The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - September 23, 2022

Episode Date: September 23, 2022

Want to support reporting on Texas politics that doesn’t include the spin? Subscribe at 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: Governor Abbott’s executive order designating fentanyl-trafficking organizations as terroristsEl Paso’s system for busing noncitizens to sanctuary cities throughout the countryA police reform activist going after his former ally, the mayor of AustinAttorney General Paxton asking Biden to declare fentanyl a “weapon of mass destruction”A district court’s ruling that prohibitions on purchasing firearms for those under felony indictment are unconstitutionalThe Bexar county sheriff opening an investigation into Florida governor Ron DeSantisThe BlackRock CEO touting decarbonization and ESG at a Clinton Global Initiative meetingRepublicans alleging political interference in the Hunter Biden investigationAn update in the case about Texas’ prohibition on 18-20 year olds carrying handgunsThe historic number of illegal immigrants apprehended so far this fiscal yearThe Migrant Resource Center in San Antonio flooding the local area with people who crossed the borderA federal court upholding Texas’ law against social media censorship

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie Taylor here on the Texans Weekly Roundup Podcast. This week, the team discusses Governor Abbott's executive order designating fentanyl trafficking organizations as terrorists. El Paso's system for busing non-citizens to sanctuary cities throughout the country. A police reform activist going after his former ally, the mayor of Austin. Attorney General Paxton asking Biden to declare fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction. A district court's ruling that prohibitions on purchasing firearms for those under felony indictment are unconstitutional. The Bexar County Sheriff opening an investigation into Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The BlackRock CEO touting decarbonization and ESG at a Clinton

Global Initiative meeting. Republicans alleging political interference in the Hunter Biden investigation. An update in the case about Texas's prohibition on 18 to 20-year-olds carrying handguns. The historic number of illegal immigrants apprehended so far this fiscal year. The Migrant Resource Center in San Antonio flooding the local area with people who cross the border. And a federal court upholding Texas's law against social media censorship. As always, if you have questions for our team, DM us on Twitter or email us at editor at thetexan.news. We'd love to answer your questions on a future podcast. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode.

Howdy, folks. Mackenzie Taylor here with Brad and Hayden and Hudson. We've already gone off the rails. I think you say this every week. I don't, maybe. We should go back and look. We can't behave ourselves for five minutes in this room. That's exactly right. I think once all of us are also sitting together, not just like in transient or in transit between between offices saying hi it's like we tend to go off the rails but we have a lot of stuff to get into today rob is um off doing things daniel's off doing things annie's off doing things so it's the four amigos in the office today and like i

said we have a lot of news so we're going to jump right in hayden let's talk about an executive order from um governor abbott this week what was the justification for Abbott's order declaring fentanyl traffickers to be terrorists? and Texas Department of Public Safety Director Colonel Steve McCraw was also there as he signed an executive order declaring Mexican criminal cartels that traffic fentanyl in the state of Texas to be terrorist organizations and the members of cartels and gangs that traffic fentanyl to be terrorists. Fentanyl is an increasing problem in the state of Texas. According to the executive order, 1,600 Texans died from fentanyl overdoses in 2021, which was a 680% increase from 2018. The death toll is expected to be higher in 2022, and just 2 mg of fentanyl, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, is enough to cause a fatal overdose. During Operation Lone Star, Texas State Police have

seized enough fentanyl to cause 340.5 million fatal overdoses, which of course is enough to kill everyone in the U.S. Obviously, there isn't a mechanism to perpetrate a terror attack where everyone is killed by fentanyl, but that gives a picture of the scale of the problem. Yeah. And Abbott noted that the subcomponents of fentanyl are produced primarily in China and India, but China being the key in that equation.

So when it comes to fentanyl, it is being trafficked in the US at an alarmingly increasing rate. It isn't just a normal spike in the use of a drug or the overdose of a drug. It has the feel of there being sinister intent behind it, homicidal intent, not just a public health crisis or some kind of public health scare. In addition, the drug is being shrouded as prescription drugs. People are purchasing prescription drugs in the black market that they think are one drug and it is laced with fentanyl. And there are even cartel members that are designing it to look like candy so that children

will take this drug. Oh my gosh. So it is extremely dangerous. And that was the justification for our governor declaring that people who spread this drug are terrorists trying to kill people. Yeah. So what are some of the measures the state police could take to combat fentanyl trafficking? Well, they've already been seizing it. And one of the law enforcement officers there said in one stop, they were able to seize, I think, 10,000. It was either 10,000 pills or 10,000 deadly

overdoses. I'm not sure how many or which one of those, but it was 10,000 units of fentanyl that were deadly. And that was just in one stop. But Abbott wasn't all that specific, but he indicated that they would begin to seize assets and disrupt cartel networks are the words that he used. The Sinaloa cartel and the New Generation cartel were specifically designated, but other cartels could be designated as well. And Abbott wrote a letter to the White House encouraging them to declare Mexican cartels that traffic fentanyl to be terrorist organizations so that this is also a federal level designation and not just something that the governor is doing. And he stated that he would be

working ahead of the 88th legislature, which is just three or four months away, on legislation that would upgrade the penalty for trafficking fentanyl to virtually a murder charge if the death of an individual occurred as a result of giving them fentanyl there you go hayden thanks for covering that for us hudson we're coming right to you um sticking with the governor's news here greg abbott made headlines for his busing program and el paso seems to have something similar is the city of el paso doing the same thing yes um el paso has sent over a thousand individuals who legally crossed into the United States to sanctuary cities throughout the U.S. And they will continue to do so as long as they need to. So even though Governor Greg Abbott has received a ton of media attention for his program to bus non-citizens to places like New York and Chicago, El Paso has not received the

