Posts Tagged ‘The Texan News’

Paxton Sues Feds Over Jack Smith Records

Wednesday, November 13th, 2024

All of Ken Paxton’s lawsuits against the federal government have offered the possibility of notable revelations, but this one has the potential to be extra spicy.

Texas sued the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday attempting to preserve all records pertaining to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into President-elect Donald Trump.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) complaint on November 8 requesting specific records from Smith’s investigation, including “all Communications from any current or former member of the Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith to any New York State governmental office since November 18, 2022,” as well as “documents memorializing the … final reasoning to request that a trial against President-elect Trump to start in January of 2024.”

Texas expressed concerns in court documents that the DOJ’s history with special counsels is “regrettably riddled with attempts to avoid transparency,” specifically referencing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s infamous Crossfire Hurricane incident in 2020. Mueller’s team allegedly repeatedly wiped their phones after an investigation into the DOJ’s handling of a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probe into Trump’s purportedly unlawful links to Russia.

The suit filed on November 11 states that Paxton “fears that many releasable records — including those that he sought — will never see daylight. That is not because the DOJ has any legal reason to withhold them…”

“Rather, Attorney General Paxton has a well-founded belief as set forth herein that Defendants will simply destroy the records.”

Paxton states in the filing that since Trump won the election “it is clear that both Jack Smith’s office, and his prosecution of the President, will soon end.” The DOJ’s own policies do not permit bringing charges against a sitting President of the United States as it “would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.”

“I will not allow the corrupt weaponization of the United States government to be swept under the rug as Jack Smith and others who unjustly targeted President Trump attempt to avoid accountability,” Paxton said in a press release.

Texas’ suit was filed in the United States District Court Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division.

Obviously I hope Paxton prevails and that Smith (and the entire Biden Administration)’s attempts to illegally wage lawfare against Trump to thwart the will of American voters gets exposed. However (and here we insert the usual I Am Not A Lawyer caveat), it appears that Paxton will have difficulty in establishing standing for the lawsuit to proceed. Trump is not a resident of Texas, and it may be difficult to establish that the State of Texas has suffered direct harm from Smith’s actions.

However, in this case I’m wondering if Paxton has filed the case on a timeline that either the Biden Administration doesn’t respond in time, or that the second Trump Administration can file the response, proving a mechanism by which the Trump Administration settles the lawsuit by releasing all requested documents that may otherwise be held up by claims of executive privilege, garden variety DOJ stonewalling, etc.

It’s an interesting gambit. We’ll see how it plays out…

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Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | 11 Comments »

Dade Phelan/Texas Speaker Race Update

Monday, September 16th, 2024

I’ve been needing to post a Dade Phelan/Texas Speaker’s Race update for a few weeks now, because I held off because I needed more information and I wasn’t sure what’s going on. Now a couple of tidbits of news have dropped that pretty much requires a post…but I’m still not sure what’s going on.

  • Now that Rep. John Smithee (R-Amarillo) has joined the race there are five Republican representatives who have declared they’re running for Speaker:
    • David Cook (Mansfield)
    • James Frank (Wichita Falls)
    • Tom Oliverson (Cypress)
    • Shelby Slawson (Stephenville)
    • John Smithee (Amarillo)
  • But wait! It’s not just republicans! Democrat Ana-Maria Ramos has also thrown her hat into the speaker’s race ring.

    State Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos has filed to run for Speaker of the House, becoming the first Democrat to do so in what is becoming a crowded race against incumbent Speaker Dade Phelan.

    Snip.

    With Republicans expected to maintain or even grow their current majority in the Texas House, Ramos is unlikely win her bid for speaker. It does, however, add to the ever-growing consensus that Phelan will not be speaker next session.

  • In theory, the Republican caucus will determine their speaker nominee by secret ballot.

    The vote for Speaker of the House will take place on the first day of the legislative session on January 14, 2025.

    The decision may be made long before that as part of the Republican Caucus’ nominating process.

    The process of Republican legislators nominating a unified speaker candidate ahead of the official vote at the start of the session in January was adopted in 2017, in an attempt to prevent Republican speaker candidates, like then-Speaker Joe Straus, from courting Democrat support for the position.

    In the years since, however, both the former Speaker Dennis Bonnen and the current Speaker Dade Phelan have released lists containing Democrat supporters ahead of the caucus vote, making the exercise a formality.

    This year appears to be shaping up differently as Phelan has already gained four challengers who have promised to appoint only Republicans as committee chairs and gain Republican support first. For the first time, the caucus nomination process could be significant.

