The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - May 15, 2026

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to check out our articles at https://thetexan.news/ and leave us a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.Republican Runoff Will Determine Challenger to State Sen. Roland Gutierrez in West TexasTexas Congressional GOP Candidates Debate Data Centers, Border Security, Trump in Leadup to RunoffMealer, Menefee Lead Cain, Green in New Houston-Area Congressional Primary Runoff PollFormer Republican Congressional Candidate Sued by Multiple Vendors For Alleged Unpaid InvoicesAlabama-Coushatta Tribe to Open Temporary Casino This Summer in East TexasWorms and Water: State Senate Agriculture Committee Hearing Hits Major South Texas IssuesFormer Texas Lottery Commission Director Indictment for Abuse of Position Dismissed in Travis CountyTexas Groundwater Conservation District Appeals to Legislature for Protection in Regulating Data CentersRegional Transportation Director Michael Morris Reinstated by Judge After Prior RemovalOver 250 Immigration, Border Security Criminal Cases Filed by DOJ in First Week of MayFinals Week for Texas Schools, Universities Delayed by Hack o

Well, howdy folks. Thank you for joining us again this Friday morning for another episode of the Texans Weekly Roundup. I'm your host, Senior Editor Rob Lauchess. And joining me today are reporters Mary Elise O'Barr. I almost said Cosgrid, Mary Elise O'Barr and Hannah Brewer. How are you all doing this morning? Well, no worries.

I have been accidentally introducing myself as Cosgray as well. It's just kind of a, it's an odd thing. start introducing yourself as a new name or someone you know with a new name. It takes a while to get used to. I can only imagine, yeah. Hannah, I imagine you ran into the same sort of problem for a little bit of time. I remember McKenzie went on about how hard it was to change her driver's license and social security and all that stuff after she got married.

Yeah. I just now changed the name on my bank account, so four years. there you go. So clearly it didn't, you know, it wasn't that big of a deal if they didn't care about that. So that is good to know. Yeah. It's finally warming up a little bit in Austin. I don't know about you all. But last week was like surprisingly chilly, I thought. Yeah. I mean, at least here in Houston, I was working at a coffee shop the other day and then I got in my car at the end of the day and the car said 106 degrees. So I think. I think it's warmed up a little bit. Yeah, I think summer, I think spring has was well past spring and we are finally truly into summer now in mid-May. I think so. Mosquitoes are out too. Mosquitoes and flies.

Yeah, I haven't been sitting out on my balcony recently. Not only because of sunburn, but also, of course, because of mosquitoes, which always seem to go after me in particular. Which protect yourself from. Yeah, I need to get one of those like. fans or something that blows the mosquitoes away, those would be useful. Yeah. Well, with the obligatory small talk and pleasantries out of the way, I say we jump right into the stories of the news of the week. And let's start with you, Mary Elise. Early voting begins on

Monday for Texas primary runoff elections. Give us the rundown on one of the races that you'll be following. Yeah, so this is just a preview on a race that's going to be, that's a part of the primary runoff. And like you said, early voting starts on Monday, which is kind of hard to believe that we're already in May and we're already getting towards the last week of May, which is just wild. But so this story is about two Republicans that are, you know, gearing up for this primary runoff. And they will determine who's going to face off against incumbent state. Senator Roland Gutierrez in November. So we've got small business owner, Marcus Cardenas,

and then United States Army veteran, Robert Marks Jr. So they're the two Republican candidates that are on the ballot, and this is for Senate District 19. And so they, of course, during the primary election, went against other candidates, but ultimately they were the two that came out on top. as we know with the primary and the reason they're proceeding to runoff is because neither of them

managed to secure a majority of the vote but Cardenas did take the lead and march with over 44% of the vote and then Marx came in second with 32%. And then there was a third candidate who came in third place who collected 24%. So of course there's a need for the runoff because neither of them Neither Cardenas or Marx got a majority of the vote there. So the incumbent who they would go against in November, Guadierrez,

has served in the Texas House of Representatives for 13, excuse me, he did serve in the Texas House of Representatives for 13 years before he was elected to Senate District 19 and 2020. He ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, so he's not dealing with a runoff right now. So he'll just be gearing up to run against one of these two individuals. in November. He won his last general election in 2022 with 55.4% of the vote. That was going up against Republican Robert Garza, who this year is actually Republican nominee challenging state representative

Eddie Morales for House District 74. So Marx in his campaign, he just kind of emphasized his commitment to Texas values, specifically called for responsible reform of the current education system. and then also supported lowering taxes. Cardenas also was on a similar page with lowering taxes. He said he has a plan to support policies that do lower taxes and then allow for the flourishing small businesses that are within Senate District 19. Cardenas, as worth noting, was endorsed by Governor Greg Abbott in early February

to go up against Gujaras in November, and that'll be if Cardenas is successful in this runoff year. And Abbott said he described him as the one strong choice for District 19. He said he's a San Antonio businessman who knows what Texas families actually need. And then Abbott specifically highlighted that Cardenas' campaign has really emphasized his support for law enforcement, which Abbott could get behind. He said, while Democrats push job-killing regulations, Marcus creates jobs while they defund police, Marcus backs the blue. When they push for open border policies, Marcus fights to secure and structure. strengthen the border. Their latest finance reports with the Texas Ethics Commission,

these two individuals that are running that will be going against each other in the runoff, show that Cardenas raised about $6,000 in his January filing. It has about $1,500 in cash on hand as far as the latter half of 2025. And then Mark's most recent report, which is from this month, He didn't report anything raised and no cash on hand. So I'll just add in a little bit before I wrap up about Senate District 19's partisan rating. According to our Texas Partisan Index, SD19's Democratic majority dropped to percentage points. So it went from a D-55% during the 2020-2020 election cycle. And then it went to D-53% during the 2022-2020.

