The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - May 5, 2023

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

Get a FREE “Fake News Stops Here” mug when you buy an annual subscription to The Texan: https://go.thetexan.news/mug-fake-news-stops-here-2022/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=weekly_roundup 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. This week on The Texan’s Weekly Roundup, the team discusses: Protestors escorted out of the Capitol after disrupting consideration of the House’s child gender modification banAfter a days-long manhunt with an $80,000 reward, an illegal alien arrested on suspicion of murdering five people in ClevelandDemocratic Congressman Colin Allred announcing his campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Ted CruzFormer President Donald Trump weighing in on Texas’ appraisal reform debateAttorney General Ken Paxton investigating COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers for deceptive trade practicesThe Save Women Sports’ Act receiving contentious testimony in a House committeeA Palestine city councilwoman running for mayor prompts a new ordinance with candidacy-threatening deferred taxesPolitical controversy in Palestine as mayoral candidates defend themselves from criticismPower grid regulators send a message to the Legislature that more dispatchable power is neededA border security rally at the Texas Capitol complete with a Ted Nugent performanceThe Senate approving a standard policy for “human sexuality instruction” in classroomsThe House passing a bill to raise standards on law enforcement for civil asset forfeiture

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. This week, the team discusses protesters escorted out of the Capitol after disrupting consideration of the House's child gender modification ban. An illegal alien arrested on suspicion of murdering five people in Cleveland. Democratic Congressman Colin Allred announcing his campaign to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz. Former President Donald Trump weighing in on Texas's appraisal reform debate. Attorney General Ken Paxton investigating COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers for deceptive trade practices. The Save Women's Sports Act receiving contentious testimony in a House committee. A Palestine city councilwoman

running for mayor prompts a new ordinance with candidacy threatening deferred taxes. Political controversy in Palestine as mayoral candidates defend themselves from criticism. Power grid regulators send a message to the legislature that more dispatchable power is needed. A border security rally at the Texas Capitol, complete with a Ted Nugent performance. The Senate approving a standard policy for human sexuality instruction in classrooms, and the House passing a bill to raise standards on law enforcement for civil asset forfeiture. As always, if you have questions for our team, DM us on Twitter or email us at editor at the texan.news. We'd love to answer your questions on a future podcast.

Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Well, howdy, folks. Mackenzie here with Brad, Cameron, Matt, and Hayden, all sitting in their designated spots as usual. We have a lot of news to jump into, so I'm just going to jump right into it today. Cameron, wild week at the Capitol. Protests, police escorts, and a point of order over a bill and child gender modification really did result in just a wild day

on the House floor. You were there. Tell us what happened. Yeah. So even prior to the debate even starting, the halls were just filled with activists and protesters, and they were chanting and singing right outside the chamber. So I knew we were in for a crazy day. And what we've seen in some other state capitals, like in Tennessee, I had this inclination that there was something in there, something was going to go down. So me and Brad, we were sitting in the press box and you could see the gallery was starting to fill. But the grassroots Republican conservative activists, they were all wearing red T-shirts and just kind of sitting in these small groups. Yeah. Peppered around the gallery.

And so... Well, actually, I would say the Republican side had taken up most of the gallery. Yeah. Oh, wow. That's interesting. Yeah. So it was interesting to see the contrast between the two protests that were starting to fill the gallery.

So that was even prior to the debate. So what set off all the commotion? Yeah. Let's get into it. Yeah, tell us about it. So as soon as Rep. Tom Olverson began to lay out the bill, a point of order was called, which caused a mad dash of all the legislators to huddle at the Speaker's desk. And as soon as that happened, protesters stood up, started yelling, chanting. Some of them snuck flags and banners into the chamber, draped them over the railing. And you could see there was a

large police presence there because they sort of understood that something like this might happen. So as this commotion was going on in the gallery, police were coming in, trying to escort people out. So it started with one protester standing up and shouting. And that seemed to be kind of the signal to all the other ones to start standing up and shouting and unrolling their banners and whatnot. What were they shouting? Was that trans rights or

human rights? That was one of them. There were multiple things. There was one, why are you so obsessed with us? And that's what the banner said as well. And then we heard after a couple of minutes of that, the speaker ordered the gallery to be cleared. Yeah. He ordered the gallery to be cleared and the police came in. They really did do a good job of getting everyone out of there pretty quickly, to be honest. And it was everybody. It wasn't just the protesters. Yeah, and there was lots of video of people that you could see online

that were from these grassroots organizations, the Republicans who were like, we have to leave too? We're not doing anything. And they're like, yes, everyone has to leave. Everyone has to leave. So the protests continued outside of the halls, doing anything? And they're like, yes, everyone has to leave. Everyone has to leave. So, uh, the protests continued outside of the halls and some of the, uh, protesters, uh, the anti SB14 people got a little rowdy, started getting a bit fiscal. Well, in the, in the gallery before

everyone got out, there was one guy that was, um, arrested in the gallery. Yeah. And I kind of heard a thud, looked up, and there's a guy kind of bent over the chairs and being handcuffed. Right. And he was escorted away. I was told a couple hours later afterward that somebody swung at a cop. I don't know if it was that guy or someone outside the gallery when more stuff happened. But that was kind of the onus for why the force was being used. Yeah.

So and this was before we even figured out what the point of order was about because this was all going on in the gallery. All the legislators are huddled around the speaker's desk. And real fast, remind our listeners what a point of order is. It's a procedural maneuver to point out some flaw in the bill, the bill analysis, anything pertaining to the bill. And if it's sustained, then the bill would be recommitted to committee and so they can fix the issue. And this one was very technical. Yeah, and that's exactly what happened is because on the bill analysis, there was a name of a group, the College of Pediatrics.

