The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - September 22, 2023

Episode Date: September 22, 2023

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free Texas flag 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: The long-standing feud between Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan and Lt. Gov. Dan PatrickAttorney General Ken Paxton’s appearance on Tucker Carlson’s showThe mayor of Eagle Pass declaring an emergency after thousands of illegal immigrants cross into the cityA new military manufacturing plant in Mesquite that plans to produce artillery for UkrainePatrick calling for a formal audit of the Paxton impeachment proceedings to determine how much it costA Texas A&M professor criticizing the university after the botched hiring of Dr. Kathleen McElroyThe Supreme Court of Texas hearing a reporter’s defamation case concerning “fundamental” First Amendment rightsState Rep. Rhetta Bowers leaving the Texas House for a chance at a Dallas congressional seatDallas ISD adopting a new after-school “Positive Prevention Plus” sex education programA Pasadena mechanic’s second lawsuit against the city after it reneged a settlement agreementThe principal of Overton High School arrested after using corporal punishment on a student

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here, and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. This week, the team discusses the longstanding feud between Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton's appearance on Tucker Carlson's show, the mayor of Eagle Pass declaring an emergency after thousands of illegal immigrants cross into the city. A new military manufacturing plant in Mesquite that plans to produce artillery for Ukraine. Patrick calling for a formal audit of the Paxton impeachment proceedings to determine how much it cost. A Texas A&M professor criticizing the university after the botched hiring of Dr. Kathleen McElroy. The Supreme Court of Texas hearing a reporter's defamation case concerning First Amendment rights. Thank you. a mechanic's second lawsuit against the city after it reneged a settlement agreement and the principal of Overton High School arrested after using corporal punishment on a student.

Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Howdy folks, Mackenzie here with Brad, Cameron, Matt, and Hayden. We're all back together. I object. We heard... Hearsay. Brad and I heard listener feedback this week that we haven't gotten into arguments enough on the pod lately i can't believe you started it that way i started yeah

i see what you're doing i am not that easily prevented i hope that's sufficient i am oh man well i don't know where to go from here oh i'm literally it's your show i'm literally tearing up oh my gosh also i do want to bring attention to the fact that rob is sitting on a stool just outside talking to daniel but like 10 feet away from daniel in his office it looks very odd just to see Rob sitting out there on a stool. He is wearing a very stylish summer shirt with a fall color scheme. And I said that he looks like he should be drinking a pumpkin spice tropical punch. That is so true. We've been commenting on his attire this whole week.

He's very proud of his Nordstrom buys. Oh. He should be. They're good. Yeah. He's definitely upped his Nordstrom buys. Oh. He should be. They're good. Yeah. He's definitely upped his game with his shirt attire. I wonder if he ever listens to the pod. And he'll find out.

He will probably hear and nary a word of this. Well, regardless, gentlemen, it's very good to be back with you all. We have quite a bit of post impeachment fallout news that we'll be talking about today, as well as just a lot of just news throughout Texas. So, Brad, let's go ahead and start with you. The feud between Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Speaker Dade Phelan is the most intense that it's ever been after Ken Paxton's acquittal and return to the office of the attorney general. How did this all begin? So we discussed on yesterday's pod, the dueling statements that the pair put out, the dueling admonishments of each other.

But this really began, this feud between the two really began in the 2021 session. It saw Phelan ushered in as a new speaker and broadly new hopes for Republicans in the legislature on getting certain things done. They would eventually get some pretty big things done during that session, but the relationship between the new speaker and the lieutenant governor soured quickly. When the February black blackouts occurred financial fallout followed including a 16 billion dollar quote overcharge caused by the grid regulators order to keep prices at their max after load shedding had ceased i hope you followed that because it's very difficult to understand i myself almost didn't follow that but the important thing is it caused a philosophical

divide between the two chambers and their two leaders. Patrick wanting to reprice the market to reflect what he thought to be a more accurate price for electricity during this 32-hour window. And Phelan in the house wanting to avoid meddling in exchange of funds that already occurred. And that kind of set the ball rolling on this breakdown of a relationship. It was an intense fight. The Senate threw over a repricing bill. The House didn't want it. The PR messaging really seemed to be on the side of the Senate

and so a lot of criticism was levied at the house and its speaker for not budging on that. Um, to respond though, the house threw back constitutional carry on which the upper chamber wasn't entirely keen. Uh, Dan Patrick flat out said initially the votes simply aren't there for con carry. They eventually would be there and it, and it became one of the big three pillars of the 2021 legislative session, but already some legislative warfare going on between the two chambers, and that's just a few months into their tenure as the top two members of the legislature. So other issues followed with a related energy power grid bill on power plant securitization. And then, of course, the elections bill debacle that saw the two quorum breaks in the House and then later feuds over the felony penalty for

illegal voting being reduced to a misdemeanor in the House, it eventually being approved by both chambers, but then the Senate wanting to come back and fix it, the House saying it's not time to relitigate this, just a lot happened that really deteriorated the relationship. Yeah, and that was Phelan's first session as Speaker. So like you said, there was a relationship that was very much being established there between two of the, you know, the chamber's leaders. Earlier this year, we've talked about this extensively, the lieutenant governor at an event that we held right as the session was starting was very reticent to criticize the

speaker, kind of saying this is like a new legislative session. Let's see where the House is at. You know, we asked a lot of questions about the dynamic between the House and the Senate, the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker, and he was very reticent to comment on that at that time, kind of saying, like, let's let things play out. Fast forward to this year, the end of the legislative session and where we are now, where did this all pick up? Well, property taxes were the most frequent and public break between the two this year. We covered it extensively. If you listen to this podcast, you know basically all the steps in between. But they finally reached a resolution in July, but that only came after a very long and intense dispute.