    The caucus vote will take place in December as part of their retreat ahead of the session. To clench the caucus’ nomination, multiple rounds of voting can take place during a secret ballot. The winner must receive 2/3 support during the first two rounds of voting. If that does not occur, the threshold then drops to 3/5.

    The widespread disillusion with Phelan over the Paxton impeachment, the school choice vote, and so many Phelan loyalists getting slaughtered in the primary, plus the vocal opposition of Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, and Senator Ted Cruz to Phelan continuing as speaker, plus a secret ballot, would seem to doom Phelan’s chances of being the Republican caucus choice.

  • But Texas speaker election rules run things on a top-two runoff basis, not round-by-round elimination, and the process is overseen by the Secretary of State. In combination with Ramos’s run, this would seem to eliminate Phelan’s chance to be elected speaker, as Democrats would presumably support Ramos on the first ballot, while Republicans would support whatever non-Phelan candidate gets the official GOP House Caucus nod, which means Phelan is left out of the top two.
  • Maybe Ramos is getting high on her own supply, actually believing that Democrats are ready to “turn Texas blue,” perhaps thanks to the Democratic Party’s relentless importation of illegal aliens. But since Ken Paxton has been hypervigilant in cracking down on potential voting fraud, that outcome seems…remote.
  • But since the cabal backing the Straus-Bonnen-Phelan speakership line is unlikely to go gently into that good night, I must be missing something. There must be some scheme to either keep Phelan in the speaker’s chair, or elect another cabal toady in his place, that I’m just not seeing.
  • Phelan shows every sign of trying to finagle another term, even going so far as to declare that now he he really is for school choice after working so hard to kill it last session. I don’t think anyone believes those new spots are genuine.
  • Another sign that Phelan is working to win is the announcement that former Republican Governor Rick Perry has hired as a senior advisor.

    Perry’s new position follows the announcement of Phelan’s new chief of staff, Mike Toomey, whose campaign finance records show numerous donations to Democrat lawmakers since 2015.

    Toomey, who previously served as chief of staff to Rick Perry, has been a casino lobbyist, which garnered him between $3.4 and $6.7 million this session alone. One of Toomey’s largest clients is the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which seeks to legalize monopolistic casino gambling in Texas.

    Toomey has also represented Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the group that advocated for Phelan’s impeachment of Paxton last year. Notably, Perry’s name was on the by-line of a Wall Street Journal op-ed calling for Paxton’s impeachment and conviction; the article was ghost-written by TLR.

    As of 2022, Perry has warmed up to the expansion of gambling, becoming a spokesperson for Sports Betting Alliance, a group lobbying to legalize mobile sports gambling in Texas.

    Perry will advise Phelan in a “voluntary capacity” until the start of the 89th Texas Legislature in January, according to an official press release.

    Perry’s support of Phelan may seem inexplicable to Texas Republicans who remember him as a conservative stalwart, but Perry has long gone off on ill-advised tangents every now and them, from backing the Gardasil mandate for pre-teen girls to his love for expensive high speed rail subsidies to derailing his presidential campaign by debating while hopped up on goofballs for back surgery.

    Plus, I suspect that gambling money pipeline jets out a pretty lucrative stream…

  • Finally, I note for the record this Texas Scorecard “Speaker Phelan Used State Jet for Campaign Activities” article.

    A new investigative report revealed that House Speaker Dade Phelan used a state jet for campaign activities.

    KHOU 11 has reported that members of the Texas House have used TxDOT’s executive-style jets for activities that crossed the line between “official state business” into personal or political business.

    According to state law, the jets cannot be used for attending “an event at which money is raised for private or political purposes.”

    When Phelan (R-Beaumont) used the jet in September 2022 to attend a speaking engagement at the leftwing Texas Tribune Festival, he didn’t stop there. He then used the jet to attend a University of Texas versus Texas Tech football game in Lubbock.

    In a statement to KHOU 11, Phelan’s office said the trip was to meet with Tech officials and paid for by university donors.

    However, campaign finance records show that he accepted a $2,500 in-kind contribution for “food and beverage for campaign event” the day he got to Lubbock. He also had an $880 charge at a hotel for “staff lodging for political fundraiser.”

    KHOU 11 estimated that he raised at least $37,522 for his campaign on the trip.

    Yeah, probably a violation, but it seems pretty smallball stuff compared to Phelan’s other shenanigans…

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | 2 Comments »

    Paxton Wrings $1.4 Billion Settlement From Facebook

    Wednesday, July 31st, 2024

    Did you know that Facebook was extracting biometric data from your images? That be because they never asked your permission. Which is why Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just extracted a $1.4 billion settlement from them.

