View this post on the web at [link removed]

MustReadTexas.com [ [link removed] ] – @MustReadTexas [ [link removed] ]
BY: @MattMackowiak [ [link removed] ]
Subscribe to the daily email here [ [link removed] ]
FRIDAY || 1/3/25
Good Friday mid day.
Thank you for being a paid subscriber.
“If something of importance is known in Texas, Matt knows it. With a decline in the number of credible news organizations, the Must Read Texas morning email is indispensable for anyone that wants to continue to be informed.” – Former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX)
AUSTIN NEWSLETTER LAUNCHED
Are you one of the 100,000+ subscribers to ATX Pulse [ [link removed] ], a newsletter that delivers EVERYTHING you NEED TO KNOW about Austin?
Subscriptions are $5/mo, $50/yr or $199/lifetime here: ATXpulsepremium.com [ [link removed] ].
» Read this morning's (free) edition here [ [link removed] ].
>> SUBSCRIBE HERE: ATXpulsepremium.com [ [link removed] ]. ($5/mo or $50/yr or $199 lifetime)
TOP NEWS
“Texas Supreme Court to review Winter Storm Uri claims against utility companies,” Texas Lawbook's Janet Elliott — “With state electric grid operators eyeing the potential for extreme cold this winter, the Texas Supreme Court [ [link removed] ]has agreed to hear a petition from transmission and distribution utility companies seeking dismissal of gross negligence and intentional nuisance claims over devastating winter storm blackouts [ [link removed] ] in February 2021.
Justices will hear arguments Feb. 19, four years after Winter Storm Uri caused widespread, prolonged power outages [ [link removed] ] resulting in deaths and property damage.
The court will review an April decision by a three-judge panel of the Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston [ [link removed] ] that more than 15,000 plaintiffs may move forward with certain claims in their wrongful death, personal injury and other Uri-related lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages.
The Fourteenth Court said the utility companies were entitled to dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claims for negligence because Texas law does not impose common-law negligence duties associated with emergency power interruptions, ensuring adequate generation or warning of anticipated power outages.
But the court of appeals said that the tariff, which is essentially the state-law mandated contract between customers and the transmission and distribution companies, does allow for gross negligence and intentional nuisance claims.
More than 200 lawsuits, consolidated into multidistrict litigation before Harris County MDL Court Judge Sylvia Matthews, allege that mismanagement by companies including Dallas-based Oncor Electric Delivery, CenterPoint Energy in Houston and American Electric Power constituted an intentional nuisance.
Uri was a perfect storm for the electric grid that serves most of Texas as plunging temperatures sparked record high demand amid a severely reduced energy supply, causing the grid to become unbalanced. Beginning at 1:25 a.m. on Feb. 15, 2021, ERCOT began ordering [ [link removed] ] the utilities to cut service to set amounts of customer demand to prevent the grid from collapsing.
Millions of Texans lost heat and power for several days as the weather remained brutally cold. News reports have attributed nearly 250 deaths to the disaster.
The transmission and distribution companies say they could be the only category of the many entities involved in the crisis to have a legal duty to deliver electricity after court rulings in other Uri-related cases went in favor of natural gas providers, power generators, retail electric providers and ERCOT defendants.
Michael A. Heidler, an appellate partner at Vinson & Elkins, said in the companies’ petition for review that the Supreme Court should bar the plaintiffs’ claims before significant resources are spent adjudicating “15,000 claimants’ baseless complaints.”
“In these exigent circumstances, no court has imposed common-law duties on TDUs [transmission and distribution utilities] to supply electricity to any particular customers for any particular duration. Established Texas law confirms that courts should not impose such a duty in these circumstances. Plaintiffs’ gross-negligence claim should be dismissed,” Heidler wrote.
He said the companies did not create a nuisance by shedding load in response to ERCOT’s orders. Citing a 2016 Texas Supreme Court pipeline case, Heidler said that “nuisance” is a condition such as smoke, gases or odors that substantially interferes with use and enjoyment of land.
“Here, the ‘condition’ interfering with use and enjoyment of land was cold air. But it was Mother Nature — not TDUs — that blew cold air onto Plaintiffs’ properties,” Heidler said.
