The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - November 10, 2023

Episode Date: November 10, 2023

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free Gonzales Flag t-shirt with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion. Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast. This week on The Texan’s Weekly Roundup, the team discusses: The Texas Legislature convening for its fourth special sessionA bill to criminalize illegal immigration stalling out in the third special sessionHouse District 2 special election between Brent Money and Jill DuttonTexas Sen. Drew Springer not running for re-election in 202413 /14 Texas constitutional amendments passing on the 2023 ballotMidland-Odessa approving over $2 billion in school district bondsSmith County approving $179 million for a new county courthouse and parking garageThe Austin City Council’s vote to remove mandatory minimum parking spaces for new constructionNate Paul indicted on four additional federal charges of wire fraudU.S. Supreme Court hearing a lawsuit challenging Trump-era federal bump stock banThe House Democrats' letter to the Texas Democratic chair requesting a ceasefire between Israel and HamasA human smuggling suspect crashing their car and killing eight people near BatesvilleA Veteran’s Day Remembrance of the 1942 Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, Japan

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here, and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. This week, the team discusses the Texas legislature convening for its fourth special session on the same day the third ended, a bill to criminalize illegal immigration stalling out before the end of the third special session, a December runoff for the House District 2 special election between Brett Money and Jill Dutton. Texas Senator Drew Springer announcing he will not run for re-election in 2024. 13 out of 14 Texas constitutional amendments passing on the 2023 ballot. Voters in Midland-Odessa approving over $2 billion in school district bonds. Smith County voters approving $179 million for a new county courthouse and parking garage.

The Austin City Council's vote to remove mandatory minimum parking spaces for new construction. The Tarrant County GOP running into legal issues over its primary due to a new state law. Ken Paxton associate Nate Paul indicted on four additional federal charges of wire fraud. The U.S. Supreme Court hearing a lawsuit challenging a Trump-era federal bump stock ban, the House Democrats who wrote a letter to the Texas Democratic chair to request a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, a human smuggling suspect crashing their car and killing eight people near Batesville, and a Veterans Day remembrance of the 1942 Doolittle raid on Tokyo, Japan.

Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Howdy folks, Mackenzie here with Hayden, Cameron, Rob, Matt, and Kim coming in from remote. Gentlemen and lady, we are so glad to have you all on the pod. Thank you so much for joining us. And Rob, you're taking over Brad's beats today. So thanks for hopping in. I am. Thank you. It's very good to be here. We love having Rob on the pod. Okay, well, let's go ahead and start off. We have a lot of stories to get to today. The Texas legislature has just entered its fourth special session of the 88th legislature this year. Rob, how did we get here? Well, Governor Greg Abbott called lawmakers to Austin for the fourth special session on Tuesday, less than an hour after the

third special came to a close, not having passed some of Abbott's priorities. So he wasn't really calling them to Austin. He was just calling them not to leave Austin. Of the two that did pass in the third special session, the first was a ban on private employers mandating COVID-19 vaccines as a condition of employment for which employers can now face a penalty of up to $50,000. Employees can take their case to the Texas Workforce Commission if they believe their employers are in violation of the law. The second priority to pass was a mandatory minimum punishment for those convicted of human smuggling or operating a stash house. This is an attempt to crack down on criminality across the southern border. In a press release, Texas Democratic Party

Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said, in a bipartisan effort, school voucher scams are dead in the Texas legislature once again. This is what he said after the end of the third special session when they failed to get some kind of school choice bill across the finish line. Hinojosa also said, while we anticipate a fourth called special session, we could not be more proud of our Texas Democrats for holding the line for our public schools. So now the question will be to see if those in the House and Senate who do want school choice to pass, if they'll be able to get it across this time around. Absolutely. So now that we are in our fourth special session of the year, what's on the agenda for lawmakers?

So again, it's an attempt to pass things that the legislature didn't pass in the third. From what I saw, they're not really adding any radically new things. But the things that they're trying to pass include creating an education savings account program, providing a pay raise to teachers and other school employees, increasing school funding through the basic student allotment, additional school safety and security measures, establishing a state penalty for illegal entry into Texas from a foreign nation with removal language for state law enforcement, appropriating more funding for the construction of border barriers, and allotting more state dollars to fund overtime expenses associated with the Texas Department of Public Safety's operations in the Houston area development known as Colony Ridge. Though the House and Senate couldn't come to an agreement on school choice in the third session, Representative Brad Buckley has filed a new omnibus school choice and school funding bill that could make it through the legislature and onto Abbott's desk before time runs out. But we're just going to have to wait and see. Yeah, absolutely. A long way to go for school choice.

And Cameron, you wrote a piece this week, which I'll plug big time about school choice and its journey this year. So make sure to go read it at the Texan. Yeah, I covered all the debates, the disagreements, and it's been a long journey for school choice and it's still going. So if you're interested, go read the piece. I cover it all from the kickoff session that we held here at the Texan to where we are now. So go check it out, people. And notable in that, the Lieutenant Governor said he would support the Governor calling back

lawmakers for our fourth special session in February to address school choice. And the Governor said, hey, we're doing it right now. We're doing it in November, the same day the third ends. And so lawmakers, you know, technically will be in session over Thanksgiving. Yeah, well, if Dan Patrick is willing to come back in February, it could be a long, long, long session. Because who knows if they're going to get it done, this special session. They're current, as we're recording this, HB1 is being laid out in a House Committee on Education. So, yeah, we'll be covering it.

