The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - December 19, 2025

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free "Remember the Alamo" hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/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.Texas Congressional Members Urge U.S. Army Officials to Investigate Fort Hood Doctor Sexual Abuse AllegationsDallas City Council Approves Police and Fire Pension Funding AgreementHarris County Democratic Party Resolves to Withhold Endorsement from Houston Mayor WhitmireU.S. Supreme Court Rejects Appeal for Rehearing in Llano County Library Book Removal CaseTexas Sues Five TV Companies, Alleging 'Spying' Via Data Collection PracticesCongressman Wesley Hunt Files Bill Targeting Educator Sexual Abuse and 'Grooming'Waymo Recalls Over 3,000 Self-Driving Vehicles Following Repeated Illegal School Bus PassingsKIPP Charter School Network to Close Seven Campuses in TexasPresident Trump's Notable Texas-Related Pardons in 2025Mexico to Release Water Owed to Texas Under 1944 Treaty Following U.S. PressureSan Antonio Family Association Adds VIA Metropolitan Transit Authority to Lawsuit Over City’s Green LineTexas School Districts Expand Career and Technical Educational Pathways for Students

McKinsey, I'm disappointed. I was for sure you were going to talk about orcas. Oh my gosh. Matt is my, Matt is my orca news dealer. Okay. Let me go to this because Matt, I'm so glad you said this. You'll see how her face just lit up all of a sudden. Okay, orcas, we've talked about this at length and for years on the podcast now that orcas are sinking ships, but they're literally ramming the boat here.

Again, it's three orcas ramming against the ship. just sunk and it had to be towed back to port, which is wild. But these orcas, they're really, we hadn't heard about them in a while and here they are research scene. And Matt, thank you for keeping me up to date on this very important news story. Well, howdy folks, it's McKenzie here with quite a crew. We have Kim, we have Meredith, we have Matt, who's labeled himself Matt the Great, I think it's appropriate. And we have Hannah Brewer. our newest addition to the reporting team. Hannah, it's so excited to have you on. We're pumped to have you join our ranks. She's already been on the site publishing multiple different

stories, which is exciting. So Hannah, thanks for joining the podcast this week. Thanks for having me, kids. We are definitely not related at all. We actually aren't. Andrew and my husband, this is Andrew's sister. So we're excited to have her join the team and contribute to the Texan, so it's exciting. And I don't know, Hannah hasn't really been like hazed really at all by the, by y'all. So I would say, you know, Kim, you know, speaking as someone who's been on the team for so long, I kind of need you to up your game a little bit, potentially with the hazing here. I'm probably one of the nicer people on the team. So what are you talking about? Yeah, that's very true. But, you know, we need a little bit, we need a little bit from you.

So I'll request that later on. I'll see what I can do. Okay. Thank you. Meredith, do you receive, like, were you print it all or teased it all when you first joined? No. Was it pretty easier? Okay. You guys, everyone was super nice. And then I feel like because you went on to maternity leave, we really went into just like work mode. I mean, obviously we had fun, but it wasn't. Yeah. Maybe are you the hazer? Is that what it is? I, maybe I'm learning something about myself here. No, I don't think so. I think I react to people's jokes and pranks. And so they do it often to me because I think it elicits a very oldest child syndrome, I think. But I think being remote, they're nice to us. I feel like we're in the office. I feel like I've definitely enjoyed more of them, camaraderie when I'm in the office.

But I think being remote, they're just like, we don't know how to do this. That's interesting. And you have come and visited the office several times and seen everybody there. Matt, would you agree? You've been both remote and an information. person, Austin reporter. Would you agree that there's a difference in how, you know, people treat you if you're a remote versus in person? Ooh, I don't know. I feel like there's been a fair amount of remote hazing in the past

in Slack. And I feel awkward because I've been on both sides of giving and of that experience. Yeah. Seen any bucks lately? Having any luck out there at the cabin? No. Yeah, it's been a pretty sad hunting season. All you want for Christmas is a buck or two, eh? Yes.

No, I got here. I've been deer hunting since Sunday, and I haven't seen anything, even a mouse. And then it was either yesterday the day before I go to the door of the cabin. and I open it up and there's this big old buck standing there and he jumps up in the air real fast and runs off. And that's been the only thing that I've seen this whole time. So instead of hunting, I've just been writing stories.

Well, we'll take it. Thank you for that, Matthew. Well, we should go ahead and jump into speaking of stories. The stories for this week, and Meredith, we're going to start with you. This week, Texas congressional members wrote a letter to the U.S. Army's Inspector General, urging him to investigate sexual abuse allegations of a former Fort Hood doctor. So it's pretty close to home here.

Tell us what happens leaving up to this. So U.S. Senator John Cornyn and Congressman John Carter wrote a letter to the U.S. inspector. I'm sorry, this is a tongue twister for me, the Inspector General of the U.S. Army. This article was full of all these titles that we were laughing about, so many of them. But this isn't funny. Asking him to investigate these what they call deeply disturbing allegations against former Fort Hood OBGYN, Major Blaine, He was working at Carl R. Darnel Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, and the initial lawsuit against him filed by Jane Doe, which has grown now to have at least 81 women join it, alleges that he was filming pelvic and breast exams of these alleged victims. And so the lawsuit by the first initial alleged victim describes it as him pretending to take a call and then putting the phone in his breast pocket camera side out so that he would, he would.

would record the rest of the pelvic exam and then encouraging her to do a breast exam, even though she had never had any breast-related issues or inquiries about that. It also, in the lawsuit, talks about him placing intrusive and uninvited phone calls to her outside of office hours to try to create this inappropriate, like, relationship. So it goes on. It's one of those that you really don't like to read all of that. He had been working in Hawaii from 2019 to 2023, so there are women from. Texas, Hawaii, and 14 other states that have joined this lawsuit.

