The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - December 23, 2022

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

Need a last minute Christmas gift? Gift your loved one a subscription to The Texan here: https://thetexan.news/gift-subscription/  The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion. Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast. This week on The Texan’s Weekly Roundup, the team discusses: The CEO of ERCOT asserting that the power grid is prepared for coming winter weatherSupreme Court Justice John Roberts staying the decision to end Title 42The State of Texas withdrawing its appeal from a court ruling that adults under 21 can carry handgunsA federal judge invalidating Homeland Security’s termination of “Remain in Mexico”Sen. Ted Cruz holding nominations to secure natural gas export permitsSen. John Cornyn casting doubt on “invasion” rhetoric concerning the southern borderA state legislator filing a “Hyde Amendment” for gender modificationState Sen. Roland Gutierrez filing a bill to require active shooting training for all law enforcementA Texas representative filing a ban on university Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion officesRepublicans’ criticisms of the omnibus spending bill for its limits on border security fundingThe Karnes County sheriff and others switching parties from the Democrats to the GOPLawyers for an Austin police officer in a shooting case asking to present evidence to the grand juryThe best Christmas destinations in Texas for 2022

Happy Friday and Merry Christmas, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie Taylor here, and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup Podcast. This week, our team discusses the CEO of ERCOT asserting that the power grid is prepared for coming winter weather. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts sustained the decision to end Title 42. The state of Texas withdrawing its appeal from a court ruling that adults under 21 can carry handguns. A federal judge invalidating Homeland Security's termination of Remain in Mexico. Senator Ted Cruz holding nominations to secure natural gas export permits. Senator John Cornyn casting doubt on invasion rhetoric concerning the southern border.

A state legislator filing a Hyde Amendment for gender modification. State Senator Roland Gutierrez filing a bill to require active shooting training for all law enforcement. A Texas representative filing a ban on university diversity, equity, and inclusion offices. Republicans' criticisms of the omnibus spending bill for its limits on border security funding. The Carnes County Sheriff and others switching parties from the Democrats to the GOP. criticisms of the omnibus spending bill for its limits on border security funding, the Carnes County Sheriff and others switching parties from the Democrats to the GOP, lawyers for an Austin police officer in a shooting case asking to present evidence to the grand jury, and the best Christmas destinations in Texas for 2022.

As always, if you have questions for our team, DM us on Twitter or email us at editor at thetexan.news. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Well, howdy folks. It's Mackenzie here with Hayden, Brad, Matt, and Rob on our Christmas edition of the Texans podcast. It'll be fairly normal. We'll walk through news stories from this week like usual, and we'll end talking a little bit about Christmas. I'm in Arizona with my family getting ready to celebrate the holiday. I'm so excited to be here. I know y'all are all with your families as well. We'll talk a little bit about that later on. But boys, are you excited for Christmas? Does it feel

like Christmas to you? I mean, since it's December 22nd, yes, it does feel like Christmas. I just look at utter annoyance on Max's face as something y'all are missing out on being able to see this. My sister

and I have decided to grinch it up this year because we were supposed to put up all the Christmas stuff before the family gets here. And we've been very lazy and just haven't done that. So we'll see if we do it for tomorrow, but it might not happen. Got to get those decorations up like the day after Thanksgiving. That's the best course of action. Well, let's get into the news here so that we can jump on the Christmas train later on.

We have lots to get into. Bradley, we're going to start with you. As has become a custom since last year, state officials held a press conference to discuss the ERCOT power grid, particularly as inclement weather approaches. What did they say? chair peter lake and ercot ceo pablo vegas uh held a presser and their main message was that the grid is prepared for the cold temperatures hitting texas this week as we're sitting here talking matt just said earlier it was around zero degrees up in the panhandle and about six degrees down in the rio grande valley um cold weather is hitting everywhere across the country. What did you say, Matt? It's 62 in South Texas and 2 degrees. Oh, I misheard you then.

Anyway, so cold weather is hitting the state pretty hard this week and that will naturally lead to higher demand for electricity. More people will be deploying their heaters and that necessarily implies ramping up the electricity usage. temper concerns that there may or may not be a blackout. Their message was clear that they are confident that there will not be. The grid is ready and reliable. Lake said, we expect to have enough generation to meet demand throughout this winter cold snap. They added that retail electric providers and power plants across the state have postponed

across the ERCOT grid, have postponed maintenance to help cope with the spike in demand that the ERCOT grid likely see. Friday morning is expected to feature the lowest temperatures. are, um, before they have, uh, you know, started listening to this, we will have, uh, passed through the probably what's probably going to be the tightest period, but, um, they have postponed maintenance to ensure that more, um, as much generation as possible is online to, to meet the demand that, uh, that we'll see. So on Friday morning, it's expected to have the lowest temperatures and reach the peak demand this week, which is expected to be about 70,000 megawatts.

To cope with the amount of, or the peak demand, they expect to have about 85,000 megawatts in capacity. And so Abbott said that this is another chance for the grid and its operators to earn back the trust of Texans after the 2021 blackouts. This has become kind of a tradition, this worry about another blackout and understandably so. But to date, since the blackout, there has not been another instance of power going out on a statewide level.

If you do see to this point and likely through this cold snap, if you do experience a power outage, it will probably be due to, you know, downed power lines from falling branches or ice buildup, things like that. The only power grid. You'll know if there's a power grid rolling blackout situation. ERCOT has improved its communications substantially, which were quite terrible during the 2021 episode.

But nothing like that is expected this time. Once we get through Friday morning, it should all be from a power perspective, it should be all clear. This has become a habit, warnings of blackouts whenever severe weather arrives, but none have occurred since February of last year. What should we expect going forward? So first, I think you'll see constant concern about potential blackouts anytime it gets abnormally hot or cold. We saw that this summer. We saw that in February earlier this year. But ultimately, the state officials continue to stress how important the market redesign is going forward. The state is losing thermal generation and seeing large amounts of renewables joining the grid that introduces a lot more variability because of the intermittency of wind and solar.

