The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - April 8, 2022

Episode Date: April 8, 2022

This week on The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup,” the team discusses Gov. Abbott announcing voluntary bus rides for illegal aliens to Washington, D.C., Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick saying he’s “done with Disney,” the governor endorsing in GOP runoffs and how that support is at odds with his pro-school choice statements, the Chick-fil-A and San Antonio airport controversy making headlines once again, a state senator dropping out of her reelection bid, the City of Austin considering a $15 million contract for COVID-19 vaccine marketing, the lieutenant governor releasing the Senate’s interim charges, updates on the performance of community-based foster care, Texas lawmakers looking to crack down on drug trafficking on the “dark web,” the date set for a special emergency election, and a cartel leader facing punishment for international drug trafficking. Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on next week’s podcast.

Howdy howdy, Senior Editor Mackenzie Taylor here on the Texans Weekly Roundup Podcast. This week, the team discusses Abbott announcing voluntary bus rides for illegal aliens to D.C., Dan Patrick saying he's done with Disney, the governor endorsing in GOP runoffs and how that support is at odds with his pro-school choice statements, the Chick-fil-A and San Antonio airport controversy making headlines once again, a state senator dropping out of her re-election bid. The city of Austin considering a $15 million contract for COVID-19 vaccine marketing. The lieutenant governor releasing the Senate's interim charges. Updates on the performance of community-based

foster care. Texas lawmakers looking to crack down on drug trafficking on the dark web. The date set for a special emergency election and a cartel leader facing punishment for international drug trafficking. If you have questions for our team, DM us on Twitter or email us at editor at the texan.news. We'd love to answer your question on our podcast. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Why hello, everyone. I'm here with Isaiah Mitchell, Hayden Sparks, Daniel Friend, and Brad Johnson, recording another episode of our podcast. Brad, what is today? It is a very happy day.

Please tell us why. Well, first and foremost, it is opening day for the 2022 Major League Baseball season. And it also happens to coincide, thanks to the lockout that lasted a long time, coincide with the opening day of the Masters. So this is just a big day all around. And I know that each one of you cares a great deal about both of those things. You could not be more correct. I saw that you tweeted something in a gripe earlier about the Masters. Was there anything to do that?

Apparently not, but there was in the moments. And I just like to hate on ESPN because it's not the same ESPN that I grew up with where they just show sports highlights. It's all this other talking head programming that I don't care about. What is it that we equate you to? The old man yells at cloud. Isn't that what we think Brad is sometimes? Yeah, I'll take it. Yeah yeah there you go very but not today because it's opening day it's so it's a very good day and you're wearing your dodgers uniform which we're all so excited about wonderful you know you are consistent with that stupid joke thank you

that's what i like to hear well let's actually get to the news hayden let's talk about uh press conference that happened earlier this week what did governor Abbott announce in light of the Biden administration's upcoming end to Title 42 enforcement actions? There's going to be a delivery for Joe Biden soon in Washington, D.C., because Governor Abbott is responding to the federal government's announcement that the application of Title 42, which is the public health law that has been used to expel many illegal immigrants since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. He announced yesterday at a press conference in West Laco that illegal aliens would be sent to Washington, D.C. on charter buses at the expense of the state of Texas.

And it was later clarified that these illegal immigrants will be doing this on a voluntary basis. In other words, these are bus rides that illegal aliens will have to agree to take from Texas to Washington, D.C., where they will be dropped off first on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, according to the governor. That was one of the measures that the governor announced. There are a couple others. The Texas Department of Public Safety will also be conducting enhanced safety inspections, in the terms that they used, of vehicles coming from Mexico. The governor said that this would cause a little bit of a traffic jam down there in South Texas. I don't know if a little bit is the right word. It might be a lot of a traffic jam. I'm not sure. But Director Steve McCraw of DPS indicated that the agency does not need probable cause to

perform commercial vehicle safety inspections on vehicles coming through from Mexico. And the governor said there should be no constitutional issues involved in this that could be validly raised. Although he did predict that there will probably be lawsuits in connection to his announcement yesterday, he believes they are unlikely to be successful. So in terms of the safety inspections and the buses of illegal immigrants going to DC, there will also be National Guard preparations here in Texas. Major General Thomas Sulzer of the Texas National Guard indicated that residents in the Anzaldus Bridge area, Eagle Pass, Del Rio, and Laredo, as well as Zapata, should expect increased military activity as the Guard performs what the governor called mass migrant rehearsals.

They'll be using riot gear and other materials to prepare for the possibility of violence by caravans of illegal aliens coming to the border. And of course, we're not talking about unaccompanied children or family units, but the possibility of violent criminals being involved in these caravans. And there will be additional lighting at night in certain portions of the Rio Grande and other personnel in the Rio Grande Valley guarding areas that are high in smuggling activity. So Abbott is essentially doubling down on a lot of things that Operation Lone Star has already been doing, and then announcing these voluntary bus trips to D.C. by illegal aliens. Yeah, so now let's talk about how much of an impact these actions will have on illegal immigration. Certainly, this was a flashy headline. It's an exciting press conference, the fact that there would be

buses of illegal aliens being transported to the steps of the US Capitol. I mean, it was crazy. Very fascinating to watch this be rolled out. But what kind of policy impact might this have on illegal immigration as a whole? I got to say on that point, Mackenzie and I were talking in the document when I was drafting this article, we were both like, this is just bizarre. It's an interesting political development. And Abbott said this yesterday, and I haven't heard anything like it, but it's obviously very theatrical having illegal immigrants being bused to DC. I'm not sure, you know, he stated a tactical purpose for this other than drawing attention to this issue by