The U.S. Army Office of Special Trial Council has charged him with four criminal charges and 61 specifications, which are specific allegations. Fifty-four of them are for indecent visual recordings. And just to note, the way that John Doe found out that she was an alleged victim was that the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division brought her in for an interview, and informed her the situation where she identified herself in the videos. McGraw was put into pre-trial confinement on December 2nd, and he is held now in Bell County Jail. This letter is asking the Inspector General to look into,

quote, clinical command and defense health agency oversight structures that failed to identify and intervene in this case. So they're asking the congressional members are asking if there are trauma and important resources for these victims, health services has the DOD notified Texas Medical Board and other state licensing authorities. So they are urging and pushing for an investigation. Absolutely. Meredith, thank you for covering such a horrible story and encourage folks to go read her story at the Texan just to make sure that all the details are clear in their brains. But thank you for covering that, Meredith.

Camel, let's come to you here. The Dallas City Council finally reached a funding plan for retired police and firefighters first responders here. Tell us why this matters and what the deal is. So the city of Dallas does have a pension plan for its police officers and firefighters, and it's been having trouble maintaining sort of a solvency funding level for several years, probably approaching a decade now, and it's been severely underfunded by the city. And in fact, during a presentation last summer made by the city staff to the city council, it revealed that at the current rate, the firefighter and police pension fund wouldn't

have been fully funded for 82 years. So they needed to do some reforms on their funding of the pension plan promises they'd made to these first responders. And in addition, the Texas Pension Review Board had required that the city come into compliance with state law and have the pension plan fully funded within 30 years. So that's what the plan was intended to do. Okay. So walk us through the details of the plan.

So the city will fund the plan to the tune of about $11 billion over the next 30 years. And the plan also includes a modest stipend to help with cost of living increases for retirees. They're not allowed to actually do a COLA, but they can do a little stipend that helps with cost of living adjustments. And the plan did pass the city council. Only one city council member voted against it. It was Paul Ridley, and the Pension Board of Trustees approved executing the plan with the city by one vote. The mayor and city manager both praised the plan, saying that it brings it into compliance, it's fiscally responsible, all those things. But not all parties are as optimistic about the pension plan's future as the city council, the mayor, and the city manager.

In fact, Dallas Police Association President Jaime Castro believes the plan, in quotes, woefully underfunds, the agreement to fund the plan, woefully underfunds the pensions. And Dallas Police Retired Officers Association also criticized the plan saying it's just putting off the inevitable bankruptcy of the pension plan for five years. So I don't think this matter is over as much as the City Council might want it to be. mayor's statement tried to make it seem like it is. I think there may still be issues that come up over the next months and years. So we'll be keeping an eye on it. I encourage people to keep an eye on it with us through the Texan. Absolutely. And this is, as you said, not going away anytime soon. We see this conversation and all the major metropolitan areas in the state over and over again. And oftentimes it's taken to the legislature and the legislature intervenes in some way.

So very interesting to watch all of this go down. But Kim, thank you for your coverage there. Okay. Mary Elise is out sick today. And so I'm going to do my best to cover a couple of her stories on the podcast. And one story that's certainly garnered a lot of attention with a resolution passed this week against the mayor of Houston by his local Democratic Party. So his political party, you know, opting to really force some opposition here. This is John Whitmire. where he's now barred from receiving the endorsement from the Harris County Democratic Party.

This was a revolution that was passed by local precinct chairs, which is kind of the apparatus of each local political party. And this is ahead of his potential re-election campaign. But this is really spurred on by a few different items, a few different moments in his tenure. And I think also highlights the schism that we see in Democratic Party here in Texas. You know, we have and nationally where we have a more progressive wing. a more moderate wing. And so that's kind of the criticism here is that he's not representative of the more progressive wing. A couple of different instances, he attended a Republican fundraiser.

There's the perceived collaboration between the city and ice. The city removed some of its rainbow-colored crosswalks that were decorated to represent the LGBT community. The different items like that have certainly kind of put Whitmire on the crosshairs of the more progressive wing of his party. Whitmerer is a very familiar face for a lot of those of us who followed Texas politics for a while. He served in the Texas legislature as a Democrat for 50 years and 10 years in the House and 40 years in the Senate. This is somebody who is a very tenured member of the legislature. And he was granted chairmanship of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee in 93 and was held until 2023. That's like a 30-year stint as a chairman in a Republican-led

legislature as a Democrat. This is his statement. He said, let me be clear. I strongly oppose the fear-based and harmful tactics used by ICE that tear families apart and undermine trust in our communities. Houston does not interact with ICE on immigration enforcement. We follow state and city laws only, including Senate Bill 4. This is, of course, the 2023 legislation that criminalized the illegal entry and re-entry into Texas. This was a huge story. I'd encourage folks to go read our coverage at the Texan to get more info on that. But it was past during the fourth special session of the 88th legislature so took a few tries to get it across the finish line but that's what he's referring to there go read mary leases coverage the texin for all of the details hannah we're going to come to you here this is a story that's been followed up the texin for a while and you kind of took up the mantle on this story

plaintiffs in little versus lano this is a book removal case asked the u.s supreme court to take up this case but the supreme court declined to hear it give us these details yes so the Supreme Court declined the rehearing, which allowed for the decision of the lower court, the Fifth Circuit Court, to stand as law in the circuit. So the Fifth Circuit Court concluded that the book removal didn't violate the First Amendment, which was what the plaintiffs were saying it did. So a little case context. In 2022, a group of seven library patrons filed a federal lawsuit against Lano County over the removal of 17 books from the public library, and they claimed it violated the First Amendment right to receive information. The books were dealing with LGBT issues, gender sexuality, identity, race, and racism.

And initially, the court sided with the plaintiffs, but after they were further reviewed, they concluded that there was no constitutional right to receive information through the presence of particular books in the library. So the court concluded that the libraries might house government speech, which basically gives the government the right to select what information. information they put out on public forums like libraries, websites, the URLs they link to on government websites, et cetera, and the set a precedent for the courts in the Fifth Circuit only, so excluding all the other states except for Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

But this is one of, I think, several book banning cases or going on in the country. Absolutely. This is a hot topic and has been both the local level and state level, legislators have taken a whack at getting this all ironed out. Republican-led legislature, of course, that's where they're headed and this is an interesting, an interesting tie into all of this. So, Hannah, thank you for covering that for us. Meredith, I'm going to come to you. Congressman Wesley Hunt filed a bill targeting educator, sexual abuse. You have some tough stories this week, my dear. Give us these details. Yeah, there's, unfortunately, we have to cover these things. Um, so Congressman Wesley Hunt introduced legislation to create a national registry and a federal task force to combat sexual abuse in schools.

