The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - December 16, 2022

Episode Date: December 16, 2022

Register for the 88th Session Kickoff: https://thetexan.regfox.com/88th-session-kickoff Get a FREE “Fake News Stops Here” mug when you buy an annual subscription to The Texan: https://go.thetexan.news/mug-fake-news-stops-here-2022/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=weekly_roundup The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion. Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast. This week on The Texan’s Weekly Roundup, the team discusses: Abbott asking Paxton to investigate private organizations suspected of promoting illegal immigrationLt. Gov. Patrick’s “creative” proposal to avoid busting the Legislature’s spending capRepublicans and Democrats sounding alarm bells over an illegal immigrant surge in El PasoRepublicans in the Texas House on opposite sides of a dispute over the speaker raceAbortions in Texas falling over 97 percent after the overturning of Roe v. WadeTexas Republicans in D.C. laying out their border security priorities for the upcoming CongressThe Respect for Marriage Act being signed into law after passing both chambers of CongressThe former Customs and Border Protection head’s thoughts on a new so-called “amnesty” billLocal government debt in Texas rising to $417 billion after new bond propositions approvedA suspended Smith County constable found guilty of theft and official oppressionKirk Watson returning as Austin’s mayor after defeating Celia IsraelThe City of Odessa’s personnel changes and becoming a Sanctuary City for the Unborn

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie Taylor here, and welcome back to the Texans' weekly Roundup podcast. This week, the team discusses Abbott asking Paxton to investigate private organizations suspected of promoting illegal immigration. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's creative proposal to avoid busting the legislature's spending cap. Republicans and Democrats sounding alarm bells over an illegal immigrant surge in El Paso. Republicans in the Texas House on opposite sides of a dispute over the Speaker's race. Abortions in Texas falling over 97% after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Texas Republicans in D.C. laying out their border security priorities for the upcoming Congress. The Respect for Marriage Act being signed into law after passing both chambers of Congress.

The former Customs and Border Protection head's thoughts on a new so-called amnesty bill. Local government debt in Texas rising to $417 billion after new bond propositions approved. A suspended Smith County constable found guilty of theft and official oppression. Kirk Watson returning as Austin's mayor after defeating Celia Israel, and the city of Odessa's personnel changes and becoming a sanctuary city for the unborn. As always, if you have questions for our team, DM us on Twitter or email us at editor at thetexan.news. We'd love to answer your questions on a future podcast. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Well, howdy, folks. It's Mackenzie here with Hayden, Matt, and Rob. Brad is not with us today.

I almost said he is no longer with us, but that would have implied something that is entirely untrue. He's still kicking. He's still around. He's driving to Ohio today to be with family. And I asked specifically for Winston pictures like pictures of Winston in the passenger seat with his little head out the window his little paws on the dash I've gotten no pictures of Winston all day. He doesn't send you any Winston pictures huh? No. Yeah

whenever he gets to Ohio I need to call him and sing that Bowling for Soup song Come back to Texas Yeah I like that one. That's a good one. I'm sending need Winston pics. There's nothing wrong with Ohio. He's going to post it to his Winstagram. Oh my gosh.

Brad doesn't have Instagram. Winstagram for Winston's Instagram. Brad, we should make Winston an Instagram. It would drive Brad crazy to have his dog on Instagram. That would be, it would trigger his, the 80-year-old man inside of him. Before I actually got down here, I thought that Winston was your dog, just because you were constantly posting pictures with him in Slack. De facto, it is her dog in a way.

Yes, that's correct. And I never saw Brad even mention Winston or anything like that. So I just thought that was McKenzie's dog. I think that should just be, I think the record should reflect that as fact. Let's just decide here right now that Winston is my dog. Winston is hers when he is here at the office, definitely. I do like to steal him and put him in my office, which is fun for me, but sad for Winston. He wants to be with Brad.

Anyways, Matthew, you're in Austin. We're excited to have you here. I'm happy to be here. He moved. He's officially here. I made the great migration. You have to retrieve your cat, but other than that, you're pretty much moved in. Yeah, pretty much.

You left your cat in Odessa? I left my cat in West Texas. That sounds like a country song. I left my cat in West Texas. I left my cat in Odessa. I left my cat in West Texas. That sounds like a country song. I left my cat in West Texas. I left my cat in West Texas. I think Matt is just going to keep

singing on the pod. That will be his shtick. Okay. Well, we're glad you're here. Welcome. Your cat will make it down eventually I'm sure. I know. It'll be picked up very soon. It's a she. I didn't know if she was a she or he. She is a she. Okay.

That is her pronoun. She is a she. She will make it down here very soon. On that note, unrelated entirely, let's get into the news. Hayden, we're going to start with you. Governor Abbott has primarily focused his criticism on President Biden, but he homed in on a different opponent this week in the fight against illegal immigration. What did he have to say specifically about NGOs, non-governmental organizations? Governor Abbott this week authored a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton requesting

that he investigate non-governmental organizations, NGOs, that are allegedly, quote, planning and assisting illegal border crossings into Texas, end quote. And this is amid the backdrop of a surge of illegal immigration in El Paso. Governor Abbott said that 2,600 illegal aliens crossed the border near El Paso on Sunday, and NGOs have helped respond to illegal immigration in the past, though they have also been accused of providing advice and resources to people on the other side of the border on how to cross without being detected or apprehended. And that is what Abbott is alluding to. He referenced reports, but did not necessarily cite which reports he was talking about. But it has been widely reported before that there are organizations that their interest is not in securing the border, but in helping people find ways to find their way to the United States and seek resources and seek ways to be granted asylum or legal status or avoid apprehension.