Absolutely. Well, thank you, Rob, and thank you, Cameron. Hayden, we're coming to you. Let's talk about border security and a bill to criminalize illegal immigration and the kind of some back and forth that went on at the end of the third special session. What was the more detailed purpose of this border security bill in question? Traditionally, border security is enforced by the federal government. But as we have covered here extensively, the state of Texas is seeking to fill that role more aggressively, and the latest based on repeat offenders for those who crossed the United States into Texas illegally, crossed the U.S. border illegally into Texas. Those could range from misdemeanor to a felony offense. And there would also be criminal penalties for those who disobeyed in order to leave the state of Texas and go back to their country of transit. The state law enforcement and others tasked with enforcing this legislation would have been

indemnified against civil liability. And House Bill 4 is separate from the human smuggling bill that did pass and was sent to the governor's desk, and it would increase criminal penalties for human smuggling and set mandatory minimum sentences. So this bill that we're talking about now would be the bill to criminalize illegal immigration itself at the state level, something that would probably invite clashes between the feds and the state. Absolutely. So why couldn't the lieutenant Governor and the Speaker agree on this bill? Speaker Dade Phelan included and the House included a provision in this bill that would have allowed law enforcement to escort individuals back to ports of entry in lieu of arrest. In other words, a quasi-deportation, taking them back to a port of entry and ordering them to leave. The state of Texas cannot initiate a formal deportation.

As I mentioned, that is a federal duty. But in response to conservatives calling for the state of Texas to truly deport illegal immigrants, Phelan included and the House included this provision in the bill. But Lieutenant Governor Patrick and the Senate removed that provision because Patrick believes it is a, quote, catch and release, end quote, proposal that would have endangered public safety. However, Phelan responded to that argument by saying simply incarcerating illegal immigrants would be a costly alternative to escorting them back to the port of entry. Dueling arguments on that point spelled the demise of that bill. So what were some of the most heated remarks

in their quarrel? Of course, Patrick and Phelan have been bickering since Ken Paxton's acquittal. Their working relationship is more than strained at this point. And that's not just because of this recent issue. It is because of a accumulation of things that have happened over a long period of time. Patrick said, quote, Mr. Speaker, you have become nothing more than hot air. You can peddle your nonsense all day. But the truth is your version of HB4 does not require fingerprints or a background check or anyone detained. That means you don't know who you are sending back to the port of entry. And he later said, it kind of almost seems to be in a condescending tone.

Don't worry, we fixed HB4 to require anyone detained to be identified by fingerprints and background checked. If you agree to concur, we'll send you the bill. If you insist on the dangerous policy of not properly identifying illegal border crossers before sending them back, you're putting the lives of Texans and Americans at great risk, end quote. And that was Patrick's statement to Phelan. Phelan came back and said, quote, this bill was a priority of Governor Abbott's and the House met that priority with decisive action. We did our part. And when the fourth called special session convenes, we will do so again. It is time for the Senate to fulfill its responsibility to the great people of

Texas. We cannot afford to wait any longer, end quote. He further accused Patrick of engaging in, quote, the gears of political machinations, end quote. And this issue is again on the special session agenda for the fourth session. So what is yet to be seen is if they can reach an agreement or if we will go through this entire process again. Absolutely. Hayden, thank you so much. Rob slash Brad, we're coming back to you. We also had an election this week that flew under the radar for some folks, but in some areas of the state, like in House District 2, they had some pretty hot elections on the ballot. House District 2. They had some pretty hot elections on the ballot. House District 2 on November 7th resulted in us kind of figuring out how, you know, which two lawmakers or,

excuse me, candidates would be vying for a spot in the Texas House to fill out the remainder of a term. How did that race turn out? So two Republican candidates, Brent Money and Jill Dutton, advanced to the December runoff with 33% and 23% of the vote, respectively. The third place Republican candidate Heath Hyde came in with 19%, and the lone Democrat Kristen Washington took 13%. The district is rated R82% in the Texans' Texas Partisan Index, so Republicans have a very strong advantage there. Money, who has the backing of Senator Ted Cruz and Attorney General Ken Paxton, has referred to Dutton as a liberal candidate, favored by Speaker Dade Phelan and all his, quote, liberal friends. Dutton has the backing of former Governor Rick Perry and Congressman Lance Gooden. Hyde is a former

criminal, I'm sorry, he is a criminal defense attorney whose biggest backing came from the Texas Farm Bureau. What set him apart from Money and Dutton is his opposition to school choice, which earned him the anger of the American Federation for Children, a school choice advocacy group that has been heavily involved in getting the issue across the finish line in Texas. So AFC came out against Hyde, which definitely set them apart from Dutton and Money. Absolutely. So in looking at these two candidates who advanced to the runoff, what sets Money and Dutton apart from one another? So while they both believe in school choice, Dutton has expressed more interest in bracketing or hold harmless provisions for rural school districts that are afraid of losing students to private schools.