2024 cycle. So with only a six-point lead by the Democrats, a general election could end up being pretty interesting. Although right now it just hasn't received a whole lot of attention, but we'll see that could change. Once this runoff wraps up and we know who the Democrat, or excuse me, who the Republican, who will be going against state center role in Goodyear. So that's one race that will be keeping an eye on as this runoff gets closer and happens just pretty shortly now. Well, thank you for giving us the rundown on that, Mary Elise. Yeah, it'll be exciting.

I recommend that everybody follow along on the Texan. We're going to have a lot of preview pieces coming out soon about all kinds of different races that our reporters will be covering. And if you want the most up-to-date news on all of these races, follow our reporters on social media and the Texan as a whole, because this is going to be a very exciting runoff. And speaking of other exciting runoffs, Hannah, turning now to you, Two candidates are going head to head for the GOP runoff in Congressional District 19. Give us the details on that race.

Yes. So speaking of another runoff and speaking of the number 19, Congressional District 19, Tom Sell and Abraham Enriquez are facing off for the GOP runoff election. Sell received in the primaries in March about 40% of the vote. And Enriquez received about 18% of the vote. The two also engaged in a debate on Tuesday night. The winner of this election will face Democrat file rabble in November, who was uncontested, and the winner of that race will fill the seat of Jody Arrington, who is retiring.

So the district is rated Republican at about 78% by our Texas partisan index. Tom Sell is a local to Lubbock and has been involved in state and national politics for decades. He's worked in D.C. as Deputy Chief of Staff at the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, and he worked on the 2002 Farm Bill. Enriquez is the founder of Bienvenito, which is an organization that seeks to empower young Hispanics to lead with traditional and conservative values, and he is also endorsed by Governor Abbott. In the most recent financial reporting period, SEL showed a total receipts of approximately 535,000, with 692,000 cash on hand, while Enriquez showed about 96,000 with 151,000 cash on hand.

So their debate on Tuesday night involved them speaking to topics like data center presence in West Texas, the dropping congressional approval rates, border security drugs, and executive decisions on foreign intervention. Both candidates appeared to align themselves pretty closely with President Trump, but they diverged on a couple of issues too. So Sell answered a question on AI development as a modern day arms race. So we called it a modern day arms race and seemed to support development, while Enriquez affirmed to the president's actions to ensure that the U.S. would rank ahead of China in this area, but seemed more cautious of development in Texas than Sell did.

He then accused Sell of being bankrolled by an AI super PAC, which Sell refuted and called blatantly false. The two also differed slightly on immigration issues with cells seeming to support H2A visas, which would allow for an agricultural worker to temporarily work in the U.S., but he stated we have to enforce our law as well. Enriquez commented that he had prioritized supporting illegal immigrants before he dealt with any immigration system reform. He stated, I don't think we need any more H-1B visas until we understand who is fully here. In regards to questions about their projected alignment with Trump in the future,

Enriquez stated, I have stood with the president since day one, and I can tell you I disagree with almost nothing that the president does because this is a leader who has sacrificed his entire life for the American people. So differed slightly in his response by affirming the U.S.'s involvement in Iran and the president's decision. But he added, I plan to stand with President Trump where I can. He included that there were issues he felt needed greater focus, like balance. the nation's budget and eliminating national deficit. So they shared a lot of perspectives, but there were definitely some differences between the two.

Well, thank you, Hannah. It'll be certainly interesting to see, as you said, most of these Republican candidates are, you know, they try to tie themselves to Trump in one way or another. And if you watch any of these Republican debates, you know, it's about how much more like Trump, I'm so much more, you know, in line with Trump than you are. if you've been following the U.S. Senate race as Mary Elise has between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton, I think Mary Elise, would you agree that's made up a pretty big portion of the campaigning is, you know, I like Trump more than you. So.

Yeah, I think for sure. And one big thing is not just like how much do they like Trump, but how much does Trump support them without having explicitly said so. So trying to kind of bring up evidence in the past of. of Trump being on the same page as this candidate. So that's been one thing. It's been a major part of like the back and forth between Paxton and Cornyn is here's how Trump has supported me or been aligned with me in the past. Yeah. And that's something that matters a lot to Republican primary voters. You know, that's Trump's, you know, it's been referred to as a golden ticket.

And, you know, it's not 100% perfect Trump's endorsement. But it's pretty good. So turning now to a story that was written by Holly. but is being presented by yours truly, there was a poll that the University of Houston conducted between May 5th to May 9th that was exclusively obtained by Holly talking about two major Houston area congressional primary runoffs. There were 400 likely Republican runoff voters who were surveyed.

And in the first one we'll be talking about, which is for congressional district nine, there are two Republicans who made the runoff. The first estate representative, Briscoe, who's been in the Texas House for a while, and he jumped into the race after the redistricting passed last year that created a new Republican favorable congressional district nine. The other Republican runoff candidate for that district is Alex Miller, who nearly defeated Harris County Judge Lena Hidalgo for Harris County Judge back in 2022. in the general election. So according to this poll, 50% of respondents preferred Mueller, 41% preferred Kane, and 9% were undecided. When you look at their favorability, Mueller was also ahead of Kane. She was 55% favorable, 29% unfavorable,

Kane was 51% favorable, and 33% unfavorable. So Mueller had slightly higher favorability, but 16% said, I don't know enough about the candidates to answer the question. which is that's a number that you see, I think, consistently in a lot of these polls, is I don't know, which is a fair response if you don't know. But looking at their endorsements, speaking of endorsements, Kane was endorsed by former Congressman Steve Stockman, as well as Dan Mims, who were two Republicans who ran in the March 3rd primary. Kane has also been endorsed by Governor Greg Abbott and more than 50 members of the Texas legislature, whereas Mueller has, touted endorsements from President Donald Trump, as well as local and other federal officials. So it's kind of an interesting thing how Kane has a lot of the state level endorsements, but Mueller has a lot of the federal and local endorsements.