Congress. We know that Congressman Chip Roy, who I spoke with last Friday, has called on Abbott to shut down the border. Of course, that's tactically and legally a questionable request because immigration is the federal government's purview. But what Congressman Roy contended is that while it is hard to shut down the border or to, at the state level, stop illegal immigration, he believes it's time for Abbott to confront the federal government in a more dramatic and less careful way. And Abbott has been facing increased political pressure. So when we say how much of an impact will this truly have, I obviously can't say for

sure what impact it'll have, but there are definitely political angles to this. Representative Matt Schaefer, who is arguably one of the most conservative state lawmakers, said these are his words, quote, it's a gimmick. The bus rides would be offered to immigrants on a voluntary basis. Sorry, folks, this is a stunt to grab a quote tough on the border headline. And on the other side of the aisle, Representative Gina Hinojosa, who's a Democrat from Travis County, said that Abbott, quote, has no interest in actually governing, end quote. And Congressman Roy, who I talked about a second ago, didn't seem particularly impressed by this announcement, either referencing the fact that they would be voluntary. And just to add on to

that, these individuals will need to have documentation from DHS in order to board the bus. So they'll have to pass through the federal government. In other words, they'll be apprehended, released, and then the illegal immigrant in question will have to agree to go on this bus trip to Washington, D.C. And this morning, Governor Abbott said on Fox News that otherwise it would be kidnapping is the way that he characterized it. So I can't say what tactical benefit this will have. It could draw attention to the issue and the feds could ramp up their response. Perhaps some of the National Guard activities increased on the border or some of these safety inspections will have a deterrent effect and it will increase

detection of smuggling activities. Beyond that, that'd be a policy question that we will have to see the results of in the future. Certainly. Well, Hayden, thank you for running this through all of those details. Can I add one thing? Of course. Didn't we see Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced this morning something similar, or at least say in an offhand comment that he was going to send them to Delaware, I believe, right, Daniel? Yeah, it looked like he was having a press conference on something not quite related. He didn't have a press conference specifically announcing this like Abbott did,

but he made an offhand comment that he would want to send immigrants to Delaware, which is Biden's home state. So I think we'll see more states doing this, at least red states. Very, very interesting. Yeah, I can see how this might become a political bandwagon that folks in red states or governors in red states are jumping on. Well, Brad, let's continue to talk about the governor. He has gotten involved in some GOP runoffs here in Texas, endorsing eight candidates. Who are they? So they are in order of House District, Justin Barry in HD19, Patrick Gerski in 23,

Caroline Harris in 52, Representative Glenn Rogers in HD 60, Ben Bumgarner in 63, Jamie Jolly in 70, Baron Castile in 73, and Laura Hill in 93. Some of these are new candidates that have never run for anything before. A couple of them are repeat appearances on the governor's endorsement list. Glenn Rogers was endorsed by the governor in 2020 when he was running for his first term in that position. And then Justin Barry, who at the time was running in HD45, he was endorsed by Governor Abbott in the GOP runoff back then as well in 2020. So,

two names that appeared more than once on this. Something else that's notable is that Bumgarner, he's a Flower Mound city councilman. He's facing Jeff Younger, whose son James has been the subject of the custody fight in which his mother says the boy is transgender. Jeff, the father, has been critical of Abbott and the Texas legislature writ large for not passing legislation prohibiting gender transition procedures for children. So that that in itself is not really a surprise of the governor coming down on Bumgarner's side on that fight. But yeah, those are the array of endorsements for these runoffs specifically. Now, all of those races, the governor had not previously endorsed before the primary. He issued his own slate of endorsements then, many, many incumbents, Republican incumbents. But each of these were races that

he had yet to endorse so now some of these endorsements show some conflict with abbott's previous statements on school choice and his support for school choice particularly in light of the next legislative session being a year away which is crazy to think about tell us about that whole deal yeah um you know i'm sure you can find some of these inconsistencies on other issues as well but school choice is one that sticks out the most um just because of abbott's emphatic statement back in january uh this upcoming session you're going to see a stronger swifter more powerful movement advocating school choice than ever in texas history um you know for, of, now I should define school choice. Broadly,

it's a voucher system where parents, if they want to move their child from one school to another, they can take the tax dollars that they pay to that school in their zip code to the alternative that they're moving their child to. And so, you know, this push comes, we're seeing it through multiple state legislatures. Obviously, Texas is not in session right now, so they can't touch on it at the moment, unless the governor wanted to call a special session, but that's not going to happen.

And so we're seeing this push as a result of a couple things. COVID shutdown orders of 2020 and 2021, where kids were out of school for long periods of time and stuck on Zoom school, which proved to be very ineffective in many respects. Also, you see curriculum. This is a result of curriculum items such as the ongoing critical race theory fight in schools um and the stuff about sexual orientations and talking about that issue that type of thing with um children and so uh that's kind of what's driving this this push across the nation but on school choices likelihood in Texas, Abbott obviously indicated that he thinks

that it has a shot. But with these endorsements, at least a few of them are on the other side of that. They would not support such a voucher system. Such as Representative Rogers and Kyle Casale on College Station.

Both of them explicitly oppose it. Rogers released a statement in the Brownwood News on Sunday, this past Sunday, explicitly calling it a Trojan horse to privatize education. And then Casale said back in 2020 that he opposes vouchers flat out both of them have gotten support from teachers unions rogers has been endorsed by the american federation of teachers and casal was endorsed by the texas state teachers association they're not the only ones among these endorsements that have been endorsed by AFT. Both Baron Castile and Justin Berry were originally endorsed by AFT, but neither of them are on the endorsement site currently. Berry told me that he had declined the endorsement from the American Federation of Teachers.