Cameron, correct me if I'm wrong, but the hold harmless provision just means that they'll have some state money. If a student leaves a rural school district, then the rural school district will receive some money from the state to compensate for the loss of that funding. That's right. Thank you very much, Cameron. Dutton also has more endorsements from current house leadership, whereas money does not seem to be a fan of current house leadership. He has said that he would not vote for Phelan as speaker of the Texas House again in 2025. Another thing that the Dutton campaign hit the money campaign over during the campaign was the advertising and $35,000 in donations that money received from Defend Texas Liberty Pack, a conservative group that stirred up a lot of controversy recently when its now former president and former state representative Jonathan Stickland held a meeting with an anti-semitic online commentator named nick fuentes this has caused a lot of a real brouhaha on the texas gop over this and now um we'll have to see how that

plays out if that has any effect when the two would go to a runoff which i believe will be in december yes it will and as a reminder for folks as well house district 2, the representative, Brian Slayton, was expelled from the Texas House after an inappropriate relationship that he had with his intern. And so he was expelled from the Texas House in a pretty historic vote. We thought that would be the most historic thing that happened to this legislature at the time. But this is a special election to fill that seat that had been left vacant after that scandal. So I got to say this year has been absolutely bananas in terms of all of the seemingly historical things that have happened or historic. I should say things that have happened. Our top 10 this year.

Things that happened is going to be quite a list. Well, Rob, thank you so much. Cameron, we're coming back to you. A surprise announcement came from Senator Drew Springer saying he plans not to run for reelection in 2024. Give us some details on the announcement. Yeah, that's right. The announcement came through and everyone was talking in the office like, is this real?

Is this real? Is this happening? And so, yeah, it was surprising because he spent 12 years as an elected official here in Texas, four terms as a representative. Then he became a senator in 2021. And what's interesting is that Springer's seat, Texas senators, they normally hold their seats for four-year terms, but the Texas Constitution requires members of the Senate to draw for two-year terms after the state redraws its political district maps every 10 years. And so in January, Springer pulled the number that determined

his fate as a two-year member. And what's interesting with Springer is he had a very heated election back in 2021. He was replacing the outgoing Pat Fallon, who ended up in U.S. Congress. And his opponent in the race was a Dallas salon owner, a fellow Republican named Shelley Luther. Shelley Luther, who made headlines that year after violating Governor Greg Abbott's order to close certain businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. And those two, Springer and Luther, came down to a special election runoff in which there was a lot of money contributions going back and forth. So it was very heated. But we actually already have a challenger for Springer's seat. Not a challenger, rather someone's put their, thrown their hat in the ring.

This is Carrie DeMore. And she has accused Springer of, quote, being a career politician who has been a close ally of liberal Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan. So already their rhetoric is heated up. And I'm sure we're going to see some surprises for potential candidates for that seat, but only time will tell. Absolutely. Lots of rumors floating around, but we don't, we'll not engage in that. That's right. We only report the facts. That's exactly right. Thank you, Cameron. Rob, we're coming back to you, back to the election. Texans voted on 14 different amendments to the state constitution on Tuesday night, which of them passed and which of them didn't. So out of those 14 propositions, just one failed to pass. That was proposition 13, which would have raised the mandatory retirement age for state

judges from 75 to 79. It failed 37 to 63%. That keeps the current law in place, meaning that judges who hit 75 in the first four years of their six-year terms will be forced to vacate their seat. But if it's in the last two years of their term, they can keep it and finish out the remainder of their term. This also means that the current Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht will be forced to retire at the end of his current term in 2026. Absolutely. So of those that passed, what were the margins? So there were only two that had a bit of a struggle. That was Proposition 10, which did pass, but it'll exempt certain medical supply chain products and property from the business personal property tax and Proposition 12 to abolish the Galveston County Treasurer's Office. The current Galveston County Treasurer ran on a campaign to have the office abolished

and combine its functions with other offices in the Galveston County government. This will still have to be passed by Galveston County voters in particular. But in order to get this done, they actually had to take it to a statewide proposition to vote and see if they could because they're going to have to amend the Texas Constitution to get this done. So first, we have to give it the possibility in the first place. And then Galveston County voters themselves are going to have to vote to get it done. So we'll see if that happens. But it's a very it's certainly one of those interesting things you see in local politics, you know, and how local politics can sometimes spill over into state politics. All of the others passed by pretty large margins, including adding a right to farm to the constitution, creating various state funds

for water projects and broadband infrastructure and the legislature's $13 billion property tax reform plan that was the source of so many headaches earlier this year, back when we thought that that still might also be one of the biggest political fights of the year. We'll see if school choice can give it a run for its money. But the full list is available on the text and Brad wrote a fantastic write-up detailing each of the propositions, how they fared, all that good stuff. So definitely check out Brad's piece on that. My gosh. I'm already looking forward to our end of year wrap-up story where we talk about all the insanity that happened this year. The property tax fight went on for weeks, and that's all but a distant memory at this point. We were like, oh, wow. I guess the House and Senate, man, maybe they can settle their differences. Maybe they can come to an agreement on legislation. Yeah, exactly. My gosh, what a time. Well, thank you, Rob. Matt, we're coming to you. Two school districts in Midland County and one in Odessa saw several