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the largest settlement ever obtained by a single state after he alleged that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, collected Texans’ biometric identifiers without their consent.

    The $1.4 billion settlement announced Tuesday stemmed from the first lawsuit ever brought under the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act, which prohibits the capturing of an individual’s biometric identification such as retina, fingerprints, or hand geometry for a commercial purpose unless the the individual is informed and provides consent prior to capture.

    “After vigorously pursuing justice for our citizens whose privacy rights were violated by Meta’s use of facial recognition software, I’m proud to announce that we have reached the largest settlement ever obtained from an action brought by a single State,” said Paxton.

    “This historic settlement demonstrates our commitment to standing up to the world’s biggest technology companies and holding them accountable for breaking the law and violating Texans’ privacy rights. Any abuse of Texans’ sensitive data will be met with the full force of the law.”

    In a statement to The Texan, Meta said, “We are pleased to resolve this matter, and look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centers.”

    The Meta spokesperson also noted that there is no admission of wrongdoing in the settlement agreement.

    Paxton sued Meta in 2022 alleging that “Facebook engaged in false, misleading, and deceptive acts and practices in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act.”

    Moreover, the lawsuit explains that Facebook has “built an Artificial Intelligence empire on the backs of Texans by deceiving them while capturing their most intimate data, thereby putting their well-being, safety, and security at risk.”

    In 2011, Facebook introduced “Tag Suggestions,” a facial recognition feature that automatically tagged people in uploaded photos without informing Texans how it worked. The “tag” feature captured “the facial geometry of the people depicted” and led to Paxton alleging this action violated Texas law, thus leading to the state suing Meta for capturing facial data without consent and the $1.4 billion settlement.

    Illegally stealing information to train AI seems to be a habit with Meta, which is why they’re being sued for using pirated books to train their AI.

    $1.4 billion is a lot of cheddar, even to Meta. But will it change their ways about feeding every possible scrap of information to train an AI engine deep in the bowels of some giant data center? Probably not. Just about every software tech giant has decided that AI is The Next Big Thing, and seem to be pouring more money and resources into it rather than their ostensible “core” businesses.

    Of course, Facebook’s core business is selling your data to other companies, so nothing new there. And AI is probably less of a money-losing boondoggle than their crappy Metaverse VR project, which they’ve lost (at least) $21 billion on despite nobody using the damn thing.

    Knowing Facebook, this time next year we’ll probably be complaining about some completely different nefarious, illegal activity they’ll be undertaking…

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    Posted in Media Watch, Texas | 3 Comments »

    Twitter Lawsuit Against Ken Paxton Dismissed

    Wednesday, December 28th, 2022

    Here’s a lawsuit against Texas Attorney General filed under the pre-Musk Twitter regime that was just dimissed.

    In a Tuesday press release, Attorney General Ken Paxton claimed legal victory over Twitter after a federal appeals court threw out the social media company’s lawsuit against him.

    After President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter following the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, the Texas Office of the Attorney General issued a “civil investigative demand” (CID) for Twitter to reveal information on how it moderates content.

    Paxton said he wanted to determine whether Twitter had violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

    As we know from the ongoing Twitter revelations following Musk’s takeover, there was a whole lot of deception (and censorship) going on.

    Twitter then sued Paxton in the Northern District of California for violation of the First Amendment. The district court dismissed the case as not “prudentially ripe,” meaning it would be better decided in the future when there was more information.

    A discussion of “ripeness” as a legal concept in lawsuits is far beyond the scope of my expertise. (Ditto “standing.”)

    A panel of judges affirmed that decision and added that the case was “not constitutionally ripe,” meaning it rested on hypothetical future events rather than present facts because Twitter did not claim the CID had a “chilling effect” on its free speech at the time.

    Twitter then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed the panel’s judgment that the case was constitutionally unripe.

    “The issues here are not fit for judicial decision,” wrote Judge Ryan D. Nelson in the opinion, “because Twitter’s allegations do not show that the issuance of the CID is chilling its speech or causing it other cognizable injury that the requested injunction would redress.”

    Paxton’s press release claimed the lawsuit was a “thinly-veiled distraction.”

    “I’ve been asking Twitter for years to answer questions about its content moderation and large-scale censorship, but Twitter’s only response has been to try and hide behind its bogus lawsuits against me,” he wrote.

    “Now that yet another court has ruled in our favor and more details surrounding Twitter’s censorship have come to light, I look forward to helping get to the bottom of any actions that the company took to mislead consumers.”

    Musk might want to order his Twitter employees to go ahead and comply with Paxton’s records requests.

