The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - February 10, 2023

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

Get a FREE “Fake News Stops Here” mug when you buy an annual subscription to The Texan: https://go.thetexan.news/mug-fake-news-stops-here-2022/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=weekly_roundup The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion. Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast. This week on The Texan’s Weekly Roundup, the team discusses: Speaker Dade Phelan releasing the committee assignments for the Texas HouseThe new House Public Education committee chair school choice activists are optimistic aboutIllegal immigration reaching nearly 160,000 encounters in December 2022A state senator arrested in Austin on charges of drunk drivingOne lawmaker’s proposal to hold a statewide vote on legalizing sports betting and casinosA bill filed to preclude males from competing in collegiate women’s athleticsDallas County lawmakers’ legislative priorities for the 88th regular sessionA pair of bills to raise the age of consent and ban child gender modificationThe fight in the Legislature over ESG and the meaning of ‘fiduciary responsibility’A series of bills filed to improve school security and provide mass shooter training for law enforcementThe ice storm that knocked out power for tens of thousands in AustinKen Paxton’s prepared lawsuit over the endangered species status of the Lesser Prairie ChickenEl Paso’s new policies to impede criminal investigations into abortion

Happy, happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here, and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. This week, the team discusses Speaker Dade Phelan releasing the committee assignments for the Texas House. The new House Public Education Committee Chair school choice activists are optimistic about. Illegal immigration reaching nearly 160,000 encounters in December of 2022. A state senator arrested in Austin on charges of drunk driving. One lawmaker's proposal to hold a statewide vote on legalizing sports betting and casinos. A bill filed to preclude males from competing in collegiate women's athletics. Dallas County lawmakers' legislative priorities for the 88th session.

A pair of bills to raise the age of consent and ban child gender modification. The fight in the legislature over ESG and the meeting of fiduciary responsibility. A series of bills to improve school security and provide mass shooter training for law enforcement. The ice storm that knocked out power for tens of thousands in Austin. Ken Paxton's prepared lawsuit

over the endangered species status of the lesser prairie chicken and El Paso's new policies to impede criminal investigations into abortion? Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Well, howdy folks. It's Mackenzie here with Brad, Matt, Cameron, and Hayden. We are, I will not lie to you, a little worse for the wear. A few of us have allergies or sore throats and colds. So we're going to try our darndest not to cough in your ear as you so kindly listen to us on this Friday morning. Brad has sounded not like himself for a while. And it's just allergies.

Brad's is just allergies. But for some reason, I feel the need every day to remind him that he does not sound like himself i needed that reminder thank you see doesn't he sound me i wonder if our our listeners will do i sound nasally you sound so nasally oh my gosh um but yeah i think everyone's got there's something going around we've all got it matt's sitting at the far end of the table trying not to engage with us down here yeah i'm just uh you know going through caffeine withdrawals that's the only thing wrong with me that's true are you so is it no caffeine period or are you having like a little bit of tea i can't remember i suddenly realized one day that i was just um i was drinking way too much coffee so i decided to go cold turkey and uh do it the hard way

uh so it's been a very brutal week um but i'll uh yeah i'm just gonna try and get to a point where you know i can have a cup every now and then and be fine and not addicted not drown myself in it to get to the to the day matt has still been his peppy, enthusiastic self, though. But once you get that caffeine back in your system, it's going to supercharge you. You're going to feel like a superhero on that stuff. Dun-dun-dun! My husband calls

it getting geeked out on caffeine. That's what he says. If he has two cups of coffee, his brain is exploding. And either he's very productive or he crashes an hour later does he drink brewed coffee the hot brew coffee or iced coffee both but usually usually in the mornings it's a hot cup of coffee a couple a couple hot cups of coffee that cold nitro oh my gosh oh gosh yeah it is crazy how much caffeine is in that have you been to mozart's yet cameron since

you moved here i haven't okay well that's a really good fun spot to go in austin it's on the lake or what we call the lake here in austin but it's beautiful and they have like a an unlimited cold brew where you can just sit there and get refills but don't like i hate you for telling me this. The problem though, is that the cold brew is so potent, like two cups of the cold brew. And I feel like there's a headache going on. My ears are ringing. It's, I mean,

cold brew is so highly caffeinated anyway. So just be careful, tread lightly. But if cold brew is your thing, go to Mozart's on the lake. Okay. Well, we've discussed so many things.

Hayden, we're going to chat with you. The long awaited committee assignments were published this week. We've been waiting quite a while for these, particularly in the Texas House. So who will chair some of the most notable committees in the lower chamber? Well, there wasn't anything really shocking in yesterday's committee announcements. They were announced on the House floor, as they traditionally are. But we didn't, I think last time we might have had the list in hand before they were announced on the House floor, and we did not this time. So the speaker directed the clerk to read them from the front mic. And on appropriations, Greg Bonin will serve as the chair again, as he did last time with Vice Chair Mary Gonzalez, and I believe she was the vice chair last time as well. On calendars, Dustin Burroughs will serve with Vice Chair Tony Rose. Some of you will recall that Tony Rose was one of the Democrats who gave a speech in favor of Phelan's nomination for Speaker.

