Today is
Thursday November 21, 2024
CHICAGO (AP) — A company affiliated with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones asked a federal judge on Monday to disqualify a bid by the satirical news outlet The Onion to buy Jones’ Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, alleging fraud and collusion.
The company, First United American Companies, which is affiliated with a Jones website that sells dietary supplements, was the only other bidder at the recent auction, offering $3.5 million. In a filing in federal bankruptcy court in Houston, a lawyer for the company asked the judge to declare it the winning bidder instead of The Onion.
The lawyer, Walter Cicack, claimed that the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the auction improperly colluded with The Onion and families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut in naming The Onion the winning bidder. Cicack also alleged the trustee violated rules for the sale set by the judge, and said the company’s cash offer was twice the amount of The Onion’s.
The bankruptcy auction was held last week as part of the liquidation of Jones’ assets, including Infowars. Proceeds from the sale will go to Sandy Hook families and other creditors. Jones filed bankruptcy in 2022 after he was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in defamation lawsuits filed by the families for calling the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and six educators a hoax staged by actors to increase gun control.
Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion’s parent company, Chicago-based Global Tetrahedron, issued a statement Monday through a spokesperson.
“We’re obviously disappointed he’s lashing out by creating conspiracies, but we’re also not surprised,” he said, referring to Jones.
The bankruptcy trustee appointed to oversee the sale, Christopher Murray, declined to comment Monday. A lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, Christopher Mattei, also declined to comment.
In a response filed in court later Monday, Murray called the allegations “baseless.” He said the motion by First United American to disqualify The Onion was “a disappointed bidder’s improper attempt to influence an otherwise fair and open auction process.”
Murray also wrote, “Having failed in its prior efforts to bully the Trustee and his advisors into accepting its inferior bid, FUAC now alleges, without evidence, collusion and bad faith in an attempt to mislead the Court and disqualify its only competition in the auction.”
Murray filed separate court papers Monday asking the judge to approve the sale of Infowars to The Onion.
Monday’s filing by First United American Companies included the formal bid submitted by The Onion, revealing that it offered $1.75 million for Infowars along with certain incentives by Sandy Hook families who won their defamation lawsuit against Jones. The families agreed to forgo up to 100% of their share of the Infowars sale proceeds and give it to other Jones creditors.
With the families’ offer, other Jones creditors would get a total of $100,000 more than they would get if First United American Companies bought Infowars, according to The Onion’s bidding document.
Murray told the bankruptcy judge during a court hearing Thursday that the families’ incentives made it a better offer than the one by the Jones-affiliated company.
“The creditors ended up significantly better off,” Murray told the judge, adding that one of his responsibilities was to maximize value for creditors.
Judge Christopher Lopez, who said he had questions about the sale process and concerns about transparency, ordered a hearing to see exactly what happened with the auction and how the trustee chose The Onion. The date of the hearing has not been set.
Jones has been criticizing the sale process on his show and social media sites, calling it “rigged” and a “fraud.”
Over the weekend, Collins posted a series of comments about the auction on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Long and short of it: We won the bid and — you’re not going to believe it — the previous InfoWars folks aren’t taking it well,” he wrote.
Collins said last week that The Onion planned to turn the Infowars website into a parody site, taking aim at conspiracy theorists and other social media personalities while promoting gun violence prevention efforts.
Cicack also said in Monday’s court filing that the trustee improperly changed the auction process “from a live auction to a secret process.” Cicack said that after sealed bids were submitted Nov. 8, it was expected that there would be a round of live bidding on Nov. 13.
But instead, he said, Murray decided to ask the two bidders to submit another offer as their final and best proposal, which they did. Murray then chose from those final bids without holding a round of live bidding. He alleged Murray violated the auction rules.
Lopez’s 20-page order on the sale procedures, issued in September, made such a live bidding round optional. And it gave broad authority to Murray to conduct the sale, including the power to reject any bid, no matter how high, that was “contrary to the best interests” of Jones, his company and their creditors.
Cicack called the Sandy Hook families’ portion of The Onion’s bid “Monopoly” money with no value.
“It is also the product of impermissible collusion with the Onion in an effort to ‘rig’ the auction with the goal of achieving a specific result desired by the Connecticut Families,” he wrote.
AUSTIN – The Austin American-Statesman reports that Texas Democrats were already 1 million voters behind Republicans before the first ballot was cast in the 2024 election cycle, and for all the high hopes of finally catching lightning in a bottle Nov. 5, after a three-decade drought in statewide elections, those dreams had probably been dashed eight months earlier. That’s the analysis of political consultant and data diver Derek Ryan, who plowed through demographics and past voting habits of 99.8% of the 11,340,202 Texans who cast a ballot for president. “The November election was probably decided back in March,” Ryan said in an email blast to people who sign up for his data and insight. “In March, 2.3 million people voted in the Republican Primary while only 1 million people voted in the Democratic Primary.” Because just about everyone who votes in the primaries comes back to the polls in the fall, Texas Republicans began the race with one heck of a head start.
