The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - December 18, 2020

Episode Date: December 18, 2020

This week on The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup,” the reporters discuss the arrest of a former Houston police officer after his assault of a man he believed to be transporting illegal ballots, the City of Houston implementing a plan to eliminate traffic deaths, the Texas electoral college making Trump’s win in the state official, the Texas Education Agency making changes relating to testing and school district ratings, Austin City Council election results, and Texas A&M mandating COVID-19 testing.

Hello, hello, folks. Mackenzie Taylor here, senior editor at The Texan, on another edition of our weekly roundup podcast. This week, we talk about the arrest of a former Houston police officer after his assault of a man he believed to be transporting illegal ballots, the city of Houston moving forward with a plan to totally eliminate traffic deaths, the Texas Electoral College making Trump's win in the state official, changes handed down from the Texas Education Agency relating to testing and school district ratings, Austin City Council elections, Texas's largest public university mandating COVID-19 testing, and we top it all off with a lively discussion about our favorite Christmas movies. Folks, thank you for listening. Merry Christmas, and we hope you enjoy.

Hello, hello. Mackenzie Taylor here with Isaiah Mitchell and Brad Johnson. Gentlemen, are you guys ready for another edition of our weekly roundup podcast? I'm very ready. Wow. Zay, that's awesome. Bradley? As ready as I'll ever be. There seems to be some reluctance in your voice versus total pep and excitement from Isaiah. So I think that combination, we'll meet in the middle on that. Yeah. It's like yin and yang opposites pulling against each other we'll see how this goes we joke a lot in the office about brad is an old man so i think this just kind of goes with the territory here i say with much affection on that note yeah on that note let's go ahead and get into the news brad you

covered a story this week that was houston-centric there's a lot of news coming out of Houston always, but I think particularly this week we've covered a lot of different happenings in Houston. Walk us through a little bit of what happened there with an arrest of someone who's a former police officer. Walk us through the charges and what happened there generally. Yeah, you kind of stole my thunder there. It was a former police officer police captain um now he was it was a long time ago that he was a an operating police officer back in i think it was 2003 that he left that position but he was it was announcing his arrest and charges were filed for aggravated assault against the former officer named james aguirre um the harris county County DA's office put out a press release saying that the assault,

the incident stemmed from an investigation into potential election fraud, specifically illegal ballots. And it ended up with Aguirire pointing a gun at a man, um, who was from my understanding in a prone position on the ground. Um, and then when police arrived, a guire, you know, told them to arrest him and things got a little crazy and, um, you know, nothing bad happened at that moment. But the police, they eventually looked into his complaint or his allegations and they found no supporting evidence for what Aguirre was alleging, transporting illegal ballots. So, yeah, explain in more detail then what exactly Aguirre's supposed motivation was in this action. And walk us through a little bit more detail of what actually happened. So he was hired, his firm, an investigatory firm, was hired by conservative activist Stephen Hoetze specifically, an organization he runs, the Liberty Center for God and Country.

And he was basically tasked with investigating fraud during the homestretch of the election. And this incident occurred in October. It was on October 19th. And obviously the arrest and charges filed didn't come until this week. So two months later, nearly. And, um, when, when police arrived, Aguirre, you know, told them what he was doing. Uh, he had reason to believe that this man was, you know, transporting illegal ballots turned out to just be a repair man. Um, you know, whether it was a case of mistaken identity or just a mistake overall is something that Aguirre will have to, you know, will have to say for himself.

But the police said in their press release afterward this week that they found no evidence supporting the allegation now um hoatsy who is as i mentioned a conservative activist he was kind of behind a lot of the lawsuits that were filed this year especially in you know july through october november um now stemmed anywhere from the te GOP convention lawsuit, just a general lawsuit against Governor Abbott for his use of executive powers, a couple election-focused lawsuits. So, kind of a wide array of things. said that he hired he did say that acknowledged he hired a guire in his firm but did not give any directives other than that other than you know investigate this see if you can find any evidence of election fraud and the way it sounds a guire was just kind of let let on the loose you know do it his firm does investigate things and culminated in this october 19th um incident where he was police showed up to a scene and found him you know standing on top of a of an individual pointing a

gun at him so um hoatsie then came out today and now this this is Thursday, that Hotsi called into question the allegations against Aguirre, whether what happened actually happened. Now, he didn't have any evidence for questioning that other than the fact that this isn't coming out until two months later. Right. This indictment. So, that's largely the gist of it right now well we don't really know many more details other than that um you know the the fee paid to aguirre was 266 000 and to to to acquire in his firm okay there we go yes holy moly um and uh apparently a large portion of that was paid after the the day after the incident occurred so um you know i'm sure the prosecutors

are going to be sifting through that um see if they can find any paper trail of um of monetary benefits um but you know if if aguirre is found guilty of this aggravated assault, it is a second degree felony and he could receive up to 20 years in prison. Now that's the max. Obviously, nobody got seriously hurt. I don't know if there was much of an altercation before police got there between much of a physical altercation between Aguirire and the repairman the fact that a guire had a gun and the other guy did not would seem to um uh state that you know there wasn't

fistfight going on or something like that um i'm guessing the the repairman complied um facing a gun that's tends to be what happens but um nothing serious unfolded other than obviously you know if what happened happened it was an aggravated assault yeah certainly and hoatsy you know you kind of touched on his history previously but he's you know an activist who in large part has been at the forefront of a lot of the more grassroots kind of meaty conservative issues the bathroom bill which was a big topic in the 85th legislative session he was on the forefront of you know trying to get that piece of legislation passed he's known for ensuring there's a host of robocalls sent into capital offices to you know apply legislative pressure or political pressure to you know those in office very much at the forefront of these kinds of topics.