same notoriety whatsoever. El Paso is a democratic-led city, and it really shows that the influx of people into this country is a serious apolitical issue that requires immediate solutions. Texas cities like El Paso, Eagle Pass, Del Rio, and San Antonio are struggling to keep up with the sheer numbers that we are seeing at the southern border. El Paso saw 8400 citizens or non-citizens transit through the city to a final destination in August alone. Wow. So you spoke on how the influx of illegal immigration is straining Texas cities. Is this why El Paso is pursuing the program? What's their reasoning? Yes, this is exactly why. In mid-August, Customs and Border Patrol officials told the city that if they could not house the hundreds of daily non-citizens, they would be

released onto the street. So El Paso responded by paying a charter bus company $400,000 to bus the unhoused people released by CBP to the sanctuary cities of their choice. So earlier in May of this year, they issued an emergency ordinance following the repeal of Title 42, the public health declaration. And so they issued this emergency ordinance in response to the crisis, and it allows the city to use public funds to transport people to protect the public infrastructure, health, safety, and welfare of the city. There you go. So who is footing the bill for this program? And talk to us about whether other Texas cities are doing anything similar. So according to the city, the federal government

is going to pay for the busing program, but will only reimburse them. The city has to pay the bill at the onset. They also recently signed a contract with another charter bus company for $2 million to continue the program. And San Antonio is also flying and busing non-citizens to sanctuary cities. As of mid-August, San Antonio had spent over $300,000 on plane and bus tickets for people going to sanctuary cities. And this has surely risen dramatically in the last month as the numbers continue to pile up at the southern border. There you go. Well, Hudson, thank you for that coverage. Bradley, we're coming to you. Let's talk about Austin.

After the city council voted on an ordinance that granted the Office of Police Oversight more power, Mayor Adler faced staunch criticism from one of the city's most influential reimagined policing activists here in Austin. What did he have to say so chris harris the policy director at the austin justice coalition said on twitter police violence apologists rejoiced today thanks to mayor adler he limited testimony reneged on letting two police violence victims speak including justin howell who was one of the individuals injured pretty substantially during the 2020 protests turned riots he was injured by a stray um bean bag round that was shot uh harris continued and adler lied about supporting the oversight he hustled to stall he'll soon lack the power to atone for his deceit. Pretty stark words from someone who has been not only a supporter of Adler, but has had Adler among his own supporters. It is a pretty substantial break.

Harris is among the least measured of the this crowd of this activist crowd like he pops off on twitter quite a bit um his uh i i spoke to one of his actually the guy who heads up the austin justice coalition he had a different take um he said that uh jazz more was was more measured about it but chris harris yeah he he did not hold back against the mayor and um the result of this vote was that the petition that harris uh was probably the chief circulator of will now go to the may ballot instead of being adopted outright by the council and what it does is it grants more investigative authority to the, uh,

office of police oversight. The office of police oversight, of course, has been, uh, maligned and, um, also found to be violating its,

uh, its authority granted in the police labor contract, uh, that was released earlier this year, I think, or at the very end of last year. So this is something that these activists have wanted for a long time. They want someone from the city to really hold a lot of power over the police department. Who is this guy in the first place? Who is Chris Harris?

Yeah. So if you've ever watched an Austin city city council meeting which i don't know why you would they drag on forever um but he is one of the most well-known faces of the reimagined policing movement in austin um you know you recognize him instantly he has a really large afro that is his signature. And whenever you see, sometimes it can be hard to see the people walking up with their face, talking to the council. And he's pretty obvious because of that. But we love a good head of hair. Hey, I wish I could grow that. But he also sits on the city's reimagining public safety task force, which is in charge of analyzing public safety in the city and making policy recommendations to officials. The director of the aforementioned Office of Police Oversight is also on that. that um there's a lot of working behind the scenes between these city officials um who are

tasked to do this stuff in the public and the activists that are driving a lot of the change in the city whether it's the camping rescission that we saw in 2019 that has since been um reversed whether it's the the massive police budget cut and redirection whether it's the bail change that that occurred in in 2017 um harris is has his hand in all this stuff and he's incredibly influential um i saw on twitter an email someone did a FOIA request and uh you know what i'll just give him a shout out he's an anonymous twitter account JohnnyK2001 or something I don't know how this guy finds all these records he's

able to obtain especially email records within the city of Austin but he found one from Adler to Harris in 2019 in which the mayor said your involvement continues to be very constructive and helpful and for that I remain very appreciative.

I'll need your continuing help, leadership and teaching. So that right there shows at least the the reliance that Adler has on Harris, along with the other activists in that crowd. So what does this mean for Mayor Adler? For himself, at least his political future probably not much he's a lame duck he is not he cannot run for re-election he gave his state of the city final state of the city speech last month but it is interesting seeing an activist that has supported him for so long and so vigorously knife in the back on the way out um it does indicate i think that adler was not the only one steering the ship during his tenure and you know if you've been paying attention that is pretty obvious um these like i've said these

activists have a lot of influence in what goes on city hall but it'll be interesting to see how this movement advances with whomever is elected mayor next there you go thank you bradley hayden back to you um which states called on the biden administration to declare fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction i'm going to talk about drugs again that's okay with you attorney general my blessing great excellent we're gonna we're gonna forge ahead then attorney general paxton joined a letter with many other attorneys general from across the country, including the Attorney General of Guam. And those states are Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. And those attorneys general are bipartisan. There are Republicans and Democrats in that group. In fact, the leads on this letter were the attorney general of Florida and the attorney general of Connecticut. Attorney general of Florida, she's a Republican. Connecticut's attorney general is a Democrat. So a bipartisan group of attorneys general calling