We'll see how those perform this week. But ultimately, what's going on with what we've talked about in previous podcasts about the market redesign, trying to incentivize the construction of more dispatchable generation, that will determine how prepared in the long term the ERCOT power grid is for any weather systems know, any, any weather systems like this that move through and cause a spike in demand. But also, TechSledge now wants to say on that. And so we likely will not have a plan settled on until after May of next year at the earliest. Thank you, Bradley. Hayden, arguably the biggest news story

of this week and just in general has been the legal back and forth over Title 42. Is the public health order under Title 42 still in place? For now, Chief Justice John Roberts issued an administrative stay in the legal case over Title 42 this week, virtually at the last minute, as the federal government and the state of Texas prepared for a deluge of illegal immigration. Just as a reminder, Title 42 is the public health order that was invoked at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic has been used to expel hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and others who cross the border unlawfully. And it has resulted in increased occurrences of repeat encounters because there are no permanent consequences due to the rapid expulsion instead of going through the

normal court process of having someone removed. So this order is still in place for now, because Judge Emmett Sullivan, a district judge in DC, had ordered Biden to stop using the program. And the Biden administration is seeking to stop using the program. But Republican states were seeking injunctions to keep it in place due to fears about a surge of illegal immigration. An appellate court in DC had decided that Sullivan's order would stand and that Title 42 would end on Wednesday. But earlier this week, Chief Justice Roberts issued that ruling saying the decision is stayed for now. It is by no means a final resolution to the case. Roberts is just effectively telling everyone to stand down while

the Supreme Court considers its options. And Solicitor General Elizabeth Preligar, who has been the point person for arguing for Biden's immigration policies at the Supreme Court, asked the Supreme Court and court documents, again, to allow them to stop using Title 42, contending that these Republican states that are seeking to keep it in place should instead petition Congress for a change in immigration law, and that it is improper for them to continue using this public health order as an immigration policy. What was some of the reaction to Roberts' decision? Well, Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton did celebrate it. It seemed that they were overselling the victory a little bit because it is really temporary.

In fact, even after this decision, Congressman Henry Cuellar made the comment that Title 42 is on the cusp of being ended. So this is by no means a permanent victory for these Republican states led by Texas. But Abbott said that it's a step in that direction of keeping the policy. And Paxton commented that he would do everything within his authority legally to secure the border by pressuring the Biden White House to keep Title 42 and other immigration measures in place and asking for those court injunctions. I want to emphasize that these judges are all in Washington, D.C. These are not Texas state judges or even federal judges in courthouses in Texas making these decisions. This order was issued from Judge Sullivan's courtroom, and he is there in Washington, D.C., and all of this is occurring outside of the state of Texas. All of these decisions are being

made in the nation's capital. So next steps are for the Supreme Court to make a decision. It is up to them what happens after today with Title 42. They could at any time lift this stay. They could also send it back to the district court to hash out some of those legal issues. But for now, a Title 42 remains in place. And this pandemic era order is keeping potential illegal immigrants, keeping foreign nationals on the other side of the border, particularly in El Paso, where they are already experiencing a surge of illegal immigration. So this policy is keeping people out of the country for now, but that could end again at any point in the coming days. Thank you for your coverage, Aiden. We'll keep an eye on it,

we've certainly entered the week wondering what would all go down with this. So thanks for continuing to cover that for our readers. Matthew, we are coming to you. After a federal judge ruled that Texas cannot prohibit 18 to 20 year old Texans from carrying handguns, the state appealed the decision only to do an about face and withdraw that appeal. What caused this decision, and give us the facts about the case. So far, the state's been silent on what drove their decision to withdraw the appeal, leaving us to only speculate that the decision is based on Texas voters being very gun-friendly. After federal judge Mark Pittman ruled that Texas laws under the Penal Code prohibiting adults from under 21 years of age from carrying handguns in most circumstances violated recent Supreme Court precedent. Attorneys representing the Department of Public Safety on behalf of the state of Texas appealed the decision to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Now, the decision marks one of many rulings that favor gun rights activists after the Supreme Court's New York State Rifle and Pistol Association case earlier this year, where the justices expanded on existing Second Amendment rights precedents and have handed down a series, caused a series of new court rulings at the district trial court level, including this case.

Gun rights groups were pretty quick to celebrate the decision of the state to withdraw their appeal, such as the Firearms Policy Coalition and Gun Owners of America. Well, Matt, awesome. Fascinating stuff. Thank you for covering that for our readers. Hayden, we're going back to the border here. As the legal fight over Title 42 continues, Texas and other states won a victory in a case involving another and different Trump-era policy. What was the decision related to the Remain in Mexico policy? One of the downfalls of having immigration policy being decided in the courts is it is

confusing to keep these policies straight because there are multiple policies that implicate whether or not people come over the border. And the Remain in Mexico policy is one that has been to the Supreme Court multiple times. But the Supreme Court previously decided that the federal government could end the Remain in Mexico policy, which was Trump's program that allowed the federal government to keep foreign nationals on the other side of the border while immigration judges considered their asylum claims. Judge Kaczmarek decided most recently that the program and the way it was ended could have violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which are more or less the guardrails around how the federal government governs itself,

how it conducts itself and makes its own rules. So Judge Kaczmarek decided that there are more issues to be settled in this case, and that the federal government's decision to terminate the Remain in Mexico policy is not valid. It's fuzzy, however, how this is going to affect the Remain in Mexico policy, because the government had already virtually ended the program after the Supreme Court decided that, gave it the green light to do that. So Judge Kaczmarek's ruling created some confusion in the media, and it is unclear what this means for the Remain in Mexico policy. But for now, again, it is a temporary victory for Texas and other Republican states. You've been covering this for a long time now. Remind us and give us an overview of some of

the background in this case. Opponents of this policy say that it has created a humanitarian crisis or that it did because an estimated 70,000 people were required to wait on the Mexican side of the border where they were reportedly vulnerable to crime and being deprived of basic necessities. The Biden administration eliminated it almost as soon as Biden was inaugurated. And in February of last year, the federal government began readmitting people who were previously excluded from the country under the program. In August of 2021, the Supreme Court decided that the federal government could not end it. But after, again, the legal football was passed back and forth again, the Supreme Court this summer decided that the federal government could end it.