So it's an interesting contest of local and federal for this Houston area district. As mentioned before, Miller came very close to beating Hidalgo in 2022. Hidalgo took 50.8% of the vote. Mueller took 49.2%. It was a 2% gap. It was extremely close. Mueller also outraised Hidalgo four to one in the county judge's race in October 22. And she's kept up that fundraising prowess going into this year. According to the most recent reports, Mueller had $534,000 in cash on hand compared to Keynes, $127,000. dollars. Political analyst and professor Mark Jones, who is a director of the poll, told the Texan that the results were similar to trends from the March 3rd primary. He said, Mueller won in the first round by about 5%, and now she's up by 9%. And that's primarily due to her retaining a slightly higher share of her March vote at 96% than Kane retained of his at 91%. He also added that Mueller performed better with voters who supported Dan Mims.

which is interesting since MIMS did endorse Kane. As mentioned previously, CD9 was redrawn to favor Republicans in 2025, but that was based on the 2024 election data. It's important to remember that all of this redistricting was done based on 2024 and that without President Donald Trump on the ballot this year, it could result in, it could have a slightly different effect than I think some Republicans might be hoping it'll have. You know, we'll see if it'll produce the intended effect, but Trump not being on the ballot, at least in my belief, is going to be a major impact on possibly Republicans not doing as well as they hope to do. But the district is rated according to the Texans Texas Partisan Index at R. 60%, meaning Republicans have a 20 point advantage, which is pretty good. So the current occupant of CD9 is a Democratic Congressman Al Green, who because of the redistricting is now running against CD18's Congressman Christian Menofy, who just won a January special election earlier this year for the seat. So that's an interesting conflict between these two Houston Democrats, a conflict of, you know, experience versus youth. and I'll quickly mention here the poll numbers for that one,

but I implore everybody to go read Holly's fantastic story detailing all of this information, but 50% of 800 likely Democratic runoff voters said they would vote for Menefi, 43% said they would vote for Green, and 7% were undecided. So both Green and Kane were a bit behind, and both Menefi and Meeleher had at minimum 50%, which puts them in a really good position because you can't imagine all of the undecideds are going to go for one or the other and thus make it 50-50. So it'll be exciting to see what happens here.

There's all sorts of interesting conflicts. I don't even have time to get into the debate that Menafee and Green had last week with clashes over Trump and cryptocurrency and all kinds of stuff. But I recommend everybody go and read that story. It was really, really good. but speaking of congressional candidates, turning back to you, Hannah, or I'm sorry, turning to you, Mary Elise, my bad. A former candidate for Congress is being sued by vendors for unpaid contracts. Give us details on what they're alleging.

Yeah, so this is a piece that will, like, groupie out by the time this podcast goes out. But this is a candidate who came in third during the Texas. March Republican primary. He's now being sued by three vendors for allegedly failing to pay them for contracted services worth when they're combined over $140,000. This is Paul Bondar. He ran for the newly redistricted Congressional District 32. He was running against eight other candidates. And so he's been sued by three vendors. They filed a lawsuit today. And so these include political consulting firms, Blair Group, Engage Right, and Strategic Perception. So he was running in an area that flipped from Democratic-leaning District, represented by U.S. Representative Julie Johnson, and then it flipped to Republican-leaning one after redistricting.

He got about 14 percent of a vote in the March 3rd, pretty crowded primary for him. And that was initially headed to a runoff, but it isn't any longer because one of the candidates, Ryan Binkley, who came in second place, he announced he's withdrawing from the race. So among the accusations that are laid out in the court documents, one of the groups is alleging that Bondar failed to pay them for services rendered $91,483. And that's the largest amount that's being raised in lawsuit. And they say that they were giving him political canvassing services, poll watching, and then other various political consulting services.

They talk about how they entered into a contract with him on February 6, 2026. So that was just about one month before the Republican primary. And then they include, as do the other groups within this lawsuit, the exhibits of them demanding pay from Bondar and his responses and just kind of the escalation of the situation as they allegedly were not paid by Bondar. And one of the exhibits that's notable that is in the lawsuit is Fonda's response to one of the plaintiffs. Her name is Amy. She was requesting, and she's with strategic perception, and she was requesting that he fulfilled an unpaid invoice.

And in his response that he sent through email, he said, quote, Amy, you need to stand down. We're going to go through all the invoices in every email in deposition and discovery. Until then, pound sand. You'll be handled better believe it. So that's just one of the more notable kind of interactions within this lawsuit here that's being cited.

And so another aspect of this lawsuit that's worth talking about is they are alleging deliberate fraud by inducement on Bondar's part. So it's kind of indicating that they believe Bondar never intended to have fulfill the contract dues he agreed to up front. Unfortunately, we have not been able to get a hold upon our after repeated efforts to do so, but we do hope to ultimately include some comments from him in this story. We do have comments from the plaintiff's counsel, Jimmy Brimer. He talked about the vendors and he said he thinks they waited far too long, far longer than he thinks they should have to be nice. He said we tried first with demand letters.

We reached out to him numerous times and texted him, trying to resolve this without having to file. He just said he was getting to it and then stopped responding to any of them, Brimer said. I also asked him about, you know, why is this, what's the weight surrounding this? You know, considering that this Bondar is no longer in the running for this race. He's been eliminated in the primary. the Brimer said that he imagines that Bondar will attempt to run for office again. He said, point out this wasn't his first campaign. He did first run in Oklahoma.

And he said, if you're not going to pay your vendors just because you lose, that's not how it works. So plaintiffs are seeking recovery of all actual damages or the amounts that Bondar allegedly owes them for their services. And then plus exemplary damages totaling $15,000 per fraud claim. which would go and equal shares to each plaintiff unless the court determines otherwise. So I encourage readers to go check this out once it's up on the site because there are a few more details in there. That's the general rundown on this lawsuit. Well, thank you very much. I can talk if I try really hard.