American College of Pediatrics was what was written, yeah. Yeah, and it was actually pediatricians that it... And so this small clerical error on the bill analysis was the point of order that caused everything to go down where now the bill was sent back to committee. It was already voted out of committee. Now it's going to be... Very quickly. Very quickly.

Now it's already scheduled back to be heard on the house floor this friday so this goes out today yeah that's right so today to all our listeners um so everything we witnessed the this week possibly could happen again so and another wrinkle to this is that if it passes on second reading, third reading will be on Saturday, a weekend. Well, yeah, on Saturday when no one's working. Right. So who knows how many people could show up. That's a great point.

Yeah. So, yeah, we're going to keep covering this. This is a bill that's very important to both sides of the argument and something we've been on top of. So, yeah, we'll be there Friday. We'll be there Saturday. And we'll keep everyone updated. Imagine being the person, and I don't know who it would have been, who wrote, what was it, pediatric instead of pediatricians? Yeah.

Imagine being that person right now and thinking about that. No, brother. Madam Speaker? Yes. Well, for what purpose, sir? Point of order. Oh, Lord. Okay.

Well, Cameron, thank you so much for your coverage of that. Hayden, let's go ahead and jump to you. An illegal alien was on the run for several days after he allegedly shot five people to death in Cleveland here in Texas, including an eight year old boy. Who is the suspect? Clearly a very tragic case in San Jacinto County in Cleveland, where five individuals, including an eight year old boy, were shot to death, allegedly by an illegal alien from Mexico who used an AR-15 to kill these five people after a family asked him to stop shooting a gun in his yard because there was a baby sleeping. He immediately fled the area, and a four-day manhunt commenced with state, federal, and local authorities offering an $80,000 reward for his capture. There were billboards being put up all over

the state of Texas and the governor's office, as well as the FBI were sending bulletins and putting his image out there with tattoos and different markings on his body that would help people find this individual. And he ultimately was captured. When the news originally broke that a shooting had taken place, there was also disagreement about whether the five victims were in the country illegally. Greg Abbott said that they were, but they obviously had no role in the situation. They were 110 percent the victims of a horrible crime. And the governor said that any loss of life is tragic. it is possible that all five people were not in the country illegally, that at least one of them had papers and was a documented immigrant. So that was a kind of a sideshow that happened

with this crime. Ted Cruz put out a statement saying he believed the perpetrator should be executed. And he hoped that this would serve as a reason why there needs to be stronger border security because the suspect in this case had been deported multiple times. On the other hand, State Senator Roland Gouthier, as a Democrat at the state level, said that this is a textbook case of Republicans failing to protect the public by enacting gun control measures. And he questioned how the word he used was how an undocumented person was able to get his hands on an AR-15 rifle and shoot and kill five people. So those were some contrasting perspectives on the crime right out of the gate. And that was before the suspect was taken into custody.

But obviously a tragic loss of life for these five people. They weren't all in the same family. But some of the reports I saw said that two of the victims who died were killed because they used their bodies to shield young children at the home as this evil individual was massacring these five people. Where was the suspect arrested? He was arrested in Cut and Shoot, Texas, which is in the neighboring county of Montgomery. The victim's name, excuse me, the perpetrator's name is Francisco Oropesa. And as I mentioned, he was on the run for four days. The San Jacinto County Sheriff, Greg Capers said, quote, I cannot begin to express

my sincere gratitude to all of my deputies, investigators, command staff, ancillary staff, as well as all of the law enforcement officials, agencies, and divisions that provided aid and support during this manhunt. Thank you to all of the citizens that provided tips and support in this investigation. End quote. Oropesa was transferred to the San Jacinto County Jail and given a bond of $5 million that was later increased to $7.5 million. The charge that I have seen so far is first degree murder, which is interesting because that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison with the possibility of parole or 99 years in prison, depending on how they choose to proceed. As I understand it, killing five people in the same crime is multiple murder, which can be charged as capital murder. So I don't know if this is

a technicality or if there is some reason they cannot or choosing not to charge him with capital murder. But right now, the charge apparently is first degree murder. And I will be watching to see if that charge gets upgraded in the future. Thank you, Hayden, for your coverage. Matt, we're now coming to you. Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz will have at least one major Democrat challenger this upcoming election cycle with the Texas congressman making his Senate announcement on social media. Give us the details. area Democrat from Texas's 32nd congressional district made the announcement of his campaign to challenge incumbent Ted Cruz on a campaign in a campaign video posted to social media this week. Allred's announcement contains a litany of attacks against Cruz, beginning with sort of a tackling Cruz over the January 6th, 2021 riot at the nation's capital, implying Cruz both incited the riot and

was a victim of it by, quote, hiding in a closet. He also poked fun at Cruz's now infamous short trip to Cancun, Mexico during the February 2021 ice storm and blackouts. On social issues, Allred claimed Cruz wants to outlaw all abortions and cut programs like Social Security and Medicaid. He also slammed Cruz for defending pending legislation in the Texas legislature to ban sexually explicit material in public schools, characterizing Cruz's action as turning people against their teachers and adding Cruz would ban books. Cruz responded to Allred's announcement with a statement of his own, calling the Democrat a far left radical and with a voting record that is completely out of touch with Texas. Now, Allred wants to, part of Cruz's statement says Allred wants men

to compete in women's sports, isn't serious about addressing the crisis at the border, wants to take away law-abiding Texans' guns, and is soft on punishing murders. Bottom line, Allred is too extreme for Texas. Now, Cruz is seeking re-election to his third term in office. He was first elected in 2012 after handily defeating former Senator Paul Sadler and was reelected to second term after narrowly defeating former U.S. Representative Beto O'Rourke in 2018. There you go, Matt. Thank you so much. And this is just the first of multiple rumored Democrat challengers that will be facing Senator Cruz. Thank you for your coverage there. Yeah, Hayden. You might say that the 2024 race is already heating up. I'm sorry. Daniel's not here, so I had to stand in and be the one to make the pun.

