State senator Wants Illegal Voting To Be A Felony

[#TexasPolitics365]

 

An East Texas state senator wants to make illegal voting a felony, as it was for years before an amendment was made to legislation passed last session. Senate Bill 2, filed by Republican Bryan Hughes of Mineola, would also change the standard related to intent.

“The punishment should fit the crime,” Hughes said. “Voting illegally is a big deal in Texas, and the law should reflect that.”

Before Hughes’ sweeping election law was passed last session, an amendment was made by another lawmaker lowering the penalty for illegal voting to a misdemeanor.

(Full story HERE
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Texas House Speaker Releases First List Of Priority Bills

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Texas Speaker of the House Dade Phelan announced four legislative priorities for the chamber late last week, the first slate of high priority bills this session.

The four bills focus on improving privacy and security as well as better supporting mothers and children in the state.

“These bills are great starting points for our chamber as we work to get them over the finish line this legislative session,” he said.

(Full story HERE.)
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US House Minority Leader Leads Attacks On Texas Republican Over "Racist" Comments About Asian Congresswoman

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., released a stinging rebuke of Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Terrell, this week for statements questioning the patriotism of Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif.

“Dr. Judy Chu is a hardworking, patriotic American public servant who is an important part of the gorgeous mosaic of our diverse country,” Jeffries said in a statement. “Lance Gooden’s slanderous accusation of disloyalty against Rep. Chu is dangerous, unconscionable and xenophobic.”

(Full story HERE.)
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Abbott Launches "Street Takeover" Taskforce

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On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott announced the launch of a statewide “street takeover task force” to address a rising trend of destructive and disruptive car demonstrations that have blocked streets and threatened public safety in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston in recent weeks.

Videos of the chaos have gone viral on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

(Full story HERE.)
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Big City Mayors Face Little Re-Election Opposition In May

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The mayors of some of Texas’ largest cities are cruising toward reelection.

The incumbents in San Antonio and Fort Worth face little opposition after the deadline to run for mayor in the May 6 election passed Friday. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson faces no challengers.

It’s a political boon for the mayors. But for nearly 3.7 million residents, there won’t be a real choice on the May mayoral ballot or high-profile debates about their cities’ future as their regions see massive growth and deal with the resulting challenges of housing, transportation and policing.

(Full story HERE.)
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Texas Republican Files Bill To Ban Polling Places At Schools

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Texas state Rep. Carrie Isaac wants to keep voting out of Texas schools.

Isaac, a freshman Republican, filed a 124-word bill to bar polling places at any “institution of higher education” last week, and on Tuesday, she said she’s working on a bill to bar polling places at K-12 public and charter schools, too.

We must do everything we can to make our school campuses as safe as possible,” she said in a release, mentioning the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde last year and a deadly knife attack at a university in 2017. “I have experienced firsthand the heightened emotions that often occur at polling locations and I will not wait for more violence to act.”

(Full story HERE.)
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Dallas Democratic Rep. Considering Challenging Cruz For Senate Seat

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In 2018, Colin Allred beat Republican Pete Sessions to flip a Dallas congressional district from red to blue.

Now the former NFL player and Hillcrest High School standout is considering challenging incumbent Ted Cruz for Senate in 2024, according to 11 Democrats and activists contacted by The Dallas Morning News. The move would put him in line to make history, or become the next candidate in a long string of Democratic Party disappointments.

FULL STORYHERE. Paywalled.)
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Rep. Gonzalez Says Republicans Politicizing Border Crisis

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U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, accused his fellow Republicans of politicizing the border for their own benefit, further escalating his standoff with more conservative members of his party who he said stood to gain from a sustained migration conflict.

“Anyone who thinks a 3 page anti-immigration bill with 0% chance of getting signed into law is going to solve the border crisis should be buying beach front property in AZ,” Gonzales tweeted Thursday night in an apparent reference to border legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin.

(Full story HERE.)
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Abbott Will Seek Legislative Ban On Men In Women's Collegiate Sports

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, pledged last week in Dallas to support legislation prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in women's college sports.

Abbott discussed the plan last Saturday at a Young America's Foundation gathering, revealing that the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature would move in this session to clamp down on the issue.

"In Texas last session, we passed a law prohibiting biological men from competing in women's sports in the education level from high school down," Abbott said. "This next session, we will pass a law prohibiting biological men to compete against women in college sports.

(Full story HERE.)
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Paxton Sues Biden Admin. Over Environmental Air Regs

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Attorney General Paxton has filed a petition for review challenging an order by President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) that disapproves Texas’s state implementation plan (“SIP”), which was developed in coordination with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (“TCEQ”) to ensure that Texas complied with federal air quality standards.  

