Free Republic

AUSTIN — Speaker Dade Phelan said Friday he will not seek a third term as leader of the Texas House. Phelan was opposed by a majority of House Republicans, including many who will be serving their first term when the Legislature convenes in January, but had insisted for months that he would prevail. Friday morning, he withdrew, potentially clearing space for a supporter, Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock, to replace him in the race for speaker. Burrows filed paperwork to run for speaker Thursday. Phelan did not endorse a candidate in his withdrawal statement. “By stepping aside, I believe we...

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan announced Friday that he is stepping aside in his bid for another term as leader. The move follows months of escalating criticism from MAGA conservatives within his party, who have sought to remove him from power and reshape the House’s leadership. Phelan, who claimed he had the votes to fend off a challenge from former ally Rep. David Cook, withdrew just a day before the GOP caucus was set to choose its speaker nominee regardless. Infamously, Phelan assisted the failed plot to impeach and remove the Lone Star State’s America First Attorney General, Ken Paxton.

The director of the U.S. Secret Service and a Texas congressman got into a screaming match Thursday during a hearing on the agency's failures leading to two assassination attempts against President-elect Trump. Acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe shouted at Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, after the GOP lawmaker lambasted the service for security lapses that made Trump a target of two failed shooting attempts. "You're out of line, congressman!" Rowe yelled at Fallon.

The leading bid for the first-of-its-kind facility in Gypsum that converted forest slash into electricity is from an Illinois real estate company.. The Eagle Valley Clean Energy biomass plant in Gypsum closed last month after its owners filed for bankruptcy protection. There are 7,000 tons of shredded forest slash at the facility. The leading bid for the biomass operation is a real estate company. The pioneering biomass plant in Gypsum — the first in the state to begin converting shredded beetle-kill trees into electricity — has shut down and its owner has filed for bankruptcy protection citing more than $40...

According to the lawsuit, the three asset managers acquired substantial stockholdings in coal companies, and then used their influence to pressure the companies to adopt ESG goals and reduce output. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, along with 10 other state attorney generals, have filed a lawsuit against BlackRock, State Street Corporation, and Vanguard Group, three of the largest institutional investors in the world. The lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges the firms conspired to artificially constrict the market for coal through anti-trade practices. “Texas will not tolerate the illegal weaponization of the financial industry in service of a destructive, politicized ‘environmental’ agenda....

The legacy media can’t help but make itself look foolish as it lurches toward its increasing irrelevance. Recently, 60 Minutes did a feature on abortion policies in Texas, hoping to make a case that abortion laws are scaring doctors and jeopardizing the well-being of pregnant women in Texas. To make its point, CBS enlisted the help of a doctor from New Mexico and a handful of physicians interested in scoring political points at the cost of misleading Texas women. Dr. Eve Espey claimed that residents in Texas “lack an opportunity to learn trauma-informed care, diagnosing pregnancy complications in the first...

Texan officials to pause to face reality and take stock of what they are facing. There are no 'lone wolves' - the Koran sends them all. Opinion.Before we veer to the recent arrest of an ISIS -‘inspired’ jihadi in Texas, let's head to the underlying basis thereof: Irrespective of this or that moniker attributed to jihadi terror appendages – be they Sunni or Shia – the fact remains that they are wholly interchangeable. Indeed, the Koran mandates that Jews, Christians, and every non-Muslim on earth must bow down to Allah’s supremacy. These directives are non-negotiable; whether by the sword, or...

A federal appeals court on Wednesday stopped the federal government from destroying a fence of razor wire that Texas installed along the U.S.-Mexico border near Eagle Pass to deter migrants from entering the country illegally. The ruling, criticized by activists, came hours before Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum told President-elect Donald Trump that immigrants headed to the U.S. are being “taken care of” in her country. Texas had placed more than 29 miles of wire in the Eagle Pass area by last September when Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration over Border Patrol agents’ alleged illegal destruction of state...

Attorney General Ken Paxton sued BlackRock, State Street Corporation, and Vanguard Group, three of the largest institutional investors in the world, for conspiring to artificially constrict the market for coal through anticompetitive trade practices. Over several years, the three asset managers acquired substantial stockholdings in every significant publicly held coal producer in the United States, thereby gaining the power to control the policies of the coal companies. Using their combined influence over the coal market, the investment cartel collectively announced in 2021 their commitment to weaponize their shares to pressure the coal companies to accommodate “green energy” goals. To achieve...

