Tag: texas

Rep. Cuellar’s Bribery charges expose Azerbaijan’s influence game

On May 2, U.S. law enforcement indicted Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) on charges of taking at least $360,000 in bribes from companies controlled by the government of Azerbaijan. In exchange for money, Cuellar would attempt to shape the U.S. foreign policy towards Azerbaijan by spreading narratives favorable to that nation’s interests through speeches and legislative measures.

While the challenge of undue foreign interference in U.S. politics is not new, the case of Azerbaijan highlights a particular vulnerability in U.S. foreign policy: Washington’s fixation on inflexible alliances and enmities provides a fertile ground for foreign actors to exploit it to promote their own parochial agendas that have little to do with U.S. interests.

Azerbaijan has been an adept player on the Washington scene since the early 1990s when the country’s abundant hydrocarbon riches boosted its claims to geostrategic relevance. As detailed in a Quincy Institute brief, since 2015 Azerbaijan spent over $7 million on lobbying efforts in Washington, according to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) records. And, as the indictment of Cuellar shows, that is likely only a tip of the iceberg: Azerbaijan has a long track record of illicit influence operations known as “caviar diplomacy” consisting of bribing politicians in the U.S. and Europe to promote its interests. In fact, in January 2024 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) voted to suspend Azerbaijan’s membership due, in part, to those corrupt dealings.

Azerbaijan’s efforts have to be seen in the context of its decades-long conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh — a historically Armenian-majority region but within the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan. To garner U.S. and EU support, Baku’s lobbying machine, including PR firms, friendly politicians, pundits, and think tanks pitched the country as the West’s geopolitical asset against Russia and Iran — Azerbaijan borders both. As a Washington insider, who requested not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, familiar with Cuellar’s case and Baku’s broader lobbying schemes put it, playing up Russian and Iranian threats is an old trick used by Baku to “attract attention on the Hill.”

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Texas Governor Condemns Local Marijuana Decriminalization Efforts As Lubbock Voters Decide On Reform At The Ballot

The Republican governor of Texas says that cities seeking to locally decriminalize marijuana—including one that’s set to vote on the reform next week—don’t have the authority to “override” state law.

Three months after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) sued five cities over voter-approved cannabis decriminalization policies, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) addressed the forthcoming vote in Lubbock, where the reform is on the local May 4 ballot.

The governor told KAMC that his concern was “bigger” than the question of decriminalization itself and was more a matter of localities superseding state laws.

“Local communities such as towns, cities and counties, they don’t have the authority to override state law,” Abbott said. “If they want to see a different law passed, they need to work with their legislators. Let’s legislate to work to make sure that the state, as a state, will pass some of the law.”

The governor has previously said that he doesn’t believe people should be in jail over marijuana possession—although he mistakenly suggested that Texas had already enacted a decriminalization policy to that end.

In the new interview this week, Abbott said it would lead to “chaos” for voters in individual cities to be “picking and choosing” the laws they want abide by under state statute.

“It’s an unworkable system,” he said.

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“This Will Be the Sleeper Issue of 2024” — THE DEMOCRAT ELECTION STEAL IS IN MOTION: 1.7 Million Mysterious Voter Registrations Recorded in Texas Since 2020

The Democrat election steal machine is in motion.

While Republicans sleep Democrats are already maneuvering for another massive election steal in November 2024.

Either the Republican Party is completely worthless or is in on it. They can’t possibly be this blind and ignorant.

Catherine Engelbrecht from True the Vote released a shocking video on Monday regarding a mysterious surge in Texas voter registrations since the beginning of 2024.

Texas added 1.8 million new registrations before the 2020 election.

Since 2020 Texas has added 1,783,547 names to the voter rolls. That’s an 11 percent increase!

Democrat groups are also spending tens of millions on groups that claim they are “get out the vote” efforts, but are they really?

The Gateway Pundit broke the news last year on how one group, GBI strategies in Michigan, was caught dumping 8,000 to 10,000 ballot registrations into one county in Michigan.

The FBI later took over this investigation where it went to die over three years ago!

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Texas puts Delta-8 THC products in state lawmakers’ crosshairs

The salad days of gas station weed in Texas may be coming to an end.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is including a ban on Delta-8 and Delta-9 products in his list of goals for the 2025 Texas legislative session, putting the future of the popular and controversial hemp products in jeopardy.

In his 2024 Interim Legislative Charges prospectus, Patrick outlined his desire for lawmakers to “examine the sale of intoxicating hemp products in Texas.” The document also calls for legislators to “make recommendations to further regulate the sale of these products, and suggest legislation to stop retailers who market these products to children.”