Thank you, Mary Elise. That definitely is an interesting thing, you know, these congressional campaigns. There's all kinds of interesting reasons to watch. them, you know, but we have talked quite a bit now about campaigns and congressional campaigns specifically. And I think that it sounds like it's time to blow off some steam. So Hannah, there is a Native American tribe in Texas that announced it is building a new temporary casino on tribal land. Give us the scoop. Yes, a perfect way to blow off some steam is bingo. The Alabama Krushata tribe will open a temporary casino this summer in the eastern part of the state on tribal

land and Leggett. It's a temporary facility. It'll only last the time of the summer, but it will operate 24 hours a day and will feature 300 bingo machines. So bingo is one of the few legal modes of gambling in Texas, and the Alabama Crusada tribe is one of the few tribes in the state that's allowed to operate gaming. Chairman Ricky Silstein stated about the casino, this temporary facility will provide a positive economic. impact for Polk County surrounding communities and for the Alabama-Koshada tribe. The tribe owns Naskila Casino, also in Polk County, and is building a new permanent resort location also in Like It. So a little background on how the tribe began operating gaming in the state. The Federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 allowed tribes to game on tribal territory

if the activity wasn't prohibited by federal law. However, the year before, in 1987, a restoration. Act was passed that stated all gaming activities that were forbidden, the state were also forbidden on tribal land. In 2018, a U.S. District Court for Eastern District of Texas ruled that the tribe was subject to state authority rather than federal authority on this issue. Judge Keith Giblin stated, the tribe, who's speaking about the Alabama-Cushada tribe, is bearing the brunt of a conflicting statutory scheme, the result of which is arguably undesirable to its interests and many would say unjust.

Until Congress can be persuaded to amend or repeal the Restoration Act, the court is obligated to abide by the plain language of the statute and a tribe must conform to the gaming laws and regulations of Texas as provided by the Restoration Act. But his ruling was effectively overturned in 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court found that a proper interpretation of the Restoration Act meant that Texas could not automatically forbid bingo gaming in tribal areas, since bingo is not technically. prohibited in the state. It's only regulated in the state. Last year, the Texas Senate passed a bill that abolished the Texas Lottery Commission

and moved to the lottery under the jurisdiction of the TDLR after criminal activity took place within the Lottery Commission. The former TLC Commissioner Gary Grief was indicted, but his indictment was actually dismissed this week. So some adjacent news there. This year's primary elections also saw millions from casino moguls flowing into Canada, its campaigns as they continue to lobby for favorable legislation. But they're actually not the only ones pushing for the Texas casino market to become more open. A recent report from the Dallas Morning News stated that the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes in Oklahoma are pushing strategically for games in Texas' gambling market with their eyes specifically on

North Texas. So their closest casino to Texas is about 90 miles north of Dallas. So the report claims that the tribes are making moves behind the scenes to hopefully affect legislature. Choctaw Chief Gary Batten reportedly stated, we're more familiar with the Texas market than we are with any other market. We've been planning and prepared for this for years. However, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has very openly clarified that he is not pro-gambling and does not intend to allow pro-gambling legislation and the state.

So we'll see. Well, thank you very much, Hannah. It definitely will see what happens in this upcoming 27 legislative session, given that 2023 seemed to be a better year for gambling in the casino interest. And then 2025, definitely that progress slowed down by quite a bit. And Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, you know, has made it clear that the buck stops with him. So as long as he is running the Texas Senate, as long as he is president of the Senate, that will not be happening. So we will see going forward. But Hannah, sticking with you now, speaking of the Texas Senate, it's always about finding

some good segue into the next topic. The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Water, and Rural Affairs met this week. Give us details about that conversation. Yes, I love the segways, by the way. Yes, so this Senate committee met on Monday. Many topics were discussed during the six-hour duration of the committee meeting, but desalination and the threat of the New World Screw Worm were two that stood out. Both of these topics have put South Texas in headlines recently, as Texas announced a groundbreaking on a sterile fly facility to deal with the NWS, the New World Screw Worm in Edinburgh. So this parasite has been affecting livestock. across South America and Mexico, and it has been advancing toward Texas in recent years. Also, water supply dilemmas have been spotlighting in Corpus Christi. So this committee is charged with evaluating water demands by energy-intensive technologies,

protecting livestock and livestock industry, and prioritizing utility revenue for infrastructure maintenance. They're also charged with assessing desalination, regulatory efficiency, and feasibility. throughout the entirety of the meeting, they refer to desalination as desal. So I thought that was very surfer bro of them. The committee chair Charles Perry was joined by Kevin Sparks, Adam Hinojosa, and Lois Colchurst. So Perry stated regarding the NWS, we are seeing the results of letting our guard down. Hina Hosa stated that Texas has been experiencing economic impact to the tune of $2,000 to $3,000 daily,

due to closed borders to live animal trade. The borders are closed to live animal trade because of the infestation. The U.S. is currently importing no live cattle, bison, or equines through the southern border. Panel members spoke largely to the response that would be taken if an infestation were to occur. David Yasa Oskowitz, the director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, stated that if the NWS enters Texas, the department would provide personnel that would serve and incident command positions and they would unify with the Texas Animal Health Commission and USDA. Professor Philip Kaufman, who's the head of Texas A&M University's Department on

Entomology and the chair of Texas A&M's Agrilyck Task Force on the NWS added to the opening remarks, the reason we care so much besides that this is a nasty, nasty fly, probably one of the worst in the world is that it has a very serious health problems for us in cost of production and animal health. He predicted that it would cost the Texas economy about 1.8 billion and that is not accounting for wildlife, particularly in South Texas, which is an over $10 billion industry in and of itself. So he was just talking about livestock there. He also called himself cautiously optimistic about U.S. efforts to combat the parasitic fly. Something I found interesting was that Kaufman spoke to efforts the U.S. has made in past decades dating back to the seven,

in eradicating the fly in Mexico and Central and South America. So he noted that eradication efforts were made, they made it fairly far into South America, but eventually jungle territory made it fiscally impossible for eradication efforts to continue. It doesn't seem like eradication was necessarily what the panel members were aimed at establishing, but more of a quarantine zone and a large buffer. Maying spoke to the topic also of desalination in the state, yes, which the panelists referred to as desal. And desal is a water treatment process that removes dissolved solids from brackish ground and surface water or sea water to produce drinkable-treated water. They called desalination an integral part of providing for the state's water supply.