Um, it is called the National Educator Safety and Accountability Act of 2025. Um, he said that this is a quote from him, approximately 10 to 12 percent of children experienced sexual misconduct or grooming by a school employee before they graduate. Also in the press release, he added that multiple incidents in Texas have been reported by various news outlets and we have a lot of coverage of specifically on a really horrific ongoing issue in Salina ISD with former teacher Caleb Elliott, who has just like a long-growing list of charges related to child pornography and sexual abuse-related things. And so if you want to, I don't want to go into all that right now. If you want to read more about that, we have a lot of that on the Texan and we're following that closely. Hunt said that currently there is no effective vetting system for employees who move from district to district after being fired for misconduct.

and the lack of communication between state and local agencies allows recurring sexual misconduct across the state. So Texas actually does have a do not hire registry, which is officially known as the registry of persons not eligible for employment in public schools, which is run by the TEA, so you can go and see that on the TEA's website. And it was established under House Bill 3 during the 86 legislative session in 2019, and Representative State R. Dan Huberti authored that. So there is something in place, but a lot of the, it is an ongoing question and an ongoing issue of why is this still occurring if we have these things in place. Absolutely. And watching the coordination between the state and federal lawmakers

and trying to tackle issues like this is certainly notable. So thank you so much for covering that for us. I'm going to hit another Mary Elise story quickly. Texas filed suit against five major TV companies this week, specifically talking about data collection concerns. So this is Attorney General Kent Paxton filing these five separate lawsuits. These are against Sony, Samsung, LG, Hysens, and the TCL Technology Group this week, and alleging that all these companies use automatic content recognition or ACR technology that, quote, secretly monitors what consumers watch across streaming apps, cable, and even connected devices like gaming consoles or Blu-ray players.

These suits assert that both the mass surveillance made possible through this ACR technology was never understood or agreed to by consumers so that they've been in the dark but still have the had the surveillance as part of what happens every day in their home and that it violates Texas laws regarding consumer safety practices. So a TRO, a temporary restraining order, has been obtained against High Sense that happened yesterday after we'd written the piece. So Mary Elise has all of that and more at the Texan. News and I encourage folks to go read her coverage. Meredith, we're coming back to you. This is a story we just published today right before we recorded, but one of Texas's largest charter networks announced that it's closing seven campuses at the end of this school year. Tell us why. So switching from sexual abuse to something a little lighter. The board directors for KIP, Texas public schools, which stands.

for the Knowledge is Power Program. It is one of the largest charter networks in the state, and it's part of a national charter network, which has the national network has 279 public charter schools. There are 45 in Texas. So they announced that they're closing seven campuses at the end of this school year for the future. And there are five of them are in Austin, two are in San Antonio,

and they cited enrollment decline as the main reason. So they talked about how they have to, they talk about, let's see, how their commitment is to provide every student with a joyful, academically excellent experience, and we know that can be best done with fully enrolled campuses is what their CEO, Zeva Ali, said in a press statement, press release. So this follows a trend of enrollment decline in the state, which they also talked about on their website and in their statement that this is not unusual to schools. But we just noted that while it is not unusual in public school districts, for example, Austin, ISD is closing 10 campuses next year.

It is a little bit unusual in charter networks, which we also have coverage on that. The Texan, they have increased significantly, almost like 30% in the last five years. So this is a little bit unusual to see a charter network have the type of closures that maybe a public school network would. Absolutely. And Meredith, you have multiple different stories that are going to be released over the coming weeks related to similar stories just about school closures, how different districts are handling all sorts of different developments locally. But I'd encourage folks to go read her coverage there too. And on that note, while Christmas and New Year's are happening, we still are going

to be publishing all sorts of awesome content at the Texan, and I'd encourage folks to go read those. And we'll talk about a little bit more on a forthcoming weekly roundup. But we have, I think, specifically, Kim, I'm thinking about a couple of fun Texas history type pieces that I love that we have the opportunity to publish, especially any time of year, but especially this time of year. I think it's far more fun for folks to read those types of pieces around Christmas time as opposed to news about sexual abuse. Can we just give an amen to that? So definitely go and read those stories. They're fun to write too. They're so great. And Kim has, Kim is so good at coming up with ideas for us when we are scheduling these pieces ahead of time.

She is the idea queen. So I'm appreciative of that, Kim. But definitely go read everyone's work. It's going to be fun to watch all of that. And we'll get into one of Matt's pieces that will be scheduled for that period just in a little bit here. I'm going to talk quickly about another Mary Elise piece, doing my best to cover her stories. There was a recall of some self-driving vehicles that was issued. and we'll talk a little bit about this whole story.

Do you guys have Waymo in Fort Worth? Kim, Meredith, do you guys see that where you are? No? I haven't, but it could be. Well, they're all over Austin, and it is, I think I'm almost used to it now, where you just see a vehicle driving around with no driver, and it's wild, but they're everywhere here. But this isn't, Waymo is the company we're talking about here, and they voluntarily recalled

over 3,000 of its self-driving cars due to repeated instances. of illegally passing school buses in cities. And these include some incidents that did happen here in Austin, which is a testing ground for these kind of trial runs for these autonomous vehicles. And I'm sure, you know, you all have seen the video. I think we even talked about it on the podcast where one of these cars, it went viral. There was a video.