big school bonds pass on election night, totaling over $2 billion. What are the details? Midland ISD's Proposition A is a staggering $1.4 billion bond that will build two new high schools and fund a host of other maintenance issues around the district. And it was not only the largest bond between the two communities that passed, but broke a record for the district and is one of the largest bonds to pass in the state. It passed with a support of 12,404 votes for to 9,699 votes against. Now Midland County is home to one of two different school districts, the other being Greenwood ISD, which saw two bonds pass, a $198 million bond and another $87 million bond, both of which provided for the construction of new school buildings and both passed with strong margins favoring the bonds. In the neighboring county of Ector, ECISD, had three bonds on the ballot and only one that passed, Prop A, was by far the largest bond coming in at just over $424 million. And provide a new CTE or career and technical education, career training, high school, a new middle school, as well as provide funding for campus

wide repairs and maintenance. Now, several PACs were involved in securing the passage of these bonds. We reported on these different ones, most notably one that was involved in getting the Midland bonds to pass, Energize Midland PAC, spent $500,000 supporting the passage of those bond proposals. Now, the passage of these bonds not only broke a recent trend in each community of having rejected school bond proposals in recent years, but not only broke that trend, but passed the largest bonds in each respective district's history. And of course, election night, we saw statewide, probably, I believe it was a majority of the different bonds passed around the state, some 18 billion bonds. Now, one fact for our listeners that I actually discovered after writing this story, but we'll add it in, is on that $1.4 billion Midland bond, taxpayers will actually pay more in interest for the bond. And the interest itself is actually more than the

bond itself. So all told, it'll come out to $2.6 billion. So kind of an interesting thing is they'll pay more in interest on that bond than the actual bond itself. There you go. Well, Matt, thanks so much for your coverage. Hayden, coming to you, we love the story from in a different part of the state than these big urban centers we like to talk about so much. Smith County, looking at a new county courthouse and parking garage. How do county officials feel about the community buy-in for the project? The bond package was passed in November 2022. So the courthouse and parking garage project is a sure thing at this point. And they are moving forward with construction. In fact,

demolition on the portion of the property that will need to be cleared for the parking garage began this week. So they are moving forward with that. The bond package, when it was placed on the ballot in November of 2022, only received 54% of the vote in favor. So there was considerable opposition. However, we spoke with most of the county commissioners and the county judge. Judge Franklin told me that while he believes that people were reticent about the debt load that this project required, he is already hearing

positive feedback on the courthouse project. And he believes as people begin to see the advantages that they will warm up to the idea and there will be more community buy-in. Even one opponent of the project, Commissioner Phillips, told me that he was concerned about the timing of this project, or he originally said that he was concerned about the timing of the project, but that his duty is to guard taxpayer funds. And he does believe that there will be advantages to this project going forward. Well, let's talk about that. What are some of the advantages of the new courthouse project? Well, the current courthouse was built in 1955. And at that time, Smith County had

only two courtrooms. Now there are eight. So they need more space for lawyers, the lawyers and the attorneys to do their jobs. There are also safety issues. And the theme, I talked to three county commissioners and the county judge, and the theme was the safety problems of the current courthouse, the intermingling of defendants, accused criminals and the jurors and the court staff and attorneys who are working these cases. So there will be more privacy, more security in the new courthouse. There will also be better walking distance for jurors. Judge Franklin told me that he characterized it as a dangerous trek that, or not a dangerous trek, a treacherous trek, I think is the phrase he used. Jurors have to walk across train tracks and a great distance to get to the courthouse from the parking facility. So this new parking garage will be

more convenient for jurors. And the advantages of the project itself are going to be cleaning up the downtown area and creating a more walkable area. And that's another thing that Judge Franklin emphasized to me. Are there any concerns about the $179 million debt load? They are cognizant of the risk that incurring that debt invites. However, the impression I got from speaking with all of them is that they believe that they are in a good financial position. In fact, when I spoke to Commissioner John Moore, he said that the debt could possibly be paid off early and they were able to get a good

price on the project. Judge Franklin told me that they got a guaranteed maximum price for the parking garage and they're already saving money on that side of the project. So the cost savings are there. The good fiscal position is there. The county has a AA plus credit rating, so they were able to get a good interest rate and some competitive bids when they sold the bonds. So the financial side of things, there obviously is risk with taking on that much debt, but they seem to be taking a moderate approach, a fiscally conservative approach to this. But we included a bunch of comments, and I actually spoke with the last commissioner this morning as we prepared to record the podcast, so we'll probably be updating the piece with some of her comments soon. So I'd encourage everyone in East Texas to go read that article and to get a sense of this project and some of the advantages and

