The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - October 18, 2024

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free "Remember the Alamo" hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/ The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion. Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.This week on The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup,” the team discusses:Cruz, Allred Spar Over the Border, Abortion, and Biological Men in Women’s Sports in Lone Senate DebateTexas Board of Pardons and Paroles Denies Robert Roberson Clemency Day Before Scheduled ExecutionSecretary of State Amends Election Advisory to Require Proof of Naturalization for 'Limited Term' ID5th Circuit Court of Appeals Allows Texas to Enforce Voter Integrity LawWhere to Find Sample Ballots, Voter Information for November Election in All 254 Texas CountiesTexas Windstorm Insurance Association Denied 10 Percent Rate Increase, Prefacing Legislative FightLawsuit Challenges New Federal Rule on Small Business Financial ReportingFreedom Caucus Asks Texas Education Agency to Explain Revenue Discrepancies Up to $21 BillionAutonomous Vehicles Expand in Texas, Lawmakers Weigh Future OversightCozen O’Connor Public Strategies - The Beltway BriefingListen for of-the-moment insider insights, framed by the rapidly changing social and...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

It's funny, when I was sitting there watching, the WFAA broadcast showed a graphic that said, unfortunately, tonight's Dancing with the Stars will be basically booted off the air. You can watch it on our streaming platform or whatever because of the debate but that was the first time i realized that carlton from uh the fresh prince of bel-air is like a host on that nice move howdy folks it's mackenzie delulo here with cameron abrams and brad johnson and another episode of the weekly roundup podcast gentlemen it's so good to see you, and I'm excited to be back in the States. We flew in late last night. We're back at it.

We're in Arizona for my brother's wedding, and I'll be back in Texas in no time. So I'm so excited to be back with y'all. Brad already has told me to go back to Europe. So, you know, his welcome lasted approximately 30 seconds, which is to be expected. We'd be weirded out if that wasn't the case. Brad's also distracted right now because I believe he's studying his fantasy football lineup. You're dang right I am. This is a pivotal week for me. Cameron, how are you? I'm doing good. I was ready for you to come back because I had some questions about what you were going to be bringing back from your European trip.

How many fancy cheeses were seized by Customs and Border from Customs? How many baguettes or jars of marmalade or uh jars of marmalade eiffel tower keychains that were totally yeah that fall under the category of weapons you know oh that's a good okay that's actually an interesting point because a lot of the key chains at these tourist stops or museums now are kind of soft and cloth like they're made they're almost embroidered instead of being hard so i wonder if that was something you know you made me think about that i don't know if that was the reason why they've gone that route but we noticed that um we have approximately six bottles of balsamic vinegar in our suitcase right now. Wow. We have one very large bottle of wine that my husband got and it came in a big wooden box.

It will probably just be a pretty beautiful accoutrement for a shelf that we have one day. What else did we get? We got... and those were packed in suitcases that go under the plane right you can't carry that on yes okay well we started our trip with like a carry-on and a backpack each for four months so we started super minimal we had a ton of space in both our backpacks and our carry-ons and as the trip went on, we accumulated stuff. So now we have a lot more luggage than we did initially. And we definitely had a couple overweight bags that we had to pay extra fees for bringing back because balsamic and wine are not light. Yeah, Yeah. Any plans for recipes that you learned overseas that you're going to be bringing back to the States that are going to become staples for you? Any

new combinations of ingredients or flavors or anything? Such a good question. I think one thing we noticed is this is going to be blasphemy in Texas. I'm fully aware. So bring it on, people. The French love sauces on their steak. They love a good pepper sauce. They love sauce on their steak. And so I think that's something we'll incorporate is if we get a cheaper cut of meat, put a good old homemade sauce on top. I do like to make sourdough bread.

I know that I love to make bread we're going to be using a lot of that balsamic and olive oil just for the bread that will be a big part of our rhythm um but no i we were going to take a pasta making class and we never did big mistake should have done it but i think pasta is actually pretty easy to make so maybe we'll just figure out how to do it at home. Brad, have you ever made homemade pasta? No, but I've watched my Italian family members do it. Okay.

Yeah. Johnson's a notoriously Italian name. So we all should have known. Yeah, that part of the family's last name is Lissandra. There you go. Very Italianian that is so italian well gentlemen it's good to be back with y'all and it's good to be back in um on american soil i was telling the boys before we started recording that going through customs and seeing the flag it was just like one of the more patriotic moments i've ever felt in my life it was awesome i'm so glad to be back and excited to be back with y'all in like a week.

It's going to come so soon. So we're pumped, excited to be back, and just excited to be back working American Hours too. It's nice to wake up at the same time y'all do and go to work at the same time y'all do. And it's awesome. So pumped about it. Gentlemen, let's go ahead and jump into the news. Brad, you were kind of row seat to the debate that was happening in another room. I got to sit with all the other reporters and we watched TV just like everyone else was doing across the state.

You know, there was a spin room after, so it wasn't entirely a waste. But, yeah, it's become more and more commonplace to have no audience in these things. And, you know, from a candidate perspective, I kind of get it. Not having to deal with, you know, the reactions from an audience. Just dealing with the moderator. So I get it from that perspective. From my end, though, it's kind of a little frustrating, but whatever, it's just part of the job. Not worth complaining about that much.

