Tag: texas

‘Teacher of the Year’ Brandyn Hargrove gets off with probation after admitting to abusing ex-student starting at age 15

A married former “Teacher of the Year” has pleaded guilty to having an “ongoing relationship” with one of her female students, starting when the girl was just 15.

Brandyn Martin Hargrove was convicted on Wednesday of 12 criminal counts connected to her sexual assault of the ex-student while she was a teacher at Brazoswood High School in Clute, Texas.

The formerly-decorated educator was sentenced to 10 years of probation and a 10-year probated sentence, meaning she won’t face any time in prison, despite grooming her student and having a sexual relationship with the minor, which continued until the girl turned 17, according to court records.

In September 2023, Hargrove’s victim, who is now in her 30s, walked into the police station to report she had been sexually assaulted by her teacher nearly two decades earlier, Clute Chief of Police James Fitch told ABC 13.

“From the get-go, we really felt there was a good chance this would go to trial, so we were a little surprised with the plea agreement. There was a lot of legwork by the detectives tracking down some of those people that went to school 17 years ago with our victim and people she made initial outcries to,” Fitch said.

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Texas Bills To Ban Consumable Hemp Products With THC Stall Out During Special Session

After several months of fiery debate and tearful testimonies over the prospect of banning THC statewide, proposed measures to do so have stalled in the Texas House.

Senate Bill 6, which would have created a blanket ban on products containing any “detectable amount of any cannabinoid” other than cannabidiol and cannabigerol, better known as CBD and CBG, non-intoxicating components of cannabis, hasn’t been heard in a House committee after the Senate passed it August 19. The House’s version of the bill hasn’t been heard in its chamber’s committee either.

Ten days might not be long for a bill to sit dormant during a regular legislative session, but with state leadership suggesting that the current special legislative session could wind down in the coming days, lawmakers would have to move fast on THC upon reconvening after Monday’s holiday.

Without further regulations or a ban being discussed by lawmakers in the House, the most likely scenario is that hemp-derived THC remains legal in Texas, but with more enforcement of current laws restricting the drug.

“It seems like a lot of people don’t want anything to do with it,” said Lukas Gilkey, chief executive of Hometown Hero, an Austin-based manufacturer of hemp-derived THC products. “It’s a hot potato.”

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Uvalde CISD calls missing Robb Elementary records a ‘mistake’; families say negligence

Attorneys for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District acknowledged this week that they failed to release all records requested in a lawsuit tied to the 2022 Robb Elementary School mass shooting, documents that could shed further light on the district’s response to the tragedy, calling the omission a mistake.

The admission came after a coalition of media companies, including Sinclair Broadcast Group, flagged missing materials in the district’s disclosures. The district’s legal representatives apologized publicly, insisting the error was not intentional.

“We are not in any way trying to hide anything,” one attorney told trustees during a tense meeting. “It was truly an error on our side.”

The revelation has reignited concerns among survivors and families of victims, many of whom have long accused school officials of withholding information about the shooting and its aftermath.

“I want accountability,” said Vincent Salazar, whose granddaughter, Layla, was killed in the attack. “The people who were there, who were responsible, did not do their job.”

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Signs Bill Banning Taxpayer-Funded Abortion Travel

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a bill into law Tuesday banning local governments from using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion travel out of state.

The law, Senate Bill 33, bars cities and counties from paying for hotels, airfare, meals, and other travel expenses for women seeking abortions outside of Texas. Abortion is outlawed in Texas with limited exceptions. 

Abbott also signed Senate Bill 31 at a signing ceremony on the same day. That bill, called the Life of the Mother Act, emphasizes that healthcare providers must treat a pregnant woman who has a life-threatening physical or medical emergency that places her at risk of death or serious injury. The law “clarifies and standardizes existing statutes related to medical emergency exceptions to abortion prohibitions, providing healthcare professionals with additional clarity around Texas’ pro-life laws,” according to the governor’s office.

“In Texas, we support mothers and their children,” Abbott said in a statement. “This session, the Texas Legislature worked together to pass the Life of the Mother Act to protect both mothers and babies while giving medical professionals the legal security and clinical clarity they desire. I am also proud to sign a law to ban taxpayer dollars from funding abortions. Texas is a pro-life and pro-family state. With these laws, we will stay that way.”

Abbott signed SB33 into law after the Austin City Council allocated $400,000 in the city’s budget in 2024 to help fund abortion travel. San Antonio considered a similar program this year, but was stymied by a lower court. 