Wait, I don't get it. I don't either. Colin Allred. Oh, dear. Oh. Got it. I did not make that connection. I still don't make that connection.

Brad is so disappointed in us right now. Or me. I'm sorry. I won't put it on everybody. Madam Speaker, point of order. Sir, please bring your point of order down front. Brad, we're going to come to you here. The ongoing legislative feud over property tax reform received a very unusual source of input this week.

Who jumped into the debate? Former President Donald Trump waded into the House and Senate's appraisal reform stalemate this week, siding with Lieutenant Governor Patrick and the upper chamber. He tweeted or truth, I should say. That's his knockoff version of Twitter. He said, I fully support Dan Patrick's and the Senate's 100K senior homestead exemption and 70K homestead exemption for those under 65. California Dade's plan is a disaster for Texas. House members vote for the homestead exemption, $27 billion bigger tax cut than the House plan. So obviously, we've talked a lot about the two plans. A brief review,

the Senate's focus is on homestead exemptions, increasing the standard one to 70K, increasing the over 65 and disabled one to 30K to a total of 100K. That's what he's talking about there. Coupled with an increase in business, personal tax exemption and an inventory tax credit. On the house side, they prefer, and both sides have compression, rate compression in their plans. On the house side, on the appraisal issue, they prefer reducing the current year-to-year taxable value cap that applies to homesteads from 10% to 5% and expanding it to all property, businesses included. So two very different strategies.

That's kind of the breakdown. And right now we're still at a stalemate on that. But the former president is now jumping into something as obscure as appraisal reform policy in the state of Texas. So then what did Patrick and Phelan have to say about this? And preface for our readers to where Trump has come in on siding with either Patrick or against Phelan previously. Yeah. So Dan Patrick responded saying President Trump joins realtors and business leaders agreeing SB3 by Senator Paul Bettencourt cuts billions more for homeowners than the House's 5% appraisal cap plan that will destroy the real estate market. He mentions business leaders. There are business leaders that support the Senate plan and oppose the House's plan.

There are also businesses, they were especially small businesses, that testified in favor of the House's plan and committee. So the business community is very much divided on this. Phelan declined to comment. I'm not surprised by that. He has generally avoided responding to things like this. Previously in 2021, Trump threatened Phelan with a primary as retribution for not backtracking and restoring the penalty for illegal voting to a felony in the legislature's marquee election reform bill. That was amended in the House from a felony to a misdemeanor and that was not stripped in conference both chambers signed off on that um as they were

pressed for time to get this thing passed during the special session now that threat against phelan was not followed through speaker phelan had neither a primary nor a general opponent in this most recent election. And so even if he had, it would have been a long shot even with the former president's endorsement. But maybe

we're getting closer to a compromise on this. I don't know what exactly that would be, but that is something that needs to be hammered out because... We have three weeks left. Yes. And it needs to be hammered out specifically because the legislature has to pass a budget. And because of all of the money from compression tied into this, it is tied to the budget.

And so this is not a standalone policy that can, like, let's say school choice, that can be kicked to a special. This is tied to the budget. So, yeah, we'll see. We've got less than a month left. So unsurprising that the former president is siding with Dan Patrick, his campaign chair of many years. But surprising that he would choose to opt in on an issue as obscure, even though it is very important to Texans. Property taxes continue to be at the top of mind for Texans.

Still very interesting to watch this become so technical. And of course, this is lieutenant governor saying, hey, you know, President Trump needs a backup here. Him coming in strong for the lieutenant governor. I'm not sure who that's going to convince in the House, but maybe it does. I don't know. It's a court of public opinion, though, too, right? That's a big part of how this all works.

So, okay. Well, Brad, thank you so much for your coverage. Matt, an investigation has been launched into three of the largest vaccine manufacturers citing a Texas business fraud law. Give us those details. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced an investigation into Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, sending them civil investigation letters demanding documents and records. The Attorney General is citing the Texas Deceptive

Trade Practices Act as the legal basis for the investigation, which prohibits businesses from engaging in various types of fraud. In this case, whether they illegally conducted gain-of-function research or misrepresented the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine. The three companies will have 30 days to deliver the records or else they may face civil and criminal penalties. With the announcement of the investigation, Ken Paxton released a statement saying, this pandemic was deeply

challenging for Americans. If any company illegally took advantage of consumers during this period or compromised people's safety to increase their profits, they will be held responsible. Well, pretty strong words there. We'll continue to keep an eye on that. Thank you, Matt, for your coverage. Hey, listeners, if you're enjoying our podcast and our up-close and personal coverage of the 88th legislative session from the Capitol here in Austin, subscribe to The Texan right now while you're listening. We're not funded by corporate interests or big donors, so we rely on the subscriptions of everyday Texans to keep doing our jobs. When you subscribe, you'll get access to all our stories as soon as they're published so that you can stay informed, up to speed, and ready to vote at the ballot box. A subscription is $9 monthly, but you can save by purchasing an annual subscription for $90.

It comes out to just $7.50 per month. And as a reminder, new subscribers will get that fake news stops here mug. For more details, visit the texan.news forward slash subscribe or click the URL in the description of this podcast. Cameron, we're coming back to you. Okay. Another piece of priority legislation for the Senate is in the House. This time, a bill that would require collegiate athletics to compete according to biological sex.