Both Delta-8 and Delta-9 are THC molecules capable of producing an intoxicating effect, but Delta-8 occurs naturally in marijuana in much smaller quantities. Delta-8 first hit Texas shelves after a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp but did not specify what form of THC would be regulated. Since then, Delta-9 products have also emerged in low-THC edible forms.

Six years later and two years after Texas began allowing hemp plants in Texan soil, over 7,000 businesses in Texas operate retail hemp licenses, and hundreds more possess the license to manufacture and market their own hemp products. Meanwhile, traditional marijuana is still only legal medically, and its use is heavily regulated. The so-called grey markets have drawn ire from lawmakers concerned that the products, which are not regulated by the FDA, are too easily accessible to minors.

The Texas Department of State Health Services first moved to ban Delta-8 in 2021, but an injunction has halted the prohibition, leaving Delta-8 on the market for now.The Lieutenant Governor’s language in legislative charges does not appear to leave room for a possible middle ground between an unregulated cannabinoid free-for-all and outright ban. 

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Texas High School Cosmetology Teacher, Son Accused of Child Trafficking

A Texas high school cosmetology teacher and her son are accused of child sex trafficking and compelling prostitution, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. 

Kedria Grigsby, 42, a cosmetology teacher at Klein Cain High School, was arrested Monday, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a post to X. Her son, Roger Magee, 21, was arrested in November 2022 for trafficking and prostitution.

Grigsby is facing charges for three counts of trafficking a child and three counts of compelling prostitution of juveniles. Gonzalez said there are at least three victims in the case, including a 15-year-old, 16-year-old, and 17-year-old who were reported runaways. He said he believes Grigsby “assisted her son,” who is still in jail. 

“It appears Grigsby recruited troubled juveniles from local high schools by offering them a place to stay, which would be a hotel,” Gonzalez said. “Additional teen victims have come forward stating that Grigsby was also attempting to recruit them while attending school.”

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No Taxes For ‘Black Folk’, Says Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett

Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) has suggested that black people in the United States pay no taxes, reported Dallas City Wire.

“Just this past week I saw, I don’t remember which celebrity, but it was actually a celebrity, and I was like, that’s not necessarily a bad idea, but I’d have to think through it a lot,” Crockett said in a video interview shared April 9 by X account End Wokeness.

“One of the things that they propose is black folk not have to pay taxes for a certain amount of time.”

“Because then again, that puts money back in your pocket,” said Crockett.

This is the very same Jasmine Crockett who, during a September 2023 hearing on the impeachment of Joe Biden said of the president and his son, Hunter Biden:

I will tell you what Joe Biden has been guilty of. He is unfortunately been guilty of loving his child unconditionally and that is the only evidence that they have brought forward. And honestly, I hope and pray that my parents love me half as much as he loves his child.

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Texas gender clinic performs experimental surgeries like ‘Barbie-dolling,’ nullification, giving patients both male and female genitals

A gender clinic in Texas has come under scrutiny for performing hundreds of unconventional and experimental genital surgeries. 

According to the Daily Mail, the Crane Center for Transgender Surgery, located in Austin, offers a range of surgeries catering to individuals who identify as transgender or non-binary. The clinic, nicknamed “Frankenstein’s Lab,” offers procedures that include the creation of both a penis and vagina in patients as well as the complete removal of sex organs, something critics are referring to as “barbie-dolling.” 

Dr. Curtis Crane, who heads the clinic, touts himself as one of the few practitioners skilled in both plastic surgery and urology, specializing in transgender surgery and reconstructive urology. 

“I can’t think of a time that a patient has come up with a surgical request that I haven’t been able to fulfill,” Crane said in a Facebook Live video in 2020. 

However, Crane and his clinic have faced at least eight lawsuits from former patients, who allege incorrect and unnecessary surgeries, negligence in addressing infections and complications, and misleading claims about success rates. 

The Crane Center reportedly performs over 200 top surgeries and 150 vaginoplasties annually, along with various other procedures involving the removal of healthy sex organs for transgender individuals. These practices have raised concerns among medical experts, as the long-term effects and complications of such surgeries remain inadequately researched. 

Nearly all procedures carried out by the Crane Center are covered by insurance, per the Daily Mail. However, Crane complained that this includes a mandatory mental health referral and specific diagnoses that may not align with what the patient is experiencing. 

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Looks Like Payback: DHS Targets Texas, Florida with Secret Migrant Flights

The Biden administration is secretly using migrant flights to dump illegal aliens into the United States. It turns out that most of them are being flown into Florida and Texas. 

Hmm. Is it a coincidence that two red states that are being vigilant in securing their borders are receiving 90% of the migrant flights? I don’t think so. 