I think it was in California, swerved and did not hit somebody who fell off a scooter in the bike lane right next to it. So these vehicles are certainly very, very well developed. And there's a lot of, you know, safety measures in place. But at least the passing school buses has certainly been, I mean, that's an issue, right? So these 3,000 cars were recalled. And the investigation was first opened into the fifth generation automated driving system in October after a video circulated of one of these vehicles passing this school bus in Atlanta. It kind of decreased in speed and then move forward despite the bus's arm, you know, that stop sign arm that comes

out with the flashing lights and basically just indicates that children are coming on and off the bus. Austin I.C. reported in early December having recorded instances of vehicle's illegally driving around stop to school buses at least 20 times between the start of the school year in August and four months later. The district discovered the footage after the Atlanta incident and highlighted the potential concerns. So there you go. Definitely go and check that out. But wild to see this happen, especially after we've seen other viral incidents or instances where we've seen a lot of very deft maneuvering by these vehicles. So lots of things to still iron out here. Matthew, let's talk about this story that I have already kind of hinted at. But as President

Trump nears the completion of the first year of his second term in the White House, that's wild to think about. You've been working on a review of the most notable pardons that the president had issued to Texans or maybe just pardons that relate to the state generally give us the rundown here. That's right, McKenzie. And before I begin, I have to say it's good to be back on the Texan podcast. I feel like I've been living under Iraq the past few months. What have you been doing? What have you been busy with, Matthew? I have been working on my law degree. So I just I just finished up. Yes.

I just finished up a 16-hour semester, so for the past two months, I feel like I've been living under a rock. But I got that out of the way. I'm on a much-needed winter break before spring semester picks back up, and consequently, I'm also, this next year will be my last year. That's so crazy to think about. It's gone so fast. I mean, for you, you've probably been, you know, slogging, and it's probably not felt quickly, quick at all. But for me, I'm like, oh, my gosh, Matt, it's wild that we're almost, we're nearing your 3L.

Yeah, and three out. Yeah. And I'm actually, law schools were nearly three years, but I've been doing summer, summer classes and pretty heavy fall and spring semesters. So I'm actually cutting this thing down to two and a half years and knocking a whole semester off. So getting this thing knocked out as quick as I can. Well done. That's awesome. But it's been fun to be back on the writing beat this week. I've got a couple of pieces, one, the next issue of the docket.

It's going to be fun because it's a piece that I covered. I learned a lot about constitutional law this past semester covering the Commerce Clause. Rob is messaging us now saying how good it is, so I'm excited to read it. Yeah, yeah. It was great to get to take some of the things that we just covered in depth and apply it in a relevant Texas political situation. And so definitely check out the next issue of the docket. But also it was interesting this piece that I've been working on this week, researching and where I've identified seven notable pardons issued by the president this past year. And the way I isolated the pardons that we're covering is that it's either Texas residents or crimes that were committed or affected Texas in some notable way. And in total, I identified seven individuals. And we go through each one of these instances and we discuss whether or not these individuals, whether or not they were just indicted waiting for trial.

whether or not they'd already been convicted. I'm taking a look at what we know about the basis for the president issuing the pardon. Sometimes you get a lot of information regarding a pardon, and sometimes you don't get a whole lot of information concerning why the president found a pardon-worthy. But to that end, I also kind of did a little bit of historic research and looked at what some notable figures in our nation's history have said about the pardon power. For one, I took a look at a very well-known Supreme Court Justice from way back when, who kind of weighed in on what the principles that the founding fathers intended the pardon powers to be used for.

I also took a look at some of the scathing criticisms that one of the founding fathers, George Mason. You don't hear about him often, but he's considered the father of the Bill of Rights and how he was very adamantly against this broad pardon power. One of the things that I thought was interesting that he said was that the pardon power, as written in the Constitution, would allow the president to pardon somebody who's under maybe investigation or before they've gone to trial. And he pointed out that that it could be used for abuse.

It could deter investigation and keep the full scope of what somebody did from actually coming out at trial. Rather than letting all that come out and then after conviction, then allowing the president to pardon. And that keeps all the known information from being made available. One of the most notable pardon recipients that we covered that we cover here in this story is, of course, the most recent. pardon that President Trump has issued, and that is the pardon of Congressman Henry Quayar, and his wife. And we've actually covered that issue through multiple stories at the Texan since he was under investigation, the indictments, and the new surrounding. And kind of an

interesting thing on this point is we have a lot of insight into what the process was and the thinkings of the president was in issuing this pardon. I love the George Mason call out, first of all. I remember going to D.C. back years ago and finding the George Mason monument. And it was just, he has far more influence than I think folks realized. And I just love that you mentioned him. But talk a little bit about that queer pardon, because we've, like you said, we've covered this extensively at the Texan, but walk us through a little bit of the backstory there,

as well as the reasoning that we hear from the president. Sure. So actually, I pulled the original indictment from the Department of Justice and reviewed it. And basically, and even though I've been working on this story all week, I'm probably going to butcher the pronunciation of this country. But the nation of Azerbaijan. Jane? As are Bayjan. I believe. Is your by John? Okay. Yeah. Something like that. I probably pictured it a little bit too, but it's in that ballpark.

So they've had this conflict going on with another country over there for quite some time. And the Department of Justice found that one of their big priorities, especially one of their lobbying priorities, is to get United States policy as favorable as possible to help them in this conflict that they. have going on. And they identified Quayar because of some of the committees he sits on were some of the most well positioned to assist in helping push U.S. policy in a beneficial way. So according to the indictments, both Congressman Quayar and his wife formed, originally formed three shell corporations. that were deemed consulting companies and they issued fictitious invoices to an oil company that is entirely owned and controlled by the government and these invoices the first batch billed like three hundred and sixty thousand dollars of air quote consulting fees that they could find no evidence of

any actual consulting being done for or literally or no consulting. And in the meantime, they had enormous amounts of evidence regarding Congressman Quayar traveling over there, meeting and texting and calling and emailing with diplomats and other officials. They had communications where Congressman Quayor would text these diplomats and give them an update of how he managed to secure beneficial provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act that would shift U.S. Security Forces policy to benefit their conflict.

They would lavish him with praise. They would then ask for him to secure meetings for them with senior Department of Defense officials. And then the second phase of this process came in whenever the indictment says that they brought in family member one, which was described as an adult child of the Quayars. And it is known that the Quayars have two adult children, two daughters, and that this one child then created more shell companies that did billing on this sham invoicing for hundreds of thousands of dollars more until. the FBI and the Department of Justice swooped in and indicted both the congressman and his wife.