So Abbott requested that Paxton focus his enforcement resources on these organizations that are allegedly engaging in this activity. What was Paxton's reaction to Abbott's request? Paxton responded that he would investigate these organizations. He said, quote, some nongovernmental organizations may be aiding and abetting this invasion. Therefore, to protect public safety and uphold the rule of law, my office will launch an investigation into these groups and will take action against any organization violating the law." And I think what's notable about this is the wartime language of this, aiding and abetting this invasion. It's very, very serious, the language

that is being used by Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton. And he is already, he being the Attorney General, is already investigating the Texas Bar Foundation for ostensibly using its funds to help facilitate illegal immigration. And this week he expanded that investigation to include organizations that receive funding from the Barr Foundation. So they are taking this very seriously and using a language that some people consider to be too extreme for a situation like this, but others say is appropriate for the historically high amount of illegal immigration that is occurring on the southern border right now. asked for a winston pick as y'all know i just got one he's in the back seat laying down like that oh that's very sweet it's sweet he's in the back chilling out in his little doggy bed

having a nice time that's that's a good boy i said is he having a nice time and brad says he was up and excited but now he's vegging out and then i said matt thought winston was my dog for a long time because I talked about him more than you. And he reacted with the ha-ha and then said, silly Matthew. Matthew is silly. Matthew is silly. You are silly.

I've never been described that way before. I'm sure. I'm sure. Really? Okay, well, we don't have time. Well, in fairness, all of us are silly at times, especially on the pod. That's true.

That's why we fit in. That's true. It's true. Rob, we're coming to you as Brad is not here. You're covering his pieces on the podcast this week. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick recently spoke on the legislature getting creative regarding its spending cap. What is the spending cap and how much money does Texas have? Right.

So the 88th legislative session will convene on January 10th, 2023, and they're going to have to set their biennium budget for 2024 through 2025. The population and inflation spending cap is 12.33%, which means that the legislature can only add $12.5 billion in new spending for the next budget without busting the spending cap. Texas currently has $27 billion of surplus money, according to comptroller Glenn Hagar. This is because due to inflation, Texas is raking in the dough through consumption taxes simply because of the rising prices of consumer goods. Comptroller Hagar has tried to let people know that this is a sort of temporary uh feature of this inflation this isn't some kind of permanent you know texas is now just like printing money or anything like that um but a lot of politicians are trying to debate how they're going to spend this money governor abbott has said he wants to spend at least half of it buying down property taxes but half of the 27 billion would actually be over the $12.5 billion spending cap.

So this is introducing some questions about how they're going to spend that. Speaker Dade Phelan has said that he wants to put that money towards investing in infrastructure. But between the surplus, the remaining federal pandemic aid, and the state's estimated savings account, Texas has about forty five and a half billion dollars overall that it could spend. There you go. What would it take to bust the cap? And is that what the lieutenant governor wants to do? a three-fifths vote in both chambers of the legislature patrick's solution uh his his create he's getting creative solution is to pass amendments to the texas constitution for individual expenditures and those amendments would have to be approved in statewide votes so uh it's certainly an interesting thing it hasn't been done before in texas passing individual amendments in order to bypass the spending cap, but it would certainly be a way

to bypass the spending cap to make use of this massive budget surplus that we have. Because we know basically in the upcoming session that how to spend that budget surplus is going to be one of the big issues facing politicians as they come back to Austin for our 2023 session. How many days until the beginning of the session? I believe it is 26 today. It'll be 25 by the time this podcast comes out. Pretty spicy stuff. Hayden,

we're coming to you. We mentioned the El Paso surge earlier. What are some of the highlights of what's going on in El Paso right now? Well, as I discussed earlier, there were something to the effect of 2,500, 2,600 crossings illegally on Sunday. And according to Peter Jacquez, the acting Border Patrol chief in El Paso,

the three-day average for illegal crossings in El Paso was 2,460 daily encounters, which is an extreme amount. And illegal immigrants were reportedly congregating downtown and at the airport, which is alarming because of the holiday, the Christmas travel. And they were also trying to find shelter on the streets elsewhere in El Paso. In El Paso, there were videos being circulated of illegal immigrants crossing the Rio Grande in huge groups and camping out on the other side of the border, people picking up kids and carrying them across the river. This surge is reminiscent, not nearly to the degree of what happened in Del Rio,

but these types of surges are what proponents of border security say they are concerned about with the impending end of Title 42 expulsions. December 21st for that, is that correct? Yes, December 21st is when the judge has ordered it to be ended. How did Congresswoman Veronica Escobar ask the Biden administration to help? Well, Congresswoman Escobar obviously, well, I say obvious, it may not be obvious to everybody. She's a Democrat. She's an opponent of President Trump's strict immigration measures.

And she has gone out of her way to characterize strong border enforcement as racist and xenophobic. She contends that it is pushing the problem onto the other side of the border and then forgetting about it. That's her view of these strict enforcement measures that Governor Abbott and President Trump took. She's obviously no friend of Republicans on this issue, but she has said that El Paso is shouldering a disproportionate amount of the burden when it comes to what she wouldn't call it an illegal immigration surge. She would call it migrant crossings. So she's asking for additional resources for the city of El Paso and others there locally responding to this crisis. The city of El Paso itself is seeking a $7.25 million reimbursement from the federal government to respond to this surge. And this, frankly, reminds me of the mayor of New York City objecting to Governor Abbott busing thousands of illegal immigrants to New York City. These cities, while their leaders

proclaim that they want to be compassionate for nationals who are coming here illegally or legally, they also acknowledge that these jurisdictions along the border do not have the resources to care for all of these people. And they are asking for the federal government to provide more resources for them to respond. There you go. Hayden, thanks for your coverage of the issue. I am now going to cover a piece Brad wrote this week on Republicans in the Texas House on very opposite sides of a dispute over the Texas House Speaker's race. So two very powerful House Committee Chairman, Calendars Committee Chairman Dustin Burroughs, the Calendars Committee essentially decides which bills make it to the House floor. So very powerful position. And Local and Consent