The knockdown-dragout fight ended, but picked right back up after this impeachment with Patrick's scathing rebuke of the House, its process, and its leader. Phelan then returned fire with an equally bombastic criticism of Patrick, the way he oversaw the trial, and the, quote, clear evidence, Phelan says, the Senate ignored in order to acquit. No love lost between these two. The question is, you know, can it ever be repaired? I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, good question. So where do we go from here?

Well, we are going to convene. We, as in the legislature, will convene next month, according to Governor Greg Abbott, for a special session primarily on education issues that will contain school choice teacher pay and likely and potentially increase the basic allotment for schools um the governor may decide to throw other things in there we have no idea yet but that's going to be the main theme i'm very curious to see the wording of the special session call yeah yeah i'm very curious especially after the way he maneuvered the special session calls on property taxes'm very curious especially after the way he maneuvered the special session calls on property taxes in border and border yeah we'll see if that returns because that didn't pass yep so that that actually probably will we'll probably see a border thing

especially with what's going on at the border right now um but you know the house has been reticent it's got 24 members that back the herrero amendment that are not uh necessarily keen on a school choice plan the herrero amendment attempting to bar any state funds in the budget being used for school choice yep which passed but then got dropped from the budget as most of those amendments do um you know you have will they budge on anything is there if you tie all of those three big things together will there be enough for all the members in the House to hold their nose and vote for the thing they like as opposed to voting against the thing or things they don't like? And then, of course, what's the role of the lieutenant governor and speaker? Both of them can push their members on things when they so choose. Lieutenant Governor does it a lot more than the Speaker, but the Speaker does it too. After this, after this public break, this another public break,'ve been waiting for the Attorney General Ken Paxton to make an appearance on Tucker Carlson's Twitter broadcast, ex-broadcast, however you cut it. They discussed the failed impeachment. It dropped Wednesday evening after some technical

difficulties. What were some of the Attorney General's observations? Well, first I'll say thank you to our listeners for bearing with me. The false solstice is on Saturday and my allergies are right on time this year. Poor he is. Paxton came or went on Carlson's Twitter broadcast to discuss his grievances against those who were behind the failed impeachment effort. He had plenty to say, obviously, about Speaker Dade Phelan and those who supported the impeachment led by State Representative Andrew Murr. Paxton made some observations that probably few would deny at this point. One of those observations being that the way politics work in Texas, as they relate to the Texas House, is often the speaker receives a lot of support from Democrats in order to secure his speakership.

Dave Phelan has received little real opposition in this or last legislative session. And the speakers before him have faced similar dynamics. But Paxton, the way he portrayed it is the 65 Democrats or the Democratic caucus in the Texas House unifies behind a Republican candidate. And then that candidate only needs a dozen Phelan to push through this impeachment. And he pointed out that the membership of the House had less than 72 hours to consider the investigative committee's impeachment recommendation before being asked to vote on it. Most of the people who supported impeachment in the House were Democrats. There were 61 Democratic votes in favor of impeachment and 60 Republican votes, including Speaker Thielen. However, most of the Republican caucus supported impeachment, so it was 121 votes. In contrast, in the Senate, only two Republicans supported the impeachment charges. And some of the charges were

overwhelmingly defeated. One charge was rejected by a vote of 28 to 2. So even the Democrats rejected some of the charges against Paxton in the House. But he went over the fact that we have really this guilty until proven innocent system when it comes to impeachment in Texas, because an officeholder can be removed by a majority vote of the House. And he is stripped of his, according to Paxton, he was supposed to be paid. But Hager decided that Paxton would not be paid but hager decided that paxton would not be paid the comptroller the comptroller glenn hager so paxton contended that he should have been paid throughout all of this paxton uh also said that he was under a gag order and i'll remind everybody this is one of the this is the first time we've heard from paxton at length about all of this because all summer it's basically only one side of the story has been told because you've had the impeachment charges and all of these statements.

And then, but then there, then there was this gag order that house members really did not follow. There were plenty of public comments about this. And I don't know if any of that is ever going to be dealt with, but Paxton pointed out that basically he had his right to speak taken away with the gag order. He couldn't defend himself publicly. He had his income taken away. He had his job taken away, and all of this happened with 72 hours notice.