concerns that are there. Absolutely. Hayden, thank you so much for your coverage. Cameron, the Austin City Council has voted to eliminate the mandatory minimum of parking spaces for new commercial and residential construction projects. Give us the details on this change. Yeah, this is one of those stories when I'm looking for things to write about, come across something that just raises your eyebrows. I need to dig into this. And so there's been some lead up to this. A council member, Zoe Caudry, well, he leading up to this has said that they want to

reduce the dependency on cars. And so just with that mindset coming into this resolution, they made some changes to building codes, striking previous requirements for parking spaces for both, like you mentioned, commercial and residential projects, including eliminating the parking requirements for condominiums, multifamily group residential homes, and retirement housing. And they also eliminated from the building code where the requirements that daycare services and educational facilities provide one parking space for each employee. And what was interesting is there were reviews on the changes they were planning to make. And there was an economic evaluation of how much parking spaces cost

to construct. And it is estimated that it can cost up to $10,000 to build a surface parking space and up to $60,000 to build a structured space for something like a parking garage. I thought that was very interesting. It seemed very high. I would never have imagined it would cost that much to make just a single parking space. And there was two votes against these changes to the building codes. One council member, Allison Alter, who, like I said, voted against it. She talked about the unintended consequences that could occur with changes like this. And so I looked for some data on this, and there is actually census data that shows just over 6% of Austinites carpool to work, and only 2.2% take public transit, and over 56% of people drive alone to work. And so it's going to be interesting how people are going to manage parking their cars without the necessary spaces at new properties if a high percentage of people are driving to work.

And so this is something that will play out in the future. There is always a lot of construction going on in Austin, as we all know. So only time will tell how this will work out. Absolutely. Cameron, thank you so much for your coverage. Kim, we are finally coming to you, my dear. Now that the November election is over, the next big election cycle involves the primaries. Tell us about a recent development that may affect how large Texas counties handle their primary elections.

Well, as we know, the primary election is actually a function of political parties for choosing their candidates for office. Different states choose different ways of doing that. In Texas, we have a primary, and it will take place on March 5th of 2024. And of course, it's a big one because it involves presidential nominees, and that always draws out a large crowd of voters. Well, apparently during the most recent regular legislative session, a law authored by Senator Drew Springer, whom we mentioned earlier, was passed, meant to give flexibility to some of the smaller counties to allow them to combine precincts in running their primary, a practice that larger counties have been doing

for several election cycles. However, instead of what it intended to do, it seems to have limited the options for larger counties. This came to the attention of newly elected Tarrant County GOP Chair Beau French. He's the chair in one of those large counties, Tarrant County, and he realized that they would not be able to combine precincts as they've done in the past and instead would have to operate 347 precincts rather than the 192 that they've been using. So this requires more manpower, more money, more machines. And French told the Texan that there's not enough time to get the needed machines. So he and Republican Party of Texas Chair Matt Rinaldi penned a letter to Governor Abbott asking the governor to add this matter to the fourth special session call

so that they can hopefully remedy this issue before the March primary. And Senator Springer has already authored a repair bill to fix this issue. So it hasn't been added to the call as far as I know, but they're hoping he will. And I certainly know that folks within the Republican Party of Texas, like you're saying, Kim, are very aware of this issue and looking forward to the primaries thinking, OK, how are we going to make this work? So certainly I'm sure we'll see something happen before the primaries roll around. What that will be, who knows. But Kim, thank you so much for your coverage. And I'm sure we'll keep our eyes on that going forward. Hayden, coming to you next. Let's talk

Ken Paxton and Nate Paul. What are the latest charges against Austin real estate developer Nate Paul? Many of our listeners will be familiar with Nate Paul's name. He is the Austin real estate developer who was the subject of many charges of financial fraud related to his business dealings. He is accused of lying to financial institutions here in the U.S. and internationally to acquire millions of dollars in loans illegitimately. Prosecutors added an additional four counts against him this week, including three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was already facing hundreds of years in prison on the existing indictment. This new superseding indictment is just throwing the book at him even more. His trial was originally scheduled to take place in August, but a judge agreed to delay that trial until next summer after the proceedings against Ken Paxton.

Do these charges directly relate to Ken Paxton? They do not. These charges against Paul are related to his business dealings and do not directly relate to the Attorney General or the Office of the Attorney General. The articles of impeachment were not about these business dealings in particular. The Senate acquitted Paxton of accepting bribes from Paul in a separate matter. These are also not related to the securities fraud charges that Attorney General Ken Paxton is facing an April trial date next year. So these are all separate cases. Paul is accused separately from Paxton of committing financial fraud.

There you go, Hayden. Thank you so much. Matt, coming to you, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up a case of a Texas gun rights activist and gun store owner who is challenging a Trump administration-era ban on rifle bump stocks. Give us the details. We've been following this case from the beginning. And to give our listeners who are not familiar with the details of the case, the Trump administration responded to the mass shooting in Las Vegas by issuing an executive order to redefine rifle bump stocks as machine guns.