So there's that. And so it's just the governor is talking about how school choice, he thinks it's going to have a really good shot. It at least indicates that he has an intention of signing something if it gets to him, but also on the flip side, endorsing candidates on this specific issue that do not share his opinion on it now obviously there are a litany of issues that the governor uh wants to pass in the next session and so as republicans they generally align more with abbott anyway but we're talking about a primary runoff fight here um so it's just on this, particularly in the moment that we're in and how big this has become, um, it's certainly notable, uh, but we'll see whatever happens in these runoffs,

whoever assumes these positions in office, um, we'll see how it affects whatever comes down the pike on, you know, school choice in the 88th legislature. Certainly. So talk to us a little bit about what the governor has said previously about this issue. Yeah. So he has that statement that I read off. He also has released a parental bill of rights, which imitates and builds upon the parental rights already in the Texas Education Code. Now, also, he wants to cement at least some of them, if not all of them, in the Constitution. That way it's harder

for the legislature or future legislatures to repeal them. But the plan does not include vouchers. And so the specific plan that he's put out and the statement about school choice, at least if what he means by school choice is vouchers, then there's another disconnect there. But also another probably kind of hit to the chances of school choice legislation next session. Neither the House nor the Senate interim charges have a

voucher system as something that the leaders in those chambers want to study and explore ahead of the next session. And these interim charges generally serve, it's not uniformly the case, but generally serve as a roadmap to what priorities in each respective chamber are going to be next session. But all that said, that does not mean that a school choice bill will not go through. I don't remember constitutional carry being in the, or something like that being in these interim charges. It may have been, but that passed. And so we'll just have to see how things develop once the legislature reconvenes next year.

Certainly. Well, on the topic of interim charges, Daniel, let's talk about that. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick released those charges in the Texas Senate this week. What does this mean? So like Brad was just kind of explaining, in between two regular sessions, which happen just for a few months every other year, there is an interim in the legislature. During that period of time, the lieutenant governor and the House speaker issued these interim charges to members and committees saying, these are the issues that we want you to look at during the interim. The committees will often hold hearings in this time period.

It was interesting during the previous interim, of course, we had the pandemic, and so there was a lot less happening during the interim. This time, it looks like there's going to be a little bit more stuff. There's already been some hearings this week on different issues. And I'm sure that we'll see many more hearings coming throughout the rest of this year. But essentially, that interim period gives lawmakers a chance to review the effects of laws they've passed previously, as well as looking forward ahead to the potential legislation in the future. Yeah. So what were some of the big items in the lieutenant governor's charges? So some of the big items that I saw, and there were 84 in total, and I think the lieutenant governor even said that he might be adding some more this weekend as well.

So it could change a little bit. But some of the big ones that I noticed, of course, we're looking back at legislation that we've passed, that the legislature passed in the previous session. Specifically, two big ones came up in the State Affairs Committee, the Heartbeat Act, which was the abortion bill, and then also the Election Integrity Protection Act, which was the big GOP election reform bill that they passed in the fall. So reviewing those two pieces of legislation is something that the State Affairs Committee will do. Other big topics, like Brad mentioned, they have a lot of they've put a lot of emphasis on parental rights in education. Also, in the Senate, there's going to be some more focus on higher education stuff, including tenure, which Lieutenant Governor mentioned last month, as well as looking at CRT. That was a big issue looking at that and more of the secondary and secondary schools. I don't remember the definition of the lower grade schools, not the not the college people. But now he's put this in the higher education committee looking at CRT stuff. is potentially developing another alternative in addition to the permanent university fund, which of course is the big fund that the state has that basically finances UT and Texas A&M.

Another thing that caught my eye was some focus on investments, specifically stuff dealing with Russia divestment, as well as looking at legislation to kind of work within the public pensions to make sure that we're not furthering, quote, political or social causes with those investments. So those are some of the notable things that I saw. Yeah. Yeah. Now, what were what were notable items that you saw missing? So like Brad mentioned earlier, one of the big things, of course, is school choice. I think we're seeing a little bit of an effort from the lieutenant governor and the governor to really reframe school choice as this parental rights stuff, which is similar to the bill that

was passed in Florida, which got a lot of attention in the news for one of its provisions to prohibit discussion about sexuality for lower grade levels like kindergarten through third grade. So there's going to be a lot of emphasis put on parental rights education, but not so much on actual traditionally understood school choice measures like voucher programs. Another thing that was notably missing was really anything to do with all the gender issues. Of course, we had the protecting women's sports in high school in the last previous sessions. And there's been talk about trying to do that at a college level, but there was nothing about that in these interim charges. There was nothing about that in these interim charges. There was nothing about prohibiting puberty blockers for children, stuff like that. Nothing on that issue.

And then there wasn't anything on either reviewing constitutional carry that had passed last session or any other gun-related legislation. I'd like to add one thing in the things that was included. Something really notable was exploration of eliminating the maintenance and operations rate in the school district property taxes. That is the largest component of the largest section of property taxes. And so we've seen in the last two times the legislature buy down rates to try and stem the growth of them. Well, if they go through with eliminating the M&O rate, that would, you know, this is back in the napkin math, but I think it would actually legit cut property taxes. The actual taxes that people pay.