on Biden to declare fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction. And as we talked about earlier, many of the justifications in this letter were the same as Abbott's justification for declaring them terrorist organizations. And the nature of fentanyl was referenced in this letter as being highly destructive and having the ability to be not just dangerous to health, but a weapon. Yeah, absolutely. So what was some of the language in the letter to the White House? Well, this quote was particularly strong. They said, Indeed, given fentanyl's lethality, the amounts being interdicted and seized are inconsistent with what one would expect from drug trafficking activity and are indicative of either purposeful conspiracy to murder Americans or an effort to stockpile a dangerous chemical weapon, end quote. And that's frightening to think about a drug being used as a weapon of mass destruction, but that is the consensus among these 18 attorneys general. And U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as of the update that was released on Monday,

stated that 12,900 pounds of fentanyl has been confiscated so far this fiscal year, and that's still not including September. So we have one month to go in FY 2022, and we almost have 13,000 pounds of fentanyl that have been seized. And that's just by CBP. That doesn't count what's been seized by state police and other local agencies. And to put that in perspective, 11,200 pounds were seized in all of 2021, which as I talked about earlier, was already a record-setting year for the seizure of fentanyl contributing to the opioid crisis. So this is one more tool, and they called it, quote, an unorthodox solution that may help abate or at least slow like a legitimate prescription. But that is the course of action that this bipartisan group of attorneys general is taking. And Paxton himself is in the

middle of a political battle. He is facing Democrat Rochelle Garza in the general election. That's his main opponent. Libertarian Mark Ash is also on the ballot, but it would be politically advantageous for him to focus attention on a common enemy. No one's pro-Fentanyl and no one is pro-weapon of mass destruction. So there could be political things at play here, but of course the crisis is legitimate. His campaign or his opponent in the election doesn't't mention fentanyl in her campaign website, but she does talk about being opposed to his, quote, wasteful border enforcement efforts, and she's referencing Operation Lone Star. So no one's out there saying that they're pro-fentanyl, but Democrats are opposed to some of the measures that have been taken.

And there is, of course, the criticism that this is happening a couple of months before the election. So a lot going on politically, in addition to the alarming increase in fentanyl seizures. Hayden, thank you for breaking that down for us. And I think very interesting to watch a Democrat attorney general as one of the headliners, particularly in a state as far north as Connecticut. That's a very interesting kind of political, I don't know, addition to this story. So thank you for that coverage. Bradley, there was a notable court ruling on a gun law this week. We definitely have some gun news we need to talk about.

So tell us about it yeah so a federal judge in texas ruled unconstitutional the federal government's prohibition against those under felony indictment from purchasing firearms now that's a prohibition against people under indictment not those convicted if you're convicted of a felony you are prohibited from purchasing owning carrying a firearm so in the ruling the court said the second amendment is not a second-class right. No longer can courts balance away a constitutional right. After Bruin, that's the landmark SCOTUS decision that occurred earlier this year. I'll get into that in a minute. The government must prove that laws regulating conduct covered by the Second Amendment's plain text aligned with this nation's historical tradition the government does not meet that burden so bruin um it set forth this um

two-step analysis of gun laws that courts are now supposed to take into account when considering the constitutionality of some regulation um the two steps are laws must adhere to the meaning and historical context of the second amendment and to whatever uh regulation is in question must not unnecessarily burden gun rights so in order to get to that second step it must meet the first and in order for it to survive judicial scrutiny it must meet both um per that uh uh rubric essentially um the this lawsuit specifically stems from a situation where an individual jose gomez quiros was indicted on multiple felony charges but purchased a pistol during the proceedings neither of which he'd been convicted on yet he was unarrested tried and convicted for illegally purchasing a weapon and falsifying atf paperwork other than the implication for the specific law why is this notable so taking what i just mentioned about the two-step analysis, we are seeing a lot of courts apply that to new lawsuits.

One I'll get into later that I think we talked about last week, that pertains to this. a california's prohibition on purchasing ar-15s be held unconstitutional through this analysis and so because of what the court the nation's highest court ruled in bruin we're seeing a lot more focus on the historical um context and realities of the founding and the second amendment what what they meant when they said it um for example in this ruling actually in the other one we'll talk about uh that we talked about last week they uh the court ruled or mentioned that when at the time of the founding militias included 18 to 20 year olds. And so therefore, clearly the Second Amendment was not intended to preclude them from exercising it. So we're going to see a lot more of this, I think, especially in more conservative corners of the country where judges tend to be more conservative and in courts that lean more conservative. This is also especially notable because it'll likely go to the Fifth Circuit next, which is on balance more conservative than liberal.

Very good. Well, spicy stuff. Thank you, Bradley. Hey, listeners, I'm going to pivot here very quickly. If you enjoy listening to our podcast each week, consider subscribing to the Texan. We're not funded by corporate interests or big donors, so we rely on the subscriptions of everyday Texans to keep churning out news. When you subscribe to The Texan, you'll get access to stories like all the ones we've been discussing on this podcast as soon as they're published so that you can stay informed, up to speed, and ready to vote at the ballot box. A subscription is $9 monthly, but you can save by purchasing an annual subscription for $90, which comes out to just $7.50 per month.

And right now, we're running a promotion. New subscribers will get a free long-sleeve t-shirt with this snazzy John Steinbeck quote. Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word for more details visit the texan.news forward slash subscribe or click the url in the description of this podcast now let's jump back to chatting about the stories from this week hayden we're coming to you talk to

us about why sheriff javier salazar is investigating the flights to martha's vineyard this is probably one of the more bizarre stories that I've written about in recent memory. Would you call it spicy? I would call it spicy. What's the McKenzie spice rating on this? On this story? Out of five. I say like, you know, if you go to a Thai restaurant, you rate something out of five stars in terms of how spicy you want it.