The mass murder in that Las Vegas shooting apparently used bump stocks to carry out the shooting. For those that don't know what a bump stock is, you typically see them installed on rifles like the AR-15, and it's kind of a silly little device that allows the recoil to have the shooter's trigger finger bump the trigger repeatedly very quickly, allowing the semi-automatic rifle to fire at a rate of fire similar to that of a machine gun. Anyway, since all bump stocks were made in recent years, being a rather recent invention, civilians cannot own machine guns that were made after 1986. So the Trump administration's order, essentially redefining the bump stock as a machine gun to include a bump stock. Cargill has explained that his case is more of a question of administrative rulemaking powers as opposed to a Second Amendment case, adding that he doesn't really care for bump stocks,

but if left unchallenged, other gun rights issues could be impacted by future abuses of administrative rule changes. Cargill's case has seen both wins and losses. The last court to hear the case, a full in-bonk panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled in his favor, writing that the bump stock rule was illegal. The Department of Justice appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, who just recently agreed to take up the case in the spring and settle the issue once and for all. Now, I should mention to kind of segue off something that Cargill said, that he was worried about other similar rule changes being used to impact potentially gun rights. with a ban on popular pistol stabilizing braces. And we're actually working on a story this morning at the Texan about a federal judge out of Amarillo's decision to place a nationwide injunction against the enforcement of that

rule. So keep an eye out. We'll have that story out soon on the Texan. Absolutely, Matt. Thank you so much. Cameron, coming to you, the escalating nature of the conflict between Hamas and Israel has prompted many Texas politicians to be vocal about what should be done. Give us the latest that's being said by some Democrats in the Texas House. Yeah, that's right. So there was a letter that was issued by Representatives Ron Reynolds, John Bryant, Terry Meza, and Anna Marie Ramos. They all signed their names to this letter stating that, quote, a ceasefire is the first step towards bringing about the much needed calm that can pave the way for dialogue and peaceful resolution. And in this

letter, they call on Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa to request President Joe Biden call for a ceasefire. And this is just the latest in a long line of Texas politicians being vocal about the conflict in the Middle East. We have seen comments from Ted Cruz immediately after, where he voiced his support for Israel condemning the attacks by Hamas. Same from Governor Greg Abbott here in the state, where Abbott actually increased security for Jewish organizations and released funds to increase the security for synagogues here in the state. And Abbott actually visited Israel recently, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And during the meeting with Netanyahu, he had said that there was discussions about partnerships with the Jewish people as they rebuild. So many Texan politicians have been

vocal in their support of Israel during this conflict. I thought it would be interesting to mention, because after this letter came out from these House Democrats, there was lots of discussion about it online, and there was a House representative, Donna Howard, who noted that despite her name not being on that letter, she did mention on Twitter that the House did pass a resolution condemning the attacks and saying they reaffirm their support for Israel. But then Adam Lowy, who he is a prominent voice online and in Texas here. I'm sure everyone's seen his billboards. He pointed out on Twitter in a series of responses that the letter from those four House Democrats did not include an explicit sentence condemning the attack on 10-7 of last month. So there is a continued discussion going on about the conflict in the Middle East, and I'm sure it will continue. Absolutely, Cameron. Thank you. Matt, coming to you, while being pursued by law enforcement, a human smuggler crashed his car, killing eight

people, including an elderly couple from Georgia in another car. Walk us through the details of this horrific tragedy. This is a very tragic story that officials just broke last night. But essentially what occurred, according to the Department of Public Safety, was that deputies with the Zavala County Sheriff's Office were pursuing a suspected human smuggler near Batesville, Texas, Tuesday, when the smuggler, who's not been yet named by law enforcement, had a head-on collision, killing himself and five passengers and two residents of Georgia that were in the opposing vehicle.

The driver of the smuggler, I should say, was from Houston and was driving a Honda sedan, and deputies had attempted to stop the vehicle on human smuggling suspicion. When he attempted to pass an 18-wheeler in a no-passing zone, the vehicle collided head-on with a Chevy SUV driven by an elderly couple from Dalton, Georgia, Jose Lerma, who was age 67, and Isabel Lerma, who was age 65. According to News Nation, the Lermas were driving to Zacatecas, Mexico, to visit one of their five children, one of whom lives in Mexico. DPS confirmed that several of the deceased passengers in the suspected smuggler's vehicle were foreign nationals from Honduras. Now, Representative Tony Gonzalez, who represents Congressional District 23 along the southern border, including the area where the crash occurred, reacted to the news of the crash, saying that Americans were killed yesterday in his district

due to this border crisis, and saying that enough of enough, we need change now. Now, we also noted in our story that police pursuits of human smugglers have become a common sight in many communities along Texas's southern border with Mexico, often creating a dangerous situation. The Texas legislature recently responded to the prevalence of human smuggling with the passage of Senate Bill 4 by Senator Pete Flores, a Pleasanton Republican, which imposes mandatory minimum prison sentences for those convicted of human smuggling ranging from 5 to 25 years, lawmakers impose the mandatory minimums with the intent of trying to act as a

deterrence to those who are interested in engaging in the criminal act. Absolutely. Well, Matt, thank you so much for covering and folks will have a story. How about the text and if you want to read all about it? Kim, we are coming to you. Last but certainly not least, a great story to end on. Saturday is Veterans Day, and we so love to honor our veterans here at the Texan. Tell us about how Texans were involved in a very important raid during World War II. Well, certainly, Mackenzie, we want to wish everyone, all the veterans, a happy Veterans Day and thank them for their service to our country. I personally have a family full of veterans, so it was my honor to write this story honoring veterans.