They had not indicted whichever one of the daughters was involved in the second half of the scheme, which that aspect of the indictment is interesting because it plays, Congressman Quayar's daughter played a large role in getting the congressman and his wife full partons from president trump well here i am muted yeah matthew what a rundown thank you for covering all of that and we have coverage from the start of this debacle

all the way up until the pardon and so i definitely would encourage you know people to go back and check all that out we have all the plot points that they're interested and be on the lookout for matt's piece going over all of these different pardons because it is notable it's interesting it's a lot of work to compile and I think it will um it's very very interesting so definitely go and read that when it's published matthew thank you so much thank you mackenzie Hannah we're coming to you you really jumped in the deep end here with one of your first stories being about a water treaty debacle that's been going on for months now but it is a very weedy subject um tell us what happened in the lives of south texas farmers this week yes of course mackenzie um

fun-backed when I was working on this, I learned that my mother-in-law owns a farm in South Texas. No way! I'm still trying to hear from her about if she knows what's going on or whatever. But anyway, so maybe updates later on. Yeah, so Mexico agreed to deliver 202,000 acre feet of water that they owe the U.S. under the 1944 Water Treaty. This directly impacts farmers in South Texas who have seen a significant decrease in crop, over the last two decades due to huge water deficits from Mexico not upholding its end of the 1944 water treaty. So the water treaty requires the U.S. from the Colorado River to deliver

1.5 million acre feet of water to Mexico every year and requires Mexico to deliver 1.75 million acre feet of water from the Rio Grande every five years. So they're on this five year cycle of water delivery to the U.S. and specifically to Texas. since the 1990s, Mexico has not upheld its end of the agreement, which according to Texas A&M's Agri-Life report has led to almost, yeah, it's about $495.8 million loss, specifically due to failing specialty crops and row crops. I don't know if you all have seen how it's come out in several sources just about sugar crops being affected and the last sugar farms being cut off in recent months. So on December 8th, President Trump threatened to impose 5% tariffs on Mexico

if they did not deliver 200,000 acre feet of water by December 31st. So he posted on social media. And then just four days later on December 12th, Mexico agreed and released 202,000 acre feet of water on December 15th. So things are looking to, I guess, in late, late January, they will come into an official agreement about what the next cycle will look like. So we'll see what happens. Yeah, absolutely. Kim, we'll jump in here. Yeah, so I grew up in far south Texas in the Real Grand Valley.

And I'm sure Matt can agree living over in Far West Texas, but the Rio Grande is critical and the amount of water in it is critical. The agricultural areas are so dependent on that. And I am not surprised to see that large number of crop loss. It's just a huge, huge deal. Yeah, and this is the story that, I mean, we've covered it for a while, but this is one of those that, unless you're tuned in or you're in this part of the state or affected, it may seem like, oh, okay, this may not, it's not spicy. It's not as crappy. Like, the headline is not as big of a draw for folks, but this is a huge story.

And this latest development is a huge deal, especially for those living in South Texas. Yeah, Matt jumped into. Yeah, I just wanted to add that, you know, the past several years, we've, we've covered. you know, constant outcry by local officials, state officials, federal officials all along the southern border, agriculture communities and, you know, business officials, etc., etc., just talking about the dire nature of this situation and just never getting any relief or movement on the issues. So this latest news is quite significant. Absolutely. It's huge. And water being,

a topic that the legislature really honed in on this year or two during session and we'll continue to. But it is, it's not spicy or exciting, but it is incredibly important. And yeah, Matthew. Yeah, and I would just add, you know, like the legislature this past session, you know, put a huge investment on state water infrastructure, but where state officials were up against a difficult position is that, you know, treaty negotiation and enforcement is entirely within the purview of the federal government. And if you don't have a federal executive branch that's willing to enforce it, you're literally almost out of options.

It's very difficult for state or local officials to have any influence there. So all their weight has to go against the federal government to do something. And then the federal government has to move its weight against a foreign country in order to. So it's a very difficult, multiple, multi-layered issue, thus illustrating its complexity and the difficulties. Meanwhile, these communities are, you know, the problem persists during the past several years. Absolutely. Matt, thank you for that context and Hannah. Great coverage. Meredith, let's come to you here. Let's talk about another lawsuit from the Attorney General this time. directly relating to this smokehouse creek fire that last year just ravaged the state.

Yeah, so I actually moved back to Texas last year right after this that all happened. So it was interesting to learn about it and go back in. There's some coverage on the Texan about it from last year. So it started in February, 2024, this was the largest wildfire recorded in Texas history. The damages were horrific, destroying over 15,000 head of cattle. around 138 homes and businesses, and just like you mentioned, these, like, lasting damages to agriculture, ranching natural resources. So Texas Attorney General Penn Paxton sued Southwestern Public Service Company, which is known as Excel Energy here in Texas, for allegedly causing the

Smokehouse Creek fire that killed three Texans and caused over $1 billion in damages. So in the press release, he discusses their blatant negligence that killed three Texans and caused of functional destruction in the Texas panhandle. He specifically claims that their utility poles were inspected in January 2024 and that the company was notified in February of this urgent need to replace them due to advanced deterioration, but some of them had not been replaced since their original installation in 1936. So these were old poles. He also discusses, he talks about, he had announced an investigation into different utility companies that were connected to these fires. And he talks about that saying, obviously, they were negligent in these things, but he also

suggested in August that some of the companies possibly prioritized environmental, social, and governance, so ESG or diversity, equity, inclusion, DEI, agendas over safety, although he did not provide specific examples. So he, that was something that they were looking into as well. So the lawsuit is looking to recover all these damages to the state, property damage, wildlife and habitats, civil penalties for violating state law, and just wants to make sure that this doesn't happen in the future. And so Excel responded to the lawsuit, obviously disputing claims that it acted negligently. They said that they did accept responsibility in 2024 for their rule in the fire and that they had reached settlement agreements totaling $361 million. that covered $212 of 254 claims that were filed against

them. They just expressed that they were disappointed that the Attorney General was choosing litigation, saying that they worked with the office in good faith to try and find a consensus solution and that they're going to obviously defend themselves against these allegations. Absolutely. It's an

ongoing saga for sure, and Meredith, thanks for covering that for us. And we're going to come to you. Let's talk about another lawsuit, a little bit different here was filed by the San Antonio Family Association in September. Give us an update here. So as you mentioned, the San Antonio Family Association, their action committee, filed a lawsuit in September against the city of San Antonio, and this is all surrounding a transit feature known as the quote unquote green line. That is a rapid bus transit line that they're going to put