Like you were saying with the lawsuits, he's not afraid to go after those in his own party and apply that political pressure or even legal pressure in these cases. So definitely a central figure in those kinds of debates. And the two press releases that were put out there, one by HPD, one by Harris County District Attorney Kim Aug, they were very different in tone. The HPD one just basically laid out what they knew. One line in it says a lengthy investigation by HPD determined allegations of election fraud were unfounded and no evidence of illegal ballots was found. Meanwhile, Aug, um, took, towed more of a political line on it. Um,

saying a wire across the line from dirty politics to commission of a violent crime. And we are lucky no one was killed. His alleged investigation was backward from the start. First alleging a crime had occurred and then trying to prove it happened. So, um, you know, Aug, as our colleague Holly has written about quite a bit, she is, you know, a pivotal player in Harris County politics, and she's not afraid to jump into the political

rhetoric, which this release attests to, but many of other you know stories can show that as well and you know prosecutors are not they're not generally supposed to be anti unpolitical or apolitical like police are at least police when they're in their official capacity as officers and And so, you know, prosecutors have a bit more leeway on political issues. And obviously she is taking it. Yeah, certainly. And especially I think in Harris County, where there are a myriad of political lightning rod issues that local officials are usually at the forefront of the debate on. So wonderful coverage. Thank you for following that for us. Definitely a spicy story. And, you know, at first we just heard that there was this, this man who, you know, where this incident happened in a connection to supposed election fraud or suspected election fraud.

Come to find out, you know, Stephen Hoetze is, is, is also tagged onto this story. So never a dull moment, never a dull moment. Let's stay on the Houston train here. Isaiah, walk us through a proposal that has been coming out of the city of Houston. It's stay on the houston train here isaiah walk us through a proposal that has been coming out of the city of houston it's been on the forefront of the discussion for a while now but walk us through what happened this week and what you know the origin of this plan is the houston train yes speaking of trains um so earlier this week houston mayor sylvester turner officially announced his vision zero plan today at a press conference. And Vision Zero refers to a plan that's been implemented and in more places proposed in a lot of cities around the country and even in some nations around the world, beginning in Sweden.

And the title refers to the goal of achieving zero traffic deaths. And the deadline that Houston has set for itself is the year 2030, 10 years from now. Wow. So in terms of, you know, where this plan originated, we're talking about something that has been brought in, it's been, you know, proposed in different cities throughout the country, throughout Texas, actually. But walk us through a little bit of the origins of it, and then talk about, you know, what Harris County is doing to enact it. Sure. So, as I mentioned, it began in Sweden. I believe the Swedish parliament officially adopted

it in the late 90s. And it has both environmental and social goals. So, on the environmental side, obviously, the idea is to reduce pollution. And on the environmental side obviously the idea is to reduce pollution and on the social side it's to enable people with disabilities to move around a city more easily and um you know so generally the way that this is achieved is by um i guess the way that they would put it more diplomatically is deprioritizing automobiles. So, you know, the way that the march of industrialization has gone has, you know, just tended to favor the car. Yeah. And the idea of Vision Zero is to, you know, do an about face on that march and, you know, turn down traffic deaths and make cities more accessible for people with disabilities by, um, discouraging the use of automobiles. Yeah. Yeah. More independent, uh, modes of transportation where, you know,

one person can get from point A to point B by their own, their own volition. Um, walk us through. So there has been, you know, this is the city of Houston enacting this, but there has also been, you know, the Texas Department of Transportation has talked about some of these ideas. Harris County has as well. Walk us through, you know, the connection between those plans. Yeah. So, so Turner officially announced the plan earlier this week, but he signed the executive order last year, August 13th, 2019. August of this year, the Harris County Commissioner's Court launched the same initiative.

And the state of Texas also has a Vision Zero-like project. I don't know if they're working totally under the aegis of the Vision Zero organization itself, which is a real organized apparatus. But the Texas Department of Transportation has a goal to eliminate traffic deaths by the year 2050. So they're giving themselves a little bit more leeway than a single city. A little bit more time. Yeah. But nonetheless, a very ambitious goal to end all traffic deaths by the year 2050. So that's what the Texas Department of Transportation is doing. And they've got some hashtag for it that you'll see on those orange signs above the highway.

I think it's in the streak. But yeah, and so we've got a link to Texas' own Vision Zero-esque project somewhere in the article there. And as I mentioned, yeah, the Harris County commissioners court launched the same initiative earlier this year. So imagine kind of a Russian nesting doll system of vision zeros that, uh, is culminating in Houston. And they've already really begun work on this. As I mentioned in the article, the public works department in Houston has already begun rehabilitating roadways as they put it put it, which typically means cutting down

within the city on car lanes. Obviously, that looks different on a highway where there are only cars, no bikes or pedestrians or anything. But the head of public works, Carol Haddock, I was trying to find her first name in this article. She said that Houstonians can expect new color-coded sidewalks, curb ramps, and crosswalks in the city. And another part of the Vision Zero plan is widening bikeways and building new bikeways, laying 50 miles of sidewalk every year, 25 miles of high-comfort bike facilities every year. I think that's just a fancy way of saying bike lanes.