And it was gratifying to learn how Texans contributed to the effort. So I chose to feature this instance from World War II. On the morning of April 18, 1942, Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle and 79 men who had volunteered for what was termed a very dangerous mission embarked on what came to be called the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, Japan. And it was the first incursion by the Americans attacking the Japanese islands directly after their attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. And Texas played an outsized role in the Doolittle Raid. 11 of the 32 pilots and co-pilots aboard the B-25 bombers were native Texans more than any other state. And one pilot was born in the small West Texas town of Robert Lee and then was raised in East Texas, Greenville specifically. His name was Dean Hallmark. He was the pilot of Crew 6 and was successful on his bombing raid of downtown Tokyo. But then, running out of fuel, had to conduct a water landing just inside of the Chinese mainland. He and two other of his five crew members survived.

But I don't want to give all the details away. I encourage our readers to go to the Texans website. The story will be posted on Friday and check it out. See what happened after the water landing. Absolutely. Kim, thank you so much. And certainly a wonderful story for folks to go check out at the Texan. OK, let's move on to our Twittery section here, folks. Let's see what we have here. We have a lot of fun potentials here. Matt, I'm going to start with you. And I just noticed a little bit ago that the Federal Aviation Administration has granted a launch license to SpaceX for the launch of Starship 2. Now, these are, if you'll remember, I believe it was earlier this year, he launched, Elon Musk with the spacex launched the largest rocket in history basically just this enormous rocket and uh you know you saw it the thrusters and everything like that was so dramatic it it destroyed the launch pad and and then uh you know a minute or two into flight you know it exploded well he's already built another one.

They say that they've ironed out the kinks. They've fixed the launch pad where the new rocket won't destroy it by building these big, I guess they flood the launch pad with water jets. And that's going to keep the enormous thrusters and everything like that from just destroying everything again. Uh, but anyway, they've,

they've been going through all kinds of, uh, uh, processes with oodles of administrative agencies from the U S fish and wildlife service to the federal aviation administration, all that sort of stuff, to check lots of boxes and get the approval to launch

the second one of these awesome rockets. And they just granted the launch license and that they have a tentative launch date on Wednesday, November 15th from Starbase, Texas. So, pretty cool thing. I've always wanted to go to one of those so who knows maybe maybe my boss will let me go Matt and his space beat it'd be cool we'll have to figure it out Matthew reporter your space reporter I know I'm surprised I can't

remember when we talked a few weeks ago about beats we would want if we weren't just covering the texas political scene and i can't remember if you said space or not i did say space okay then never mind that's irrelevant but usually usually the only two who ever write about space is either me or cameron yes cameron likes it too cameron's just he just has his finger on the pulse of what's going on. Yeah, well,

I just think Elon Musk is a fascinating guy with all the stuff he's doing. I think SpaceX is just one arm of the many

tentacles he has affecting, affecting culture and, yeah, but SpaceX, very cool. Absolutely. Well, Hayden, you have something here.

Oh, sorry, Matt, go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say, I have no idea how he manages to do what all he does, but I think I understand now why he wants to create that external brain to increase the human brain's thinking capacity or whatnot because he he runs Twitter and SpaceX and I don't even know how many other companies and all that sort of stuff so yeah very interesting guy it makes a conspiratorial part of my brain itch a little bit yeah there's a lot going on with you very very very cy cyborg. There's so much going on.

Well, Hayden has something here that I'm pretty excited to know what he has to say. So, Hayden, what did you see on Twitter this week? Well, I'm a little bit obsessed with true crime, obviously. And one of the cases that has really hit the headlines a lot this year is the Alec Murdoch trial in South Carolina. For those of you who don't know who this is, he is a former personal injury attorney who was convicted earlier this year of murdering his wife and son as a ploy to get sympathy as he faced the prospect of going to prison for financial fraud. And he also pleaded guilty there too. But the clerk of court in that case was accused of trying to improperly influence the jury. And she issued an affidavit. Well, she didn't issue an affidavit. She gave a

statement or a deposition firmly denying all of those allegations. And this is presumably part of the South Carolina State Police's investigation of these claims. So she's coming out swinging, saying, I did not do this. I did not improperly influence the jury. And it'd be a pretty big deal if it was shown that she did, because that could result in charges being the conviction being tossed and him getting a new trial. Yeah. Which is the whole aim there, right? I mean, that's the strategy that we're seeing from his lawyers. I had not seen that. So Hayden, you're breaking news to me. That's exciting. Okay. Well, Rob, you've got some history here. I'm saving Kim and Cameron's for last. We're going to go Rob next. Yeah. So I remember Matt calling himself space reporter. That's his big interest. Well,