Kelly Keel, the executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the TCEQ, began her remarks by DeT-Tvaliening. that the TCEQ has authorized over 100 public water systems that use the desalination process, and there are applications currently in Corpus Christi. She referred to the Kay Bailey Hutchinson desalination plant in El Paso, which she said had a production capacity of 15 million gallons per day. Her colleague, TCEQ Compliance Service Director, Carrie Michelle, stated that currently there's one seawater desalination water rights application under review in Corpus, a location. that has obviously garnered tons of attention from the media recently due to its ongoing water crisis.

Senator Perry stated that the cost of de-celaination technologies would look high to taxpayers and consumers, but that's the cost of new water in Texas. Hina Hosa commented on the need for better water and power grid infrastructures in order to get water to the entities that need it. He referenced confusion over the interpretation of Houseville 500, which is supposed to allow for grant. money to build these infrastructures. Panelists also told lawmakers that desalination plants don't strain the power grid the same way other entities like data centers do. But not all panelists were so enthusiastic about desalination as a potential solution to the state's

water needs. Richard quitting the vice president of business development for the TSHG water resources spoke about difficulties the company has faced in brackish desalination projects. Taft Mayor Alita Castillo stated. entities are coming forward to solve our water crisis without addressing the issue of overconsumption. So she's citing that there are other issues going on. Some of these issues are projected to make it into legislation for the 90th legislative session in January. Well, thank you, Hannah, for giving us the rundown on that one.

That was a very good article. I recommend everybody read it. You insisted on putting that Dune reference into the headline. You know, I was I was okay with that. But the headline for those who haven't read it yet was worms and water, as Texas Senate Committee hits on Big South Texas issues. I thought it was too perfect to not to not explain it that way. But it was a very good article and I highly recommend everybody take a look at it.

Turning next to you, Mary Elise, Hannah talked about the, the new bingo facility opening up, but there was more news specifically about the Texas Lottery Commission director this week with indictments being handed down and then being recently dismissed. So give us the details on that. Yeah, like you said, former Texas Lottery Commission director, Gary Grief as his name, was indicted for abusing his position and defrauding Texas lottery, lottery participants through his abusive position, which was investigated by the Texas Rangers.

But then his case was dismissed within three days by a Travis County Assistant District Attorney that caught a lot of eyes because there wasn't much explanation as to why. His indictment stemmed initially from reporting by the Houston Chronicle, which revealed his collaboration as the director of the TLC with investors to increase their odds of winning. That was in 2023 where the jackpot totaled $95 million. And so that reporting came out in 2024, and that was just after Grief retired from his position. He was indicted in April on first degree felony charge of abuse of official capacity. But then, like we said, he was cleared of wrongdoing by a Travis County court about three days after,

with little explanation other than the assistant district attorney. said, quote, prosecutorial discretion. So the discretion of Travis County Assistant Director, Attorney Rob Drummond. The indictment says in documents that were obtained by the Texas scorecard, that the felony was committed with intent to harm and to fraud another,

and that he knowingly misused government property, services, personnel, or thing of value belonging to the government that was in custody or possession of the defendant by virtue of his office or employment. So describing how he abused his office as director of the TLC. And then noting that involved a case dealing with over $300,000, so classifying it there.

And so the dismissal simply requests that the, by Drummond simply requests that the court dismiss the above entitled and numbered criminal action. And then it says it's at the discretion of the undersigned assistant district attorney Rob Drummond. And so, of course, the TLC has been a really big focus, especially during the 89th legislative session. And it was ultimately abolished by lawmakers. And what they did was essentially transfer its functions to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation and then just shuttered the commission itself.

And so a lot of that discussion surrounding, you know, whether to abolish the TLC or not, was related to an incident in February 2025, where a jock, Jackpot winner used a career app called Jackpocket to purchase the winning ticket. And then Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and he was really at the center of all of this, he conducted his own in-person investigation. He posted a video of himself online of him going to a retail location in Austin where the ticket had been sold. And then as well, we had Attorney General Kent Paxton investigating the lottery process. and then Governor Greg Abbott also directing the Texas Rangers to investigate two different incidents regarding both purchase winners of the Texas lottery that had won through a career service.

And then in April 2025, the TLC unanimously voted to ban lottery careers in the state from selling tickets online. And that was the same month that Greaves successor resigned from the office. and that was just before the legislation abolishing the commission was passed. Another thing worth noting is that in his latest round of interim charges for the Senate for lawmakers to focus on leading up to the 90th session, Patrick requested that the State Affairs Committee focus on the implementation of the legislation that transfers the responsibilities or the activities of TLC to TDRR.

So essentially asking to monitor it and see how it's working, how it's being implemented, how effective it is, et cetera. So definitely interesting. We'll see if more information comes out for able to obtain more information about why these indictments were just dismissed for Gary Greif. Yeah. With all this lottery stuff, I bet that it'll be really interesting to read about. Right. I apologize for that one. I'm not even going to bother doing a segue for that.

Hannah, turning to you, groundwater conservation district has appealed to the Texas legislature for protections in regulating data centers. Give us the details. Yes. So I'll start with a question, actually. This is for Blanco-Perdinallis Groundwater Conservation District. Growing up, we always pronounced it Perdinallis, but I'm asking you two, Texans. How do you pronounce it?

Because it's not spelled like that. I would just say Peternales, right? I say Peternalus. Okay. Then I'm wrong. Well, I don't know what's correct. Peternalus. All reform.