Tell us what happened during the committee hearing. Rep. Valerie Swanson laid out the bill where she identified a variety of different areas that were concerns, such as the supporting research, the physiological differences between men and women, and how it makes sports unsafe and unfair. And these were justifications and the necessity for this type of legislation. So I wanted to look into some of the scientific research to see if there was evidence of what she identified as clear performance differences based on these physiological differences. and strength are required. Even a study that when testosterone is suppressed in male to female transgender athletes, this research paper found very modest changes and the muscular advantage is only minimally reduced. So there is scientific research to support these claims of physiological

differences between men and women. One committee member did question Swanson and made a claim that one in a thousand people are born intersex and what is going to happen with those individuals. When I heard this number, it didn't seem quite right to me. So I wanted to look into it and I wanted to verify if that number was right or wrong. And so, because there's been a lot of controversy surrounding intersex identification and the vagueness of the definition, and it's created a wide range of reported statistics. And the best information I could find on intersex individuals is from Leonard Sachs, who's a physician and psychologist who studies gender. And he wrote in a paper, a definition of intersex, which encompasses individuals who are

phenotypically indistinguishable from normal is likely to confuse both clinicians and patients. So it's a complicated issue. And with Sacks' research, he has found that true intersex conditions in which a person is unclassifiable as neither male or female are very rare, constituting just 0.018% of the population. Important context. During public testimony, were there any interesting insights? Yeah. One of the most public voices supporting this type of legislation across the country is Riley Gaines. She's a swimmer who lost to Leah Thomas, the transgender male to female, former swimmer from University of Penn, who has been the center of controversy, which has really sparked this national debate. And Gaines spoke about her experience and how

she was made to share a locker room with Thomas, who still possesses male genitalia, and how when she has spoken out about this issue, she was attacked for it. And in even one incident, she was held hostage on a college campus by protesters. Wow. Well, interesting testimony in there. You know, certainly a lot in your piece to go and have folks read as well. The bill was left pending. Are there any updates? Well, it was just approved and voted out of committee two days ago now and will now wait for a date to be placed on the House floor. Thank you, Cameron. Hayden, coming to you. The Palestine, Palestine, Palestine.

Palestine. I know this. I've asked you multiple times and I still messed it up. The Palestine City Council passed an ordinance to accommodate a candidate's deferral of her city property taxes, which is technically legal under the tax code. What prompted the city council to make this decision? State law allows homeowners in the state of Texas to defer the payment of their property taxes if they meet certain conditions. One of those conditions, for instance, is if you are a disabled veteran and you apply to partake in this deferral. But another loophole, and that's probably not the fairest word, that is a word that has been used, but another condition that can be met is being

over the age of 65. And the tax code allows you to defer the payment of your taxes in that case. However, in Palestine, the city charter says council members and the mayor must not have any delinquent indebtedness to the city as city officials. And some Palestine residents said that councilwoman Chrissy Clark cannot be on the council and cannot run for mayor because she had chosen to defer the payments of her property taxes, not because she's over the age of 65, but because her husband is. And there was a debate about whether or not this constituted delinquent indebtedness. The city council at Clark's request passed an ordinance saying that delinquent indebtedness does not include a legal deferral of one's property taxes under the tax code of the state of Texas. Council members contended that disabled veterans and others who legally took advantage of this provision would be disqualified from public office if they did so. Clark said also that someone who, for instance, was on a payment plan for something like a water leak could also be disqualified, even though there's nothing illegitimate about that.

But council members also said they felt ethically obligated to act because they were being threatened with litigation. And there was a question about whether she was qualified. So they believed they needed to act to rectify that. However, one of the other candidates for mayor, Mitchell Jordan, questioned at the meeting. And there was a lot of public comment at this meeting, not just from Clark and Jordan and a third candidate, Joe Baxter, but from others. He pointed out that they acted on this measure on the first day of early voting. So people were already going to the polls. The ballots had already been printed.

And a fourth candidate, Mike Ezell, has since dropped out of the race. The next day he dropped out of the race and said that he was tired of the intimidation and the stress. But those ballots have already been printed and the council passed this ordinance on the first day of early voting that her situation specifically in future situations like it would not count as delinquent indebtedness. Wow. So then what were some of the arguments against the ordinance? Opponents said that the ordinance was a way to help Clark over the finish line and was more or less the city council putting its thumb on the scale in this election and trying to save her from a lack of foresight, not knowing that this could become an issue. And she admitted when she testified in front of the council that she didn't give it a second thought when she was originally making a decision to run for mayor. She said she did not consider her deferral to be a delinquent indebtedness because it is 100% legal under the tax code to do that. There was nothing illegal

about what she did. However, some of the arguments against this ordinance was that somebody who owes money to the city and does not have a financial stake in the business of the city should not be setting the tax rate and making decisions about the fiscal policy of the town. Another councilwoman, Ava Harmon, though she said she respected Clark and respected people who supported her, raised concern that this was creating a perception that there were two sets of rules and Clark was being allowed to run for mayor, be on council when she was not contributing to the financial welfare of the city. But it is important to note Clark said in her testimony that she started paying her city taxes and caught up on her taxes because she did not want there to be even a perception that there was something

wrong or illegitimate going on. So not only did the council pass this ordinance, but she has paid the city portion of her taxes to correct it on that end as well. Candidate Joe Baxter suggested that there should be a charter review committee. And he and I spoke on the phone and he gave us a statement and said that there should be a November ballot measure with language that says you cannot run for council or mayor if you have a tax deferral. Yeah. So then what does this mean

