have been facilitated at the center. So, yeah, like I said, the lawsuit has a ton of information that is very interesting.

So these clients are allegedly recruited through WeChat, TikTok, Facebook, so a lot of social media, some Chinese platforms, and then some different websites. One of the websites, they say, in the lawsuit, it translates going to the U.S. to give birth. And then there's some websites like mommybabycenter.com and Texas babycare.com. The lawsuit also alleges that there's a lot of like a lot of social media like advertising and communication between people and just different. They lift off some different acknowledgments that the organization makes, like saying that the U.S. is strictly policing birth tourism, like giving people advice about applying for visas before pregnancy to avoid suspicion. And then they found that they were giving like private guidance and different. different messages to, they would involve like discussing with them some of their public TikTok videos and questions.

And so they listed a lot of the questions or things that they might have talked about in these private guidance they would give to people. So some of the questions were, do I have to buy a return airline ticket? Will a one-way ticket be refused entry? Entering the US, how much cast should you bring to avoid trouble? If I give birth in a red state, can the baby get a US passport? And what is the difference between American citizenship and? green card. So the state is seeking civil penalties up to $10,000 per the deceptive trade practices.

10,000 per that, per that, different injunct, temporary and permanent injunctions, loss of business rights, and the legal fees and costs. And so Ken Paxton just ended the press release saying America is for Americans, not foreigners trying to cheat the system to claim citizenship, the center scheme, not only facilitated and invasion of Texas, but it also involves shielding and facilitating violations of immigration law. Birthright citizenship is a scam that threatens national security. I will do everything in my power to stop unlawful birth tourism schemes like this one. So like I said, this is a juicy lawsuit. I would click on that lawsuit link. Those are words you only hear in this business. Meredith,

thank you so much for that one. Mary Elise, let's come to you. This was a long-awaited. hearing it went over several days and you covered it. These were to discuss the tragedy that happened. It can't mystic last summer over July 4th weekend. Give us the details. Yeah, so there were hearings on both Monday and Tuesday. So Monday, we heard the report from the investigator. She laid out a very just kind of objective timeline.

And the Eastland family, when they spoke, they said that her timeline, her reporting was, essentially they thought accurate. So they agreed with her and said that she was, you know, great to work with. And she had also said that the Eastlands gave her unfettered access to any information or documentation from the events before and after that she might need access to. But Tuesday we saw, so the Eastlands spoke on Tuesday kind of in the earlier half of the day. and then families of victims and families of survivors, Camp Mystic survivors, spoke.

And that was probably the more emotional part of the kind of marathon of hearings we had over Camp Mystic because we saw the parents come in and speak about their loss or the trauma that their daughters who did survive experienced. Among the parents who spoke, was the mother of the only camper who remains missing 10 months after the flood. The mother's name is Cecee Stewart and the daughter is Cecilia, or known as Seal, steward.

And she was just tearfully questioning why the camp would even consider reopening with her daughter remaining unaccounted for. She actually at one point turned to Eastland family who receded more towards the back of the room. she just turned to them and talked about her pain and scolded them for what she viewed as their failure to protect the vulnerable campers and then her intent to see them not receive a license for operation. She said at one point during her testimony, specifically targeting the leadership of the camp,

she said even if the camp was relocated to an area such as a desert within Big Bend, she said campers would still be in danger under the leadership of the Eastland family. Another person who spoke was Dr. Julie Marshall. She was a former campmistic camper and then the mother of a daughter who survived the flood. She specifically took aim at Mary Liz Eastland, who's a registered nurse and serves as the camp's chief health officer. Marshall herself is a practicing surgeon, so she took aim specifically at Mary Liz because she talked about her own medical experience and the ways that she felt that Mary Liz did not follow through with her duty as a medical provider. She criticized Mary Liz's response time following the flood. She described how she

failed to activate the medical team as a tragedy was unfolding and instead sent them home. And she said that was a failure by Mary Liz because it meant little to know medical examinations after the flood. Marshall also said that Mary Liz had previously testified. that she didn't know the difference between a flash flood warning and a watch, and that she also wasn't enrolled in weather notifications, and so she wasn't receiving the automated ones the night in the catastrophic flood. So Marshall was just saying that that was a failure on Maryliss's part. The individual whose family was responsible for saving two campers