Members of the pro-life organization Texas Values were present at the bill signing ceremony, along with state lawmakers, and other pro-life leaders. 

Policy Director for Texas Values Jonathan Covey celebrated the passage of the bills in a press release. 

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Indicted Democrat Rep’s Siblings Also Implicated in Corruption

The Cuellar political machine in South Texas is collapsing under the weight of its own corruption. 

Congressman Henry Cuellar was indicted in May 2024 for accepting over $600,000 in bribes from a Mexican bank and Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company. 

But the problem extends far beyond the congressman.

According to reporting from NOTUS and statements from local officials, Henry Cuellar’s siblings—Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar and former municipal judge Rosie Cuellar—benefited from improper appointments, financial favoritism, and misuse of government staff. 

Neither has been charged.

In 2023, the FBI raided the Webb County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Cuellar told the press he was not the subject of the investigation. However, multiple officials confirmed that sheriff’s office employees were ordered to perform political work for the Cuellar family during official business hours. 

That included campaign fundraising, voter outreach, and logistical support for Cuellar’s re-election efforts.

Public records show staff were reassigned from law enforcement roles to campaign duties, including organizing events. 

Some employees were instructed to attend campaign functions while still on the county payroll. The sheriff ignored requests for comment.

The corruption extended to Rosie Cuellar, who in 2022 was appointed to a municipal judgeship in a border town that has no active courthouse. 

She never heard a case. 

The salary she received for the position has not been disclosed. 

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Texas Senate Passes Redistricting Map Favoring Republicans

The Texas Senate on Aug. 23 passed a bill that will redraw Texas’s congressional maps and increase Republicans’ hold on the state’s U.S. House delegation by as many as five seats.

Its passage in the early hours of Saturday morning came after a daylong session.

After passing the Republican-dominated upper chamber in an 18 to 11 party-line vote, the bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law.

In line with a request from President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice, the bill would redraw the state’s congressional boundaries to favor Republicans.

Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Aug. 21 signed a legislative package to authorize a Nov. 4 referendum to redraw California’s congressional maps in favor of Democrats. The changes are expected to be approved in the Democratic stronghold.

The map could increase Democrats’ hold on California’s U.S. House delegation by as many as five seats, endangering several previously safe Republicans.

On Thursday evening, the state Senate’s Special Committee on Congressional Redistricting met to discuss the bill, voting 5–3 in favor of reporting the bill to the Senate with a favorable recommendation.

The Texas House of Representatives passed the legislation on Aug. 20, after the more than 50 Democrats who had left the state earlier returned after it became clear that California would approve a legislative response to Texas’s passage of the bill.

Those Democrats returned to the state after a two-week standoff, during which the state Legislature was unable to achieve a quorum and was therefore gridlocked.

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Democrat Rep. Al Green Is Fired. His Response Was to Call It Racist.

Representative Al Green, who has served Texas’s 9th Congressional District since 2005, will finally leave office. 

The Texas Legislature, led by Republicans, passed a legal redrawing of congressional maps that effectively eliminates District 9. Green, best known not for legislation but for shouting down President Trump during his address to Congress in March 2025, will be removed from office after nearly two decades of loud, ineffective, and divisive politics.

Unsurprisingly, Rep. Al Green called the redistricting racist. But the only racial injustice here is the Democrat Party’s decades-long abuse of district lines to cling to power.

In his angry press release, Green declared that the elimination of his district—along with TX-18, TX-29, and TX-33—was part of a “racist, unconstitutional scheme” led by President Trump’s Justice Department and Attorney General Ken Paxton.

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Hypocrite Obama scorns gerrymandering — unless it benefits HIM

Former President Barack Obama this week inserted himself into the national debate over partisan gerrymandering with his proprietary blend of self-righteousness, self-interest and duplicity.

With Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pushing through a new congressional map to benefit Republicans and California Gov. Gavin Newsom seeking to do the same for Democrats, Obama lent a weary world his wisdom.

“Over the long term, we shouldn’t have political gerrymandering in America, just a fair fight between Republicans and Democrats based on who’s got better ideas,” he began in a Wednesday post on X.

“But,” he stipulated.

But of course.

“Since Texas is taking direction from a partisan White House and gerrymandering in the middle of a decade to try and maintain the House despite their unpopular policies, I have tremendous respect for how Gov. [Gavin] Newsom has approached this,” insisted Obama.

“He’s put forward a smart, measured approach in California, designed to address a very particular problem at a very particular moment in time.”

