The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - October 27, 2023

Episode Date: October 27, 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: Louisiana Congressman Mike Johnson being elected as Speaker of the U.S. House of RepresentativesThe Texas House passing border security bills and a vaccine mandate banAttorney General Ken Paxton suing to stop federal border agents from cutting concertina wireThe 14 constitutional amendments on the ballot for Texas votersA new state law allowing religious chaplains to perform counseling services in public schoolsA Mexican illegal alien sentenced to 15 years in prison after shooting a Seminole police officerThe Texas Department of Public Safety rescuing 14 sex trafficking victimsLt. Gov. Dan Patrick purchasing $3 million in Israeli bonds, the same amount he received from Defend Texas LibertyA speaker at a Texas Association of School Boards event advising teachers on how to teach the 1619 ProjectThe Supreme Court of the United States hearing the First Amendment lawsuit of a former Castle Hills councilwomanThe Texas Lottery setting a new sales record in Fiscal Year 2023

Happy, happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here, and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup. This week, the team discusses Louisiana Congressman Mike Johnson being elected as Speaker of the U.S. House, the Texas House passing border security bills and a vaccine mandate ban, Attorney General Ken Paxton suing to stop federal border agents from cutting concertina wire, the 14 constitutional amendments on the ballot for Texas voters. A new state law allowing religious chaplains to perform counseling services in public schools. A Mexican illegal alien sentenced to 15 years in prison after shooting a police officer. The Texas Department of Public Safety rescuing 14 sex trafficking victims.

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick purchasing $3 million in Israeli bonds, the same amount he received from Defend Texas Liberty. A speaker at a Texas Association of School Boards event advising teachers on how to teach the 1619 Project. The U.S. Supreme Court hearing the First Amendment lawsuit of a former Castle Hills councilwoman and the Texas lottery setting a new sales record in fiscal year 2023. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Howdy folks, Mackenzie here with Brad, Cameron, Matt, and Hayden. We're all back in the office. Welcome back, gentlemen. How precarious was your drive in this morning, Bradley? It wasn't bad because I waited until the hard rain stopped.

Yeah, that works. Okay. Yeah. Matthew? Mine was a religious experience yeah that's what you said when you what did you how did you say it hayden it was awesome he comes in and he goes first words out of his mouth well that commute was a religious experience yeah did you see an ark floating bye yep okay great yeah it was Bye. Yep. Okay. Great. Yeah. It was basically, it was a deluge this morning. There were also tornado warnings. Cameron, was your commute okay for the most part or?

You know, I try and leave early. Like I left at 745, 750 to get here and it took me over 30 minutes because of all the traffic. And then once traffic opened up and it seemed like there was no cars, I got stuck behind someone driving 20 miles an hour on the freeway. Don't you hate that? It was awful. Was that the arc too? That was the arc too. That was the arc. It just turned out there was people riding on the hood of some minivan

and they were just floating. Oh, yeah. The minivan was the arc. Modern day arc. It was wild though. There were rivers going down North Lamar. Literal rivers. It was crazy.

Literal rivers. Not figurative. Texas roads are really great at drainage. So, yes. I would think that they would be classified as rivers. Did you see any fish? I was going to ask that. Gosh, Hayden.

I'm sorry. We've been working together too long. We finish each other's sandwiches. That's what I was going to say. I'm sorry. We've been working together too long. We finish each other's sandwiches. That's what I was going to say. Oh, brother. Okay, well, let's go ahead and jump into the news. Matt, after weeks of deadlock, congressional Republicans were finally able to elect a new speaker of the House. Give us the rundown.

Earlier this month, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz made a motion to vacate the chair, saying now former U.S. Speaker Kevin McCarthy went back on deals he had made to obtain the speakership in January, such as to not pass omnibus legislation and to not run up the national debt. He did, and Gaetz was not happy about it. He and a handful of other Republicans kept McCarthy from being able to secure the 217 votes needed to retain the speakership, removing him from the post. The result of this has been a bitterly divided caucus, unable to rally around three consecutive caucus nominees for speakership, including Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, and Tom Emmer. Some of the moderate holdouts wanted to see a more moderate speaker, and rumors that there was an effort afoot to promote speaker pro tem Patrick McHenry to the job started to surface. Gates quickly put that notion to rest and the deadlock continued. Then all of a sudden, weeks later, a congressman many of us have never heard of, Mike Johnson from Louisiana, tossed his hat into the ring.

And a lot of lawmakers suddenly started dropping their resistance. We saw some Republican lawmakers from across the spectrum start saying, hey, this Mike is a really nice guy, including Texas Congressman Tony Gonzalez, who was one of the three Texas holdouts that prevented Jordan from attaining the speakership. Along with Granger and Elzey. Elzey, that's right. And then you saw people from what you would consider the other side of the GOP caucus, such as Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan, start coalescing around Johnson and saying, you know, he is a nice guy. We all like him. So building up to the vote, you just kept seeing positivity and positivity. And it started feeling like, oh, my gosh, it's going to happen. And the dominoes started to fall in place really quickly. Representative Elise Stefanik, who was the GOP conference leader, nominated Johnson on

the floor, and the roll call vote saw what many began to think was not possible, the United Republican Caucus voting for Johnson and breaking the deadlock. Now, a little bit about the guy who's now second in line to the presidency. He's a married father of four, a constitutional law attorney who used to work with the Texas-based First Liberty Institute, which is a conservative law firm we report on every now and then that has litigated and set landmark Supreme Court precedent focused on religious liberty issues. The decision to elect Johnson has ended a roughly year-long saga of historical events in the U.S. House, or so it seems.