And so, according to him, there are clear flaws in this process. And Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick obviously agrees with that point. But those were the main observations. The icing on the cake was he repeated his allegation that Dade Phelan drunkenly presided over the House chamber. Carlson showed the video to his viewers of Phelan slurring his words andxton is relying on his good faith belief, much like some of the whistleblowers relied on their good faith beliefs when they reported him to the FBI. But that allegation was repeated. And those were some of the things that Paxton said in his interview. And certainly it is worthwhile in noting as well that Paxton in his interview with Carlson had a very sympathetic audience in Carlson. He was not pushing back on too many things that Paxton was saying, really was just letting him come forward

with his side of the story. So this was not in a lot of ways the same kind of, you know, he didn't get a lot of pushback on things he said. He was very much there to tell his side of the story and Tucker Carlson very much allowed him to do so. What was some of the policy discussions that were had between Carlson and Paxton? That was kind of the second portion of the interview was kind of looking forward on some policy issues. It's fascinating to listen to somebody like Carlson who's really tuned into national politics. And you're right, he is very conservative. And this was very much Carlson giving Paxton a platform to tell his side of things after being silenced all summer by the gag order.

But Carlson asked him about some of the inner workings of Texas politics, but then they moved to policy stances. And Paxton reminded everyone that the Court of Criminal Appeals in Texas took away his ability to prosecute voter fraud. And it's interesting to listen to somebody who's not familiar with how the Texas government works. Carlson repeated back to his question. So let me get this straight. The attorney general in Texas is not allowed to prosecute voter fraud. And Paxton said, yeah, that's basically how it works now. Because back in 2021, the Court of Criminal Appeals decided that that is a duty that only county attorneys and district attorneys can execute because of the separation

of powers. Paxton characterized that as the Court of Criminal Appeals, these nameless judges that anyone can access their names, but they aren't high profile figures because they are judges. Paxton contended that the court just took away any ability to prosecute voter fraud because, in his opinion, the big county DAs aren't going to do it. And if he can't do it, it's not going to happen. He said he believed that voter fraud is the reason Trump lost in Georgia, because in his opinion, if there are not signature verification protocols on mail-in ballots, then you have no way of knowing who sent the ballot back. And he said that he believed that if Harris County had been allowed to send out mass mail-in ballots, that

Trump would have lost Texas in 2020. His claims against the 2020 election were not part of the impeachment. However, there are complaints against Paxton's bar license seeking to take away his ability to practice law because he challenged those results. I think what Paxton's doing is trying to refocus this on the policy issues that he believes spurred the Biden administration's effort to get him removed from office via Texas House Democrats. And he is talking again about what he said he believes is the most important issue of election integrity because every other issue is influenced by whether or not people can have confidence that the elected officials that they put in place are the ones calling the shots and that they aren't going to be removed after a secret investigation by

political enemies. Yeah, exactly. Now, it's certainly worth going and watching the full thing. Hayden wrote a great write up of it as well at thetexan.news. Hayden, thank you so much. Matt, we're coming to you. The mayor of Eagle Pass is in the news. Thousands of illegal immigrants have surged across the Rio Grande into the border city of Eagle Pass, forcing the mayor to declare an emergency. Tell us about this ongoing crisis. As of yesterday, the Maverick County Sheriff said that there was an estimated 2,700 people underneath the International Bridge at Eagle Pass, prompting the mayor to declare an emergency so that the city can obtain state and federal resources to deal with the crisis. As of this morning, most of the group has been processed and, from what I understand, released into the United States by the Customs and Border Protection, federal immigration authorities. But another group is apparently on its way.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman, I believe Lieutenant Chris Olivares. Olivares, yeah. A train in Mexico was carrying some 7,000 immigrants towards the United States border, and half of that group is expected to reach Eagle Pass community in a second surge very soon. Now, Governor Greg Abbott has been weighing in on this issue, including sharing a video on Twitter of CBP agents, federal immigration agents,

cutting razor wire that was set by state troopers and state National Guard and letting immigrants who were illegally crossing the border in, illustrating the frustrating relationship between state efforts to secure the border and federal immigration border efforts. Now, both U.S. senators for the state of Texas have weighed in on the ongoing border crisis with Senator John Cornyn slamming the Biden administration in a press release and Ted Cruz discussing the crisis on the legacy media, to which Cruz responded saying the Biden administration was relying on a corporate media blackout of the border crisis. Now, just before we started recording, we had some really interesting reports or very important reports, I should say, coming in. First, there's been several drownings,

including one this morning, very shocking video of law enforcement pulling a body out of the Rio Grande of a middle-aged man with Texas Department of Public Safety announcing that just yesterday they also had to recover the body of a 10-year-old child and this past week a 3-year-old child also drowned in the Rio Grande. Now, we have a story on the Texan that I did recently covering the volume of drownings that really hasn't been highly covered, I don't think, but hundreds of people are both drowning and dying in the effort to illegally cross the southern border between points of entry. So that's something that we try and cover regarding the ongoing border crisis. Also, CBP just now released some statistics on how many