But yeah, so the debate was interesting. It was very entertaining. I thought it was very entertaining. It was a fast-paced one- hour debate put on by WFAA. I thought Jason Whiteley and Gromer Jeffers, who are the two moderators, did a pretty good job, especially in a situation where these candidates are trying to knife each other constantly. And this is their one bat that they have on a debate stage.

They're not doing another debate. It's not going to happen. So this is the one opportunity they have to try and really put a um throw a haymaker during this face-to-face time uh right off the bat cameron you were watching i don't know if you noticed this or uh heard it but when they did the handshake they went up and you know obviously all red's a big towering guy he played football uh cruz is smaller he's not a tiny guy but he's not all red size they go they do a handshake smile at each other and cruz like slaps all red's forearm uh like you can't see and it was not out of play you see that happen all the time but yeah you could hear it on the tv

it was that loud so i'm like oh man this is about to be a spectacle and boy so you know the first topic they discussed was abortion kind of expected that's been all reds and democrats wedge issue this entire time. Polling is we talked about so much on this. Polling is not friendly toward Republicans in the current status quo and state on this issue. And, you know, the Republicans know that. That's why generally they're not running on this. Cruz specifically.

He was asked whether he supports rape and incest exceptions. He dodged it, pivoted to, you know, this was a question that the Supreme Court sent back to the states by overturning Roe and the state legislatures will do what they do on it. And, you know, personally, he's pro-life. He was very supportive of the laws that, that the state legislature passed, but he's not really talking about it in this race because he knows it's not a good issue to run on. It's only going to give all red fuel. So he avoided, he avoided that, um, you know, said basically I'm not a state legislator or the governor. So this is not a question that's up to me. And that's a fair point to make. It's also politically motivated. We see Trump at the

top of the ballot making the same kind of case about this is a question to be settled by the states, not the president or Congress. So that was how it started off. Then I think we got into the border a bit. Nobody really got one over on the other on this. I mean, it's a friendlier subject to Cruz and the Republicans because the Biden administration, the White House, and how things have gone up late since Trump left office. So, you know, on balance, I think Cruz probably won that section. But then it got to the transports issue.

And this is one where Cruz, where Allred was really stumped. The moderators asked him a couple of times and pressed him on giving an answer about whether he supports biological men competing in women's sports. And Allred obviously has, we talked about the ads that have been running, All Red has voted against a bill that would have quote, protected girls and women's sports, banned biological males from participating in those. It also was for the Equality Act. It has some aspects of it that are related to fairness of competing in um the sports category

that you identify as gender wise obviously republicans say that's not fair um biological men have a a vast physical advantage over women and know, it's pretty clear that's the case. And this is just a very difficult issue for Democrats to deal with. You know, Allred is kind of dealing with the consequences of this more progressive stance taken in the past on this issue, not just of him, but of the whole Democratic Party. And Republicans are running on it across the country, and it's really working. That's their wedge issue that we've seen talked about a lot. So overall, you know, both candidates were trying to make the case that the other one is the extreme candidate.

We saw a bit of a bipartisan ship off. Both candidates were trying to flex their bipartisan bona fides. And the debates these days are not really going to change anybody's mind unless something massive happens, and nothing massive happened in this debate so I would kind of call it a wash it didn't really um it didn't nobody screwed up such that there's going to be you know one or two viral clips going around constantly about them um you know that's going to hurt them in the polls so I that's that's where I see it was Cameron feel free to give your thoughts on on this I know you watched it but yeah that's going to hurt them in the polls. So that's, that's where I see it was Cameron, feel free to give your thoughts on, on this. I know you watched it, but that was my takeaway. Yeah. Um, I, uh, quite a few thoughts. It was very interesting watching, uh, live on YouTube,

uh, almost 70,000 live viewers at one point, just a massive audience tuned in, just showing the importance of this race for people. I think you're completely right. No one really landed a big blow on the other one. I thought on the transgender sports question, All Red sort of danced around giving a definitive position on it. You know, he has said, I'm a father, I'm a Christian. He went back to that well multiple times through that question. And Cruz, I think people already know how they feel about Cruz. And so I feel like Cruz went into this debate trying to highlight All Red's positions people might not be familiar with. So it was all throughout the night, throughout the debate, he was saying, this was All Red's record on this. This was All Red's record on that.

He kept plugging this website that his team must have put together about All Red's voting record. So I thought that was an interesting sort of play there. And I don't know. Apparently, he said it so many times that he got the website to crash for a bit. Really? Oh, my gosh. Well, 000 of the live stream may not sound like that many but when it comes down to the fact that there are multiple live streams this is a you know a u.s senate race it's televised as well it's a lot of people right this is this is certainly something people were very excited to watch especially i'd say considering the timing of the debate with like you've talked about brad and cameron you just mentioned a lot

of the ads that are going out right now specifically about these wedge issues and also cameron you and i should start some sort of game where every time brad says wedge issues we have to like take a bite of bread and olive oil or something but we it's literally really dance around the obvious we have to take a drink brad this is a family-friendly program um but i think the timing of it was specifically interesting because i believe it was just a couple days before allred released that ad where he like cameron just mentioned said you know i'm a christian i'm a father of course i don't want i forget the exact phrasing the exact phrasing is important here um you know i don't want boys competing in girl sports or something along those