I'd give this like a three star. Like certain bites bites it's so spicy you just you really need water in that moment but it's not gonna scald you wow this analogy is getting really complex i'm here for you it's increasingly layered like an onion wow now it's a shrek reference no this is not an onion story we have had onion stories on this podcast and that was very spicy but no i think three out of five spice meter rating is pretty good for this one but sheriff javier salazar in bear county san antonio is the county seat of bear county for those who don't

know and it's spelled funny um but that's beside the point is investigating an action taken by the state of Florida, specifically Governor Ron DeSantis, using funds appropriated by the Florida legislature to transport non-citizens. And I say non-citizens because they are illegal immigrants who were taken into custody, given paperwork, and then dropped at what is called a migrant resource center. And I know Hudson's going to talk about that soon, so I won't get into that. But they were taken from San Antonio to Florida, reportedly, and then to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts to be dropped off in a sanctuary jurisdiction, according to DeSantis. And Sheriff Salazar in this news conference accused unnamed suspects of, quote, preying upon these individuals by promising them a better life somewhere else. And this was probably, here's one of the quotes from him, quote, what infuriates me the most about this case is here we have 48 people that are already on hard times.

They are here legally in our country at that point. They have every right to be where they are. And I believe that they were preyed upon. Someone came from out of state and preyed upon these people. End quote. He is saying that there's some kind of deception involved and that quote under false pretenses, they were told that they would be given jobs or housing. But he is laying out what he thinks this investigation might show. He was not announcing the results of an investigation and he said that it was political theater for these individuals to come in presumably

at the behest of ron desantis to take them from san antonio to martha's vineyard a little bit of an ironic criticism given that he hasn't he's launching an investigation they haven't completed the investigation so he he is, he was asked, is there by a reporter, is there some kind of political motivation because you're a Democratic sheriff investigating someone who is a Republican governor? And he swore up and down that there was no political motivation and that he would pursue the case the same, even if the suspects turned out to be in his own party but those were the main criticisms that Salazar had against this action so what was Governor DeSantis response to this

investigation well he did respond in a an interview with Hannity and his communications director also responded but he contended that these people were quote basically destitute end quote and he said going to martha's vineyard was in their best interest unless in fact these jurisdictions or this jurisdiction does not have the resources that they say they do to take care of all these people and they stated that they weren't prepared and and I think the governor of Massachusetts condemned him for doing this, but he said that they signed consent forms and that the vendor that transported these people up to the Northeast gave them packets with information about how to access services and how to get around the area. So more or less, DeSantis said that if they ended up somehow stranded or without the necessities that they needed, that the onus was really on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And he criticized them for virtually deporting them as soon as they got there. They also mentioned DeSantis and his communications director pointed out that Bexar County was the setting for the

deaths of about 50 people, 53 to be exact, in the semi-trailer that was found in a human smuggling case near San Antonio. And the sheriff didn't make nearly as big a deal of that. He did not have a press conference like he did in this instance where people went voluntarily. So those were the main criticisms that are the main responses that DeSantis offered. DeSantis was not the first person to do this. Governor Abbott started ordering state officials to transport non-citizens out of Texas to Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C. But I think the reason DeSantis is getting a little bit more attention is he's widely considered to be a 2024 Republican presidential candidate. He's not announced that, but people are

probably a little bit more interested in what DeSantis is doing because he could be angling for a run for the White House in a couple of years. Certainly. And we've seen the DeSantis Abbott comparisons over and over again politically, particularly in the COVID years when we were watching governors hand down different orders and stipulations or, you know, not handing down orders and stipulations. So they certainly have had a lot of comparisons. So interesting to watch this one in particular be something where the governor of texas was the first to act on this specific issue um bradley let's talk about black rock black rock ceo larry fink sat on a panel of the clinton global initiative with the former president this week and made some very interesting comments give us a rundown so during his question and answer panel fink touted the transition away

from fossil fuels and this comes just weeks after his company was among those on texas's initial list of fossil fuel divestors priming them for state pension funds to be removed from either black rock holdings or investment funds along with nine other financial companies black rock has frequently denied this accusation and it's just kind of there's no agreement on this but fink has made things considerably more interesting because, uh, of his public comments. And this is one example of multiple, um, public appearances that he's made that he has said things like this.

And to the former president, he said the tectonic shift toward decarbonization is happening. We are seeing big shifts because of heat and drought. We're seeing every day that climate risk is investment risk and people are waking up to that he further went on to say because of rising prices we're seeing the cost of the green premium the the higher cost of um establishing renewable energy uh technologies and reliance. We're seeing that shrink quite considerably. And so the amounts of investment dollars going into new decarbonization technologies accelerating and accelerating very rapidly.

I think it's important to note that we're not seeing the green premium decrease. It's just the cost for more traditional forms of energy is rising up to the green premium level. And also a substantial reason energy prices are so high is the very shift by governments that Fink is touting and giving credence to away from fossil fuels and toward reliance on renewable energy. A couple examples of that are the bottleneck at refineries. We've seen the country unable to, um, um, build any new refineries in like 50 years, uh, that limits the amount of supply that can be produced, uh, when we see demand spike.

Um, we've also just seen a general, uh, restraint by oil and gas companies worried about just the posture by take our federal government the policy there and not putting more investment into further um oil and gas development because they don't see a potential return on investment there. What does this mean for Texas? So for officials like Lieutenant Governor Patrick and Comptroller Hager, it confirms what they've been saying for so long that BlackRock itself and other such companies, but BlackRock is the face of this, are talking out of both sides of their mouth, both saying publicly, yes, we're doing uh decarbonization push um but then telling the comptroller oh no we're not uh divesting or sanctioning uh which is an even bigger part of this whether they're

um with their rhetoric moving uh capital away from where it would otherwise go towards oil and gas companies and other such coal companies, things like that. So for them, it's just confirming what they have said for a while. And this will likely strengthen their resolve to do more next sessions, such as pass legislation prohibiting banks operating in Texas from denying loans and insurance policies to fossil fuel companies wholesale um obviously if it's like a bad investment you'd still be able to um uh to deny the loan but just for there are some banks and insurance companies that are flat out saying you know we're not doing any fossil fuel financing and that under a prospective bill that one legislature has identified would be not allowed. Something similar was done with gun manufacturers and Citibank.

