Good morning,

Whoa... No matter how readers answered yesterday's survey about the proposal to revoke the charter for the City of Austin, no one is a fan of what one fellow described as "Moscow on the Colorado." Find the details below.

This is the Texas Minute for Tuesday, May 7, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Illegal Border Crossings Increase In Maverick County

• Over the past few days, the Texas Department of Safety has reportedly made more than 70 arrests of illegal aliens for trespassing into Texas. Will Biagini reports the illegals have come from countries including Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic.
       
• In a separate arrest over the weekend, a man from Lebanon was captured who had been flagged as a national security risk. 

RELATED NEWS

• In April 2021, DHS released a report stating that as of 2018, there were 11.4 million illegal aliens residing in the U.S. The agency has not released any updates to that total.

Phelan Scrambles to Create a Study Committee on Chinese Land Ownership Ban

• Despite having killed proposals to do so last year, embattled House Speaker Dade Phelan has thrown together a legislative committee to study a potential ban on Chinese ownership of Texas land. Brandon Waltens has the details.
     
• Coincidentally, of course, Phelan is just three weeks out from a runoff election after placing second to challenger David Covey in the March GOP primary.
      
• Last year, the Senate passed legislation that would have banned the ownership of Texas’ agricultural land, mineral interests, and timber by citizens, companies, or governmental entities of countries designated by the federal government as threats to U.S. national security. That would apply to China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
      
• The Senate’s proposal was killed in the House after it was never given a hearing by the committee chairman appointed by Phelan.
       

• On the March ballot, more than 95 percent of Republican voters said they would support a ban on hostile foreign ownership of Texas land.

Texas A&M to Implement Biden’s Controversial Title IX Rewrite

• Despite Gov. Greg Abbott saying Texas would ignore changes to Title IX that would threaten female students and athletes, Texas A&M University is reportedly “scrambling” to comply.

     
• Last month, the Biden administration rolled out a nearly 1,500-page rewrite of Title IX rules—the federal civil rights law originally designed to prohibit sex-based discrimination in education—to add “gender identity” as a protected class, forcing schools to allow biological males to use female spaces. If a school refuses to comply, federal funding would be withheld. 
   

• The university’s director of Title IX and Student Conduct Compliance, Rick Olshak, has lamented that the new regulations did not extend to transgender athletic competition.

       
• “The Biden administration left out the most polarizing piece of the regulation, which is transgender participation in athletics,” said Olshak. “So, we were very disappointed when we heard the rumor that this part would be left out. But we also understood that it is April before the election.”

Krum ISD Band Director Indicted on 11 Child Sex Abuse Charges

• A band director in the Krum Independent School District has been indicted on 11 counts of sexually abusing children. Erin Anderson reports the allegations date back to the late 1990s.
     
• Carol Turner, 60, was released from the Denton County Jail on a $50,000 bond. She reportedly began working for Krum ISD in August 1991.
       
• According to a statement released by Krum ISD on Monday, Turner has “not been affiliated with the district since July 2023” when the district learned of a victim’s disclosure of the abuse while Turner was employed there.

INVESTIGATION

How One School District Disobeyed a Mother, Encouraged a Trans Delusion

• Emelie Schmidt's mother could not have been clearer with the school district: her daughter should be called by her given name, and she should be treated like all the other girls. Instead, staff at Port Neches-Groves ISD went behind the mother's back to engage Emelie in delusions of transitioning into a "boy." They even attempted to bully the mother into acquiescence. 
     
• Robert Montoya and Daniel Greer tell Mrs. Schmidt's story of recovery in a new investigation from Texas Scorecard.
   
• Now married and healthy, she has spent several years trying to collect information about what happened so that she can reconstruct what happened during high school, a time she now describes as blurry.
       
• “When I eventually have kids, I’m gonna homeschool them, because I do not trust our school system.” — Emelie Schmidt

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Quote-Unquote

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one."