In a response for plaintiff Bernadine Edwards, Dallas lawyer S. Ann Saucer said the utilities are not being sued for complying with ERCOT’s load shed orders but because they committed malfeasance that ERCOT did not order.
“TDUs are not being sued because they failed to deliver uninterrupted adequate power but because they, either intentionally or via gross negligence, created part of the power shortfall, told untruths to their customers, and then deprived their misled customers of power for undue stretches of time rather than roll blackouts, with catastrophic results including deaths,” said Saucer, who is with Nachawati Law Group.
The utility companies are being supported with briefs from the industry and other business groups." Texas Lawbook [ [link removed] ]
“Texas' grid could connect to New Mexico if company's request is approved,” Dallas Morning News' Philip Jankowski — “A small regional electric cooperative in far West Texas is seeking to connect portions of New Mexico to Texas’ self-contained power grid.
The Rio Grande Electric Cooperative, a rural electric retail company that owns thousands of miles of power lines across 18 Texas counties, is not wholly part of ERCOT, but it wants to be.
Last month, the power provider petitioned the federal regulatory body overseeing the nation’s electric grid and asked regulators to determine whether connecting their customers to ERCOT, including homes and businesses in two New Mexico counties, would trigger federal regulation.
Texas has maintained an energy grid largely disconnected from the rest of the country. This isolation has allowed the state to avoid federal regulation, which many lawmakers, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have touted as an economic advantage contributing to the state’s sustained economic growth.
The electric cooperative argues allowing ERCOT power to cross state lines would not trigger federal regulation because all the large electric transmission lines they own are in Texas. The electricity that crosses state lines is transmitted on smaller distribution lines like those connected to homes and small businesses across Texas. They argue that the Federal Electric Regulatory Commission does not have jurisdiction over those lines.
The Rio Grande Electric Cooperative’s CEO Theresa Quiroz said in an interview that allowing the co-op to connect its remaining customers to ERCOT was “critical” to the organization’s ability to meet future power needs in its coverage area.
“We have a lot of entities inquiring of us whether we have the capacity and ability to serve them,” Quiroz said. “We have an obligation to serve them. However, we can’t do it with what we have in place. At this point, we are having to turn away customers, and we don’t want to do that.”
No hearings have been scheduled in the case, but the Rio Grande Electric Cooperative asked federal regulators to issue a ruling by Feb. 24." DMN [ [link removed] ] ($)
“Medicaid whistleblowers awarded $37 million from state in 13-year-old case against Xeroz,” Austin American-Statesman's John C. Moritz — “The state of Texas has been ordered to pay three whistleblowers more than $37 million in a 13-year-old case relating to Medicaid fraud alleging improper billings by dentists and corporate dental chains.
State District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of Travis County on Dec. 19 handed down the award, which amounts to 17.5% of a record 2019 settlement of more than $200 million the state reached with Xerox State Healthcare, formerly known as ACS State Healthcare.
According to a news release from the lawyers who reresented whistleblowers Alexandra Alvarez, Joshua LaFountain and Christine Ellis, the state had settled the lawsuit but balked at paying a percentage of the award proceeds to those who had brought the allegations to light as required by a provision in a state fraud prevention law.
"Because of these three courageous whistleblowers, the State of Texas ultimately showed how Xerox/ACS, Inc. deeply compromised the integrity of the Texas Medicaid program," attorney James "Rusty" Tucker said in the release. "Their efforts to set the record straight on the practices of corporate dental practices, led to a historic recovery by the state and will help protect taxpayers going forward."
The lawyers said Ellis, an orthodontist, had observed what she believed to be fraud in orthodontic billings under the state's Medicaid program and reported it to state authorities and to a congressional committee. Ellis, Alvarez and LaFountain each filed a lawsuit in 2012 making the allegations under the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act.
The act contains a provision that whistleblowers are entitled to a share of any recovery resulting from their suits, according to the lawyers. The Texas attorney general's office intervened in the lawsuits and later filed its own legal action against Xerox.