Yeah. Another. High comfort. I wonder what that looks like wide yeah you know um there's a lot of jargon here that um can be easily rephrased as less cars more feet or um you know wheelchairs bicycles and things like that and um so as as the, the progress that they're making on this now, um, as they're doing current construction, uh, they are, I'm trying to, I'm trying to find this in Haddock's own words that are very, um, bureaucratic. So, uh, she said, we evaluate each roadway during construction to evaluate the safety needs of

all users. The goals of vision zero are straightforward, to create a safe, equitable, and accessible network of streets. So as they do projects already, planning has begun to comply with this project. Yeah, absolutely. One of my, you know, somebody from Houston read your article and texted me and, you know, screenshot that particular portion where, you know, you lay out, okay, there's going to be new paints, new lanes, you know, we're going to update existing roadways, yada, yada. And said, okay, but they're not going to fix the potholes. Like the potholes are the big problem, right?

And I thought that was an interesting perspective from somebody in Houston. And certainly this plan is met with support from some folks and, you know, opposition from others. So it'll be interesting to see what the timeline for this looks like, particularly, you know, as leadership in Houston largely remains the same, but there will always be a changing of hands, right? It'll be very interesting. So yeah, Brad. And as you kind of alluded to, this is a broader effort across the entire country to implement these goals and um you know carry them out city of austin i don't know if they have a specific i would not be surprised if they if they do but i don't know if they have a specific vision zero plan um you know pass through ordinance but they did pass a um a tax levy this year um well big one was for light rail but there was a secondary one for

um sidewalks and bike lanes and that was a couple hundred million dollar um you know tax tax increase as well um another example is connie our fearless fearless leader was telling me, um, a couple of months ago that, um, back when she was in the ledge, the, um, the state, someone in the state legislature tried to slip all of these vision zero goals into a bill. And, um, it, it was, uh, once that was exposed, um, you know, the, the bill was killed. But this effort is constantly there to put these goals and endeavors into state code, local code, whatever it may be, to try and force the envelope on it. And it expands well beyond Harris County county and houston so yes it

does um light rail is relevant because i've been mentioning foot traffic and sidewalk traffic a lot but another goal of vision zero is to funnel the population more and more into centralized public transportation to make that easier more accessible to use and to get people less, you know, get people out of cars and more onto the sidewalk or, you know, public transport that can include things like light rail. The implementation tends to include things like reduced speed limit, obviously more and wider bikeways and changes to traffic signal timing, which is something that I've noticed in Austin.

I haven't, this is purely anecdotal, but, you know, I haven't looked into city council meetings on the subject, but when I got here, I've noticed that especially in downtown, the little walk light will come on well before the green light turns. So there'll be, you know, like 15 seconds where all lights at an intersection are red and it's just a little walk sign for pedestrians that's that's not always the same like in plenty of cities the green light and the walk sign come out at the same time right but um that kind of change is part of vision zero like you pointed out um whether or not austin has officially adopted that is uh you know, like it's piecemeal in Austin and in a lot of places elsewhere in the country, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, and New York City are some other

Vision Zero cities. And, you know, we've linked to an article in there kind of summing up how it has progressed in those places. Now, have any of these cities that have implemented these policies, I mean, what's the result been? Has there been an elimination of traffic deaths? No. But they've got until 2030. Hey, we've got some time. Fingers crossed.

Some time to implement. Like I said, you know, I work at thexan if y'all didn't know and so uh the deepest research uh in this article goes into into houston and the state so i haven't delved a lot into the data for la and san francisco because then um that was just inevitably adversarial so um in terms of its success i have noted in other studies including the article that we linked to, that some other Vision Zero cities have seen a reduction in deaths, but an increase in crashes, which is interesting. So there are more non-fatal crashes because the roads are gummed up with lots of different

kinds of traffic. And previously, you just had cars on a particular road. And now you have a car lane, a bike lane, a bus lane, and other forms of public transportation that are expected to share the same pavement. Yeah, certainly. Yeah. So they've seen reductions in deaths in certain cities, not all of them results vary, but, um, results may vary. Yeah. Results may vary easy payments of 99, 99, 99. But, um, in the cities that have seen reduced traffic deaths,

there've been more accidents, which is kind of funny, but, um, you know, more info on that, as I noted in the Bloomberg article that we linked on the words Chicago, L.A., San Francisco, New York City. We're getting so specific. Yeah. Well, and it's I think that these issues are incredibly important to zero in on. Most folks don't necessarily know zero in on. That was unintentional. And both of you are going to hold that over my head. Daniel will when he listens to this podcast.

But I think they're important to focus on because these are the kinds of policies that directly impact Texans' everyday lives. It may not be big, flashy legislative action taken at the state capitol, but it affects how you get to work every day. So really good information for us, Isaiah. Yeah, I mean, on that note, just as a closer to this topic,

Turner was joined by Police Chief Art Acevedo, Houston PD. And Acevedo pointed out, well, what he described was essentially that Houston, by adopting Vision Zero, was abandoning the more traditional strategy on the part of the police department of just encouraging drivers to wear your seatbelt and drive safe and go under the speed limit. And, you know, in general, a strategy that's dependent on personal responsibility. And by adopting Vision Zero, Acevedo said in his words that that's raising the ante. And now, instead of relying on drivers to, you know, take personal responsibility and be safe of their own accord, they will be discouraged from driving cars and encouraged to use their feet or public transportation and um you know speed limits will be lowered uh speeding tickets will be pricier that's what we've seen in other vision zero cities yeah and uh the road is expected in places where it's not already to be pieced up into bikeways and, you know, wider sidewalks and what have you.

Yeah. What was a high comfort, high comfort bike lanes. We're all about some comfort. All about some comfort. I think most people are. Bradley, we're going to pivot to you in an exciting, you know, change of events. The Electoral College met and kind of solidified something that had already taken place. But walk us through a little bit of what happened this week, where it took place and, you know, what the result was. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was totally shocking, you know, especially if you were to take at his word one august comedian, Jimmy Kimmel, because he showed a video. One august? Augustimmy kimmel because uh he showed a video one august you may guest it's an adjective well okay well we'll work okay continue i'm making fun of jimmy kimmel got it just just know that i'm trying to catch on to what's happening because he so he had a show on, whenever he has shows, I've never watched him. Wow.