as they were rushed through the river from their cabins to this house, Grant Griffin testified alongside one of the fathers of the girls who he had rescued. Griffin shared a pretty moving story about how his daughter's boyfriend, who was a boy scout, worked with him while they were in deep water and fighting heavy debris to save the two girls. He did reference one of the parents' concerns to the Eastlands. Once they heard that the Griffins had these girls left the girls in the Griffin's custody until Black Hawk helicopter came and rescued them. So Griffin acknowledged the parents worry about, you know, their daughter was left at a then-stanger's house

all of the parent later said, of course, Griffin is a great friend of mine now, but at the time was a stranger. And we had left her daughter at camp. We didn't leave her with strangers. So they're saying, you know, the camp had been entrusted to guard her. But he did point out that he had an able-related relationship with Eastlands. And so that's probably where that happened. He had earned their trust. And, you know, the parent would say, well, you know, I didn't know that. Griffin also talked about just the utter distress, utter distress, excuse me, that the Eastland family was under the morning after the flood. He suggested that the chaos, that the mayhem made it essentially impossible to navigate perfectly, just humanly impossible. It just kind of describes interactions he had with the Eastlands, where he just realized what a catastrophe had happened and how difficult it was to navigate in the aftermath.

Matthew Childress, the father of Chloe Childress, who's a campmist counselor who did lose her life in the flooding in the river, described how he, when he was testifying, he will always view his daughter, the hero, as she died with her campers, likely doing everything and her power to save them. That was another pretty emotional testimony to watch because he was, he was saying, I have no idea, you know, in the end how she died exactly, but in her, in his mind, she remains a human. because he knows that she was likely fighting into the last minute to save her campers. Tears were shed by lawmakers, legislators on the committee as a parents of both the survivors and then parents of girls who lost their lives. Just talked about their experience. Some parents described how their daughter's experience just being pulled by the water from their cabins.

They're submerged for lengthy periods of time during which many of the girls were counted later to their parents that several times they thought, okay, I'm going to die, this is it. As they were describing that and all the little girls battled against the debris, they fought for their lives. And then also the trauma that's resulted from seeing their fellow campers as they were struggling for their lives alongside them in the river and many of them didn't survive. And so they talked about their daughter's total trauma, experiencing, witnessing that.

So whether the camp after these hearings is going to receive a licensed operate for this summer, is still up in the air, but it appears increasingly unlikely after those two hearings that we just had, the investigators' presentations, and particularly after dishes informed the camp that they had over 20 deficiencies on one of their campuses, which was a big highlight, like I said, during the hearings. So we'll see if they receive a license operate this summer. Also, the Eastland family did say that they'll have to discuss if they would try and appear. if they are not granted a license, if they would try and push back even further and kind of keep this going on. But the camp would start in about a month if they were to receive a license.

So, of course, this is all very timely. So we'll keep an eye on that and see where this goes. But just a tragic situation all around. One of the lawmakers said, I believe it was Senator Lewis Cole, of course, she said, at one point she's looking around, she said it's just losers everywhere. And she meant that she was saying, you know, all of us wish that we could go back in time, the Eastlands, the parents, the lawmakers, but none of them could. Mary Lees, thank you for covering such difficult subject matter in doing so, so well.

We appreciate it very, very much. Hannah, let's talk about an update in Bear County. There's a county judge there, or a judge there, not a county judge, a judge there who was arrested in January. Walk us through the details. Bear County Court at Law Judge Rosie Speedland-Gonzalez has agreed to resign from office after she was indicted for unlawful restraint and official oppression in January of this year. So in 2024, Speedland-Gonzalez threatened Attorney Elizabeth Russell with contempt of court and ordered the bailiff to handcuffed Russell and placed her in the jury box. The judge did so after the two got into a heated argument during a court hearing. The argument began with Speeling Gonzalez accusing Russell of coaching her client and his response to the judge's questioning.