lines very interesting especially considering of course the voting record that cruz has highlighted time and time again of all red and when you are in a race like this these those wedge issues are going to be the ones that are hit time and time again right and if you have a voting record that in any way contradicts it's just a very interesting it was a very interesting timing of the debate for that reason, specifically with the all of these ads coming out and the messages becoming more clear from the candidates. Well, for me, whenever I hear Democratic lawmakers making comments on the biological men and female sports issue. I think language is really important. And something I wish the moderators would have asked when that question was being discussed

was to ask Allred simply, what is a woman? Because I know it's a funny thing. Matt Walsh did the whole documentary, but that's how these language games are sort of played by the different sides of this ideological issue. It's all definitions, right? It's all definitions. this issue because if those on the Democratic left, they use the word woman much differently than Republicans and people on the right do. And so they could say, go ahead, Brad. I was going to jump in and make a point on that with, you know, in, I think this is what you're probably about to say, but I wrote about this in uh fourth reading this week that you know the

the ad that all red put out rebutting cruz's ad on this issue was very cleverly worded um saying all red said to camera you know i don't support boys and girls sports now that's it's trying to toe a line there right It's trying to have your cake and eat it too, because it sounds really moderate to the voters who aren't super progressive, right? adverts while also not losing his progressive base who from their point of view, from their worldview believes that, um, you know, anyone who identifies as a girl is a girl, right? So you can have, uh, you can say, I don't support boys and girls sports, but that doesn't mean you don't support biological males competing amongst biological females. And, you know, from a script writing perspective, I don't know if it'll work, but from a script writing perspective, it was very cleverly worded.

And Democrats know that, right? They see the polling. They know what these wedge issues are. They know where they're hemorrhaging votes, just like Republicans do on abortion right now. It's just the nature of this election. And so that wording is, it's just very interesting to watch. Yeah, Cameron. Talking about another issue that's really important to voters that was brought up in this debate is the issue with immigration and border security. And we saw all red, just like how Kamala Harris has done throughout her media blitz she's gone on over the past week and a half, is they continually bring up the, quote, bipartisan border bill. how those who are supportive of that legislation don't speak about the fact that there is currently

a Democratic president and Democratic vice president who repealed many of the Trump border policies when they came into office. And so, I don't know, it's just interesting to see both the Vice President Kamala Harris on her media blitz and then Colin Allred in this debate using the same sort of talking points, bringing up that bipartisan border legislation that didn't end up passing, but not mentioning the fact that there was policies that were repealed when Biden was elected. But then also that bipartisan border bill was attached to all sorts of different things, including foreign aid that many Republicans were hesitant to cast a vote on since it was tied to all these other things. So it's a very complicated issue. And, you know, in a 60-minute debate, it's hard to get into all those nuances.

Yeah, yeah, I just, it's a very interesting debate watching it. Yeah. If you're looking for a political podcast that goes beyond the headlines, check out the Beltway Briefing. I'm Howard Schweitzer, CEO of Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies. Every week on the Beltway Briefing, our team of former Republican and Democratic presidential appointees, Capitol Hill veterans, and political advocates shares behind-the-scenes perspective that cuts through the noise. If you want the inside scoop, subscribe now to the Beltway Briefing here or wherever you get your podcasts. And on that, you know, there was also on the border thing, crucial point to the Republican border bill that Democrats

voted against, including All Red, that happened, I think, last year at some point. And that was killed in the Democratic Senate. That itself was a nonstarter for the Democrats in the Senate. So both sides are making generally the same arguments about the other strategically, strategy wise. But yeah, like each contention made, both candidates can point to one thing or the other to try and make their case. And that's what they do. And I'll make one more observation on this. So the debate was not held held on a friday night during football season uh it was held on a tuesday in prime time it's funny when i was sitting there watching um i the wfa broadcast

showed a a uh a graphic that said unfortunately tonight's dancing with the stars will be basically booted off the air uh you can watch it on our streaming platform or whatever uh because of the debate but that was the first time i realized that carlton from uh the fresh prince of bel-air is like nice move wait is that really what you came to talk about was carlton um the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is like a host on that. Nice move. Wait, is that really what you came to talk about was Carlton hosting Dancing with the Stars? No, that was just me. Okay. I will say I got so many different tweets and things in my feed about Dancing with the Stars being rescheduled because Steven Adarazic, the bronze medalist, the pommel horse guy from the Olympics,

is on Dancing with the Stars this year. And my feed is almost entirely Olympic stuff still. And Alona Mar, the rugby player with a huge social media following. So I'm, for the first time since I was probably 16 and watching with my parents at home, very aware of Dancing with the Stars this season. It's quite... Maslin says, yeah, Carlton won Dancing with the Stars like 10 seasons ago. But he's hosting now apparently we learned so anyway if i could finish my thought this was held oh my gosh friday night yeah thanks for interrupting it's a real problem you brought

up carlton um uh yeah you're right it's my own fault um so the this this clearly shows that cruz wanted the opportunity to take all right on but he felt he felt the that he needed to um given the state of the race rather six years ago i think if i remember correctly he and beto debated on at least one Friday night during football season. So there's that. And, you know, rather than from the other side, Beto was kind of light on Cruz in the first two debates. Like if I recall correctly, he didn't really attack him.