Again, old man. Yes. And he showed a video of the Electoral College in Texas and the chairman of the body, you know, basically announcing that they were voting for Donald Trump. And he, you know, in his classic, you know, rudimentary, lowbrow humor, pokes fun at the person for doing his job and announcing that Donald Trump had been awarded Texas' electoral college votes. So, yeah, I mean, apparently he was pretty shocked by that. But yeah, so Texas, the Electoral College, 38 delegates met in the Capitol, convened by the Secretary of State. And they, like I said, cast their votes for the President of the United States and the current Vice President of the United States. It was all pretty standard, ceremonial, basically.

Everyone knew it was going to happen because of the way the Electoral College is set up. I was explaining this to Isaiah earlier. So the way the delegates are picked is each party has its own set of delegates. And the Republicans, for example, the individual electors, delegates to the electoral college are appointed through the state party convention system. Now there are various qualifiers they have to meet. And I think the Democrats might have a slightly different process, but that's how they're appointed. And so each state, most states, I'm not aware of one that doesn't, but Texas is one of these that, you know, has in code that the winner of the popular vote of the state is awarded those delegates. And so their section, Trump's section, the Republican section of delegates is awarded the Electoral College designation.

And so they convened, you know passed what was mainly a ceremonial vote and um yeah that was it yeah so in terms of you know how this actually happens they can like you said they convened at the capitol they take over the the legislative chamber was it the house that they took over is that where they were uh it was the house yes yes um and they actually like physically cast ballots right so they go in and these delegates are tied to whoever you know from their party wins that election and that happens and i think it's interesting in that there's so much heat about the electoral college in terms of national discussion of whether it should be abolished right and um what service that actually plays in terms of national discussion of whether it should be abolished, right? And what service it actually plays in terms of electing the president,

particularly after this election cycle. I mean, we really had a wild election in terms of what topics were at the forefront of the debate. You know, Donald Trump in and of himself is a lightning rod of a figure. And you have Joe Biden, whose, you you know his ascension to the nomination was also a very interesting path and there were a lot of uh obstacles for him both personally and politically i mean it just really kind of wraps up a crazy season in terms of how the election happened in a very i don't know quiet and just parliamentary way right right? It was just this meeting of electors at the Capitol who placed the final dot on the I or cross on the T

for something we already knew was going to happen. I mean, what did we hear for two years since Beto narrowly lost to Ted Cruz was that Texas is in play. And it was partially true in that the margin of victory that Donald Trump had in Texas in 2016 shrunk three, four points down to six points.

Now, it doesn't necessarily mean it's in play and six points is a pretty wide margin, but it definitely got closer but it's as you kind of alluded to it's the electoral college casting their votes this week is basically just a boring cap on what we all knew was going to happen right constitutionally like right nothing else could have or should have happened just like in democratic states the same thing like california yes california was never in play for donald trump exactly um but it kind of it's a stark contrast to the um the constant and incessant revving up of the populace by frankly the mainstream the mainstream media on, you know, Texas is in play.

Texas is in play. The game has changed. And that didn't happen. And, you know, I kind of a I did a piece a few weeks ago right after the election about how the polling, especially national polling, was so off. Right. And specifically locally they actually locally got it pretty close to correct in terms of the percentage difference local outlets yes right but um the uh the dallas morning news was by far of a national polling outfit or a local one

the most off uh they had biden at plus 0.1 so very very um basically even but um still very far off and so this this ceremony is just you know a perfect encapsulation for the you know what was reality the whole time but you know didn't was at least being sold as as not that by many of the voices in the media well and i think too another cap off is the tech you know texas monthly came out this week with their bum steer awards for the year of 2020 they awarded you know bum steer of the year to the texas democratic party saying okay y'all served up a lot of expectation when beto was on the ballot and there was a lot of you know a narrative driven both by media and by Texas Democrats saying that there was going to be a real possibility that seats that previously had been held by

Republicans or even statewide offices would be flipped blue did not happen. And it isn't saying that there isn't an opportunity for that next election or the, you know, elections after that, Texas is changing as all states are, there's shift happening in the populace. But it says something when a mainstream media outlet like Texas Monthly awards a derogatory award to the Texas Democratic Party after this election cycle. One thing that popped in my head quite a bit since the election. I wrote a piece way back in, I think, 2019. Way back in 2019.

Wow. It's been forever. Where I spoke to Jay Cost. He's a pretty notable political pundit at the national level. And talked to him and Sean Trend with Real Clear Politics about whether Texas is a swing state. And one of the things that Koss said was that this idea of demographics equals destiny totally ignores the fact on the ground of what the parties do in the state and one massive example of this that undoubtedly played a role in um you know in especially the state house races um that republicans lost no ground on yeah was um you know the this police slash um you know uh protesters and and police, that kind of thing.

The way many Democrats handled that did not help them when the time came for polling or for the election. And just because demographics are changing does not mean that the projected inevitability is going to come to fruition, just take the Rio Grande Valley and all the other border counties that are not part of RGV but shifted massively red, a couple of them even turning fully red. And so just saying that, you know, Texas is changing does not really. It's not an honest representation of the way politics works.