Committee Chair Charlie Guerin, formerly House Admin Chair, he's held a lot of different leadership positions in the House, filed a motion to intervene on Tuesday in a lawsuit filed one month ago or about a month ago by State Rep. Brian Slayton and a couple of other plaintiffs. The suit challenges the prohibition in state law against campaign funds outside of the candidate themselves from being used in races for the Texas House of Speakership. So essentially, this would be campaign donations received by ex-elected official going then to help campaign for a Texas House speaker candidate. So it's not a normal campaign where constituents in a district vote to elect somebody. This is a campaign that's happening within the House chambers. This is 150 people who are eligible in one way or another to vote on who leads their body um body which is where the the debate comes in is

should those funds even be allowed to be used to help campaign for speaker um the brief filed by these two chairmen says that slayton intends to make expenditures from his own personal funds for correspondence to aid or defeat the election of a speaker candidate. Now, the political ramifications and context here, Slayton has backed Speaker Dadefield and the incumbent speaker, his challenger, State Representative Tony Tenderholt from Arlington. They're both Republicans, but being that there is a Republican majority in the Texas House, there is debate over who should be the leader. And by debate, I also mean that there's not an incredible groundswell of support for Tinder Holt either, or a lot of voiced public discontent for the

leadership that Phelan has had in the last session. Last session was his first session as the elected speaker. He won by a landslide. I believe there were only like two representatives on the first day of session that voted against his candidacy. So very much a show of support for the Speaker at that time. I will say also that any vote against a Speaker kind of automatically puts you on the blacklist. You can't really pass a bill, usually, unless the Speaker has a very different style of leading the chamber. You kind of are put immediately on a blacklist where you probably won't see any significant hearings for your bills, movement on different issues, amendments supported. You kind of become the black sheep in a lot of ways.

And so very conservative members in the House have always seen this as an opportunity to voice discontent, to try and start a movement against somebody they may see as kind of the establishment, right? This is the classic establishment versus conservative battle. Whether or not that's agreed upon by the members, that's how it's viewed by the public, right? That's kind of the delineation here. And so Slayton has very fervently and publicly backed the challenger, Representative Tony Tenderholt. There was a caucus vote of the Texas GOP House members, where I believe it was 78 voted for Speaker Phelan to be their candidate and six voted no. It was done by secret ballot, so we don't know exactly who those six members are, but I guarantee you one of them was Slayton. That's just he's come out and endorsed Tinder Holt. and Burroughs and Guerin object to the lawsuit and the plaintiff's intent to spend campaign dollars specifically pushing for Tenderholtz candidacy, right? That's the backdrop of this

whole issue. And it will be fascinating to see come the legislative session on that first day of session, what the vote actually ends up being. It'll be very fascinating. Can I ask you this? Because I haven't worked at the Capitol. You've worked at the Capitol before. And without asking you to editorialize, given such a small amount of opposition to Phelan in the past and in the caucus vote, how much of this do you think is qu House chamber wanting to protect this as a tradition and a process of the House rather than something that is hashed out for the general public? lawmakers are supporting phelan specifically saying this is about unifying together this is about uh political unity but also in the legislature there's very much a house versus senate thing so it's like let's band together as a house to get the house's priorities passed so that we can you know be unified against the senate that is always a part of the discussion which is wild because they're chambers and you have people in different political parties in

each chamber that are kind of it's very interesting. The dynamics, especially given that the same party controls both chambers. Yes. And yet they still have this intense rivalry, intense rivalry. And it depends on who the leaders are at the time. Right. But yes, very intense rivalry. It was not there so much when Speaker Bonin was in office and it returned a lot when Speaker

Phelan was elected versus Dan Patrick. So I think publicly they'd say it's more about tradition. It's more about statesmanship and et cetera, et cetera, of unifying before the session starts. Behind the scenes, it is far more. I mean, we all have seen it. It's far more petty than that. And regardless of whether it's a policy difference or a personal difference, politics is politics and it can get a lot more complicated than what it would appear on the outside. So certainly, of course, as there is a challenge to leadership, leadership will try and quell that. Of course, that's just how it works. And you have two chairmen in very powerful positions that have been placed there by a speaker given the reins to X committee.

And they obviously want to maintain those positions of power. They probably think that Phelan is the best candidate for whatever priorities they want to see move forward. So it's a team sport. That's how it works. Politics is not as gentle or kind as maybe these statements from politicians would make us think. So I don't know the details, but I'll tell you there's a lot of quibble in behind the

scenes. Yeah, and just as a generalization, the people in charge obviously aren't going to want a lot of ruckus as they're trying to get their legislative agenda set for the coming legislature. They're going to want to see a lot more unity and cooperation.

And that would probably be the preference of speaker, obviously would be the preference of speaker Phelan, uh, and Lieutenant Governor Patrick and their respective chambers. Absolutely. Good question, Hayden. Okay. Um, Rob, we're coming back to you. Let's cover, um, a story you wrote actually this last week. Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in June. What effect did that have on abortions in Texas? Yeah, so data from the Texas Department of Health and Human Services has shown that while there were over 2,500 abortions performed in Texas in June this year, that number dropped to 68 in July, which is a drop off of about 97%. In the first half of 2022, there were around 17,000 abortions performed, which average around 2,800 a month. But yeah, that number dropped to just 68 under 100 in July. Wow. Wow. And didn't this happen before the Texas laws against abortion went into effect? Yeah. So the Texas abortion trigger ban or the Human Life Protection Act went into effect on August 25th.

And that was what made abortion in Texas, you know, a criminal offense. Right. So, again, this dropped off in July, which is actually before the before that law went into effect. So we'll have to wait and see with the newer data, what effect that had on abortion, um, and the time between July and August and then after August in September, 2022 and onward. But something similar actually happened when the Texas heartbeat act went into effect on September 1st, 2021. And the heartbeat act did not have a criminal penalties for abortion, but it did allow any private citizen to file a civil lawsuit against people who aided or abetted abortion. So there was a drop off and in September 1st, when that went into effect last year, it caused

a drop off in abortion of about 60%. So another thing that the heartbeat act did, right, what it did was it made abortion illegal after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is around six weeks after fertilization. And the data for 2022 showed that out of those around 17,000 abortions performed in Texas from January to July this year, only 14 of them were performed after the first eight weeks. So if the Heartbeat Act's goal was to get that down before those first six weeks, we don't know exactly how early it was, but we know that the overwhelming majority of them, basically almost all of them, were done in the first eight weeks of fertilization. So that is an interesting, it was interesting data that they released. Absolutely. Rob, thanks for your coverage of that issue. Hayden, we are coming back to you. Texas congressional Republicans held a news conference outlining some of their border security priorities. We have continuing construction of the southern border wall, making the southern border more accessible to border police by clearing Carrizo Cane. I didn't know a lot about Carrizo Cane before reading this border security framework, but it is evidently a tall, persistent weed, or I guess it's a bamboo-like plant that covers the southern border.

