Neither Furr High School Principal Dr. Bertie Simmons nor her pool of supporters are willing to accept Houston Independent School District's dubious justification for her removal from the school last week, pending an investigation into the distinguished educator's alleged bad behavior. Namely, that the five-foot-tall, 83-year-old Simmons threatened a student with a baseball bat and failed to "relax" the dress code at the beginning of the school year.

So Simmons got a lawyer and, on Monday, filed a complaint with the U.S. departments of justice and education, alleging the true source of her sudden dismissal from school must actually be a cocktail of retaliation and age and racial discrimination.

As Simmons said at a press conference Monday, as for the alleged bat threat, she's been teasing her students at Furr for the past 17 years as principal, saying, "Don't make me go get my bat," which, she says, was given to her inscribed as a gift and which "I can hardly pick up," or, another example she gave, "Don't make me take off my earrings." And as for the uniforms: Simmons, who came out of retirement to take the reins at Furr in 2000, when the graduation rate was below 50 percent and "gangs ruled the school," said she simply did not want to let up on the uniform policy because she did not want to see gang members wearing their colors and starting fights again.

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Her attorney, Scott Newar, called the two allegations "ludicrous," saying that they were a pretext for a desire to simply replace Simmons with someone younger and non-white — reflective of the student body — while Simmons simply said the district's decision made her sad.

"The thing that saddens me is to see us make decisions that are not the best for our students. I’m 83 years old. I don’t have to be at Furr," Simmons said. "But I do care about those students and their families, and I want what’s best for them. This is not what’s best for them."

Announcing the federal complaints Monday, Simmons and Newar were joined by two of Simmons's colleagues who were also either removed or reassigned by HISD Friday — which Newar called a "Soviet-style purge" of her supporters. But, unlike Simmons, her colleagues were given no reason for the changes. There's at least one common thread, though: Each of them plays some key role in a $10 million grant awarded to Furr High School — and only Furr High School — in 2016 by Lauren Powell Jobs, the widow of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs. It's called the XQ grant, given to only ten schools in the nation.

Sharon Koonce, the project manager for the grant, got a phone call Friday evening from an HISD administrator, telling her not to bother showing up Monday and, at least temporarily, to stay off campus; since she's an hourly employee, she doesn't think she'll be getting paid in the meantime. Jean Obanda, an IT specialist at the school who headed various media projects related to the $10 million grant and worked directly with students, was transferred to work in an HISD warehouse. His family, he said, had directly witnessed the transformation at Furr thanks to Simmons's leadership: His sister graduated in the early 2000s, and he in 2010, and they had watched the school go from a haven for gang activity with a graduation rate of 47 percent to "a more friendly, peaceful place," Obanda said, with a graduation rate of 94 percent last year.

The style of Simmons is a big reason Jobs awarded Furr the grant — but, Newar says, it may also be a key part of the district's motivation to oust her: Back when Furr High School was awarded the grant money, HISD was told that the money could not be used district-wide at other schools — just Furr.

"The grant money is five years for up to $10 million, and Dr. Simmons and Ms. Koonce are the people responsible for that grant. Without them at Furr, the district has an open opportunity to gain control — or thinks it can gain control — of that grant money," Newar said. "At this point, we think there are multiple motives — but that's definitely one of them."

To Simmons, the whole purpose of the grant was to slice through bureaucracy in order to rethink education and discipline, whether through changes in how students use technology or the restorative discipline program, ensuring that no kid gets suspended for minor infractions like, say, uniform violations. Now, however, in Simmons's eyes, the district has shown just why it isn't cut out for those changes.

"We received this grant to rethink high schools, to make high schools what they should be in order to send off students who are prepared for the next century," she said. "And I just wanted to point out that this is why you can't rethink public high schools, is because of bureaucracy that gets involved and stops you from accomplishing what we need to be accomplishing for our students."

The XQ grant plays only a small part in the complaints sent to the feds on Monday, which focus more on alleged racial discrimination. In the complaints, Newar points to six white principals in the district recently replaced by Hispanic or black principals, saying that Simmons is supposedly next. He also points to comments by HISD Trustee Diana Davila, who reportedly said at a 2016 fundraiser event that HISD has “too many White administrators.”