Yes. Like the amount that you see on your tax bill, because it is such a large component of what you pay every year on your tax bill. So, you know, it's just in one chamber and that's a very ambitious goal to just in one chamber's interim charges. It's a very ambitious goal, but that's something that as we've seen, especially appraisals rise and rise and rise, local officials still not adopting the no new revenue rate. I think it's slowly kind of snowballing into some sort of some momentum within the legislature, but that doesn't mean it'll get across the finish line. Yeah, very good. Daniel, on the campaign side of things, the lieutenant governor has also made some news this week. Talk to us about what that was about. So the headline in his own email to supporters was, quote, I'm done with Disney, in all caps with an exclamation point at the end.

And essentially, he was just criticizing the Walt Disney Company for its opposition to the Florida bill that I mentioned earlier. And he was encouraging supporters to stop supporting the company, whether that's by not purchasing their products, not watching their movies, not going to the parks, or even pulling their investments from the company as well, the stocks that they had. He even said in his email that he sold his stocks in Disney, even though he didn't have too many, but he said that he sold them. So that was something that's notable wading into that debate in light of the company's opposition to the bill, as well as some other things that have come out about the company with some of the higher-up officials in the business promoting what he calls the woke agenda, kind of more of the left LGBTQ talking points. Yeah, certainly. Now, how could his position translate to policy changes in the state?

So there were two specific ways, one of them that he explicitly said, and then another one that he kind of has danced around, but it seems that he's kind of alluding this. So the first way is explicitly saying that he wants a bill likeuding this. So the first way is explicitly saying that he wants a bill like Florida's. So that really clarified what he meant when he included that interim charge about parental rights in education. So that is something that he's actively asking senators to look at, is how can we pass legislation like this that gives parents a greater say in what goes on in the classroom and a little bit more, I guess, checks and balances between parents and schools. Then the other thing that is possibly going to be something that they explore is pulling

investments from public pension funds in companies like Disney. I mentioned that earlier that investments was one of those items in the interim charges. And so this is something the state, I think Brad did some crunching of the numbers. It was what, 93 million basically in public funds. Now that can fluctuate based on Disney stock price, but at the time it was $93 million in stocks owned by Texas pensions. Yeah. So possibly divesting stuff there, looking for ways to do that is something that he might also be exploring. Very interesting. Well, thanks for following that for us, Isaiah.

Chick-fil-A is back in the news. It has been three years, you know, three years ago that the San Antonio City Council voted to remove Chick-fil-A from the airport. That was one of the biggest stories at the time. It's crazy. We're still talking about it. And the Supreme Court of Texas just issued a decision on the lawsuit against the city that followed. Remind us of the law that passed that year and tell us what the court decided.

Right. So, as you mentioned, it feels weird that it was three years ago. It seems like that's a really long time. I know. But the San Antonio City Council voted to remove Chick-fil-A. Then-Councilman Roberto Trevino was very clear about the motive behind that being Chick-fil-A's donations to various Christian groups, which he saw as a sign of opposition to homosexual behavior. And so that was a driving force behind the vote. San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said that there was also an economic motive since they were closed on Sundays.

So around the time that just before this vote was taken, this bill was filed that was eventually dubbed colloquially the Save Chick-fil-A Bill. And we'll get to the exact text of the bill real quick because, as always, that is kind of important to this. But the general idea is that government entities like cities, for example, may not punish, take any adverse actions, what it says, against people or groups based on their contribution or support for religious organizations, things like that. So, but the thing is that this law took effect months after the actual council vote. So the

lawsuit that followed against the city is kind of uh kind of interesting for one chick-fil-a is not a party in this lawsuit they're not involved in it at all it's these five guys that live in the san antonio area who's uh who claim that they're suffering the damages of a thwarted desire for chicken sandwiches at the airport and so they're suing kind of on behalf of Chick-fil-A. But the vote itself was legal at the time, at least under this law. Two of the justices floated the idea

that it might not have been legal under the Texas and American constitutions, but under the safe Chick-fil-A law that took effect, that didn't take effect until months afterward, right? And so instead of focusing on the vote, they say that they're suing over continuing activity to exclude Chick-fil-A that the city engaged in after the law took effect. So that's what's going on. But the text of the law that's important is that it's, what it prohibits is that it says

a governmental entity may not take any adverse action against any person based wholly or partly on the person's membership in, affiliation with, or contribution, donation, or other support provided to a religious organization. So that's what's actually illegal under this law. To bring action under the law, litigation, it says a person may assert an actual or threatened violation as a claim or defense in a judicial or administrative proceeding and obtain relief and so forth. So not the actual decision. The court ruled that the five guys who were suing did not claim that there's ongoing religious discrimination after the law took effect. So that was the majority opinion on this. There were two justices, Justice Blacklock and Devine, who dissented and said that the law only requires these guys to show the threat of future violation to validate the case. So it's one thing they're arguing, the dissenters, to violate the law, but to actually open up the case in the

first place, plaintiffs would only have to show proof of the threat of future violation. And so in other words, the majority of the court was not convinced that these guys had shown enough evidence of religious discrimination after the law's effective date. And the dissenters, two of them, were convinced that their evidence showed a continuous and ongoing discrimination, or at least a threat of future discrimination. Right. And so we've got the opinions in the bill and everything linked in the article, so you

can go check it out. But it's an interesting case. Yeah, absolutely. And interesting to see it back in the news three years later. Right. Thanks for breaking it down for us. Hayden, there was an announcement this week from a sitting state senator. Tell us about Senator Beverly Powell's announcement ending her campaign.