Matt's nodding yes at me, so I guess I'm close. But this apparently makes it difficult for Border Patrol agents to access areas along the border so that they can engage in enforcement. The framework that Republicans laid out includes a version of Trump's Remain in Mexico policy, removing funding from nonprofit organizations, NGOs, as we talked about earlier, that promote dangerous and illegal activities. And then we have various reforms designed to repeal so-called catch and release laws, which is a phrase that Republicans often use to describe releasing someone on their own recognizance or letting them go and giving them a notice to appear, that type of thing. supposed to be used on a case-by-case basis, but the Biden administration has employed it a lot to allow Ukrainian and Venezuelan refugees to live here because of the turmoil obviously happening in those countries. Then the policies that the GOP outlined include requiring ICE to pursue more deportations, or as they would characterize it, simply letting them do their jobs, and then designating criminal cartels as foreign terrorist organizations,

and increasing the penalties for fentanyl trafficking and other narcotics and human trafficking as well. So those are just some of the policies that Republicans outlined in this plan. Talk to us then, policies aside, what are some of the political dynamics at play? Well, obviously, Republicans will have a slim majority in the House, and that's one of the reasons why they're teeing this up, because it's their way of saying, you put us in charge, here's our plan to secure the border. But Democrats will still control the Senate. An interesting note on the politics, Kyrema, uh, formerly a Democrat from Arizona, just changed her affiliation.

She's no longer a Democrat. She is an independent Senator, but she could continue to caucus with the Democrats because there are two other independent Senators, uh, Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who are very liberal, obviously,

and still a caucus with the Democratic Party. So she may still caucus with Democrats, but she a caucus with the Democratic Party. So she may still caucus with Democrats, but she's more middle of the road. End of the day, it would be very difficult for them to get all of these policies across the finish line. And the Democrats aren't just going to hand Republicans a wholesale victory on this, but they might end up getting some of these policy proposals into other pieces of legislation. We saw here in Texas, there was bipartisan support for funding the border wall at the state level. And it wasn't this massive reform bill with all of this pomp and circumstance. It was very unceremonious, some of the Democratic votes for the border security funding here in Texas at the

state level. So some of these proposals could end up on Biden's desk and become law, but they're not going to just let Republicans take control of the immigration debate in Congress, because we now have a divided Congress and the two parties have to work together if they want anything to succeed. There you go. Hayden, thank you. Boys, I have a question for you. do you ever talk about politics with your families around the christmas dinner table no actually actually there's this meme that's that's one of my favorite memes um that is uh it's it's alex jones on this armored car uh going going down main Street and he's got this megaphone and it's something along the lines of, it's about discussing politics at the family table and it's like

me coming to the family dinner table to talk about the gun grabbing commies or something like that. Or something like that. Sounds about right. Hayden, do you? Again, not that we're in any way associating with Alex Jones. He is a proven convicted liar. So we're fully joking when we say that. But yes, we and my family, it's just common for us to kibitz about politics all the time.

We're always talking about the news, current events. And, you know, some of this, you know, sometimes we're not we're not up to speed and we fall behind in the conversation. So we're around in the living room just talking about, you know, what's going on at the Capitol. And it's just it's always been part of our family. We're just always talking about politics. People make fun of me because I never shut up about politics. And so if you want to be part of the Sparks family discussion, you really have to you

have to be in the know. That is a perfect segue into the next part of this ad. Rob, do you have anything to add to this discussion? Well, I was going to say that, no, the Christmas dinner table is not the appropriate place to talk about politics. The appropriate time to talk about politics is when you're day drinking before you sit down to the Christmas dinner table is not the appropriate place to talk about politics. The appropriate time to talk about politics is when you're day drinking before you sit down to the Christmas dinner. I see.

I see. Regardless, it's important to feel very equipped to talk about the political happenings of the day. I know y'all equip me very, very well. I'm not. I don't have the bandwidth to know the details that y'all do about your subject matter. And so, folks, all that to say, prepare yourself for the Christmas dinner table discussions by subscribing to the Texan right now.

We're not funded by corporate interests or big donors, so we rely on the subscriptions of everyday Texans to keep our jobs. When you subscribe, you'll get access to all our stories as soon as they're published so you can stay informed up to speed and ready to vote at the ballot box a subscription is nine dollars monthly but you can save by purchasing an annual subscription for 90 bucks which comes out to just 750 per month and we brought back that fan favorite merch item i've talked about it many times the fake news stops here mug is yours if you go to the texan.news forward slash subscribe or click the url in the description of this podcast thank you gentlemen that was only slightly derailed you guys did a good job of

setting it up for me well thank you yeah you're so welcome matt we are coming to you now let's talk about a story you wrote this week president biden signed the respect for marriage act into law this week singing the praises of bipartisan support the legislation brought to Congress. Among those voting for the bill, including one Republican congressman in Texas, tell us about the motive for this new law and who voted for it. Motivation for the Respect for Marriage Act is said to have come about after Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion in the Dobbs ruling that all major due process cases needed to be reconsidered by the high court after case that used the due process clause to force all states to grant and recognize same-sex marriages. The law received the support from

only one Republican in Texas, Congressman Tony Gonzalez from Congressional District 23. Interesting. How does this law approach the issue differently? The law operates under a different part of the Constitution called the Full Faith and Credit Clause, which requires states to give full faith and credit to laws enacted in other states. Under this framework, should Obersfeld be overturned by the Supreme Court,

states like Texas, that still has a state constitutional amendment on the books defining marriages between a man and a woman would go back into effect, and the states would not be able to be forced to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples, but they would be forced to recognize marriages performed in other states. The law also grants the same form of protections to interracial marriages. Okay, so what are some of the concerns from the opposition to the bill? Texas Senator Ted Cruz raised concerns at multiple points throughout the bill's consideration that the bill would open the door to things like polygamy,

and that caused the Senate to amend the bill to specifically apply to only marriages between two people. But he was also concerned that the law would open the door for organizations like Christian religious charities to be harassed by the IRS. We reached out to the Texas-based First Liberty Institute, who told us that while a lot of the lawsuits that might be filed under this new law against religious organizations would ultimately be dismissed, they elaborated that the language of the bill would still open the door for some similar organizations to be harassed through the court process by activists. Wow. Well, Matthew, thank you for your coverage of that. We'll continue to watch the discussions that are happening and fascinating to watch Republicans specifically in Texas kind of debate this issue. Hayden, we're coming to you. What are the elements of an immigration reform deal that was considered in Congress?