I don't know what other historical firsts and things that they could pull off between now and New Year's, but let's not hold our breath. But it started out with the 15 rounds of voting in January to elect McCarthy, something that hasn't happened in 100 years, to the first ever removal of a sitting U.S. Speaker of the House with the ouster of McCarthy from his position earlier this month, and now Johnson's election to finish out the 118th Congress. There you go, Matt. Thank you for your coverage.

I do want to call out Brad here. I looked at him when he mentioned Mike Johnson because Brad Johnson, the same last name, just a benign little look over. Yeah, that's never happened before. I have never shared a last name with anybody. Brad, if I could let me finish my sentence, I'd be able to finish the story. Oh, okay. So, I just, the benign mention of one Mr. Johnson, so I looked at the other Mr. Johnson

in the room, to which Brad just looked at me like, what? He texted me, he says, third most common name in America, oh boy. And then I called him a snarky son of a gun. You missed, you left out the other text oh my brother from another mother that's what you said there you go yeah keeping up with the johnsons the johnsons that's right well matt thank you let's move on to texas capital news here i'm gonna tag matt and hayden and brad to talk about this next bit. Brad, why don't you give us a 30,000 foot view perspective of what happened on the house floor yesterday? We are in the third

special session this year so far, and you were on the house floor when they took up four bills. Tell us what happened. A lot happened. It did. Is that enough? That was great. Okay. Yeah. This was the first day that the House had a floor calendar. During this special session, they took up four bills, ban of COVID vaccine mandates by private employers, and three border bills. Hayden will give you a rundown of those. But started off with the COVID bill and became clear from the get-go that it would not be easy to pass this.

Democrats were not going to make it easy. They were going to propose a bunch of amendments and call points of order, try and kill the bill. That happened. Then there was a blow-up between Republicans on the bill. Representative Brian Harrison offered an amendment that got point of order by Democrats because it did not adhere to the governor's call, which laid out the topic was a ban of COVID vaccine mandates by private employers. Harrison wanted to extend that to all people.

Then also students, I believe, was another one. Both of those got shot down. Republicans, namely Briscoe Cain, offered another amendment that tried to accomplish the same thing for applying the ban for students as well of medical schools by redefining contractor. It's complicated um but that caused once harrison was speaking in favor of the bill uh that was sponsored by representative jeff leach uh caused a moment of of of tension between the pair because harrison thanked the senate maize middleton the author uh, but not Leach or the House, to which Leach clearly was not happy.

It resulted in Leach going up and giving him some very passive-aggressive pats on the back during the speech. But also very hard pats on the back. Yes, yes. Aggressive pats on the back. While Harrison was at the mic giving his speech. Right, right.

And the two clearly do not like each other. But that was probably, as far as the amendment, whether it's effective or not, there are different opinions on it. Harrison says that it's not effective in helping medical students and nursing students. Other Republicans say it is. I don't know who's right. But they then moved on to the border bills, a couple of them, just standard amendments, points of order from the Democrats, trying to, you know, they know it's going to pass,

but they're trying to make it painful. Then we get to HB4, which was the bill that would create a penalty for illegal entry into the country, into the state. And eventually, Democrats had the filing of amendments Democrats had. From what I was told, over 70 planned. They had only filed about 46. And they had withheld a lot of them until the bill was filed. And the strategy there is to prevent Republicans from finding points of order in advance on the amendments. And because Democrats wanted record votes on any number of things.

And so Republicans were like, no, we're not going to let you do this. It had already been a long day. And so they proposed this motion that is seldom used, but is a, as Hayden pointed out, is a valid parliamentary maneuver. It caused a blow up. The representative Armando Wally was questioning from the back mic. Democrat. Democrat from Houston got a ruling from the speaker that this is allowed. This is a legitimate maneuver.

Then he went up after that and kind of got in, not kind of, did get in Cody Harris's face. The two were apparently pretty good friends, but it was a massive blow up. You can probably see the video of it on Twitter somewhere. A lot of profanity. Yeah. Democrats were yelling at the Republicans. it on Twitter somewhere. A lot of profanity. Yeah. Democrats were yelling at the Republicans. Republicans were kind of standing there and taking it or trying to reason their case. There was not yelling going both ways.

It was more one way, one direction. But that caused the Speaker to hit pause on the night's, at that point, the night's events. What time is it at this point? 6.30 p.m. They'd been on the night's at that point the night's events what time is it at this point 6 30 p.m they'd been on the floor since 10 a.m it's already a pretty long day everyone's just mad everyone's angry at each other uh they're also angry that they're still in austin uh for the third special session um and including a or not including a historic impeachment trial that lasted for a couple of weeks. Yep. And so they they get to that point. Speaker hits the gavel, says we're standing at ease for a half hour until seven o'clock. Well, seven o'clock comes around and there's still nobody on the floor, HOP leadership and Democrats were trying to negotiate a deal on how many more amendments to allow, but not the full 77, or however many they actually wanted to propose.

77 was the number I heard. But that lasted multiple hours. And they finally came back. Then they started doing the process that we all expected would happen. Amendments proposed to strike. The enacting clause was the first one. That's the method to kill the bill. And that went on for a long time. Eventually, Republicans started calling the question on amendments. And I believe a question was called on the bill itself. This is three, four in the morning very late um and eventually what happened what we all knew was going to happen happened the bills all passed the house suspended the rules to pass them all on third reading again that way they don't have to come back today and do it but yeah i mean they're done with them they wash their washed their hands of them, and then it's over to the Senate. Yep. It was a very long day, and yeah, everyone is just sick of each other right now. And as a reminder for folks, this is the third special session this year.