And the definition that the Department of Homeland Security provided at the time it was implemented was, it is a U.S. government program action whereby certain foreign individuals entering or seeking admission to the U.S. from Mexico illegally or without proper documentation may be returned to Mexico and wait outside of the U.S. for the duration of their immigration proceedings, or Mexico will provide them with all appropriate humanitarian protections for the duration of their stay, end quote. And I read that definition because it is not reported a lot, and there are a lot of buzz phrases that are used about this program, but that was its original intention was to keep people outside of the

country while their asylum claims were considered. Well, thanks for delineating that for us. I know it's easy to get a lot of what's going on with these immigration policies in these court movements confused. So thank you for breaking that down for us. Bradley, we're going to come to you. Senator Ted Cruz is talking about energy again and made an announcement this week. What did he have to say? So Senator Ted Cruz announced this week that he forced through the approval of two liquefied natural gas export permits by holding hostage four Department of Energy nominees. These permits, both with Sempra Energy, which has operations in Texas, but these two facilities are on the West Coast, I believe in California. But these permits will allow Texas liquefied natural gas to be shipped to Mexico through

the pipeline. And Asia, well, the part that's shipped to Mexico would just be natural gas through the pipeline, but turned into liquefied natural gas that could then be shipped to Asia with the goal of growing competition to Russia and China in the region, supplying our allies in Asia rather than them being reliant on Russian natural gas likely piped through China or directed through China in some fashion. And so a Cruz spokesman said of the development, as a result, American allies and partners in Asia will have access to newer and cleaner alternatives to the coercive energy blackmail pushed by Russia and China. This isn't the first time Cruz has deployed such a maneuver. Back in May, he did the same thing with a couple Department of Energy nominees and secured approval of a couple permits, one of them being a Portthur liquefied natural gas export facility so after that this facility in port arthur is now able to ship uh lng to europe um and out wherever else

people want to buy it from so you know the other thing is by allowing by allowing these export terminals on the west coast it allows this supply to avoid having to be shipped through the Panama Canal, which is costly and congested and time consuming. And so that saves money and will allow a cheaper product to be provided to specific countries in Asia. Why was this needed in the first place or seen as needed in the first place? So the Biden administration is keen on reducing the country's use of fossil fuels. They have a goal to reach a target of 40% emissions reduction relative to 2005 levels by 2030. It's important to note that before the Biden administration even began in January 2021, the country was already halfway to that target due largely to the replacement of coal with natural

gas generation. It is less emissions intensive, in most circumstances, more efficient. And so we've just seen this natural.2% increase in coal generation across the entire globe. That increase is especially more accentuated in Asia. China, India, Southeast Asia are all using deploying coal a lot more because in those areas it's cheaper to use. And they generally are not as concerned about emissions as the U.S. is. And so I saw something pretty interesting in reaction to this from Robert Bryce, who's he's based in Austin. He's an energy writer. I've talked to him before. He is pretty knowledgeable on this subject. He called this an example of the iron law of electricity, as he describes it. People, businesses, and countries will do whatever they have to do to get the electricity they need. They're not going to stay in the dark. Love it or hate it. Coal is here to stay as an energy source, particularly in Asia. It's interesting to see that as the rest of the world,

or at least large portions of the rest of the world, rely more on coal than they have before, the U.S. is going the opposite direction, and in large part because of approval of these kinds of projects that Senator Ted Cruz secured. So it's something to watch as it develops over the next years and decades and longer than that. But right now, there's another outlet for Texas natural gas, and that is through these permits to the West Coast and ultimately to Asia. Well, Bradley, thanks for your coverage of that issue. Fascinating to see a story that was something we wrote about a while ago kind of resurfaced in this way.

So thanks for your coverage. Gentlemen, let's talk about last minute Christmas shopping really quickly. my sister and I were at Costco last night with my family and it was a complete Tetris game, trying to figure out how to get this one DeWalt tool set for my dad through the checkout and purchased, but we didn't have the Costco membership card. So we were trying to figure out how to get it through and do some last minute Christmas shopping for my dad. We figured it out. I will say it ended up being an Amazon purchase, not a Costco purchase, but we did figure it out. I do want to say, if you have last minute Christmas shopping that you need to do, the

Texan does have a gift subscription that you can go to our site, thetexan.news right now and purchase for somebody in your life. We have a lot of folks who listen to the podcast who are so fascinated and interested by Texas politics. And my assumption would be that family members, friends, would also appreciate our coverage. So boys, in case you're needed, a reminder, you'll get a last-minute Christmas present for your family. You should just get them

a subscription. Great idea. I'll put that in the stocking. Thank you. So you can print it off, put it in a card. There's a little picture of your face, like your mugshot, you know, your arms crossed my mugshot was i arrested that mugshot headshot oh my gosh i was like this is news

we should have written about it you might have just saved my christmas mckenzie oh matt thank you so much that is exactly what i like to hear so folks we seriously appreciate you listening to our podcast each and every week. But it is wonderful when folks do go and subscribe at the Texan dot news. There's nine dollars monthly or 750 if you purchase a subscription. We love being able to report the news each and every week. And subscribers are the method by which we can make sure that we do that each and every week. So thank you for your support. Merry Christmas and go subscribe to Texan today. And for when I do apparently get arrested, it'll help me bail myself out.

That is true. Okay. So we've already talked about like the Winston fund to make sure Winston's fed. Now, folks, subscribe and donate to the fund to get Brad out of jail. We'll post bail for him. Hayden, did you have something to add? Well, I didn't know we were going to have to incorporate bailing Brad out into our Christmas plans.

But just know, we love our podcast listeners. And you're not alone if you're still Christmas shopping. I just finished my shopping up last night. I was feeling better because I looked around me at Target and saw all the other procrastinators that made me feel better. So we're here to help you out. If you need a last minute Christmas gift, go to the texan.news and purchase that gift subscription. I know I have gifted people subscriptions. I have been, I have recommended gift subscriptions to people before and they've taken advantage of that. It's a great option.