So Russell's client, Brian Collins Jr., was on probation for domestic violence charges. Russell conferred with Collins after Speeling Gonzalez asked if allegations that he failed to fulfill his terms of release for true. So according to transcripts, Collins initially answered yes and after conferring with Russell then answered no. Russell and Spieling Gonzalez got into a verbal altercation that resulted in Russell being handcuffed in the jury box. Speedling Gonzalez wasn't arrested until almost a year later in January, 2006. She had a 25-minute stint in Bear County Jail and was released through a personal reconnaissance bond. She voluntarily resigned from her position and now disqualified from standing for election or appointment to judicial office and serving or sitting as a judge. She also presided over and founded Bear County's Reflejo Court, which targets rehabilitation for domestic violence offenders by an intense supervision program that lasts about 12 months.

It was recently approved a grant request submitted by Speeling Gonzalez this month for about $270,000. But according to a pilot program report, the court is intended to serve 100 participants per year. but since 2020 has only served 81 participants total, but the court is set to continue to operate. So while the formal judge has not made any public comments so far, according to KSAT investigates reporting, a now-delated social media post showed Spielling Gonzalez at a Democratic political gathering before the March primary election in which she stated.

If they take me down, it's a domino effect. I'm going to say this to you. my friends here today, I'm innocent of all charts. Wow. Final words, wild, wild to say all of that when you have this much going on. But Hannah, we appreciate you covering that for us and certainly go read. Story from start to finish. Meredith coming to you.

Last story, multiple school districts are extending their school calendars through the additional days school year. Break this down for us. So the additional day's school year is just that it's a program to get. get additional days into school years that where they need to have extra instructional time. They're struggling campuses. They just need that extra support. And so this, or we call it ADZE, the program was established through HB3 during the 86 Texas

Legislature in 2019. And then during 89th, it was HB2 expanded grade level eligibility, lowered minimum calendar requirements, and introduced a pathway for additional funding. So it gives extra instructional time and funding to these schools to help to try to meet some of the needs that the students have. So the Texas Education Agency highlights the benefits of this. They'll say that the main thing is it addresses like it can help address summer learning loss. And they talk about how that has a profound impact on low income background students. And the idea of like the cumulative summer learning loss can show a gap of up to three grade levels for low income students by the fifth grade.

And so they're just saying these longer school years with strong academic strategy can lead to gains. And so there's three different options that they can have. One is the idea of a summer, up to 30 days program intersessionals. So kind of like sporadically putting the different learning opportunities throughout the school year or just fully redesigning everything where they can have. The whole calendar is like more than 200 days for the school year. And so I won't go through all of them, but I kind of walk through like Dallas ISD has used this. I really break down Aldine ISD because they had four schools, so I really went through each of them and their specific test scores before and after, which was mixed. There was some mixed results there of like some strong improvement and then even some like scores that fell.

And then Austin ISD is using this. And if you want to know what's going on with Austin ISD, another plug, my newsletter last week was about Austin ISD because there is a lot going on there. So they're using the extra instructional days, Saturday sessions, optional summer programs. And part of that is that they're trying to prevent a state intervention with a long list of things that are going on there. San Marcos, CISD added it to help, and they were pretty up front. They did it because they want to shift the summer learning costs from local funding to state funding. And then Fort Worth had prior last year announced that they were going to have 25-day extension for 15 different campuses. Since then, they've had a state takeover.

they have said that they're delaying that until the next year, just using additional time to, like, thoughtfully prepare for this. And they're also doing a lot of other staff cuts, and they just closed a school, another school last week. There's a lot going on there, so they are not utilizing that anymore. So the big picture is just that this is one thing in a list of long, list of available opportunities for schools to try to help mitigate summer learning lesson, really get those failing campuses up. back up to speed. So it's a newer program claiming to have really good results, which just time will tell if it really can produce the results that they would like it to. Absolutely. Thank you for your coverage. Ladies, let's move on to our tweetery section here. Hannah, I see yours and immediately I know exactly what you're talking about. I saw the

tweet this morning. I'm a little horrified that this is happening and exists, but it's fascinating. neat. I want your take. Walk us through what you have for us. Um, my take is that I'm disgusted and I can't stop looking at it. I just stare at it for minutes on end, not believing my eyes. These little, these little robot dogs at a Berlin museum, um, they're just little robot body, dog bodies. They roam around to the museum with faces real like, I don't know if it's wax or what it is, but the faces of some of the most influential people in the world. So, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Pablo Picasso, unsure, question mark. And they're just really realistic and they're disgusting.