The legislature meets every other year for about five months, and usually every other year there's a special session or two. This has been a pretty long summer and now we're into fall and if there's no school choice proposal passed then there's the likelihood that we'll be called back for more so lots going on yeah and we were talking earlier about how this is it's what they signed up for right but um also it's not usual they're used to just coming in for five months and maybe having a special this has has been, for various reasons, prolonged. And also they make $600 a day. It's like $7,200 a year when they're in session.

And then they get a per diem, but it's still not very much. It's not like this is a full-time job with a salary like you have in other states. Right, by design. It's not a lucrative endeavor to be a state representative. But that just adds to the stress. But they're not back home doing their jobs or whatever it is, running their businesses. They're humans too, right? So they have lives.

They're doctors, attorneys, a lot of them business people who could be making a lot more money doing something else. Exactly. Okay, well, let's get into the actual legislation that was passed and on the floor. We did not see school choice on the floor. We did see a lot of the, you know, meat of the governor's call on the prohibit COVID-19 vaccine mandates by private employers. in such a manner that if you're an employee and your employer makes you take the COVID vaccine as conditioner of employment or takes adverse actions against you if you refuse it, then you can turn in a complaint to the Texas Workforce Commission and they can order the employer to stop and if they don't assess them up to a $10,000 fine. The primary change that occurred in the House from the Senate version is that they upped the fine, as Brad mentioned, from $10,000 to $50,000. That was a Toth amendment, right? That was an amendment by Steve Toth. Yes. a toth amendment right that was a amendment by steve toth yes and that was another point of contention when uh this amendment was on was being proposed jeff leach the sponsor said that he

talked with maize middleton the author who opposed he said opposed it um i think it was was toth or one of the other harrison came up harrison said that he just talked to maize middleton and and i think leach's main problem was that he was worried that without knowing where the body stood on the amendment uh upping it to 50 000 like it might be a disproportionate fine and that it might cause some people that to bail off bill. But whenever he said – He called it a poison pill. Yeah, yeah. It could be a poison pill.

Yeah, and it was just too excessive. And he felt like that 10,000 was just a fitting number, so to speak. So he was just worried to do something that I guess was out of proportion that could jeopardize the legislation. So – but whenever he heard Middleton said he could get it through the Senate, he's like, well, I'm going to vote for it. We'll let the body vote on it. And the amendment passed on. So, we'll see if it stays.

You know, it can always be stripped out in conference, or which Democrat Ann Johnson said she had heard that they're going to, if the bill goes to a conference committee, strip that out and return it to $10,000. But I haven't heard anybody else comment on that. So who knows? And you kind of mentioned the other big parts. Harrison had an amendment to extend the protections to students of higher education. The parliamentarian sustained points of order on those, basically saying they're outside the governor's call.

So then Briscoe Cain did this amendment that kind of messed with the definition of contractor, saying that it, you know, by kind of toying with that language, that it kind of in some circumstances, like students that are employed, like a medical student that's interning or something like that. Doing clinicals. Yeah. And, of course, as you mentioned, there's a big back and forth that I've been trying to, I've been trying to figure out, like, who's right and what the status of the student is. The argument was, they use the word right and what the status the argument was they

use the word benefits in the definition the argument was the benefits apply to getting a degree so therefore they say it does apply to students i yeah who knows yeah so um i i've been trying to sort all this out uh this morning uh and so uh in in a nutshell, for our listeners to understand where things are at, you already had Senate Bill 29 pass earlier this year, which prohibited COVID-19 vaccine mandates by governmental entities like local governments. And that included public schools. So then you still have the private institutions, which is what this amendment was focusing on. So then this Kane amendment would narrow that down to students that have contractor jobs, et cetera, et cetera. So it's closing things down. It might not be all encompassing, but I don't know. We're still figuring it out.

We're still figuring it out. Exactly. Well, Matt, thank you so much for your coverage there. Hayden, let's talk about the border bills that passed. That was a big part of yesterday's discussion. Talk to us about what exactly was in those proposals. I love all of this parliamentary quibbling. I just had to add that as a side note. The substance of the bills that spurred all of this was a series of border security measures, the first of which was House Bill 6, which would appropriate an additional $1.5 billion for border barrier

projects. This would appropriate the funds directly to Governor Abbott's office so he can continue his border wall and border barrier projects. And we'll talk a little bit about some of the concertina wire later. Senate Bill 4, another piece of legislation that passed on a third reading last night, would create mandatory minimum sentences ranging from five years to 25 years for the crimes of human smuggling. It would create affirmative defenses, however, for close family members who are found guilty of smuggling another close family member. House Bill 4 was what really set off the bombs last night in terms of Representative Wally's confrontation with Representative Harris and the hours of heated debate that ensued. It would criminalize illegal immigration at the state level.