politically, perhaps for Clark's candidacy? Obviously, from a political perspective, it's not great because she has this this problem with her candidacy before she has even been sworn in as mayor. If she does win the election, she posted on Facebook encouraging people to take advantage of the deferral. So she seems to be taking the route of, I'm not trying to take this special exception just for me. Everyone should take advantage of this if they can. But this was quite an interesting development after early voting started, but before the election is complete. So Clark now had a pretty big political problem in a town of only about 20,000 people where the city council has been called by other people, a retirement club, and there was already difficulty. At this meeting where they passed the ordinance, the mayor got pretty heated and was getting very frustrated to the point that the city attorney encouraged him to take a recess. And when they got back from the recess, the mayor said that his wife had texted him and

asked him to calm down because he was getting too angry with the people who were testifying. So the optics of this whole situation were not great. But obviously, from a legal standpoint, the city council has corrected it. I will say we did reach out to Clark, but she did not return my phone call. There you go. We'll continue talking about this in Palestine, Texas here for a minute. Councilwoman Chrissy Clark had some very interesting things to say about property taxes. What were her thoughts? On more of the substance, Clark did post on Facebook about her stance on property taxes. She touted the fact that the city council

gave a pay raise to city employees for the first time in three years and lowered the city's property tax rate. She said, quote, why? Because we did our research and determined it was a sustainable decision that allowed our citizens a needed measure of relief while still allowing us to meet our budgetary needs for the fiscal year, end quote. So she's pointing to some of her accomplishments in the council and the low tax rate that was set by the council. Mitchell Jordan defended his stance on compensation for city council members. How did he describe his position? Well, I mentioned Mitchell Jordan before. He is another candidate running. He is a former member of the city council. In the Facebook post by compensation for city leaders, which is a position that Jordan disputed. He sent us a lengthy statement and said that the council had decided to, quote, retain minimal compensation, end quote, for city council members after this charter,

after this research committee met for six months. He said, quote, I respectfully disagree with the position taken by Brulee. The city council belongs to the citizens of Palestine. It should be a representative democracy of all ages and ethnic backgrounds, not a retirement club, end quote. He said the compensation that the city council retained is he characterized it as a, quote, small stipend. And while Brulee had said they should be volunteer positions on the council, Jordan contended having no compensation for city council members means there cannot be a diversity of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds. So that was his argument in favor of retaining that compensation instead of making them voluntary positions. But it was notable that Clark put that Facebook post out there, and she didn't really comment

on what Brueley said about Jordan, but she was commenting on the fact that the city council kept the tax rate low and did not increase the pay for city council leaders, but for all employees and gave them a raise for the first time in three years. So it was a spinoff from Clark's point about property taxes. A third candidate, which I love this line, said people are calling him a senile old man. Local politics are my favorite thing. What was his response? Some of the things that happen in local races where you have these candidates who are trying to be honest with their neighbors about what's going on. And it's very different from big city politics where you have these pristine statements that are put out by the press.

But Joe Baxter said that there are people spreading rumors that he is not mentally fit to be mayor. He's a retired law enforcement officer. And he said that there are people saying he is a senile old man. And that is the phrase he used. He reminded everyone that he has never called Ms. Clark names and he didn't mention Jordan. So I presume he thinks that it's supporters of Clark who are spreading this rumor. But he said they're also trying to spread rumors about Mitchell Jordan's financial situation. He said, quote, this speaks volumes about a person

and I hope everyone remembers this when they go to the polls. I'm not senile, but I'm about doing what is right for all of Palestine, not just a few, end quote. And I would also like to add just to y'all, I need to let y'all know

that I am not senile either. So there might be question about that. I doubt that. That's a good fun topic, is who is the most senile out of all of us here. I love this story. Hayden, you've done such a great job reporting on it, so thank you so much.

Brad, let's go to you for some ERCOT news. The GRID's regulators had a briefing this week on the summer ahead. What did they say? So before every season, they provide a kind of a report assessing what may lie ahead. The summer one, because Texas gets so hot, is probably the most notable one each year. So in this version, the general outlook provided by the SARA report is that they expect peak demand to come in just below 83,000 megawatts during summer. That would be the estimated highest level of electricity demand that they would expect here.

That would be a new record. And I think the record last July was set at just over 80,000 megawatts. So that would be because of the population growth we've had. More people means more demand for electricity. So to meet that, the state said it estimates to have about 97,000 megawatts of capacity. But overall, the report was rather benign. They were pretty standard and not a lot of alarm in the report itself. But the report came with a warning from the grid regulators, Peter Lake at the PUC and Pablo Vegas at ERCOT. For the first time ever, expected demand is outpacing dispatchable capacity available to meet it. So, dispatchable is anything that

you can flip a switch and start to generate power, notably not wind or solar, which are dependent on weather. So, that's a pretty big statement and a pretty big warning. That means that they're going to be relying, as Lake said, we will be relying on renewables to keep the lights on this summer, specifically in the later evening when the sun goes down. The wind specifically will need to produce. produce and we saw multiple times last session according to lake 12 days at least 12 days last summer that wind capacity dipped below 20 percent uh production and they need like 50 percent to have a comfortable margin sometimes it went down as far as to like 3%, very, very low. So Lake added, in this new reality, our risk goes up as the sun goes down. There is one scenario in the report, and again, it's a very low probability scenario, but it is the one scenario that shows a potential power deficit, meaning brownouts, rolling blackouts, extremely high demand, higher than expected thermal outages, and extremely low wind output.

ERCOT CEO Pablo Vega put the chances of that scenario happening at less than 1%, but it is something they're tracking. How does this play into the ERCOT market reform debate at the legislature? The grid regulators in their press conference were sending a clear message. The state needs more dispatchable, namely thermal power. Without that, we'll continue to be at the mercy of intermittent weather. The legislature is currently locked in a debate over how to ensure that thermal construction comes to pass. Currently, the performance credit mechanism bill that we've talked about a lot has made it further than Senate Bill 6,

which would provide a direct subsidization for 10,000 megawatts of natural gas development. This morning on Thursday, or actually Wednesday evening, the House State Affairs Committee heard SB 7, which is affirming requirement, allocating reliability costs to namely wind and solar power. That drew a pretty contentious response from the Senate this morning, specifically statements made by these grid regulators in that House hearing. And the Senate was going to bat for its affirming requirement bill. We'll see where this shakes out, but I would not have expected SB7 of the three to be the most contentious.