Other notable mentions, Terry Wilson, who I believe is a combat veteran, will be Chair of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Energy Resources will be chaired by Craig Goldman. General Investigating will be chaired by Craig Goldman. General Investigating will be chaired by Andrew Murr. Newly minted Republican Ryan Guillen, who switched parties since the last legislative session, will chair Homeland Security and Public Safety, which is notable because I suspect some border bills will go through that committee as well. And back to appropriations to border spending, we'll go through that committee as well. Craig Goldman on energy resources will probably also have influence over grid legislation, which Brad can talk more about. will lead judiciary and civil jurisprudence. And then public education will be led by Brad Buckley, which is notable because of the expected school voucher fight, which Brad is going to discuss more in detail. Yeah, absolutely. So in that list of finalized assignments,

was there anything in particular that stood out about this year's list? Well, like I mentioned before, there wasn't anything shocking, but there were fewer Democrats appointed as committee chairs this time. That was the focus of the speaker's race. There were eight Democrats on committee chairs this time, as opposed to 13 during the last legislature, and that's for standing committees. As I mentioned, Greg Bonin will keep his post as chair of appropriations. I think it's interesting that Phelan also put his three opponents in the speaker's race, and I mean the three people who voted against him on county affairs. Representative Tony Tenderholt, Nate Schatzlein, and Brian Slayton were all placed on county affairs together. I'm going to go ahead and say this. It doesn't seem

like the committee to be on. The chairwoman, Victoria Niave, had a DWI a few years ago. There's also another member, uh, uh, a new member who's, uh, quite, uh, far left on the political spectrum. So just at first blush, it doesn't seem like, um, it was the speaker's list of favorites, uh, so to speak. So the county affairs did stand out to me. Casino gambling proponent, Representative Charlie Guerin, was also appointed Speaker Pro Tempore, which is notable because both Phelan and Guerin have said that they would support modest, well, they would say professional casino gambling options. So that issue might gain more influence with Guerin and at Thielen's right hand this session. So those are some of the things that stood out to me at first blush, taking a look at these committee

assignments. Absolutely. This is a total aside, but the Agriculture and Livestock Committee, which only in Texas would you have an Agriculture and Livestock Committee, is very interesting in watching who's been appointed to that committee. And that obviously, this is a rural centered, issued type committee. The chair is Briscoe Kane, the chair of elections from last session, who kind of really had a lot of intense committee hearings that he had to preside over. It was wild. But he's the chair. He's from Baytown in the Houston area. Diego Bernal is from San Antonio. Vicky Goodwin is from Austin. John Rosenthal is from Houston.

Conda, I don't know how to say her last name. Timish, I think. Timish? Timish? I've heard Timish. I believe it's Timish. Timish. Okay. We're going to go with that and just say it with confidence because we're just going to go with Timish. Okay. Timish. She replaced Michelle Buck buckley fun fact as yes from denton um and then terry wilson is from

kind of hill country lakeway area so very interesting in that a lot of these reps are not even in rural areas of the state in fact highly populated urban areas of the state um we do have uh doc anderson a uh a veterinarian like a large animal veterinarian like livestock veterinarians that makes a lot of sense he's in waco cody harris is in a much more rural area stan kitzman as well so there are like three reps for more rural areas but just funny to watch how these committee assignments shake out and sometimes there's political um meaning behind them of like, okay, the speaker says, this is where you're going to end up. Sometimes it's oddly requested my members. And you can kind of see that too of like, okay, which ones are seniority picks where someone requested this particular spot and which were

speaker appointments. So that's also interesting that you can go check out the full list. Hayden, thanks for breaking that down for us. Let's talk then, Brad, Hayden alluded to this fact about the most anticipated committee appointments, particularly in the Public Education Committee. Due to the school choice debate that's kind of looming over the chamber, a Democrat chaired this committee last session, who was appointed this time. So as Hayden said, Representative Brad Buckley, Republican from Killeen, was appointed to chair this public education committee by speaker phelan buckley who first won election in 2018 interesting that this is only his third session he said of the appointment i am thankful to speaker phelan for the trust he has placed

in me to lead a committee that impacts the lives of 5.5 million Texas school children. I look forward to working with members of the committee and my colleagues in the Texas House to craft policy to provide the best opportunities for Texas teachers, students, and their families. So as you alluded to, Mackenzie, he will succeed Democrat Harold Dton of houston as chair of this committee um dutton will continue to serve on the committee as a regular member and on this school choice issue last session of the eight gop priority issues um four eventually passed between the regular session and the specials then um i think four died um but only one of those was killed in a democrat uh democratic chaired committee and that was school choice in harold dutton's public education committee so um dutton isn't the most anti-school choice democrat uh it'll be interesting to see how by a long shot in the house yeah how he shakes out as a voting

member on this when we get to this point um and i think we will get to the point where there is legislation considered because the governor is placing such emphasis on this because lieutenant governor is placing such emphasis on it so um it's uh it's a it's kind of a mixed bag in terms of the committee membership uh dutton is far from the the most anti-school choice uh member on this including among republicans yeah i do think there was speculation that a very rural anti-school choice Republican might be appointed. Those were rumors, of course, particularly a few members who have long been advocates for public education in one way or another, however you define that in the Texas House. And we have somebody here who I think could potentially be very amenable to a school choice proposal in whatever form that takes.