All right out of the gate attacked Cruz and vice versa. Cruz attacked all of it. so it was a much different kind of debate than what we saw last go around I will say too that we see you know a lot of folks watching the political scene and the political cycle shape you know can always say okay wow everyone's talking points seem to be the same and that can be a critique of the party that you are not aligned with, right? Like, oh, all Democrats are saying the same stuff. They're parodying the same stuff. Oh, all Republicans are saying the same stuff. They're all, you know, marching in line. These campaign messaging cycles are all formed by whatever is going on in the broader scheme of the political world at that point, right? So

that's where a lot of this is coming from is polling numbers, right? The wins at the time, the attacks from the media, all of this is being shaped on either side by everything else that is going on. And so very quickly, candidates can say, okay, if this issue is not polling well, right now, or the general electorate is having an issue with this kind of messaging, they're not going to touch it, right? That's why each election cycle can be so different. And that's why you'll see so many candidates saying the same things. And a lot of these pollsters, consultants, advertisers all work for the same kind of candidate, right? So this is a very, they all know what's going on. It's a very coordinated effort and not in any nefarious way, just in a natural political sense. So that's an interesting

thing to watch and something to keep in mind too, as you're watching a lot of these just messaging cycles continue throughout the election. Well, and Kamala Harris was asked this, she's done so many interviews. I forget which one it was from, but she was asked about how it seems like she's reading from a script, like giving canned answers. Her rebuttal was, it's discipline. And Allred, you put Allred in that same camp, right? Allred is like a picture of campaign discipline when it comes to staying on message i mean he is unbelievably skilled at that and of course that's where as a candidate we could talk about this forever you could you have to balance that okay knowing who you're speaking to as an electorate and

knowing what issues are how to communicate about the issues that you're running on while also being authentic and being relatable to any sort of voter you're trying to appeal to and not coming across as somebody who is just reading from a script. Well, that's why this election turning into the podcast election is, I've seen that headline a couple of times. It's so interesting because we're starting to see the differences between, I know we're getting away from the Cruz Allred debate that we're talking about, but between someone like Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is you can watch five different podcasts and conversations

with Kamala Harris. And like you said, she sticks to the talking points, hits the issues that the polling is saying is important to people. But then you watch five different interviews with Trump, and they're all completely different. Wildly different communication styles. Yeah. So... Right. I mean, and I will say too, folks, this is a really fun segue into plugging Send Me Some Stuff because this week, Cameron and Rob talked a lot about this and the different approaches by these presidential candidates to how they're speaking to different media outlets or podcasts or what their approach is to just getting in front of different demographics.

So certainly worth going and checking out Send Me Some Stuff this week. Brad, do you have something to end us on? Yeah. To put a cap on this debate discussion, Mac, you mentioned how disciplined Allred is. That's absolutely true. Then on the other side we were sitting there that this is a classic matchup of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. And I think that proves true in how it ended up where this is a wash. It's not going to make or break either candidate. And both candidates performed well at times and also got one over on themselves in other segments. So it's really how it turned out.

Standard debate. Absolutely. And folks, I'd encourage you to go read Brad's coverage. Go check out his Twitter if you want live updates from that night while he was there. Brad, thanks for your coverage. Gentlemen, we spent 30 minutes on that. So we're going to go through the rest of our stories here. But a huge story this week. Certainly worth taking some time on. And I mean, the election's right around the corner.

So we'll keep an eye on this for sure. Cameron, Robert Robertson is scheduled to be executed. Tell us what some state lawmakers are doing to intervene in the case. This is something that's certainly month, become, like you mentioned, a national story. Robert Robertson, he was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 2003 in connection with the death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in 2002. And over the past month, a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers have begun to question that conviction and have urged clemency for Roberson. What's been interesting, because I was unfamiliar with this case before it started to gain state and national traction. There's been a years-long process of appeals that someone who is on death row like this

can attempt to appeal to different courts. Roberson and his attorneys have appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court multiple times. But what we were, everyone following this story has been sort of waiting on is the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had an opportunity to recommend clemency or commute the sentence, and they actually declined to do that this week. And the issue at hand has gained so much traction with these lawmakers, they actually called a hearing in the House Criminal Justice Committee, where they brought in different medical experts, people who were prior to being involved

in this case. They had the sheriff at the time come in and give explicit testimony about their thoughts on what was going on. And so it's been very interesting to see all these lawmakers become involved, very actively involved. One of the things that I listened to this morning was Brian Harrison did a radio spot where he has been very clear that he is in favor of the death penalty generally, but that in this case, he thinks there needs to be this new evidence presented offered by these lawmakers is that the state had convicted Robertson on what they're saying is now a debunked theory called shaken baby syndrome. And this has been constantly brought up by these lawmakers, by the medical experts they brought in during the hearing, by the criminal justice reform group, the Innocence Project, who's been very vocal about Roberson's case. But despite this being brought up, like I mentioned just a bit ago, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles was not convinced about this.