The PCM bill looks like it's moving. Something will happen with that. SB6 looks like it's kind of dead. At least as of the moment, it's not going to move. SB7 is in the middle ground. We'll see what happens there. But we're back at this stage two years later, and that's something legislators expressed a lot of frustration about. We'll see where they fall. Thank you, Bradley. Hayden, Ted Nugent and some other Texas officials rallied for border security outside the Capitol this last weekend. Give us an idea of how the rally went. It was a rowdy rally to say the least.

And you're laughing so much. Do you like the word rowdy or not like the word rally? I really liked it. I liked the alliteration. I think the word rowdy is fantastic.

It reminds me of my mom. There's a lot happening. Also, you've been you've made a really funny quips on the pod today. And I think you're just like downplaying how funny they are. My first clip was. Well, I didn't love that one. Yeah.

But that one was not my best. Ted Nugent performed for a crowd of a few hundred people at the state capital. He performed. Did he juggle? He's a guitarist. Mackzie oh my god okay i did not realize he actually performed he did oh that's crazy yeah oh and it wasn't a juggling routine it was a song on his guitar point of order your point of order is respectfully overruled there were other speakers this event was put on by mark meckler of convention of states

and there were other texas officials that spoke at this event including congressional candidate victor avala who well he's not a te Texas official yet. If he doesn't win, I guess he never will be, but wow, I'm all over the map here. Chip Roy is a Texas official. He's a congressman. Jason Jones is a former counterterrorism official for the Department of Public Safety. But the event was led by Mark Meckler and he's the president of Convention of States, which is the group of people calling for a convention of states and constitutional amendments to reign in the federal government. The focus of this event was drawing attention to human trafficking and illegal immigration, as well as drug trafficking, specifically fentanyl. There were some graphic images projected on screens that everyone was warned about. I said I wasn't going to look at them,

but I did look at them anyway. They were horrifying and disgusting. And this rally was very much about raising awareness about some of the carnage happening at the border. There was a little bit of heckling. Someone tried to pass out anti-Semitic flyers, and Mark Meckler said from the stage to get the hell out of here, whereupon he did. And there was a little bit other, there was some more heckling. Ted Nugent got heckled by this one guy, and Ted Nugent pretty much took care of him,

and I'll leave it at that. That's fantastic. Great story to go read at the Texan as well. And the photos are quite fun. So, Hayden, thank you so much for your coverage. Cameron, another bill related to sexual instruction in classrooms and ensuring parental transparency has made its way through the Senate. Tell us about it. Yeah. So, as we have seen, many Texas legislators and parents have raised concerns about sexual conversations that are occurring in classrooms and libraries, including discussions of gender identity and illustrative depictions of sex in some of these school books. So particularly with some of the stories we have reported on with Austin ISD's Pride Week and the events they were holding that had to do with talking about gender and sexuality.

The book Gender Queer that is still available in some Austin ISD libraries. Well, this bill by Brian Hughes would require school districts to adopt a standard policy regarding the discussion of human sexuality, require teachers to direct students to talk with their parents, a counselor or a sex ed teacher about the issues and ban third party groups from introducing sexual instruction material and training that includes sexual orientation or gender identity. These issues are a continued point of contention and we keep seeing bills related to creating transparency or just banning

these sorts of discussions in classrooms. How prevalent is sexual instruction in schools? Well, every school district includes sex ed. The issue occurs when teachers and schools are including discussions with their students that is outside the approved TEKS. And TEKS are the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. These are approved by the State Board of Education. And these are vetted curriculum standards. Well, what we've seen though is just recently, an example is something we reported on. A rural school district here in Texas, had on their counselor resources side a tab for LGBT students that directed them to a resource page that included information

on how to join chat rooms with organizations like Planned Parenthood, where adults would be in these chat rooms with students giving them information about all sorts of topics. And so that's just one example of many things we've reported on about things that are outside the standards of curriculum that are occurring in classrooms. And so the Senate passed this bill and it will now be headed to the House where it'll be assigned to committee. Thank you, Cameron. Bradley, the Texas House again passed a bill reforming the practice of civil asset forfeiture. Give us those details. HB 3659 by Representative Cole Hefner would change the state's burden of proof for seizing

and keeping property by the state in a potential criminal investigation from a preponderance of the evidence to clear and convincing evidence. That's kind of a middle point between the preponderance, very low burden of proof, and the beyond reasonable doubt that we see used in jury trials and whatnot. It puts more onus on the state to prove the allegation. Civil asset forfeiture is the practice by law enforcement officials to, in a traffic stop or an arrest of some kind, to seize the property that they believe was involved in whatever crime they're alleging. And so it's a practice that has been criticized quite a bit. I have some details in the story about dollar figures.

I think $50 million in a recent year, I think it was maybe 2020 or 2021, that law enforcement in the state of Texas seized. $50 million of property. There's more about the practice in there. Cole Hefner said of the bill, the property rights of Texans must always be our priority and our laws should accurately reflect that conviction. HB 3659 is a significant step forward in civil asset forfeiture reform and will provide greater transparency and accountability.