Under the Clean Air Act and national ambient air quality standards, states must take measures to prevent significant amounts of emissions from affecting downwind states. To implement this “good neighbor” requirement of the Clean Air Act, states put forward SIPs for federal approval.  
Attorney General Paxton has filed a petition for review challenging an order by President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) that disapproves Texas’s state implementation plan (“SIP”), which was developed in coordination with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (“TCEQ”) to ensure that Texas complied with federal air quality standards.  

Under the Clean Air Act and national ambient air quality standards, states must take measures to prevent significant amounts of emissions from affecting downwind states. To implement this “good neighbor” requirement of the Clean Air Act, states put forward SIPs for federal approval.  

Attorney General Paxton has filed a petition for review challenging an order by President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) that disapproves Texas’s state implementation plan (“SIP”), which was developed in coordination with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (“TCEQ”) to ensure that Texas complied with federal air quality standards.  

(Full story HERE
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Cruz Launches Probe Of Big Tech Censorship

[#TexasPolitics365]

Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, vowed to investigate Big Tech's censorship of conservatives after Newsmax was dropped by AT&T DirecTV.

"Today as Ranking Member of the @SenateCommerce Committee I opened an investigation into Big Tech's censorship," Cruz tweeted Monday night. "We are going to see accountability, transparency, and we're going to shine a light on Big Tech's efforts to silence conservatives."

(Full story HERE.)
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Legalized Gambling Bills Introduced In State Senate

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Advocates for legalizing online sports betting in Texas debuted new bills last week that take a narrower approach than they did in 2021 — and feature a new author in the state Senate who is a Republican.

The involvement of Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who is carrying the legislation, is notable because she is an ally of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is seen as the biggest hurdle to expanding gambling in Texas. The previous sports-betting bill filed in the last legislative session was carried by Democrat and got virtually no traction in the GOP-led Senate.

(Full story HERE.)
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Eight Democrats Appointed Chairs in House By Phelan

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Speaker Dade Phelan announced committee positions last Wednesday, appointing only eight Democrats to chair standing committees compared to the 13 he appointed during the last legislative session.

This decision came after an unsuccessful push by some Republicans in the GOP-controlled House to ban Democrats from chairing committees altogether. 

(Full story HERE.)
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Lt.Gov. Releases List of Legislative Priorities

[#TexasPolitics365]

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick presented a list of 30 priority bills on Monday that range from handling the state's money for the next two years to legislation addressing teacher pay, parental rights and Texas' water supply.

Contained in Senate Bills 1 through 30 — as lower numbers tend to indicate legislative importance — the proposal from Patrick, the presiding officer in the Texas Senate, will guide lawmakers and their committees as they continue work to meet their lone obligation: passing a state budget in 140 days.

(Full story HERE.)
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AG Paxton Reaches $3.3 Million Settlement; Will Apologize

[#TexasPolitics365] 

The Office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has reached a settlement agreement with whistleblowers who alleged retaliation after they accused him of serious crimes.

Paxton, a Republican who was re-elected last year, will apologize and the state will pay the whistleblowers $3.3 million, according to settlement documents filed Friday morning.

(Full story HERE
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Texas Comptroller Freezes Harris Co. Tax Ability Over Police Defunding

[#TexasPolitics365]

Gov. Greg Abbott is putting Harris county on notice that their ability to raise taxes has been revoked after it was discovered they had defunded a police department precinct and cut their budget during a crime wave, and without water approval, contrary to state law.

Abbott tweeted Sunday night:

"Harris Co. has been caught defunding law enforcement.

The result -- by law that I signed -- is that Harris Co. can't raise property taxes.

If they don't spend taxpayer money responsibly then they can't get their hands on more of your taxpayer money."

Texas Comptroller Glen Hegar wrote, in as statement on his website,

"unlike other states, the Texas Legislature has fought to ensure that the “defund the police” movement has no place in our cities, communities and neighborhoods. Lawmakers and state leadership in Texas are committed to preventing the disastrous policies that have led to the mass exodus of businesses and families from crime-ridden, liberal cities.

My office remains vigilant and continues to review complaints against entities that may be either deliberately or inadvertently defunding police."

(Full story HERE.)

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CitiGroup Barred From Bond Transaction Due To "Woke" Policy

[#TexasPolitics365]

Citigroup Inc. has been dropped from the group of banks poised to handle the biggest-ever municipal-bond transaction from Texas after the state’s attorney general’s office determined the firm discriminates against the firearms industry, barring it from underwriting most government borrowings in the state, due to its dedication to Woke ESG policies.