When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the settlement in [ [link removed] ] February 2019, his office said in a news release that Xerox and its affiliated companies "rubber-stamped orthodontic prior authorization requests" without properly reviewing each one. Under state law, only requests that meet "strict Medicaid program requirements" are allowable under Medicaid.
“Misconduct by employees of Xerox and its related companies compromised the integrity of the Medicaid program – the very program Texas hired the Xerox defendants to safeguard through the administration of a proper prior authorization review,” Paxton said in the 2019 release, making no mention of the whistleblowers who originally raised the allegations. “We’re proud of this recovery of taxpayer money. My office is committed to ensuring that Medicaid dollars are preserved for those who need it most.”" AAS [ [link removed] ] ($)
BUSINESS NEWS
“Inside high-pressure sales culture of Texas' solar energy boom,” San Antonio Express-News' Sara DiNatale — “Ian Atkinson began with a question: What should you look for when you’re out knocking on doors early in the day, searching for customers?
“No. 1: senior citizens,” he said.
Atkinson was standing at a dry-erase board in an office building in Arlington, leading a training session for solar energy sales agents. Sales of residential rooftop solar systems had shot up across Texas after Winter Storm Uri exposed the ricketiness of the state’s electric grid [ [link removed] ]. Atkinson’s students wanted to get in on the action.
As one of the trainees recorded video of the session, Atkinson recited tips for spotting prospects and closing deals. He ticked off telltale signs of an elderly person’s home: a Buick or Oldsmobile in the driveway, neat lawns decorated with pinwheels or garden gnomes.
People with gewgaws in the yard “always buy stuff,” he said.
He exhorted the agents to “kneel for the deal” — get down on eye-level with a senior seated in a recliner. Speak slowly. Answer questions patiently. Pretend you’re talking to your grandparents.
“They might be on a fixed income where it’s only Social Security or retirement,” Atkinson can be heard saying, “but they usually have passing credit.”
Door-to-door sales agents were the engine behind the explosive growth of residential solar across Texas — and they’re blamed for many of its excesses [ [link removed] ]. Some of them promised customers big energy savings that never materialized, rebates that didn’t exist and tax benefits they didn’t necessarily qualify for, a San Antonio Express-News investigation [ [link removed] ] found.
Sales agents also collected big commissions that were rarely disclosed to the homeowners who wound up paying them.
Customers who signed for no-money-down loans to finance solar systems took salespeople at their word that the rooftop panels would generate all their home’s power needs, slashing their electric bills to zero. When that proved untrue, customers were left with loan payments stretching out for decades — on top of their utility bills.
Many systems worked poorly or not at all because of flawed design or shoddy workmanship.
These conclusions emerge from dozens of interviews and a review of court records, written sales training materials, training videos, agents’ group text threads, inspection reports and other documents. In addition, the Express-News reviewed more than 1,000 complaints about home solar systems filed with the Texas Office of the Attorney General from January 2023 through April 2024.
In 83% of those cases, customers said they’d been misled by salespeople. The victims were often elderly, ill and disabled or had limited command of English." SAEN [ [link removed] ] ($)
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
“Trump's 'border czar' has ties to Texas. Here's what to know,” Houston Chronicle's Benjamin Wermund — “The man President-elect Donald Trump tapped to oversee mass deportations is a close ally [ [link removed] ] of Gov. Greg Abbott who developed some of his hardline stances while working as an immigration enforcement officer in Texas.
Tom Homan has vowed to launch what Trump has cast as the “largest deportation operation in the history of our country” that will start day one of his presidency.
"Let me be clear: there is going to be a mass deportation because we just finished a mass illegal immigration crisis on the border," Homan said during a trip to the border with Abbott in November. He added the administration was "already planning" the operation.
“We're not waiting until January to secure this nation at the highest levels this nation has ever seen," Homan said.
Homan has yet to lay out many details. But experts say it would be expensive and next to impossible to carry out mass removals under the current immigration system.
Homan, who worked as a New York police officer before climbing the ranks of federal immigration enforcement, led Immigrations and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term. He was an early proponent of separating migrant parents from their children to discourage border crossings and has cheered on Abbott’s efforts to install floating barriers in the Rio Grande and line the banks with thick strands of razor wire.