So this is going to continue to be an issue. And thanks to Fink and his comments, it's not going away. And I'm sure Hager and Patrick will just get even more angry at it. Republicans might pounce. Yes, yes. They might pounce on us. Yeah, just throwing that out there. Thank you, Bradley.

Hudson, we're coming back to you. Senator John Cornyn and a group of other Republican senators sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. What did they ask of him? So the group of senators demanded that Garland grant special counsel protections and authorities to David C. Weiss, the U.S. attorney presiding over the Hunter Biden probe. In the letter, they first alleged that Garland has politicized the DOJ, which is something that he promised not to do when he was appointed by President Biden. And they claim that because of this level of politicization, Weiss must be granted special authority over the case in order to be free from Garland's influence in the larger DOJ and the political influences

that are out there. So it is interesting to note that Weiss is a holdover from the Trump administration and has been in charge of the probe since 2020. And the goal of Merrick Garland keeping him in that position was to have the image that there is no political interference. Got it. So talk to us about what Hunter Biden is being accused of. So Hunter Biden is being accused of involvement with a bribe meant to stop an investigation into a Ukrainian gas company called Burisma, their CEO. So at the time of the alleged bribe, he was a member of the Burisma board. Further, the joint corruption investigation into Burisma by the U.S. and U.K. governments directly coincided with Hunter Biden's time as a board member for the company. And so that's raising serious suspicion. He's also accused of unlicensed foreign lobbying as he has been seriously connected to the lobbying firm Blue Star and his

hard drive, which was obtained by U.S. authorities, show emails with him setting up meetings between Burisma and U.S. officials while he was an official Secret Service protectee. Finally, he is also accused of tax fraud, which Weiss is also investigating. So talk to us about the status of the investigation. Yeah, so no charges have been filed yet. And the senators are sending this letter as reports show that the probe is at a critical juncture. So they are concerned that because Hunter Biden is the president's son, the DOJ and FBI will not prioritize this case and will ultimately never bring charges against him and will allow it to just float away into the ether.

And so because the FBI has already attempted to limit exposure of stories relating to the Hunter Biden laptop. They think that without special protections for Weiss, the case will be dropped and no charges will be brought against Biden. There you go. Well, Hudson, thanks for covering that for us. Bradley, more gun news. We have an update in the case about Texas's prohibition on 18 to 20 year olds carrying handguns. What happened?

So DPS, Department of public safety and its director stephen mccraw decided to appeal district court ruling that i mentioned earlier that held 18 to 20 year olds must be allowed to carry handguns saying that texas prohibition on that uh is invalid um for various reasons but among them is that it fails the Bruin test that I just talked about. This comes after Governor Abbott seemed to indicate that he had no interest in appealing the ruling. He was asked by a reporter about that, among other gun laws. Shortly after, this opinion dropped, and there was little indication that at least he wanted to now it's not obviously not totally up to him he has a lot of sway but he is not running the department of public safety

um so it just appears that the the uh that dps decided to go its own way on this there you go so another aspect of this is that the AG is representing DPS, the Attorney General. Explain that. So the Attorney General has represented McCraw and DPS in this lawsuit and continues to, at least as of the notice of the appeal filing, I'm sure. Once the case gets further along at the Fifth Circuit, there could be a change of counsel. But as of now, the attorney general, his first assistant, and a couple other attorneys there, their names are on this filing. I think this is notable most because conservatives would probably prefer the ruling to stand. So how will they react to this? And, uh, another reason that this is top of mind is that Paxton received some criticism in a similar situation when his office off office represented and continues to represent the secretary of state over the passage of a constitutional amendment. amendment it's very obscure issue has to do with toll roads no reason to get into the details but this is a far more substantial and like um uh contemporary important uh topic whether 18 to

20 year olds can exercise their second amendment rights as the court says to carry handguns um and so what's going to happen uh is paxton going to receive some criticism for this as well along the same lines as the other situation does he eventually decide to tell the um the tell dps to either use its own in-house lawyers to represent them or hire outside counsel um it is customary for the AG to represent state agencies. That is generally how things work. That is one of the main responsibilities of the AG, but it's not required. It's not mandated. There are multiple other options that are seldom taken, but have been taken before.

And so in addition to the legal implications of this, the political implications are pretty paramount. And I think there will be further developments on this, but we shall see where they go. Thank you, Bradley. Hayden, tell us about the historic number of illegal immigrants apprehended so far this fiscal year. I'm going to go through this pretty quickly because I don't want to drown everybody in Google spreadsheets like I was yesterday. But there were more than 2 million illegal immigrants apprehended and encountered along the southwest border from October of last year through August of this year. Again, we're talking about fiscal year 2022. And for the entire country, there were nearly 2.5 million

encounters. There were 1.96 million total enforcement actions reported for FY 2021. So CBP was explicit that we're going to have more removals and expulsions this year than in any other year prior. And Title 42 is still in effect, which is the COVID-19 order. Almost all other COVID-19 restrictions have been ended, but that one is still in place due to a federal judge's order. And 71,000 of about 117,000 encounters in our border patrol sectors, Big Bend, Del Rio, El Paso, Laredo, and the Rio Grande Valley. And then along the southwest border overall, there were 181,000 encounters. Got it. So what countries were major sources of illegal immigration in August? Commissioner Chris Magnus, who is the lead for CBP, said that illegal immigration from Venezuela,