Other criminal court appeals were not convinced on this. And I'll just read one of the justifications for why the shaken baby syndrome wasn't enough throughout this appeals process is on October 10th. So this week, the Court of Criminal Appeals declined to halt the execution. Justice Kevin Urie wrote in the decision saying, this is not just a shaken baby case. Reading from this opinion here, quote, applicant has suggested the possibility that the two-year-old child victim had been ill and simply fell out of the bed, but evidence in this case showed that the tiny victim suffered multiple traumas. And that's sort of the other side of this argument, being that autopsy at the time showed that there was blunt force head traumas. Again, when I was listening to Brian Harrison's radio spot this morning, he was bringing up contrary evidence

that the medical examiners might've got stuff wrong. There was more confounding factors that played into why some of this head trauma might've been showing up in some of the medical examinations. So again, there's lots of information going back and forth on the justification for the conviction. Like I said, we're recording this on the day of his execution, the day it's planned to be carried out. There is two possibilities left, or really three. There's been other appeals by Roberson's attorneys to, I believe they submitted another appeal to the Supreme Court. They declined to intervene previously. They could intervene. The Board of Pardons and Paroles, they could come out with another decision. I'm not sure the mechanics of how that will work since they just came out with the decision.

But then also Governor Greg Abbott could intervene and he could place a 30-day pause on the execution. A lot of these lawmakers are really just asking for another retrial so this new evidence can be presented. And yeah, it's a very complicated issue. And lawmakers on both sides of the partisan aisle here, political aisle, are urging for a retrial. And like I mentioned, there's lots of, it's a very complicated issue. Lots of evidence here that people are saying is right. Some people are saying is wrong. But yeah, it's something I'm sure we will keep people updated on as we are recording

this on Thursday. And I'm sure we'll have something out on Friday with what ends up happening. Absolutely. And Cameron's done a great job of covering a very nuanced and difficult topic. So certainly just great coverage all around Cameron. And that was a great explanation for something that's very difficult to cover and very difficult to talk about. So well done on getting all of that information in

front of our readers. And like you said, we'll certainly keep folks updated today. Brad, let's go ahead. Oh, yeah, real fast, Cameron. Just real fast. I'll mention one more kind of wrinkle to this is the House Committee hearing that I mentioned that these lawmakers held this week. They instituted this nuanced legal maneuver to subpoena Roberson to appear in an upcoming hearing. That's another option. I don't know how that will be enforced. But yeah, lots of wrinkles in this. I just wanted to mention that before we moved on. Yeah, absolutely. Cameron, thank you. Bradley, let's quickly hit a story from Mary Elise, who I miss dearly on this podcast. I'm the solo gal again. So she's off the pod today. But you worked with her on a story with the Secretary of State. There's a lot of back and forth, especially leading up to the election between the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, lots of different things going on there. Can you give us the latest update in terms of the limited term ID debacle that's going on in the state right now? Yeah, so this is something that's been going back and forth for like two, three weeks or so. Originally, the Secretary of State put out

an advisory that stated these temporary or limited term IDs that are issued to mostly people who are noncitizens, how they, in a certain circumstance they can be used as valid voter id that limited circumstance that they had in mind with this is basically someone who used to be a non-citizen who has since been naturalized as a u.s citizen and registered to vote who then still has a valid limited term ID as their form of identification taken to the polling location. So that's what this advisory was intended to address. That sparked this debate about whether that was acceptable or not. Obviously the concerns were that most of the people, the vast majority of the people who have a limited term ID are non-citizens and therefore ineligible to vote.

So the argument is that that should not be a valid form of voter ID. You get into the legal weeds, the conflict is that election code defines a valid form of ID for voter purposes as a few things, including a driver's license. But then the transportation code, the definition there, is expansive enough to include under the umbrella driver's license a limited term ID. So there's back and forth. There's the legal arguments underneath in this, but then it turned into a just full-on PR fight basically between the Attorney General's office and the Secretary of State's office. So ultimately, after this back and forth, the Secretary of State amended its advisory and said limited term IDs will not

be valid forms of identification. This turned into a really big thing, and understandably so with the themes involved. But the amount of people that this would have been valid for in the first place, it was very small to begin with. So on the one side, they were trying to prevent this from just being used by people who are ineligible to vote. On the other side, you have them say, there is a circumstance where this is a valid form of identification.

But ultimately, it will not be used. The advisory went out, and so Secretary of State advised county election officers who actually run the elections – Texas is a bottom-up electoral system administratively – advise them not to accept these. So we'll see if there are any issues that arise during next month's election but for now that kerfuffle is uh is sidelined kerfuffle is a great way to put it and it's certainly crazy back and forth we'll continue to keep an eye on mary lee's has done a great job of keeping folks updated on it and cameron we're going to keep talking about elections

because there's so many just there's a lot going on right now, specifically with the logistics of how the elections will be carried out in Texas. And now Texas will be able to enforce its election integrity laws that were passed back in 2021. The laws that sparked the great quorum break of that year that certainly were a cornerstone of the coverage that year. Tell us what happened. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the state of Texas's request to pause a district court's injunction against a- What a mouthful. Yeah, well, I had to sort of catch up on this because I sort of follow it as Matt was

writing about it, but I picked this up as it came out. There was a district court injunction against a 2021 Texas election law. And this new order notes that the law has been on the books for over three years, but the court did not see fit to enjoin until now. Like you mentioned, this Senate Bill 1 was a key GOP piece of legislation, caused the quorum break, lots of fighting back and forth over this issue. And the reason is because the law creates an offense for, quote, boat harvesting services and specifically bans, quote, in-person interaction with one or more voters in the physical presence of an official ballot, a ballot voted by mail or an application for ballot by mail intended to deliver votes for a specific candidate or measure. So very important piece of legislation here as Texas has really focused on securing voter integrity here in the state. And with this new ruling,

the outcome of this is Attorney General Kane Paxson, he has launched quite a few investigations into voter integrity in a number of different Texas counties. So he had promised to appeal this. He appealed it. Now we have this decision. And I think with this story that I just talked about in terms of the illegal voting with the ID cards and things of that nature. That's why immigration is such a big issue because it affects everything. It affects voting. It affects the economy. We've seen it affect crime statistics across the country and the state. And that's why I think this election is so interesting, is because it's really bringing to the surface fundamental questions about what is a citizen of the United States? You know, we've seen the Biden-Harris administration use the asylum process, the immigration process in very different ways than the Trump administration was using the immigration system.

