Good morning, 

Have we had enough, yet? The sewer culture of the Texas Capitol is worse than you want to believe.

I’ll save that for the second half of today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Tuesday, April 27, 2021
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• The Lone Star State will gain two congressional seats as part of the decennial reapportionment following the 2020 census. Texas’ representation in Congress will increase from 36 to 38, reports Iris Poole. Those new seats will be filled in the 2022 election cycle.
   
• Seven states lost a congressional seat, including New York and California.
   
• The number of seats in the U.S. House was capped by law at 435 in 1929. Those seats are distributed among the states based on the relative size of the states to each other, though every state has at least one seat in the U.S. House.

• Houston Methodist, one of the largest hospitals in Texas, has released an order demanding all 26,000 of its employees get the COVID vaccine by June 7 or have their jobs terminated. Joshua Pierce has the details.
     
• While the ethics of private businesses mandating people to receive the vaccine is already a contentious topic, hospitals like Houston Methodist also obtain taxpayer funds in various forms, turning the discussion towards one of public policy.
   
• Interestingly, two management staff at the hospital chose to resign rather than get an FDA-approved shot.

• As lawlessness continues to grow on the streets of Texas’ capital city, Democrat state representatives are stalling an effort to restore public safety in Austin and cities across the state. Jacob Asmussen reports that legislation designed to ban “camping” in public rights-of-way and parks by homeless individuals was stalled Monday in the House on procedural grounds.
      
• “This is a humanitarian issue, plain and simple,” said the bill’s author, Giovani Capriglione (R-Southlake). “The intentions of this bill are to spur local governments to do more to help the population of people experiencing homelessness. Letting them camp under highways is not the answer.”
   
• Progressive activists in Austin pushed the city council to allow the homeless population to camp under highways and in the city’s parks. Since then, violent crime has risen by double digits with homicides up 64 percent year over year in 2020 and continuing to rise to record numbers this year.
   
• Even apart from the state legislature’s potential statewide public camping law, Austinites have already organized and taken action locally. Citizens will vote May 1 whether to restore the city’s original vagrancy camping rules or continue allowing the lawless tent city environment.

• Dallas City Councilman Omar Narvaez—one of the 11 council members who voted to cut the local police overtime budget last year—falsely advertised he had the endorsement of the Dallas Police Association. Robert Montoya has the details.

• A lobbyist for one of Austin’s “prestige” GOP-establishment firms could be facing charges related to drugging a female Capitol staffer. Jeramy Kitchen reports that HillCo’s Rick Dennis has been named by numerous sources as the alleged perpetrator, a week after the incident occurred.
      
• HillCo is helmed by establishment GOP lobbyist Buddy Jones. Rick Dennis previously served as the chief of staff to State Rep. Tan Parker (R-Flower Mound).
      
• According to data from Transparency USA, the alleged perpetrator has had more than two dozen lobby clients at HillCo. That list has included taxpayer-funded accounts such as Denton County’s Transportation Authority, the Prosper Economic Development Corporation, Blinn College, and the City of Houston (which ended in 2020).

• Meanwhile, State Rep. Dan Huberty (R-Humble) was arrested Friday night for (allegedly) driving under the influence in Montgomery County and ramming into another vehicle. Fortunately, passengers in the car he hit suffered only minor injuries.
      
• Reportedly, Huberty tried to shield himself from responsibility by claiming exemption from arrest because he was returning from legislative business.
      
• Huberty, you might recall, was caught on video several years ago drunkenly coming off the House floor and shouting at a conservative video-journalist. The lawmaker had to be restrained by DPS officers.

• The sewer crony-culture around the Texas Capitol is defined by enablement; the worst decisions and actions of politicians and lobbyists are allowed to grow, fester, and worsen. We have had reports for years of lawmakers engaged in despicable behavior, yet – when we and others have called it out – the crony sewer culture rallies together and throws up a wall of silence.
       

• Bribery, drunkenness, drug use, prostitution, adultery, trading sex for political favors, and yes even assault. None of this is new. For a long time, the Capitol Crowd has rallied around each other to hide abusive behavior. And the establishment media has been complicit... for years.
      
• The same culture that shields a Speaker for attempting to bribe someone is the same one that excuses public intoxication and illegal drug use. The same backrooms used to cut deals breaking promises to the citizenry is where the cronies scheme against the victims of harassment and assault. 
       
• When an incident gets revealed, the lawmakers and their cronies will cry crocodile tears and make a show of forgiving each other... for the sin of having been caught.
      
• The sewer culture of the Texas Capitol won’t change itself. The culture in the Capitol will only be cleaned up when the citizens decide to clean house – tossing the perpetrators and enablers to the curb.
      
• Texans, have we had enough yet?

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