Nicaragua, and Cuba was a large chunk of the enforcement encounters in August. And he also touted the Biden administration's efforts to decrease illegal immigration from Mexico and Central American countries. People are crossing multiple times. They get arrested multiple times. And part of that is because of Title 42, they're sent right back over. They're sent over the border. So they try to cross again. So the number of people is different than the number of enforcement encounters. I think I've been over that before. But there were 55,000 illegal immigrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba arrested in the southwest border overall. And then 57,000 of them were from Mexico and northern Central America. So a pretty huge chunk of the number of individuals from

those three countries which are under failing communist regimes is the phrase that Magnus used. Got it. Hayden, thank you. Hudson, you wrote a great piece about something Hayden mentioned earlier, the Migrant Resource Center in San Antonio. What is the Migrant Resource Center? The Migrant Resource Center is San Antonio's answer to the influx of non-citizens into the city. So before the center was open, there was no centralized area for the people brought from the border to wait for transit to their host city or another sanctuary city. People brought to the city by Customs and Border Patrol and ICE would wander around Travis Park near downtown because that's where the Greyhound bus station is, or they would crowd the San Antonio airport. And it would just cause a serious amount of issues in the fact that

they were all being just brought to somewhere where there was no centralized location. So the city answered by using a vacant CPS energy building on the north side of town to temporarily house the thousands of weekly non-citizens. So located in a once quiet residential neighborhood, people at the center are allowed to stay there for three days until they are sent out onto the street to be essentially homeless. Many of the people do not have travel plans. Many of the people have travel plans and predetermined host cities, but many do not and walk up and down the street with no money, clothes, or food. So as someone who has lived in this area of San Antonio for a while, it seriously is a

stark contrast to the way things used to be here. So the city notes that since last year, they have served over 200,000 people who they say are legally transiting to other places nationwide. Now around 600 new non-citizens come to the center every single day. Wow. So you mentioned that the center changed the neighborhood. Explain that to us. Yeah. So driving up and down the street and in the surrounding area, there's a legitimate crisis occurring. Thousands of people who were not previously in the city now sit in front of the restaurants and shops around the center. I talked to one man who runs an embroidery shop and he said that the center has brought crime to his business. He told me that some people will

shoplift and that those that do not will ask him for clothes, food, and other resources, things that he cannot provide them. According to him, cars have also been broken into, and he has had to invest heavily in security cameras to prevent loss. He says that all in all, he has to speak with 300 people per day from the center, and he says he's losing customers and he's wasting precious time. How long will the center be open, and how much has it cost the city so far? So according to a San Antonio official, the center will be open until the end of December. The center has cost the city over a million dollars as of mid-August, and this cost is rapidly increasing.

So the center is staffed with SAPD and SA fire department personnel, and they are paid overtime to work at the center as it is a departure from their regular duties. So you can see where the money is going to be adding up there. Additionally, the city foots the bill for migrant transport and gives them plane and bus tickets to the cities of their choice. They claim that they will be reimbursed by FEMA, but they have not yet received money from the federal government. And so that's currently coming out of the city's budget. So it's an interesting story. And I mean, even last Friday, I saw just a massive bus of people get dropped off in front of the center. And it's not stopping and it will continue to happen. Yeah, absolutely. And folks, I would encourage you to go to the texan.news and read this piece from Hudson. Great story.

Bradley, Texas Republicans secured a big win in the Fifth Circuit when the court upheld the state's anti-social media censorship bill. What did the court say? So the Fifth Circuit, I think it was three or four judges that sat on this panel, they ruled, in urging such sweeping relief, the platforms, as in the tech platforms, offer a rather odd inversion of the First Amendment. That amendment, of course, protects every person's right to the freedom of speech. But the platforms argue that buried somewhere in the person's enumerated right to free speech lies a corporation's unenumerated right to muzzle speech that is the i included quite a few quotes in the article from the court's opinion each of them are pretty fiery like that one um so you can check those out there but overall the theme was the was the same that, that Texas's law that prohibits these companies from censoring individuals on their platforms based on viewpoint, that that is kosher, that that is allowed to stand.

At least for now. We'll see what the higher court does with that. But the bill allows people who have been kicked off of platforms to sue these companies. And so I'm not aware of any lawsuits that have occurred from that. But this might spark that. We'll see. First Amendment doctrine that says laws that, whether they intend or not to said that if section 7 the part of the bill that that does this does any chills anything it is it chills censorship and so the bill will likely be appealed to scotus and justice samuel alito said when this was when the petitioners or the the tech companies tried to get the court just the supreme court just to take it up um immediately filed a petition for mandamus um he said that he expects this to come up at some point anyway so maybe this coming term this will be something that we see on their docket there you go thank you bradley let's move on to tweetery Hayden. What did you see on Twitter this week?

Why are you already laughing? I haven't even started talking yet. Because I read, I forgot what it was and I read it and then I giggled. That's because I didn't really find very interesting things on Twitter. So I was looking at the trending column and end of the world was trending under twending. It was trending under entertainment. Is the end of the world entertaining? I guess. I guess it is.