In response to Simmons's complaint, HISD released the following statement: 

“HISD has an obligation to investigate when there have been allegations of misconduct. Dr. Bertie Simmons has been temporarily reassigned while HISD investigates the allegations. HISD will respond to the EEOC and the Department of Justice complaints filed on behalf of Dr. Simmons, and denies any allegations of a pattern and practice of discriminatory treatment against employees.”

HISD said it would not be making any further comment, citing personnel matters, leaving the sudden changes in Koonce's and Obanda's employment unexplained.

Ending weeks of speculation, Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday morning finally unveiled the full list of items Texas lawmakers will be allowed to focus on during the upcoming special legislative session set to begin Thursday morning.

“The 87th Legislative Session was a monumental success for the people of Texas, but we have unfinished business to ensure that Texas remains the most exceptional state in America,” Abbott said in a statement Wednesday accompanying his list of priorities.

Included in Abbott’s to-do list are passing the “election integrity” and bail reform bills he was furious that Democrats blocked in the previous session’s waning moments. He also threw in a few favors to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick by including his pet topics of forcing transgender Texan kids to only play for the school sports teams that match their biological sex at birth and stopping the alleged scourge of social media censorship of conservatives, two measures that failed to pass in the regular session.

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There’s nary a mention of the coronavirus pandemic in any of Abbott’s priority items. There’s also not a word about the state’s electric grid even though it ran the risk of buckling all over again two weeks ago when an unexplained series of power generator failures led the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to ask Texans to crank up their thermostats into the upper 70's lest their air conditioners lose power altogether in the June heat.

While Republicans were mostly mum about Abbott’s agenda Wednesday morning, Texas House Democratic Caucus chair state Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie quickly blasted Abbott’s list of priorities.

“The governor’s agenda for the special session shows he is more concerned with pandering to die-hard Trump supporters and right-wing extremists than he is with serving everyday Texans,” Turner wrote in a statement. “Abbott’s agenda proves one thing: he is clearly panicked about his upcoming primary election.”

"We have real crises in this state — hundreds of Texans died because the governor couldn’t keep the heat on last February, millions of Texans are still unable to access basic medical care and our COVID-19 vaccination rates have plummeted,” Turner continued. “That’s what a real leader would focus on.”

Abbott declared he would call the Texas Legislature back into town to work overtime as soon as the regular session concluded at the end of May with a dramatic late-night walkout from Texas House Democrats that killed the Republican-back slate of election reforms critics have called unjust voting restrictions, but which conservatives swore were all necessary reforms to prevent voter fraud.

He waited until June 22 to let lawmakers know they’d need to report to Austin’s pink granite Capitol building on July 8 to get back to work, and Wednesday's agenda announcement came just over 24 hours before the session is set to begin at 10 a.m. sharp Thursday.

After facing criticism from both parties for vetoing all the Legislature’s funding starting September 1, an unprecedented move Abbott made in a fit of rage after Democrats killed the Republican election bill, Abbott included re-funding the Texas Legislature as one of his special session agenda items.

While lawmakers’ salaries were never actually in jeopardy (their $600 a month paychecks are enshrined in the state constitution), they’ll now have the opportunity to make sure the hundreds of staffers who work within the Legislature will be paid after all, as long as lawmakers make progress on Abbott’s other priorities first, that is.

Some viewed Abbott’s Legislature funding veto as a bit of blackmail to convince state Democrats to show up for the special session in the first place, and to prevent a situation like during the 2003 redistricting saga when state Democrats fled to Oklahoma for weeks on end to try and delay the Legislature's Republican majority from drawing new political maps to their party’s benefit.

Bail reform got top-billing in Abbott’s agenda announcement, referencing the failed bill that would have made it harder for those accused of violent crimes to get released on cash bail ahead of trial. Next was “election integrity” legislation, the last version of which included provisions like banning Harris County innovations like 24-hour voting and drive-thru voting designed to make casting a ballot easier during the pandemic.

The controversial Republican bill also would have lowered the threshold for Texas judges to throw out election results in the future by allowing them to base the decision on simply the total number of votes suspected to be fraudulent with no requirement that the votes actually be counted to figure out which were cast for each candidate.

