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DALLAS – Baptist News Global reports that more than a week after he was outed as a former gay porn star, school voucher evangelist Corey DeAngelis is taking on his critics and saying he refuses to be cancelled. DeAngelis appears to have been fired by the American Federation for Children, a conservative advocacy group for private and charter schools founded by Betsy DeVos, after he was identified as the actor “Seth Rose” in the videos that still are available for viewing on the gay porn site GayHoopla. DeAngelis is listed as a “contributor” to Project 2025 and serves as an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. He also is known as a fierce advocate for school vouchers, believes the U.S. Department of Education should be abolished, opposes LGBTQ rights and opposes “left-wing indoctrination” in “government schools.” His new book, The Parent Revolution, claims to teach parents how to “rescue” their children from “the radicals ruining our schools.”

In an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network, DeAngelis admitted he is, in fact, the person seen in the sexually explicit videos. “There are images and videos circulating of me from my college days about a decade ago that I’m not proud of,” he said. “They’re embarrassing.” After more than a week of silence, he emerged to tell about getting involved in porn as a young adult and to declare a warning about the dangers others face today. “If I was able to be lured in to make bad decisions as a young adult in college, just imagine how much worse it could be for younger people,” he said. And he claims his own experience is what drives his fight against public education and government-controlled schools. “So I fought against this kind of material being included in the classroom,” he said. “I’ve been consistent. I’ve changed my life. People change over time.” There is no evidence of gay porn being included in any public school classroom in America.

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Elon Musk appears to be jumping back into Texas politics, making the first state-level political donation under his own name in nearly a decade. The Tesla and SpaceX chief gave $1 million to Texas for Lawsuit Reform PAC, the political arm of a powerful pro-business group known for lobbying against what it sees as frivolous lawsuits. The September donation, from the Elon Musk Revocable Trust, was reported in the PAC’s quarterly fundraising report filed this week. Musk’s donation accounted for about a third of the $2.9 million the PAC reported raising, and was the largest gift the group reported. The second largest was from Miriam Adelson, a conservative megadonor who gave $500,000.

The Austin billionaire has moved much of his business empire to Texas and has become increasingly active in Republican politics this election cycle, launching a super PAC supporting Donald Trump and appearing at the former president’s rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend. Musk also gave $289,100 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, which works to elect House Republicans, in August. The state donation comes after Musk secretly funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into an effort to unseat progressive Travis County District Attorney José Garza in the Democratic primary race earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. The paper reported the Musk-backed group that targeted Garza, Saving Austin, is connected to another group now supporting U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s reelection bid, Saving Texas. Texans for Lawsuit Reform is a business-aligned lobbying group co-founded by Dick Weekley, a Houston real estate developer and GOP donor who reportedly helped Musk launch his pro-Trump super PAC.

AUSTIN – The Houston Chronicle reports the operator of the Texas power grid said it’s reached “a reasonable compromise” with renewable energy developers after more than a year of stalemate on technical issues with some solar, wind and battery storage resources it warned could conceivably lead to “catastrophic grid failure.” Clean energy companies fought the initial requirements the Electric Reliability Council of Texas wanted to impose, cautioning they could be forced to shut down large swaths of the fast-growing wind, solar and battery resources on the Texas grid if made to install expensive hardware upgrades. The parties agreed in August that owners of clean energy resources on the ERCOT grid must instead implement all available software and settings changes to meet the new requirements. This proposal is expected to fix the “vast majority” of problems found in three of the worst failures of the past few years, which prompted the rules change in the first place, according to clean energy developers and an industry consultant who studied those events.

The new rule will “improve reliability over time” as resources comply with its terms, ERCOT spokesperson Trudi Webster wrote in an email. The Public Utility Commission of Texas, which regulates ERCOT, issued an order approving the new rule last month. “While this will be an enormous lift for (clean energy resource) owners, it is far better than the alternative,” Eric Goff, an industry consultant who emerged as the lead negotiator for renewable developers, wrote in a social media post. Clean energy resources – particularly solar and batteries – have grown rapidly on the Texas power grid in recent years as the technology becomes less expensive and federal incentives boost domestic manufacturing and development. They’ve been credited with adding a healthy cushion of supply to the grid, especially on the hottest summer days, lowering electricity costs and helping decarbonize electricity generation, the third-largest contributor of climate-warming emissions in Texas

AUSTIN (AP) – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Tuesday that the Legislature will review all of the state’s existing contracts with the firm Deloitte after it selected a company whose CEO was previously convicted of an “embezzlement scheme” as a project finalist for a low-interest, taxpayer-funded loan program to build new power plants in Texas.