Well, Senator Powell is in a district, Senate District 10 in Tarrant County, that was redrawn by Republicans during the redistricting session to favor a Republican challenger who is Representative Phil King. what she called an unwinnable race, and she did not want to continue to ask her supporters to donate to a campaign and to work for a campaign that she was bound to lose. So the presumptive winner of Senate District 10 is Phil King. Of course, there's always a possibility that an independent candidate could swoop in and win the race, but that's unlikely. So the likely next Texas Stateas state senator for that district in sd10 will be representative phil king wow exciting stuff happening up in north texas always interesting to watch these seeds kind of readjust after redistricting brad the austin city council recently rescinded each of its coronavirus emergency orders but they're not moving on from

the issue entirely what did they consider this week? So as we are talking at the moment, Austin City Council is in their meeting this week about a bunch of things, but one of the more notable issues is a five-year, $15 million contract for vaccine outreach marketing services. It would entail spending on broadcast digital and social media platforms.

Basically, it is an effort to get people to get vaccinated, whether it's the first, second or booster shot um and uh austin continues especially its officials especially continue to really emphasize that mayor steve adler was apparently just recovered from coronavirus and um he touted the fact that he was vaccinated quite a bit about it. And so eight firms placed bids for this project, and the one awarded the contract is Sherry Matthews Group, which also did work on the New York City Vaccine for All campaign. The city has previously tried to incentivize vaccination by giving out $100 gift cards. They're throwing a lot of money at this this is an austin not even though the firm worked for the new york campaign this is a an austin-based

firm right yeah okay they have offices in multiple states but appears that austin is their main one headquarters um now i did see right before we started recording that the issue um it was on the consent calendar which means that there wasn't gonna be much debate they would just like adopt it and that's how these things tend to go um usually but uh councilwoman mackenzie kelly pulled it from that and so there's actually going to be discussion on it. I would bet that they still adopt it because Austin votes are probably there, especially for something like this. But we'll see. And yeah, a $15 million contract to do basically messaging on vaccinations.

Yeah. Interesting. Particularly in light of all the other budgetary decisions that the city has made in the last several years, particularly in relation to its police department. Police departments and the homeless situation, throwing all kinds of money at that. They're not afraid to just throw money at a problem

and see if it works. Now, the police budget, to be fair, redirection was $150 right yeah so this is a 10 10 of that number that was redirected yeah i mean when you're talking about something as big as that it's not not that large but um you know i would make it similar i would equate it not equate it exactly but compare it to the uh critical race theory training that the council purchased for the police department. And that was, I think, like three million roughly. So this is five times that. But, yeah, this will likely get passed, likely get approved as these things tend to do in Austin.

Certainly. Certainly. Thank you, Bradley. Isaiah, we've been hearing a lot of bad news about the Texas foster care system, but data is showing some good news as well. Tell us a bit about the community-based care and how it's improving. Right. So community-based care is a model of foster care that Texas is currently phasing in, and a gradual implementation model across the state. The way that they call the older system, the legacy system, as they call it,

the way that works is the Department of Family and Protective Services is the one tasked with placing children, managing their cases, and so forth. And under community-based care, these tasks instead go to contractors who can be nonprofit groups or governmental entities, but so far are all nonprofit groups. And they each have their own little sections of the state. So this is active right now in four of these sections, and they call them catchments. And the rest of the state is under the legacy care system. So we're able to compare how these two parallel systems are working now i shouldn't say parallel because they do work together but um these two different models are working so they also come out with uh dfps puts

out reports on cbc twice a year it's new it was authorized in 2017 so there aren't years and years of data to look at. But in this article, we compare the most recent report that came out with the one that came out from the second most recent one. I was trying to remember the word for that. It's a good thing remembering words is not my job. So, but, and, and in these reports, when we compare the data, we see some marginal, but positive improvements on a lot of different metrics. So most of these metrics have to do with placing kids. And that just means putting kids in living arrangements. And that could be a foster home or residential treatment center or so forth. So for example, just to pull one of these metrics out of my hat, the stability of placements is one criterion that they use. So ideally, since a child should thrive in a single living arrangement

and avoid repeated moves, they measure placement stability by the number of placements per child, and you want that number to be lower. You want to get it down to one. You place a child in one place, and the child thrives there. We've got data for three of the contractors that I mentioned, three areas of the state. There is a fourth one that I said is active, but the data is still very new on that one, so it's not adequate for comparison at this point. All of the three that we have data for reduce the number of placements for child since the time of the second-to-last report.

So they averaged 1.4 placements for child in the most recent one and 1.7 before that. So going down is, as I said, that's good. I'm speaking well. Thank you, too. is, as I said, that's good. I'm speaking well. But yeah, so to look at another metric, the percentage of children that they put in safe placements is naturally paramount. And there was one of these community-based care contractors that actually got 100%, which is the goal. And for this particular metric, they say anything below 100 needs to be urgently improved. And so they take that very seriously. And as I said, one of them achieved 100 of the most recent report, and the other two improved on that metric from the second

most recent report. So the two metrics that worsened were preparation for adult living. There are these courses that they have the kids take to prepare them for adult living. There are these courses that they have the kids take to prepare them for adult life. And the share of kids, the percentage of kids that complete this kind of readiness training decreased for some of these community-based care contractors. And the second metric that worsened was caseworker turnover. That was actually pretty stark for a couple of them.