Abbott made sure to throw in an item on border security, requesting that legislators work on “providing funding to support law-enforcement agencies, counties, and other strategies as part of Texas’ comprehensive border security plan.” The charge to fork over more cash for protecting the border coincides with Abbott’s recent declaration that Texas will begin to build its own border wall, as long as the state can get enough funding from the legislature and from concerned residents from whom Abbott’s begged for donations.

In addition to Patrick’s “social media censorship” bill and his legislation targeting transgender youth sports participants all in the supposed name of “protecting girls sports," Abbott included a vague agenda item calling for more laws to ban so-called “critical race theory” from Texas schools, an academic philosophy conservatives are fearful is infiltrating classrooms across the state and is leading teachers to talk about things like systemic racism and the idea that some level of white supremacy is ingrained in certain United States institutions. Even though Abbott acknowledged the Legislature already passed a law targeting critical race theory in the classroom, clearly he thinks more needs to be done on the topic.

Speaking of the classroom, Abbott responded to backlash over his veto of a bill that would have required Texas kids to be taught about dating violence by including it in his list of special session topics to focus on, explaining that he’d support a new bill on the topic as long as the new law “recognizes the right of parents to opt their children out of the instruction.”

Rounding out the special session agenda are calls to put more limits in place for so-called “abortion-inducing drugs” to get into the hands of Texans, a request that legislators continue to tweak the Teacher Retirement System of Texas payout process by including supplemental one-time benefit checks to affected teachers, and a line-item about appropriating more state dollars to property-tax relief, the state foster-care system and state cybersecurity.

Abbott clearly doesn’t want the Legislature spending any more time on addressing issues with Texas’ power grid despite its deadly failures during February’s winter storm and the recent worries that early-June heat would be enough to cause power outages.

While he didn’t include anything about the grid in the special session agenda, Abbott did sent a letter to the Public Utility Commission on Tuesday ordering the advisory group to “take immediate action to improve electric reliability across the state” to “build upon the reforms passed” in the last Lege session that Abbott swore at the time fixed everything wrong with the grid.

In his Tuesday letter, Abbott asked the PUC to in turn ask ERCOT “to establish a maintenance schedule” for power generators, and requested that the PUC give added financial incentives to developing natural gas, coal and nuclear power while at the same time adding more financial penalties for renewable energy sources wind and solar power if they have trouble pumping out electricity during a crisis.

Past special sessions haven’t ended up addressing every single item the governor has laid out, so it’s likely not every one of Abbott’s priorities will be addressed during the 30-day session beginning Thursday. That said, there’s going to be at least one additional special session in the fall to start the redistricting process once the pandemic-delayed U.S. Census data gets delivered.

Along with redistricting, Abbott could always use the upcoming fall session as another opportunity to force state lawmakers to legislate on his demands, so he’ll have plenty more chances to twist the arms of legislators to get what he wants even if this soon-to-begin session doesn’t go according to plan.

Patrick, leader of the Texas Senate, didn’t immediately chime-in about Abbott’s agenda Wednesday. But Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan took to social media Wednesday morning to tell his colleagues they better be ready to get to work.

Abbott's full special session agenda proclamation is embedded below:

An explosive federal lawsuit against Harris County Precinct One Constable Alan Rosen and two other department officials alleges that Rosen’s office routinely held undercover “bachelor party” stings between 2019 and 2020 during which female deputies “were molested and traumatized by their intoxicated male commanding officers for their own sexual gratification.”

Now even the FBI has gotten involved, as the female deputies’ attorney Cordt Akers confirmed Thursday that federal investigators have issued subpoenas to his clients, indicating their investigation is underway.

"Our clients have been in full cooperation with the federal authorities into their investigation into the horrible misconduct in the Precinct One Human Trafficking Unit," Akers said in a statement. "The serious nature of these crimes deserves serious attention, and we are happy that this conduct will no longer go unchecked."

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These young female deputies, the lawsuit claims, were subjected to extremely inappropriate behavior from their drunken, handsy superiors posing as partygoers during undercover operations at local hotel rooms intended to entice sex workers to offer their services to the incognito officers so they could be promptly arrested, the lawsuit claims.

One human trafficking advocate within Rosen’s office who was disgusted when she learned of the “bachelor party” sting operations finally told her story to the Internal Affairs division within Rosen’s office after he and other county law enforcement leaders supposedly ignored her claims.

“On the very next day, she was fired,” the lawsuit reads.

