Good morning,

We produce a variety of podcasts and shows designed to help citizens be more effective in navigating the issues and news. You'll find a complete listing of those at the bottom of today's Texas Minute.

Today is Thursday, October 31, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Three Suspects in Murder Case Linked to Venezuelan Gang

• Three suspects accused of murder are linked to the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Emily Medeiros has the details.
   
• Farmers Branch Police have arrested Ehiker Alexander Morales Mendoza, Carlos Luis Zambrano Bolivar, and Jhonata Nahin Toro Gonzalez. All three are charged with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping in relation to the August death of  Nilzult Arneaud Petit.
        
• Petit’s death is believed to be related to an ATM theft operation. He was found in a roadway with a single gunshot wound to the head.
       
• Police found Mendoza in Las Cruces, New Mexico, while Bolivar and Gonzalez were discovered in Aurora, Colorado—where TdA has made headlines in recent months for allegedly taking over an apartment complex.

Texas Leads the US With Electricity Price Increases Under the Biden-Harris Administration

• Everything is bigger in Texas, including having the highest average wholesale price of electricity in the nation. Luca Cacciatore reports on the findings of a new study by the Energy Alliance.
       
• According to the study, Texas’ wholesale price during the administration’s first three years increased 208 percent. California and New York had the next highest increases.
            
• Energy Alliance Policy Director Bill Peacock, the study’s author, said that the “reasons for the higher prices are not surprising.” Much of the blame, Peacock finds, rests with the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.
      
• Passed by Congress in 2022, the administration-pushed measure claimed to reduce the federal budget, lower prescription drug prices, and invest in “clean and renewable” domestic energy production. Instead, the House Oversight Committee found it “hiked taxes on businesses, mandates price controls on drugs, devoted $80 billion to hire 87,000 new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents to target middle class Americans, and earmarked $300 billion to advance Democrats’ radical climate agenda.”

El Paso Doctor Sued for Prescribing Chemical Castration Drugs to Minors

• Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued a doctor in El Paso for illegally prescribing chemical castration drugs to minors. Will Biagini reports the doctor is alleged to have falsified medical and billing records to conceal the procedures.
        
• State law prohibits doctors from attempting to change a child’s biological sex via prescription of cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, or gender mutilation surgeries.
       
• Dr. Hector M. Granados has been accused of administering puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children as young as 12 years old. According to the attorney general’s office, Granados knowingly worked to “transition” the minors from their biological sex.
       
• While the law took effect in September 2023 and was upheld by the Texas Supreme Court in June, the lawsuit states that Granados has been writing prescriptions for gender-confused minors as recently as August 19. Consequently, patients have been filling those prescriptions as recently as October 12.
        
• “Texas passed a law to protect children from these dangerous unscientific medical interventions that have irreversible and damaging effects,” said Paxton. “Doctors who continue to provide these harmful ‘gender transition’ drugs and treatments will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Texas A&M Class Promotes Woke Ideology

• A communications class being offered this academic year by Texas A&M University pushes the woke ideological agenda. Robert Montoya details his latest look at higher education coursework in the Lone Star State.
       
• According to the university’s 2024-2025 course catalog, they are offering a “Gender, Race, and Media” class. It’s categorized as a course in both the Communications and the Women’s and Gender Studies programs.
      
• Readings throughout the course target free enterprise and push the LGBT ideology. Titles include “The Internet’s Unholy Marriage to Capitalism” and “#GirlsLikeUs: Trans Advocacy and Community Building Online.” A reading for Sept. 3 was titled “Transgender Transitions.” Other readings during the semester include attacks on media figures like Rush Limbaugh and the reality TV series Duck Dynasty.
       
• Texas A&M advertises its Communications degree as one for students who seek to “transform” the world around them.
      
• Maybe us Aggies should be asking, “Transform into... what?”

Highland Park ISD Promotes Bond with ‘Misleading’ Language About Tax Impact

• A taxpayer in Highland Park is calling out “misleading” language used to promote a school bond on the November ballot that suggests the bond will not raise property taxes—even though the bond must be repaid, with interest, from property taxes. Erin Anderson has the story.
       
• Local taxpayer Spencer Siino calls the suggestion “a mathematical impossibility” and points to school district officials conflating the tax rate and actual tax bills.
      
• Highland Park Independent School District trustees placed a $137 million bond proposition on the November ballot. Including interest, the new debt would cost taxpayers $214 million—56 percent more than the amount voters will see on the ballot.
        
• The district admits that Highland Park ISD collects additional tax revenues “due to rising property taxable appraised values.” In other words, even at the same tax rate residents will see their tax bills increase.

📺 What's On Your Ballot?

• Last week, Charles Blain offered an overview of some of the "local propositions" on ballots across the state. He explained why these down-ballot issues are important.
       
• New episodes of Texas Tomorrow launch each Thursday!

Agricultural Commissioner Sid Miller Catches Praise During Trump Stop

• During a campaign stop last week, former President Donald Trump highlighted the ongoing fight against illegal immigration and the crime that comes along with an open border. Among the Texas politicians Trump praised for being in attendance was Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. Daniel Greer explains the significance.
       
• A longtime supporter of the president, Miller is reportedly on the shortlist for a Trump appointment. Some have suggested a role in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
       
• Miller endorsed the newly minted Make America Healthy Again movement that emerged when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wound down his campaign and endorsed Trump. 
       
• As Miller pointed out in a recent commentary backing MAHA, Texas is one of the largest agricultural states in the U.S. 

Quote-Unquote

"You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say."

– Martin Luther​

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