Trump appointed Homan in an advisory role, meaning he won't need Senate confirmation to take the job.
Here’s what else to know about the “border czar” set to guide Trump’s border policies.
Texas shaped Homan's border security views
Starting in 1999, Homan oversaw investigations for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, an agency that would eventually be folded into the Department of Homeland Security, and did stints in San Antonio and Dallas.
Homan said an experience working a human smuggling case in Victoria helped shape his desire for stricter immigration enforcement.
In that 2003 case, a truck driver bringing migrants into the country illegally reportedly cut A/C to their tractor trailer to evade suspicion at a border checkpoint. In the stifling heat, 19 migrants died.
Homan was called to the scene, which he described in gruesome detail in a book detailing the decades he spent working for federal immigration enforcement.
“If you saw what I saw that day, you would understand why I’m so emotional about border security, illegal immigration and national policy,” he wrote. “Secure borders strangle human smugglers, drug traffickers and cartels… That’s what this battle on the border is all about.”
His opposition to so-called “sanctuary cities” also has roots in Texas, when his agency arrested undocumented immigrants in a raid on Austin nightclubs suspected to be involved in drug dealing and prostitution in the early 2000s.
Local police were uncomfortable assisting federal immigration authorities, he wrote in the book, and later the chief, whom he did not name, said the department would not be helping with immigration enforcement.
“I guess this was a sign of things to come in liberal cities,” he wrote, “pandering to certain voter constituencies while violating their oath and abandoning the most vulnerable in immigrant communities and the very citizens they're supposed to protect."
Homan’s work in Texas put him on the radar of the director of the then-newly formed Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and eventually led him to Washington.
During the Obama administration, Homan oversaw deportations when they ramped up to more than 2.5 million — setting records and leading immigrant groups to derisively refer to Barack Obama as “Deporter in Chief.”" Houston Chronicle [ [link removed] ] ($)
NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE
> FWST: "‘Trust turned into terror’ as correctional officer sexually abused Texas inmates, feds say" FWST [ [link removed] ]
> AP: "An Army veteran’s path to radicalization followed divorces, struggling businesses in Texas" AP [ [link removed] ]
> TX TRIB: "A former shrimper tries to revive Matagorda Bay and its fishing industry with $50 million pollution settlement" TX TRIB [ [link removed] ]
> HOU CHRON: "3 teens killed, 3 others injured in brief pursuit with sheriff's office Thursday" HOU CHRON [ [link removed] ]
> TX TRIB: "Harris County program decreases automatic evictions when tenants don’t come to court" TX TRIB [ [link removed] ]
> FWST: "Stolen car slams into tree seconds into 90 mph chase, killing 3 teens, Texas cops say" FWST [ [link removed] ]
> FWST: "Bill Hanna, spokesman for Tarrant County and former Star-Telegram reporter, dies" FWST [ [link removed] ]
> DMN: "Police: Boyfriend shot girlfriend, 3 men at Dallas apartment" DMN [ [link removed] ]
> AP: "Tesla sales dropped 1.1% in 2024, its first annual decline in a dozen years" AP [ [link removed] ]
> DMN: "Viral Dallas mansion’s Christmas lights cost city $25,000 for traffic control" DMN [ [link removed] ]
> DMN: "Dallas music venue starts the new year with Britain’s Fatboy Slim" DMN [ [link removed] ]