The federal civil rights lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Southern District Court May 24 on behalf of four plaintiffs: Liz Gomez, Marissa Sanchez and Felicia McKinney, all deputies within Rosen’s office subjected to the humiliating undercover operations; and Jacquelyn Aluotto, the office’s human trafficking advocate who was fired after vocing her concerns about the inappropriate activity.

The suit was filed against Harris County, Rosen and Rosen’s direct deputies Chris Gore and Shane Rigdon. Gore was the mastermind behind the bachelor party sting efforts, and Rosen gave his blessing to go forward with them. During the undercover stings organized by Gore and Rigdon, hotel rooms would be rigged with hidden cameras and plainclothes deputies would have a fake party, rife with alcohol and all sorts of lewd behavior.

The lawsuit alleges female deputies recruited to assist in these stings like Gomez, Sanchez and McKinney were told they had to wear revealing clothing and were pressured to simulate sex with their male superiors. At times, the female deputies were forced to get naked in front of everyone in the room and their bosses, including Gore and Rigdon.

“Female deputies were ordered to purchase and wear revealing clothing for these operations,” the lawsuit reads. “Each of them was ordered that during these operations ‘to maintain cover’ Chief Gore would be lying down on top of them, fondling their breasts and bodied.”

“They were never warned, however, that during this conduct Chief Gore would be wearing only boxer shorts, fully aroused, drunk, kissing and licking their bodies, and giddy after every sting,” the lawsuit continued.

Akers alleged in a press conference that Rosen hadn’t just approved the stings. “Constable Rosen appeared at one of these operations personally,” Akers claimed.

In a statement, Rosen claimed that he “proactively instructed our Internal Affairs Division to conduct an investigation,” into the bachelor party stings once deputies started to complain, and that as a result, “We have suspended these types of operations as a result of our investigation.”

“While self-describing as a ‘second-chance guy,’ Constable Rosen and The County have shown that they are deliberately indifferent to the abuse suffered by these brave women and others,” the lawsuit read. “As such, this lawsuit has become necessary to bring accountability for the horrific ordeal of these young law enforcement deputies and ensure that their experience is never repeated.”

The full 40-page lawsuit is embedded below.

It was a dumb internet rumor that, like so many conspiracies these days, mushroomed into opinions and investigations and QAnon-worthy online discussions. It wasn't enough the Astros had been caught stealing signs assisted by the banging of trash can lids. It had to be worse. Thus began the theory that Jose Altuve, the leauge MVP in 2017, had worn some kind of electronic device or buzzer affixed to his chest to aid his hitting.

The conspiracy grew when he hit a series-winning walk-off home run against the Yankees in 2019. When mobbed at home plate, Altuve prevented his teammates from tearing off his jersey. He said he had been getting a tattoo and that he was worried he might embarrass his wife.

Fast forward to this weekend. The Astros, who struggled mightily against the Yanks at Minute Maid Park in this most recent series, watched Aaron Judge hit a walk-off homer in game two. As he rounded the bases, he trolled the Astros by opening his jersey to reveal his chest and, ostensibly, no buzzer.

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All that did was fuel more speculation online, but the Astros managed to get the last laugh in spectacular fashion. Down 7-2 in the ninth inning Sunday, the Astros scored three and put two on before Altuve came to the plate. The Astros second baseman proceeded to send a hanging slider into the Crawford boxes for another walk-off win.

When he reached home plate, his teammates ripped his jersey off leaving him bare chested as he celebrated with fans and the team.

Rarely does this kind of perfect symmetry happen in any part of life. The day before, Altuve was mocked by the Yankees' most recognizable player. The next day, he got his revenge.

Given the Astros recent struggles and the criticism they have taken for not sending any players to the All-Star game (all those selected as backups have chosen not to attend for injury and family reasons), a win like this takes them into the All-Star break with positive vibes and some legitimate momentum.

That clearly is more important than giving a metaphorical middle finger at the Astros haters out there in the form of a half-naked Jose Altuve parading around the infield after walking off the Yankees, but that doesn't mean it wasn't fun to watch.

To begin their first full-day of self-imposed exile in Washington, D.C., the Texas House Democrats who fled the state Monday afternoon spoke in front of the U.S. Capitol Tuesday to explain why they felt they had no choice but to skip town to prevent Texas Republicans from forcing through new election restrictions.