And that's the way a lot of media operated. They just, you know, they saw what happened with Beto and said, oh is going to happen again right because donald trump will now be on the ballot well you know that's not what happened yeah and it take donald trump out of it republicans won in a landslide in texas with um you know john cornyn won by 10 points i think it was slightly over 10 points um you know donald trump was the closest statewide race in in the state yeah and that that is not does not bode well for generic democrat party against generic republican party in texas and you know a lot of that has to do with the way um actual politics unfolded in texas since 2018. For certain. Yeah, absolutely.

For certain. One more thing before we move on to the next topic. There was a resolution that was tacked on in part of the discussion with the Electoral College. Relatively unprecedented, different kind of approach to this. Walk us through what happened. Yeah, so this was the first time in Texas. Not sure if it's the first time any electoral college delegation, but this was the first time one in Texas had issued a statement of resolution. vice president, they brought up this document basically condemning the Supreme Court for dismissing the Texas lawsuit. And of course, that got dismissed out of standing. The court found that there was no legal ground for Texas to sue another state for their internal election

protocols. And the rest of the case is very very complex and there's a lot to it. We have stories on that, both from me and our colleague Kim. So, if you want a refresher on that, go ahead and look there. But this resolution is apparently the first time a Texas delegation to the electoral colleges exercise this power now there's question whether they have this authority anyway off the bat i don't i don't know right um it's disputed but they did it and it really you know it's just a resolution and so like resolutions in the legislature largely they mean nothing yeah um it's a statement of position yes um but yeah they issued this statement and um you know condemning the supreme court for doing what they did and called for the state delegations of the four states texas sued pennsylvania

michigan wisconsin and georgia to basically nullify the election in their states, the statewide popular vote, and just have the state legislatures appoint the delegates themselves. And if having that fail, they want to, they pushed congress when they have to i forget the technical term but basically confirm the electoral votes cast um to somehow you know reject it and there's a very convoluted way that i read a piece on it i couldn't couldn't begin to explain it all in great detail but um some convoluted way through system um maneuvers that they could you know change it but change the result but that's you know likely not going to happen and uh when when they convene on january 6th you know odds are almost certain that you know joe biden will be accepted by the delegation as president yes exactly well thank you for covering that for us so thoroughly isaiah we're coming to you all

right um there have been some changes coming down from the state handed down from the state in terms of star testing through f ratings for public school systems here in texas walk us through one a little bit of what the star the star test is and give us a little bit of an idea of the legislative proposals that have come out so far ahead of the 86th or 87th legislative session. Wow we're really cranking through those legislative sessions. Yeah it's not true but it feels like it to me. It seems like just yesterday it was the 86th. So yeah the Texas Education Agency announced last week that it's going to pause the A to F school ratings for this school year, but it will continue with the STAR test. So the STAR test is S-T-A-A-R. The acronym is long and cumbersome, and it's in the article.

It's an end-of-the-year state standardized test for students. So it's pretty typical. Matt Krause of the Texas House, you like that? That was good. Has proposed legislation. Please clap. Yes, please clap. Krause has proposed legislation that would let schools swap out the STAR test for some kind of post-school preparedness test, like the ASVAB for the military, or the SAT. So the star test has taken a lot of flack from all sides, or I should say, from both parties. Because, you know, education is kind of

one of the last frontiers of bipartisan disagreement. That's, you know, left in Texas politics, which is interesting. But state rep Matt Shaheen, who has been a longstanding critic of the star test for, you know, being too rigid, too one size fits all, he filed a bill that would bar schools from using test scores as the sole measuring stick for teacher performance. So when you're evaluating teachers under the world in which this bill is passed, you would not be able to only use their students' star tests because, you know, Shaheen believes that's too reductive and the star is not a good test. State Senator Beverly Powell, a Democrat out of Fort Worth, filed a bill that would require the state auditor and the State Board of Education to

investigate the test and see how well it actually measures student success. And earlier this year, state representative Dan Flynn has publicly asked the governor and the TEA to suspend the accountability ratings attached to the STAR test, foretelling an unreliable and unfair evaluation of students, his words, because of the pandemic. So there's a lot of skepticism about standardized testing in general, namely the STAR test in the case of Texas. And so we've got bills coming in from both parties expressing suspicion about its efficacy and how necessary it is. Yeah.

So then in terms of A through F ratings, walk us through what that means for school districts and what move has been made by the TEA this year. Sure. So it's misleading because it seems like grades that you get. Yeah. The star test is for students. I took the star test. A to F ratings are for the schools themselves. They are an accountability rating that is meant to measure how well the school prepares students for success after graduation. And the TA defines that as college, the workforce, and the military in broad strokes. So all of these are evaluated in terms of how well the school is preparing the students who do graduate to do well in college or to be good workers or, you know, to accurately gauge whether or not they're going to go into the military. And they're an accountability rating for the schools.

And you can actually search these up on a database that we've linked in the article and, you know, see if the school that you or your child goes to has a good rating. But it is A through F, you know, so kind of like a regular grade that you would get in college. I don't remember getting the actual letter grades in high school. It was always just numbers. But the TA and the commissioner tend to look at these ratings or take these ratings into account when deciding whether or not to intervene in what they believe could be a struggling district. Yeah, absolutely. There's a financial tie there to a certain extent. So walk us through, you know, in light of the A through F suspension, what the STAR test will mean for TEA in terms of monitoring student achievement.