Peternalus. So the Blanco Peternalas Groundwater Conservation District has submitted a resolution calling for legislative clarity on industrial water rights. They anticipate a person. potential data center influx into the Texas whole country. So they stated that they formally opposed data center developments in water-constrained regions unless developers can prove sustainable supply and implement robust mitigation. They also requested protection regarding data center regulation and urged lawmakers next session to clarify that GCDs, which are the groundwater conservation districts, have the power to deny permits for these builds and areas that cannot sustain demand. The Texans spoke with Eric Kibinsky, the general manager of the Blanco-Peternalus Conservation District.

He explained that gaps in statutory and local law are cause for concern when the big-pocketed companies like those which operate data centers are capable of suing local districts into oblivion. So the district is looking for coverage from the legislature for lawsuits like this. He stated, this is the single greatest challenge we face locally and added that the district needs the office of the Attorney General to provide legal defense when the district is sued for enforcing the rules. He continued, what we need most from legislature is statutory protection that shields the district's, the district from costly litigation when we enforce Texas laws in our own local groundwater rules. Without that shield, we risk being sued into inaction. The Texas Hill Country is a prime location for data center startups with lots of expansive land, proximity to the tech hub of Austin, and also recent

increases in fiber optic connectivity, but the area has also undergone a prolonged drought, which has strained municipal, agricultural, and environmental water resources. The agriculture in the area has historically relied on cheap, shallow groundwater, but Kibinsky stated that the balance is now at risk. The district stated that data center presence would place an inordinate amount of pressure on an already strange system. A 2026 report by the Houston Advanced Research Center shows that between on-site cooling and electricity generation, Texas data centers consume about 25 billion gallons of water annually. They projected in the study that this number could rise as high as 161 billion gallons annually by 2030. The district also

proposed that policymakers enact legislation that would require data center permit applicants to evaluate lower footprint technologies. So the Texas Senate Commission, on water agriculture and rural affairs will collaborate on water policy issues with the Texas House Committee on Natural Resources in the upcoming legislative session, but bills dealing with groundwater are expected to originate in the House next year. Thank you very much, Hannah, for giving us the details on that story. Yeah, as we've mentioned, water seems to have consistently popped up in this podcast. Data centers and their consumption of water is only a growing social.

concern, especially in these more rural areas that are just close enough to big cities that it's feasible for data centers to build there. I'm sure you all have seen the videos online of data centers humming and making quite a bit of noise even in the middle of the night, you know, especially as you know if you're out in one of those more rural areas, you know, if you built a data center in the middle of a big city like Houston or Austin, you almost might not be able to hear the humming, right, I imagine, because of all the other noises coming out. But if you're out there in the middle of the country, then I imagine it's pretty loud in addition to all of the water and electricity concerns as well. So thank you very much for giving us the details on that one.

Moving now to me again, I will be discussing one of Kim's stories about regional transportation director Michael Morris of the North Central Texas Council of Governments being reinstated by a judge, following his prior removal. So the North Central Texas Council of Governments is the Metropolitan Planning Organization or MPO for the 16 County North Texas region, long-time transportation director Michael Morris, who has served in the position for 35 years, was terminated in April, and that met with some pushback. According to Rick Bailey, the chair of the Regional Transportation Council, a policy committee

of the Council of Governments, which I'm going to call it Council of Governments here instead of N-C-T-C-O-G every time because that would be too much of a mouthful. But according to Bailey, Tarrant County District Court Judge John Chup reinstated Morris to his position on May 5th. So he was only gone for a very short period of time, about a week, but it was enough to, you know, raise some concerns. And so at the heart of this lawsuit is the issue of which body, either the Council of Governments or the Regional Transportation Council, it's which of those is considered officially the MPO for the area or the Metropolitan Planning Organization, because that's the organization that has the authority to hire or fire the Transportation Director.

So in March, the Council of Government's General Counsel, Ken Kirkpatrick, gave a presentation to the Regional Transportation Council regarding laws, agreements, and documents about the group's roles and responsibilities, that is the Council of Governments and the Regional Transportation Council. In 1974, Governor Dolf Briscoe designated the Council of Governments as the MPO for the Dallas-Forth Region. In 1978, the Regional Transportation Committee was designated to serve as the policy group for transportation decision-making. Now, the Council of Governments has been party to an MPO designation agreement with the Governor's Office since 74. and an MPO planning agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation also since that same year.

But in 2006, the Regional Transportation Council became part of the MPO planning agreement. So it's a lot of complicated stuff about basically who exactly had the authority to hire and fire this particular guy. According to Kirkpatrick's presentation, the MPO planning agreement designates the Council of Governments as the Metropolitan Metropolitan. planning organization and the Regional Transportation Council as the Policy Committee. And so the Transportation Director, which is Morris's job, is to develop and present planning documents to the Policy Committee, as well as take direction from them and be responsible to them. Bailey told the Texan that 40 of the 45 members of the Regional Transportation Council were elated to have Morris back as Transportation Director. Bailey

also said he is pleased that Morris is back for the FIFA World Cup games, which are coming up this summer. The World Cup games in Dallas, in the Dallas area, has been a political issue recently, as Governor Greg Abbott said that Dallas would lose state public safety grants that the city wants for the World Cup over Dallas's policy that would have limited local police cooperation with ICE to help enforce immigration law. So they were saying, you know, we don't want our police to help enforce ICE administrative warrants. And the Abbott said basically that you're going to lose your state grant funding that you guys, you know, say you need for the World Cup. So that was a bigger issue last week that I recommend people to visit the Texan and read about. But the last thing I'll leave you all with is that in an interview with Morris in April about rail funding, because Morris is a proponent of high speed rail, he told the text. Texan, when he was asked about whether he would be retiring, he said, I've never announced I was going to retire. I've announced a succession plan for our particular department, but it has no

