Good morning,

If you were a member of the State Republican Executive Committee, would you censure House Speaker Dade Phelan? Sound off in the One Click Survey at the conclusion of today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan
Monday, July 17, 2023

Abbott Adds Fentanyl to Drug Death Data Dashboard

• Gov. Greg Abbott announced the launch of a new fentanyl data dashboard to track deaths and incidents in response to the fentanyl crisis. Matthew DeLaCruz reports that experts say measuring the fentanyl crisis is key to ending it.
      
• Between 2019 and 2021, fentanyl-related deaths increased by 400 percent. In 2022 alone, nearly 2,000 Texans lost their lives to fentanyl poisoning.
     
• Abbott recently signed four new pieces of legislation that will heighten penalties for fentanyl dealers while providing more resources to those devastated by the deadly drug.

NY-based Group Sues Texas Over Abbott's TikTok Ban 

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is facing a lawsuit over his prohibition of the Chinese social media app TikTok on government-issued devices. Katy Marshall has the details.
          
• The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research against Abbott and other state officials last week.
     
• TikTok is owned by the Chinese media company ByteDance, which employs Chinese Communist Party members and has a subsidiary partially owned by the country’s communist party. This has led many to raise concerns that the app poses a security risk for the U.S.
      
• Last year, Abbott ordered all state agencies to ban TikTok from government-issued devices and networks.
      

• The Knight lawsuit alleges Texas is violating citizens’ First Amendment rights by “imposing a broad restraint on the research and teaching of public university faculty” conducting studies into TikTok’s effects on users.
             

• The use of TikTok on government devices is currently banned by the U.S. Department of State, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security. Other states including North Dakota, Maryland, and South Dakota also prohibit the use of TikTok on government-issued devices.

Texas Tech Gets Top Rating on LGBT Campus “Pride” Index

• As higher education continues to cater to ‘woke’ ideals, Texas taxpayers are funding an extensive “Office of  LGBTQIA Education & Engagement” at Texas Tech University. As Syndie Henry reports, that is among the things which led the LGBT-oriented "Campus Pride Index" to give the university its highest marks.

      

• Campus Pride rates universities on their “LGBTQ-friendliness.” The only other Texas universities to hold 5 stars are The University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Texas Arlington.

         
• “The deterioration of our public universities is undeniable,” said Brady Gray, president of Texas Family Project.
      
• According to the Texas Tech website, “The Office of LGBTQIA Education & Engagement serves the Texas Tech University community through facilitation and leadership of programming and advocacy efforts aimed at strengthening the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA) community.”

Cruz Wants to Block JROTC Programs From CCP-Linked Schools

• U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has filed legislation to prohibit the Department of Defense from establishing Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps at private schools affiliated with China. Valerie Muñoz has the story.
      
• The Center for Immigration Studies has reported on the phenomenon of Chinese private equity firms and Chinese education companies purchasing American private schools.
      
• In 2017, Cruz passed legislation that prevents the Department of Defense from funding Confucius Institutes—cultural institutes and schools directly or indirectly funded by the Government of the People’s Republic of China. Three years later, the U.S. Department of State designated the Confucius Institute U.S. Center (the network’s headquarters) as a foreign mission of the People’s Republic of China.
       
• Most recently, lawmakers have been pressuring the Biden administration to explain why the Primavera Capital Group, a Chinese organization, has been allowed to purchase an online tutoring service contracted with K-12 schools and the U.S. military.

Big Tech Censures ‘Let Women Speak’ Event

• In an attempt to curtail an event bringing women together to speak freely about issues affecting their lives, Emily Medeiros reports the Eventbrite ticketing service is blocking the organizers from promoting the gathering. 

       
• The group Standing for Women holds public forums to talk with women who have become politically homeless due to the left’s support for ideology and legislation that harms women and their civil rights. The group hosts events that allow women to gather publicly and speak about protecting their sex-based rights to privacy, consent, safety, fairness, and female-only spaces. Additionally, the group covers issues such as transgenderism and its impact on women and girls in the country. 
     
• But when they attempted to schedule a gathering in Central Texas using the Eventbrite service, the company censured the event – claiming it violated its policy on hateful, dangerous, or violent content and events.
      
• “Like so many corporations, Eventbrite is capitulating to a movement that elevates the desires and feelings of male fetishists over the rights of women. This event will continue as planned; women will not be silenced by this unhinged minority.” – Michelle Evans, 'Let Women Speak' coordinator

Today In History

On July 17, 1835, a group of Texians met in modern-day Jackson County to discuss the abuses being perpetrated by the Mexican government of Antonio López de Santa Anna. 

ONE CLICK SURVEY

The Republican Party of the largest county in House Speaker Dade Phelan's district has censured him, opening the door for the State Republican Executive Committee to now do so. That action, in turn, would allow the state party to spend money opposing Phelan's 2024 primary bid.

If you were a member of the Texas SREC, would you vote to censure Dade Phelan?

Once you’ve clicked an answer, reply to this email with any thoughts you’d like to share!