The Texas Natural Gas Securitization Finance Corp. board met Thursday and took action to “reconstitute” the syndicate on the $3.4 billion deal, according to Lee Deviney, executive director of the Texas Public Finance Authority, the state agency overseeing the borrowing. Citigroup had been listed in the original iteration of the underwriting firms approved by the board in May and is no longer included in the final group.

(Full story HERE.)
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Dallas Fed: "Soft Landing"for Texas Economy in 2023

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The  Dallas Federal Reserve Bank's Texas Employment Forecast predicts that Texas' economy will have a "Soft landing" to the nation's recession this year. A report the Fed bank published this week indicates that jobs should increase 1.4 percent in 2023. The forecast is based on an average of four models that include projected national GDP, oil futures prices and the Texas and U.S. leading indexes. The forecast suggests that 193,000 jobs will be added in the state this year, and workforce employment in December 2023 will be 13.7 million

(Full story HERE.)
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Cruz Introduces Bill To Protect Gas Stoves

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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., introduced the "Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act" last week amid the Biden administration's discussions of proposed restrictions on gas stoves.

(Full story HERE.)
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Abbott Issues Disaster Order For 7 Counties

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Governor Greg Abbott has issued a disaster declaration for seven Texas counties impacted by this week’s ice storm that caused widespread property damage, hazardous travel disruptions, and localized power outages that left over 200,000 without power 

The disaster declaration includes Denton, Hays, Henderson, Milam, Smith, Travis, and Williamson counties. Additional counties may be added to the declaration as damage assessments are completed.

(Full story HERE.)
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Governor Moves to Ban TikTok On State Properties

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Gov. Greg Abbott has announced plans to ban the social media platform TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company and is suspected of sharing data collected from users with the Chinese Communist Party, Abbott's move would prevent all state employees and others from using the platform on state properties.

Abbott wrote on Twitter Monday, "Today, I’m announcing a plan to ban TikTok in Texas.

 

It’s critical that state agencies are protected from the Chinese Communist Party as they work on behalf of Texans. 

Learn more about my plan to keep Texas secure: bit.ly/25ttGa"

The move comes the same week China is accused of releasing a spy balloon over the continental United States.

State Sen. Schwertner Arrested On DWI Charge

[#TexasPolitics365]

State Sen. Charles Schwertner was arrested early Tuesday morning on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, according to Travis County Sheriff’s Office records.

Schwertner, a Georgetown Republican, was booked into the Travis County jail at 2:12 a.m. and charged with driving while intoxicated. Records showed Schwertner was in Travis County sheriff’s custody most of Tuesday morning, but had received a personal recognizance bond and was released from jail shortly after noon. He is an orthopedic surgeon by trade.

(Full story HERE.)
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Cruz Not Yet Jumping Into '24 Pres. Race

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Ted Cruz’s presidential ambitions were no secret even before he became the first Republican to jump into the 2016 race. As 2024 approaches, though, he’s playing it uncharacteristically cool.

The Texas senator isn’t explicitly ruling out another White House run. But asked about his considerations, Cruz described the Senate as “the battlefield right now,” with his seat up next year and a closer margin in his last reelection bid than is typical for the red state.

(Full story HERE
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Beto Kept $100k From Disgraced FTX Investor Bankman-Fried

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Failed Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke has claimed that he returned a $1 million donation from disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried; however, it appears that he did not return all of the money, according to a report.

(Full story HERE.)
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Harris County Ballot Paper Shortage Worse Than Thought

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The shortage of ballot paper at some Harris County voting centers on election day was more widespread than the Elections Administration Office estimated, according to a KHOU 11 analysis of equipment and voter turnout records.

The county’s post-election analysis on the extent of the shortage was “largely inconclusive.” After reviewing help desk logs and calling presiding and alternate election judges, the county estimated 46 to 68 voting centers ran out of their initial allotment of paper.

Gov. Greg Abbott reacted on Twitter to the news by saying the failure of elections officials may necessitate new elections in Harris county, and should necessitate new laws to prevent it from happening again.

"Harris Co. election ballot paper shortage far bigger than initially estimated.

It's so big it may have altered the outcome of elections.

It may necessitate new elections.

It WILL necessitate new LAWS that prevent Harris Co. from ever doing this again."

(Full story HERE
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Austin City Councilor Takes Power Company To Task Over Outages

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Austin city councilor MacKenzie Kelly hold a news conference yesterday to take Austin Power to task for poor communications with their customers, as nearly 200,000 in Central Texas remain without power and heat after a severe ice storm. 

Specifically, Kelly, a Republican, said the lack of communications, and the slow repairs were unacceptable.

"With our current lack of power and for a city of this size, we deserve better." She called for power lines to be placed underground, something critics have said would cost billions of dollars and take decades to complete.

(Full story HERE.)
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