Good morning –

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Thursday, August 15, 2019
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• An eighth Democrat has joined the crowded primary field to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. Destin Sensky reports Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, a progressive activist who founded two leftist organizations, has thrown her hat in the ring for the Democratic Party nomination. Ramirez says she is modeling her campaign after that of former congressman and failed senatorial candidate Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke.
       
• Speaking of which... the left-wing Houston Chronicle is urging O’Rourke to drop his presidential bid and enter the Democrats’ senatorial contest.
       
• After losing to Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, and being at the bottom of the Democrats’ presidential field, Beto would be better served getting a real job. Maybe a skateboard park is hiring?
       
• The case of Drake Pardo – a young child taken from his parents by Texas’ Child Protective Services under highly suspicious circumstances – has been gaining attention around the state. Back in July, Republican State Sen. Bob Hall of Edgewood wrote a three-part series (1, 2, and 3) for Texas Scorecard outlining the case.
     
• Unfortunately, things have only gotten worse in the intervening weeks.
      
• In a new video about the situation, the Texas Home School Coalition refers to the child as having been “kidnapped” by the state bureaucracy. A judge in Kaufman County, acting at the behest of the government agency, has issued a gag order on the parents to keep them from speaking out.
       
• “If government bureaucrats don’t admit their failure to follow state and federal law and release Drake, then he could very well be stuck in the foster care system for months or more than a year. Those same government officials are feeling the heat from the public scrutiny. They know what they have done is wrong, but aren’t willing to admit their error, and hope to hide their behavior from the public.” – Tim Lambert, THSC

• Williamson County officials are currently proposing a property tax hike along with increasing the amount of bond debt. Cary Cheshire has the details.
       
• Responding to strong public opposition, the Allen City Council voted 5-2 to kill a proposed “urban residential” project designed to revitalize the central business district with apartments. Erin Anderson reports a capacity crowd at the city hall hearing was almost entirely against the development.
     
• New York City’s draconian restrictions on the Second Amendment rights of Americans were the subject of a federal lawsuit picked up by the U.S. Supreme Court in January. This would be the first gun case since Trump cemented a constitutionalist majority on the court last year with Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. 
      
• Jordan Clements explains how NYC has now tried to moot the case by slightly easing some of the regulations. Gun rights activists believe NYC should not be allowed to weasel its way out of the case – avoiding the constitutional question the case asks – just because city officials may not want to risk being displeased with the outcome.

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Thursday Question

Which of Texas’ university football programs do you think will have the best season?