Frankly, talking about immigration is starting to become part of my personality, I feel like. It's just become an innate part of who I am. You're very prepared for your dinner table discussions. Always talking about this issue. The deal that was considered, and I will add, I will say that it is being reported that this deal is no longer in play. CBS News said that their sources are saying that the deal has failed. It was a long shot to start with, and it looks like it's not going to end up coming to fruition. This was supposed to be a lame duck victory for bipartisan immigration reform, and it was

unlikely to start with, and it doesn't look like it's going to happen. But this would call for a pathway to legal status for those covered under President Obama's DACA executive order, which allows people who came here, I believe under the age of 16, to stay without being deported or being at risk for deportation. It was an executive order. It was never passed by Congress, but this has gone back and forth in the courts over and over for years, and they were seeking to add statutory protections for this group of people. It would have also added up to $40 billion of funding for border patrol and border security. be a little bit of a compromise between those who are supporting strong border enforcement and those who wanted to see something for the recipients of the DACA program, also called Dreamers.

But opponents of this bill said that the funding was, quote, a fig leaf for what they would characterize as the amnesty portions of this proposal. So there are definitely politics intertwined in this whole debate, but those with experience in border security have definitely been sounding the alarm about illegal immigration. Tell us about an interview that you had with an official in the Trump administration. Well, I talked to a former acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan, who was in the Trump administration for almost the entirety of Trump's time in office. And Commissioner Morgan and I went over some of the counterterrorism concerns that he has with illegal immigration. He said to me,

quote, the fact is right now that the next terrorist sleeper cell could already be in the United States planning the next terrorist attack. And we would have no idea because they were part of the 1.3 million gotaways from 160 different countries, end quote. And he's, of course, referring to the people who were detected but were not apprehended by border police since President Biden was inaugurated. And he also referenced the thwarted plot to assassinate George W. Bush earlier this year. That was a plot by terrorists who I think were seeking revenge because of the war in Afghanistan. But he said, quote, we also know that last year the FBI disrupted and prevented a terrorist attack to assassinate the former sitting president,

President Bush. How were they going to carry that out? By smuggling additional terrorists through the wide open southern border, end quote. Obviously, like I said before, there are politics at play, but Morgan recommended some policies that he believes would address the problem, and many of them are what Republicans proposed in that border security framework I talked about earlier, resurrecting Remain in Mexico, re-implementing the asylum cooperative agreements, addressing the asylum system, and tightening deportation rules instead of the more loose guidelines that were published by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and then, of course, restarting the border wall. So Commissioner Morgan and I talked about a lot of different aspects of this issue, but those were some of the highlights of the concerns that he raised. You have a tweet thread about that, don't you?

I do. Yeah. Folks, make sure to go to Hayden H-A-Y-D-E-N J Sparks. J Sparks. Okay. I should have just said it with confidence. I knew it was Hayden J Sparks. But then I second-guessed myself because Daniel's middle name is also J. Yeah. Anyway. Well, and plus my first name has like a gazillion different spellings.

So tell me about it. And it sounds like a gazillion, gazillion other names. So tell me about it. No, it's, it's really hard with those names, isn't it?

Y'all. I can relate. Yeah. Lord in heaven. Ridiculous. Okay. I'm going back and chatting about another piece from Bradley. Let's talk about local debt. I think a lot of folks don't realize the amount of local debt incurred on Texas, specifically in that the state government is considered pretty conservative, fiscally responsible in some ways, shape or form, depending on who you ask on any

given day. But local debt is quite something that goes under the radar. So let's talk about it. Debt held by local governments in Texas grew by $27 billion for the first eight months of 2022. That increase is double the one from 2020 to 2021. So we're dealing with an eight-month period here, and we're already doubling. That equates to $14,000 in debt per resident of Texas. This is not a small sum. I believe, I'm trying to remember where Texas stands now, but there have been points in time where Texas was only behind New York and California in terms of the amount of local debt per citizen in the state, which is a pretty wild thing to think about, especially the population, the size of those states. School districts account for the largest share of the total debt,

eclipsing $150 billion. And the municipalities are next with just shy of $130 billion. Those are the local governments. These totals include the $10 billion in school district bonds approved in the May local elections. But that $19 billion in local bonds approved by voters last month is not accounted for. So that is an outstanding portion that we'll discuss once those numbers are made public. But in both the elections this year, voters considered 576 different propositions totaling $56.7 billion. Three quarters of those different propositions passed houston tops the list of

localities with outstanding debt amassing 19.4 billion dollars san antonio is in second with 18.4 and austin has 11 billion dollars um interesting in that the top six um include three transportation authorities so the north texasllway Authority is at $16.6 billion, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport at $11.8 billion, and the Dallas Area Rapid Transit sits at $7.5 billion. Definitely worth going and checking out this story in full detail at thetexan.news. Brad has some great charts, graphs that give you kind of a visual representation of the sheer amounts of money that we're dealing with here and how that's divided up in these different entities.

So definitely worth checking out and reading and being aware of these issues when you're going and voting in the ballot box, making sure that you know what's on the ballot. Hayden, we're coming to you. A suspended Smith County constable faced a jury of his this month on charges of theft and official oppression. What was the outcome of the case? Well, when former suspended Constable Curtis Harris writes his memoir, this chapter will be called five years probation and a $10,000 fine because a jury in Smith County found him guilty on charges of theft

and official oppression. They reached one guilty verdict. He was charged with two crimes, but I believe that official oppression charge was absorbed into the theft charge somehow. When you're dealing with criminal charges, a lot of the time they'll tinker with the charging documents, and it looks like the jury just reached one verdict of theft and then recommended a term of probation for a suspended constable, Curtis Harris, who was convicted of stealing from a tenant as he was with his deputies serving an eviction notice and trying to remove property from a home as they were serving this eviction notice. He was caught with other deputies on body camera footage stealing

