Good morning,

This is the Texas Minute for Thursday, August 28, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Chinese National Charged With Stealing Sensitive Data from UT-MD Anderson

• A 35-year-old former researcher at the MD Anderson Cancer Center has been charged with attempting to steal proprietary cancer-related research and take it back to China. Robert Montoya has the details.
     
• Yunhai Li, a Chinese national who has been in the country since 2022, obtained employment at MD Anderson on a research scholar visa. MD Anderson is one of 12 institutions in the University of Texas System.
    
• When Li attempted to return to China in early July, agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security found sensitive medical data in his possession. The arrest has renewed concerns about the lack of security surrounding research facilities connected with institutions of higher education.
     
• President Donald Trump recently announced he will allow 600,000 Chinese students into the United States. 

Lawmakers Advance Over-the-Counter Ivermectin Bill

• On Wednesday, the Texas House and Senate approved legislation that will allow pharmacists to dispense ivermectin without a prescription, a measure supporters say expands medical freedom. Brandon Waltens reports the legislation shields pharmacists from liability if they dispense the drug in a “reasonably prudent manner.” 
      
• State Rep. Joanne Shofner (R-Nacogdoches) was thwarted in her attempt to pass the legislation in the spring, but was given a second chance when Gov. Greg Abbott expanded the agenda of the special session to include the issue.
     
• While the federal Food and Drug Administration has not approved ivermectin to treat COVID-19, the drug has developed a following among those skeptical of government and pharmaceutical industry positions on pandemic treatments. Idaho, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana have already made ivermectin available without a prescription.
      
• Democrats lined up against the legislation, claiming adults should only be able to access the drug with a doctor's approval. Shofner countered their claim, calling ivermectin a "safe, affordable medicine with minimal side effects."
      
• The legislation now goes to the governor for his approval.

Paxton Slams Texas Judicial System After ‘Insane Decision’ To Help O’Rourke

• Attorney General Ken Paxton has slammed Texas’ Supreme Court and Fifteenth Court of Appeals for what he described as “a blindly political attempt to aid fraudster,” Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke. This comes after the supreme court denied Paxton’s request to reverse the Fifteenth Court’s decision to halt discovery and delay a hearing in the case.
       
• Paxton accused O'Rourke and his organization, Powered by People, of deceptive fundraising and doling out “Beto Bribes” to Democrat lawmakers who fled the state to break quorum during the first special legislative session this summer.
       
• “What we are witnessing in Texas right now is a constitutional crisis being orchestrated by activist judges on the Beto-loving Fifteenth Court of Appeals,” wrote Paxton on social media. “Beto said, ‘f*** the rules,’ and these unelected justices—Scott Brister, Scott Field, and April Farris—are helping him do just that with his unlawful bribery scheme.”
     
• Brister, Field, and Farris serve as justices on the Fifteenth Court. All three were appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott.

Texas Moms Arrested for Running Choir Booster Club

• Local authorities in Collin County, including a school district, have harassed three moms in a quest to control a school booster club and its funds, even going so far as to arrest them. Travis Morgan details the case and its history.
     
• Plano Independent School District targeted the Jasper High School Choir Booster Club for control of its bank account after the mothers charged with running the independent organization insisted that the district pay for Jasper High School’s stage—as was the district’s responsibility.
       
• The district went so far as to have Plano police arrest the booster club’s founders. And even though a Collin County grand jury failed to find evidence to prosecute the moms, a Plano municipal judge awarded the club’s bank funds to Plano ISD. During the trial, the judge forbade the use of recording equipment and did not allow the mothers to have a court reporter present.
      
• School districts serve the interests of government employees, not the students or taxpayers.

Farmersville Proposes Double-Digit Tax Increase

• Farmersville officials are proposing a double-digit property tax increase for the coming year to help balance the city’s budget. As Erin Anderson reports, the city's proposed tax rate is the highest allowed by state law without a public vote and would raise the average homeowner’s property tax bill by 15 percent.

Llano ISD Removes Inappropriate Books, Shuts Down Library’s ‘Adult Section’

• Llano Independent School District has removed its entire “18 and over” section, according to a sworn affidavit from the superintendent. Sydnie Henry has the story.
      
• The action comes after ongoing challenges over explicit content in the district’s libraries, led most prominently by resident Bonnie Wallace. The district action follows Wallace’s formal grievances, in which she challenged the presence of books deemed “vulgar or inappropriate” for minors in the Llano ISD libraries.
      
• She identified over 200 books for removal, citing explicit sexual or drug-related content as detrimental to students.
      
• "We can make a difference. We can protect the children in our communities. But it requires work and persistence." – Bonnie Wallace

Quote-Unquote

"The most urgent necessity is, not that the State should teach, but that it should allow education. All monopolies are detestable, but the worst of all is the monopoly of education."

– Frédéric Bastiat​

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