(The Center Square) – In yet another reversal in an ongoing case against former U.S. Rep. Robert (Beto) O’Rourke, D-El Paso, the Fifteenth Court of Appeals has ordered that existing restraining orders already issued against him, his organization, Powered by People, and other groups remain in effect.

The case stems from O’Rourke, his group, and others raising millions of dollars for Texas House Democrats who left the state in opposition to a redistricting bill that passed the legislature and has now been signed into law.

The case was filed in Tarrant County District Court, 348th Judicial District, then appealed to the Fifteenth Court of Appeals, then an emergency filing was made with the Texas Supreme Court. Initially, Tarrant County Judge Megan Fahey issued a restraining order against O’Rourke and Powered by People, The Center Square reported. She later expanded it to include Act Blue, a Democratic Party online fundraising platform, and any other platforms or organizations they were working with that are transferring funds.

However, O’Rourke ignored the orders and continued to fundraise, prompting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to file a motion for contempt against O’Rourke, The Center Square reported.

Prior to a Sept. 2 hearing on the contempt motion, O’Rourke filed a mandamus petition with the Fifteenth Court of Appeals challenging Fahey’s orders.

In response, the appellate court halted the contempt hearing, effectively allowing Fahey’s orders to expire in an “historically unprecedented decision,” Paxton said. He then appealed to the Texas Supreme Court to reverse its decision.

In his appeal, Paxton points out that the appellate court requested his office respond to a 75-page petition in less than 24 hours, an “impossible deadline.” After his office filed a mandamus petition with the court, the appellate court issued an administrative stay of the Sept. 2 hearing “without providing the State an opportunity to respond,” he argued.

The court’s actions would have enabled O’Rourke to continue fundraising, “without even allowing the State to respond and prove to the court how he’s hurting Texans,” Paxton said. The appellate court’s ruling was an “insult to the people of Texas, an affront to our judicial system, and a disastrous precedent if allowed to continue without being reversed,” he added.

A week later, the appellate court reversed its ruling “to preserve this court’s ability to fully review” the original proceedings, it said in a one paragraph order. It also put back into effect Fahey’s orders issued against O’Rourke, Powered by People and ActBlue. It said her temporary restraining order and emergency temporary restraining order “shall remain in effect” until the appellate court reaches a decision.

Paxton said the reversal was “a welcome development.”

He also said House Democrats who left the state “abandoned Texas at the behest of financial backers who promised them money for fleeing the state and abdicating their responsibilities. Texas is not for sale, and Beto must face justice for his illegal bribery scheme.” 

The appellate court’s order prevents O’Rourke, Powered by People, and any of its institutional partners, including ActBlue, from removing any property or funds out of Texas.

O’Rourke said in a social media post that he faces criminal contempt charges, bribery accusations, his Texas-based assets have been frozen, and he and his organization have “racked up over $300,000 in legal fees” in the last two weeks of August.

He denies that he has broken any laws after he continued to fundraise and post videos of him doing so, including posting links to fundraising appeals.

He is also encouraging his followers and supporters to “continue the fight by whatever means necessary.”

(The Center Square) – State Sen. Bobby Hanig will enter the Republican primary for North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, hoping to defeat Rocky Mount Mayor Sandy Roberson and eventually second-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Don Davis.

Filing with the State Board of Elections is in December. Hanig has filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission. Roberson said he would run in April.

“I’m running because northeastern North Carolina deserves true conservative leadership that will fight for our community and the America first agenda,” he said in a release.

The seat was the most competitive between Democrats and Republicans in 2024 and figures to again be so in the 2026 midterms. Davis outlasted Republican Laurie Buckhout 49.52%-47.84%, winning by 6,307 votes of more than 376,000 cast.

Twenty-two counties are touched in the northeastern part of the state.

Hanig, R-Currituck, is a veteran of the Army. He has served the Board of Commissioners in Currituck County, and was in the state House of Representatives for two terms. By trade, he began as “the pool guy” and operates two businesses serving nearly 400 properties across the Outer Banks.