items from this tenant, and they were seen rummaging through this tenant's personal belongings as they were serving this eviction notice. The penalty could have been two years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The jury recommended probation, and the judge set the number of years of probation at five years and then, of course, assessed the $10,000 fine. So he will have to abide by all the conditions of probation for the next five years of his life, or he risks going to prison for two years. And it's notable that while he was on bail, he violated his bail three times, and there are myriad more conditions of probation than there are bail, and he will have to follow those for a much longer period of time. So there's a real possibility that he will choose not to follow those conditions and that he will end up in prison. But for the time being, he is on probation and this suspended constable has been replaced by the commissioner's court. If he had been acquitted, if he'd been

found not guilty, he could have returned to his job as constable and stayed there until december of 2024 so the stakes were high in this trial but he is now a convicted thief spicy local drama hayden always has the corner of the market what's the freight the corner of the market the market cornered the market that's not it at all matthew i'm gullible but i'm not that gullible. Anyway, Hayden's got it locked and loaded. Did you know something? What? Somebody actually wrote gullible on the ceiling in this room. That is so ridiculous, and I know that. It's right up there. It was worth a shot. Okay, can we talk about the- Yeah, I wrote it. You know how tall I am. I was able to reach it by sitting right here on this table. Yeah, Rob took a Sharpie. I'm so glad to hear about it.

He wrote it on the tile right above your head. I will take your word for it. Okay. That's true. Didn't y'all do that to Brad earlier? I think Daniel did it to Brad earlier this week where Brad had gone off about how gullible somebody was and like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then Daniel said something about it being,

like something about gullible in the dictionary and Brad was like, no way. And Daniel was like, are you kidding? Anyway, I'll have to get the official story from Daniel, but I remember that happening. I'm sure that whoever it is about will deny. Wait, are you saying that Daniel or Brad? I'm saying that Brad was the gullible one in the situation and Daniel pulled the wool over his eyes. Well, since he's not here, I will say that he probably would deny that.

Hayden, you're so nice. I'm defending him because he's not here, I will say that he probably would deny that. Hayden, you're so nice. I'm, I'm defending him cause he's not here. Yes, exactly. And that's a very nice and gentlemanly thing to do. I'm a little salty about it, but it is very nice to do.

Mackenzie and I had a spirited discussion about this before the podcast. Hayden, you should just take my side more. So I'm a little salty that he doesn't take my side as often. It's fine. Everything is fine. Not very nice of you, Hayden, to not just take my side more. So I'm a little salty that he doesn't take my side as often. It's fine. Everything is fine. Not very nice of you, Hayden, to not be taking people's sides. No, he takes other people's side instead of mine.

So he still is being kind. I just want all of his kindness. I don't want some of it, you know? Fine, whatever. I told him I was like, nuance, gray area. No, you just have to like stick with me no matter what even if i'm wrong well hayden is the only nice one of us here that's true i don't know if that's true see he's so nice oh man that's ridiculous okay

oh my gosh um well speaking of brad i'm going to cover his story and attempt to do so in a way that would honor his memory why do i keep saying oh my gosh winston was wearing a little black suit it was very sweet okay gone too far regardless folks austin had a big election this week we thought we were done after the november uh general election regardless we had a we had a runoff to deal with here in austin state senator former state senator kirk watson defeated state representative celia israel by a very slim margin after finishing second in the general election this means he'll serve as austin's mayor for the next

two years before having to seek re-election in 2024. This quick turnaround is due to redistricting. He's previously served as mayor in the 80s for a couple of terms. So he has been in this position before. He lost Travis County, which is pretty darn noticeable or notable in that it's the city's largest portion. He lost Travis by 17 votes in unbelievably slim margin. Williamson County, he won by 881 votes and Hayes County, he won by 22 votes. During the general and runoff races, he outspent Israel by a very wide margin. Homelessness and housing, cost of living were big issues that were discussed all throughout the campaigns. And the two candidates, even in the runoff, kind of zeroed in on those issues even more than they did during the general election. Watson will take over for

Mayor Steve Adler after his self-described disruptive tenure marked by that crazy lingering homelessness problem we've been talking about for years now, public fallout and a declining relationship with the police department, and a very cumbersome light rail transit project that somehow seems to keep increasing in price, all of which Watson will inherit. Fascinating to watch the runoff kind of break down politically in terms of the more moderate Democrats in Austin and the more progressive. They typically fell along the lines of more progressives siding with Israel and more moderates siding with Watson. Jennifer Verdon, who was the more conservative candidate who finished

third in the general, she threw her weight behind Watson. So he did receive that support. Save Austin Now, which is the bipartisan group that has spearheaded the reinstatement of the homeless camping ban here in the city, did not endorse in the race, but they specifically were saying, we are not for Israel. They targeted Israel and had very little negative to say about Watson. So they kind of refrained from that endorsement. And I know the leader, Matt Vykoviak, one of the leaders of that group did congratulate Watson on his win. So we'll see how this shapes up in the future.

Did you see the map of Austin showing the different precincts that went for Watson and Israel? It was crazy. What was crazy about it? All of the precincts on the west side of Austin went for Watson and almost all the precincts on the east side of Austin

went for Israel. Fascinating. It was really strange. And I feel like that is, even in terms of like the city council races and stuff, it would make sense kind of with how

the political division is. But it's fascinating. And personally, I didn't realize that there were portions of the city of Austin and Williamson County. That did not dawn on me.

Yeah. I didn't know that there were some in Hayes County. I didn't know that either. Well, now we know yeah i didn't know that there was some in hayes county i didn't know that either well now we know i didn't either we're all very informed here learning new things again this has been an educational podcast rad is educating us from from the beyond it's almost like he's still here with us and folks to honor his memory subscribe to the Texan this has gone too far

I already said it's gone too far and I keep going further he's going to be listening to this on the road like oh you didn't no I know but folks seriously go subscribe to the Texan so you can be as informed as we are reading Brad's articles if you didn't listen to the Texans so you can be as informed as we are reading Brad's articles. Right. Okay. If you didn't listen to the Texan podcast, you would have no idea that there were portions of Austin and Williamson.