The bill passed the House last session, and it did again this session. Reminder for folks, if we say SB or HB, that's House Bill and Senate Bill. Yes. Yeah, just to make sure people know. What did others have to say about this? Derek Cohn at TPPF called it a phenomenal step forward, adding, Currently, the state can take innocent citizens' property without even charging an offense. The guardrails put up by this legislation protect Texans' property rights while still allowing law enforcement to

combat real crime. The Texas Municipal Police Association told me about it too. They said they called it a bad bill, adding that civil asset forfeiture is, quote, a necessary tool for law enforcement to combat criminal activity, and that in 99% of instances, the properties returned to its owner were not weaponizing asset forfeiture to fund our operations. In committee, the breakdown was pretty stark. Every person that either registered or testified against the bill was a member of law enforcement, whether it's police or prosecutors. And then on the other side, Cohen at TBBF conservative think tank was joined by various progressive organizations.

Someone from, for example, someone from the ACLU testified for the bill. Very, very interesting breakdown of the debate on this issue. There you go. Well, in terms of the remainder of the session and how much time we have left and the political dynamics that play in the House and the Senate, what are the chances of this bill becoming law? Probably fairly low at this point.

A similar version passed last session. Not an identical one, but similar. And then it didn't move in the Senate at all. It was referred to Joan Huffman's committee, church prudence, I think. And it's just, it didn't get a hearing. It will likely get a similar, have a similar fate here. I suppose, hope springs eternal for anyone advocating this bill, but it doesn't appear to be something that the Senate much wants to take up. But it has been a House priority and it continues to be a House priority. There you go, Bradley. Thank you. Okay, let's go on to the tweeter-y section of the podcast here.

Hayden, why don't you start us off? I'm very curious about yours. I didn't expect to go first, so I'm pulling it up on my little tab here this is this is evergreen although this tweet is three years old it still applies and the reason i found it is because there's a stan account for jim halpert which is a character on the office and if you don't know what that show is you you're missing out. But Cameron's never seen it. Cameron's never seen The Office. Never seen a single episode. It's not for everyone.

I think it's funny. I appreciate the humor. But it's him with the little whiteboard meme. And it says, when your advertising interrupts my video, it just makes me hate your product. And I agree with that sentiment that's a good sentiment i agree with it thank you hayden you're welcome i think the the meme is amazing though that platform with the whiteboard it can be used for anything it can be and it's for those it's john krasinski he's using an expo marker and he's pointing at a whiteboard, it can be used for anything. It can be. And it's, for those, it's John Krasinski.

He's using an Expo marker and he's pointing at a whiteboard. It's two frames. And he's pointing at it like he's explaining. And then the bottom one is just him smiling like he made a really good point. And he did make a really good point in this instance. But you can put anything on there. I feel like I've seen The Office just by the amount of memes that are generated from the show.

Right. So. That's true. Right. So. That's true. Okay. Well, Cameron, why don't you tell us yours? Okay. Well, everyone was posting pictures from the protests that were going on during SB14. Things from the gallery, things from the hallway, stairwells.

And it was going on from earlier than nine o'clock when I showed up. There was already a huge mob of people there. But one thing that was pretty funny is, you know, I'm going through these videos, the pictures, checking things out after everything went down and back in the office and Connie Burton sends me a video camera, check this out. And so I'm watching it and somehow I just appear in the middle of someone's video, just strolling along. It looks like I'm just walking straight through it, but you know, I'm trying to be a good reporter, you know, stay on the outskirts, you know, not be involved. But in this video, it looks like I walk right through. And I'm'm like i was not trying

to do that at all i'm sorry it's tough when you're trying to report on an event to try to make it clear that you're not participating in the event like at the rally on saturday i kind of ran into the same problem because i had to get into the crowd yeah and so i wore my media badge but at times i would fall back so that it was clear i was reporting on it but that video was funny because you they were right out they were in the snake pit so to speak so they you couldn't go to the house chamber yeah in your defense without walking right through it there was no way to get around that well and they had a podium set up and everything like walk right in front of it in front of all the cameras.

I'm like, I'm so sorry. I'm trying to find my way through the craziness going on. That's hilarious. Oh, my gosh. I didn't know that you were caught on video. Bradley, what about you? So as a red blooded American man. Oh dear.

I love the movie gladiator. One of the greatest movies of all time. And for those of you who don't know, there's a sequel coming up. Why does it feel like when we talk about anything, pop culture, Brad like gets on a little like teacher's podium. There's too much going on right now.

I can't, what were you asking me, Matt? We have multiple parts going on at the same time. Go ahead, Matthew. I'm sorry. Isn't that a Russell Crowe movie? Yes.

Yes. So anyway, I saw this tweet from the U.S. Naval Institute this week about Oliver Reed, the actor who played Proximo in Gladiator. He was the wise old sage gladiator. Wise old sage. Yeah, he bought Russell Crowe's character as a slave to turn him into a gladiator.

Gotcha. Yes, that was his business model. And he was pretty profitable at it, I assume. Anyway, so I didn't realize this, but the actor died during the filming of Gladiator. And here's the story of how. Oliver Reed died while filming Gladiator. Reed had consumed eight pints of beer, 12 shots of rum, half a bottle of whiskey, and shots of cognac. I don't know if I said cognac thank you after challenging sailors from the hms cumberland in a to a drinking contest in a pub he was arm wrestling sailors when he collapsed the most legendary way to go out of this world

it was like a gladiator yeah yeah you Yeah. You know, he died as he lived. Yeah. Very, one of those method actors, you know? Yeah. I'm jealous. Now I have a new mission in life. You're jealous? Oh, boy.

That's all. Hey, when the time comes, that is how I would prefer to go out. Okay. Although I don't think I can, you know, compete with that. I'm not up to that level. I think we have a new Brad quote for the wall. Yeah, I'm telling you. That's something else.