He’s chairman of the State and Local Government Committee, and serves as chairman within the Committee on Appropriations for General Government and Information Technology. He’s vice chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Local Government.

Four other assignments are Agriculture, Energy and Environment; Education/Higher Education; Regulatory Reform; and Transportation.

“I believe in President Trump’s America First Agenda and my record in the Legislature backs it up,” Hanig said. “I’ve cut taxes for North Carolina families, toughened border control in the state, stood up for life, and defended our Second Amendment rights.”

(The Center Square) – Federal agents made history by seizing the largest volume of precursors used to produce methamphetamine after interdicting two shipments from two ships on the high seas.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents working overseas seized more than 300,000 kilograms (nearly 700,000 pounds) from two ships that departed Shanghai, China. They were headed to Mexico to be used in clandestine labs run by the Sinaloa Cartel, federal authorities said.

“We intercepted them on the high seas and now the Sinaloa Cartel will not be able to use them to make methamphetamine,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Ferris Pirro said.

Because the Trump administration designated the Sinaloa Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, the designation “gave us the ability to move quicker and seize quicker,” Piro said.

The precursors were seized as part of the administration’s efforts to target terrorist organizations.

“Every day, tons of chemicals that are used to create synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl are shipped from China to Mexico in China’s undeclared war against America and her citizens,” Piro said. Those aiding and abetting the Chinese and Mexican cartels are providing material support to terrorism, she said.

The seizure is the largest volume of precursor chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine ever seized in U.S. history, authorities said.

By comparison, in fiscal 2024, CPB agents seized 78,925 kilos (nearly 174,000 pounds) of methamphetamine at the southwest border alone, according to CBP data.

Piro’s office obtained the seizure warrant under the terrorism forfeiture provision of federal law after Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated the cartels and others as foreign terrorist organizations in February.

It was the first time a warrant was issued for HSI agents to seize chemicals under a charge of material support for terrorism, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons said.

HSI international agents seized two shipments from the same vendor, including six shipping containers of benzyl alcohol, a solvent used to manufacture pharmaceuticals, weighing a combined 164,880 kilos (roughly 363,000 pounds). They also seized six shipping containers of N-methyl formamide, another liquid organic solvent, weighing 151,560 kilos (roughly 334,000 pounds), authorities said.

The chemicals could have been used to produce nearly 190,000 kilos (nearly 420,000 pounds) of methamphetamine, with an estimated street value of $569 million, Piro and Lyons said.

HSI international agents in Guatemala, Panama and Mexico worked closely with foreign law enforcement partners to consolidate shipments in Panama and divert them to the Port of Houston, Lyons said. Their efforts through HSI Operation Hydra prioritize interdiction and seizing precursors used to manufacture fentanyl and methamphetamine, Lyons said.

“Since President Trump took office, his number one priority has been to take weapons of mass destruction” off of American streets, Lyons said. “HSI Operation Hydra is unique from our other approaches to combating drug trafficking because it targets the supply line chemical precursors used to manufacture illicit narcotics rather than the finished products. As a result, it’s possible for HSI to prevent much larger volume of narcotics entering the international and the domestic drug supply lines.

“HSI used sophisticated analytical tools and techniques as well as our extensive investigative tools and our deep knowledge about cross-border trade to ensure that we identify these shipments before they got to any illicit hands,” he said.

HSI agents in Houston and others working in Operation Hydra continue to make “tremendous success to bolster our efforts to combat drug trafficking operations,” he added.

Once the shipment arrived in Houston, the chemicals were transported using two dozen 18-wheeler trucks from the Port of Houston to an HSI storage facility. Piro said the 1,300 barrels could have instead resulted in dead Americans killed by the chemicals inside of them.

“Whenever there is an effort on the part of foreign terrorist organizations to create drugs that are killing Americans we will seize them,” Piro said. “Whether it’s on the high seas or whether it’s in the [United States] or a foreign country. … We’re doing it in Washington, D.C. We’re doing it in Houston … and you never know where we’re going to be tomorrow.”