“That means Democrats had to contact 1 million voters (AND convince them to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot) simply to catch up to where the Republicans already were,” Ryan said. The analysis came after everyone knew that Texas Democrats had yet another lousy election cycle with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump smothering Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris by 14 percentage points and incumbent GOP U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz dusting Democratic U.S. Rep Colin Allred by nearly 9 points. But the numbers behind the numbers help fill in the gaps of why and how. The big picture first: In pure raw numbers, more Texans voted in the 2024 general election than in any election that came before. But because the state is growing so fast, turnout as a percentage of the universe of potential Texas voters nose-dived. Four years ago, Ryan found, turnout was 66.4% and Democrats had a pretty decent year, at least by Texas standards, with Trump beating Joe Biden by just 5.5 percentage points in the state. The 2020 turnout buried that of 2016, when just under 59% of registered voters cast ballots and Trump’s victory margin was 9 points. The 60.6% turnout this cycle was just a tad better than 2016 but well short of what it was four years ago, suggesting that Republican voters were simply more motivated than their Democratic rivals.
DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports a top credit rating firm dimmed its outlook on Dallas’ financial future after voters approved changing the charter to require at least half of annual city revenue increases to boost police pensions, staffing, starting pay and benefits. Moody’s Ratings downgraded the city’s debt outlook from “stable” to “negative” Thursday, citing the expected impact on Dallas’ credit due to the passage of Proposition U, a charter amendment backed by nonprofit group Dallas Hero. The credit ratings agency said the move will limit how the city spends its money amid growing operating expenses. The Dallas Police and Fire Pension System has a funding gap north of $3 billion, and the credit agency said the new mandates to hire 900 more officers, maintain a police force of at least 4,000 and increase starting salaries will increase the pension’s shortfall and require the city to put in more money than planned.
“Although the additional revenue going to DPFP is positive, the reduced financial flexibility and the expected negative impact to the pension liability is likely to weigh on the credit profile,” Moody’s opinion said. “The city’s plan to incorporate the mandates from Proposition U will be a key focus in future reviews.” The update comes two months after the City Council approved a 9% increase of the police department budget to $719 million and greenlit a plan for Dallas to contribute $11 billion over 30 years to the police and fire pension, with increased annual contributions, to address the funding gap. Voters on Nov. 5 approved more than a dozen propositions, including one to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana and another requiring Dallas to remove legal barriers to allow residents and businesses to sue the city if it takes any action that violates the charter, local ordinances or state law. The 16 voter-approved charter propositions won’t go into effect until the City Council certifies the election results on Tuesday.
SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News says that YouTuber, gun rights activist and former Congressional candidate Brandon Herrera, otherwise known as San Antonio’s “AK-Guy,” is vying to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives under President-elect Donald Trump. In May, Hererra narrowly lost to U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales in the GOP runoff election by 400 votes. The political hopeful is now gunning for another position. Last week, Herrera hinted at his desire to be appointed Trump’s ATF director. “If the Trump administration decided to ask me to become the Director of the ATF, I would gladly accept and help make America great again,” he wrote in a Nov. 9 social media post.
According to the ATF, the agency is primarily responsible for preventing and investigating a variety of federal offenses, including: “the unlawful use, manufacture and possession of firearms and explosives; acts of arson and bombings; illegal trafficking of alcohol and tobacco products.” The agency also regulates the sale, possession and transportation of firearms, ammunition and explosives between states. However, Herrera announced he’s got a few big changes coming for the ATF if he’s appointed its director. “If I were to be considered for Director of the ATF, in my first 100 days I have a plan to hack, slash, and cripple that agency in ways it could never recover from,” he wrote Monday. “And when I’m done, I will ask President Trump to disband the agency entirely.”
HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that the presidential changeover was clear on Wall Street. Natural gas stocks, like EQT, soared in the five trading days after Donald Trump won the presidential election. Meanwhile, clean energy stocks, such as Houston-based solar company Sunnova, fell 34% in the same period. Investors are bracing for a federal government likely to roll back aid for clean energy projects and to ease regulatory pressures on oil and gas companies, said Dan Pickering, chief investment officer for Pickering Energy Partners. “There’s clearly pluses and minuses, and most of the pluses stack up on oil and gas, and most of the minuses are stacking up on clean energy,” Pickering said. On the campaign trail, Trump promised to undo a freeze on export permits for multibillion-dollar natural gas facilities implemented by the Biden administration earlier this year. The freeze was put in place to allow time for a review of climate impacts from the facilities.
Lifting it could help more natural gas export projects proceed — a boost for the companies trying to build these liquefied natural gas projects. The LNG industry became a key target for climate advocates in recent years as the industry boomed because of overseas gas shortages ignited by the war in Ukraine. While the Biden era pause had no impact on fully permitted projects already under construction, it threw a wrench in a long, costly process for others that were already years into the development of multibillion-dollar gas export projects. Commonwealth LNG: Houston-based Commonwealth LNG’s marquee project in Louisiana had been nearing the regulatory finish line when the pause took effect in February. Commonwealth had already been waiting more than a year for the Department of Energy to approve its export permit after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission greenlit the project in November 2022. Port Arthur LNG: a “phase 2” expansion of Port Arthur LNG under development by Sempra Infrastructure, California-based Sempra’s Houston subsidiary, and Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, was near the regulatory finish line before the permitting pause. Sempra CEO Jeffrey Martin said Wednesday, during an earnings call following the election, “we have growing confidence” that the project would receive federal permits early next year, according to a transcript provided by Capital IQ. Lake Charles LNG: Energy Transfer’s Lake Charles LNG had an export permit under review with the DOE when the pause took effect, throwing the project into limbo. Energy Transfer’s Co-CEO Marshall McCrea said during an earnings call last week that Trump’s win offered the “rational, reasonable” leadership necessary to advance the Louisiana project, according to a transcript provided by Capital IQ. NextDecade, the Houston LNG company whose construction permit was struck down by a federal court in August, also appears to be getting a boost from Trump’s win as it tries to build its marquee project in Brownsville. Its shares jumped 7% in the five days since Trump won. NextDecade CEO Matt Schatzman said last week in a statement the company is “committed to taking any and all available legal and regulatory actions” to keep the project on budget and on time.