    After releasing so many details of Twitter’s censorship regime, Musk might think about releasing the memos behind Twitter’s lawsuit strategy under the previous regime…

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    Posted in Media Watch, Texas | No Comments »

    Nepotism And Official Oppression in Neches ISD

    Saturday, July 16th, 2022

    Hayden Sparks at The Texan news has the story of a long-simmering scandal at Neches ISD finally reaching trial.

    A former elementary school principal is scheduled to be tried in Palestine next month on charges of official oppression and evidence tampering stemming from allegations that she impeded an investigation into suspected sexual abuse of children.

    Kimberlyn Snider — the principal of Neches Elementary School — was indicted by an Anderson County grand jury on five misdemeanor counts of official oppression and one count of tampering or fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair, a third-degree felony.

    I note that this is the second “Official Oppression” charge I’ve reported in as many months. Anderson County is a rural Texas county located between Lufkin and Dallas.

    Per online records, the criminal case against Mrs. Snider is set for trial on August 8 in the 87th District Court, where Judge Deborah Oakes presides. Mrs. Snider’s first trial in March was canceled after her attorney had a medical emergency during court proceedings.

    After Mrs. Snider was indicted in January 2021, the Neches Independent School District Board of Trustees extended her contract with the school district through June 2023, local media reported. The decision to keep her employed with the district was made by her husband, Randy Snider, Neches ISD’s superintendent at the time.

    Yes, it’s a great mystery how she got an extenstion. Randy Snider resigned as of June 2021.

    In April, the school board hired Amy Wilson to be the new elementary school principal after Mrs. Snider was placed on administrative leave. Mr. Snider stepped down as superintendent in May of last year and was eventually replaced by Cory Hines.

    Kaitlin Scroggins, who leads a local group called Change for Neches that opposes Mrs. Snider, spoke favorably of Wilson and called her appointment “a great new start” in a video posted on social media.

    “The only problem that I have, which is something that I spoke on this evening, was that we’re still paying two different salaries,” Scroggins said, referencing the fact that Snider still receives a paycheck while on administrative leave.

    With respect to the board extending Mrs. Snider’s contract, Scroggins said the school board “voted for their friendship as opposed to what was best for the taxpayers and what was best for the district.”

    One of the amazing things about Kimberlyn Snider is that allegations against her have been going on for over seven years. From January 2015:

    A new Facebook page calling for an investigation into abuse allegations against a Neches ISD principal is garnering attention in the tight-knit community.

    Some parents say their children are not only being bullied by other students, but are even being bullied by their own principal, and say they want to see something done about it.

    Since it was started back in November the Facebook page, Change for Neches, has gotten more than 600 likes. And shared on the page’s wall are dozens of stories of alleged abuse and misconduct from parents of current and former Neches ISD students — as well as concerned community members — who say the district needs to take action.

    “We started getting these letters and they were just gut-wrenching, about abuse and the children being mistreated and the parents having no recourse because of the nepotism,” said Rebecca Wood, Change for Neches page administrator.

    Many of the complaints center around Neches Elementary School principal Kim Snider, who last month was the topic of a more than four-hour school board meeting, a meeting in which Wood says no parents were given the opportunity to speak.

    “It was one step from a circus,” she said. “I was appalled. I was disgusted.”

    Among the allegations against Snider are that she bullies and threatens students and parents.

    “She is just a bully,” Wood said. “She tells you to shut up, get out of her office, ‘You’re not welcome here, I make all the rules, you don’t have any say here, I own Neches. She’s even told people, ‘We have a way of making you disappear.'”

    Serena Hodge has three children in the district, and says her kids begged her not to speak to the media out of fear of retaliation from Snider.

    “It’s scary, they’re scared of her,” she said. “Very scared of her.”

    But it’s not just Snider the group is calling out, saying more needs to be done about student bullying too.

    Terri Flusche’s 15-year-old daughter Amanda committed suicide back in 2010, after being bullied by other students all freshman year.

    “There would be at least four to five days a week that she would come in off that school bus her head just hanging and beg me, ‘Mama, please don’t make me go to school,'” she said.

    But Flusche says her countless efforts to get help for her daughter were ignored.

    “I couldn’t win,” she said. “There was no winning because there was no help from anybody. Nobody would listen to me.”

    She says she even asked school administrators if she could see surveillance footage from her daughter’s school, but was always told the cameras were broken.

    The usual “innocent until proven guilty” caveats apply, but it sure sounds like Kimberlyn Snider was a criminally negligent principal, and that justice for her victims is long overdue.

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    Posted in Crime, Texas | 4 Comments »