So how was this appointment specifically received by the pro-school choice crowd? Well, as you alluded to, Hal Buckley is kind of a question mark, I'd say, on this. He's at least not a closed door on school choice. There some quite a bit of optimism about his appointment and also just the fact that he's a republican not a democrat chairing this texas gop chair matt rinaldi said buckley quote could be the most school friendly school choice friendly pub ed chair in over a decade um you had both the texas public policy foundation and the american federation for children of texas a pro school choice group lauded buckley's appointment and they see this at least publicly i don't know what they're saying behind the scenes

you know what their chances actually are with a buckley chairmanship but publicly they're putting the posture out that this is a very good indication that they might actually get something to the floor. And so the other members of this committee include Republicans Ken King, Matt Schaefer, Steve Allison, Charles Cunningham, Cody Harris, Brian Harrison, and Cole Hefner. The Democratic members include Alma Allen, who is vice chair, Oscar Longoria, Gina Hinojosa, and James Tallarico, who you can bet will be very much against this. He's a former school teacher, and he has made this a big issue for himself. And I guarantee you he requested to be on this committee because of the looming fight over this um the the um the the member i was alluding to uh that is more anti-school choice

than harold dutton is ken king and rumored to potentially be in the running for the chairmanship but it obviously didn't materialize and it never really and who knows how solidified or you know prominent his candidacy so to speak was behind closed doors but that was a rumor yes yes and he has said flat out that he's against this and if he has anything to say about it uh school choice legislation that is uh it's dead on arrival yeah so very interesting dynamic and uh whoever's covering school choice, is that Cameron for us? You're going to have a fun time watching this because they're going to fight it out in committee. I guarantee it.

And a lot of these committees, too, just to point out, you do have, I believe it's 86 Democrats and 60. Would it be 66 or excuse me, 84ans and 66 democrats i think it's 86 republicans yeah 86 okay sorry yes 86 republicans 64 democrats in the house so you got up with the democrats somewhere and in fact i believe they are the majority on like the business and industry committee in the house like there's a majority of democrats on that committee so we're anything republican too that was that was at least one of the the committees that was chaired by a democrat okay last session as well but that's the you know you got to put them somewhere and a lot of these committees if there is something that the gop at large whether it be the state party or

the caucus in the house which have two very different political leanings regardless of their party affiliation you need either all republicans in lockstep on that issue on any given committee or you need a swing democrat like a dutton to come over to your side to get it out so interesting there'll be a lot of trading behind the scenes as there always is during the legislative session okay well we could so we talk about committee assignments all day this is so fun and it'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out. But we're going to move on to illegal immigration. Hayden, December immigration numbers weren't promising. Give us an overview of that update from December. It is February, but these are not last month's numbers. CBP released these numbers later in the month than usual. There were 140,000 arrests between ports of entry in December in Texas sectors. I'm going to use round numbers because I don't think we need to get to the exact number for these purposes, but there were

about 140 arrests between ports of entry and almost 19,000 stops at El Paso and Laredo field offices. So that's a total of 159,000 encounters in December. For the total southwestern U.S. border, there were 251,000 encounters and 30,000 stops, and that includes 30,000 stops at ports of entry. So a total of about a quarter million encounters for December of 2021, or excuse me, 2022. That is an increase from the previous month. It was an increase of 3% in Texas sectors, that's encounters total. And there were, it was nearly a 7% increase from the month before in terms of arrests on the southern border between ports of entry overall. So illegal immigration numbers continued to

escalate in December. You kind of contextualize it a little bit there. But is there any other context you can give us to help compare with past numbers as to how intense this these numbers from December are? So that's quite an increase from 107,000 to 140,000. And in Laredo alone, there was a 79% increase in family unit apprehensions from November to December, but there was still a 29% drop in single adults. I will say the federal government implemented a policy to deter illegal immigration from Venezuela, and that policy seems to be working. the federal government implemented a policy to deter illegal immigration from Venezuela. And that policy seems to be working. There was an 82% drop in Venezuelan nationals crossing illegally from September to December. So that one part of the problem improved over those four months. That is similar to the Title 42 policy. And as the federal government has been trying to get rid of Title 42, they are also implementing similar rules to prohibit people and turn them away rapidly when they cross from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua, which is the current policy.

And they are going to argue in court next month that, or they have argued in court in court filings, that the public health emergency for COVID is about to end in May. So Title 42 is going to be a moot point very soon, but they seem to be enacting similar measures, including a five-year ban on people who cross the border illegally from those four countries. But they also are admitting 30,000 a month from those four countries as well. So it's a trade-off from their perspective, but at least in that regard, from those four countries, it appears to be working. So the president gave his State of the Union address this week. What did he have to say about illegal immigration? He mentioned it briefly. He did not elaborate a lot. I saw somebody mentioned he talked more about hotel surcharge fees than he did illegal immigration on the border, which is true. He touched on many topics, and this is one that he discussed in really two or three paragraphs, but he briefly mentioned it, said that the illegal immigration measures I just talked about had resulted, according to preliminary data, in a 97% drop

in what he called unlawful migration from those four areas. And then he continued to press Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, which is something that people have been calling for for decades, and it never happens. But Biden repeated his call for Congress to, quote unquote, fix the broken system of immigration. There you go. Hayden, thanks as always for your border coverage. Brad, Tuesday morning's news cycle got off to a very early start. What happened that morning? So Senator Charles Schwartner, Republican out of Georgetown was arrested early Tuesday morning, just before 1am and booked into the Travis County jail.