A lot of people think to themselves, is this not already a crime? And it is criminalized at the federal level, but this legislation would make it illegal, criminal at the state level. It would also authorize state law enforcement to escort illegal immigrants back to a port of entry and order them to leave. Further, it would make it a second-degree felony for an illegal immigrant to disobey an order by a Texas peace officer to leave the country if instructed to do so. That's an outline of the border security bills that were passed yesterday on third reading. I believe the only legislation that received

bipartisan support was the human smuggling bill. The other bills were passed along party lines, it seems, although a few Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the bill to set the mandatory minimum sentences for human smuggling. There you go, Hayden. Thank you so much. And now we know, Brad, really quickly looking forward, we have about a week left in this third special session, not much time. School choice is still on the docket. What else are we looking for and waiting for in the final week of this session? We'll be waiting for whatever conference committee reports come out of the bills that we just discussed. And then we'll be waiting to see what the legislature does on education. The House wants to combine a teacher pay raise, education funding increase, and school choice

program together. The Senate is less about that, I think, although they might compromise on that. But the question is, does anything on school choice pass? And if not, will Governor Abbott call them back for a November special? There you go. Absolutely. Thank you, Bradley. Hayden, let's pivot here. Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Biden

administration. This week, we're kind of, you know, back to basics here, back to normal Paxton suing Biden. This is where we're at. Talk to us about the substance of the complaint. It's news and it's not when Attorney General Paxton sues the federal government, because this is certainly his patternina wire the state of Texas has placed to deter illegal immigration and make it more difficult to cross the border unlawfully. And some border sheriffs and other law enforcement have described these types of border barriers as a funnel as well to direct people to areas where it is more accessible to enforce border security. The destruction of private property is part of the complaint. Attorney General Paxton is claiming that the feds are unlawfully destroying private property in an arbitrary and capricious fashion and that they are acting outside of their lawful statutory authority by working against the state of Texas in its border security efforts, setting up this concertina wire as a way to prevent illegal entry into the country.

This lawsuit was filed in a federal courtroom in Del Rio, where Paxton is asking this federal judge to stop the feds, essentially ordered them to cease and desist. Tearing down the concertina wire that the Abbott administration has put there to deter illegal immigration. There you go. What is the focal point of the conflict between Texas and the federal government? The conflict centers on the federal government's contention that the state of Texas is trying to commandeer something that is a federal responsibility, and that is regulating immigration to the United States and enforcing border security. Texas contends that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and the

federal government is not doing enough to secure the border and it has a right to build these barriers on its own private property. However, Mayorkas and the federal government says that the Abbott administration is veering outside its lane and encroaching on something that the federal government's job, encroaching on something that is the federal government's job to enforce. What could this mean for the state's border security efforts? If the federal judge sides with the federal government and the Fifth Circuit does not somehow quash that decision, it would possibly create a standoff between the feds and Abbott or force the state of Texas to come up with a more inventive way to secure the border. That does not involve putting up concertina wire that federal agents are simply going to tear down. There you go. Thank you, Hayden. Bradley, we're coming to you. We are in the process of early voting here. Give us a quick rundown of the 14 constitutional amendments on the ballot. Yes. So there are 14 on the ballot. I'll go through them quickly. But if you want more

detailed rundown, check out our story. Proposition one is a right to farm. Two is a child care facility tax exemption, exempting daycare facilities from property taxes. Number three is a constitutional prohibition on the wealth tax. Four is the big property tax reform constitutional amendment that we've talked about ad nauseum on this podcast. Five is creating the Texas University Fund that will allow Texas Tech and the University of Houston and other state schools to get some additional state funding. Prop six is the Texas Water Fund to assist with building water supply projects. Prop seven is the Texas Energy Fund, similarly intentioned only for dispatchable power plants construction. Prop eight is another similar one for broadband infrastructure expansion. 9 is a retired teacher cost of living adjustment. 10 would exempt certain medical products,

business personal property from taxation. 11 is a local issue to create the El Paso Conservation Fund and Reclamation District that will give that bureaucracy taxing and borrowing authority. Prop 12 would abolish the Galveston County Treasurer's Office. Prop 13 would increase the mandatory retirement age for judges from 75 to 79. And then finally, Prop 14 would create the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund that will facilitate the expansion and maintenance of the state's parks. There you go, Bradley. Thank you. Cameron, let's move to some of your education beats here while you wait for the legislature to get its act together on school choice and get some movement happening. You still had no shortage of education stories to cover. A new state law will allow chaplains to play a role in schools. Tell us a little bit about how districts

are reacting. Yeah. So in this past legislative session, Senate Bill 763 was passed into law that allows school districts the option of accepting and hiring or allowing volunteer chaplains to perform duties similar to that of a school counselor. Some school districts have agreed with this sentiment and have voted to allow chaplains into these schools, while some have opposed it. Dallas ISD recently passed a resolution to not let chaplains provide support services and programs for students, as well as Kerrville ISD passed a similar resolution this month. Many districts in Texas have taken the opposite approach and have adopted resolutions to allow chaplains into their schools. Round Rock ISD, Mineola ISD, Georgetown ISD, among others, have voted to accept chaplains as volunteers. What are some of the background that would necessitate a law like this?

Yeah. So I was looking into this to try to understand why chaplains might be necessary in these schools. And I came across some mental health surveys, one done by Mental Health America, which showed 16% of those age 12 to 17 reported suffering at least one major depressive episode in the past year. And 60% of youth with major depression reported not receiving any mental health treatment. I also came across some numbers about why that might be happening. And it seems as though the COVID-19 lockdowns have exacerbated that as we saw depression and anxiety doubled by some measures during the pandemic. And there was also a report that was released by TEA in collaboration with the Collaborative Task Force on School Mental Health Services. And they did find there were many students having access to counselors and nurses within their districts, as well as 84% of districts in Texas employ a psychologist or a

licensed specialist in school psychology. But within that report as well, there was lacking assistance to those school psychologists. And they had said in the report, they welcomed the input of community mentors. So that could be the alignment with the chaplains being necessary in these school districts. There you go, Cameron. Thank you so much. Hayden, federal prosecutors announced that a Mexican illegal immigrant was sentenced to prison for shooting a police officer. What were the circumstances of the crime? A Mexican illegal immigrant pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge of possessing a firearm by an illegal alien. He admitted that during a traffic stop in West Texas, he opened fire on a police officer who initiated the traffic stop. He also tried to flee the scene.