So make sure you go to the Texas not news and take advantage of that in these last few days before Christmas. We obviously there's no shipping involved, which is a big deal. Last night my brother saw like we have an app where you can list the things you want on your Christmas list and nothing on my dad's list had been, I hope he does not listen to this podcast. This will give away his entire Christmas gift. But none of his, none of the items on his list had been purchased. My brother goes, well, I hope whoever has, cause we draw names. I hope whoever has dad is really has a, you know, their own plans this year

because nothing on his list has been purchased. And my sister and I who have him just started like sweating. Thanks for the reminder, bro. So all that to say, shipping is not a part of the equation here. You can get it immediately. It goes straight to your inbox and you can give it to somebody. So a great option for you this Christmas. Wonderful. Gentlemen, thank you for that. Hayden, we are going to chat with you again. My gosh, illegal immigration, once again, bless your soul. This is, this is like 70% of your workload. Many on the right have called illegal immigration an invasion and ask Governor Abbott to treat it as such. What did Senator Cornyn have to say on the topic and did it mirror what a lot of other Republicans have been saying? He did reportedly comment on this in a conference

call with reporters. He pushed back on the characterization of illegal immigration as an invasion. He said, quote, I realize different people have used different terms to describe what's happening at the border. I would prefer to call it a humanitarian public safety and public health crisis. I think the word invasion brings up some other connotations, which I don't think really apply here. And Cornyn's not the only one who's brought up that objection. There have been those who say that it evokes wartime images that do not apply to groups of poor, desperate people trying to seek asylum at the southern

border. Of course, mixed into those groups of people could be those who have nefarious intentions, and there are people on the terrorist watch list who have been apprehended after crossing the border illegally. So it would be intellectually dishonest for anyone to claim that everyone coming across the border is seeking asylum for legitimate reasons. But it is true that Cornyn and others have questioned calling it an invasion and treating it like a warfare type situation. Absolutely. And I think that's a big part of what our gripe with mainstream media is, is a lot of the generalizations that are made. There's so much nuance in all of these issues, regardless of your political persuasion. So Hayden, we appreciate that. Have other Republicans taken issue with this invasion characterization?

Governor Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton have said that there are problems with this strategy. So it is not just Cornyn who is pushing back on this. Cornyn has, I won't say caused dust-ups, but remarks he has made, he has, positions he's taken this year have caused frustration among some strong conservatives who particularly objected to his support of the appropriations bill this summer that contains some limited gun control measures. And there are those who took issue with Cornyn's statements as well. Governor Abbott has said before that he fears the federal government could prosecute state police and National Guardsmen if this strategy is employed. And Attorney General Paxton has said that the federal government could easily take control of the National Guard in a scenario where the state is trying to deport illegal immigrants or do the Fed's job for them. So Cornyn's not the only one who has pushed back on this, even if it is for slightly different

reasons. Certainly. Thank you, Hayden, for your coverage. Let's pivot to talking about the legislative session. Does anybody know how many days it is until the legislative session? It's January 10th. We don't have very many days. It's like three weeks or something. I don't know. I can't do the math quickly enough. Regardless, let's pivot to talking about what?

It's 19 days from today. I don't know when this podcast drops. It won't be 19 days. It'll be 18, I think. Yeah. As we're recording this, it's 19 days. Oh, my goodness. Everyone prepare. Buck buckle your seatbelts. Here we go. Bradley, GOP state legislators have already filed a half a dozen or so bills concerning child gender modification.

It's been a very hot topic nationally and specifically in Texas for the last several years. Another proposal was filed this week. Tell us about it. So there have already been a few that were filed to outright ban the practice for children. This takes a bit of a different approach. State Rep. Brian Harrison announced the filing of a state take on the federal Hyde Amendment. Since the 70s, the Hyde Amendment has prohibited the use of tax dollars for abortion services. Harrison's bill would do the same at the Hyde Amendment has prohibited the use of tax dollars for abortion services Harrison's bill would do the same at the state level but for gender modification procedures and that's all of them I believe at least reading his the text of his bill it would indicate that

and not just on children but here he said in a in a statement irrespective of how anyone views these procedures it should be uncontroversial that tax money should not fund them there have been certain instances of certain stories of you know somebody in prison wanting to go through this surgery and this i don't think this happened in texas but Texas, but suing whatever state they were in to finance that surgery. And so this is a term for people born with sexual characteristics of both sexes. There's a lot of debates on how many people meet that classification. And you'll hear this stats put out a lot. 1.7% of the U S population had intersex traits.

That comes from a, uh, a report in around the turn of the century by Brown university professor and Fausto Sterling that estimated 1.7% of the US population in intersex traits. Now, at the time, that would amount to 4.8 million people as of the year 2000. Two years later, this figure was strongly objected to by Leonard Sachs, a psychologist and family physician, saying that it is actually closer to 0.018%. That's a huge difference.

That would amount to about 50,000 people in 2002. He said that many reviewers of this statistic are not aware that this figure includes conditions which most clinicians do not recognize as intersex such as kleinfelter syndrome turner syndrome and late onset adrenal hyperplasia i think i pronounced that correctly um regardless there's differing opinions on how many people this would actually apply to but that exemption is is in the bill uh assume, to prevent that objection from derailing the bill itself. So that's the general details, and we'll see if it can pass next session. Thank you, Bradley. Let's talk about another proposal. Hayden, a state senator,

filed legislation this week as part of his response to the Robb Elementary School shooting. What is the basis for his bill? Senator Roland Gutierrez, a San Antonio Democrat, went to, in a media appearance, he said that he would file legislation to require active shooter training for active shooter scenarios for all law enforcement in Texas. He highlighted the fact that it is only required for those who work in a school. It is not currently required for everyone who has a peace officer license in Texas. And he contended that it is an obvious, that was the word he used, obvious step to take to prevent, reduce the risk of future shootings and the severity of those shootings. He has continually criticized the lack of coordination by the nearly 400 law enforcement

officers who were on scene at the Robb Elementary School shooting in May and the 77-minute delay before the 18-year-old gunman was confronted. And the law enforcement response has been pretty well universally criticized. Certainly. And it is his district that he's talking about here. He represents Uvalde. Is he the only, he might be the only senator who represents that area. I'm unsure specifically, but I believe that is the case. So he's filing these pieces of legislation as they hit very close to home. What are some other steps that the Senator has proposed to respond to the shooting? The text of the bill that he announced is not

available quite yet, but other bills that he has filed are available for people to read. And that includes the Uvalde Victims Compensation Fund, which would provide hundreds of millions for those directly impacted by a shooting. He has also said that he believes there should be a prohibition on AR-style semi-automatic rifles, and he made those comments and testimony in the House Judiciary Committee in Congress in Washington, D.C. He has called for other gun control measures, such as an age restriction on purchasing semi-automatic rifles or handguns. And he has said that he will commit his session to responding to the Robb Elementary School shooting and seeking compensation for those impacted. Thank you for your coverage, Hayden. As always, Bradley, an incoming legislator made national waves for a bill he's filed next session focused specifically on higher education. Very

