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This is the Texas Minute for Wednesday, August 21, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Whistleblower Fired After Exposing Medicaid Fraud and Gender Mutilations

• A nurse who alleged Texas Children’s Hospital engaged in Medicaid fraud to continue chemically castrating minors was fired last week. Luca Cacciatore reports this comes two months after Vanessa Sivadge accused the hospital of billing Medicaid for child gender mutilation procedures, which is a violation of Texas law.
        
• The Texas Medicaid Provider Procedures Manual states that “sex change operations” are “not benefits of Texas Medicaid.” State officials later clarified this language as precluding all gender-mutilation services from Medicaid.
        
• Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office and the state Office of Inspector General reportedly told lawmakers in July that they are investigating the potential violations of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program funds.
       
• Gender mutilation procedures on minors have been prohibited in Texas since September 1, 2023.

Parker County GOP Debunks Immigrant Voter Registration Claim

• Over the weekend, Fox News personality Maria Bartiromo set off a social media firestorm with claims immigrants were being registered to vote in Parker County, Texas. Now, it appears her story, as it relates to Parker County, was completely fabricated. Daniel Greer has the details.
         
• Bartiromo claimed an unnamed "friend" had visited a DMV in Weatherford, Texas, where a line of immigrants—who were getting licenses and being registered to vote at a table outside the office—was out the door. (Notably, the DMV does not grant driver’s licenses; those are handled by the Department of Public Safety.)
          
• Parker County GOP Chairman Brady Gray investigated the claims. He found that not only has there been no surge in voter registration in his county, but that no incident such as the one described by Bartiromo had taken place at the DPS facility. No tables, no tents, no voter registration push. Bartiromo has not addressed the issue further.
        
• Gray noted that while individuals are not being registered to vote outside of DPS locations in Parker County, that may not be the case across the state.
        
• Extraordinary claims should be delivered with real evidence, especially if those claims could have the effect of convincing people not to bother voting.

Group Sues to Halt Texas' New Age Verification Law

• A libertarian group is suing Attorney General Ken Paxton to stop the enforcement of a law that requires websites to verify the age of users in Texas if more than a third of the content is "harmful material." Valerie Muñoz reports the law is supposed to take effect on Sept. 1.
        
• The lawsuit filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression claims the new law "infringes" on the rights of Texans ("16 or 65") to see such content. The state definition of harmful or obscene material includes anything that “promotes, glorifies, or facilitates” material like self-harm, bullying, grooming, and sexual exploitation.
       
• State Rep. Shelby Slawson (R-Stephenville) authored the measure. She said parents need help combating companies "profiting off the exploitation of our children’s attention span."

Parent Sues Perryton ISD and ‘Perv’ Coach

• The father of a female student-athlete is suing Perryton Independent School District and the district’s now-former athletic director, Cole Underwood. The educator was arrested earlier this year for enticing the girl via Snapchat and assaulting her on campus multiple times when she was 15 years old. Erin Anderson has the horrifying details.
      
• The lawsuit, filed earlier this month, alleges Underwood was hired by Perryton from Amarillo ISD, despite a known history of inappropriate behavior with female students. He reportedly had been nicknamed "Perv" because of his behavior.
       
• The lawsuit alleges Underwood "regularly texted female students" and used "social media platforms" to communicate with them while in Amarillo and that continued the "grooming" behavior at Perryton.
       
• Underwood was arrested in late April and charged with sexual assault of a child, a second-degree felony. In June, federal authorities charged Underwood with enticement of a minor.
        
• When a public school's coach is nicknamed "Perv," maybe superintendents and school board officials should ask a few more questions...

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