And as he did so, he dropped a nine millimeter semi-automatic handgun and he was taken into custody by federal authorities. What is the broader picture of crime committed by illegal immigrants? Well, the standard argument on this issue is that illegal immigrants commit less crime as a group in terms of the total crime rate. However, conservatives also counter that the crime rate among illegal immigrants ought to be zero if border security was tighter. But the federal government does publish data regarding suspected criminals who are caught crossing the border illegally. Governor Greg Abbott's office also published his information related to Operation Lone Star, which is the state's effort against illegal immigration. 35,500 suspected criminals were stopped by state police and National Guardsmen for crossing the border unlawfully. They were

suspected criminals, and that resulted in 32,300 felony charges, according to data published last week by the Abbott administration. Federal border guards also encountered 15,267 illegal aliens with criminal convictions during fiscal year 2023, according to the most recent federal data available. There you go, Hayden. Thank you. Matt, coming to you. Law enforcement from local, state, and federal agencies worked together in a joint four-day operation to crack down on human traffickers that resulted in seven arrests

and 14 victims rescued. Give us the details. Operations like this have become a common story that we report on here at the Texan. In this case, the Department of Public Safety says they targeted those seeking to exploit human trafficking victims via online communications in a four-day long operation that occurred last week that resulted in the arrest of seven individuals for felony-level solicitation of prostitution. Most of the suspects that were arrested were from the Midland-Odessa area. DPS noted that they worked with federal law enforcement in addition to Ector County, Odessa Police Department, and the Midland Police Department in the operation.

DPS says that they also rescued 14 human trafficking victims who were from around the United States, but I believe they noted in the press release that the victims were present here in the state of Texas. Unfortunately, human trafficking incidents like this are a frequent occurrence. In August, we reported on an operation in El Paso where a 13-year-old victim was rescued in a stash house, with DPS saying that there were some 250 similar stash houses that they found in that region alone this year. State officials have said that the prevalence of human trafficking is directly tied to the crisis at the southern border. There you go. Hayden, thank you so much. Bradley, coming to you. The story that seems to find new life every day had a big update this week.

What did Lieutenant Governor Patrick announce related to the ongoing Defend Texas Liberty story? So Patrick announced his campaign would purchase $3 million worth of Israeli government bonds to assist the Jewish state with financial liquidity in its war against Hamas. The amount is exactly the same amount he received in a donation and loan from Defend Texas Liberty, the embattled conservative PAC that, at least until recently, was run by former state rep Jonathan Stickland. We previously discussed the report by the Texas Tribune that Nick Fuentes, the right-wing gadfly and anti-Semitic commentator, was seen going into the Pale Horse Strategies' Fort Worth office. Pale Horse is the umbrella organization under

which DTL operates. In his announcement, Patrick said, let me put this as clearly as I can. If you are anti-Semitic, if you admire Hitler and don't believe the Holocaust happened in Europe, if you hate Jews, you are not a Republican and you are not welcome in our party. Very strong words. There was an open question what he would do with this money. He actually previously said, I'm not going to return it. It was taken in good conscience. This hasn't been done before. Why do I need to return this? He had actually returned money before, although a much smaller amount of money to donors who later proved to be unseemly. But now he has this kind of through kerosene on the story again. And now it's instead of going away, it is very much not going away. No kidding. Did that draw any other reactions? Yes. So Speaker Dade Phelan issued his own statement. Phelan, of course, is in an open feud with Lieutenant Governor. He issued his own statement thanking Patrick for getting rid of the Republican Party of Texas. Also, another official who Phelan is not friendly with, and that goes both ways as well.

The speaker and the party chair have been at odds for a while. Rinaldi is supporting Phelan's primary challenger, David Covey, and has called for Phelan's ouster as speaker. Rinaldi responded to Phelan's quote, saying, Dade Phelan's quote saying, instead of continuing to engage in the backstabbing of Republicans and empowerment of Democrats that led the Texas GOP to call for his resignation by a nearly unanimous vote. A lot there. And the beer goggles thing, let's say what that's referring to. Back when the Paxton impeachment was on the precipice of becoming public knowledge, Attorney General Ken Paxton accused Dade phelan of presiding over the house

chamber while intoxicated a video went viral of the speaker slurring his words during a late night legislative marathon um and so paxton right before it was announced that the house was pursuing impeachment articles um went after phelan and, accused him of presiding over the house while intoxicated. So that's what he's referring to in that statement. Yep. And only until very recently has Phelan addressed that accusation. He said, basically, it's not true. Obviously, other people disagree. Who knows?

But, yeah, it is just another thing adding fuel to this fire. And it's going to keep burning. It's a pretty big, big fire at this point. Oh, yeah. There you go. Thank you, Brad. Cameron, coming to you. A recent hidden camera video revealed how some members of the Texas School Board Association, known as TASB, are being taught how to continue to use CRT in the classroom. Tell us what happened.