topical considering the last year or two of news. What's it all about? So state rep elect Carl Tepper from Lubbock has filed a bill to prohibit diversity, equity and inclusion offices on university campuses. It commands universities to, quote, demonstrate a commitment to intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity. One interesting thing about it is it sets forth a civil cause of action mechanism similar to the texas heartbeat acts feature that allows individuals to bring civil suit against institutions that violate this law um we've seen this become more and more of a trend

in in these state laws um at least ones that I've seen filed for next session, taking that civil cause of action and applying it to different situations. This is one of those. Tepper said he told me the reason that he filed this bill was or is that these offices have been out of control for a while now and people are getting really frustrated with them when it comes to public dollars i think it's pretty clear that we must be viewpoint neutral he broadly the criticism of these dei offices is that um they advance a certain perspective and viewpoint um and without giving much credence to differing opinions and specifically focusing on the more of the progressive mindset and they've gotten a lot of criticism for as some have described as indoctrinating students

they have a lot of cultural influence within these universities. Many of them do, as we see with similar offices in corporations and other institutions. And so there's a lot of pushback, especially on the right, against these kinds of, uh, establishments and, um, uh, equal criticism from the left for efforts like Tepper's to kind of neuter these, these offices, uh, the Texas legislative black caucus,

its chair, Ron Reynolds criticized the bill in a statement this week saying this session should not be focused on providing them, uh, these offices providing students. Uh, not taking them away. Diversity, equity, inclusion offices and their themes are essential to continue cultivating environments where all students and faculty feel represented and supported. This is, I think, part of a larger recoil against these ideals in higher education and kind of the political direction that these universities have taken. And we see, you know, a proposal from Lieutenant Governor Patrick to, uh, phase out tenure for professors that have been found to be teaching critical race larger issue next session. How does the GOP heavy conservative leaning state legislature, how do they approach these higher education institutions that pull in a lot of tax dollars and then are often quite left leaning in their policies that we see play out.

So I'd recommend following this bill. I'll be following it through session. And it's interesting to see something I think could get a lot of support among the legislature, especially Republicans, being filed by somebody new um this is something that i think absolutely has the chance to get across the finish line at least in some form and that would be you know a pretty big lift for uh an incoming uh freshman legislator but tepper umpper is jumping on that. And he said he has gotten a lot of good feedback, especially from legislators on it. So in short, we'll see.

Thank you, Bradley. Hayden, let's pivot nationally. Give us a 10,000 foot view of the omnibus bill being considered in Congress. Federal lawmakers are facing a deadline on Friday, so the day this podcast drops, to pass legislation to continue funding for the federal government before the end of the year. And this process has been criticized by many people who are taking a look at this 4,200-page document that is more or less being thrown together at the 11th hour. The document includes funding to the tune of $858 billion for defense and $773 billion for non-defense discretionary spending. It is a total price tag of $1.7 trillion, and lawmakers are considering

this just days before the Christmas holiday, and they are being asked to pass this 4,200-page document again by the end of Friday. Wow, quite something. What were the objections to the border security provisions? Well, there was funding set aside for border security, but some Republicans highlighted that the $340 million for ICE and $1.6 billion for Custom and border protection, had a note in the legislation that excluded its spending on programs, quote, to acquire, maintain, or extend border security technology and capabilities, except for technology and capabilities to improve border patrol processing, end quote. And it may seem like border security is border security, but there is a difference between securing the border and trying to deter illegal Homeland Security, it would still designate those resources for processing people coming across the border, not keeping them from crossing the border in the first place. Murphy and others are calling it a reasonable compromise. But voices such as

Congressman Dan Bishop in North Carolina, Congressman Troy Nels here in Texas, Chip Roy, are saying that this bill, because of the language, prohibits border patrol funding from being used to indeed secure the border. And this is amid a record number of illegal crossings. So Republicans are objecting to this funding being set aside for, quote, non-detention border management instead of deterring or expelling people from the country. And it is notable that the bill includes $410 million for border security in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and a few other countries that I can't pronounce, unfortunately. So there are portions of this bill that are offensive to Republicans. Cornyn voted and John Cornyn voted in favor of it, but he voted in favor of it only reluctantly.

And he said it is a flawed, broken process was the phrase he used to describe the process that led up to the bill's proposal. Thank you for your coverage, Hayden. Matt, we're coming to you. The November elections are now long over, and yet the GOP here in Texas is celebrating a win in a local elected office. Tell us more about the South Texas story. Carnes County Sheriff Dwayne Villanueva announced in a press release from the Republican Party of Texas that he's leaving the Democrat Party and becoming a Republican, saying, I look forward to continuing the strong tradition of excellent law enforcement in Carnes County, which requires us to come together for a common cause and seek out leaders of integrity and merit. The move was also celebrated by state GOP chairman Matt Rinaldi, who boasted about having another high-profile elected official change parties to the GOP under his tenure as state party chair, including state representative Ryan Jeline, another South Texas

Democrat who notably switched to the GOP earlier this year. Have there been other local officials that have switched parties? Yeah, so Sheriff Villanueva isn't alone in county officials who've also recently switched. This past election cycle, Terrell County Judge Dale Carruthers switched parties from Democrat to Republican and was endorsed in her re-election bid by Governor Greg Abbott and ultimately won re-election this past November. As well as Presidio County Judge Cinderella Guevara. She also made the switch to the GOP. However, since her county is heavily Democratic, it's a bit of a Democratic stronghold in Southwest Texas,

she did not gain re-election in November and was ultimately defeated by Democrat nominee Joe Portillo Jr. Spicy stuff. Thank you, Matthew Bradley. Two Austin attorneys from multiple accused police officers have grappled frequently with the Travis County D.A. Jose Garza this week asking for the ability to present testimony and potential evidence to the grand jury that convened this week. Garza presented evidence to the grand jury seeking an indictment against Serato

for undisclosed charges, at least as far as I'm aware, for shooting and killing a man last year. In Texas, and I think probably in the rest of the country as well, or at least most of the rest of the country, DAs possess sole discretion over what evidence and testimony may be presented to the grand jury. And he may permit opposing counsel to present as well, but that's also up to his discretion. So these two attorneys, Ken Irvin and Doug O'Connell, who represent Serato, along with multiple other Austin police officers, including about eight of them who were indicted for firing less lethal beanbag rounds during the 2020 protests turned riots that we've talked about before um he they requested that they be allowed to present evidence it didn't sound like at least at the time and since that they've been allowed that um but they kind of put this, um, put this letter out, uh, in an effort to drum up some public support for them, um, in some, hopefully in their eyes, some pushback, uh, for Garza, who has made prosecuting police officers a feature of his tenure since taking over, since winning the election in 2020.