mine is history. And so today in 1989 on November 9th, the Berlin Wall fell. East Germany opened up checkpoints that allowed people to travel to and from West Berlin. It's a really interesting story if you don't know actually how the Berlin Wall fell. Because what happened, if I recall correctly, is they made a mistake. The people in charge made a mistake saying, yes, you can let people through. And later they were like, wait, hold on. No, you can't actually let people through. But by that point, there were already people streaming through and it was inevitable from there. There's all the famous pictures of people tearing it down. Um, I've actually gotten to see a bit of the Berlin wall at the Gerald Ford museum in, Oh, I should be able to remember this better. Um,

and great grand Rapids in Michigan. Um, yeah, they have a big old piece of the Berlin wall with all the graffiti and everything. And it's interesting cause you know, it's, it's a very recent bit of history. You know, I mean, of course, many people can remember when it fell. I can't personally remember when it fell as I did not exist yet, but it's, it's interesting to see something like that and remember just how recent it was that this, this wall still existed, cutting,

cutting Berlin in half. So it makes you feel better. I didn't exist either. Okay. Well we can commiserate together on that i didn't yeah i was gonna say i think we're all in the same boat we're really showing our showing our age or lack thereof oh my gosh wait what do you remember about that day well i was a senior in high school, so I remember it very well. Yep. And it was amazing because I was a Cold War baby. And so to think that the Berlin Wall had fell.

I was in Germany right after it reunited in 1992. Wow. I bought a piece of the Berlin Wall for my dad, because he had been in the Air Force during that period. So it was pretty exciting to go and see the Brandenburg Gate and see East Berlin before it got revamped. It was still very communist looking, very gray, very dilapidated. Wow. Oh, that's so cool that you got to go there right after too, and just witness it with yourself. That's incredible, Kim. Um, well, Kim, we're going to come to you then. Why don't we talk about what you had, uh, your eye on this week? Now,

you're not a big Twitter gal. That's not your, it's not your thing, but what would you bring? You can spy on Twitter sometimes without being on Twitter. Ooh. Yeah, there you go. So I've been accused of being a political junkie from time to time, so I joined the five other people in the world who watched the Republican debate on Wednesday night. And I saw Megyn Kelly's take on it was nothing changed. Trump won. Of course, the former president was not present on the stage. It was five other candidates, Rhonda Santos, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Chris Christie, and Vivek Ramaswamy. And, you know, they're looking to set themselves apart.

And I just didn't notice that anyone really did that. So I agree with Megyn Kelly, sort of Trump won. Nobody stuck out, particularly many of their answers were very similar to one another. So there you go. That washed it. All right. All right. We have 40% of the viewership right here. Well, I thought what Vivek did in his opening statement, calling out the RNC chair, that that was very interesting. I thought it was interesting, but I don't think it's going to get him voters. Yeah. Calling out the moderators as well. And then what I was going to bring up for my tweetery was there was a lot of back and forth between Nikki Haley and Vivek. And there was a lot of discussions about Ukraine and Israel. And Vivek is very much a non-interventionalist, and Haley is much more of the old guard of the GOP, you know, with sending aid and weapons and things. And at one point, Vivek called her Dick Cheney in four- heels and so on she had a quit back and on twitter she put it out there as well she

said the vague i wear heels they're not for a fashion statement they're for ammunition and so i just need help sort of interpreting that statement. That's a head scratcher. One person in the comments is like, does that mean you were the person who threw the shoe at George W. Bush? I just saw that clip again, too, on Twitter the other day. It'd be like a Mission Impossible something, like got something packed into the heels for future use. Well, it also would make more sense if she said they're also a weapon as opposed to ammunition. That's an interesting... I don't understand. Kim, what do you make of that?

She did say during the debate, they're five inches, not four. Right. She was sure to point that out. I was bum-fuzzled by that comment too to be frank cameron i was like at the time she said it i was like what their ammunition yeah all i could figure you know there's that there's been that little controversy about ronda santis's shoe lift oh i've been seeing some of that online too what is that all about about? Could you, could you, you mean shoegate? Yeah.

Bootgate. He apparently has boots and they think he has a lift inside the boot. Maybe to make him seem taller. Seeing some pictures where they like draw, like there's like a inserted heel. I don't know too much about it though. Yeah. I don't know either.

It's silly. It's definitely far more important than policy disagreements. This is the most important thing about who's running for president is do they do they or do they not wear lifts in their shoes? Exactly. Well, what a time. Well, I may have to tune into the next presidential debate just to be able to talk about it with Cameron and Kim. Kim, I also appreciate that you just used the word bum-fuzzled in the sentence. All right. That's showing my age there, too. I love it. I may have to incorporate that into an article here pretty soon. So when I do,

know that you were the inspiration. Thank you, Hayden. I won't edit it out. I'm so game. I love it. Well, folks, we so appreciate you listening to our podcast each and every week. Gentlemen, Kim, thank you for joining me. I appreciate your time and your coverage and all the important and intellectual things you have to say. So thank you for joining. Folks, we'll catch you on next week's episode.

Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, 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.