And it, again, really brings to the forefront this fundamental question of what is a citizen? And it's just so interesting that these questions are now being brought up again in 2024. And I think the average person is asking themselves these sort of fundamental questions once again. Just very interesting. Absolutely. Great coverage, Cameron. And again, something we'll keep an eye on, especially as this all begins. And when we talk about the quorum break, really fast, quick 15-second review. In 2021, this big election integrity bill passed by the GOP in the House and the Senate and the legislature here in Texas was very hotly contested by Democrats, specifically in the Texas House.

And when it was passed, you know, lawmakers, those Democratic lawmakers, particularly opposed, dozens of them opted to flee to D.C. and go advocate in D.C. as opposed to being in Austin to legislate. So very big moment in the legislature and a very hot topic at that time. And certainly, yeah, there's a lot of scuttlebutt going on about all of that and interesting to watch all of this happen. Now, quickly, as the election is approaching, I also want to point folks to some election resources we have at the Texan. We've been reminding folks when the date, the last day to register was. We have, right now, we have where to find sample ballots, voter information for this November general election

in all 254 Texas counties. So we have linked all the voter registration and voter information pages on our website right now, the articles where to find sample ballots, voter information. So certainly go check that out if you're wanting to get an idea of what will be on your ballot.

Early voting does start this next Monday. We will also have a piece up about that. Mary Lee's covered that for us with some information on when and where to cast your ballot. So keep an eye on that. But the election is approaching. Wanted to quickly plug that information. So if you have any questions about how that process works or whether or not you're eligible to vote, certainly go to texan.news and read our articles brad coming to you there was an update related to do you call it twia colloquially okay that's fun um and insurance rates tell us what happened and tell us what

the heck twia is so the texas windstorm insurance, also known as you noted, TWIA, also known as TWIA, proposed a 10% rate increase over the summer. And that rate has been denied by the Texas Department of Insurance, its commissioner, Cassie Brown. She issued an order on Monday rejecting the agency's proposal. The reason the 10% rate increase was proposed was that TWIA's internal rate adequacy analysis, a lot of actuarial stuff that I could not possibly begin to explain the internal workings of, but the analysis found that TWIA's current funding levels are inadequate. They are 38% underfunded for residential policies and 45% underfunded for commercial policies. The commissioner's order stated that TWIA projects future losses from

hurricane damage to exceed 43% of residential policy premiums and nearly 52% of commercial premiums. And so to cover this basically loss in the insurance agency financially, they wanted to raise rates. So that has happened each of the last multiple years in terms of proposing this increase. I think only one year out of the last like five did a rate increase actually

get instituted. Every time this comes up, there's a lot of public opposition, and understandably so, because it's this quasi governmental agency that's jacking up rates, trying to. Their reason is understandable and valid. If they're losing money on this insurance, then they can't really stay in business. Now, the twist is that this is a government-sanctioned insurer, and it's an insurer of last resort. It was created to basically fill a gap where the private insurance market would not go, the coastline in Texas, 14 counties along the Texas coast. And the reason that insurance companies would not go there back in the seventies, it's because, um, the pay, the question of a payout was not really if it was when and how much. So all this stuff is based on projections, estimates. What do we think it'll cost to insure

X thing down the road if it needs to be replaced or fixed in some form or fashion. That's all insurance is. It's basically a shell game of moving money to mitigate risk. Now, because of hurricanes on the coastline, it is very costly to insure. We just saw a hurricane barrel

through that part of the state and cause a lot of damage. That is going we're going to feel that effect for a while, not just physically, but economically through these insurance rates that have already been climbing. We talked earlier this summer about the insurance industry and how premiums are rising. A lot of that has to do with the cost of reinsurance, which is the insurance agencies, insurance industry for insurance companies. You're just passing the cost on to another individual. But that's complicated, but that's how insurance works. So this is always a topic every time this rate comes around and people feel like they're getting, you know, they're getting shaken down by this quasi government entity.

And so, of course, they're going to raise a stink about it. And they did. And they succeeded this time. The basically the the Brown commissioner, she cited these other factors, the fact that the legislature is going to take up this issue and they've been trying to figure out a way to reform TUIA to fix what they see as runaway costs. It's kind of just a downstream effect. There are other aspects of this, of course, because of its nature as a quasi-governmental entity. But at root, the cost problem is something that the entire insurance industry is feeling.

So that's the latest update. We'll see where the legislature takes it. That's a big reason why this 10% rate increase was rejected. There you go. And go read the rest at the Texas.news. Brad, killing it. Awesome. Cameron, coming to you, a small business advocacy group is challenging the federal government regarding a new financial transparency law. Tell us about it.