Austin police had pulled Schwartner over for erratic driving and determined he was operating the vehicle under the influence. He is now charged with driving while intoxicated. A Class B misdemeanor in Texas is punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 and up to 180 days in jail. Shortner was then released on PR bond about midday Tuesday. He chairs the Senate Business and Commerce Committee, which was scheduled to meet on Tuesday at 11 a.m. They met without him.

An odd set of circumstances, certainly. And when released, Shortner told a member of the press, quote, I'm deeply sorry, apologetic to my citizens and my family. I made a mistake. And so Shortner is a pretty heavy hitter in the Texas Senate.

He chairs the Business and Commerce Committee. We're going to see a lot of stuff goes through that. But you're going to be in the Senate. It's different than the Business and Industry Committee in the the house which doesn't see often as high proposal or high priority proposals and uh it'll be the focus of the ercot market redesign that we've talked about here and it is going to be a big theme throughout the session um in fact that was actually what they were talking about at that hearing scheduled for tuesday that the senator missed and uh it was just an odd set of circumstances lieutenant governor dan patrick

issued a statement a day later or so he said early yesterday morning i was informed by my staff of the dwi arrest of Senator Charles Schwartner. This is the second time in two sessions a member of the legislature has been arrested for DWI. I am not sure who the other one he's talking about is. He's probably talking about Dan Huberty. Yes, thank you. Yeah, that's right. There is zero excuse there is zero excuse for driving under the influence

and putting lives in danger in particular by a member of the legislature whose conduct should be held to a higher standard I will await the final outcome of this issue in court before making any further statement on the matter so that for now is pretty done and dusted but that doesn't mean there won't be political ramifications down the road and i think it's worth noting that shortener became chair of bnc about midway through last session after um the lieutenant governor and uh senator kelly hancock then chair of BNC,

had a bit of a falling out over electricity repricing. And after that, Schwartner became the conduit for ERCOT and power grid reforms. And so I'm not sure how this is going to affect that, if at all. But as the Lieutenant Governor said, we'll wait and see for what happens in court. And Lieutenant Governor is specifically influential in this way.

He appoints all his chairs, makes sure the Senate is set up the way he wants it to be and for his legislation to get through. So he is the one holding the power here to remove the Senate. Yeah, keys to the car. Interesting. I just realized that. to heard a phrase there um but regardless he's the one who can remove senator shortner if in fact that is the decision he makes at the end of the day thank you bradley hayden we're coming back to you several lawmakers and both parties have proposed bringing casinos to texas hot topic as always what are the elements elements of Representative Charlie Guerin's bill?

Representative Charlie Guerin is a Republican from Fort Worth. He is not the first one to file a casino bill. Senator Carol Alvarado from Houston also filed one in November. And this proposal that Garen filed is a little bit different than hers. It would allow seven casinos in various metropolitan areas across Texas, two in the DFW area, two in the Houston area, and then one in San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and McAllen. Texas voters would decide this issue in the general election in November of this year, not next year. Odd-numbered years are the years that constitutional amendments are placed on the ballot. This would require a constitutional amendment because most forms of gambling are prohibited by the Texas Constitution, except for the state lottery, charitable raffles, and philanthropic bingo operations, which all require licensure. Horse racing and greyhound racing are also legal in Texas, but they require licensure as well. A unique component of this bill is those who applied for casino licenses would need to already have a license to operate a racetrack. There's a little

bit of ambiguity with how all of that would work, but it's designed to use the existing framework for licensing racetracks. Garen has pitched this as a tax relief bill. I reached out to his office to explain how exactly this bill would deliver tax relief. And the answer essentially was that this specifically does not contain a mechanism to deliver tax relief, but that that would be handled in the enabling bill, which is separate from the joint resolution. And for those who are unfamiliar with the process, the constitution is amended with joint resolutions that are passed by the legislature and put on the ballot for voters. Then they have to hash out all the rest of the details with what is called the enabling

bill, which is the piece of legislation that the public does not vote on, but that carries out what was placed in the Constitution. And what Guerin's joint resolution says is that the tax revenue gained from a 15% tax on table games and other gaming revenue from casinos would be used on public safety, education, and tax relief. But of course, the legislature is not necessarily required to spend that on tax relief. That's just one of the purposes that they put in the bill. So those details are not at all set in stone. The way the legislature used the money would very much be open to their own judgment. But those are some of the dynamics of this bill. Alvarado's bill would only allow five casinos. This one would allow seven, and it wouldn't be a free-for-all. They would have to pay hundreds of thousands or millions in application fees. And this would be carving out exceptions, more or less,

for what they would call destination resorts, which include casinos and department stores and amusement parks or whatever else they want to build. Obviously, they can build fine dining establishments and amusement parks, etc. without this amendment passing because all of those things are already legal. So this is about casinos and it is about gambling. So anytime you read destination resort, just replace that in your mind with casino because that's what that is referring to. For sure. And really quickly, what are some of the political dynamics at play? Well, Las Vegas Sands contributed millions ahead of this session, and Dr. Miriam Adelson, who's the majority shareholder of Sands, had virtually a front row seat at Abbott's inauguration. So they're pushing hard for this session. Absolutely. Thank you, Hayden. Okay, Cameron, there is this week a bill filed to preclude males from competing in collegiate women's athletics. What does this bill do? Give us a

rundown. So just like the bill title, it's going to be excluding biological males from competing in women's sports. But what's different about this one than previous ones that were focused on the high school level, this extends to the collegiate level. And what's different about this one than previous ones that were focused on the high school level, this extends to the collegiate level. And what's interesting is it actually will be adding legal protections to women in those sports who might suffer damages or harm if a violation occurs, also adding legal protections to those women if they speak out against this violation, if it's enacted. Got it. Okay. So has there been pushback? This is a very politically charged topic for obvious reasons.