date in it for our retirement. So it was a whole very interesting saga. I really recommend that everybody go and read about it. The senior reporter Kim Roberts did a fantastic job with that story. But turning next back to you, Mary Elise, the U.S. Department of Justice shared their latest number of immigration-related criminal charges. Tell us about that. Yeah, so this is something that they do relatively frequently, or maybe once a month, but the Southern District of Texas announced that they had just filed over 250 cases

related to immigration crimes. So these federal prosecutors had filed these, and this was during the first week of May, and it included 40 cases. of human smuggling. And so it was a total of 256 cases, and this is a part of what they're calling Operation Take Back America. The DOJ described it as a, quote, nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the DOJ to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect

our communities from perpetrators of violent crime. So these cases were filed between Friday, May 1st, and then next Friday, May 8th. And among these complaints that were filed by prosecutors, we saw 40 cases of individuals that were allegedly connected with human smuggling schemes. And one case that the DOJ had recently elaborated on was a Mexican illegal alien who had pleaded guilty to his role in smuggling humans from various locations into the U.S. for profit, which included some from Mexico and the others from Central and South America. So he's facing a sentence of five years minimum and then 15 years maximum in prison. His case is also part of that Take Back America operation.

And there were several different courts that were involved in agencies that were involved in prosecuting this. But it included the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Texas, as they're usually involved when there's an immigration case. boarded related crimes. So Take Back America was created in March 2025 by the deputy attorney general. So this was in response to several executive orders that President Trump had signed related to securing the border and then crack it down on illegal immigration. After Trump was inaugurated as president, we saw him sign several different executive orders. I mean, he was just firing them off within the first couple hours of being president. And a lot of these included having topics related to illegal immigration.

And so this Take Back America was created in 2025 kind of in response to a handful of these executive orders that it pertained to. So the DOJ says that there were three of these 256 cases that were committed by illegal aliens who were residing in McCall in Texas. So one of these individuals was from Bolivia and had been originally removed from the U.S. after being convicted allegedly for molesting a child. He was found by law enforcement to have returned to the country and then he was living in Roma. Then the two others hold convictions that are related to drugs, so possession of controlled substance. And then one of them has another involving injuring a child or the elderly. And DOJ said that if these three men are convicted, they'll face up.

up to two decades in prison individually. The Southern District of Texas said, quote, under current leadership, public safety, and a secure border are the top priorities for this district. They said enhanced enforcement, both at the border and then in the interior of the district, have yielded aliens engaged in unlawful activity or serious criminal histories,

including convictions for human trafficking, sexual assault and violence against children. Something that Rob mentioned, a little bit earlier that's been going on with immigration and just law enforcement in certain cities in Texas has to do with some of the major cities kind of grappling with their approaches to local law enforcement's cooperation or not with U.S. immigration and customs enforcement agents. So ICE, both Houston and Dallas have revised their policies on the issue.

That was in late April. And so that was to increase a cooperation between ICE and their police. departments and that was after Governor Abbott threatened to pull millions of dollars in state public safety funding. Like Rob said, I would recommend you check out Holly's coverage of this whole debacle because there's a lot of different pieces related to and it's been an ongoing issue. A Harris County Commissioner's Court also kind of broach the topic, but they're going to take up that policy conversation at a later date. So you can check out this piece for a little more information on what crimes were included in these cases.

But this is kind of a latest roundup by the Southern District Court of Texas. Well, thank you very much for the details on that one, Mary Elise. Border, of course, perennial issue in Texas politics, immigration-related crime, always, of course, something that tends to trend whenever this sort of thing comes out. So thank you very much for giving us the details on that one. Hannah, turning to you for our final last but not least. story of the of the week, although I'm sure at least a couple of students

were happy that they got a little bit more time to study for their final exams. Tell us about the cyber attack that happened last week to universities and schools. Yes, so our final story, there was a cyber attack last week

by the Hacking Group Shiny Hunters, which are all been forming with a Kekamon reference on the learning management system canvas. Canvas is part of a larger company called Instructure. It's used by universities and school districts in Texas and has over 30 million active users total, so it's not only used by Texas. But according to Baylor University on May 7th, several universities reported that access to the canvas system was blocked by a ransom notice. The sundial, which is an online student newspaper at San Antonio College, posted a schoemshot of the image that some students saw when they attempted

to log in. It was a black spring with white writing that read, shiny hunters has breached in structure again. Instead of contacting us to resolve it, they ignored us and did some security patches. Warning, if any of the schools in the affected list are interested in preventing the release of their data, please consult with a cyber advisory firm

and contact us privately at TOX, which is an encrypted instant messaging service designated to circumvent digital surveillance. in order to negotiate a settlement. They warned schools that they have until the end of the day on Tuesday, May 12th, before everything is leaked. There haven't been any updates that everything has been leaked, so we'll make our assumptions about what happened. But the cyber attack happened during final exam week for many universities and several schools delayed final exams, including UTSA, Baylor, and SMU.

Texas school districts were also impacted, including Plano and Allen ISDs. During the last legislative session, Governor Greg Abbott, during a ceremony at UTSA, signed House Bill 150 into law, which created the Texas Cyber Command. The Cyber Command, which is headquartered in San Antonio, received a $135 million investment to create a cyber threat intel center with the purpose of identifying local vulnerabilities to cyber attacks and repairing those vulnerabilities. So if it was me as a student, I would be happy to have delayed my final. but obviously a very great issue. I am certainly very happy that I do not have to take exams anymore. You know, that's one thing that at least hopefully for the rest of my life I will not have to deal with ever again. So thank you very much, Hannah, for giving us the rundown on that story.

Turning next to our tweetery section, Hannah, I think we should actually start with your tweetery, given that it seems to be a little bit related to the topic that you were just discussing. Why don't you tell us what this is? Because I can't tell what this is from right here. Gen Z. Gen Z. Okay, Hackey Sacks are making a comeback, according to Gen Z, I guess. Gen Z students have been caught all over campuses, universities, high schools, playing Hacysack.