– Thomas Paine​

Y'All Answered

The city council in Austin has become increasingly hostile to the general values, sensibilities, and beliefs of Texans. Most recently, the Austin City Council passed a resolution claiming to make it a "sanctuary" for child gender mutilation and chemical castration. Some lawmakers have proposed revoking the City of Austin charter and turning the area into a district managed by the state—similar to Washington, D.C. 

Yesterday, we asked readers what they thought about abolishing the City of Austin's charter and turning it into a state-administered district. The idea of revoking the city's charter got support from 85.1 percent of readers, while 14.9 percent believe that sets a bad precedent.

Here is a sampling of the responses that we received...

• “The people of Austin elected those sick people. Let them enjoy and know what they elected!” – Doreen Cardenas
      

• “Almost every day Austin proves it is indeed 'Moscow on the Colorado.’” – Roy Leatherberry
      

• “Defund the City of Austin!” – Dana Krasinski
     

• “Austin being a State District is just another step in Texas becoming it’s own country again.” – Al Crable
      

• “The city itself isn't the problem, it's the government employees and elected officials. Same anywhere you go. It would be beneficial across the state to ban state/county/local employees from voting—they have a conflict of interest.” — Hilda Maria
      

• “Yes, but I’m not real confident state government bureaucrats could do any better than what the local bureaucrats are doing.” – Bruce Delayer
      

• “Yes, Austin has gone beyond 'weird' now. Let's reel in their leftist influence over Texas state politics.” – Tim Rhodes
     

• “I don’t like what the City of Austin does or stands for, but its actions reflect the views of its constituents, and I don’t think the state should stamp out local governments and override the will of local voters to enforce state-wide political or ideological conformity.” – Jennifer Kobernik
      

• “I’m not sure turning Austin governance over to the state will accomplish anything, but it would send a message. When a city passes laws at odds with state laws or intentionally chooses to ignore laws, there should be consequences for those involved.” – Gene Glass
     

• “Austin may be our capital, but it has been an embarrassment for many years.” – Sandi Stephens
      

• “I would like nothing better than to have the Austin City Council removed, but having it run by the state is laughable and just as bad and could be worse.” – Gerald Slater
      

• “While I don't like what the City of Austin is doing, to revoke their charter is heading down a slippery slope to government take over. If you start revoking legal rights because you don't like how a group is using them, it is only a matter of time until your rights get revoked by someone using the same reasoning.” – Berry Hartman
      

• “We need to preserve Austin; there is value in all things, if only to serve as a Bad Example.” – Tom McMeans
      

• “We have a God-given right to elect those in authority. The people of Austin, like the people of Gaza, have elected these kinds of people as their authority. The people of Austin would vote for a ham sandwich if there was a ‘D’ after its name. Until that changes, nothing else will. Until then, the rest of us are stuck with their decision. Austin is living proof you can't fix stupid.” – Rick Goncher
      

• “Tempting as this proposal is, the citizens of Austin legally elected these people to the City Council. Give them the government they want. Republicans do not need to give anyone grounds to be labeled as anti-constitutional.” – Martha Rhoades
      

• “If the state took over operations of Austin, it would still be a radical left city. Washington, DC, is no different. Our state government isn't much better ... promise the moon and deliver a small flashlight without batteries.” – Danny Thompson
      

• “Let the City of Austin wallow in its own muck and mire until the citizens of Austin vote less for the weird while voting for the rational. A District of Austin would be controlled by state RINOs, leftist democrats uninhibited by spineless Republicans. The DofA would blossom to become the utopian hell hole of their progressive ideological dreams funded by the state.” – Anthony Cieszkiewicz
      

• “The direction of any city should be determined by the voters who live there.” – Cynthia Jackson
      

• “It sounds like it is being run by a bunch of lunatics that don’t have sense enough to get out of the rain, much less run a city. On the other hand, can the Texas government do a better job? With their track record, I wonder.” – Dell Huddleston
      

• “Let the voters make the necessary changes or let them choose their own path to hell.” – Charlie Crowell

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