I guess that's funny or fun to some people. But there was one tweet under an account called the nap ministry. I have no idea what this is is but it has a lot of followers and said weekly reminder that quitting is an option failure is not the end of the world and actually valuable perfectionism is never possible it's a myth wow i don't quite know what this tweet is getting at but i guess if you're working hard on something just stop just go to sleep just quit just quit it's not worth it that's what i do when i'm losing in madden that's pretty valid i was in a coffee shop the other day with my fiance and we like overheard

this conversation some guy was having with a friend and he was like yeah i just can't wait for um the earth to have no more people on it and i just think we're burdening the earth so much and i'm excited for the day that there are no humans on this earth you heard someone say this i heard someone say it and i was like oh my gosh so do we want everyone just to die like what's our solution i know exactly and he's talking to someone that i'm sure he has a relationship with and like doesn't have negative feelings toward what does he want them to do he watched marvel way too much and sympathized with thanos and his whole shtick this was only 50 though yeah he wasn't a hundred percent guy the only 50 guy 50 reset

boy okay well that got dark let's move on um hudson what did you see actually this is still dark or maybe not no i mean it's a little dark depending on what happens, but I have been following the protests in Iran over the murder of a woman who is protesting having to use hijabs because of the Islamic State in Iran, the theocratic government. And so after this, there have been massive protests, and they are now shutting down the internet in Iran so that they can't show a lot of this stuff on Twitter and all of the other social media platforms. But it's still making the rounds. And I mean, out of out of a lot of the times that I've seen this, this is definitely the largest people. Women are burning their hijabs in public squares and shouting death to Khamenei. So it's, we'll see what happens. And, you know, hopefully we can see some democratic

development in Iran for people for that have been under the thumb of, of this theocratic, radical regime for, for 50, 50 plus years now. Yeah yeah absolutely bradley what did you see so i saw dave wasserman uh the head of the cook political um reports some i think they're at the university of virginia they analyze the ratings of congressional seats and there were three of these seats on three texas seats on this list um i think all of them are in south texas yes i believe so um he they put out their updated uh seat rating and it shows texas 28 which is henry quayar's seat um then texas 28 which is henry quay our seat um then texas 34 which is i think an open seat that's involved in the weird like switch with vicente gonzalez representing one and going running the other one i get them confused i can't keep them straight um and then uh so those two are lean Democratic. Texas 28 moved from Democratic toss-up to lean Dem in this rating from the last rating.

And then on the other side, you've in South Texas, which is the center of this demographic shift from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. And these seats are very much up for grabs, along with much of South Texas. And Republicans are pouring a lot of resources into that. Democrats are hoping to maintain their long-held control of the area. But Republicans seem pretty optimistic that they can do something down there. And we saw, is 34 where Myra Flores won? Is that a special election? I believe so.

I believe so. So we saw a Republican win there. Now it's a special election. She's on the ballot again. Yes, 34. Yeah, but so the Cook political ratings, which are pretty good, a pretty good prognostication of

which way these things go or will go, it has a focus on South Texas. Yeah, thank you bradley i saw a tweet from ad impact politics that i believe is tracking specifically the television ad spend of the texas gubernatorial candidates um for the general election very interesting so total spend for democrats who would in this case be supporting beto o'rourke is 27 million um that includes 16.9 from o'rourke himself and 10.4 from the could have been worse pack that has been backing o'rourke for a while

now and then on the republican side um we've got abbott uh that's the only big spender we have in this section and that's 19 million so 27 million total for bedos side and 19 million from abbott side interesting in that future reservations for ad space um from september to for end of september to november um 16 million for democrats and 6 million for republicans i have a feeling that uh republican abbott number is going to jump up quite a bit. A hundred percent. He's got quite a bit of money in the bank. Yeah. He's banking. He's bankrolling.

He's a prolific fundraiser. Not that Beto is not because he certainly is as well. It's going to be a huge spending race. And we know from the get go, Dave Carney, the top strategist for Abbott, was saying that the governor was going to spend upwards of one hundred million dollars on this race. Certainly looks to be that. I don't know if that includes what he spent in the primary. I don't know if Carney's including that.

Because he spent a lot there too. I don't think it was. It was right after the primary. I think he was talking about the general. He was talking about the general but he didn't really specify if it included the primary. Yeah. That will be a piece down the road that we will that

you will write regardless it is a lot of money that he's gonna spend yeah so so much money okay well gentlemen let's talk about some um what's going on in the office lately we are kind of in this weird no man's land um between between uh the primaries the runoffs and the generals coming up quick now today's the first day of fall so there is you know this is fast approaching but there's kind of a lull here in terms of reporting as we wait for the general election and as we wait for january to come around because the legislative session will be absolutely crazy for us in so many ways um so i just kind of wanted to chat through this get y'all's feelings on how things are going I mean if

it's I try and find okay Friday if we're done early I'm just like go home because we're not gonna be able to do that in a few months right so we might as well do it now and I feel like that's just kind of the vibe we're more relaxed around here I'm wearing a baseball cap today that's how relaxed I am you know I was about to say you're you're literally leaning back. Yeah, it's a thundercloud Thursday. Oh my gosh. So I'm really excited about my sandwich that I'm about to get. That sounds really good.

That's what I'm thinking about right now. I have some salmon and rice that I made, but that sounds really good. Man, maybe I'm gonna did you go make that last night after your your uh food the one that you had meal prepped was not pleasant not very good i just like leftover pork chops are just not super great in my opinion delicious fresh but not super great afterwards um no i already had that made i mean i made pork chops and salmon this week i've got too much food made this week it's a long story but i was off monday um yeah hayden how are you how are you doing as we wait for the general election

it does feel like the calm before the storm yeah but i was saying earlier that the texas legislature convenes three months 19 days from now and that saying that out loud makes it feel closer than just saying it's next spring yeah but i was thinking earlier this will be the first normal in quotes legislative session that we cover that our outlet has covered because we were or the the first beginning of the legislative session because we were founded in late spring 2019 and then the next session after that was the covid one yes and then now we have this one yeah so it will be the first time that the texan has covered a session that was business as usual so to speak uh as as close to that as you get these days um

since uh since our founding yeah absolutely i'm excited for it what does hudson need to know going into a session brad it's a free-for-all every man for himself wow you better go in ready to pull hair. Gird your loins. Prepare for the worst. And Hudson will be in the Senate, so he'll have... Oh, yeah, you get the boring job. Oh, okay. That's not true. It's not boring.