Right. So as I pointed out, a lot of lawmakers are suspicious of the star, a good chunk of citizens too. It's not a very popular test. Do you have an approval rating of the star test here in Texas? I mean, are there any standardized tests? Do any of them have a high approval rating? No, but the star test is at the forefront of all of that discussion, right? It's the one that gets, I believe, lambasted most heavily. Yeah, and I i mean i won't

share my opinions on star except that naturally i didn't like it when i was a student because i had to had to take it who says oh yippee a standardized test yeah i i think there are better tests i think the ap test is good but um mike morath morath boom you got go. Yeah. You correct me on that last time I mentioned him. He wrote the release for TEA, and he said that the issuance of A to F ratings for schools has proven to be a valuable tool to support continuous improvement for our students. And in so many words say that it's a good tool to gauge schools. But because of the weirdness of this year, in terms of schools especially, because of shutdowns and uncertain reopenings, they're going to suspend the ADF ratings. But they're going to keep the star ratings so that they can gauge student success during this kind of disruption. So generally, the TA's argument is that the star is a good measuring stick and that without the star this year, we will not have the good data to judge how well students have done. So we don't just want a blank spot in the log, you know, despite opponents of the star, according to the TA.

Instead, you know, the TA is trying to just collect this data that is expected to reflect bad scores this year. Online learning and uncertainty and, you know, weird reopenings. The whole statewide patchwork quilt of different school regulations. You know, there's a general sense, especially during the pandemic, that no one really knows who's quite in charge. Yeah. And that certainly applies to schools. So for a number of reasons, star ratings are expected to not be so great this year. And that has really been the impetus behind a lot of lawmakers calling for its removal.

Coincidentally, a lot of them didn't like the star beforehand, like Masheen. But it has proven opportune during the pandemic to um to argue that the star test this year is going to be so bad that if we shouldn't get rid of it we should cut the ties that it has to evaluating teachers and schools and student success certainly well thank you for covering that so well for us and laying out the arguments just surrounding the whole issue bradley another election happened this week, particularly here in Austin. Walk us through the two races on the ballot and the issues that were the most important surrounding them. Yeah, so these were runoffs.

The top two candidates in each district, it was District 6 and District 10 in Austin for city council. Nobody reached 50% at the general election on November 3rd. So the top two candidates moved into this runoff. The, uh, the two districts are arguably the most, the closest to swing districts you could have on city council. One of them, district 10, that is held by Alison Alter. She won reelection, but she won one re-election by a much slimmer margin than she did last time but the other one this is district six

councilman jimmy flanagan um he got upset by his challenger mckenzie kelly both the challengers were you know as far as austin goes conservative. What a nice first name she has. It truly is a nice name. I think it has a nice ring to it. It just rolls off the tongue. It just rolls off the tongue. Now she spells it incorrectly, but I'll forgive her for that. Continue. And so Kelly ended up beating Flanagan by four points and alter defeated verdon jennifer verdon by two and a half points so both of them were pretty close and obviously because of the runoff

the turnout was far lower than it was in the general um but kelly managed to win the austin part of the district by like 750 ish votes So, a pretty wide margin in such a low turnout election. And she managed to only lose the Williamson County part, which I believe Jimmy Flanagan lives in. It's his home part of the district. She only lost that by 75 votes. So, you know, in terms of raw numbers, these were both very close. But obviously, percentage wise, when you consider the fact that it's a lower turnout, Kelly's win was pretty significant. And this district is the one that Don Zimmerman once held. He won it in 2014.

And Kelly actually ran for that position then and Flanagan also. Flanagan lost, Zimmerman held it for two or three years and they faced off again, Zimmerman and Flanagan. Flanagan won that one and he's been in the position since. So this race was actually the second time Kelly and Flanagan had squared off um although the first time in you know winner take all kind of situation certainly so in terms of you know what this means for the council moving forward walk us through that political makeup and political we say

this you know loosely because these issues are political at the local level but the races are by definition, nonpartisan. Right. So regardless of whether they are liberal, progressive, conservative policies, whatever is being proposed,

these people were elected, not on a party platform. Yes. They're elected based on issues that they talk about on the campaign trail, but there's no R and there's no D. Yes. But don't let that fool you that nobody is affiliated with a specific party it's just not officially on the ballot so you're saying these people are not are there they're still ideologues to a certain extent certainly yes

yeah there you go um but this while it doesn't really mean much for what will pass through austin uh austin city council, because Kelly will be one vote among nine or eight or nine others. I believe it depends on if you're including the, um, the, the mayor on that, but, um, and so this will basically, she'll be a protest vote for you know whatever the the city council is wants to do um i'm sure she won't she'll want to actually get stuff done as well but um that is basically why she was elected was to you know throw something else into the mix with what has largely been a uniform city council, which leads me into, um, the various factors that, that, that, uh, contributed to, to her victory. I lay it all out in, in the article on the website in pretty great detail. So I, first of all, I recommend you go read that because, um, it is a better, um, purveyor

of what, what went down than just me talking about it. But as a short rundown, there were many policies. Obviously, the main one right now that's in everyone's minds is the police defunding, the cut, the slash of one-fourth of the Austin Police Department's budget. That was passed unanimously. Also, um, that's pretty notable is the city's homelessness situation. Obviously that was thrown into national prominence back in July of 2019. This is one of the things that I've covered probably more than anything else at this job. Um, but that was also passed unanimously and um they rescinded a camping and lying ban and so i it's if anyone has been to austin since then it's very visible what happened people moved um whether it was from a shelter or in the woods out into the public where they were clearly visible.

And actually, I cite this in the article, the city's survey, homeless population survey just from the beginning of 2020, found that there was a massive shift from sheltered homeless individuals to unsheltered. So there's clearly an incentive to come out of the shelters and onto the streets, and that incentive is that they were no longer being penalized for it. There was another less well-known policy that was passed, actually spearheaded bymy flanagan back in 2017 to basically encourage more um or bail bond reform and so they the ordinance suggests or this again suggested is the right phraseology that these municipal court judges who are handling a lot of these lower grade misdemeanors

that a lot of the homeless population engage in, they incentivize them to let them out on bond, on PR bond, personal reconnaissance bond. That's essentially no bond whatsoever, just the idea that I'm trusting you to show up for your court date. Right. And then another factor in the election was the pandemic and what the city, not only the city, but the state has done in response, specifically the tolls taken by businesses. And so Austin businesses were hit by both the homeless situation and the problems that come with that.