Yeah, so I came across this video by Accuracy and Media. They released an undercover investigation that showed a presentation from the law firm Thompson and Horton LLP at the Texas Association of School Boards Conference, giving advice on how schools can continue using the New York Times 1619 Project and avoid discipline if caught teaching that type of material in the classroom. And for those who don't know, the 1619 Project was an attempt to redefine America's founding, both symbolically and historically, around the first importing of slaves to the colonies. Since its publication in 2019, the project has been mired in controversy and subject to many revisions and corrections. The presenters acknowledged that laws prohibit

teaching CRT and the 1619 project explicitly in SB3 that was passed in 2021. But in their presentation, they say it doesn't prohibit the 1619 Project from being in the library as a school book or a student choosing to do a project on the subject or bringing it up in an article. So that was revealing in the video that the school board members are being taught how to avoid and introduce the 1619 Project back into the classroom. Notably, around the same time, Maze Middleton had pointed out on social media that TASB has continued to post guidance on their website about how to handle transgender students, and he called the transgender ideology a radical gender ideology. And I highlight how many school districts have already passed resolutions in regards to gender pronoun usage and school bathrooms

and safe spaces based on gender. So I go into that in the piece, but this video was very revealing. I link it in the piece if people want to check it out. There you go, Cameron. Thank you. Matt, coming to you, a former city councilwoman was arrested over her own citizen-led petition to fire the city manager. Now the U.S. Supreme Court will hear her first amendment case. Tell us the details. Sylvia Gonzalez is a 76-year-old grandmother who lives in the little municipality of Castle Hills, which is surrounded by the bigger city of San Antonio. She was also frustrated a few years ago with the state of her city's management, so she did two things. One, she started a citizen-led petition calling for the city manager to be fired. And the second, she ran for city council and won.

That's where her problems began. During her first meeting, Gonzalez was sworn into office by the Bexar County Sheriff. of the mayor, tried to argue that she wasn't legitimately sworn in on a legal technicality, saying that the sheriff wasn't acting in his official duties when he administered the oath, therefore wasn't legitimate, she wasn't officially in office, and tried to remove her from the council, forcing her to file a lawsuit and obtain a court order protecting her incumbency. But it didn't stop. At another meeting, a resident, a friend of hers, submitted the petition to the council that Gonzales had spearheaded as a private citizen. At the end of the meeting, Gonzales walked away from the council dais to talk to some

buddy, and she was told the mayor wanted to talk to her. So she returned to the dais, and that's when Mayor J.R. Trevino then asked her where the petition that had been submitted was. Gonzales wasn't sure. She was perplexed and looked around on the dais and saw it poking out of her council binder. So she picked it up and handed it to the mayor and didn't think much of it. But that's where the seemingly little thing suddenly turned into a big thing. Mayor Trevino then ordered a city police officer to investigate the matter, alleging Gonzalez tampered with a government record. A police officer found no wrongdoing,

but it didn't end there. Trevino then got a local attorney, Alex Wright, who holds a police commission with Castle Hills to conduct an investigation into what seemed like a seemingly innocent incident. A month later, Wright circumvented the Bexar County District Attorney and went straight to a judge to get an arrest warrant for Gonzalez, charging her with a misdemeanor crime. The case notes that Wright could have issued her a citation, but instead every path he chose to take resulted her going to jail, which resulted in her mugshot being disseminated,

more and more legal problems building up. Then she says allies of the mayor filed another lawsuit seeking to have her removed for incompetency. So she had to fight that case. Long story short, she's no longer on the city council, but she wanted to seek justice. When the Bexar County District Attorney intervened in the case, he saw that the charge was quickly dismissed, but she still wanted justice. Entered the Institute for Justice, which is a nonprofit law firm that champions civil liberties, represented her and filed a lawsuit seeking damages that they violated her First Amendment right to

petition her government. Now, existing case precedent resulted in the case being dismissed at the initial levels. But then the U.S. Supreme Court on appeal has decided to take up the case this fall and hear the issue, which could potentially result in landmark First Amendment petitioning rights precedent being set. This case is the second case out of Texas that is being heard by the Supreme Court during its fall sitting. The other case that we reported on is a farmer near the coast who is wanting to sue the Texas Department of Transportation after he says an Interstate 10 road project essentially caused water that drained off of his farm to flood and turn his farm into a lake.

And so in that instance, they're seeking to be able to sue under a Fifth Amendment takings violation. So two very interesting cases arising out of Texas dealing with two different provisions of the Bill of Rights. And we'll keep our eyes on these and see what the high court ends up deciding. Fascinating case. Absolutely. Thank you, Matt. Hayden, the Texas lottery had another successful fiscal year. What were some of the highlights? The Texas lottery earlier this month published its end of fiscal year report, which included a report of more than $8.7 billion in sales, more than any other fiscal year in the lottery's history. This resulted in more than $2 billion in contributions to the Foundation School Fund and tens of millions of dollars to the Fund for Veterans Assistance.

Gary Grief, the executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission, ascribed it to the success of $100 scratch tickets and the windfall that came with large national jackpots, including the hard work of lottery employees. This is the 13th year in a row that the lottery has exceeded its prior year sales and broken another record. However, it also reflects the reality of inflation. According to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator, $8.73 billion in September of this year would have had the same buying power as $7.16 billion just five years earlier. And notably as well, the TLC said in its announcement that sales have grown 2.74 billion over the past five years. So a little bit of a reflection of

inflation's role in this issue as well. How does this contrast with the gambling industry's efforts this year? There were substantial lobbying efforts this year, as there have been in previous legislative sessions, to expand gambling to include commercial casinos and a legal sports betting market. However, the lobbying efforts for the casino gambling and sports betting industry failed to convince state lawmakers that it would be worth the state's time and trouble to legalize it. So the Texas lottery remains one of the few exceptions to the constitutional prohibition on most forms of recreational gambling, including commercial casinos and sports betting. The Texas lottery has existed for more than three decades and was pitched as a potential financial boon for public

schools. Of course, it hasn't been the panacea that some thought that it might be when it was first passed, but it remains a very lucrative source of income for the state and one of the few forms of legal gambling in the state of Texas. Panacea. Well done done it's one of my favorite words which is well a solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases panacea for all corporate ills it was just impressive it just perked i think it perked all of our little ears up it did hayden keeping us on our toes well done well done let's move on to the tweetery section here brad Brad, I'm going to start with you. Talk about school choice a little bit. So yesterday I got a tip that there were a few primary challengers. Are you plugging your own tweet again?