people crossed yesterday at Eagle Pass, and the number was actually around 10,000, which is numbers we haven't really seen since the expiration of Title 42. And we covered that border crisis at Del Rio, just right down the river, where some 15, 16, 17, I forget how many thousands of people were crowded underneath the International Bridge in the sweltering Texas heat. Matt, so important to keep these things in mind as we continue our coverage of the border. Thank you so much for following all of this for us and for our readers. Cameron, we're coming to you. The Russian-Ukraine conflict has continued to spark debate between those who

support and oppose American intervention and aid that has now caused a rift here in Texas, North Texas to be specifically. Tell us the details. Yeah, that's right. In Mesquite, the city council actually announced that they have approved construction on a manufacturing facility that will be producing military products. Specifically, this plant will be making artillery shells for howitzers in a contract with the Department of Defense. The plant being supported and approved by local government officials in terms of not just economic benefit, but to bolster the local economy. They're on the opposite side of the messaging coming from Mesquite's congressional representative, Lance Gooden, who has been an opponent of sending aid overseas and has actually voted against measures that would reaffirm support for NATO, who is being supportive of Ukraine in this conflict.

Yeah. So what are the current national sentiments surrounding U.S. involvement in this conflict? So obviously there's lots of differing opinions, and that's being shown in national polling. Actually, recently CNN did a poll where Americans are split on the continued involvement with Ukraine, with 48% saying the U.S., quote, should do more to stop Russian military actions, while 51% think the U.S., quote, has done enough. And when asked in this poll if Congress should authorize more money in support of Ukraine, 55% of polled respondents said that Congress, quote, should not authorize additional funding. So obviously, like we mentioned at the top of this, there's splits in the federal government, there's splits

nationally, there's differing opinions locally, and it seems like this conflict is not slowing down. We recently saw Zelensky come and attempt to lobby for more funding to Ukraine. So there is no stopping on the horizon, it seems, to this conflict and seems like Americans nationally are split over the issue. Absolutely. Cameron, thank you for your coverage. Bradley, following through on his post-acquittal statement, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick issued his formal request for an impeachment audit. What are the details? Writing to the state auditor, Patrick said, quote, I request that the state auditor's office immediately begin a special audit to determine the total amount of financial

expenditures, encumbrances, and future unpaid obligations. He continued, to be clear, the goal is to determine the absolute total cost to the state of preparing for and conducting this trial from the beginning through its conclusion this must detail all expenses including but not limited to investigators expenses document production and assembly attorney expenses witness fees travel food and lodging the whole gamut it will the audit according to this request will cover march 1st through oct 15th. Patrick, one of the things he said in his post-acquittal speech was, you know, we need an accounting on what this has cost the taxpayer. Notably, this morning in a couple of radio appearances,

Ken Paxton discussed his costs incurred for legal representation on this. He said it probably, when all is said and done, will reach about $4.5 million. And now he contrasted that with the prosecution side saying that, you know, not one dime of taxpayer dollars. I didn't spend a dime of taxpayer dollars for this whereas almost all if not all of the cost paid on the other side is going to be taxpayer dollars that'll include you know the investigators from the very beginning with the general investigating committee started in february or march or whenever that was right and that continued for months before they finally impeached paxton on the second to last day of session continued into the summer when everyone's preparing for

the trial. The attorneys for the two main attorneys for the House Board of Managers were getting based on reports $500 per hour which is sounds like a lot of money. I think for attorneys it's a good amount of money. It's not like an outrageous amount of money, but still that's quite a bit of money that presumably they spend a lot of hours on. So there's that. Also, the House Board of Managers

will probably get per DMs, but there was no office budget bump during this, or so I'm told. So it's hard to kind of map out in our minds right now what this is going to cost because there's so much that's in flux. But, you know, the base number that is operated from for a special session, the cost of that is generally between two and three million dollars. So not including a team of lawyers that would be you know added to the the bill for this proceeding that includes you know per diems for all the members uh office budget bumps all that stuff so which office budget bumps when we talk about that

in the interim when the legislature is not meeting the budget for legislative offices decreases by a significant amount i wish i could the number, but because they aren't in session, they don't need to be fully staffed. Constituent emails, mail, those kinds like requests, agency work, all those kinds of things are what the offices are working on. You're not in session having to deal with big, you know, slates of bills that you're reading and voting on and your staff is aiding you in that. And so the budget decreases. In the special session, it gets bumped again because you're in session. So that's what you're referring to. Right, right. So when we get to the special sessions in next month, you know, that'll be about the cost and we'll see how that stacks up compared to this impeachment. There you go. Bradley, thank you. Cameron, coming back to you,

the fallout continues over the botched situation with Texas A&M and their been emailing Kathleen McElroy about the situation. And in this email, there was some eyebrow-raising things. He called the actions by the university disgusting. He goes on to call the Board of Regents pathetic. This is quoting him, pathetic, small, little people holding onto their Texan whiteness and their bags of oil money. So as this email came out, everything was happening with the A&M situation with Kathleen McElroy. This was earlier this year where she was initially hired for the journalism program to lead it. There was a bunch of reports that came out about her involvement with different news organizations, her DEI advocacy,

