Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) this week blamed consumers who he suggested didn't "read the fine print" before being hit with massive energy bills during a recent winter storm.
In an interview on Fox News, Patrick responded to reports that consumers had seen bills as high as $17,000 to heat 900 square feet.
"I saw the story about the high bills," Patrick said. "Let me explain that. We have in Texas, you can choose your energy plan and most people have a fixed rate. If they had a fixed rate per kilowatt hour, their rates aren't going up."
"But the people who are getting those big bills are people who gambled on a very, very low rate," he continued. "But I've told those folks, do not panic. We are going to figure that out."
Patrick added: "But going forward, people need to read the fine print in those kinds of bills and we may even end that type of variable plan because people were surprised."
A federal judge has ordered former Vice President Mike Pence to give information to Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith about his conversations with former President Donald Trump in the days before the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — something Pence has been fiercely resisting, claiming that this information is privileged.
Speaking to anchor Erin Burnett on Tuesday, CNN legal analyst Paula Reid outlined how significant a development this is in the case.
"You also have some new reporting on the other situation here," said Burnett. "I'm going to talk about that special counsel. The DOJ federal judge ruling that Mike Pence has to testify about January 6th. Interestingly not about what happened on the day of January 6th, but about other things before that has to appear before that grand jury. So Pence himself was just asked about this ruling by the judge, right. He'd fought it. Here's what he said."
"How they sorted that out and what other testimony might be required?" Pence told Greta Van Susteren on Newsmax in the clip. "We're currently reviewing, but look, let me be clear. I have nothing to hide. I have a Constitution to uphold. I upheld the Constitution on January 6th. We're currently speaking to our attorneys about the proper way forward, and as I said, we'll have a decision in the coming days."
"So the special counsel moved on this aggressively," said Burnett. "What exactly do they want from Pence?"
"So this is a big win for the special counsel, because now they're going to be able to ask him about all his conversations with former President Trump in the leadup to January 6th," said Reid. "They're interested in this pressure campaign that Trump and his allies were applying on Pence not to certify the results of the election, in particular that call on January 6th, pretty heated call, that other witnesses have testified about. Now, the former vice president will have to answer questions about that. So this is a big, big win for the special counsel."
The citizens of Baton Rouge might have a bad taste in their mouths after learning that city official Michael Mastin was contaminating their drinking water, the Ascension Parish Sheriff's inmate database states.
Inside Edition is sounding the alarm about a 57-year-old Louisiana man caught urinating in the city's clean water supply at least twice.
Mastin is being charged with two felony counts of criminal damage to critical infrastructure and two felony counts of contaminating water supplies. He is currently out on a $25,000 bond.
"Mastin was allegedly seen in security footage leaving his office, turning the angle of the security camera, then urinating into the water supply, officials said in a statement shared with media alongsidesecurity footage," the report explained.
Still, the camera captured him dropping his trousers and relieving himself in full view. In one incident, he even looked directly into the camera as he did it.
"I am extremely disappointed, and I find this conduct disgusting and unacceptable," Ascension Parish President Clint Cointment said. "This type of behavior will never be tolerated in parish government.”
Mastin was fired on March 22 and taken into custody just hours later, the records reveal.
Authorities promise the citizens of Baton Rouge that their tests show the water quality is “in good standing and meets all safe water drinking requirements,” the statement read.
The audio indicates what is happening despite the lower half of Mastin being off-camera.
The mother of a 2-year-old daughter who was killed in a Mississippi tornado last week was at a hospital giving birth to her second child, CNN reports.
Dominique Green left 2-year-old Aubrey with her mother while she was on the way to a local hospital to give birth to her son.
Her mother was watching three other grandchildren — and two young children of her own — when the tornado tore the mobile home apart, the report said.
Aubrey was among 21 people killed over the weekend amid an outbreak of storms and tornados. Kaleb, an 8-year-old boy who was also at the mobile home, suffered a severe brain injury and as of Tuesday was on a ventilator at an intensive care unit.
JoAnn Winston, a neighbor in the mobile home park, said residents didn’t know what hit them.
“I heard something like a train … my older son was saying ‘Get down on the floor! get down on the floor!’” Winston said.