Questions are being raised after a convicted murderer was caught with a loaded gun inside the Harris County Jail on Tuesday morning. The video above is from ABC13's 24/7 livestream. The Harris County Sheriff's Office said jailers at the 1200 Baker Street facility discovered the gun hidden inside a seat cushion on inmate Tyrone King's wheelchair after getting an anonymous tip. "It's something that amazes and astounds me and ought to make us go, 'Come on now,'" legal analyst Brian Wice said. King was serving time in prison for a 1995 murder conviction but was later paroled. He was arrested...

Texas on Tuesday offered up more land to the incoming Trump administration to build deportation facilities — naming the project after a 12-year-old girl allegedly raped and murdered by two illegal migrants. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, standing along a portion of the state’s border wall, said her office is expanding its earlier offer by adding more identified land that could be used by the Trump White House “on Day One” to hold violent criminal illegal migrants before they are deported from the US.

A Texas father who tried for years to stop his ex-wife from allowing his pre-teen child, who now identifies as 'Luna,' to be chemically castrated has been dealt a blow in California court. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Juhas ruled that Jeff Younger's ex-wife Anne Georgulas would be granted full custody of his 12-year-old son James and would be able to allow him to transition. It comes as a blow to Younger, 59, who announced on X that he 'lost all parental rights' over his twins and wished his children goodbye. 'Goodbye, boys. Perhaps, we will meet when you...

In the last 10 days, the most liberal city in Texas has seen six murders, a unusual phenomena in the red state that prioritizes public safety. Austin's murder rate has spiked in recent years, along with crime, which has spiraled out of control. With several weeks in the year left, the capital city has recorded 62 homicides; compared to 73 in 2023. An all-time high of 88 murders took place in 2021. 'You're looking in Austin, prior to 2020, I believe it was the norm to have 25 homicides a year, so to go up from 25 to 30 homicides...

A tiny 2-year-old migrant girl who was picked up at the US border clutching a piece of paper with a name and phone number scrawled on it told cops she was there to find her parents, a tragic video shows. The child from El Salvador, clad in a bright pink jacket, was among a group of more than 200 illegal migrants — including 60 unaccompanied minors — detained after crossing the border into Maverick County, Texas, on Sunday, authorities said. The Texas Department of Public Safety released the footage of the little girl admitting to cops that she was traveling...

The University of Texas System announced Wednesday it will expand its free tuition program for lower-income families to include all families making $100,000 or less a year. The Board of Regents gave preliminary approval to the plan, which is an expansion of its Promise Plus program. The free tuition for undergraduate students will begin in the fall of 2025 and will cover tuition and fees. In a press release the UT System said the move will make it one of the few in the U.S. to offer “such a sweeping financial aid benefit.”

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson spent over a decade in office as a Democrat before making a significant political shift. Just over a year ago, he announced his decision to join the Republican Party. Johnson wrote in a Fox News op-ed that his switch should have been a wake-up call for Democrats ahead of the 2024 election. “It turns out I was kind of a canary in the coal mine, right? I didn’t think I was going to be some anomaly that everyone needed to worry about,” Johnson told “Fox & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones, Wednesday. “I thought I was going...

A California judge dealt a devastating blow to a Texas father in his years-long fight to stop his ex-wife from allowing their pre-teen son, who identifies as a girl named “Luna,” to receive gender-affirming care.

A Houston college student sentenced for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 breach at the U.S. Capitol is one of the alleged victims of a FBI agent who was indicted for theft. Alexander Fan was sentenced to 12 months probation for trespassing during a sentencing hearing on Friday. His attorney, Mark Thering, said he pleaded guilty and expressed genuine remorse in a statement to the court. Fan's home was searched after his arrest in June 2023. Court records filed ahead of the hearing state, "the next day, Fan reported to the FBI that some items--including cash and silver bars--had...

Chuck Schumer just confirmed another lifelong federal judge by a vote of 50-49 because Republican Senator Mike Braun did not show up to vote. This judge will now forever serve on the D.C. court. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is voting with the Republicans to block the nomination, and Kamala Harris is out of town and can't cast the tie-breaking vote. Yet we still can't get Republicans to stand up and fight. ... Senator Mike Braun knows exactly what he’s doing with his absence. He’s voting as a Democrat. ... So why is RINO Braun in the Republican party since...

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, became upset during a House hearing on Wednesday, which led her to rant about how white men were never oppressed in the United States. During a House Oversight Committee hearing about the “Dismantle DEI Act”, which seeks to weaken diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, Crockett responded to a Republican colleague championing the bill as a “strong response to the oppression of our rights, liberties and freedoms.” Crockett strongly objected to the Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., using the word “oppression.” “You consistently said over and over the word ‘oppression,’ and every time that you said it, it...