apparently along San Pedro Avenue. Now, I'll admit it's been a number of years since I've been to San Antonio, but when I used to live in central Texas and would make frequent trips to San Antonio, if I recall correctly, San Pedro Avenue is a large thoroughfare in San Antonio. And so they'll be taking a lane away for this bus rapid transit. And so not only does the San Antonio Family Association believe that's bad policy because it will disrupt traffic and causing convenience for the residents there. But they also believe that a tax-specific funding mechanism is in violation of the Texas Transportation Code and the Texas Constitution because it gives too much discretion in the use of the tax fund to this transportation authority via Metropolitan

and transit authority is San Antonio's transit authority. So they filed that lawsuit in September, and then they added VIA as a defendant recently. They believe that VIA is also violating the Texas Transportation Code by accepting the tax revenue. So that's why they added them as a defendant, claiming that VIA would be acting outside the scope of its authority. They also added an argument that VIA is engaged in this redevelopment effort of a SCOBE storage facility near one of its transit centers in San Antonio and that it doesn't have the authority given to it statutorily to engage in redevelopment. So the attorney who's representing San Antonio Family Association, Jared Navar, believes that VIA is exceeding its authority undertaking this redevelopment.

And he also, in his experience, believes that they're not being transparent because they can't get answers to basic questions about how that project is going as use of funds. So there's kind of two areas involved in this lawsuit. There's this green line and the use of the tax funds. And then there's this redevelopment effort that they believe is outside the scope of VIA. So both issues were raised in the lawsuit. They're seeking an injunction to prevent the use of these tax funds for this green line. And so we will keep an eye on it and let you know our coverage. So just check out the Texan for that.

Absolutely. Kim, thank you. Meredith, coming to you. We've got two more stories here, folks. New state legislation has expanded career and technical educational pathways for students. Tell us about these new opportunities. So, yeah, we're doing a lot of reporting about the changing landscape of education in Texas, and this is part of it. So House Bill 120.

And there were other bills as well, but this one specifically during the 89th legislative session, expanded funding for these types of programs for the career and technical education, so the CTE programs that include early college, dual credit, rural pathway excellence, the technical, different technical careers. And so it encouraged partnership with community college industry partners, workforce boards, And it raised the allotment for instructional facilities from $100 million to $150. And then per student that was doing the specific pathways and technology, early college high schools. Those were $50 per student to $150. So it really just opened more funding and more opportunities for this bill.

It was authored by state rep Keith Bell, who really, we talked to him, and he said that he authored the bill out of a clear need to better align our public schools with the economic realities facing Texas students. This was also a bill that Governor Abbott posted on Twitter, just saying, like, this is what we're doing here in Texas, highlighting that these are things that they see is very positive. So just a little quick rundown of a few different ISDs that are implementing these.

Houston ISD announced that it was planning to launch early college programs at five new high schools. They already have around 40 schools that offer dual credit through Houston Community College or the University of Texas, on Rams program, so they have a lot going on there with that. Fortman ISD has a new biomedical science program. They added that to their roster of 20 different CTE courses. They're also going to pilot a drone program, which I look into a little bit more. It's very interesting. It's something that I'm going to keep an eye on when it starts and maybe do

some add that somewhere, do some reporting on that. They also are going to open things up to their middle school as well, the idea of offering electives that align with CTE starting next year for younger students. KDISD has done a lot in this field, and they have six new courses that they've approved. And they're just interesting things that I feel like I've heard a lot of millennials or older generations bemoan that we didn't have some of these things in school, things like AP credit, advanced placement for like personal finance, business law for real estate, business management, principles of architecture, and then some different practicums and construction, which are those hand-on things that get students out there.

Katie ISD reports that nearly one-third of their graduates earned an industry-based certificate in 2024, 2025, which is huge. They offer a water operations licensing program, and they have a new underground utility detection program. And so Bell just kind of summed all that up saying the future of Texas depends on every community being able to connect students with an opportunity, whether through any list off the different programs, CTE, P-Tech, R-Path, or early college. the goal is to give local leaders the flexibility to design programs and meet workforce needs while opening doors for the next generation. So yeah, this is just, we'll be doing, like you said, a lot of different articles coming up about what are the different options and how are schools changing and adapting for the needs of the students in Texas. I love it. Meredith, thank you for your coverage. Kim, I've teased this a little bit, but I want to let you tease it more appropriately.

Let's talk about this Christmas story about this small immigrant group who came to Central Texas. Walk us through this story. Well, let me give you a little context about how I learned about the story. So my husband and I are empty nesters now, and we've set this goal of visiting all 88 state parks in Texas. And so when you visit state parks, they aren't like on I-20. They're off on these little rural roads. out in the middle of nowhere and on our way this summer to a state park we were in central texas in lee county and i saw this little museum the windish heritage museum and i was like

mental note come back to visit that so we did and i learned about this little immigrant group that moved into lee county and i made a note i'm going to write an article about this group because we all know about the Germans, Fredericksburg and, you know, all over Central Texas. We know about the Czechs. We eat the Kalachis. We stop at Garrick's, not at Czech Stop when we go through West. And we, you know, know about all that they've added. But this little group isn't as well known, I don't think.

So they have a festival every year, and this museum was very interesting. So I took the opportunity for some Christmas content. to write about this little group of Wendish people that are neither German nor Czech, but something a little bit in between. And so I hope people will take time. I think it's going to publish on Christmas Eve. So I hope people will take some time to learn about the Wendish people next week. I think folks are, it's worth subscribing to the Texan just to get the Blue Bona Bulletin,

which is where Kim Chronicles, her state park visits. It's not, that's not the point of the Bluwana Bolton. Bluana Bolton highlights a really great story, kind of good news. Yes. When we were reporting and all this craziness going on in the state, it's like a really beautiful slice of good news. But at the beginning, she does share when she goes to New State Parks, and it's worth subscribing to just for those updates.