AUSTIN — Our news partners at KETK report that Texas lawmakers submitted over 1,500 bills as the filing period opened on Tuesday, setting a new record for the most number of bills filed on the first day.
Some staffers even camped out in the hallway behind the Senate chamber to secure their spot in line — more of a symbolic move than a strategic one, as there is no real advantage to filing a bill early. Last year, fewer than 15% of bills filed became law — only 1,169 of the more than 8,000 filed.
“A lot of pent-up demand for legislation… certainly Republicans have been emboldened by the election results here in Texas,” publisher of Quorum Report and veteran Capitol analyst Harvey Kronberg said.
Some of the first bills filed this year targeted border security as Republicans look to bolster their immigration enforcement under a new Trump administration. Some of Tuesday’s bills would restrict undocumented students from receiving in-state tuition, require proof of citizenship to register to vote, and allow Texas to negotiate with Mexico on border security.
Democrats filed bills addressing abortion and voting access, including a bill to create an exception for rape in the abortion ban and to allow electronic and same-day voter registration.
The marquee items, though, are still unclear. State leadership will prioritize school choice – a plan to use public money to subsidize private school tuition – another reduction in property taxes, and new border security efforts. Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to name each of those measures and more as an “emergency item,” allowing lawmakers to work on them earlier than other bills.
One big question at the Capitol is who will be the next House Speaker. Speaker Dade Phelan currently faces a challenge from Mansfield Republican David Cook.
Democrats Ana-Maria Ramos and John Bryant also filed to run for Speaker. Republicans will hold the majority in the House in the next session by an 88 – 62 margin, realistically making the Speaker vote a contest between Cook and Phelan.
Former Governor Rick Perry is working to help Phelan retain the Speaker’s gavel. Ryan Chandler spoke with Perry about how he sees the race and what he believes is at stake for the state.
Chandler: How confident are you that Speaker Phelan will remain Speaker Phelan?
Perry: Oh, he’s got the votes to be elected speaker, I’m not concerned about that. What I’m trying to help these members focus on is, how do we move forward in this state? They had a great session last session. Obviously, one of the issues that’s out in front of us is that of our public schools and school choice. I’m a big proponent of school choice, have been for 20 plus years, and I will suggest to you that these education savings accounts that’s going to go forward, that’s going to pass this session of the legislature. And, you know, just helping the members understand, here’s the focus we need to have.
There’s a Nuclear Caucus this session of the legislature. We’ve already talked about small modular reactors. Members of the Legislature are understanding that is important. Even in a state that has this great amount of fossil fuels available to us, we need to have an all of the above energy policy. I supported wind energy, I supported solar energy. I think the federal government’s gone a little over the top on all of the subsidies that they give. Let the market figure this out, but all of those sources of energy are really important for a state growing as much as Texas is we’re going to need it all if we’re going to be luring artificial intelligence data centers in here, we’re going to need a lot of power. So let’s figure out how to make it available.
Chandler: You say Speaker Phelan has the votes, a lot of people are asking, where and who are those votes? We know Representative (David) Cook has put out a list of 48 Republicans who’ve pledged their support to him. How does that stack up with your internal math? Will you be publishing a list of support soon?
Perry: I will suggest we’ll just wait until the votes happen and and see who was right. I’m not sure I could pick Representative Cook out of a lineup. I’m sure he’s a fine young man, and wish him well, but he’s not going to be the speaker when the gavel comes down.
Chandler: Does the pathway for Speaker Phelan — I would assume it would run through keeping Democratic support and then supplementing with Republicans. Does that make sense?
Perry: Yeah, it makes total sense. I’ve been dealing with the legislative process for 40 years now. I came in January of 1985 and there have always been Democrats as chairs when we had Republican speakers, I suggest that will continue to. We are a diverse state, and I think you sit down and you work with Democrats. I’m not going to change my philosophy. I’m going to keep my philosophy and my beliefs, but I’m going to work with you.
I’ll give you a great example. Representative, Senfronia Thompson. She is as different as I am as you can be. She’s a female African American, left-leaning trial lawyer from Houston, Texas. I’m a country boy, Anglo male and Republican. But we found things that we could work on together. And Representative Thompson, she and I don’t agree on a lot of philosophical things in the grand scheme of things, but we found places we could work together. And this was on child sexual trafficking the last session that I was governor in 2013.
My point is this: saying to the Democrats, ‘we don’t like you and you’re banned to the hinterland’ is bad public policy, and quite frankly, it’s just a bad look. We’re the Republican Party. We’re the majority party, but we need to be open to other people’s ideas. Talk to us. You’re not gonna run the show. You are not going to come and and brow beat us into doing things we don’t want to do, but we’ll work with you. We’re all Texans, and I think that’s a really important message
Speaker Phelan has basically said, ‘Look, we’re going to work with you.’ You’re part of this. We’re going to need your votes for constitutional amendments that require 100 votes, and there’s not 100 Republicans. So you’re going to have to work with the Democrats, find out ways to do it in a thoughtful way. This idea of Texas turning into Washington, D.C. and we won’t even talk to each other because you have the wrong initial behind your name. I think that’s really bad long term policy, and I know it’s bad short-term policy .So I think Speaker Phelan properly has the right outlook. He’s going to be the speaker. And we need to come together and, frankly, quit all of this fighting that’s going on. And, what’s best for Texas? That ought to be the question to everything that’s out.”