What's the feeling around this issue? So there hasn't been any local pushback that I've seen. We're all aware of all the incidents that have been going on in the news over the past few years. But there was actually a bill that was proposed in Oklahoma. And that was very similar to this one, saw some statements come out against it from some civil rights groups. But as I was digging into some of the research around these issues, what I found was there is a poll that came out last year, and it actually found 63% of American adults were opposed to the idea of males competing against women in sports. So it seems as though Middleton in Texas and this bill also in Oklahoma are on the side of

national polling. Yeah, and very contentious. Obviously, any issue relating to gender and identity in any way, shape or form brings on a lot of heat for obvious reasons. People feel very strongly about these issues. So we'll see what happens. I have no doubt that if this bill does, in fact, get a hearing in either chamber, there will be plenty of folks coming out to testify both for and against. So very heated. Thank you, Cameron, for making sure that our readers are informed about what's going on in the legislature. Hayden, we're coming back to you. Dallas County elected officials have made some very interesting proposals this session, kind of lobbying their legislature for what

they want to see enacted. What are some highlights? Just a disclaimer, this is just a sample of some of the bills that have been introduced. There are way more that you can find on the Texas legislature's website. But there were a few interesting ones. Morgan Meyer filed a statute of limitations extension for some crimes against children. Representative Terry Mazza filed a bill that would expand the laws preventing people from possessing firearms if they have a conviction for assault. It would expand the laws preventing people from possessing firearms if they have a conviction for assault. It would expand that to include other types of assault in different contexts, not just domestic violence. But the most interesting one to me was Representative Julie Johnson and Senator Nathan Johnson over in the Senate. it's just occurring to me that they share a last name.

Interesting. Filed a bill to get rid of the state's marriage amendment defining marriage as between the union of one man and one woman. Texas voters passed this amendment in 2005. It passed overwhelmingly at the time. But of course, that was almost 20 years ago. Now, in a recent University of Houston poll, 62% of adults said they would support repealing that amendment. Yeah, very hot topic again here. What is the point of removing the marriage amendment if same-sex marriage is already legal after that Supreme Court decision a few years ago? Well, that's like you just said, Obergefell versus Hodges effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. So states, all 50 states and U.S. territories are required to

recognize same-sex marriage. But as we learned with Roe against Wade, Supreme Court decisions can be reversed. And if that decision was ever reversed, the Texas Constitution is the supreme law of Texas, not the supreme law of the US. But it would then govern marriage in the state once again. So it's not a moot point to repeal it. Those who support same-sex marriage have a lot of interest in getting rid of these state laws that are still on the books because they could go back into effect if the Supreme Court ever changed its mind about any of its decisions on gay rights. There you go. Hayden, thank you so much. Okay, Cameron, we're coming back to you here. You have lots of hot topics to talk about, as will be the custom for your beads at the Texan. Let's start with this ban on child

gender modification. What does this bill actually do? Yeah, so this was introduced by Nate Chastline, and it's sort of a two-prong approach for the banning of child gender mods. So first it adds gender transition and gender reassignment under the legal definition of child abuse. So that's the first thing. And then it actually gives the ability to the Texas Medical Board to revoke licensing and liability insurance to physicians who are found in violation if they are under investigation. So by adding these two provisions in the bill, it is effectively ending child gender modification. Got it. So what does this raising the age of consent have to do with the

ban on child gender modification? Well, Schatzlein has been very clear that he will not give one inch to those who wish to harm children. That's his direct quote, right? That's his direct quote. And so by raising the age of consent from 17 to 18, it is under law making the term child raised to 18. So by doing that, it's giving an extra year of protection under the law for this ban on child gender modification. So they work together in such a way of extending protections for children. Got it. Thank you for your coverage. We'll continue to watch that issue. Bradley, you wrote a piece on this looming legislative fight over ESG this week. Give us a preview. So the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee held a hearing back in December in which it questioned Black Rock State Street, the state's two largest pension systems, and a few other figures over their policies and actions related to ESG, that is trying to drive investment certain ways certain directions towards politically favorable

topics mostly progressive uh policy positions whether it's decarbonization of the economy various social issues like uh trying to cut back on or counteract abortion restrictions, things like that. So there was a really long hearing in December. During that, GOP senators and the entities they were questioning spent a lot of time talking past each other, especially on the definition of what constitutes the, quote, fiduciary responsibility. It's a financial maxim that states asset managers must act with the best interests of their clients in mind. It's a pretty broad definition, and it has been applied fairly broadly. There's one school that says, basically, fiduciary responsibility entails historical risk factors, but also strictly stock performance or more financial metrics. And then this new school of thinking, pushing ESG,

wants to expand that definition to include things like climate change's effect on hurricanes 40 years down the road. And it's something that's a lot more difficult to include in a calculation that is just boiled down to the score so blackrock has become kind of the face of this but they're far from the only ones doing it so um if that interests you i'd recommend read the piece there's a lot in it and uh um it's going to be something to watch especially once we see these priority slates get unrolled. Absolutely. Well, thank you for breaking that down for us.