and there was this whole frenzy that surrounded this hiring. And so they ended up not moving forward and had a settlement where she would go back to UT Austin, continue with tenure there. And now things seem to have died down a bit with the media frenzy, but if more emails keep getting linked, who knows? But this was just a small update on a larger situation. Absolutely. Thank you, Cameron. Matt, we're coming back to you. The Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that will have very important implications for First Amendment rights, including freedom of the press, which we like to keep an eye on. What is the background of this case? That's right, Mackenzie. Justices of the Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week in

a case arising out of Polk County, where an attorney, Tommy Coleman, sued the local newspaper, the Polk County Enterprise, and its editor, Valerie Riddell, claiming they defamed him in a story regarding his involvement in a famous case where a man was wrongfully convicted of murder. Now, Riddell authored the story in 2020 regarding Coleman, who worked as an assistant district attorney with the Polk County District Attorney's Office at the time. He has since gone to another district attorney's office. In the story, Riddell wrote that Coleman had assisted with the prosecution of Michael Morton during his time at the Williamson County District Attorney's Office.

Michael Morton is a famous case that was literally featured on like 60 Minutes and every kind of late night crime show that you can possibly imagine, and is notable in Texas law because it ended up having a major impact on Texas statutes and court precedents, etc. And long story short, Morton was wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife in 1987. And it was quite a remarkable case. But after serving 25 years in prison, he had gone through an extensive court battle trying to get access to some evidence that was found at the crime scene, including a bloody bandana. And, of course, from what I understand was that the prosecutors fought his motions to get a hold of this,

and whenever he ultimately got a hold of the bloody bandana or got access to it and got a court order to have it DNA tested, they found DNA from another criminal who had apparently committed a very similar murder in San Antonio, and this man, Mark Norwood, was ultimately investigated and arrested and convicted for the murder in Morton's case, murdering Morton's wife. So accessing that bandana led to his exoneration. Now while this important court proceeding over the bandana was going on, Coleman was attending the court proceeding and was overheard by reporters who wrote about it in another publication where he was mocking morton's request in a demeaning way saying you the bloody bandana you the bloody bandana i put some emphasis on there i don't exactly know how he was saying it

anyway that was verbatim what he was saying yeah he was if you read it it was you the bloody bandana, you the bloody bandana, and they described it in a demeaning context. So Coleman demanded the newspaper retract the portion where they wrote that he was part of the prosecution of the Michael Morton case, saying that he wasn't even an attorney. He was 17 or so at the time during the trial phase of it. And a week later, they did publish a retraction clarification saying that he was not part of the trial process and that they shouldn't have included the later phase of the judicial proceedings as prosecution. Long story short, he sues regardless of that, claiming that the retraction wasn't good enough, that it was done under the banner of the newspaper and that it didn't specifically have Riddell's name on it and some other elements of it. And they filed a motion

under the Texas Citizen, the defendants filed a motion under the Texas Citizen Participation Act to dismiss the case, which immediately stops the trial court procession until it's resolved by a judge on whether or not they were essentially exercising their free speech rights, etc. And that's the motion that was essentially being considered by the Supreme Court. It had been the defense has lost at the trial court process before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Texas Supreme Court granted the petition to take up and review the case. Now there were a couple of key points being considered by the justices in the case, whether or not Coleman was essentially a limited public figure as an assistant prosecutor, even though he wasn't particularly assisting

directly in the case, and also whether a story regarding true things, undebated things that he did, such as his comments on the bloody bandana, etc., or being part of the legal team fighting the request for evidence later would cause him any more harm to his reputation than being part of the trial portion. And you saw a lot of interesting cross-examination or cross-discussion questions being posed by the justices on that end. You also had a very interesting remark from Justice Jeff Boyd, who remarked to Coleman's attorney that it seems to me that this is a lawsuit about revenge, not relief, which was a very pointed remark for a justice, considering all of the Supreme Court cases that I've sat in and listened to. One thing I do want to mention is that some First Amendment attorneys, Laura Prather and Ryan Paulson, who represent the Freedom of Information Foundation,

several media associations filed an amicus brief with the court, essentially arguing that the court should side with the newspaper in this and pointing to what they believe were errors made in following Texas law governing this process at the trial and appellate levels. Now, long story short, the consequences of what the Supreme Court justices are going to decide will have a major impact on how media outlets such as ours have the ability to cover important issues, to cover public officials and their behaviors and their actions, whether or not something like a retraction can be used as evidence against you in a defamation suit as opposed to it being an affirmative defense. And the Citizen Participation Act, which helps prevent slap lawsuits, essentially people using the courts to stop people from exercising free speech.

All this is in play with this court, which is why it caught the attention of the Freedom of Information Foundation, etc. So important court. I was excited to get to sit in on oral arguments the other day, and it was just an interesting day at work because I got to get up, go to the Texas Supreme Court, hear arguments in front of the nine justices, run across the Capitol complex over to the Senate chamber and sit in the Senate Court of Impeachment. Two very different courts. Two very different courts.