Would you rather I talk about the Michigan sign-se ceiling scandal and going on a rant about that? Those are my only two options. It's the only other thing that's coming to mind for me. You could go for the nuclear option and talk about your perspective on birds. Oh, they're just not real. Lord in heaven. Anyway, if I'm allowed to finish. Sorry, keep going, keep going.

Okay. Did you know that the bird is the word though? It always has been. There are three Republican primary challengers that are kind of waiting in the wings to see the outcome of school choice. If there's a vote

and if the member they're looking to challenge does not vote the way they want, it sounds like they're going to jump in. Those are Victor Leal in HD88 that would be against Ken King out in West Texas. Hillary Hickland in HD55 versus Hugh Shine. I believe he's in Temple. And then Chris Spencer in HD1 who would run against gary vandiver i believe that district is out in east texas so it's gary vandiver is is like toward texarkana it's a long oklahoma so

yeah way northeast texas way northeast um but yeah so depending on whatever happens with school choice there might be three more primary challengers that are likely to have significant backing against those members I mentioned. But I guess we shall see what happens. Yeah. Got a lot at stake here for people heading into primaries. That and the Paxton impeachment are fueling a lot of potential primaries. Yeah. And especially in the House.

And that's going to continue to be the case. The Paxton impeachment has caused a little bit of consternation like a little kerfuffle on the primary trail just slight yes just a slight kerfuffle on that note my tweeter for today is cruz tweeted um which we'll have a piece on by the time this article or excuse me this podcast is out but uh ted cruz just tweeted the texas senate has passed school choice three times this year. The Texas House needs to get it done. Nothing matters more for Texas.

I will vigorously support conservative pro-school choice primary opponents against Republicans who vote no this tech sledge special session. And on top of that, Governor Greg Abbott earlier before this special said, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way was calling specials and passing it. And the hard way, I believe, is him getting involved in primaries and using that large war chest that he has. So a lot riding on this. And Abbott certainly has the biggest campaign apparatus and, of course, war chest of elected Republicans in the state.

So it seems he's shown a lot of willingness to wield that this primary season when potentially that had not been the case before. Certainly some members of the legislature had been endorsed by Abbott who opposed school choice. And so we'll watch that this cycle. I don't think that will be the case anymore. Yeah, we could see Abbott going in for primary challengers and the speaker going in to defend his GOP members. That would be an interesting dynamic. Oh my gosh, absolutely. And Paxton, to Hayden's point, has already made it very clear that he's going to involve himself in the primaries as well. He's come out and endorsed candidates already. So we're certainly watching this go down and impeachment is the cornerstone issue for Paxton on that, of course. Now, Cruz has said previously that school choice is the civil rights issue of this generation. That's been Cruz's line over and over again. So Cameron will certainly have something up on that very soon.

I'm envisioning sort of that scene at the end of the Avengers movies where, you know, the battlefield is taking place and all the different armies are showing up. Similar, different motives, but similar battle lines. I'm envisioning the food fight scene from Animal House where there's stuff flying

in every direction. Or maybe the scene in Anchorman where they all show up on the back street to fight it out. That's the greatest scene ever. My gosh. My Atlanta. Okay, let's move on.

Hayden, why don't you tell us what your tweeter is today? Well, we touched on the weather this morning and how exciting our various drives into the office were. This morning, I live near the highway, and it took me more than 15 minutes just to get to the on-ramp on the highway. But at least I didn't have to swim to work today. Some people in Dallas apparently did, because I'm looking at a video of a highway in Dallas that was absolutely flooded.

People are sitting in their vehicles with their hazard lights on. Oh my gosh. Water is up to the door handles on their vehicles and I'm just thinking about how terrifying that would be to be sitting there in the water. One of the cars looks like it's sliding backward

and I know that he wasn't putting his car in reverse and going into the water on purpose, so he must have been floating backward into the water. That's one of my worst fears is getting caught in a flood. On Mopac this morning, I thought I am already on the highway. It was raining pretty hard when I left work, but by the time I got to the highway, it seemed the rain had let

up a little bit. But that's when I heard the tornado warning on the radio. And I thought, well, I'm already in traffic. I don't know that it would be any advantage to try to get off at this point. That's foreboding to hear it on the radio on your commute. It was. I heard it right before I got onto Mopac. And then I heard it again while I was on Mopac, but it was still in Caldwell County near the airport. So I thought, I guess if it was heading in this direction, I would try to get off of the highway, i don't know i don't know what i would do in that situation but i think the the classic advice here they they tell you don't hide under an overpass if there's a tornado coming they tell you not to do that anymore but i think turn around don't drown still applies so don't drive into a body of water it seems to be common sense i don't know if these people could have followed that though it may have happened while they were sitting there because the of the flash

flooding aspect of it but i'm just looking at this video hoping that never happens to me or anybody that i care about because that looks terrifying no it really i remember mythbusters did this anybody watch mythbusters back in the day i love mythbusters but they did a like a show on if your car like if you drive off a bridge and your car is sinking and submerged in water like the best course of action to get out and i mean you'll want to get that if you can't get the door open as soon as possible then you have to you're supposed to roll down well maybe maybe i should check my facts before i give advice on how not to drown in your car on a podcast. But I believe it's my best recollection that you're supposed to roll down the window and actually let water come in. So it equalizes and the pressure,

like you could actually open your door. So there's water on the outside and no water on the inside, just air. It's like the pressure will not allow you to open the door of your car. Correct. So you need to equalize it quite a bit. So just as a heads up. Okay, well, Matt Stringer, I just believe what Matt Stringer says. So there you go. Okay, Matt, speaking of weather, what you got?