This, along with encouraging laxer bail policy for offenders deemed indigent, has been kind of the two-pronged features of Garza's tenure so far, and it's just continuing to roll out as more and more as Garza seeks more indictments against officers for various incidents. Certainly. Thank you, Bradley. OK, we are going to end this pod as far as stories go, talking about a Christmas story from Matt. Matt, you wrote highlighting a few of our favorite holiday destinations across Texas for readers who want to get the ultimate Christmas experience. So let's talk a little bit about those places you highlighted in the story. There were three different tiers of towns that you talked about, experiences. What was the first tier called again? You had a great name for it. Well, we identified a few Texas Christmas Titan towns. Yes, Titans. Right. So good. So give us like an example of a Texas Christmas Titan? Well, one of my favorites is Fredericksburg. A lot of people, both out of state, in state, know that Fredericksburg is pretty much all year round a travel destination.

But at Christmas time, they really know how to celebrate. And the entire town gets very dressed up and um it's frequently described as one of those um hallmark style movie christmas towns uh so much to do there they have an interesting city park with uh all kinds of displays and things to do and just tons of shopping. And they do it so well that it just manages to keep and retain its place amongst the Christmas titans. Other ones, of course, the Riverwalk at San Antonio. That is a pretty magical annual experience with just so many Christmas lights decorating the Riverwalk. Once again, it's, you know, a pretty continuous tourist attraction, but they really know how to put on the celebration and spice things up with a lot of holiday oriented events and things like

that and for a lot of these towns and cities that we're talking about you can usually go find their visitor bureaus chambers of commerce and they have um events and things like that going along uh with their holiday celebrations uh the other uh uh, Christmas Titan that we talked about, um, is, uh, actually the city of grapevine, um, up there that you have at the, the Gaylord Texan hotel and resort. They have some 2 million pounds of carb ice. I don't know if you've ever been there, but it's really, really cool. They literally have ice sleds that you can go down and just tons of events from their ice carvings to the displays inside the hotel, plus the town generally. They have a considerable number of attractions, such as the North Pole Express train, where families can put on their Christmas pajamas and ride with Mrs. Claus aboard a

vintage 1920s coach train. And then we have a category of honorable mentions of iconic Texas Christmas events. Something that we actually highlighted in previous years with an article is the small West Texas town of Anson hosting what is now famously known as the Cowboy Christmas Ball. Now the, the history of the ball started in the late 1800s and a poet wrote a poem and then it really became famous whenever country singer, Michael Martin Murphy put the poem to music and it became a very popular Texas Christmas song. And once a year, every year and for two days there in Anson in the first week of December, they still celebrate the Cowboy Christmas Ball.

Michael Martin Murphy still headlines the first event. And then they usually have somebody else on the second day of the event. But it's a really cool historic, doesn't get any more Texas Christmas than the Cowboy Christmas Ball. Another interesting annual event is down on the Texas coast in Galveston, uh, with the Dickens on the strand event, uh, which is a pretty interesting event where, uh, if you want to get the,

um, the Victorian era, Charles Dickens experience, um, they put on a festival every year where people dress up in period reenactment costumes and hold, uh, all kinds of events that are themed along the Charles Dickens

novel styles. And so we wanted to kind of highlight those two uniquely Texas events that occur every year. And then we also just wanted to highlight a few fun ideas that we felt stood out to us as we looked around the state. You know, a lot of communities have a lot of Christmas stuff going. This is by no means the complete list of Christmas things to do across the state. But a few that stuck out to us was the Christmas State Railroad near Palestine, where they run the Polar Express train, just like in the movie. You can go get tickets for that. And the families can ride the genuine Polar Express steam train.

My dream, my literal dream is to ride the Polar Express train. I can see your eyes get all big as I started talking. Something you're going to definitely have to put on your schedule today. A couple of other interesting events is the Texas Christmas Market in Arlington. It features a variety of Christmas-themed theaters that have provided unique

holiday shopping experience since 2011. That market runs until, well, it's open now until tomorrow. That's the last day of it, uh, which would be December 23rd. Uh, lastly, Starbright Village in Odessa is an annual drive-through holiday experience featuring over 300,000 lighted displays and McKinney park families can go, uh, drive through all the displays. I actually drove past it last night. It's a very impressive display of lights. And there are a few dates still available,

I believe, for families to get to actually go meet Santa Claus at the park. My other dream, obviously. This sounds incredible. And folks, it's a great story worth reading. We published it very first thing this week. So make sure to go read it if you're looking for something fun to do this weekend and you live or are near any of those places we mentioned some really great ideas for family fun and just festive experiences and activities. So Matt, thanks for your coverage of that. We're going to totally skip tweetery this week because I want to talk about some fun things. One, is there anything specifically that you guys are very excited about eating for Christmas? Like Christmas is here.

Your families are together. Is there something that you're like, oh gosh, it's on the menu. You do it every year or even if it's just on the menu this year that you're excited to eat. I'll start, not that I have any idea or anything on my mind specifically, but I totally do. We always make these eggnog thumbprint cookies that are so good. Like there's a little filling that you put in a dollop in the middle of the cookie. They're coated with walnuts, which Brad would unfortunately explode if he was able to partake in this. But they're delicious and we make them every year.

It's just a sweet little Christmas tradition. We make it like the week before Christmas is kind of what our family does. But they're delicious and we make them every year. It's just a sweet little Christmas tradition. We make it like the week before Christmas is kind of what our family does. That sounds fun. I just like the process. Wait, I didn't hear either of you. What did you say, Hayden? I said that sounds fun.

