RenéeinTX

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[RenéeinTX @reneeintx]

Was debating flock cameras with the Jasper TX Police Chief on Facebook last Thursday night He got pissed off at my comments and tagged me in a video of a cop kicking in a door to arrest a citizen.

[Alejandro Serrano @serrano_alej]

Incredible reporting by @a_y_denrunnels that already resulted in Gov. Greg Abbott ordering state agencies to pause funding for Flock cameras: Lawmakers added $1 to Texans’ car insurance policies. That money paid for thousands of Flock cameras.

https://t.co/48en3YQ4kw

[Megan Menchaca @meganmmenchaca]

Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered all state agencies to pause funding for Flock cameras.

The order came as @texastribune was preparing an investigation detailing how a state agency has devoted at least $30M to building the state’s Flock network. https://t.co/o2fWeiTS3z

[Rep. Ben Bumgarner @Bumgarner4HD63]

School districts in Texas: the state of Texas doesn’t give us enough funding!!!

Txlege: you guys took 200 million dollars in property tax and gave those monies to a foundation instead of spending it in the Classroom where it was supposed to go. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

School districts: ….

[WikiLeaks @wikileaks]

Prominent US war hawk John Bolton has pled guilty to violating the Espionage Act after previously demanding execution for whistleblowers Edward Snowden & Chelsea Manning and 176 years in prison for publisher Julian Assange.

As part of a plea agreement, Bolton admitted to unlawfully retaining sensitive national security information. He now faces up to 5 years in prison, up to 3 years of supervised release, a $2.25 million fine, forfeiture of his pension, and is due to be sentenced on 28 October.

[RenéeinTX @reneeintx]

@WikiQLeaks Where was this deposition/ hearing held?

[WikiLeaks @WikiQLeaks]

🚨 Pfizer employees were given a “special batch” of vaccines. Different from what was forced into the general population.

[Dr. Mary Bone @drbone4tx]

Breaking: Barbers Hill ISD Superintendent Pressed Over Daughter’s Work at Firm Managing Large Foundation Investments

Community members in Barbers Hill spent months asking a simple question: was the Education Foundation’s investment work tied to Superintendent Greg Poole’s daughter?

They could not get a straight answer from the district or the Foundation. Then the House committee hearing forced the issue into the open.

Under questioning, Poole first said no one in his family works at Commerce Street Holdings, the firm that has handled roughly $250 million in Foundation investments. Then he acknowledged that his daughter, Hillary Poole, did work there. When lawmakers asked whether she worked there when the firm was hired to manage education funds, he said he did not remember — that it was “very close.” That is the disclosure the community could not obtain on its own.

Meanwhile, the Foundation’s IRS Form 990s show large investment-management fees:
2023: $288,780
2022: $495,829
2021: $372,352
2020: $250,154
Total: $1,857,801

Those are public filings. What remains hidden is the rest of the paper trail. Was this a conflict of interest?

Barbers Hill ISD’s own audit says the District maintains the Foundation’s accounting records and reports the Foundation as a component unit. I am still waiting for the Foundation records referenced in that audit. If a public school district is keeping the books for a private nonprofit, how can that work be withheld from the public?

That is the core question that I am waiting for @KenPaxtonTX office to decide: Can a public school district perform work for a private entity and then withhold the records of that work?What if the district did the work for no payment, or as an in-kind donation? Who decides when a public employee is doing public work versus private work?

If the Foundation is “separate,” why does the ISD keep its books? If it is not separate, why isn’t it subject to the Public Information Act and open meetings laws like every other public function? Why does the public school audit contain data that has the sources withheld?

Thank you to the House committee @cvasut for taking this issue seriously and holding a hearing that finally put these questions on the record. The community raised the conflict. The 990s showed the fees. The hearing forced an admission that had been denied locally.

The records still have not been produced. The public is still waiting.
@realmitchlittle @ShelbySlawson @EllenTroxclair

[Ronan Farrow @RonanFarrow]

Georgia audited its own data center tax breaks and found that the state gave up $474 million in sales taxes in one year—and got back just $41 million from the industry. At least 38 states have deals like this. (It's not clear whether all that money the state waived was needed to attract the construction: in Georgia's case, by the state's own estimate, 70% of the data center construction would have happened anyway.)

[Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 @FmrRepMTG]

To the GOP Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas: Please remove my name from the speakers list.

[Affordability Crisis @trackingcosts]

Since 1990, the cost of living in America has exploded.

- Home: $123K to $411K
- College: $1,900 to $29,600 a year
- Health insurance: $3K to $25K
- New car: $15K to $48K
- Rent: $450 to $1,600

Income didn't keep up

I will be exposing the system and what it did to America.

[Children’s Health Defense @ChildrensHD]

The Amish have made it clear. They do not co-parent with the government.

They would rather leave NY than surrender their right to make medical decisions for themselves and their families.

We stand with the Amish!

[Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 @jacksonhinkle]

It's completely insane to me that these people really get on TV to reveal their real-life supervillain schemes and the world just proceeds as normal

[Justin Keener @JustinKeener]

Do you prep clients to testify in front of a Lege hearing? Use this as a case study for what not to do. This kind of smart-assery is guaranteed to inflame the issue and bring greater scrutiny than just being straight with your responses. Kudos to @EllenTroxclair for pressing.

[Holly Hansen @hollyshansen]

Story: https://t.co/PkBwTiUBDs

[Holly Hansen @hollyshansen]

To clarify, Hillary Poole is Greg Poole's daughter- listed as the vice president of institutional business development at the company BHEF has used to invest at least $200 million.

[Holly Hansen @hollyshansen]

#Awkward #txlege Rep. @EllenTroxclair questions Barbers Hill ISD Superintendent Greg Poole

[Holly Hansen @hollyshansen]

In another exchange with Rep. Troxclair, Barbers Hill ISD Superintendent & director of the Education Foundation Greg Poole says that if Nathan Watkins did not disclose a conflict of interest "then he doesn't have one."

[RenéeinTX @reneeintx]

@MQSullivan @DonHuffines Jasper TX area citizens are eagerly awaiting @DonHuffines to send his auditors to look directly into Jasper City Hall, Municipal Electric, EDC, ISD, Special Districts & many non-profits that have been nontransparent for years & to get them all to comply to laws they work under.

[Renzo Downey @RenzoDowney]

.@ShelbySlawson pushes back on Bastrop Mayor Ishmael Harris’ explanation for why the City Council held a workshop in 100 miles away in Fredericksburg, with hot-button topics like Flock cameras and data centers.

#txlege

[Children’s Health Defense @ChildrensHD]

Remind us again, who’s spreading misinformation?