Republicans backing Cook are skeptical of Perry’s claim that Phelan has the votes to be Speaker. Newly elected Rep. Mitch Little reacted to the interview on social media, calling on Phelan to name his supporters.
“Post the names,” Little wrote.
Many elected Republicans oppose the traditional practice of allowing members from the minority party to chair committees, positions of influence. Phelan has continued that tradition.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick does not allow Democrats to chair Senate committees. He has been a vocal critic of Phelan and his approach to running the lower chambers.
“People ask me all the time about the difference between the Texas House and the Texas Senate. The difference is that the Speaker allows Democrats to control him on many important conservative issues,” Patrick posted earlier this week on X. “He kills a lot of conservative legislation by ensuring it never reaches the floor for a vote. And if it does get to the floor, he makes sure it’s watered down, killed on a point of order, or voted down—like he did with school choice,” Patrick wrote.
TEXAS – Tougher scrutiny on asylum claims, increased cooperation with local jails and an expanded role for the U.S. Border Patrol and other agencies. That’s what a border security expert sees coming as President-Elect Donald Trump tries to make good on his campaign promise to close the border to illegal immigration and carry out mass deportations, according to Border Report. Trump has already shown signs he means business by tapping Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE – the agency in charge of removing unauthorized migrants – as his border czar. “When people hear mass deportations, Middle America thinks Border Patrol. That’s not the case, it’s the Enforcement Removal Operations of ICE,” said Victor M. Manjarrez Jr., a former U.S. Border Patrol chief in El Paso and Tucson, Ariz. “That’s why Tom Homan was selected as border czar. His background is in enforcement and removal operations.”
At least 11 million million undocumented immigrants live in the United States. And before Joe Biden issued an executive order last June curtailing asylum claims between ports of entry, another 2 million people a year were illegally crossing the border from Mexico. While there are ways Trump can ramp up deportations quickly, the money, personnel and facilities to force a mass exodus are lacking, Manjarrez said. “The idea of mass deportations – we use that term a lot – people are going to be disappointed (with it). It’s going to be very targeted, very focused,” he said. “If anyone is expecting buses rolling down Interstate 10, I don’t think that’s gong to be the case.” Trump can quickly ramp up deportations simply by increasing the number of migrants placed on expedited removal – law-speak for fast-track deportations – right after they cross the border. “Instead of saying, ‘We’re going to send you to an ICE facility’ for deportation, which is an extended process and involves a judge, the individual can waive that and in essence you can do that at the station,” Manjarrez said. “They usually say they just want to go home and it’s very quick. What is does for the government is it reduces the logistical detail: All those beds, all that transportation.” The Biden administration for the most part used expedited removals on Mexican citizens, but that could be applied to other nationalities, especially if Trump secures the cooperation of Mexico to temporarily take in foreigners.
HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Tilman Fertitta, who according to Forbes magazine has vaulted to the top spot among Houston’s billionaires, has disclosed an increased stake in Wynn Resorts, the $10 billion Las Vegas gaming enterprise. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Fertitta said he controlled 10.9 million shares, about 9.9% of the company. News of the stake sent shares in the casino operator soaring, climbing 9.5% in midday trading Thursday to almost $94. Wynn shares opened Thursday at $86.83, valuing Fertitta’s stake at $946 million. The price spike, at one point greater than $8 a share, boosted the value of Fertitta’s investment by more than $80 million and past $1 billion. The price paid for the shares was not disclosed.
Fertitta’s stake in Wynn in March, when the company’s proxy statement was issued, was 6.9 million shares, or 6.22%. The hospitality, sports and real estate investor’s net worth was estimated by Forbes at $10.1 billion in October, making him the 99th wealthiest person in the country and 12th in Texas. Last year, he had a net worth of $8 billion. Wynn, which has four primary operating businesses, Wynn Palace, Wynn Macau, Las Vegas Operations and Encore Boston Harbor, reported a third-quarter loss of $32 million on revenue of $6.69 billion, less than the $117 million loss on $1.67 billion in revenue the year earlier. Fertitta, who controls the Golden Nugget casinos, has been expanding his stake in Las Vegas. He received approvals in 2022 for a 43-story, 2,420-room hotel/casino in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Review Journal reported that the project “would include restaurants, convention space, spa, wedding chapel, auto showroom and a roughly 2,500-seat theater.”
AUSTIJN – KXAN reports that more than a week after Election Day, all Travis, Hays and Williamson County ballots have been unofficially tallied and they’re enough for KXAN to call an apparent winner in the Austin mayoral race. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson has more than 50% of the unofficial vote and is projected to win outright. Watson has secured 50.004% of the overall vote with 175,090 total votes. That’s 14 votes above the runoff threshold. KXAN is reporting Watson as the apparent winner, because those numbers are yet to be finalized. Travis County is expected to do its canvass on Nov. 15 and Williamson County on the Nov. 19, according to the respective clerk’s offices. Hays County’s results are official, according to its website. The deadline set by the Texas Secretary of State to post finalized results is Nov. 19.
The first, ominous sounds came from deep within the massive stack of logs in the darkest hours of the Texas night. Witnesses described hearing the stack of thousands of logs moan and creak before the crack of the center pole as it snapped, then collapsed.
More than a million pounds (450,000 kilograms) of timber tumbled. In an instant, 12 people were killed, dozens more were injured and a university campus rooted in traditions carried across generations of students was permanently scarred.