According to House Democratic Caucus Chairman Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, 57 House Democrats informed House leadership Tuesday morning they were out of state and requested that their voting machines be locked until their return, making it official that the 150-member House didn’t have the constitutionally required 100 members present to pass legislation.

Turner and his fellow Texas Dems say they plan to spend their time in D.C. to push President Joe Biden and Democrats in the U.S. Senate to move more aggressively to pass nationwide voting rights legislation that’s been held up for weeks due to opposition from Republicans and moderate Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Krysten Sinema of Arizona.

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“Our intent is to stay out and kill this bill this session,” Turner said, “and use the intervening time — I think 24 or 25 days now — before the end of the session to implore the folks in this building behind us to pass federal voting rights legislation to protect voters in Texas and across the country."

The House Democrats moved quickly to flee the state after Republican leaders in the state House and Senate moved quickly over the weekend in the early days of the recently begun special legislative session to force through their versions of “election integrity” bills, which increase penalties for voter fraud, add new hurdles for those wanting to vote by mail and outlaw Harris County innovations like drive-thru voting and 24-hour voting heavily used by minority voters.

Republicans swear those new rules are all in the name of making Texas elections fairer, but critics point out that Texas is just the latest conservative-led state to attempt to add voting restrictions after former President Donald Trump refused to concede defeat to Biden, and who has convinced a majority of Republicans that the 2020 election was stolen from him due to alleged voter fraud.

House Democrats similarly walked out to block what they viewed as civil rights-infringing voting restrictions at the end of the last legislative session in May, which prompted a furious Gov. Greg Abbott to immediately call for a special session of legislative overtime and to take the drastic step of vetoing all funding for the state’s legislative branch effective September 1.

Dallas state Rep. Rafael Anchía, leader of the House Mexican American Legislative Caucus, claimed Gov. Greg Abbott was to blame for the Democrats’ latest walkout effort.

“When you start the process in such a coercive way, when you say ‘I am going to be the absolute ruler of the state of Texas and defund the legislative branch,’ you have poisoned the entire process,” Anchía said. “We as Democrats, we were united. We said we are going to kill any undemocratic efforts in the state legislatures, and if that meant leaving the state, we were going to do it.”

“We are happy to work on bipartisan proposals that expand the right to vote, that make it easier to vote and harder to cheat in the state of Texas,” Anchia said, “but that is not what we saw even at the outset of this process." He swore that Texas Democrats wouldn’t allow the “Big Lie” that Trump didn’t really lose the 2020 election to allow Texas to join the ranks of other conservative states that restricted voting following Trump’s defeat.

Houston’s own state Rep. Senfronia Thompson put it even more bluntly. “The Republicans in this Legislature may have changed the Messiah from Jesus to Trump, but I haven’t,” she said.

“I’m gonna make sure that I do everything I can do so that my constituents’ rights will not be stripped from them because what [Republicans] believe in is a lie,” Thompson continued. “Trump lost the election, and they need to tell the people of this country the truth. And if they don’t, I’m going to.”

In a Monday night interview with Austin’s KVUE, Abbott urged House Speaker Dade Phelan to order that all the Democrats who fled the state be arrested by state law enforcement (which can’t happen until they’re back in Texas).

“In addition to that, however,” Abbott continued, “I can and I will continue to call a special session after special session after special session all the way up until the election next year.”

“As soon as they come back in the state of Texas, they will be arrested,” Abbott threatened. “They will be cabined inside the Texas Capitol until they get their job done.”

Dallas-area State Rep. Rhetta Bowers admitted she and her colleagues know “we are living on borrowed time in Texas, and [know that] we can’t stay here indefinitely to run out the clock to stop Republican anti-voter bills."

“That’s why we need Congress to act now,” she said.

When asked about what if any compromise from Republicans might convince the House Democrats to return to the Lone Star State to get back to work legislating, Turner said Abbott’s veto of legislative funding was the first hurdle to returning to the negotiating table in their view. Texas Democrats have asked the Texas Supreme Court to declare Abbott’s veto unconstitutional, and are still awaiting a decision on the matter from the state’s highest court.

“The first place to start would be for the governor to stand down on that, and then we can start talking,” Turner said.