The share of caseworkers that they have really increased quite a bit in some cases by double digit points, percentage points. And anyway, we've got this data linked in the article. You can take a look at it. Yeah, very good. So from a 30,000 foot view, is community-based care performing better or is it performing worse than the legacy system? So the data says that it's mostly worse. But a closer look at the data demonstrates wide variance between these contractors. And so this breadth of difference can make it difficult to compare the legacy system to community-based care because you've got, for example, one contractor that does really well and one that does very poorly in a particular metric. And that dynamic might change for a different metric. But whichever one you pick, you've got one that might be bringing the average down for the whole CBC model, right? So for in 2022, the non CBC model outpaced the CBC model in the percentage of

children placed near their original homes. So that is one metric. That's something they try to do is like place kids within 50 miles of their removal location where they got pulled from. And that's just one metric where overall the legacy system performed better than the community-based care system, at least in the most recent data. That also applies to the number of days that kids spend in family settings and the share of children who do not experience abuse and neglect while in foster care, amongst some other metrics. But like I said, in some cases, it's possible that you've got some contractors that drag down the overall community-based care average, and that can occlude the high performance of other contractors that sometimes do better than the legacy system. So, for example, children in paid foster care managed by Belong, which is the newest active contractor in the CBC system. Belong, they manage the Hill Country area. They spent about 90% of their days in family settings. And the statewide non-CBC average for that metric was just 83%.

So to trim that down, kids in this one particular community-based care model spent 90% of their days in a family setting in paid foster care. And that metric was significantly lower for kids around the state. And lastly, one thing that makes it difficult to interpret the data tit for tat is that there are far more children in the legacy system than in the community-based care model. And to give you a sense of that scale, there were a little less than 17,000 children placed in the Texas foster care system in the first quarter of this year. And just 4,300 of those were placed in a community-based care arrangement. So you've got

a big difference in the sheer volume of children that you're working with in these two systems. Certainly. Well, thanks for breaking that all down for a certainly complicated issue. Hayden, a bill was brought to light this week by some Texas lawmakers. What are some of the policy changes that were proposed in this dark web legislation introduced by Gonzalez and Cornyn? This is a very, very dark bill, Mackenzie. Sorry, I had to include at least one cheesy joke. This legislation would require the federal government to study the role of virtual currency

in the drug trade it would also expand a federal agency called j code and make that permanent this agency is responsible for investigating criminals who are engaging in illegal activity on the what is known as the dark web i do not I do not know a lot about the dark web other than I know there is software that you can use to access the internet and remain anonymous, at least according to the bill's summary and findings. And the legislation mentioned J-code. The agency actually announced in October of last year that they had arrested about 150 accused criminals or that their work with other governments around the globe had resulted in the arrest of 150 accused criminals who were trafficking in illegal narcotics on the dark web. And the legislation, the press release announcing the legislation made a specific mention of opioids and the opioid epidemic in the United States. Very good. Now, in terms of opioids, how much fentanyl had been seized through February of this fiscal year. And of course,

fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. And then 11,200 pounds were confiscated in fiscal year 2021. And according to the DEA, a lethal dose of fentanyl is about two milligrams. So a person does not need to ingest a lot of this substance in order to potentially be killed. So, you know, a lot of people say that the Fed's taking action on drugs has not worked in the past and expanding federal agencies may not work. But the aim of this legislation is to fight the opioid epidemic and trafficking in narcotics on the dark web. Very good, Hayden. Thank you. Daniel, after Philmon Vela's abrupt retirement from Congress, there will now be a special election to fill his seat. Give us a quick rundown of that development.

Using his disaster act powers in light of his COVID-19 and border crisis disaster declarations, Governor Abbott issued a non-uniform special election date for June 14th to fill the remainder of Vela's term through the end of this year. The election for Texas's 34th congressional district will be held under the old map instead of the new one, which still leans towards Democrats, but it's much more favorable toward Republicans than the new district. The Republican nominee for the new boundaries, Mayra Flores, is actually running for the seat in this special election with also the support of the Texas GOP chair and vice chair. But the Democratic nominee is actually a current congressman in Texas's 15th congressional district and will not be running in this special election. So that kind of gives an upper hand to Republicans.

At least one Democrat, Cameron County Commissioner Dan Sanchez, is running for the special election, as is another Republican, Gregory Kunkel, who actually placed third in the primary for the new seat. Wow, what a rundown. Daniel, thank you. Hayden, let's go back to the border really quick before we get on to additional topics for this podcast. Who is the cartel leader that got busted and what sanctions is he facing? Jose Cardenas Martinez is facing life in prison and a $10 million fine. So just a little bit of pocket change there. The 42-year-old is accused of international drug trafficking, and he is the head of the Gulf Cartel, according to the federal government. His predecessor was also convicted and is awaiting to be sentenced to prison. Cardenas Martinez's uncle was the cartel leader two leaders back and is in federal prison in the United States.

Cardenas Martinez is in custody in Mexico and is awaiting extradition proceedings. Well, extradition proceedings are underway and he has not been extradited as of this announcement. His indictment was in November in Brownsville, but authorities announced his indictment just recently. So another takedown of a cartel leader by the United States federal government. Very good. Well, Hayden, thank you. Well, gentlemen, let's pivot to Twitter and talk about some notable tweets from the week. This is a fun little recurring segment. Brad, we're going to start with you. What do you have for us this week? The one from the Defend Texas Liberty PAC, that is former state rep Jonathan Stickland's political action committee. They polled the three GOP statewide races in runoffs. It had Paxton at 59%, Bush at 30% in the AG's race, Buckingham at 42%, Tim Wesley at 18% in the Land Commissioner's race,

and then Wayne Christian at 50% in Sarah Stogner at 24% in the Railroad Commission race. Now, notably, the PAC has endorsed Paxton, Buckingham, and Christian in their respective races. That drew some criticism, but with the poll Daniel will talk about in a minute, we see a pretty comparable result. But I think even more notable than that is this projection of the 2024 presidential race in Texas. Unsurprisingly, it had, with Trump on the ballot, Trump was leading 46% above the field. You had Ron DeSantis, Florida governor, at 20%, Senator Ted Cruz at 8%, and Governor Abbott at 6%. So that's fairly chalk-like. That's