Texas A&M University is set to mark 25 years since the log stack collapsed in the early hours of Nov. 18, 1999. It was being built in preparation for the annual bonfire ahead of the Texas A&M-Texas rivalry football game in College Station.
The school will hold a Bonfire Remembrance ceremony at the site of the tragedy on Monday at 2:42 a.m., about the time the stack collapsed.
“Year after year, Texas A&M students have worked to ensure that we never forget those members of the Aggie Family who were taken from us 25 years ago,” school President Mark Welsh III said.
The tradition
The “Fightin’ Texas Aggie Bonfire” ranked among the most revered traditions in college football and symbolized the school’s “burning desire” to beat the University of Texas Longhorns in football. The first bonfire in 1907 was a scrap heap that was set ablaze. By 1909, it was a campus event and the bonfire stack kept growing as railroad lines were used to ship in in carloads of scrap lumber, railroad ties and other flammable materials, according to the school.
It reached a record height of 105 feet (32 meters) in 1969 before administrators, concerned about a fire hazard, imposed a 55-foot (17-meter) limit. Over the years, the stack evolved from a teepee-style mound into the vertical timber formation, a shape similar to a tiered wedding cake, that collapsed in 1999.
The annual bonfire attracted crowds of up to 70,000 and burned every year through 1998. The only exception was in 1963, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
The tragedy
The stack of more than 5,000, 18-foot (5.5-meter) logs toppled a week before it was scheduled to burn. The 12 who were killed included five freshmen, four sophomores, a junior, a senior and a recent graduate. Several were members of the Corps of Cadets, Texas A&M’s student-led, military-style organization that played a large role in its construction.
Rescuers, including members of the Texas A&M football team, raced to remove the logs that had trapped and crushed some of the victims. At rival Texas, Longhorns players organized a blood drive to assist the survivors.
An investigation ordered by the school determined flawed construction led by unqualified student workers led to the collapse.
Campus memorial
In 2003, the school dedicated a memorial on the spot where the stack fell. It includes a “Spirit Ring” with 12 portals representing those who were killed. Each portal contains an engraved portrait and signature of a victim and points toward their hometown. By stepping into the open archway, the visitor symbolically fills the void left by the deceased.
Efforts to rekindle the bonfire tradition
The annual Aggie bonfire was discontinued as an official school event after the deadly collapse.
The school considered reviving the tradition this year to coincide with the renewal of the Texas-Texas A&M football rivalry on Nov. 30. The rivalry split in 2012 when Texas A&M left the Big 12 Conference for the Southeastern Conference, but has resumed this year as Texas joined the SEC.
A special committee recommended resuming the bonfire, but only if the log stack was designed and built by professional engineers and contractors. Some members of the public said it should not come back if it was not organized and built by students, according to tradition.
Welsh ultimately decided the bonfire would not return to campus.
“Bonfire, both a wonderful and tragic part of Aggie history, should remain in our treasured past,” the president said in June when he announced his decision.
Students have continued to organize and build unofficial off-campus bonfires over the years and plan to burn this year’s edition on Nov. 29, the night before the Texas A&M-Texas football game.
DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports Oil giant and formerly Dallas-based ExxonMobil company is cutting 397 workers from recently acquired Pioneer Natural Resources, another blow to North Texas’ shrinking oil and gas sector. The layoffs come after ExxonMobil, which is based in the Houston suburb of Spring, completed its $59.5 billion purchase of Irving-based Pioneer in May. Exxon offered jobs to more than 1,900 workers at Pioneer. Exxon spokeswoman Michelle Gray said all the workers being laid off were offered other positions or declined to transfer to Exxon.
“The WARN notice was triggered due to the number of employees who have either been offered transition roles or who have declined offers to join ExxonMobil, and, in both cases, will be separated under the Pioneer Severance Plan,” Gray said in an email. “Our employment strategy has not changed — the success of this merger depends heavily on the retention of Pioneer’s talented workforce, and more than 1,900 Pioneer employees were offered jobs as part of the merger.” Exxon cut another 39 jobs from the Las Colinas offices in July, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Most of the cuts will come at Pioneer’s Las Colinas office in Irving but a handful will come at other locations, including a site in Big Lake and others in Midland.
AUSTIN – The Texas Tribune reports that lawmakers in the Texas House and Senate filed more than a thousand pieces of legislation Tuesday, offering an early look at the issues they hope to prioritize when they gavel in for the 89th legislative session in January.
Tuesday marked the first day lawmakers could file bills they hope to pass when the Texas Legislature reconvenes next year. Republicans control both chambers and expanded their majority in the House and Senate after flipping a handful of seats during this year’s elections. The ouster of many Republicans by challengers further to their right during this year’s primaries means that the Texas GOP’s far-right wing will have unprecedented sway over the upcoming legislative session. Few of those lawmakers filed bills on Tuesday, but it’s likely they’ll seek to push the Legislature’s already deep-red agenda even further right once they file their own bills.
Lawmakers typically file thousands of bills in the course of a legislative session, and most never make it to the governor’s desk. The lowest bill numbers are reserved for the highest priority bills set by the House speaker and lieutenant governor, who leads the Senate. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced last week that his top policy priority will be Senate Bill 2, which is expected to propose a program that lets families use tax dollars to pay for their children’s private schooling. Other priorities have yet to be announced.
Texas is expected to have plenty of cash to fund any new mandates. State Comptroller Glenn Hegar projected the state will have a $20 billion surplus at the start of the 2025 session on Jan. 14.