Not just the treat, but also the process of making them it is it's quite fun what about you matt i just like pie pie what kind of pie well i have two favorite kinds of pie actually uh hot pie and cold pie okay what what that's what all of y'all are you talking about like apple pie which you heat up and like uh pumpkin pie which you would not it's just i got the joke matt don't worry so that that joke actually comes down through my family my great grandfather uh that was his favorite saying at the holidays whenever that conversation would come up. What's your favorite kind of pie? Well, I have two favorite kind of favorites.

And he just couldn't wait to be asked it. So basically all kinds of pie. He loved it. And I do too. It runs in the Springer family. I love it. What about you, Brad?

Well, I assume you would love a good bite of pecan pie. Yeah, that would not go over well. I like Christmas cookies. Like the sugar cookies that you frost? Yes. My grandma makes very good frosted sugar cookies, along with various other kinds. Lemon bars are very good, some of my favorites. we just had normally whenever we go to my mom's side we always have

Italian food spaghetti that side of the family is Italian so it's quite good it's not just prego out of the jar so we had that last night and that was quite good I always look forward

to that I mean pie is good too I don't prefer pumpkin pie but apple is fine I suppose is that the riveting commentary you were looking for

literally the most lackluster food. I can certainly spice it up a little with my family. Save us, Rob. Yeah, so my dad's side of the family is from Lithuania. So we like to do a Lithuanian

Christmas dinner. It's called Kuchis. And the whole idea is you serve 12 dishes um i believe it's for one of the each of the 12 apostles and you serve dishes with no meat so it's mostly fish based so i'm looking forward to traditional christmas foods like lox and pickled herring and all sorts of good stuff like that on our on our christmas dinner table it's very fish-based. Yes, the traditional Christmas meal there.

They all do, like, eggy pudding. We'll be going to, like, a Russian store in our area to pick up, like, good imported, like, black bread. Like, the kind of Eastern European, you know, European you just smother with butter and fish. It's fantastic. Rob, I feel like you're a super fan of fruitcake. I'm not a super fan

of fruitcake, honestly. We're not going to have fruitcake at our Christmas. We're going to have cheesecake, and I'm not joking. Have y'all ever had the fruitcake on our Christmas. We're going to have cheesecake, and I'm not joking. Have y'all ever had the fruitcake restaurant? That place in... What is that place called?

It's the famous fruitcake place here in Texas. Collins Street Bakery? Collins Street Bakery, yes. Have y'all ever had one of those? No, but I avoid fruitcake. It's not my thing. Really? Yeah. I'm not a fruitcake person, but I am a big cheesecake person. My understanding is that fruitcake is just an my thing really yeah i'm not a fruit but i am a big understanding is that fruitcake is just an abomination in every respect so that's kind of crazy about fruitcakes but they

make this other kind of cake that's actually pretty good i think just has cherries on it i can't remember exactly it's been a long time well interesting like i'm not quite sure rob just like i'm trying to wrap my brain around it did you like each year do you genuinely look forward to this meal like the festivity have you had enough growing up where it's something you really enjoy like what what is your what are your taste buds do um when you have this kind of food like it's hard for me to picture because i just have never experienced traditional lithuanian food well um we don't really eat i guess traditional lithuanian food traditional lithuanian food is very um interesting to american palates i think so we we don't exactly go for specifically lithuanian foods, but the whole idea is you're supposed to have meatless dishes.

So it's a lot of fish. So, you know, I do. I'm a big fan of seafood, so it works great for me. I like lox. I like pickled herring. I like herring and wine. There's a lot of good ways to do herring. What is a lox?

Lox, salmon. Oh, okay. I like salmon too. Yeah, salmon's good, especially do herring. What is a lock? Locks? Salmon. Oh, okay. I like salmon too. Yeah, salmon's good. Especially a cured salmon. It's very delicious. Oof. Now I'm starting to get hungry. That I could definitely get on board with. Absolutely.

Well, this is kind of an odd transition but I'm going to do my best to bridge it here. Earlier when I errantly called Brad's headshot a mugshot, it got me thinking, what crime, if I were to call y'all and say, hey guys, I'm in jail for X crime, what crime would it be that would not be surprising for you?

And for each of us, like we kind of have to think through what would be, Aiden called me from the bowels of the Travis County jail and said, Aiden is dying laughing and he's muted himself and he's leaning back in his chair. I'm so angry we cannot hear him. But what would it be that the crime for each of us that would be potentially the least surprising call to get? Well on your earlier comments mac i think it would be stealing a drill set from costco because you didn't have a costco membership that's probably true i think for mac it would be like christmas caroling on private property

and was asked to leave and didn't i just think she's had way too much spirit i just think it's funny. She's had way too much spirit. I just think it's funny that Mackenzie thinks that she would be the one who I would call if I was in jail. I know. I'm going to call my boss. That's a great person to call if I'm in jail. You know that I put you down on my health insurance in case I need help. You're the person they're going to notify. So I'm going to be in the back of the ambulance with you, comforting you as you take your dying breath.

Yeah, man, I have to give you when the new year starts, the document I'm giving you power of attorney. So. Oh man, those are pretty good. I enjoy that. I think Brad, like I would be 100% not surprised if I were to receive a call that Brad had been at the Michigan-Ohio game and had gotten into a fistfight with some Ohio fan. And it would have probably been over something incredibly benign, like the color of the jerseys or something.

Brad, if he had like one and a half years, would be susceptible to, I think, getting in some sort of verbal altercation. Brad would not be the first one to throw a punch. But if somebody threw a punch at Brad, because Brad would be spitting insults and like going after this person, tearing them down with his words. I don't think that's accurate. I would literally not be surprised if somebody engaged him in a fist fight and Brad was like, bring it on. I grew up in Ohio. I had to get along with ohio state fans i know i think i think you're missing the mark here i think i'd be more likely to end up in jail reenacting the uh the santa claus bank robbery from texas that uh every year

instead of you know visions of sugar plums dancing in my head it's visions of you know reenacting the santa claus robbery um only doing it more effectively because you know it didn't end up well for him so interesting yes okay well that is a good plug for the story at the texan make sure to go to the texan.news and read all about the Santa Bank robbery story. It is crazy. Also, one year, we were considering for our Christmas podcast, just having me read that story as a fun Christmas thing. But it's kind of a gruesome story. And we were like, this is not good.

