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Good morning, 

Here is the Texas Minute for Monday, June 5, 2023.

– Brandon Waltens 

Dallas Forces Employees to Attend Trans Reeducation Training

• Soli Rice reports the City of Dallas is requiring employees to undergo taxpayer-funded transgender reeducation training any time one of their coworkers comes out as “transgender.”
   

• According to internal documents obtained from the City of Dallas by The Dallas Express, “non-transitioning” employees are being forced to undergo reeducation training “to support an inclusive and productive workplace environment for all employees.”
   

• The City of Dallas’ “gender transition toolkit” explains that a transitioning employee should find a “trusted” supervisor or manager as a “first point of contact” to help them through their workplace transition.
   

• The document includes a list of gender terms and definitions. It then moves on to require employees to work with gender-confused coworkers, allowing the “transitioning” employee to use whichever bathroom or locker room at work they feel most comfortable with, ignoring the comfort of other employees.
   

• Just a couple of months ago, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller received backlash for requiring employees to dress according to their biological gender. Employees who refuse to follow Miller’s restrictions face possible termination.

Texas School Superintendent Busted for Soliciting Sex with Teen

• Another Texas educator, who has “been around children his entire work life,” has been charged with a sex crime involving a minor. Erin Anderson has the details. 
   
• Michael Stevens, 47, was arrested Thursday and charged with online solicitation of a minor, a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison. Stevens is the superintendent of Itasca Independent School District in Hill County.
   
• He was planning to travel to Houston and engage in sex acts with a person he thought was a 15-year-old female, according to Harris County Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen.
   
• Rosen said Stevens sent “pictures of his private parts” to an undercover investigator and asked for “nude videos.”
   
• Itasca ISD trustees chose Stevens as superintendent in March 2022.
   
• Stevens was previously the superintendent of Channing ISD. Before that, he worked as a teacher and coach in Mesquite ISD, Palacios ISD, and Vernon ISD, then served as an assistant principal in Vernon and a secondary principal in Electra ISD.​

Starr County Elections Department Raided

• The Texas Attorney General’s Office is once again investigating voter fraud in South Texas. David Vasquez has the story.  
   

• The AG's office says they are investigating alleged illegal voting and ballot harvesting conducted during the run-up to the November 2022 election.
   

• The search and seizure record indicates at least 180 rejected ballots were seized, as well as the voter registration form of one of the subjects of the investigation, Modesto Vela, who has ties to Starr County Judge Eloy Vera.
   

• In October 2022, Project Red TX—an organization that recruits GOP candidates for local offices—filed a complaint with the Texas secretary of state that alleged illegal ballot harvesting. The raid is apparently related to this initial complaint.
   

• It is alleged that Modesto Vela of Roma, Texas, illegally assisted at least one Starr County voter in filling out a mail-in ballot. Vela allegedly entered the home of a voter, filled out the ballot, and left the home in possession of the ballot. Project Red TX asserts there is photographic evidence depicting Vela leaving the property and an audio recording of Vela admitting to leaving with possession of the ballot. The complaint also claimed that Vela said she worked for Starr County Judge Eloy Vera.

Federal Judge in Texas Blocks ATF Pistol Brace Rule

• As the Biden administration continues to attempt to limit citizens’ Second Amendment rights, a federal judge in Texas has temporarily blocked Biden’s stabilizing brace rule from going into effect. Emily Wilkerson has the details. 
   

• According to the ATF, a stabilizing brace is defined as a firearm accessory “that provides surface area that allows the weapon to be fired from the shoulder, provided other factors indicate the weapon is designed, made, and intended to be fired from the shoulder.”
   

• In 2021, President Joe Biden introduced a series of “comprehensive gun crime strategies” in response to two mass shootings in which the shooter used a stabilizing brace.
   

• On January 13, the United States attorney general signed the ATF’s rule, which categorizes pistols with attached stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifles. The rule would also require persons affected by the rule to either permanently remove the item or register it with the ATF or be forced to pay a fine of $10,000 or face 10 years of imprisonment.
   

• The rule was supposed to go into effect on June 1. However, after multiple gun rights advocates and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the ATF last month, Judge Drew B. Tipton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas granted a preliminary injunction, blocking the rule from going into effect. 

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