Yeah. So a small business advocacy group challenging the Corporate Transparency Act and this lawsuit, Texas Top Cop Shop Incorporated, along with a number of other businesses, filed this lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, where they argued the CTA represents an unconstitutional expansion of federal power, threatens privacy and associative interests, and violates individual rights. And so just for some brief background, CTA was passed in 2021, quote, to curb illicit finance and requires many companies doing business in the United States to report information about the individuals who ultimately own and control them. And this has to do with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and they say it has to do with protecting national security, the U.S. financial system, illicit use of funds, things of that nature.

But the National Federation of Independent Businesses is arguing that this new actually going to, in part, compel disclosures of identities of political donors. And so there's this explicit political angle that the lawsuit is arguing about, but then also that it's going to put too much focus on small businesses rather than the large corporate interests that it's purporting to oversee. So just a very interesting lawsuit that I thought would be interesting to our readers, many of whom might own a small business, might run a small side hustle that they are going to have to incur new costs with some of this reporting that is going to be instituted through this CTA. So just a little interesting lawsuit. If there's any developments, make sure to put it out there on the texan.news.

Cameron's got you covered. We're going to stick with you, Cameron. Autonomous vehicle companies have flocked to Texas, but state lawmakers anticipate future regulations to protect public safety. Wow, what a well-formulated question. I just happened to read off of the paper that you wrote for me. Tell us what you found, Cam. Well, I've been trying to really wrap my head around all this technological development in terms of artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, especially here in Texas, where

we've seen many companies come to the state because of the favorable regulations in the state and how the state has really promoted this technological innovation. And it's really exploded. We've seen companies like Uber and Volkswagen, Cruise, launch a lot of their autonomous vehicle pilot programs here in Texas, specifically here in Dallas. And there was actually a recent announcement where Uber is going to be partnering with an awesome tech company. I'm sure people like to get stuff delivered to their house, food, whatever it is. Well, maybe it's been delivered by a robot recently. You know, the Chick-fil-A robot is something you might see driving around Austin.

But Uber is going to actually be doing this same robot delivery service with their Uber Eats app. So I was like, oh, this is very interesting. Interesting. There's actually oversight by the city of Austin and where they allow these what they call personal delivery devices. They have some regulations on that. And there's many companies starting to deploy these delivery robots. And going back all the way to 2017, there was a bill passed here in Texas that allows driverless vehicles to operate in Texas as long as they comply with state traffic laws, they have a recording device, they have proper registration, auto liability, all those things. But two different committees have made comment about, okay, how do you balance promoting technological innovation, but also weighing that with public safety? Because many people have concerns about autonomous vehicles on the roads. There's no one behind the steering wheel, right? So the House Transportation Committee, they covered this

issue. We actually saw Representative John Lujan say putting together a framework for autonomous vehicles could, quote, open up Pandora's box of regulations. We saw in the Senate Transportation Committee, Senator Robert Nichols really echoed these concerns, saying the state needs to be able to be in a position to have a set of rules that everyone agrees on and where these tech companies in the state have similar ideas about how to move forward. And so to promote the innovation, but also ensure public safety. I anticipate this to be a big topic in the legislature this next session, especially with world's richest man, Texas's most famous resident, Elon Musk. He has debuted autonomous robots recently, a brand new cyber taxi at a recent event. So we know Elon has had a lot of influence financially donating to super PACs, really going full in on taking an active role in politics. How much he will be actively involved in the state legislature as the session starts up again,

especially when they address autonomous vehicles and robots and things. So just something I'll be keeping my eye on, something I think our listeners and readers should be keeping their eye on, too. Absolutely. Cameron, thank you so much. And a very interesting read. I'd encourage folks to go check it out at thetexan.news. Really quickly, I want to highlight a few stories from other members of our team that we did not have time to get to today. One from Mary Elise. Freedom Caucus asks the Texas Education Agency to explain revenue discrepancies up to $21 billion. Pretty wild story there and something I'm sure we'll be talking about going into the legislative session. Mary Elise as well had a great interview with

Congresswoman Beth Van Dyne on the Texas election coming up, on the GOP's position, her position with the Texas GOP as victory chair. Certainly worth going and checking out at texan.news. Kim Roberts has a trending story this morning on a laredo journalist and her fight uh for free speech and specifically some uh very interesting u.s supreme court rulings there i'll also plug um her texas history piece that we put out this morning that is such a fun read the republic of texas government moving to austin that's out this morning uh holly hansen has some great stories up as well. A lot of, I mean, Holly just covers so much scuttlebutt, but state seeks recusal of judge

in case of death or inmate over false bench warrant, secretive proceedings. Some spicy stuff there from Holly, so definitely go check those out at the Texan. Gentlemen, I want to make sure we get to our tweeter-y this week because we have some very interesting tweets. Brad, jump in. What you got?

So, this week because we have some very interesting tweets. Brad, jump in. What you got? So there was an update in the case against Todd Smith, who was a longtime political consultant, lobbyist as well, consultant for Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. A couple of years ago, he had been charged with, had been accused of bribery in selling fake hemp licenses to some businesses. Well, finally, after a couple of years back and forth in the courts, we have had a resolution and Todd Smith entered a plea bargain for pleading guilty to, I believe, misdemeanor commercial bribery charge. Second charge of theft of property between $30,000 and $150,000 was dropped.