Who didn’t see that one coming?

Obama’s high opinion of himself has only ever been matched by his scorn for the masses.

He hopes no one will notice his blatant projection: Obama himself personally participated, to put it lightly, in a highly beneficial gerrymander over 20 years ago.

Without a doubt, the former president’s initial suggestion has merit. 

It would be wonderful if House districts were drawn so as to be maximally representative of discrete communities, and to keep representatives maximally attuned to their constituents’ interests.

Perhaps one day the two parties will come together to ensure as much.

Alas, that’s not the world we live in today.

As it stands, both sides are locked in an unforgiving battle to enshrine the most structurally advantageous maps into law in as many states as possible.

In Illinois, where Texas Democrats initially fled to deny Abbott the quorum needed to pass his new map, Democrats represent 14 of 17 districts, or more than 82% of the state.

Yet Kamala Harris won Illinois last year by fewer than 11 percentage points, 54.4% to 43.5%.

Democrats achieved this feat by creating a map so preposterous that even Stephen Colbert felt compelled to ask Prairie State Gov. JB Pritzker about it during an otherwise softball interview.

In New Jersey, where President Donald Trump won 46% of the vote in 2024, the GOP holds just 25% of the congressional seats.

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Another Mexican Politician Facing U.S. Federal Fraud Charges

A Mexican politician is out on bond as he faces federal fraud charges in Texas for allegations that he used COVID-era loans to buy cryptocurrency. The politician, his wife, and various other South Texas business owners are accused of obtaining fraudulent loans during the COVID-19 pandemic, which were intended to support failing businesses, but were instead used for personal gain.

Court records revealed that 46-year-old Bernando Gomez Jr. and his wife, 42-year-old Lesley Chavez, allegedly took out nearly $200,000 in Paycheck Protection Program loans during the COVID-19 pandemic and then used them for personal expenses, including buying cryptocurrency. Gomez, who lives in Edinburg, Texas, is a sitting city councilman in the Mexican City of Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, where he serves as a close advisor to local Mayor Miguel Angel Almaraz.

Court documents indicate that Gomez and Chavez own several entertainment and service businesses, including a wedding planning service, a rental company, and a print shop.

Federal prosecutors allege that in June 2020 and May 2020, they obtained a series of government loans through the Small Business Administration aimed at helping businesses survive the COVID-19 Pandemic. The government then forgave those loans after the business owners allegedly filed documents claiming that the money had been used for legitimate purposes such as paying employees and other similar expenses. After receiving those three loans, totaling $150,000, $40,800, and $20,800, they transferred the funds to different accounts, which they then used for personal expenses and, in the case of Gomez, to purchase cryptocurrency.

After their arrests, both Gomez and Chavez went before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker, who set their bonds at $100,000. Both have been released as they await trial.

Gomez is currently a member of Mexico’s National Action Party (PAN), one of the major opposition parties in Mexico that has been at odds with the current ruling party, MORENA.

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“We’re Gonna Punch These Sons of B*tches in the Mouth” – Newsom Threatens MAGA, Lashes Out at Texas Republicans For Passing New Congressional Map

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) lashed out at Texas Republicans for passing a new Congressional map that gives the GOP five more US House seats.

Last week, the Texas House failed to achieve quorum for the sixth time since early August, stalling the GOP’s redistricting plan. Only 95 lawmakers showed up for the 10 a.m. session, once again falling short of the 100 needed to reach a quorum.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Governor Greg Abbott threatened the derelict Democrats with arrest and removal from office if they didn’t return to the Capitol.

After two weeks on the run, Texas Democrats finally returned to the Capitol this week.

On Wednesday, the Texas House of Representatives approved a redistricting plan that hands five additional U.S. House seats to Republicans, cementing the GOP’s dominance in the state delegation from 25 to a potential 30 out of 38 seats.

The Texas House of Representatives passed the congressional redistricting bill by an 88–52 partisan vote.

Newsom went off on Texas Republicans during an appearance on The Siren podcast on Wednesday and threatened to punch back with his own redistricting map.

“This is radical rigging of a midterm election,” Newsom told The Siren podcast on Wednesday. “Radical rigging of an election. Destroying, vandalizing this democracy, the rule of law. So, I’m sorry. I know some people’s sensibilities. I respect and appreciate that. But right now, with all due respect, we’re walking down a damn different path. We’re fighting fire with fire. And we’re gonna punch these sons of bitches in the mouth.”

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