Here’s a look at some of the notable bills filed Tuesday.
Some of the topics covered in the first day of filing for 2025 session
Property taxes
Abortion
Public education
Higher education
Border and immigration
Elections
LGBTQ+ rights
Marriage
Criminal justice
Energy
Health
Guns
Workers’ wages
DEI
Property taxes
Republican lawmakers for years have been pushing to bring down the state’s property taxes, which are among the highest in the nation. Last year, legislators approved a $12.7 billion package that included tax breaks for homeowners and money for school districts to lower how much they collect in property taxes. A Texas Tribune analysis showed many residents have seen significant tax reductions as a result of the last several years of property tax cuts. The amount of taxes school districts collected from property owners fell by nearly 10% between 2022 and 2023, according to figures provided by the Texas Comptroller’s office.
Lawmakers filed dozens of bills Tuesday seeking to further lower Texans’ property taxes. Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, filed a bill that would eliminate property taxes altogether and create a committee to study “alternative methods of taxation” to replace them. Eliminating all local property taxes would cost the state an estimated $81.5 billion, based on figures presented by the Legislative Budget Board. Spending that much on tax cuts would likely require a significant increase in the sales tax, lawmakers have said.
Several proposed bills would use the state’s surplus revenue to offset property taxes. For example, House Bill 264, filed by Rep. Keith Bell, R-Forney, would dedicate half of any budget surplus every two years to tax relief. House Bill 275, filed by Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, would use the surplus to further reduce the amount of money that school districts collect in property taxes. House Bill 378, filed by Rep. Christina Morales, D-Houston, would increase the homestead exemption — the portion of a home’s value that is exempted from taxation — from $100,000 to $200,000. The state would make up the school district’s loss in revenue.
Several lawmakers filed bills that would limit increases in a property’s appraised value. Such caps could create inequities between taxpayers, experts have warned. New homeowners could end up paying significantly more than those who have owned homes for a long time. And the cap could also disrupt the housing market by enticing people to stay in their homes for longer in order to obtain the tax benefit, thus reducing the number of homes that become available each year.
Abortion
Rep. Donna Howard, an Austin Democrat and one of the chamber’s loudest voices in support of abortion access, filed two bills that would expand when a health care provider can legally perform an abortion.
The current law allows doctors to terminate a pregnancy when, in their “reasonable medical judgment,” it is necessary to save the life of the patient. While Republican lawmakers and anti-abortion activists say the law is clear, dozens of women have come forward with stories of delayed or denied medical care. At least two women died after doctors hesitated to treat them because of worries about the law’s strict penalties. Last week, more than 100 Texas OB/GYNs signed a letter saying the near-total ban has restricted them from providing high-quality, evidence-based care to their patients.
Under HB 257, physicians would be able to rely on their “best medical judgment,” which could not be overruled by an external review process. It would additionally allow abortions to preserve a patient’s mental health or future fertility, and in cases where the fetus is either not going to survive after birth or is “incompatible with life without extraordinary medical interventions.” HB 395, also filed by Howard, would allow abortions in cases of rape or incest. Six Democrats filed a companion bill for each of these proposals in the Senate.
Howard and other Democratic lawmakers filed a slew of similar bills last session. None received a hearing.
On the other side of the issue, Rep. Steve Toth filed HB 1004, which would empower the Texas Attorney General to unilaterally prosecute certain crimes, including election and abortion-related offenses. A similar measure did not pass last session.
Public education
Some Republicans and conservative groups have long advocated for “school choice,” or the idea that the state should support families that decide not to send their children to public schools. Last year, Republican lawmakers attempted to pass a bill that would have created “education savings accounts,” a type of school voucher program that would provide public funds directly to families to help them pay for their children’s private schooling and other educational expenses.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the leader of the Senate, said last week that establishing a voucher program in Texas would be his top legislative priority, while Gov. Greg Abbott said the House has enough votes to get it approved. At least one bill proposing a voucher program was filed Tuesday, and more are likely to come.
House Bill 212, proposed by Cain, would establish a process for parents or legal guardians to get reimbursed by the state for enrolling their children into private schools. Any school-aged child would be eligible for the program.
Several Republicans also filed legislation that would guide or limit what learning materials children are exposed to in school. House Bill 183, introduced by Rep. Jared Patterson of Frisco, would give the GOP-dominated State Board of Education the power to prohibit school districts from using library materials it considers “inappropriate” or “sexually explicit.” Local school districts typically make those decisions.
House Bill 196, filed by Vasut, would require schools to teach “that human life begins at conception and has inherent dignity and immeasurable worth from the moment of conception.”
Senate Bill 86, a proposal by Sen. Bob Hall, an Edgewood Republican, would prohibit classroom instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity. Hall also filed legislation that would make school board elections partisan and require that they occur on the same day as midterms or the general election.
Houston Democratic Rep. Christina Morales filed House Bill 178, reviving legislation that seeks to include ethnic studies as part of the required social studies curriculum. Public education advocates have sought to ensure students are learning about historically underserved groups — like Black and Indigenous communities — different from their own.
Two bills, one from a Republican and the other from a Democrat, were filed to change the way Texas schools are funded. The current attendance-based funding system has resulted in schools losing out on money if kids aren’t showing up to class. Advocates of changing the system say basing it on enrollment would offer schools more financial stability.
Higher education
Last legislative session, some of the most contentious higher education bills were Patrick’s priority legislation to end diversity, equity and inclusion offices, which went into effect at the start of the year, and a bill that initially intended to eliminate faculty tenure, which was approved but watered down.