Well, I have to give a shout out to a tweet from Michael Atkinson, a local CBS political reporter who shared their weatherman's post. The weatherman noticed a tweet this morning from Elon Musk, who was shared a little seven second video about the rain here in Austin. And it kind of shows this hilly aspect of of Austin. And so the weatherman drew a circle on a map and said, cross referencingreferencing this tweet's timestamp and the hilly nature of the terrain of the video, I can confidently or uncompetently say that Elon is somewhere in this circle. He said, hi, Elon, make sure to watch CBS. But I was thinking about this and there's, I cannot remember the guy's name, but there's a page on social media somewhere that there's this guy that's a professional geolocator.

And people will send him some random picture of a mountainside or a street corner or something like that somewhere in the world. And he will literally find it. So I thought it'd be hilarious. It's insane how fast you can do that. Yeah. Yeah. It just blows my mind. And he'll talk about the things that he sees you know

and some of these pictures some there will be like okay a sign and you can see the language on the sign and figure out okay well it's this country and you know all this sort of things but but some of these pictures i mean it would be about like this video that elon shared where it's just like two hills coming across each other and some trees and, and all of that sort of stuff. But literally the guy can take note of some details that none of us would, would notice in here and be like,

Oh, well there's only three locations in Austin where two hills like this intersect. And you know, this one's doesn't have this type of trees on it, you know, all this stuff and literally narrow it down to where he's at. Yeah.

I thought it was pretty cool. Pretty wild. Cameron, let's move off of weather here just for a second to a pretty fun little tweeter you got. Yeah. So I was just on Twitter and came across this story about Lil Wayne. Yes, Lil Wayne the rapper. If anyone knows any other Lil Waynes, let me know.

But Lil Wayne the rapper, he is now a part of a Major League Pickleball team. A Major League Pickleball? You heard that right. Okay. Major League. So these are professionals. Yeah. Are you a Pickleball fan? Never played. Never played? You heard that right. Okay. Major league. So these are professionals. Yeah.

Are you a pickleball fan? Never played. Never played? I think I'd like it. Yeah. I suck at tennis. So this might make me a little bit more accessible to paddle sports. Paddle sports.

What about you, Brad? I've never played it, but I guess it looks fun. My parents play pickleball. Do they? Yeah, they do. That's what you do when you can't do regular sports. Well, it's like huge right now. Yeah.

With young people. Yeah. So apparently there's a professional league, Texas team called the Ranchers. I like that. Yeah. Lil Wayne's going to be involved. He's going to be supporting, quote, creative ideation. And so he says pickleball is the moment.

It is big. It's huge. Well, they're converting tennis courts into pickleball courts, which makes the tennis community very angry. Well, this ownership group of this Texas Ranchers team includes country singer Zach Bryan, Micah Parsons, CJ Stroud, and then Raising Cane's founder, Todd Graves. So some big nips.

I had no idea Zach Bryan was part owner of a major pickleball team. I love that. I just don't know. Are they doing this just for fun or are they expecting like a return on trying to diversify their portfolio? Yeah, I guess. I guess.

That's pretty cool. I just thought it was fun. What's it is the Texas Rangers like a Dallas? Like, is it just a statewide team or do they have a city that? I have no clue. I've given you all the details. All the details, you know. Texas Ranchers. Pickleball.

Hmm. I don't actually. It might just be the. It might just be a Texas team. Hmm. Yeah. Doesn't say it's a city. I think it's just the Texas team.

Yeah. Lil Wayne is front and center on their Instagram page. Oh my gosh. Kid Leroy joins the ownership team. This is wild. These are a lot of... Who? He's a singer.

Youths. Youths. Exactly. Well, that's quite fun. Now we should... What if we play pickleball as an office? That'd be fun. Ooh.

I think only a couple of us would enjoy that brad i would like to go back to your offensive comment that you play pickleball you can't play other sports oh i was including myself in that you can play other sports though not like you coach a little league baseball team and you play baseball i do not play baseball you played i did that's why i don't play anymore that's why i would be ripe for pickleball okay just making sure you're not offending a lot of people people are gonna be offended regardless is pickleball on espn the ocho well i've seen they have uh cornhole on there they gotta have pickleball. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay.

I need to tell a story. It's really just about me winning it at cornhole. My husband and I went to punch bowl social in Austin the other day and played a cornhole. And I would like to say I won every single game. And usually by he was like at one point and I had 11. So just for the record, now that I've bragged about it, I'm going to lose every time. Congratulations on your victories. Thank you.

It was really great. I really made me far too happy. You'll never get past that. I just know never to share my victories with Brad. Sharing anything personal in here is precarious. It is. It's so true. Our office is kind of set up perfectly for cornhole. You're right.

You know, with the hallway. Yes, right down the middle of the desks. Yes. Yeah. Hmm. Well, even right. Yeah, right there. That could be good, too.

Hmm. Well, don't tempt me with a good time. Okay. Gentlemen, thank you for your fantastic Twitter. I feel like Twitter was especially great this week. So thank you. Yeah, it was great. Folks, we so

appreciate you listening and we will 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, so thank you again for your support. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.