For example, the 7-Eleven on South Congress one time last summer had to call the police at least two dozen times in one day. um that coupled with the financial setbacks that the pandemic and the um the you know mandated government mandated shutdowns have wrought on them um you know it's made life pretty difficult and it kind of it has all contributed into this one recoil by voters against what has been just, you know, like I said, uniformity by the city council for these progressive policies. Now that's, you know, Kelly will not be able to, um, you know, stop any of these things from, you know, being put into place, but, uh, you know, she is, she's going to council and she will likely be a no vote on a lot of these, especially these similar types of policies. And, you know, that's basically her prerogative and her mandate from the voters.

Yeah, certainly. Well, thank you for covering that for us, particularly in light of the issues that you have been following so closely in the last year, year and a half. Isaiah, last topic, we're coming to you. This week, or just recently, Texas A&M University came out and said, okay, we're going to require certain students to test for COVID-19. Walk us through what that mandate looks like and what the frequency of these tests and what it requires. Yeah. So A&M is going to require every student that lives on campus to get a COVID test. And this is according to a public message to the student body by the university president and the provost, which states at the start of the spring semester, Texas A&M University will require all students residing in university housing on the College Station campus to test for

COVID-19 prior to the end of the first week of classes, which is on or before January 22nd. The idea is to get ahead of the same kind of initial surge that they saw when students first arrived in the fall. And so this will not apply to students who live off campus, though testing is strongly encouraged for them. Certainly. So then in terms of other universities in Texas, what kind of requirements have been issued by other universities in comparison to A&M? I very tentatively, but strongly at the same time say that A&M is most likely the first public university in Texas to require it. The way I phrase it in the article is that out of the other big flagship universities that have a lot of campuses in a

system, A&M is the first to require testing for all on-campus students. So that list comprehensively is the University of Houston, UNT, University of North Texas, the University of Texas, Texas State, and Texas Tech. So those other five flagship universities have systems and satellite campuses, and A&M has beaten them to the punch in terms of requiring testing for students on campus. The only reason why I'm not just outright saying that they are the first public college to mandate it is because of the sheer number of public colleges in Texas, whether or not you're going to include community colleges, and the ambiguity of a lot of the language of schools COVID-19 requirements. What you see a lot of is, you know, even in the most straightforward style

on a university's COVID-19 dashboard, which they all have, there will be a little spot that says, everyone or all students or all employees or what have you are required to, have, there'll be a little spot that says everyone or all students or all employees or what have you are required to, and then there'll be a bunch of bullet points. And by the time you get to like the fourth or fifth bullet point, it stops being an infinitive statement. And so at first it's like all students are required to first bullet point, we're a masterclass. Right. Second, you know, I don't know, maintain six feet of distance. Certainly. Then you go down the list and then it's just like, all people should be tested Second, you know, I don't know, maintain six feet of distance. Then you go down the list and then it's just like, all people should be tested.

Or like, it is imperative that everyone is tested. And the language starts to get more and more ambiguous. Anyway, A&M's test opens up a can of worms because it's public. So these private universities obviously have a lot more leeway with the rules in general baylor actually required a test back in back in the fall you know they required their students who were returning to send in a negative covid test in the mail before they could come back rice had the most stringent requirement which was weekly testing for the students who live on campus and um i don't know how they executed that because they might've decided that was too hard. I don't know how closely students followed that or, you know, how they can force it.

Who they reported to, et cetera. You know, mask requirements are pretty universal at public and private universities. But, you know, the idea of having a public university require on-campus students to test is interesting. It's still conditional because it's if you live on campus. And my understanding is that A&M does not require students to live on campus. You know, I knew people from my high school that even as freshmen got apartments. So the fact that there is a little note of voluntary action that takes place as a condition of getting tested just as different ISDs in Texas, you know, enact COVID restrictions or take precautions. One thing before we jump into our fun topic, which I'm very excited about, folks, Brad, give us a quick teaser. This week, we put out a really insightful interview with Railroad

Commissioner-elect Jim Wright. You hosted, as this is a topic that you have been following very closely, a race to which you followed very closely. Give us just a quick teaser, maybe the 30,000-foot view of one thing that readers would find interesting listening to this podcast. Well, I think the main thing is just getting to know who Jim Wright is. And he absolutely was an unknown quantity before this, never been in politics before, never ran for any office. And here he is winning a statewide election by a landslide. And so just getting to know him better. And I've had conversations with

him before, so I kind of knew him, but obviously, most voters do not. And, you know, I think it's definitely well worth the listen, especially for his stories about rodeo that we discussed. Oh, I like it. That's a good tease. Wonderful. Well, we're excited for that release. It's released on our website and will also be released in podcast format this coming weekend. Boys, let's talk. Let's get down to the nitty gritty here.

This is incredibly important as all our fun topics are but i think this one should be considered with the utmost respect and reverence um considering the nature of the conversation isaiah when you really are getting a kick out of this yeah it does good things for my ego so thank you please continue favorite okay boys favorite christmas movies walk us through what your favorite christmas movies are brad do you have an opinion do you want to start wait he looks reticent to begin i want to guess brad's favorite christmas i'm not shooting for number one but somewhere die hard i'm going to okay is die hard christmas no i i i wasn't about to guess that you'd say that but

it's not surprising to me that you think that I was going to guess National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Is like in your top five I feel like that branding works well Yes I would probably put that In my top five yes Nice

The scene where his The uncle is outside and his skivvy's Dumping out the sewage from his RV. It's just hilarious. What did you say? You know, I don't remember. Oh, okay. It has been a while since I saw it.