I love reading them just for that. So go subscribe to the Texan, make sure you're getting the Blubonat Bulletin and getting those updates. We're over halfway there. We're over, I think we're on 49, and we have a trip this Christmas, we're going to knock out a few more. So I'll have an update in my next Blue Bonnet Bulletin about our next trip out west. I'm so ready. I'm so ready. Well, let's pivot here to the tweetery section, folks. Matthew, I want to start with you because I saw you tweet about this, and I really am anxious to know more.

Yeah, so my family lives in Kerrville. And one of my absolute favorite stores in the whole wide world is Gibson's Market in Curville. It just, it has everything, and everything that it has in it is so stinking cool. And it's not like, I don't know, it's, it's unlike going into like a Walmart or anything like that. Like, no, the stuff is like really affordable and really cool and quality. And it's not like, I don't know, just the, the, variety and where they source it from and everything like that like it doesn't matter if you need like some hardware or some stuff for the kitchen or some you know fish in gear or some bullets or

whatever like they got it at gibson's and so like it's part of my family's culture now like if they need anything oh i'm going to run to gibson's uh you know and everything like so anyway i was scrolling through uh twitter x the other day and a post came up about it uh and it turns Turns out, and I did not know this, but there's actually two Gibson's in the state of Texas. The one I know is in Kerrville, but there's another apparently in Weatherford, which I have not been to that one. But apparently also, Gibson's was like a big thing back in the day, like back in the 70s or 80s or something like that. And apparently they were just as prevalent as Walmarts or anything else. And now there's just two remaining.

But, yeah, there's so much cool stuff at Gibson's. Like, I can't even begin to describe all the stuff that I bought it. They have earned a big chunk of my paycheck. I love it. Kim, do you know Gibson's? Little known fact. My dad was the store manager for Gibson's back in the day. No way.

Real Grand Valley, yes. And so whenever I see a Gibson's, I'm like, what? They still exist. But they do. There are two. Yeah, I've seen the one in Weatherford, too. So, yeah, that's amazing. I feel like we need to take a field trip there now.

As a matter of fact, when I first, when my semester is over and I first got back to Texas this past week, I went straight to Kerrville. And I was, I just kind of said out loud, I need to go. There's a few things I need to get. I'm going to make a Gibson run and both of my parents perk up. And they're like, oh, just a minute, we'll go with you. That's amazing. Oh, I love it. So, so good.

Well, yeah, now we'll all go visit Gibson's, folks. This is a Texas tourism. Plug for Gibson's. Yeah. Love it. Okay, well, let's go to Meredith. What do you have for us here? A little political chat.

I just have to say as a non-Texan, as a Seattle native, saying that you just casually need some bullets is just such a Texas thing to say. Washington State has that side, but the Seattle area is not, not that part, you know. So, okay, this week on Twitter and also on Instagram and all these other different social media channels, what was popping up was the Trump administration's vanity fair piece, which I have not read in its entirety. I feel like I need to go read the whole thing, but the pictures and all were what was killing me. I just knowing the the leaning of certain

these magazines specifically Vanity Fair or even I know people have talked a lot about what they're not about why aren't certain people on Vogue or whatever their ideas are. They have such clear ideological ideas and leanings that

to go on there as a conservative group, the pictures that they made of them or took of them were some of the worst that I've ever seen for and there's so much on both sides there's a lot of just people like people doing really deep dives into what did they mean by their choices

what they were trying to show the idea that everyone is aware that they were trying to show them in negative light but one group is very excited about it and thinks that it's just like the greatest thing ever had to ever happen and the other side thinks it's horrible and it's embarrassing

and so I just find it to agree to go and be profiled by Vanity Fair in this political climate I don't I mean the pictures Some of the, I think Carolyn Levitt's close up where you could see her lip injection fillers was the worst. I just don't understand why you would put yourself in that position. And I'm kind of a fashion girl. I love all that.

I can see that there would be, maybe it seems like a nice idea, but I mean, read the room. I mean, I don't know. I just, I feel bad for him, but they kind of asked for it. I just say how I feel like that. It's like set up a little bit for failure. Matt, what do you think? I saw two tweets this morning that I died laughing on. For one, Vice President J.D. Vance, regardless of what you think, I mean, he has a fantastic sense of humor.

I saw this excerpt from the interview where they said, as they were doing the photo shoot, he was kind of playing with the photographer, and he told the guy, I'll give you a thousand. He's like, I know you're going to take terrible pictures, but I'll give you a thousand bucks if you make Marco Rubio look worse than I. And so, uh, which they did. So Secretary Rubio looks like one of the worst pictures out. of the photo shoot and changes his profile picture on Twitter to it this morning. And it's like him standing leaning in the corner with like this sulking look on his face or whatnot, you know, and he hashtags a new profile pick. And I clicked on it.

And the first response in the comments was from the vice president. And he goes, huh, I guess I owe that guy a thousand bucks. That's awesome. oh my gosh yeah if that happens at that point you just have to roll with it like if an article comes out like this and you all agreed to it and you might as well make your profile picture and have some fun with it because it's out there it's worse for the women than the men though because some of the close-ups with the makeup and the where guys it's like there is this expectation that this is just how you look I felt really it was bad with the women it was really good

it also shows the um you know lack of care that went in on vanity fair's part in having them as their subjects, right? That's very interesting to see how that kind of took place. A lot of tweets were just saying like they knew exactly what they were doing and we're so like the other side that we're so happy. This is exactly what we wanted from them. Totally. Like they're feeding an audience. They're feeding their audience for sure. And facing criticism from the other side. That's the nature of the beast. Well, good one, Meredith. Let's go. Let's go to Kim here. What do you have for us mine is of a literary nature so i am a pretty big fan i would say of jane austin and this week was her birthday 250 years ago she was born on december 21st 1775 so not long before a country was born

and she um so pride and prejudice is my favorite of her works And I think that there are debates about the best version of Pride and Prejudice, the movie. But I don't think there should be a debate. I think there's one answer and one answer only, and that is the version with Colin Firth and Jennifer L. That that is clearly the most faithful to the book. It's the best. Kira Knightley holds nothing to it. So that's my answer, and I'm sticking to it.