Bradley, thank you. You're welcome. Wonderful. Matthew, what do you have? Well, I like following Texas Parks and Wildlife on Twitter. And I just saw this interesting tweet this past week of a lady who was fishing out here in Lady Bird Lake right by downtown Austin and caught a massive 31 1⁄2-pound striped bass. They posted a picture of her impressive catch

in the boat out there on the lake. I'm not sure why this impressed me. For some reason, I was under the impression that the only thing you'd catch in Lady Bird Lake is like the fish blinky off the simpsons but um this is a very impressive uh catch that is a huge fish holy cow in austin was there any follow-up pics of the cookout they had with that big old fish or did they throw it back i don't know what happened to it. It didn't say. They just said swimming around in Austin,

this monster 31-and-a-half-pound striped bass was caught from Lady Bird Lake right near downtown Austin. So I guess whenever you see people out there fishing in that lake, I always thought that they were not really coming up with anything to speak of, but apparently the fishing's really good out there. I think this would require an investigation. Some good journalism. What happened to that fish?

Who ate it and who can we, how can we get invited next time? Exactly. Why weren't we invited? Very good stuff, Matthew. Okay, my tweet for the week is a video that I was sent this morning by a friend on twitter if this lady it looks like she's i don't know where she is but backyard a bear like a brown bear climbs up on the fence and there are like four or five dogs running around barking at this bear just yakking up a storm and the bear is swatting down at these dogs with fervor was it a cocaine bear i've not seen cocaine bear my husband really wants to watch it and i have not given in yet.

But the bear is sitting up there on the fence just swatting at these dogs and a woman the owner of these dogs runs toward the bear and pushes him with her hands off the fence. Grabs her dogs and runs inside. It is a heroic video. I love it.

Pushed a bear with her bare hands. Yes. Just oh dear. Yes. Yes she did. Yes she did. She must I'm watching the video she must have done it pretty forcefully because the bear like fell. Yeah.

The way he fell backwards she had to push him pretty hard. And it is brown in the video. It might be a black bear that's just brown but I don't think it's a Kodiak or a grizzly or anything like that. Why didn't she use her right to bear arms? Brad is grinning from ear to ear right now. Oh, dear. That was very disappointing.

I think that might have been worse than my earlier. That was payback for the massive eye roll I got when i started my twittery section twittery okay let's move on to our fun topic for the day we are recording on may 4th star wars may the fourth be with you who is the star wars fan in this room okay so i love all things brad matt hayden yay or nay no not really i watched a couple of them but other than that no not really. Okay. So Matt must have been the one to include this as our fun topic. I did not include it.

Brad. I didn't. Hayden? Why would I? Who did it? I don't know. Cameron? Not me.

Who put that there as our fun topic? I bet it was Daniel. Oh my gosh. Let's look through the window at him. He's not looking. Paying gosh. Let's look through the window at him. He's not paying attention. Wow. If it was none of us at this table, it had to be Daniel or maybe Holly snuck in there. But none of y'all are sassing

me right now. None of you really put this down. I did not write it on. I did not. Got it. Okay. I believe you. I believe you. I am displeased with the recent performance of the Star Wars franchise, so I would not have put that down. Okay. Although I will say I enjoyed The Mandalorian.

Yeah, the first season was good. Again, I feel like The Mandalorian was more of a meme than an actual show because everyone was just posting on Twitter the pictures of Baby Yoda. That's what made the show popular. Like, Baby Yoda, Baby Yoda. I need my plushie. Is that what Baby Yoda saysoda says no i don't know they sold a lot of merch though i'm sure oh i'm sure whoever wrote this it is pretty funny that we have a fun topic that no one has anything to say about it just appeared just emerged from

the night it did well that was a great fun topic well i feel like if i had become prepared for this i'd have had a lot more material it's the shortest fun topic ever of all time if you want something related to it uh the quote death star bill just passed out of the senate business and commerce what is the death star bill that is chairman burroughs' preemption bill. There was a, I think a DMN cartoon that called it the Death Star Bill. That's a good segue. That is moderately funny. There's the Star Wars tie. Hayden gives you a C+.

Insert the Darth Vader theme music. I did see where some of the movie theaters were playing some of the old Star Wars movies. So that might be pretty cool to go check out if you've never seen it on the big screen. Oof. They're so good. The originals are so good. I'm a huge original trilogy fan. Maybe Rob wrote it on there.

I don't know why he wasn't one of our suspects earlier. Yes. It could have totally been Rob. I bet it was Rob. It does. It feels like a Rob thing, too. But it also feels like Daniel. I think it's 50-50 in my mind between those two.

Okay, folks. Well, I hope you've just enjoyed this delight of a fun topic with all of our opinions and thoughts on Star Wars. Okay, do you have a favorite Star Wars movie of the ones you have seen? Empire, hands down. Oh, yeah. Is that the one with the little teddy bears? No, that's six.

They're not teddy bears. They're Ewoks. That's Return of the Jedi. Return of the Jedi. Okay, so Empire. Empire Strikes Back. Fifth one, yes. Is that the one?

Wait, which one is that? Where they're on the snow planet? Snow planet. Oh, okay. Yeah, for a Star Wars geek, you know. Well, there's so many of them. And you called them teddy bears. I knew that they were called Ewoks.

I think we have a closet Star Wars nerd over here. Kind of. A little bit. Okay. Well, yeah, you did retweet a Texas Park and Wildlife tweet earlier with the names of some Star Wars planets. And I do know how to pronounce the names of those Star Wars planets because I had a little brother. Okay, folks. Thank you so much for bearing with us.

We hope you have a wonderful week and we'll catch you next week. And may the 4th be with you. There you go. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, subscribe to The Texan at thetexan.news. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting an email to editor at thetexan.news. We are funded entirely by readers and listeners like you.

So thank you again for your support. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and listeners like you. So thank you again for your support. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.