Last year, the state tapped Deloitte to administer the Texas Energy Fund, a $5 billion voter-approved fund to provide 3% interest loans to build or upgrade gas-fueled power plants. State lawmakers got the idea for the fund after Winter Storm Uri overwhelmed the state power grid in 2021, prompting blackouts that left millions of Texans without electricity or heat for days in freezing temperatures.

When the company and the state’s Public Utility Commission announced the list of 17 finalists in late August, they included a project from Aegle Power, whose CEO Kathleen Smith was convicted in 2017 in what the U.S. Justice Department called an “ embezzlement scheme.” Aegle Power also included the name of another company, NextEra, which told the PUC it was included on the application without its knowledge or consent.

Patrick’s announcement of the review came after representatives from Deloitte were peppered with questions at a joint legislative hearing Tuesday about how these details were not uncovered in the vetting process. Smith previously told the Houston Chronicle there was “absolutely never any embezzlement.”

“When questioned at today’s hearing, Deloitte had no believable explanation for the many troubling details they failed to uncover during their vetting process,” Patrick said. “These details could have been revealed to them by a quick Google search.”

At the meeting, Deloitte representatives said they had not reached out to NextEra, the company that was listed in the application without their knowledge, because their process is not to reach out to applicants until the next phase of due diligence. But representatives acknowledged they should have included a more thorough review of applicants earlier in the process.

The PUC rejected Aegle Power’s application on Sept. 4 after the issues came to light. But the incident has put a cloud over the rollout of the fund, angering lawmakers and raising questions about the agency’s ability to run the program.

“The lack of due diligence is astounding to me,” said Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, during Tuesday’s meeting.

The PUC was originally created to regulate the state’s electric utilities market, but its responsibilities have exploded since Uri after lawmakers passed laws to strengthen Texas’ power grid. Its budget ballooned and staff grew by 50%.

While the Legislature has increased funding and staff for the PUC over the past several years, lawmakers and experts said the agency likely needed more resources to handle all the new responsibilities it’s been given to shore up the grid and the state’s power market.

On Tuesday, PUC executives told lawmakers they relied too much on Deloitte’s reputation to administer the project and should have made sure they were executing the contract satisfactorily.

“We had too much of an arm’s length relationship with our contractor and I should have ensured we were more heavily involved in the review,” PUC Chair Thomas Gleeson said.

Gleeson previously stated the project never would have received a loan because of existing guardrails in the process, but told lawmakers that PUC will review its processes and cut Deloitte’s $107 million contract by at least 10 percent.

Patrick said in the letter Tuesday that he supported that effort stating that Deloitte must be held financially accountable for “their blunder that set back the Texas Energy Fund’s ability to help deliver more megawatts of dispatchable power in a timely fashion.”

AUSTIN (AP) — Videos from the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that police originally failed to make public show officers scrambling to treat victims, parents running near the building and dozens of law enforcement agents standing outside Robb Elementary School.

The hours of new video made public Tuesday include body-camera footage similar to what officials had previously released. Taken together, the footage underlines the hesitant police response in the small South Texas city, where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers inside a fourth-grade classroom in one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.

Police have said the additional videos were discovered days after a large collection of audio and video recordings were released in August.

In one chaotic scene, officers can be seen doing chest compressions on one victim outside and others yelling for help. “No pulse! Slow compression,” says a first responder. Streaks of blood line a crowded hallway and pleas for help continue to ring out as victims are carried out.

A Uvalde officer was put on paid leave and subsequently resigned following the discovery of the additional videos in August. Sgt. Donald Page said that his body camera footage was missing after the initial release, which led to officials turning over the unreleased video to the district attorney’s office. The department announced an internal investigation soon after, but it remains unclear how the newly released footage was discovered.

The release of the material by city officials over the summer followed a prolonged legal fight with The Associated Press and other news organizations.