One you don't get to sit in very often either. Yeah. So, uh, anywho, check out our article on the Texan, a lot of details, uh, in it, uh, surrounding details on this case and a very important case for First Amendment. There you go, Matt. Thank you so much. Brad, the 11th state house seat has opened up for next year's election with a campaign announcement. What happened? State Rep. Retta Bowers, a Democrat from Dallas, announced a run for the 32nd Congressional District. That seat is open because Colin Allred is running for U.S. Senate, hopefully in his view against Senator Ted Cruz,

but he has to win the primary first. Bowers said of her announcement, quote, with our democracy and fundamental rights under attack, I am running for Congress to protect those rights and stand up for equal opportunities for all so that every Texas family, small business, and community can thrive. She had long been mulling a run,

and at times it was rumored that she was absolutely running. Then that kind of waned a bit, and it seemed like she was not going to run, but ultimately she has now made it official that district is rated d66 on the texans texas partisan index so it is all but assured to be a democratic held seat next year so really the the main election is for that seat is next year's Democratic primary, which she joins. So then who else is in the race? Her House colleague, Julie Johnson, who has been in the race since June, is the other bigger official that is involved in this race.

Again, a Democrat. Again, a Democrat, yep. Saying that she is the right candidate, not Bowers, Johnson said in a statement, it's curious that Representative Bowers has flip-flopped on her previous statement about running to Texas voters. In the 2023 semiannual reports, Representative Bowers had only $81 left in campaign funds, much of it spent on personal expenses. This raise will require significant resources to make sure democrats win up and down the ballot she said because of my fundraising

ability i am the one that can a secure the seat and b drive up uh turnout for democrats in other races on the ballots and so it'll be an interesting one to watch two state house members who have been colleagues for a while for each other now going at it. Absolutely. Thank you, Bradley. Cameron, coming to you. Sex education in public schools continues to be a point of conversation as Dallas ISD has adopted a new opt in program. Give us those details. Yeah, like you said, this is an opt-in program because Texas is one of five states that require parents to opt in their children into sex education. This new program at Dallas ISD is called Positive Prevention Plus, but has some questionable recommendations once you start looking into it. Things like promoting LGBT lifestyles and including links for things like gender-affirming services.

And as we know, the ban on child gender modification treatments and procedures was recently enacted into law. organization that runs this sex ed program merged with another group that has things on their website that promotes transgender men getting pregnant and ideas around asexuality. So many controversial topics being touched on by this Positive Prevention Plus and its associative groups. And because it is an opt-in program, there will not be a requirement for students to attend this after-school program, but still the information is there in our story for any parent that has a child at Dallas ISD who would like more information. Absolutely. Cameron, thank you so much. Bradley, a long-running dispute between a mechanic and the city of Pasadena just got longer.

Give us those details. Azael Sepulveda, a mechanic in Pasadena, has filed a second suit against the city after officials backed out of a settlement agreement the two parties made. Sepulveda originally sued the city in 2021 because officials would not let him open up his new mechanic shop without adding 23 new parking spaces. He had five. They required 28 spaces that Sepulveda said he has no need for and would just sit there unused. They reached a settlement in May 2022 after a judge sided with Sepulveda, but now that is off because of extraneous demands made by the city. Those demands include the installation of a drainage system, the creation of a six-inch curb around the parking spots,

the creation of a five-foot patch around the parking spots, the creation of a five-foot patch of grass between the spots and the street, and a prohibition of vehicles backing out into the public right-of-way from those spots. He says that the first two of those he can comply with. They do not violate the settlement agreement. The latter two, though, violate what the two agreed upon in their settlement. we don't have the exact terms of the settlement because it is kept private but now he's suing the city over this new directive they have given him he's asking for up to 250 000 in payment to compensate for the rent he's had to pay while being unable to open his shop.

Sepulveda and the Institute for Justice, which is providing him with a legal counsel pro bono, says this is a violation of constitutional rights. Ordering him to purchase this land that he does not need to put up parking spots that he does not need is illegitimately keeping him out of business. And so and that's costing him a lot of money in rent that he has to pay every month, even though he cannot bring in money from that location. Yeah, very interesting case. Certainly go check it out at the texan.news. Cameron, a principal at a public school here in Texas, was recently arrested for spanking a student with a wooden paddle. Tell us what happened.

Yeah, a strange story for sure. Because corporal punishment, not something you're going to hear about in our modern age, but it's still legal here in Texas. And just briefly, a Overton High School principal spanked three times a female student as a form of discipline. And this was done with the student's mother approval. And after the incident took place, the female student took photos of the bruising afterwards. Those photos were examined by a pediatrician who said they were reminiscent of abuse. And according to the affidavit that was released or seen, at least by USA Today, the principal was arrested and released on bond, but has not been formally charged with a crime. And important to mention, this past legislative session did see a bill be introduced that would have made corporal punishment

prohibited in public schools, but it failed to pass. We may see something come up next session as well. Cameron, thank you so much. Let's move on, gentlemen, to our tweeter-y section. We dismissed Hayden. He has some big interview to prepare for today. So we let him go from the pod. So it's just Brad, Cameron, Matt, and me. our tweeter a section we dismissed hayden he has some big interview to prepare for today so we um

let him go from the pod so it's just brad cameron matt and me hi boys oh thanks brad do you want to say hi to me as well not particularly okay well it's not as if we've been talking for the last 40 minutes to each other. You just can't give me anything. The listeners don't know that. They've been listening. This entire thing could be edited. We could have talked in three different portions of recording. They don't know that we sit here for a full hour chatting with each other.