And I know you'll have your eye on this all session. Hayden, you went to a news conference at the Capitol this week with Senator Gutierrez. What are some of the policy proposals that he outlined? Senator Gutierrez has said that his focus during this legislative session will be on responding to the tragic Robb Elementary School shooting. And he has already filed bills to provide millions of dollars in compensation to the families of those affected and those who were immediately affected on that day in May of last year. He's been having weekly news conferences to outline other policy proposals that he wants to see passed. There is one bill he filed to have a statewide school security force that would be of about 10,000 officers, according to him. It would be subsumed by Texas Highway Patrol and have at least one guard at every school, potentially more, but there would be at least one officer from the statewide force at every campus in Texas providing school security. He's also asking for $2 billion appropriation for mental health funding, such as for more psychiatric care in rural areas of the state, and an additional $2 billion for

campus security measures like better doors, more technology, bulletproof glass, things like that. So he had lots of ideas. One idea that was a little bit, he said it was more symbolic, was he wants to replace the Confederate soldiers monument on the South Lawn of the Capitol with a monument to school shooting and other mass shooting victims in Texas. Were there any gun control proposals in this mix? Senator Gutierrez is in favor of gun control measures, but he did not outline those at this news conference the other day. Those he said he will unveil next week. He and other Democrats called on Abbott to call a special session after the Uvalde shooting. That did not pan out, so they are probably going to file gun control measures this session. And he has also said he wants to see the age to purchase any firearm in Texas to

be increased to 21 so that 18 year olds can't purchase a weapon. And of course, the teen who perpetrated the mass shooting in Uvalding was 18 years old and he used an AR style rifle. Thank you Hayden for your coverage. Bradley, as of Monday, there were still 24,000 Austin Energy customers without power. Where does this stand as of now? So as of this morning, there were fewer than 400 customers in Austin Energy without power. So they made quite a bit of progress. Over the weekend, Governor Abbott issued a disaster declaration from last week's ice storm for seven counties, including Travis County. That will have an effect on

property taxes, so read the story. I explain how both on these localities setting rates and appraisals this will affect you. And this is setting the table for some fallout. so by the time this is up we may have

resolution on uh this special meeting that the austin city council is holding to discuss the employment status of city manager spencer cronk i'm told the um the driving force behind that is that recommendations from the council after the 2021 blackouts were not followed through on by Kronk. I don't know what those are. They might talk about that in the special meeting if it's not an executive session. But still no word on what will happen with Jackie Sargent, who's the Austin Energy general manager. Although comparing it to the Austin water situation a year ago where there was a three day boil notice, uh,

that CEO was, uh, announced his resignation a week or two weeks after the issue got resolved. So, uh, even though it hasn't happened yet, she might get, uh,

fired as well, but we'll see. Yeah. Thank you, Bradley. Matthew, we're coming to you. The federal government is including the lesser prairie chicken on the list of endangered species, which is causing concern among landowners

and oil and gas companies. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton now says he plans to sue the federal government and block the rule. Tell us why there are concerns about this rule going into effect, and why is Paxton suing over a prairie chicken well adding certain animals into the endangered species list in west texas has been a controversial issue for some time due to the fact that it usually results in federal restrictions on what can be done with privately held lands in order to protect habitat for the endangered species a recent example of this was during the Obama administration, there was a huge push to add the dune sagebrush lizard as an endangered species, which oil companies fought because it would have restricted their ability to use that land to produce oil and gas. I think the theory was as simple as oil drilling sites and trucks would

destroy its habitat. And you have the very same situation here in which these federal rules would put restrictions on the ability to destroy any of the chicken's natural habitat. Texas Parks and Wildlife has worked for years with landowners who have participated in a voluntary conservation plan that they say have been very successful in helping protect the bird. But Parks and Wildlife also says the move by the federal government to suddenly decide to add the bird on the endangered species list jeopardizes that trust with landowners that they have built. But because of the wording of the rule, they're encouraging more landowners

to participate in those voluntary programs because there is a sort of grandfathered exception in the rule that provides landowners with more lax regulations once the rule goes into effect than those who are not in participating in these programs with state parks and wildlife agencies. Paxton, along with several other state AGs that are impacted by this rule, have signaled their intent to sue the Biden administration over the implementation of it, saying that the federal government violated federal administrative rulemaking laws while going about implementing this rule in the federal registry now after an initial delay of implementation the u.s fish and wildlife service says that the rule will go into effect on march 27th there you go fascinating stuff i did not know at the beginning of this week that we would be writing and publishing a story on the lesser prairie chicken delightful times we love texas and i'm already getting hungry about chicken

cameron we're going to end with you here we've seen a number of cities enact local ordinances on both sides of the abortion and pro-life issue what do these policies in el paso specifically do so the city council in el paso essentially passed a resolution that would not allow city funds to investigate if abortions occur or aid the state government in an investigation. What they did additionally was add a provision that says to local law enforcement that they will place abortion investigations at its lowest level of priority. And what's been interesting to see here is this is their second attempt at passing something similar to this. They failed the first time last year, but they were able to pass this ordinance

this year. So there you go. Is this new or have other cities done something similar? Well, we have seen Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, they've all passed similar local ordinances that deal with the abortion issue. But we've also seen a huge movement of sanctuary cities for the unborn, which give protection to children and outlaw abortions on the local level there you go well thank you so much for your coverage gentlemen let's pivot to our twittery section here we covered 13 stories on the pod this week that's quite a few and we made it happen done it 45 minutes about um okay brad why don't you start out you had a kind of a fun texas history angle this week yeah so i was driving to a speaking engagement on Tuesday up in Grosbeck,