He was facing a state jail felony. I believe this was in the plea bargain. It was dropped to a misdemeanor and he is prohibited from operating as a lobbyist for 365 days there's a couple other um a couple other stipulations on this but i think that's probably the most significant and the the context of this is that a jury trial was supposed to be held next monday and sid miller himself had been subpoenaed to testify at this so reading between the lines there is a lot of reason to believe that that sparked uh to file this, to agree to this plea bargain. So another interesting part of this was his original attorney in this, Samuel Bassett,

for reasons I am not sure of, withdrew as Smith's counsel. I think that happened a month or two ago, sometime in summer. But overall, that is now done and dusted. It went out with a windburn, I'd say, in terms of what people were expecting to see at this jury trial. But the charges have now been, the case has now been concluded. There you go. Absolutely, Brad, thank you. Cameron, I'm very interested to know what your tweeter-y might be this week.

I'm confused. I want to know more. Well, both presidential candidates have been doing their media rounds, and we saw Kamala Harris sit down with Fox News. Very interesting. Her first very adversarial type of interview saw people labeling her interview as brat versus Brett. Oh, I get it. There was the BRAT movement when she first announced, and then Brett Baier of Fox News. I'd encourage everyone to go listen to it. It was very interesting. The back and forth was something that I hadn't seen from Harris in an interview recently, or at least during this presidential campaign.

And I thought the technique of the interview was super unique as throughout the interview, Brett Baer would bring up a issue or a topic and he would say, you said this at one point, let's listen to the video. And they would play the video of her saying something and ask, do you still feel the same way? Do you have a different position? I hadn't really seen that because it happened throughout the interview. So just very

unique interview. And I think for, you know, maybe people who are undecided right now, wanting to have the full scope of how each of these candidates feel, I think it's good to have presidential candidates face adversarial media and really be pushed on their positions on things. So it was very informative. Absolutely. Well, I want to take this time to also talk about something that's very important in our state and specifically at this time of year. It probably has the same weight for folks and for voters as what you just spoke about, Cameron. So I want to talk about Blue Belt. You mentioned the One one direction guy. I'm not mentioning the one direction guy, but,

um, horrible. It's so sad. So thanks for bringing that up. Right. As I'm about to talk about ice cream and Christmas, Bradley, that's really,

really, uh, yeah, taken in stride, but, um, blue bell, um,

said, or tweeted out today too soon for holiday shopping. Not if you start in the ice cream aisle. Such a good copy. Peppermint Bark ice cream returns to stores beginning today. The flavor is a smooth mint ice cream loaded with luscious dark chocolate flavored chunks and tasty peppermint bark

pieces. I'm so excited about this. It's a delicious Bluebell ice cream flavor. Any Bluebell news immediately sparks competition this. It's a delicious Bluebell ice cream flavor. Any Bluebell news immediately sparks competition among our team because we all

want to tweet it out first. We have 69 days until Christmas. It'll be 68 by the time this podcast goes out. Let's be very cognizant of how quickly we are approaching the Christmas season. It's a very exciting time. That's my tweeter-y.

Shout out Holly Hansen for being the first on the team to tweet it out this week. Yes, Cameron. Well, talk about wedge issues. Mint-flavored ice cream is a wedge issue. You know, people fall on either side of this. You know, for me, I'm not a big mint-flavored ice cream guy. It feels like I brush my teeth with mint-flavored toothpaste. I don't want to eat it.

That's my hot take. That's my hot take. Okay. I think that's fair. I would much rather go for a different flavor, but peppermint bark, I think the Blue Bell does it well. I will not, I will certainly eat it. If it's placed in front of me, I will not turn up my nose at it. It is delicious. All right, Brad's the decider. It's one-on-one. I like it. I don't know. I mean, but some people, that's the thing. Some people's favorite ice cream flavor is like mint chocolate

chip or just generally minty flavored ice creams. I don't get it. I don't get why it's their favorite, but I don't dislike it. I'd much rather have something else. But it's still ice cream. My favorite is boring old vanilla. Yeah. It really fits my personality.

Brad has exquisite taste, as we all know. I think it's due to his lack of smell, you know, it has something to do with it. I am being discriminated against. Well, that's what they say. When one, when you don't have the use of one of your senses,

the others are heightened. So maybe he tastes the vanilla ice cream at such a different level of intensity. That's why it's his favorite maybe his other senses are heightened but i think taste and smell are so closely linked that that might be difficult to prove but maybe his other senses maybe he can like hear a mile away you know or see really well anyways maybe the hearing you know maybe the hearing is what we've got what just happened did Brad go dark for you Cameron or is that just me maybe he's showing off how strong his senses are he can actually see in the dark

oh you know I think you're right I think you're right his computer just died and that's what he said oh gosh I really hope we have his files that really scares me okay folks well on that note um we're gonna go try and troubleshoot and make sure that brad's uh podcast files are all good um good thing we have a backup actually we have a backup recording of his i just remember remember we recorded on two yeah we're good we're good okay cameron thanks for chatting with me i appreciate it it was great. Great to have you back in the States. Woo. I know it changes nothing for you guys, but I'll be back so soon. Folks, thank you so much for listening and we'll catch you next week. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts,

Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, 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 us an email to editor at thetexan.news. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.