And they poop out printed images of whatever's around them. So I know that there's just some deep, oh, some deep meaning going on there, you know, but I mostly just horrified. And I can't look away. This is definitely something that I scrolled past because I thought initially, oh, this is like some weird AI. i think i don't really see me looking for this right now or ever actually i never would like to see i think kim jem moon was one of them anyway it was that was a lot to process there that's it yeah you haven't seen the like if you haven't seen the video it it's just i think there's

silicone which makes like they're very lifelike and that in and of itself makes it worse but there are these like like they're not hard plastic right there's something very real about them and it just is nasty so but i'm glad somebody else saw them because i i'm not thinking about them since i saw this morning stuff of the night and it's and disgusted will not being able to take your eyes off of it makes it's like i that is so beautifully said it's so true um mary lees what do you have going for you well i changed my mine mid podcast because I saw actually Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick was highlighting this on social media, but the Texas Department Transportation has made a new map. I believe it's no. I'd never heard of this

before. It seems like a new idea that they've had. It's essentially an interactive map where you can find the best spots in Texas to see wildflowers, which I think is super cool because Texas does have some really incredible wildflowers to behold. So I think it's cool. They just have made this tool where you can search to see where, you know, the best blue bonnets are or I think they're called Indian paint brushes, those orange flowers and just, yeah. Yeah. That'll be cool. I love that. That's so cool. I really want to go do some, you know, plop the baby in the field and take some pictures kind of thing. Maybe Hannah, we could do like a cousin picture. It would be so fun. But I definitely want to make that happen. At the same time, I know the flower would be.

pulled from the ground immediately put in her mouth. There would be, you know, some logistics there to think about. It'd be cute. It'd be cute. In theory, maybe you can grab like one out of 20 of those snaps that's without, you know, a plant in her mouth. Yeah. Meredith, I want to talk about what's going on with you. Your tweetery this week is kind of more of an update on your life and what's been going

on. But walk us through where you are in the world. Yes. So I frequently will have a different background if I'm somewhere else in Texas or in Austin or things like that. But I have been traveling in Europe and I will be for a couple more weeks. So last week I was in Bulgaria. I actually lived there for about a year when I was younger. And so I have close family friends and spent some time in like a new city that I hadn't been to because I've been there about four times since I lived there. And then spent time, good time with a friend in the capital. And then I am in Tbilisi, Georgia right now, also with a friend that lives here. Basically, when I travel, I visit my friends because that's more fun and cheaper and just such a great way to see new places. And you have a tour guide, someone that knows everything and you get to spend time with someone that you love. So I'm in Tbilisi, Georgia, which is a new country. So I was really glad that I got to add a new country to my list. And I've just been

glad that I can bring my work, but also go out. And I was just walking around the city by myself today while she was working and just I love to walk a city. I think that's one of my favorite things to do. And just walkable cities in Europe are really, really cool to just be with everybody as they're walking. It's just not as normal in the States and Texas for sure. Everything's like spread out a million miles. And so I'll be here until next week and then I'm going to Scotland and to visit another friend, but also to check out a couple parts. I haven't been to Edinburgh and then also to go visit my friend who lives on the West Coast there. So that's where I'll be doing a podcast at least once in the next couple of weeks from there. Well, Meredith, it's so fun that

you're traveling all around the world. I think it's exciting to put countries like Georgia on your list that you've traveled to. It's so flipping awesome. Well, ladies, thanks for joining me on this last edition of the weekly roundup for me. And I'm just grateful it was y'all. And I'd much fun chatting through the news. I'll be around. I'm not going anywhere, but I'm just transitioning to a little bit of a backseat rule here. So folks, thanks for always tuning in and being with us each and every week, and we'll catch out on 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,

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