But, yes, I would probably put that up there. I like Elf. Good choice. I like, I've always liked, what's the one with the heat and the snow miser huh you are that's um the year without a santa claus yes i've always liked that one wow that was that was some some meta stuff right there and uh you know i'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the greatest Christmas movie of all is Love Actually. Oh, my gosh.

I was not prepared for it. For real? No, I'm kidding. Okay. I do enjoy it, though, because it is just so outrageously bad and funny. Wow. But it is a Christmas movie. I was not prepared for that.

It actually, yeah, actually. funny wow but it is a christmas movie i was not prepared for that it actually yeah actually nigel the the old dude making a comeback on his soundtrack is one of the most ridiculous people i've ever seen in a movie but um very entertaining i was gonna say do you identify with him you know the only thing i would identify with him is that he's old. Okay. I'm nothing like that guy. Okay, great. That's really good. That bodes well for you. I'm nothing like an aging British pop star or rock star. Darn it. I was hoping the similarities would be more, you know, more in line.

Pronounced. Yeah, that's correct. So. Well, good. Sorry to disappoint you. I'm truly disappointed. Isaiah, where are you at with Christmas movies? Number one has got to be Charlie Brown Christmas Special.

I love it. I don't know if it counts as a movie because it's pretty short, but that's my favorite. That's amazing. After that, you know, it might be for me, my number two is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Whatever that long title is. The Chevy Chase one. Yes. Whose dialogue I have memorized.

Really? That's impressive. Not really. I had Monsters, Inc., the dialogue to Monsters, Inc. memorized as a kid. You mean like totally memorized? Well, like the first 15 minutes. That's ridiculous. I just meant that like I know a lot of lines.

Oh, then that's good. That's more impressive. That's less impressive. Anyway. All right. Yeah. so those are up there for me two very different movies yes um it's a wonderful life is great yes i really dig it uh i don't know if it's that near the top for me but we always watch that one on christmas eve that's a great at my household what do you guys think of a christmas story i really like a christmas story me too yeah it's a good movie it's it's a classic but it's not my top my top three i think i like that one better than it's a wonderful life what yeah oh my gosh that's ridiculous okay that's interesting i will i'm drawing a line in the sand though if uh for anyone that thinks die hard is a

christmas movie then you have to accept gremlins also as a christmas movie i've never seen gremlins so i i can't argue with you it's actually i shouldn't say it's a good movie it is an entertaining movie um but it happens around christmas And so, you know, the same parameters apply to Die Hard. So if, if you were saying that Die Hard, not saying you are, but if one says Die Hard is a Christmas movie,

then they have to accept Gremlins also as one. Well, doesn't, wasn't Die Hard released in July? I think it was, which I understand the premise of people saying that it's a Christmas movie because of the music, the scene, you know, the setting, whatever. But I believe it was released in July. I don't think it has to be released around Christmas to be a Christmas movie.

I think that begins to show the intention of the movie and whether or not, you know, for sure that any of the classic Christmas movies were were not released outside of the Christmas time period. I don't know. I don't know. Okay't know okay i'll say we need to wrap this up folks we could talk about this all day um you could you could talk about that's correct yes and by we i mean me um i think my favorite all time it's a wonderful life i think it's really hard to say that there's you know a movie that doesn't necessarily think it's just so good and it's such a great christmas story charlie brown christmas if we're if we're including that would probably be number one but i don't know if i should include it as like a movie it's a special yeah but that's fair that would be number one if we were including

it i love that i cannot stand the polar express oh you don't like the polar express that little kid with the glasses is the most annoying little turd I've ever seen in my life. Lean. That one? Yes. Oh. Well, that's the whole point. He's a villain.

Yeah, he's a villain. You need to have some sort of antitiveness. Well, he makes me hate the entire movie. Oh, come on. Yeah. That's a little aggressive. Elf is my favorite comedy. I love Elf.

I think it's so brilliant and so funny. Is that because you are basically Buddy? Correct. There is some identification there that does, you know, make it more, I don't know. Relatable? Inviting, yes. Oh, inviting. I'd also say White Christmas is a dark horse. I think that's a great classic, but it's not my top.

Polar Express we watch every Christmas Eve. That's a movie we watch every Christmas. Yeah, Brad. We also do All We Eat Sweet Potato sweet potatoes you're just saying that you're correct we don't do that you're so lying yeah i am but it was fun to say because brad hates sweet potatoes oh i just looked up christmas movies on google yeah and there's a gq magazine article saying that lord of the rings is the greatest christmas movie okay i do like watching lord of the Rings is the greatest Christmas movie. Okay, I do like watching Lord of the Rings during the winter time. What? Oh, I thought you were about to say, okay.

And Harry Potter, those are both two series. Neither of those are Christmas movies. But they're fun to watch around Christmas time. Sure, but that's a different question entirely. Yes, I think they're just cozy. I don't think they're Christmas movies. I think they're just cozy. Well, I mean, orcs getting beheaded isn't necessarily cozy, but

just in my opinion others might disagree that's some light entertainment yeah i think so just like buddy the elf okay folks thank you so much for listening to us well particularly me talk about christmas movies has been me very happy gentlemen thank you for obliging it was actually your idea so yeah it was idea wasn't it you know i kind of hate myself for bringing it up, but whatever. So begrudging. Throwing you a bone. Oh, Lord in heaven.

Well, 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.

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