So, apparently, this was a 90s thing. and now it's just back with full force. Personally, I never thought that it left, but it's being recorded all over online that they're back at it. They're playing it again. It's happening. So that's what I've got for us today.

What is, is it like a video game? Hackusack, it's like a little, it's like a little like, almost like beanbag, tiny little ball about like that big. and the point is is that you like kick it up in the air and you can't drop it and you like pass it to people yeah you like kick it up in the air you try to keep it moving so I think I've I've played with one maybe back in like middle school

I'm on the older side of Gen Z so you know I wasn't as somebody who is you know not in high school anymore I can't give the direct thing on that but that is interesting that hacky sack is making a comeback I bet a lot of I bet there's been a lot of like TikTok content about it and stuff like that People can record themselves

Doing all kinds of cool tricks with it You know Right Just waiting for slack lines to come back too What is that You know Those guys who They're so granola

And they put up this slack line Between two trees And it's like this little thin thing And they walk on it And sometimes they can, like, do a few tricks. Oh, yeah. Is it like a tiny tightrope or? Yes.

Okay. A tight rope. Okay. That would be fun. That would be interesting to see that come back. Absolutely. Mary Elise turning next to you. What is your tweetry here?

This has just been cracking me up. But there's a group of Spanish nuns who are saving a breed of giant rabbits from extinction. So there are some nuns that are in Spain and it says they started a successful breeding program to save the bunnies. But this is a catch. The bunnies grow as big as a small lamb. And if you see a photo of these rabbits, they are, it's hilarious. One of the nuns is holding them, holding one. And it is very long and very fat.

And they're out these massive ears. They're really cute. It's really ridiculous. So I thought I would share that with y'all today. Let me see Yeah That is absolutely crazy I mean I guess good for you know

That's good I was about to say good for the nuns But I thought even better good for the rabbits Right yeah These are some big rabbits Wow Yeah I think they used

I think they're a meat rabbit And I think they used to be pretty common to eat them So that would make sense why they're so big That does make sense Wow I just want to snuggle one up Yeah Yeah, it's a good thing.

I guess nobody's trying to eat them now. Although, unfortunately, if people did, you know, breed them for food, that would probably make sure that they would never go extinct. But I think nobody wants to, most people don't want to eat a bunny rabbit. Not unless they have. I don't think so anymore. Yeah. Well, there you go.

No, I'm going to remember people used to eat squirrels and stuff too. And now, you know, I don't think most people would want to eat squirrels. world, so. Yeah, I can't recommend it. There you go. Oh, there you go. What did it taste like? In a way, it tasted like chicken, but it was just really, I don't know, would

Gemi be the word? Had just kind of a rough texture who wasn't a fan. Also, I just don't love the concept of eating a rodent, so. I think that that's very fair. I remember when I tried a fried frog lab. for the first time because my dad made me try them. I remember I liked a restaurant. And he told me it was chicken when he made me try it.

And I was like, it's like really stringy. And he was like, yeah, it's because it's not chicken. It's frog. It's not bad. It's not bad. You know, it's kind of like fried gator. You ever had fried alligator? That's pretty tasty.

I would recommend it. Okay. Fried gator. It's pretty good. It sounded like from Louisiana. Yeah, I think it was in Houston. So it was, it was. Close enough.

Close enough. Yeah, I was about to say it's not entirely close, but it's closer than where I am currently in Austin. So yeah. Yeah, for my tweetery, I will be plugging yet another movie after Dune, which is that for the Batman part two, if you all saw the Batman movie that came out back in 2021, which I was a big fan of. Sebastian Stan and Scarlett Johansson have both been added to the cast and they will be playing Carvey. Dent, who, you know, was a big character in the Dark Night and Gilda Dent, which is a Harvey Dent's wife who is not in the Dark Night, but is like a Batman character on her own. And I was a big fan of the 2021, the Batman movie. I got the worst food poisoning of my life from the popcorn from the theater that I ate when I saw that movie. But I really enjoyed the movie.

But that popcorn, I believe, might have been poisoned by my enemies. So I'm hopefully, hopefully this, uh, this, this, the showing of the, the Batman part two will not have the same problem. So have you all seen that movie? No. Is it? Which, which, which Batman was it? It came out in 2021. Yeah, this is the one with, um, Robert Pattinson as Batman. I don't know if I've seen it. I would recommend it. I thought it was a really good movie. Maybe not as good as the dark night, but it's got a, it's got a very good, like, sense of style. You know, It's very grungy. It's very gritty.

It's a lot of fun. Rob, I feel like you could do the Batman voice. You think he's like, I'm Batman. Like, I need to, I don't know, I need, I don't know how Christian Bale would do that thing with his voice where he would get it like so low and growly or something. Unless he was like screaming at the top of his lungs to make his voice go. But from what I understand, he's kind of a method actor. So that kind of sounds like something that he might actually like try to do. So.

Yeah. Well. I got to watch it. Next to Double Wears Prada, too. I still have not seen that one, but I've heard some good things, some bad things, depending on. I think it's like, if you liked the first one, I think you'll like the second one. Okay. Okay.

So. Well. Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Hannah. I'm going to say, I've been, I binge watched like so many of Hannah Edwards movies fall. So I was just ready when it came out. She's got a lot of movies coming out this year. She was in

she's in the devil wears Prada too. She was in that Mother Mary movie that came out earlier. She was, she's going to be in the Odyssey. So.

The Odyssey, right? Yeah, yeah. She's playing Penelope in the Odyssey. If I'm, yeah, Penelope. So she's got a lot of roles. Exciting stuff. Well,

thank you to everybody for joining us on this week's episode of the Weekly Roundup. You can catch us right here again this time next Friday. Thank you to everybody for,

watching and we'll see you next week thank you to everyone for listening if you enjoy our show rate and review us on apple podcasts spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts and if you want more of our stories visit us at the texan dot news follow us on social media for the latest in texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by dming us on twitter or shooting us an email to editor at the texan dot news tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.