The House is insane. The Senate can be boring. But it's also, in some ways, easier to cover. Brad, don't get sassy i mean you literally are like hudson you will hate your beat that's not what i said i said it's the boring job you so much it's not boring they're too they're too diplomatic and polite they are in the senate in the house they're just like some moving part in the house they just jump over the table and and wrestle with each other awesome yeah not quite

but almost almost almost happened a couple times yeah on the house floor if y'all haven't seen it y'all should go watch the video i'm sure y'all have seen the video but you may not have seen the video i haven't seen of the parliamentarian leaving his desk and separating what was about to be a real fistfight, I think, during the 86th legislature. No way. Yeah. What was this over? Rinaldi and Navarez, I think.

Was that the one you're talking about? I think so. That would have been the 85th. That would have been, yeah, that was the 85th. That was the one I worked back in the day. It seems so long ago. It was something else. I bet people talked about

that for a while around the building was electric that day it was i it was sanctuary cities that were signed um i believe yeah it was sanctuary city it was a sanctuary city bill that was signed into law um a few months after session concluded and a bunch of folks came into the gallery of the house wearing shirts it says i'm illegal and I'm here to stay. And there were chants going on. It was crazy. And you're not supposed to wear any shirts or garb that is political in nature in the gallery because it's considered lobbying. Yeah.

Very interesting house rules. And so, regardless, there were a lot of folks who were escorted out of the gallery. It got very heated on the House floor because some reps were encouraging some of the chants happening up above. And then I believe Matt Rinaldi at the time, state rep, now current Texas GOP chairman, called ice on some of the folks in the gallery. No way. A hundred percent. It got very contentious and, um, needless to say,

there was a scuffle on the house floor between representative Poncho Navarro's and Rinaldi. So it, there were some very big threats uttered. So delightful stuff, delightful stuff, even like firearms that were, uh,

talked about. Yeah. It was quite something. Well, I missed that part it was it was a lot it was absolutely austin sooner then you could have watched this insanity before the texan was launched so we didn't write even have anything we didn't have anything to do with it um are you guys into fall at all do you guys care at all that it's the first day of fall

i totally do but i've already been drinking i like fall vibes a lot but not really when it's a hundred degrees outside yeah and so it definitely needs to cool off a little bit before before i get into the that fall mode yeah i get that i'm going for it regardless i'm i'm hooding it up today yeah i'm pretending like i'm in colorado i'm with hudson i think fall is temperature. I don't think it's a date. Oh, that's a good. If you don't, if it doesn't feel like fall outside, it's not fall. Yeah. That's totally fair.

I just hope by Halloween, it's like I can kind of wear like pants and feel comfortable. Yeah. Yeah. Have a little bit of crispness. I know Brad's answer, but Brad, do you want to quickly talk about how much

you just hate fall and pumpkin and everything that is fun in this world? So you like one day out of fall. What about all the other days? It is actually cooler.

Yeah, I like it. I just have an aversion to anything pumpkin. Yeah. Why why it is the most overrated flavor he also doesn't like sweet potatoes i'm making potatoes i'm making a pumpkin cheesecake cookies with my girlfriend this weekend oh that sounds so good because i'm because i'm like that you're that guy yeah that's a good guy to Oh, man, it makes me hungry for a cookie. You know what the first day of fall means to me, Mackenzie?

I'm nervous. It means the summer of power grid collapse is over. I'm happy for you. Yeah. I'm sitting here looking at the ERCOT app and guess what? Give me free time as he does. Yeah. Yeah. I'll be sitting there watching TV, watching a football game.

I'll just like, oh. Check the grid. Pop in my mind and check the grid. And guess what? The grid hasn't collapsed this summer. Look at that. Despite crazy temperatures. I will have a piece at some point on that.

But it is, yeah. There are some people that are very upset about that. So Brad hates fall and all things good is what I heard from that. Hayden, you enjoy fall. You're on the good side of the island. I like fall because of football. Football. Every week I can sit on

the couch from 11 a.m. on Saturday to 10 p.m. on Sunday and watch football and not do anything else and make pumpkin cookies pumpkin cookies yeah it is amazing one thing i found moving here was their 12 p.m kickoff yeah in eastern time but that one hour difference is just so much better yeah no like because you

just you like wake up on a weekend and then you're like, you maybe eat breakfast, do something, do one thing, like go for a walk or something. And then football's on, you don't have to wait until midday. You know, this morning Hudson looked me dead in the eye and he asked me a sports related question. And I don't even remember it because it just translated as gibberish in my brain because I don't follow this at all and so when y'all start talking sports i just zone out and i i sorry to hear that i i need to familiarize myself are you recording no i'm not i'm going to go check my fantasy team actually oh okay oh my god no i just have it up in an awkward because it looks like i'm recording you i promise

i promise you i am i'm recording you i promise i promise you i am i'm doing you're taking a picture i thought do i have something on my nose say you actually have a fantasy team also look at my i'd whipped um my oh is this a family thing yeah it's a family thing i whipped remember when we had a fantasy league i almost doubled her score just for the record like nobody in the office except me let me look let me look at what my team is yeah that was bad that was very annoying i'm sorry about it oh lamar jackson yeah he'll do that for you yeah he's been pretty good um okay gentlemen well this has been delightful and to be fair i don't pay too much attention to my fantasy team. I just swap out players if they're on the bench

or something like that. Well, that's more than what many people do. So, kudos to you. Well, my soon-to-be brother-in-law texts me and reminds me. So, that's the only reason why I do. Well, folks, thank you so much for listening. Happy first day of fall

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