> COMMUNITY IMPACT: "WilCo school districts, advocacy center receive funding for child safety programs" COMMUNITY IMPACT [ [link removed] ]
> TX TRIB: "Rep. Mihaela Plesa survived a heated GOP challenge. Here’s how she thinks Democrats can prevail." TX TRIB [ [link removed] ]
> FWST: "She fought demons all her life. It ended with gunshot in a stranger’s kitchen at Christmas" FWST [ [link removed] ]
> FWST: "Road rage crash near Weatherford kills 1, injures 4, Texas DPS says" FWST [ [link removed] ]
> COMMUNITY IMPACT: "Bastrop groups cook up plans to support local farmers and ranchers" COMMUNITY IMPACT [ [link removed] ]
> COMMUNITY IMPACT: "Fort Worth receives contract to rehabilitate 2 city bridges in Districts 4, 10" COMMUNITY IMPACT [ [link removed] ]
> COMMUNITY IMPACT: "TEA closes electioneering, bribery investigation into Fort Bend ISD" COMMUNITY IMPACT [ [link removed] ]
> COMMUNITY IMPACT: "San Antonio moves 17 parcels of land to Houston Street TIRZ for Missions stadium project" COMMUNITY IMPACT [ [link removed] ]
> TX TRIB: "Mental health advocates ask Texas lawmakers to replace expiring COVID-19 relief funding" TX TRIB [ [link removed] ]
> TPR: "How does the Legislature work, and who is in the chamber? Here’s what you need to know for the next month." TPR [ [link removed] ]
> DMN: "Criminal organizations recruit postal workers to infiltrate USPS." DMN [ [link removed] ]
EXTRA POINTS
Last night's Texas sports scores:
> NHL: Dallas 4, Ottawa 2
> NCAAM: Marshall 77, Texas State 71
> NCAAM: New Mexico State 75, Sam Houston State 71
> NCAAM: UTEP 70, Louisiana Tech 60
This weekend's Texas sports schedule:
Fri
> 3pm: NCAAF: North Texas at Texas State (ESPN)
> 7pm: NBA: Boston at Houston
> 7:30pm: NBA: Cleveland at Dallas
> 8pm: NBA: San Antonio at Denver
Sat
> 12pm: NCAAM: Texas State at Appalachian State (ESPN+)
> 1pm: NCAAM: #25 Baylor at #3 Iowa State (CBS)
> 1pm: NCAAM: Charlotte at Rice (ESPN+)
> 1:15pm: NCAAM: #4 Duke at SMU (CW)
> 3pm: NCAAM: Kansas State at TCU (CBS Sports)
> 3:30pm: NCAAM: Texas A&M-Commerce at SE Louisiana (ESPN+)
> 4:30pm: NCAAM: Grambling State at Prairie View A&M (ESPN+)
> 5pm: NCAAM: UT-RGV at New Orleans (ESPN+)
> 5pm: NCAAM: Incarnate Word at Texas Southern (ESPN+)
> 5pm: NCAAM: UTSA at Tulane (ESPNU)
> 6pm: NCAAM: Houston Christian at Lamar (ESPN+)
> 6pm: NCAAM: Texas Tech at Utah (ESPN+)
> 7pm: NBA: Denver at San Antonio
> 7pm: NHL: Utah at Dallas (ESPN+)
> 7pm: NCAAM: Texas at #13 Texas A&M (SEC Network)
> 7pm: NCAAM: UT-Arlington at Tarleton State (ESPN+)
> 8pm: NCAAM: Sam Houston State at UTEP (ESPN+)
Sun
> 12pm: NFL: Washington at Dallas (Fox)
> 12pm: NFL: Houston at Tennessee (CBS)
> 4pm: NCAAM: North Texas at #21 Memphis (ESPN)
> 6pm: NBA: LA Lakers at Houston
DALLAS COWBOYS: "The Dallas-Washington rivalry began with an owner's feud before the Cowboys team was born" DMN [ [link removed] ] ($)
DALLAS COWBOYS: "Five Dallas Cowboys named to NFC Pro Bowl team" DMN [ [link removed] ] ($)
HOUSTON TEXANS: "Tennessee Titans will wear Houston Oilers throwback jerseys vs. Texans" Houston Chronicle [ [link removed] ] ($)
TEXAS A&M FOOTBALL: "Texas A&M football: RB Le'Veon Moss, OL Ar'maj Reed-Adams returning for 2025 season" AAS [ [link removed] ] ($)
DALLAS MAVERICKS: "Mavs face gauntlet of schedule without Luka Doncic" DMN [ [link removed] ] ($)
SAN ANTONIO SPURS: "For Spurs' Victor Wembanyama, the simple is spectacular" SAEN [ [link removed] ] ($)
TEXAS / TEXAS A&M MEN'S BASKETBALL: "Texas basketball makes SEC debut against fierce longtime rival Texas A&M" AAS [ [link removed] ] ($)

Unsubscribe [link removed]?