Just a fun Christmas podcast. So we didn't do it. But that was a consideration. It's a fascinating, fascinating story. Um, I think Daniel wrote it back when he was still recording, but, um, I'm trying to think of what Hayden, Matt, here's what I think Matt would do. Matt would errantly be arrested for just investigating something. And he does have licensing and a lot of experience to make sure that he is a very legitimate actor

in that. I can't go to jail for stalking. I am a private investigator. Wait, really? That's a thing? That seems a bit extreme. You're exempt from an entire section of the penal code because you have a license i would that can't be right i'd probably go to jail for sitting on a park bench reading

a newspaper with two eye holes cut in it while i'm watching somebody they'd be like sir what are you what are you doing here and then i'd look for my license and i left it at the house or something you're wearing be wearing your big fedora and trench coat and everything. You'd be like, hold on, I got it in one of these pockets. After about 30 minutes, they'd just bring you in anyway. Pretty much. Y'all talking about having your boss as an emergency contact

reminds me of an Isaiah story, but I won't tell on this podcast. It's not bad. It reminds me of a very specific Isaiah story back when he was here. I think I know which story you're referring to. but it reminds me of a very specific Isaiah story. Um, back when he was here. I think I know which story you're referring to. The fact that there are potentially multiple that you could be thinking of

and you think, you know, which one I'm talking about is also very funny. It is a multiple choice scenario. Good old Isaiah. Um, what about Rob? Rob would be arrested for putting pickled herring on someone's front lawn

as revenge i wouldn't do that as somebody to revenge that would be a gift it's way too delicious to waste on petty things like revenge fair fair but your sheer size you putting anything on someone's lawn even if it were to be a gift i'd probably be arrested for you know eating an all-you-can-eat buffet into bankruptcy and i'd refuse to leave because i'd be like i paid my ticket here and they'd have to eventually call the cops and get me out that's true that's very true brad what do you have to say about that i want to amend my earlier comments about what you'd be arrested for i was just watching elf the other night. And when,

uh, buddy got arrested for attacking the Santa because it was a fraudulent Santa. I think that I would think that would, but she would do it because the Santa Claus was not sufficiently, uh, spirited was not sufficiently jolly. And, uh, then she would do it because the Santa Claus was not sufficiently spirited, was not sufficiently jolly. And then she would throw a couple haymakers and get put in the jail cell for the night. I would just be fascinated to see if I could even throw a haymaker.

If I even have the muscle mass or the athletic ability to throw a haymaker, I don't think that's my thing. Just swing his bag of gifts. What about Hayden, guys? What would Hayden be arrested for? I was going to say, no one's been able to think of a crime that I might commit. So I must be the most law-abiding citizen on the team. Well, I think that's without question. You're the most law-abiding citizen of us all. And I think I'm pretty law-abiding citizen on the team. Well, I think that's without question. You're the most law-abiding citizen of us all.

And I think I'm pretty law-abiding, so that says something. Hmm. Oh, man. What would Hayden... I'm trying to think. I'm not going to bail you out of this predicament. Sorry. Go kind of do this.

Oh, violating a good Samaritan law, as he just said, right? He would walk right by. I'm not going to help you out. I'm not going to bail you out on this. He's been reinforcing that this whole time. It'd be like the Seinfeld ending where they don't do the good Samaritan law. I don't know. Yes, that.

I think we should do something. I'm trying to think. Man, they're really not going to let me off the hook, guys. They're really trying hard to think of something. Yeah. Well, everyone's got to get there. You were off the hook for the Christmas food debacle. Why did you have to go and tell them?

I discreetly bowed out of that conversation because I couldn't think of a good answer. And then you were like, I was off the hook during the culinary conversation. Now, here's what Hayden, Hayden would get into a fight over Robert's rules of orders. And there would be a, he would be at a bar, had a couple too many beers, as in like one and a half beers and then

and then we'd get into a spirited discussion over Robert's Rules of Order and somebody would have something wrong and Hayden would you know yeah I would be blacked out blacked out drunk on one and a half Lone Stars and then someone would say

beg the question instead of raise the question and I would just completely block the middle. Okay, here's a legit question related to this. If you did get arrested, would you smile in your mugshot

or be straight faced? I would be unable to stop myself from smiling at my mugshot. Like I'd try to have a serious face and I wouldn't be able to. I don't, I would be torn because on one hand you don't want to look like you're not taking it seriously. But in the other hand,

you might want to smile to you're not taking it seriously but in the other hand you might want to smile to make yourself look nice and friendly so when they put your mugshot on the 10 o'clock news i'd probably do some kind of really stupid smile like like a like a big big toothy grin and then have the cop smack me upside the head for not taking it seriously you want to you want to do a pose like a rick perry mugshot where it just looks so good they toothy grin and then have the cop smack me upside the head for not taking it seriously. You want to do a pose like a Rick Perry mugshot where it just looks so good they don't want to share it.

It just looks so good, you know, it doesn't do the news stories any good, you know, attacking him with the mugshot. Rick Perry did smile in his mugshot, but it was subtle. It was more of a smirk than a smile. And of course, nothing ever came of that criminal case.

Not that I even think Rick Perry looks smug, but you don't want to look smug in your mugshot also. That would be a concern. Then it would be a smug shot. Oh, Lord. Alright, that's it. Oh.

Brad's coming to talk. Okay, I did have an amendment to brad's getting arrested story i think brad could get arrested like the reason's not important but potentially it was off to come to brad and say here's what you violated and brad would go into debate mode and probably have like grounds on which to to stand of saying hey hey, you have this wrong. The interpretation's wrong. Here's this court precedent. This is ridiculous. And he would be belligerently debating this officer

to the point where he's resisting arrest. And that's why he would get arrested. Arguing with the police. Yeah. You got a warrant for that? Can I search your vehicle? No. Exactly.

Exactly. Okay, folks. Well, we've so enjoyed chatting with you this Christmas season. Thanks for joining. Next week, we'll have a new year's edition of the Texas podcast,

where we take a look back at 2022 and a look forward at 2023. Talk through the biggest stories of the year and what we expect to go forward. We so appreciate you listening to us of the year and what we expect to go forward. We so appreciate you listening to us. Merry Christmas and enjoy the holiday season. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

And if you want more of our stories, subscribe to The Texan at thetexan.news. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting an email to editor at thetexan.news. We are funded entirely by readers and listeners like you. So thank you again for your support. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.