Watch everyone email us and be like, you guys are stupid. Everyone knows that. If it wasn't for Brad's articles, I wouldn't know anything about anything, frankly, happening in this state. Wow. Not Hayden or Matt or Holly or Kim, just Brad. You're putting me in a position here. I don't really want to get into it. No,

no. I mean, everybody else, obviously great. Holly for Houston certainly is a great reporter. I wouldn't know anything about Houston if it wasn't for Holly. Yeah, absolutely.

I don't really not know. I grew up there and I wouldn't know anything about Houston. High speed rail for Kim. Oh my gosh. They're, they're amazing. Our ladies are amazing. Absolutely.

But, and I will say Hayden, you're okay. Okay. You're okay. No, everyone's amazing here. I love them very much. I think he's just mad at me because of earlier. It's true. That's what that was about.

It's true. If anyone was wondering. I'm holding a grudge. Matthew, speaking of things that you're educating us about, let's talk about the Odessa City Council, which made some big news with their actions this week. Tell us the details of what happened and why it's important. It is. And this is kind of continuing on a bunch of interesting local news here at the Texan that we're covering. The council meeting in Odessa this week got a lot of attention after making a number of bold moves. To preface what happened, three incumbents on the council

who were backed by the local Republican Party there in Ector County includes Mayor Javier Hoven, At-Large Councilwoman Denise Swanner, and District 1 Councilman Mark Mata, have been at odds with the majority of the council for a number of years now, with council members Steve Thompson, Dietrich White, Mara Willis, and Tom Sprouls usually being at odds with the other three on most issues. The demographics of the council changed this past November, however, with two Republican Party-backed candidates, Chris Haney and Greg Connell, replacing Willis and Sprouls on the council, and another candidate, Gilbert Vasquez, replaced White. The direction of the council changed pretty much immediately with the new three being sworn in, where as soon as they took the oath of office, they moved forward to pass a sanctuary city for the unborn ordinance,

something that the previous council members had blocked in prior days, whenever Mayor Harvey Erhoven, I believe, tried to bring it up for passage last year. Fast forward to this week, the council moved in a 5-2 vote to fire the city manager and the city attorney, appoint interims, begin the search process for permanent positions, give police and firefighters pay raises with ARPA funds that the city received from the federal government, something that the prior council had also been opposing, and finally gave final approval for the sanctuary city for the unborn ordinance, which, kind of interesting, ended up passing in a six to one vote when Vasquez, who had abstained on the first vote last

month, ended up deciding to support the measure and vote yes. Steve Thompson was the lone vote against the ordinance. Wow. So tell us about the fallout from this meeting, this very dramatic meeting. Very dramatic. It got very lively. A number of residents and activists who were opposed to either the firings or the ordinance took issue with the public comment period occurring after the votes, pointing out that the Texas Open Meetings Act requires the public to be allowed comment either before or during a vote on an action occurs. Local attorney Gavin Norris interrupted the meeting yelling on multiple occasions and announced he plans to sue the city. And local Democrat Party Chair Hannah Horik spoke out against the unborn ordinance, Sanctuary City ordinance, saying the law will not stop her

from helping others to obtain what she described as abortion health care. Now, a lot of members of the public spoke out in favor of the ordinance, and a number of residents are also telling me that they're in favor of all the agenda items, including the firings and the police and firefighter pay raises. But it'll interesting to see if anything actually does materialize from the opposition relating to those votes, whether there's actually a lawsuit filed and whether or not they make good on any threats to recall the mayor, etc. Absolutely. Spicy stuff. Definitely worth going and reading all the details. I found it fascinating and I love that our readers in West Texas are served by your reporting, Matt. So thanks for your coverage. Let's move on to the tweeter-y section here, gentlemen, before we wrap up with a fun topic for the rest of the podcast the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution were fully ratified and went into effect.

So it was, you know, several presidents, I believe, starting with FDR issued a proclamation of a Bill of Rights Day on December 15th. So it's definitely a day to celebrate for that reason. I believe if I can do math right off the top of my head, 231 years since it was ratified in 1791. So about to be 232 come only a few weeks for January. So a good day to celebrate, definitely. We love a today in history angle. That account is fantastic, absolutely. And I will say, folks, we will have over the course of the next few weeks some really awesome Texas history pieces as well that kind of give you an idea of what happened on different days in December that are fun and historic.

So keep an eye out for those pieces just to plug more of our content. Hayden, what about you? What did you see? I'm going to commit the unforgivable sin of referencing one of my own tweets. So I tweeted an article from CNBC that talked about new polling data that shows that the general public does not want either Joe Biden or Donald Trump to run for president. And the poll said that 61% of the public, these are adults, not just registered voters, think that Trump should not run again, and 70% said Biden should not run again. And only 30% said Trump should run again versus 19%

saying that Biden should run again. Interesting tidbit that the two people considered the... There could be a rematch in 2024 between Trump and Biden. But the general public does not want that to happen. They want new candidates in both parties. Yeah. Even though it is a real possibility that it will be a rematch between Biden and Trump in 24. Severe unpopularity or seen. Fascinating. Matthew, last but not least.

I have some major breaking news of a global political importance you sound like him already you sound like the person you're about to talk about the the the it's it's it's it's just i can't even put words to it um you know that came out this morning is that the collection is here, finally. These limited edition cards featuring amazing art that you can own now for only $99 each. The official Trump NFT card. Wow. I don't know anything about NFT. I don't know anything about an NFT card either.

I'm so dumb when it comes to that topic. It looks like a really cool kind of like a baseball card or something like that. I think it's a computer generated image and there's only one. It's not usually computer generated. It's usually artists. They may use computers to generate that art and i think they do because it's on a blockchain so the whole point is that it's specifically uh unique so we'll never be

able to be like you you will own like you own that piece of art so you could get trump superman laser eyes for only 99 100 it's true but of, if anybody ever uploads that image, which some people I have seen upload the images online, you know, and say, well, this is my new NFT. There's a function on your computer where you can right click on that image and then you can save it to your hard drive. And, you know, it's, it sort of is. It's out there. It's out there.

Unfortunately, if you post your NFT, you've kind of already lost your NFT. But here's the thing. There's also the argument that you can buy prints of anything of any painting i could buy a print of the mona lisa tomorrow and frame it in my house right absolutely so the argument and i'm not even i'm not even pro nft but i also think there's more to it than people realize and nfts have tanked unbelievably in the last we're missing the the entertaining political exactly of this. And this is that all of these, everybody, whenever the announcement came out, there is a major announcement coming out.