Maybe we should make the Texas uncuts edition oh my gosh we did do a blooper reel once if i remember correctly yeah i don't think people cared about it that much no we really liked it i thought it was fun internally we listened to it a lot i don't think many people outside of this office cared very much can't please everyone okay brad well since you didn't since you failed to greet me i'm going to ask you to share your tweetery first well i would accuse you of showing the white feather i don't know what that means by sending this to me first well i'm glad you asked what that means because i didn't ask bradley i'm going to pretend you did. One of our listeners sent me a screenshot of the transcript of the 1917 Pa Ferguson impeachment.

And shout out Mike. He's I'm one senator to another. And it was taken very poorly. And fisticuffs almost ensued. Whoa. The one senator accused a bunch of others of, quote, showing the white feather, which in 1917 parlance is calling them cowards. Those are fine words. Like a white flag kind of thing?

I guess it's similar, but it doesn't seem to be exactly the same application. But they went back and forth after the first accusation was made. And one guy was like, who are you saying showed the white feather? Name them. And then he would respond with, anyone who has shown a white feather is who I'm accusing. So he never really did that. But then there was a line where Senator Page, the one who was upset, said, who is showing the white feather? Senator Collins responded, I won't know until they vote on the issue.

Let them put on the shoe, and if it fits, they may wear it. If any man wants to see me outside the Senate chamber, he can see me. I weigh nearly 200 pounds. And if they want to see me outside the chamber of the Senate, they can see me. But I'm going to do my duty regardless of who may show the white feather. And I haven't read all of the surrounding context but i assume that collins is pushing for um conviction of pa ferguson and page is at least ambivalent if not um you know pushing for acquittal and so things got pretty heated i read that in my 1917 voice

mine was complete opposite the see me outside was like the catch me outside girl it reminds me of i was thinking too cameron it reminds me in in the um the civil war era in the u.s senate when preston Brooks beat, I think, William Seward. Oh, my gosh. Nearly to death with his cane. Sometimes tensions are inflamed. And these days, they tend to just yell at each other. Back in ye olden days, They brought the fisticuffs.

I didn't realize Seward was a senator before he was Secretary of State. I knew he was governor, but I didn't know he was a senator. That's cool. You're teaching me things today, Bradley. You're welcome. Do you want to hear my 1917 voice? Very quickly. Okay.

Give me a second here. You got to muster it up. If any man wants to seize me outside the Senate chamber, he can seize me. I weigh nearly 200 pounds. And if they want to seize me outside the chamber seat, they can see me. Matt, that just sounded like you're talking to us. I'm sorry, I get that. You just added an S on every word.

Yes, exactly. Yeah, see? Oh, my gosh. That literally just sounded like Matt's talking voice. You know, 200 pounds is not nothing. No, no. But, like, you know, these days. That made me laugh.

Imagine being 200 pounds and trying to take on, I don't know, Travis Clardy. Yeah. That would not go well. Travis Clardy. That's so funny. He's a big man he's very very tall but back in the olden days that was a lot the olden day that's true it was different a different day and age that's very true wow well i don't know if we'll recover from this this portion

of the segment cameron why don't we go with you next okay i was gonna go with a different story, but this actually just came across Twitter as we were sitting down. That Rupert Murdoch is actually stepping down as chairman of Fox and News Corp and turning over the company to his son. And just going through the article that was written up about it, I thought it'd be interesting to point out a few things. He sent a letter to everyone in the company saying things like the battle for free speech, or rather battle for freedom of speech, and ultimately the freedom of thought has never been more intense. He is saying the company is in good health. It has nothing to do with Fox News struggling or News Corp struggling. But the sentiments about freedom of speech, being under threat, that was throughout this letter he sent to employees. So I just thought that was really interesting that this media mogul, ubiquitous within news, stepping down.

So it's kind of a changing of the guard. I don't know if it's just a sign of the times where we're seeing conventional media sort of fall away, less trust in the media, more people are going to outlets online. They have individual people they follow, whether it's a podcast or a YouTube channel or a Twitter profile where they get their news. But I just thought it was really interesting. Yeah. Very interesting. Matthew, what about you? Well, I thought I would bring a little bit of space to our conversation and talk about the latest adventures at SpaceX and Elon Musk.