At a Senate Higher Education subcommittee meeting Monday, Republican senators signaled a broad openness to further curtailing faculty’s powers, reinforcing the authority of the boards of regents over public universities and continuing to eliminate DEI programs. Legislation surrounding those issues has not yet been filed.
On Tuesday, multiple Republican House members filed identical versions of a bill to stop providing in-state tuition to certain undocumented students who live in Texas.
In 2001, lawmakers passed the Texas Dream Act, which extends in-state tuition to undocumented students who graduated from a Texas high school, lived in Texas for three years before graduating and lived in the state for a year before enrolling at a Texas public college or university. Students who qualify must sign an affidavit declaring their intent to apply for permanent resident status as soon as they are able. The Texas Dream Act also applies to students who are not U.S. citizens but are authorized to be in the country.
Lawmakers have tried to eliminate the Texas Dream Act in the past without success. But as the Texas House shifts further to the right, it may find renewed support.
Another bill, House Bill 281 would require the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to eliminate or sanction degree programs when graduates would generally have trouble paying for their student loan debt with their expected earnings. Graduates in high-earning fields like medicine and law often have higher student loans but find it easier to pay for them because of their earning potential, while graduates in lower-paying degrees like education and social work may struggle to manage their debt even if they took out fewer loans.
Texas Rep. Carl Tepper, R-Lubbock, filed the bill at a time when Republicans are playing offense on higher education. Public perception of the value of a college degree has also been declining, as people become increasingly skeptical of student loan debt.
Meanwhile, Sen. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, filed a bill requiring all public college and university students to take an economics course to graduate.
Border and immigration
Almost two dozen border and immigration-related bills filed Tuesday suggest some Republican lawmakers will remain bullish on those issues.
House Bill 354, filed by Cain, would create a Texas Border Protection Unit whose officers would have the authority to arrest people who cross the Texas-Mexico border illegally — mirroring U.S. Border Patrol’s job. The unit would also oversee construction and maintenance of physical barriers, including the state’s border wall.
A similar measure failed last year but has vocal support from immigration hardliners like Texans for Strong Borders.
Senate Bill 81, filed by Hall, would give the Department of Public Safety “during a state of invasion or imminent danger on the Texas-Mexico border” the authority to return to Mexico people seen entering Texas illegally or who are arrested near the border. Abbott invoked the invasion clause of the U.S. and Texas constitutions in 2022 to justify the state’s ongoing border operations. The bill would also let DPS use force to “detect, repel, apprehend, detain, and arrest known transnational cartel operatives in the border region.” The bill does not give a definition of who would be considered a cartel operative.
Another bill filed by Hall — SB 134 — would require counties and cities to request and enter partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to authorize officers and employees of the municipality or county to enforce federal immigration law. The attorney general’s office could seek injunctive relief against counties and cities that do not make such requests. The partnerships — known as 287(g) agreements — could help with extra staffing to carry out the Trump administration’s ambitious immigration crackdown.
A pair of companion bills — filed in the House by Rep. Ryan Guillen, R-Rio Grande City, and in the Senate by Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas — would offer student loan repayment help for lawyers who work at least one year for the state’s border prosecution unit. The unit — created by the Legislature in 2009 — is a coalition of border district attorney’s offices. The number of cases filed and prosecuted in those offices has exploded in recent years since Texas launched its multi-billion dollar border initiative, Operation Lone Star, which has resulted in thousands of criminal trespass and human smuggling arrests.
Another bill filed Tuesday calls for DPS to fingerprint undocumented children for a database to be used “to investigate the frequency with which a child … has entered the United States unlawfully through the international border with Mexico.”
It is unclear if the Department of Justice under Trump’s administration would contest Texas’ authority to create and enforce immigration-related state laws. President-elect Trump has said he wants to help border states like Texas.
Last year’s Senate Bill 4, which gives police the authority to arrest people suspected of having entered the country illegally, has yet to go into effect after the U.S. Justice Department sued to stop it; the legal dispute remains unresolved. The federal government argued that Texas’ law encroached on the authority of the federal government, who has been solely responsible for immigration enforcement. It is unclear whether the Trump administration will continue the lawsuit.
Elections
Earlier this year, Abbott said the state had removed more than 6,500 potential noncitizens from its voter rolls. An investigation by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and Votebeat found that number was likely inflated and, in some cases, wrong.
Nonetheless, Republican lawmakers Cain and Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola filed bills that would require Texans applying to register to vote to provide proof of citizenship. Arizona is the only state in the country with such a requirement in place. Hughes proposed similar legislation last year but it did not move forward.
Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring, proposed a bill that would designate certain licensed peace officers to serve as election marshals. Election marshals would have the powers and duties of state inspectors, including investigating alleged election code violations. A similar piece of legislation passed the Senate last year but was not approved by the House.
Toth also filed a slate of bills clamping down on election security. House Bill 1001 would require poll workers to provide paper ballots to voters who request one, a measure aimed at addressing concerns that voting machines are rigged (those claims have been broadly debunked). House Bill 999 mandates that the custodian of election records shares ballots people used to cast their votes or their images with anyone who requests them for inspection within 60 days of an election.
Austin Democratic Rep. John Bucy, meanwhile, filed several pieces of legislation that would expand voter access and education. House Bill 374 would designate certain election days as state holidays, and House Bill 665 specifies information the secretary of state’s website must contain about upcoming elections.