Texas. And I saw on my way there, this, uh, this sign road sign that said, uh, you know, one mile or two miles that way,

uh, to the East was Ben to her. And if you aren't aware of that uh that was a it is a famous book and has been turned into multiple movies at this point and i was like what the hell there's a ben hur texas and so i texted my dad that because he is uh he was a big fan of uh the movie when he was a kid and i've heard him make multiple different references to it uh during my lifetime so i texted him he got back to me and said i looked it up they changed the name from quote cottonwood in the late 1800s because there were so many with that name in Texas. Ben-Hur was a popular book at the time.

The author, which I didn't know this, was a Civil War Union general from Indiana named Lee Wallace. His story is interesting, too. So if you're driving out just east of waco and you see a sign that says been her now you know why there is a town named after a very famous book and movie yeah that's almost an article idea is the craziest or not even craziest but most interesting city names town names in texas there's like a christmas texas right there's paris texas um yeah there are a lot i'm trying to think of the others we talked about this

on a now you're reminding now you're reminding me of this funny uh youtube uh video where they have um people who are not from texas look at the name of a texas town or city and try and make their predictions on how it's pronounced and then they go to the texan who pronounces it oh my gosh like nakadoches yeah yeah yeah yeah or bernie oh yeah yeah when i first started county yeah when i first started here i was calling the the bear county constable and uh i said bexar and he's like you ain't from around here nope never made that mistake again oh my gosh we should do a crash course with cameron now that i'm thinking about it there was a tv weatherman out in west texas one time that on their on their first um on their first broadcast called pecos or something like that.

Oh, my. Yeah. It was pretty funny. Crash course. Got to put somebody through it. Good stuff. Matt, speaking of words I don't know how to pronounce, I don't know what your tweeter-y is here.

Let's take a look here. What is my – oh, yeah. I don't know how to pronounce that word either but it reminds me of those aliens on that show uh alien versus predator whatnot uh it's looks like skeuomorphs it sounds right something like that oh it was a fun tweet that i saw the other day, and it was talking about what it basically means is how there are symbols that reference modern applications, but the symbol is something that represents it, but it's obsolete. And kind of the main example it gives is how whenever you open up like a Word document and you go to click the little save emblem, there's a emblem of a floppy disk up there now. How long has, you know, how long have floppy disks been gone?

Obsolete, yeah. Obsolete. But yet everybody still thinks whenever you think to save something you still think of a floppy disk that's interesting like uh whenever you look at the uh the app on your iphone to make a phone call and it you know has a little telephone on there you know well one one was the last time the telephone looked that way? You know, now telephones are little square boxes or like they point to like the Instagram logo. And they actually made an interesting. They showed how the Instagram logo has evolved over time, has gone from looking like a very old fashioned camera to, you know, they've they've tried to spice it up and modernize it but it still

is based off of not what you would think of as a camera anymore but in our minds uh we still recognize those things as as cameras or to save something or to make a phone call better yeah that's very it was kind of interesting i like that that's a fun one cameron what do you have for us this week this might spark actually no i'm gonna come back i'm gonna do hayden's and then we'll come back to yours because we're gonna like sit on yours it's like our fun topic that's what i'm going to do because i think it will spark debate according to you um hayden what did you see on twitter this week mike lee tweeted during biden's State of the Union address, this is elder abuse, which I thought was funny.

And it is a window into Republicans raking Biden over the coals because he has a tendency to run his words together or mispronounce things. And there's a joke out there that Biden has dementia. Obviously, there's no, he hasn't been diagnosed with dementia or anything like that. But it's a joke that Republicans put out there. And Mike Lee had some other interesting reactions to the State of the Union address um but that one i thought was uh just an example of how people try to get their punch lines in um during moments like this democrats did it during trump um but i i thought that was an amusing uh note from the state of the union there were a

couple facial expressions that i saw um senator lee make also during the state of the union that were like very he's not like it's not like he's a super super reserved guy but i think to see kind of a show of emotion like that even if it's kind of funny it's kind of rare from he's very scholarly and very he's an attorney and he's his his comments on the senate floor are usually very deliberate and and um and thoughtful so it was it was funny to see him just react organically like that which it's not his typical style yeah for sure i didn't watch the whole state of the union but i've seen some pretty long segments and it just seemed like there were some parts in there that were pretty awkward yeah like when he where he started um

attacking republicans over social security and that was why everything's like that and they Like when he started attacking Republicans over Social Security. That was wild. And everything's like that. And they say, no. And he's like, what do you want? You know? And it was like trying to have a conversation with. During the State of the Union. Yeah.