So a lot of you all probably remember when they launched the Starship, the extremely large rocket that Elon Musk musk is designing that's mars mission capable and it went up and was largely successful until it exploded so anyway he's building another one and it's pretty much built plus he's redesigning the launch pad because when the other one took off it just like destroyed everything uh so uh there's footage of this another starship they've literally cranked another one out and are putting it on the lunch pad all that sort of stuff but news is broken that they are being held up by federal bureaucracy not being able to get the green light to go not because of nasa or the aeronautical administration or anything like that,

FAA, all that sort of stuff, but it's actually the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service holding them up. Apparently, it's because there's this system at the bottom of the rocket that puts out a lot of water whenever they go to fire the rocket off that keeps things cool and I guess keeps it from destroying a whole bunch of stuff, etc., etc. So it's got to pump out a tremendous amount of water really, really quickly. And for some reason, that involves the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I don't know why, but news broke this morning that they said that it's going to take anywhere from 30 to 135 days when they begin the review process before they're going to sign off on this water system. And oh, by the way, we haven't even started the process of reviewing the water system to approve it. So Elon Musk tweeted out

about this saying that that is unacceptable that it is absurd that spacex can build a giant rocket faster than they can shuffle paperwork wow some big criticisms there i always like how elon or ai or uh crypto seems to make its way onto the pod at least every other week i'm specifically looking at you two cameron and matthew there's actually just a ai panel here in austin i knew it it just came across when i was looking at my email they sent me an update about it just saying just saying there's a lot of technology stuff in this part of the world that's very true we're in austin okay i'm stealing something that cameron was going to talk about but true we're in austin okay i'm stealing something that cameron was going to talk about but it is so in my wheelhouse i'm stealing it as my own

fun thing to talk about headline from the quran popular swimming spots at huntsville park close after alligator sightings it's wild i go cameron's acting surprised by the story he's like no way it's wild the photo for the article is a park ranger who looks like some variation of Ron Swanson holding up a baby alligator in his fist. Yeah. It's hilarious. It's wild. But apparently this Houston area, Huntsville State Park, which is like 60 miles north of

Houston, closed due to low lake levels. And then some of these alligators were starting to find their way into the park's pools. Yeah. I didn't even know there was alligators in Houston. Yeah. But they're breeding. These are babies. So there could be a lot more coming.

Yeah. Well, I think also because of low water levels, maybe it's not like these swimming areas. They're like the square footage is just less. So their alligators are just closer to a lot of swimmers. So if you click on some of the links in the article, there are more articles that show, like, for example, two alligators trap swimmers at Texas State Park north of Houston. And you see in this video these swimmers who are on like a dock platform in the middle of the lake, stranded and alligators are just like circling the platform. Oh, my gosh. And there's a crowd of people around them watching it, like watching the swimmers that are stranded.

Yeah. And they were rescued by park rangers and ended up being fine. But it's a sizable group of folks out there probably like eight or nine people and then there is another video that is wild to watch where they um there are these children it's the same park swimming around one of the swimming areas where there's like buoys and ropes and parents like run out to grab their children because maybe like 20 30 feet away an alligator like a 10 foot long alligator is just swimming slowly toward them oh my gosh it is wild i'm gonna play it for you guys but look like these parents are out there running to get their children and the camera pans and there's just

an alligator whoa i have one word for that what croiki oh brother brad is so happy with himself. It like pains me. R.I.P. in peace. But that's also one thing folks don't know that I'm glad to educate them on is that alligators are much more docile than crocodiles. So crocodiles tend to be far more aggressive than gators. Does not mean gators. And these are gators. Does not mean a gator won't.

Yes. Okay. Does not mean a gator won't chomp you if he's got the shot. Did you know? But there tend to be much less aggressive than crocod Does not mean a gator won't chomp you if he's got the shot. Did you know? But they tend to be much less aggressive than crocodiles, who will just chomp you to chomp you. Did you know that you never smile at a crocodile? Are you happy?

I am very happy. Do you know why alligators are ornery? Oh, dear. I do. You do? Do you all know why alligators are ornery? Oh, dear. I do. You do? Do you all know why alligators are ornery? Please enlighten me. Well, it's not because they got all those teeth and no toothbrush,

but it's because they're medulla alligata. Seriously? Y'all have never watched The Waterboy? No, I don't. I literally don't. You're speaking another language. You've never seen The Waterboy? I haven't seen The Waterboy. No, I don't know. I literally don't know. You're speaking another language. You've never seen The Waterboy? I haven't seen The Waterboy.

That is a hilarious scene. Like one of my favorite online quotes. They got all them teeth, but no toothbrush. No toothbrush. Well, mama ain't right. Our listeners don't know. Some of them. Cameron and Matt are very um pleased with this happening brad and i have no idea what is what is going on for once brad we're on the same team we don't

know what's going on i refuse also we're on the same team and we're in a pop culture reference is not understood by both parties usually it's you lording your pop culture or movie reference knowledge over my head. So we're in the same boat here. I would just like the record to reflect. That does not count as a truce. Okay, fine. We'll resume our arguing in 10 minutes. I'm sure it'll be less.

Great. Okay. Well, folks, thank you for joining us on our weekly roundup and we will 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 an email to editor at the texan.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.