not really raising any eyebrows. But when Trump is removed from the equation, you see Ron DeSantis actually take an even bigger lead or yeah, an even bigger lead than Trump did in the first question. DeSantis was at 48%, followed by Ted Cruz at 19%. Then former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley at 13%, Abbott at 10%, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem at 3%. It is obviously very early in this. We haven't even gotten to the midterms yet. Right, right. very early in this but we haven't even gotten to the midterms yet right right but it's always you know i think it's mostly notable for the texas officials where they currently stand in a

hypothetical presidential matchup um you know obviously what happens in other states is what happens in other states but um the fact that both of the texas officials that are estimated to be at least eyeing this option um are well behind the florida governor in the state of texas so a lot can change you know when in right after mitt romney lost in 2012 the two people that were projected to fight for the the top of the nomination in 2016 were, uh, then governor, New Jersey governor,

Chris Christie, and then, um, Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal. And we saw how that turned out. They both finished near the bottom. So I remember them being on the,

uh, in the rookie debate stage. They had the two, cause there was so many Republican debate as it were. Yeah. They had like the early, the early night, uh night showing of the lower candidates and they were both on there.

And then you had the bigger name candidates. Yeah. So, you know, it's obviously a very long way away, but that's pretty interesting to see in the state of Texas. Absolutely. Very good. Well, Daniel, what do you have for us? Well, going off of that

poll, there was another poll released from a different organization, the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation, which also did a lot of polling on state races. The one that I'm particularly interested in, because this is the race I'm covering, is the race for the attorney general seat, especially the Republican primary especially the Republican primary runoff between George B. Bush and Ken Paxton. There's also a Democratic runoff, which isn't as interesting to me because this is just more fascinating.

But this poll also showed very similar results to the other poll, actually more in favor of Paxton than the other poll. So this had Paxton leading 65 to 23 among likely voters, which is quite a big lead. And so it was interesting along with that, one of the people who's involved with this organization is Mark P. Jones, who also does a lot of other just more kind of studying the legislature and polling. And he does the ranking of lawmakers. But he actually wrote an opinion piece that was published in The Hill that was titled The Imminent End of the Bush

Political Dynasty, noting that currently the only politically active member of the Bush family is George P. Bush as land commissioner. Now that he's not, he's not running for reelection as land commissioner. He gave that up to run for this attorney general seat. And now at the polling, it shows that he's kind of far behind, um, likely not to win this election unless something crazy happens in the next month and a half. Um, and so with that in mind, it's kind of interesting to see, you know, what's happening with the Bush family. And it was also interesting, some of the polling that he noted in this opinion piece that was included in the Hispanic Policy Foundation survey was the favorability among Bush, George P. Bush, compared to other Texas Republicans. So, you know, you have Ted

Cruz and Greg Abbott, which both have like 90% approval among Republicans, whereas George P. Bush is down at 51%. So very big difference there. Lots of Texans just don't like the name Bush. Which is, I think, something that, you know, however long ago would have been hard to predict that that would be the case. And very interesting to watch a Bush take on an incumbent here in Texas, force him into a runoff, and they have to deal with this kind of, you know, the interesting part of that reading Mark P. Jones piece was there are so many people in Texas who will not vote for Bush. In fact, would actively vote against him because his last name is what it is yeah and i think we saw this even play out uh in the last election cycle in a congressional race you had pierce bush i don't remember exactly where he falls in the family he was running for uh an open seat in for ben county yeah and didn't even make it to the runoff

so that was also very fascinating yeah either have to be a rebranding of some sort for bushes to continue to run and win in texas politics or maybe they're just new last names that find their way into the into the mix very interesting hayden what about or uh yeah hayden what about you what do you got well speaking of joe biden and political jabs at him. A case that a lot of Texas officials commented on when it happened was Kyle Rittenhouse's acquittal back in November. And he tweeted recently, hey, Joe Biden, I am still waiting for that callback. And it goes to a lot of the media storm that happened around that and the self-defense debate that followed. I know some states have proposed or considered legislation to strengthen their self-defense laws.

And Joe Biden has not followed up on his views of that case or the people that were involved. President Trump has definitely weighed in on it. So when the acquittal happened, a lot of officials in Texas used it as an opportunity to criticize Greg Abbott. And a lot of local or a lot of state lawmakers were commenting that on one side, some were saying it was a manifestation of white supremacy and systemic racism and toxic you know, toxic gun culture. And then on the other hand, you had people saying that it was a vindication of self-defense and the natural right to life and to be able to keep and bear arms and to actually, you know, actively use the Second Amendment as a...

To very compatible point of views. Of course, yeah. Definitely both sides, you know, very, you know, on the same page in that regard. use the second amendment as a very compatible point of view of course yeah definitely both sides you know very you know on the same page in that regard uh but president it's also interesting how the incumbent in the white house whether you know gas prices or illegal immigration it always goes back to the incumbent in the white house and, you know, people usually direct their criticisms or their, you know, their praises to their party's president or their party's nominee, one or the other. Yeah, certainly. Well, thank you. Isaiah, what do you have for us?

Yeah, I don't follow this guy, but Jeremy Wayne Tate is the head of this company called the Classical Learning Test. And their whole goal is to try and come up with an alternative to the SAT and the ACT. That's a better standard. Yes. Okay. I've seen this. So he's in the EduSphere. But like I said, I don't follow him.