The delayed law enforcement response to the May 24, 2022, shooting has been widely condemned as a massive failure: Nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers in the South Texas city of about 15,000 people, 80 miles west of San Antonio.

While terrified students and teachers called 911 from inside classrooms, dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do. Desperate parents who had gathered outside the building pleaded with them to go in.

Previously released audio recordings contained 911 calls from terrified instructors and students as gunshots rang out amid pleas for help.

Federal investigations into law enforcement’s response attributed breakdowns in communication and inadequate training for their failure to confront the gunman, with some even questioning whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers.

Two of the responding officers face multiple criminal charges of abandonment and endangerment. Former Uvalde school Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former school officer Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty. Arredondo, who made his first court appearance last month, has stated he thinks he’s been scapegoated for the heavily scrutinized police response.

HOUSTON (AP) — A former Houston police officer was sentenced to 60 years in prison on Tuesday for the murder of a married couple during a drug raid that revealed systemic corruption in the department’s narcotics unit and prompted criticism of the law enforcement agency and its tactics.

Gerald Goines was convicted in the January 2019 deaths of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58. The couple were shot along with their dog after officers burst into their home using a “no-knock” warrant that didn’t require them to announce themselves before entering.

Prosecutors said Goines lied to get the search warrant approved and that his actions were part of a pattern of wrongful drug arrests and convictions of innocent individuals during his 34-year law enforcement career.

“Gerald Goines has been a stain on the reputation of every honest cop in our community, a community that he terrorized through corruption worthy of the movie ‘Training Day,’” said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.

Goines, 60, looked down but had no visible reaction as he heard the sentences for each count of murder, which will run concurrently. The jury, which had deliberated for more than 10 hours over two days on his sentence, also fined him $20,000. Legal experts have said it is rare for a police officer to be charged and convicted for an on-duty killing.

Goines didn’t make eye contact when Ryan Tuttle sat on the witness stand after the sentencing, with a framed photograph of his father and stepmother, and said his family was still waiting for answers from the ex-officer about why he targeted the couple. Goines, who did not testify during the monthlong trial, remained silent.

“My father and my stepmother were not involved in any drug dealing. They were good people. They did not deserve this,” Ryan Tuttle said, and then stared at Goines as he walked away.

During closing arguments in the trial’s punishment phase, prosecutors had asked for a life sentence. Goines’ attorneys had asked for the minimum sentence of five years, saying Goines had dedicated his life to keeping drugs off the streets.

“We still don’t believe legally that he is guilty of the crime of felony murder and we look forward to having the appellate courts review this,” Nicole DeBorde, one of Goines’ attorneys, told reporters after the sentence was read.

Goines had been free on bond since he was charged, but he was taken into custody following his conviction last month by the same jury.

Prosecutors said Goines falsely claimed an informant had bought heroin at the couple’s home from a man with a gun, setting up the violent confrontation in which the couple was killed and four officers, including Goines, were shot and wounded, and a fifth was injured. A Texas Ranger who investigated the raid testified that the officers fired first, killing the dog and likely provoking Tuttle’s gunfire.

His lawyers acknowledged he lied to get the search warrant, but sought to diminish the impact. Two witnesses — a fellow officer and the judge who signed the warrant — said the raid never would have happened if Goines had told the truth.

Investigators later found only small amounts of marijuana and cocaine in the house, and while Houston’s police chief at the time, Art Acevedo, initially praised Goines as being “tough as nails,” he later suspended him when the lies emerged. Goines later retired as the probes continued.

The probe into the drug raid uncovered allegations of much wider corruption. Goines was among a dozen officers tied to the narcotics squad who were later indicted on other charges. A judge dismissed charges against some of them, but a review of thousands of cases involving the unit led prosecutors to dismiss many cases, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has overturned at least 22 convictions linked to Goines.

Ryan Tuttle said he hoped the deaths of his father and stepmother would spur police reform not just in Houston but around the country.

“If it’s happening in Houston, it’s happening everywhere,” Tuttle said. “We have to make sure this stops.”

Ogg said the police department reviewed various policies after the raid but that a thorough revamping of narcotics enforcement by the agency has yet to happen.