It was so. Very odd. Yeah. It was very different. Yeah. Absolutely. My hot take on the State of the Union is it should just be a letter presented to Congress. Just as George Washington did it. Yeah. the state of the union is it should just be a letter presented to congress just as george

washington did it yeah and he was not do this fanfare nonsense but and he wasn't the last guy to just do it as a letter either i can't remember who the last one was yeah it stopped a few in if brad was to have a saying on his tombstone it would be let's stop this fanfare nonsense i think that's pretty accurate for you yeah i like that game politicians love theater though brad so yes i can't deny them of their limelight it's like their caffeine addiction just go to itching and scratching and can't concentrate we did we had our session kickoff event in a literal theater. So I think that adds credence to Matt's point. That's a great point.

We fed into that whole trope. Oh, man. Cameron, okay, we're going to end with you here. What did you see that you wanted to share with our listeners? So I'm on Reddit, just going through the Texas subreddit. And this entire week, there was a huge debate about chili. And it wasn't the beans, no beans debate that all Texans know. I know that's been settled.

No beans in Texas chili. We know that. But this was about sides that go with chili. And I saw some weird answers. I saw people throwing out cinnamon rolls as a side, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So they actually have a poll going. That's disgusting.

Well, that definitely sounds like a foreigner kind of thing. A foreigner. That is such a Texas thing to say, too. I cannot tell you how many times I got called a foreigner when I moved here. That just brought back, like, I don't get that as often now but like six years ago that was wow that really jogged like a bunch of memories loose in my head sorry that was like a visceral reaction i just had well they they have a poll going and the options are fritos rice saltine crackers cornbread spaghetti, spaghetti noodles, or other. And we have someone who's an expert on putting chili on spaghetti noodles.

Yes. How about you give us your hot take? Why is chili good on spaghetti noodles? What is Skyline Chili, first off? Skyline Chili. You just made Brad's date, Cameron. It's not just Skyline Chili. It's Cincinnati Chili.

That's the dish. There's a bunch of different kinds's not just Skyline chili. It's Cincinnati chili. That's the dish. There's a bunch of different kinds of it. Skyline is one of those. And it is on a dish. You have spaghetti noodles. It's basically like meat sauce, although it tastes like chili rather than like spaghetti sauce. And then you throw cheese on it a mound of cheese and if you want to add any other things you can put in onions which is what i like beans as well

and so when you go there to order you order um based on how many ingredients you have so if you just get noodles chili cheese it's a three-way if you add onions it's a four-way so on and so forth and it is so good i had uh i grew up in northwest ohio and there was no skyline uh up there but when i went to college in cincinnati that's where that's the hotbed of this and uh i got hooked so now i'm slightly like matt is addicted to caffeine i go through skyline chili withdrawals especially every time i see it on my twitter feed i feel like when you go back to when you go back home um you it's like airport land skyline chili oh yeah that was the first stop each of the last times i went back Chili belongs on top of cheese enchiladas next to a steak.

Ooh. And anything else is just... Child's play. Foreigner stuff. Foreigner stuff? Okay. Let's go back to... Oh, go ahead.

I was just at Chili Parlor, which seems to be like a classic uh the glowed star in texas chili uh-huh and it had beans in it i think they have an option for that there i think the venison what i had if you choose beans your name gets put on a list exactly beans and chili debate is as settled as some people think it is well they're just catering to our you know tourists and whatnot or terrorists tourists well right now but it is kind of terroristic to what some people do to chili well right now there's 3 000 votes votes on this poll. Okay. And I like this spaghetti noodles argument just because it's so weird. Okay.

Okay, so. You got to try it. I'm putting the vote in. When I first got there, I was like, this does not look appetizing at all. Every time we send a picture, it doesn't, it looks, I just don't't it doesn't make me hungry looking at the photo it makes me sure once you eat it this is what happened to me it was like my eyes were opened and now i saw the world a whole lot differently brad's eyes are literally lighting up right now okay but yes back to this list there's a split between fritos and cornbread okay as being the most popular side so i think that's pretty

typical though for chili is cornbread option is cornbread leaning no fritos is in the lead fritos there's even a chili frito flavor you know so they got a little leg up there oh i i just cornbread is like my favorite i just i just love cornbread i don't even know what it's really good it's so good and there are so many good ways you could have chicken and cornbread is really good cornbread and anything oh it's making me really hungry i know i'm about to run out the store and eat lesser chicken and cornbread okay but of this list fritos rice salting crackers cornbread and spaghetti noodles Brad says spaghetti

noodles Matt. What do you say of this list of that list Fritos rice salting crackers cornbread and spaghetti noodles. I refuse to participate so ridiculous Cameron. I'm going cornbread cornbread. Amen. I'm with you. I choose cornbread to Hayden. What about you

of that of that list Fritos rice salting crackers cornbread cornbread amen i'm with you i choose cornbread too hayden what about you of that of that list fritos rice salt and crackers cornbread spaghetti noodles um definitely cornbread amen okay well we've we've ruled the day here over half this is a cornbread office the cornbread office are not allowed maybe i'll make corn no i can't make that promise i really make cornbread. No, I can't make that promise. I really want cornbread now. Good thing is if you are wanting to try Skyline Chili, Central Market carries it. Will you make us? Have you ever made spaghetti and chili just because you're missing Skyline? Yeah. Maybe you should make it for us. Central Market is close to my house right now, so I haven't done it in a while.

But there's also something that's really good is Skyline Dip, and that uses Fritos. But that's really good. Okay. Well, let's break for lunch, shall we? Let's do it. Okay. Folks, we appreciate you listening, as always, each and every week,

and we will catch you next episode. 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 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.