The Center for Immigration Studies analyzed available public information on U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) website. It’s difficult to know the full picture since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) refuses to publicly identify the dozens of international airports it has approved for direct flights from abroad for some inadmissible aliens.

At least 386,000 migrants, as of February, have been allowed to fly into the U.S. airports as part of President Biden’s admissions program launched in October 2022. The rationale for the program is to reduce the number of illegal border crossings. They are flown in and then released on parole. 

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) analysis of available public information shows the airports that might account for being used for landings from abroad, though not necessarily the final destinations. Early evidence shows that a majority of the flights carrying inadmissible aliens likely land at international airports in Florida. 

Florida is the top landing and U.S. customs processing zone for the direct-flights parole-and-release program. The total through February was nearly 326,000 aliens since the program began. Other regions being used in the program are Houston, New York, northern and southern California, and Washington, D.C. Florida is the heaviest hit. 

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Judge Quashes Felony Murder Charges Against Former Houston Cop Whose Lies Led to a Deadly 2019 Drug Raid

It has been more than five years since Houston police officers killed Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas, a middle-aged couple falsely implicated in drug dealing, after breaking into their home on Harding Street. That raid was based on a fraudulent search warrant affidavit in which veteran narcotics officer Gerald Goines described a heroin purchase that he later admitted never happened. Efforts to hold Goines accountable for his lethal dishonesty hit another roadblock last week when a Harris County judge dismissed two felony murder charges against him.

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office charged Goines with two counts of felony murder in August 2019, seven months after the Harding Street raid. According to its complaint, Goines committed “the felony offense of Tampering with a Government Record, and while in the course of and [in] furtherance of the commission of said offense did commit an act clearly dangerous to human life”—i.e., “making forcible entry into a residence by armed peace officers through the use of a ‘no knock’ search warrant based on false information provided knowingly by the defendant,” thereby causing the deaths of Tuttle and Nicholas.

A grand jury backed those charges in an indictment issued on January 15, 2020, and District Court Judge Frank Aguilar declined to dismiss them. But District Court Judge Veronica Nelson, who took over the case this year after Aguilar was suspended because of a domestic violence arrest, was persuaded by Goines’ claim that the charges did not adequately specify the underlying felony.

Prosecutors cited Section 37.10 of the Texas Penal Code, which makes it a third-degree felony to tamper with a government record in any of six ways. Because the indictment did not say exactly how Goines had violated that statute, his lawyers argued, it impaired his ability to mount a defense. “It doesn’t give us adequate notice of what it is specifically that we have to defend against,” said Mac Secrest, one of Goines’ attorneys.

“The Harris County District Attorney’s office is shocked and tremendously disappointed  that a judge would choose to revisit this issue, knowing that her predecessor had already ruled the defendant’s position meritless,” the office said in response to Nelson’s ruling. “The office is considering all its options, including amending the indictment, with an eye towards trying this case as soon as possible to ensure justice for the victims of these crimes.”

The state case against Goines had been scheduled for trial in June. Nelson’s decision could delay the trial by a year or more, depending on how long it takes to appeal the ruling and/or seek a new indictment. Goines also faces federal civil rights charges in connection with the Harding Street raid, but there has been no apparent movement in that case since the indictment was announced in November 2019.

Two other defendants in the federal case have pleaded guilty. Patricia Ann Garcia, a neighbor whose phony tip prompted Goines’ investigation of Tuttle and Nicholas, pleaded guilty to making false reports in March 2021 and was sentenced to 40 months in prison. In June 2021, former Houston narcotics officer Steven Bryant, who had backed up Goines’ fictional account of arranging for a confidential informant to buy heroin from Tuttle, pleaded guilty to falsifying records and obstructing the resulting federal investigation. He has not been sentenced yet.

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Squatters sell Texas woman’s belongings at yard sale — turn home into ‘drug den’

Squatters turned a Texas woman’s home into a “drug den” and sold her possessions at a yard sale — but police told her they couldn’t do anything about it.

Terri Boyette was in Florida caring for her sick mother when a friend called to tell her someone had squatted her Dallas-area home.

She had previously hired workers to renovate her house, but after she left a painter had broken in and wrecked the place, leaving crack pipes in her oven and needles in a drawer, Boyette told The Post.

It took six months for Boyette to get her home back and now she says her belongings have been either damaged beyond repair or sold, with her bed now situated in the backyard, a bike and scooter in her shower and trash and dirty dishes all over the home.

“All my stuff has been sold through the yard sale and online,” Boyett said, adding: “Apparently he was letting people rent from him.”

Boyette had told the workers to leave before she left for Florida, but the squatter broke in and wouldn’t leave.

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