Like every major political news outlet and observers were all like, get ready. There's a major, like we're about to hear a vice president running made announcement or something like that and then um this this commercial drops uh as part of the announcement that one one account described to say 3 a.m commercial like what is going on here ridiculous totally ridiculous yeah it seems like um trump non-fans and trump fans on twitter alike are kind of unhappy with this announcement coming up as this big announcement he said america needs a superhero that was what he said huge yeah i mean it was so forceful the way it was announced and and yeah a lot of of trump's big main supporters on twitter are just like you know i saw this one post that was just

three dots. Wow. So yeah, the presidential election is going to be interesting. Fascinating stuff. Okay, well let's pivot real fast to a fun topic here. We're getting to the near end of our time. Hayden, I believe this was submitted by you. What makes you think that? the i checked the docket earlier today and you did the only one yeah to to fill it out and so the fun topic had been added and so then process of elimination okay yeah i saw your your light come on in the google doc and i was trying to hurry up and type

it before you saw that it was me typing oh i Oh, I didn't see you typing it. It was just no one else had added anything yet. So I figured it was you. My fingerprints were all over it. That's hilarious. Why don't you host this, Hayden? Well, many of us travel a lot during the holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and not all of us live far enough away that we fly, so we drive. And it raises the question,

what are your pet peeves with other drivers? Would anyone like to go first? Yes, I would. My pet peeve isn't necessarily other drivers so much as everyone decides to drive so much around Christmas or even Thanksgiving that the traffic just gets horrible at places that you need to go to just to live your daily life like the grocery store and I get very frustrated and parking lots are insane people are shopping everywhere I don't even go to the mall that often and if I have to go anywhere near any sort of shopping center I get so frustrated and my fiance gets so frustrated and says words that I do not like while we're driving through so you need a bleep central market when you're in the yes i do well he actually doesn't even do it he just i can tell they're going through his head so it isn't even that he vocalizes it i just see him over there

just going like it's muttering and i can just see like it's like a billboard like i can see led lights flash on his forehead and i know what he's saying in his brain. Yeah. But I hate, I literally hate the holiday traffic. I just hate it. Does he ever, do you ever drive when he's in the car? Yes. But most of the time I don't want to drive. I want him to drive. Really?

I prefer to be the one driving when I have other people in the car. It might be a guy thing too. Like I just want. I just want more control yes i think so and i think gals are like it's nice not to have to drive like i'm happy not to i get nervous when i'm in the car with somebody else driving especially if i don't know them very well yeah i guess yeah i've driven hayden around a few times and the way he white knuckled the door i'm not gonna. That's what that was.

Oh my gosh. I will say this. The worst thing I think when you're driving is when you're trying to make a lane change and the person next to you, maybe because they see you, maybe they don't, but they keep perfect pace with you so that you can't make a lane change. I've had this situation where I try and speed up. The person speeds up not to go in front of me, but as if they're like trying to stop me from, I don't know if they're just being you know mean or if they're just like completely oblivious to the fact that i have my blinker on but considering you know how few people in texas

even know what the purpose of their turn blinker is you know i i can't blame him for not knowing what the little blinking light means that i'm trying to get over into the next lane. I, sorry, go ahead. I have two pet peeves. Um, let's see. One is whenever you're, you're going down a one way and you have multiple lanes, like two lanes and the two people in front of you go the same slow pace next to each other in the lane so that you can't go by.

Yeah. Uh, the second one is, you know, the lead distance that I have between the by yeah the second one is you know the lead distance that i have between the car in front of me is there for a safety reason and it may oh my gosh nothing will get my blood pressure up make me start sounding like my father faster than somebody inserting themselves between in that in that space like it was it. It's there in case somebody hits the brakes.

Well, I'm sorry, Matt, because I have to do that when I'm merging onto Mopac because there's only so much space. And I try as soon as I get into that space to slow down to recreate that so that I'm not bumper to bumper. But sometimes you have to shimmy your way into traffic otherwise you'll just be going in a circle on mopac you're dead to me matt let me ask you a question person who said that to me this are you the kind of person matt who gets mad because people are only doing 80 in a 60 like is that is that well i mean i am a native texan so yeah so yeah that might have been you that was

you know irritated with me on mopac the other day was it i think that might have been you in the car it might have been i'm just kidding i want to go back to where i actually just learned that it's called my pick by the way sorry oh yeah i also would like to say that I'd like return to the fact that you said that you had been told that you were dead to somebody three times this week. Like one time. I'm not. Two other times. Matt was the third.

Were those at coworkers of yours that said those things? They were. And actually, the second time had to do with Matt. So it's all. But pretty soon, I'm just going to be a ghost floating around here because I'm dead to everybody it was Brad and it was well KB said it to me jokingly obviously but she was

like because I told Matt to add the Texas icon and then I said just kidding I don't care and she was like Hayden I loved you until you said you didn't care now you're dead to me like oh great that's two in a row so Matt is my third strike you might be dead to her Now you're dead to me. I'm like, oh, great. That's two in a row. So Mal is my third strike. But at least you weren't fired.

You might be dead to her, but you're still not fired. Yeah, I'm still here. Hayden and Brad, the ghosts of Christmas past. Well, and I called Brad a rock star on his birthday. That's why Brad's mad at me. It made me so happy.

So Hayden, you did do something fun for me this week. I did, see? Yeah, you're right. I'm not always not on your side. That was part of that passive aggressive comment like we were talking about. I did, see? I'm not always not on your side. That was part of that passive aggressive comment like we were talking about in the office, right? That's kind of how he took it.

Yeah, I think it is. He didn't like it, so I'm dead to him. You're dead to him. It's true. Well, this has been delightful, gentlemen. Merry Christmas. I'd like to say that as many times as I can in the next month. So, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. I'd like to say that as many times as I can in the next month. So Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas. Lord in heaven. Folks, we appreciate you listening to us blather. And we will catch you next week. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, subscribe to The Texan at thetexan.news.

Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting an email to editor at thetexan.news. We are funded entirely by readers and listeners like you. So thank you again for your support. Tune in next week for another episode

of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God like you. So thank you again for your support. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.