Bought and Paid For

Bought and Paid For

What to know: The Justice Department has arrested two Mississippi sheriffs and 12 officers for providing protection for people they believed worked for drug cartels.

The TPPF take: The cartels and China continue to make inroads into the U.S., even as leftist judges attempt to block law enforcement efforts.

“The most dangerous battles now unfolding in the United States are not only fought with violence but with injunctions,” says TPPF’s Ammon Blair. “Lawfare has become the preferred weapon to dismantle immigration enforcement, disarm state sovereignty, and shield cartel networks from disruption. At the same time, the cartels themselves have adopted the tradecraft of foreign intelligence services by compromising law enforcement officers, soldiers, and public officials from within. These two campaigns, judicial warfare above and counterintelligence infiltration below, are converging into a single threat: the internal neutralization of the American defense system.”

For more on the cartels and their inroads, click here.

Local Spending

What to know: An Austin American-Statesman investigation shows extravagant spending on the part of Austin City Council members, even as they asked for a tax hike.

The TPPF take: Local spending is out of control—and worse than you realize.

“School districts in Texas have been funding political non-profits, advocacy organizations, and even politicians with billions in tax dollars for decades,” says TPPF’s Mandy Drogin. “These organizations then turn around and fund the politicians and political action committees that advocate for positions the schools support, such as boosting state funding, opposing school choice, eliminating accountability measures, and passing billion-dollar bonds.”

For more on local spending, click here.

Affordability