to it. I think that's the correct take. Meredith, do you agree? It's been a long time since I've seen it. And I know that the literary group is like, that's the best one. I just grew up on the other one. I just want to say, though, you weren't here, Kim, we talked about the new one that they're making. And I just had never heard your thoughts. I'm sure you're like, livid about it. Netflix is doing it. So I don't think any good can come from it. I probably, probably won't watch it. I watched the Kira Knightley one time and have never watched it again. But I did still. my two DVD set of the Jennifer L. Colinforth version last night. I was like, I'm just going to turn that on. You know, it is over five hours, so it takes a little while. But it's, yeah, I probably won't be watching the Netflix version. Okay. Protesting. I understand. I do think Pride and Pride is one of the best. It's just so good. It's so good. Jane Austen is, she is rightfully played.

someone with classics. Yeah, so much humor. I do love Emma, too. I really do. I was going to say Emma's one of my favorites. It's so good. It's a little shorter. You can get, you can get in, you can get through it faster. Yeah, not quite as we be, but it's delightful. Okay, Hannah, what do you have for us? Your first tweeterie. Welcome to the tweetery section, Hannah. Well, Kim, you just gave me some holiday watching. So I've only ever seen the Kira Niley version and I love her. So, I'm ready for her to be put in her place. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know. Yes, I will.

Yes, so this is my plug of, I saw in Al Jazeera. There have been more strikes in Sudan and Khartoum drone strikes. And so this is my plug to pay attention to Sudan's news. It's called one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world by the you in and it just doesn't get published about very much. It's really hard for media to get in or out. It's just like the government shuts off all like electricity and internet. There's just no way for news to get published sometimes. And so when there is news, it feels important. So that was my tweet from Al Jazeera this week. So what's the best way for folks? I mean, you kind of talked about

a little bit. What's the best way for folks to stay up to date on something like that that is so isolated in terms of how information is disseminated. Yeah, I think to pay attention to Middle Eastern news outlets, you can, there's a fair share of them. I think even BBC Arabic, like they're published different stuff and CNN Arabic. There's, yeah, I love Al Jazeera for the Middle Eastern news in general. So I think, yeah. Check it out. Make sure to stay up to date. Absolutely. I think it's important to highlight those instances of insanity across the world and tragedy when they aren't receiving the amount of attention that they should. So Hannah, thank you for that. I feel awkward now pivoting

to my story because it is far less important. It was a drunk raccoon, so I'm so sorry that that's where we're, that's where we're switching here. But I can't remember if I talked about it on the podcast or if it was just in my newsletter, but there was a story. of a raccoon that broke into a liquor store and became very intoxicated and, like, broke a bunch of whiskey, like, you know, lower shelf liquor bottles, drink from those liquor bottles that were broken on the floor, and then became very intoxicated and passed out in the bathroom next to the toilet. Like, really, you cannot write this kind of comedy that's unreal. Well, the New York Post published a story this week that said that this is not the first time that this raccoon has. has broken into two different establishments locally. This is a quote.

This is the third break in he's had. He was in the karate studio. I think he got into the DMV and ate some of their snacks one time. And this, apparently he spent the night. Yeah, so he spent the night in the liquor store, got rescued and taken out. But they said that they didn't relocate him because it's a death sentence for raccoons. I don't know how he knows how to get back in this building. He's a smart little critter.

So very interesting that this record has a history of breaking into local establishments but that they aren't relocating him out of fear for his life. So some kindness there for the record. But that definitely will make its way into the newsletter again this week because it can't not. And eventually onto Matt's pardoned Beasts. Yeah, to Matt's pardoned Beast. That's right. McKinsey, I'm disappointed. I was for sure you were going to talk.

about orcas oh my gosh matt is the mat is my orca news dealer let me let me go to this because matt i'm so glad you said you'll see how her face just lit up all the sudden okay orcas we talked about this at length and for years on the podcast now that orcas are sinking ships off the coast of spain and portugal and sir of gibraltar um and matt sent me an update um that uh Literally, it's a video, I could show it here. But they're literally ramming the boat here. Again, it's three orcas ramming against the ship attempting to sink it. And they show the sinking.

Yeah, there it is. It's like fully just sunk. And it had to be towed back to port, which is wild. But these orcas, they're really, we hadn't heard about them in a while. And here they are, research scene. And Matt, thank you for keeping me up to date on this very important news story. I can't agree. Orcas are one of my favorite, and I don't know, Meredith, it's growing up in the Pacific Northwest or what, but they're magnificent animals. And I'm always, I just love an orca story. Even though they have a little bit of a violent tendency, currently, they're doing some nasty things. But I think all can be forgiven because they're orcas and they're amazing creatures. So now, thank you. Matt's also my cinnamon roll dealer. He also shared with me cinnamon roll news and where to go in Texas to get giant cinnamon rolls the sides of my head. Yeah, Meredith. seen them in person? Have you been well watching? Yes. Yeah. One, um, have you? I did once,

but it was right after I, this is a long story. I got the COVID vaccine because I was living in a country that mandated it. I just want to say that. But I, I, and then I went directly on a while watching excursion. It was like, I was so sick. I was, I fell asleep, but I would like wake up and, like, see them in a haze and like, yes, that's great. That's great. I'm just like, I had a huge fever and I was like, fall over. So it's like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, Like, I know it was real, but it felt like a weird fever to me, but they are, there was many of, yeah. I know, it's horrible. The whole, that's the whole time.

Well, we'll watch you in such a hit or miss thing, too. You really, it's obviously they're wild animals. There's no guarantee you've seen them, but they can track them well and that kind of thing. But we saw them up close. It was amazing. And one even swam, like, directly under the boat and was kind of, this, this, this, this Erica, thankfully, had not learned to sink ships at this point. So we were safe, but it was, it was amazing. But love an orchestra story.

well thank you all for joining this podcast was quite the crew to join me today i'm appreciative of all of your time folks thanks for listening we will have a year in review podcast that will come out um come right around the new year so we will take a one week break from the weekly roundup and be back with y'all uh following uh the new year so thank you for following us all year long on this podcast and joining us each and every week we appreciate it merry christmas happy new year and we'll be back with you very soon 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 the Texan. 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 the Texan. 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 bless Texas.