An audit of the narcotics unit done after the raid found officers made hundreds of errors in cases, often weren’t thorough in their investigations and lacked supervision.

In a brief statement after the jury’s sentence, Houston police said, “We respect the jury’s decision in the trial involving Gerald Goines and thank the jurors for their time and service.”

“This is not an indictment against police officers. There are 99% upstanding police officers. This was also about sending a message to them, that we believe in them, we support them. What we don’t support is corruption,” said prosecutor Tanisha Manning.

Goines also made a drug arrest in 2004 in Houston of George Floyd, whose 2020 death at the hands of a Minnesota police officer sparked a nationwide reckoning on racism in policing. A Texas board in 2022 declined a request that Floyd be granted a posthumous pardon for that drug conviction.

Goines also faces federal criminal charges in connection with the raid, and federal civil rights lawsuits filed by the families of Tuttle and Nicholas against Goines, 12 other officers and the city of Houston are set to be tried in November.

AUSTIN – The Austin American-Statesman reports Delta Airlines reaffirmed its commitment to the Lone Star State this week, announcing that the company would add five nonstop routes from Austin. According to a news release, Delta will add daily nonstop service to Panama City, Fla., beginning in March. Additionally, the airline said it will add nonstop service to Indianapolis; Memphis, Tenn.; San Francisco; and Tampa, Fla. Delta said that starting these routes will provide Austin customers “more options than ever before.” For Delta, which has seen its stock fluctuate recently, the additions symbolize stability as many airlines are trying anything to cultivate profits.

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News reports if state politicians get their way, when Texans set their clocks back Nov. 3, it could be the last time they must complete the chore — recently passed legislation aims to exempt the state from the biannual daylight saving time change. State Rep. Will Metcalf from Conroe presented House Bill 1422 during a meeting of the 88th Legislative Session on April 11, 2023. The bill that would keep Texas on daylight saving time year-round passed 136-5. Metcalf did not respond to a request for comment, but while explaining the bill he said he believes Texas should, “stick to a time without switching twice a year which allows for maximum amount of daylight in the evenings and I know countless others feel the same way.”

As of May 2023 the bill remained in the Senate, and Texas would need federal approval before it could shift to permanent daylight saving time. For now, states can opt-out daylight saving time but require federal approval to observe it year-round, which is the goal of Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s Sunshine Protection Act. Daylight saving time was established in the U.S. during World War I to save electricity, according to the National Sleep Foundation. When Americans change their clocks every March and November altering the timing of light exposure, Candice A. Alfano, director of the Sleep and Anxiety Center of Houston, said it can stress a person’s biological and psychological health. Not only is falling asleep and waking up harder after a clock change, Alfano said a growing body of research suggests that the risk of heart attacks, traffic accidents, job-related injuries, suicides and even miscarriages in pregnant women also increase.

AUSTIN – KUT reports that Monday was the last day for Texans to register to vote in the November election, which means procrastinators will likely cause the state’s voter rolls to grow by the thousands as the clock ticks down toward midnight. At the same time, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is hoping the federal government will help him identify noncitizens so that he can stop them from voting. Paxton sent a letter on Monday to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services requesting the federal government confirm the citizenship status of more than 450,000 of Texas’ registered voters. That group is made up of people that did not use a state-issued driver’s license or ID card when they registered to vote (The state accepts several forms of identification when people register to vote beyond just state IDs).

Paxton’s move comes on the heels of a request to Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson that her office provide a list of these voters. The AG gave Nelson a deadline of last Friday to provide the list. What Paxton will do if the federal government is unable to confirm the citizenship status of some of the voters on that list is unclear. Under federal law, the state can no longer remove people from the voter rolls because it is less than 90 days before a federal election. This is Paxton’s latest attempt to find ineligible voters, with an emphasis on noncitizens — a common focus amongst Republican leaders across the country this year. Bethany Albertson, a political scientist at UT Austin, recently told The Texas Newsroom that “talk around voter fraud doesn’t match the reality.” “When politicians push messages suggesting that voter fraud is rampant,” she said, “it sows distrust in elections.” The Brennan Center for Justice researched claims of illegal voting from politicians during the 2012, 2016 and 2020 elections. That study found that most allegations of fraud were baseless or due to clerical errors and other forms of election misconduct.