A group of Democratic Texas senators also filed legislation directing county commissioners’ courts to designate at least one polling place on college campuses with at least 5,000 students, and at least two polling stations on college campuses with 10,000 students. One more polling place must be added to each campus for every additional 10,000 students enrolled at that college or university. The legislation comes after multiple counties across the state removed early voting locations from college campuses during the most recent election despite pushback from students.
LGBTQ+ rights
Last session, Texas Republicans passed some of the most aggressive anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the country, outlawing gender-affirming care for minors and severely limiting drag performances.
Bills filed Tuesday show that Republicans plan to go even further this session. HB 847 would ban the use of any taxpayer resources for “gender reassignment” — including the funding of health benefits that cover gender reassignment for adults. The bill, filed by Harrison, provides exceptions for those defined as “intersex.”
Another bill would make it a felony for public schools or universities to conduct or permit any study of children’s sexual behavior. Hall, the author of that bill, also filed legislation that’d require school districts to inform parents if their child’s perception of their biological sex is “inconsistent” with their “sex organs, chromosomes and endogenous hormone profiles.” The bill would also allow parents to sue districts that fail to inform them about curriculum involving sexual orientation or gender.
Hall also filed a bill that would prohibit government health insurance programs from covering gender-affirming care, and increase civil liabilities for doctors who offer transition-related medical procedures.
Another bill filed by Toth would allow drag performers to be sued by children who attended their performances — even if the child was brought to the performance by their parents.
HB 778, filed by Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from McKinney, would require health insurance plans that pay for gender-affirming care to also cover the costs of any adverse consequences related to the treatment, as well as any treatments to reverse the patient’s transition.
Some Republicans seem to also want to resurrect the idea of a “bathroom bill,” legislation that would prohibit people from using a bathroom that doesn’t align with the sex they were assigned at birth. A previous attempt in 2017 died after months of controversy, but Toth and Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Republican from Galveston, have both filed bills that aim to reignite the issue.
DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports that a new rideshare service featuring armed drivers is launching and Dallas and two other Texas cities. BlackWolf, a small ridesharing startup that gained fame through TikTok, is recruiting drivers in Dallas, Houston and Austin and hopes to launch by the end of this year or early 2025, founder and owner Kerry KingBrown said. To begin, the company looks to hire 35 to 50 drivers in each city. Drivers must have spotless background checks and at least four years experience in the military, law enforcement or other security positions. BlackWolf, which launched in Atlanta in 2023, has gained a large following on social media, with more than 1 million followers on TikTok and Instagram. KingBrown said rising crime in some large cities helped fuel demand. Some media outlets have likened the company to “Uber with guns.”
DALLAS (AP) — A bullet struck the body of a Southwest Airlines airplane preparing for departure from a Dallas airport, forcing the cancellation of the Friday evening flight, the airline said.
No injuries were reported and law enforcement was contacted after the bullet struck the right side of the aircraft just under the flight deck. At the time, the crew of Flight 2494 was preparing the plane for departure from Dallas Love Field Airport, Southwest said in a statement.
The Boeing 737-800 aircraft was “struck by gunfire near the cockpit” around 8:30 p.m. while taxiing before the flight to Indianapolis International Airport. The plane returned to the gate and the passengers exited, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
The aircraft was removed from service, according to the airline, which said it would provide another flight for the passengers.
Dallas Love Field Airport said in a social media post that the Dallas Police Department responded and runway 13R/31L was closed, but reopened later Friday night with “minimal impact” on the facility’s operations.
AUSTIN (AP) — A Texas Supreme Court ruling has again cleared the way for the execution of Robert Roberson, who would become the first person in the U.S. to be put to death over a murder conviction tied to a case of shaken baby syndrome, a diagnosis that some medical experts have questioned.
Roberson was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2003 and had been slated to die by lethal injection on Oct. 17. But the execution was halted after a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, including some who believe Roberson is innocent, issued a last-ditch subpoena ordering Roberson to testify at the Capitol days after his execution date.
The unusual tactic created a legal conundrum that successfully temporarily held off Roberson’s execution. However, the Texas Supreme Court on Friday ruled that a legislative subpoena cannot stop an execution, reopening a path for the execution to proceed unless Republican Gov. Greg Abbott grants a 30-day reprieve. A new date hasn’t been set yet.
Here’s a timeline of the case:
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February 2003: Roberson is convicted of killing his daughter, Nikki Curtis, in Palestine, Texas. Prosecutors said she died from severe head trauma after being violently shaken back and forth.
July 2024: Roberson’s execution date is scheduled for Oct. 17 after numerous years of failed attempts to appeal the case.
September 2024: A group of nearly 90 Republican and Democratic lawmakers file a clemency petition to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles urging it to spare Roberson’s life because they believe his daughter died of severe pneumonia, not abuse. The former lead detective on the case, several medical experts, civil rights advocates and best-selling author John Grisham also signed the petition.
Oct. 16: The parole board votes unanimously, 6-0, to not recommend to grant clemency. Abbott can only grant clemency after receiving a recommendation from the board. With the execution appearing imminent, a Texas House committee ordered Roberson to testify at a hearing scheduled after his execution date.
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Oct 18: The Texas Supreme Court temporarily rules in the lawmakers’ favor and allows Roberson to testify, which successfully delays his execution.
October 21, 2024: Roberson does not show up to the committee hearing following pushback from the attorney general’s office. Celebrity talk show host “Dr. Phil” McGraw and John Grisham testify and say they believe he was convicted on the basis of “junk science.”
Nov. 15: The state Supreme Court ruled that a legislative subpoena cannot be used to override an execution.