Did you make that up? I don't think so. Okay. I don't think so. It's not an Isaiah original? Actually, I did. Okay. This minute. I don't think so okay I don't think so it's not an Isaiah original actually you know I did okay this this minute and um

I like I said I don't follow him but his tweet came across my timeline because a democrat that I follow and a republican that I follow both liked this tweet which says

the catholic school my kids go to also talks to them about sexuality I can summarize the body is sacred sex for making babies sex is for marriage love is for making babies. Sex is

for marriage. Love is patient. Don't use people to satisfy your desires. Grow up and develop some self-control. It was interesting off the bat to see, it was a Democratic staffer and Mike Garcia actually was the other one who both liked this. and so in you can obviously infer why right like on the one hand it's like oh yeah it's okay for the democratic staffer if i can infer their thoughts it's okay for schools to teach kids about sex and then if i can infer mike garcia's thoughts i know he listens how you doing mike garcia um oh yeah you know this these are these are good things for kids to learn i I assume he thinks. And it's interesting because so much of our political ideals in America that center around discussions of, like, more or less freedom get really difficult when you're talking about children because they don't have what we would call, like, term legally consent rights. But it's deeper than that, right?

You know? what we would call like term legally consent rights but it's deeper than that right you know um so we like human adults have all kinds of rights that we absolutely just don't recognize for kids because they're undeveloped kids you know like a kid cannot kids don't have the right to peaceably assemble parents squash that right all the time and we're okay with it as a society because they're kids you know and so that's really funny yeah and so like when we're okay with it as a society because they're kids, you know? And so that's really funny. Yeah. And so like when we're talking about like variety and freedom and options and education, it seems like, like when the rubber meets the road that comes down to whether or not you agree with what's being taught.

Right. And eventually I think you do reach a point, or some people would argue that you reach a point where it's not bad to teach something universally, like, in other words, a lack of options for this particular lesson, whatever it is, if that lesson is true. You know what I mean? I mean, like, it's not indoctrination, some would argue, if it's a true lesson, you know, we wouldn't argue that, oh, kids are being indoctrinated to say if it's a true lesson you know we wouldn't argue that oh kids are being indoctrinated to say that two plus two is four but on the other hand it's not a matter of empirical fact that the body is sacred so this isn't a proof like anyway but yeah like people's

ideals about you know oh people should have options education you got to you want to have a school that teaches one thing another school that teaches another eventually i think people reach a limit to that yeah there are there are purists who say like you know variety is the panacea that fixes schools and things like that and i don't know i suspect that most people would fall somewhere between that yeah right and where is that line of that where is that line drawn what are they okay with what are they not i think we're kind of seeing a lot of that debate in texas right now of what not only schools should or be allowed to teach not allowed but yeah partially allowed to teach i mean we're seeing bills filed and passed that in one way or another attempt to restrict certain portions of what's taught in schools but more even than

that of what public schools that receive taxpayer dollars should be teaching students um and how locally that should be decided it's very interesting yeah i mean like just to go with the math example again which really isn't a good equivalent example of this topic but just to use it like is it good to have variety so broad that you have a school where it's like, I want my kid to go to a school where they, they learn that two plus two is five, you know, is that a positive outcome of variety?

Right. Like, can you, is it, is it possible to have like too much variety and educational freedom? And I think the purists would say no, because then you can choose, like you'll always have the school that has the right answer,

whatever that may be. Right. And you can pick that like, you'll always have the school that has the right answer, whatever that may be. Right. And you can pick that in a very varied system. But there's, I don't know, it's a whole interesting conversation that it's just not at all transferable to the same conversations about adults, you know. Certainly. You can say, oh, adults, you can do whatever you want. You get the freedom for that. And I don't know, it just gets a lot easier when you're talking about people that have the legal right to

make their own decisions. And with kids, it's a much more fragile situation. Absolutely. Well, very good, gentlemen. Thank you for joining me on this podcast today. I know that you're, you know, you work here. So this is kind of part of the deal. But thanks for joining me anyways.

My eyes are glued to the golf tournament going on right now so Brad whose eyes are glued to a golf tournament is it that gripping I will say the Masters is an exception I don't sit and watch golf year-round every weekend but who's the favorite this year I don't know okay I don't know I don't keep up with it that much I watch like two or three majors every year and that's it. So I know that Tiger Woods broke his leg because I listened to classic rock radio. He broke a lot. And he was in like a near fatal vehicle accident like 14 months ago. And this is, he's returning, I think for the first time to this tournament.

He broke a lot more than his leg. Is he wearing his classic red shirt? Well, on Sunday, like he does every Sunday. There you go. He's wearing pink right now in case you were... Pink.

...very curious about it. Oh. Well, I just feel like he always wears a red shirt. He does? It's every Sunday? I think so. Okay.

Just Sunday. Just on Sundays? That's his Sunday tradition. Really? Maybe that's why I see it so often. Because Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays. That's gotta be it. Oh. So he on sundays that's got to be it oh so he's repping it's got to be it yeah it makes total sense total sense wonderful well gentlemen

thanks for joining me and folks thanks for listening we will catch you next week thank you all so much for listening if you've been enjoying our podcast it would be awesome if you would review us on itunes and if there's a guest you'd love to hear on our show, give us a shout on Twitter, tweet at The Texan News. We're so proud to have you standing with us as we seek to provide real journalism in an age of disinformation. We're paid for exclusively by readers like you, so it's important we all do our part to support The Texan by subscribing and telling your friends about us. God bless you, and God bless Texas.