The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - February 13, 2026

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free "Remember the Alamo" hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.El Paso Airspace Closed by FAA for Several Hours Following 'Cartel Drone Incursion'New Texas Primary Poll Shows Roy, Middleton Leading in Attorney General RaceHere's a Preview of the Eight Races for Texas State Board of Education60 House Republicans Sign Statement Supporting 'Detransitioner' Case to be Heard by Texas Supreme CourtStudent ICE Protests Prompt State Board of Education Members to Urge Greater TEA ActionDan Patrick-Chaired Trump Religious Liberty Commission Faces Lawsuit Alleging Lack of DiversityAttorney General Paxton, DOJ Announce $68 Million Settlement With Colony Ridge Developers

With my American flag sweater, go team USA. Anyways, I just love the Olympics. A sub six-minute mile pace uphill on skis. Gold and speed skating. These skaters get up to like 38 miles an hour. I mean, 40 miles an hour on skates. I'm in mourning over the ice dancing silver medal. There's some drama surrounding the French team who won gold.

Go team USA. Well, howdy, folks. It's McKenzie here with Meredith and Mary Elise. on another edition of the weekly roundout, I am fully aware now of how difficult it is for folks to tag the right person in Slack because we have so many M names. Even just saying the three of our names back to back was something else. There are, we do have a lot of Ms at the Texan right now. Yeah, it's happened a couple times where I'll get tagged as, or someone was trying to tag me, but they tag Meredith instead. I'll usually get the gist.

I usually know if it was meant for me and not Meredith. Yeah. And Maslin too. It is. Oh my gosh. It so is. Anne Maslin, who is tagged probably more frequently than anyone else at the Texan because people just need her. She's needed all the time.

Tech support. Tech support, photo support, podcast support. Anything you support. Maslin just makes our worlds go around. But ladies, welcome back. I do want to take a quick victory lap. Seahawks won the Super Bowl. that is important to talk about, you know, Kim's on here to do some football chat with me. But

Meredith, you are in Seattle right now. So what has it been like? I want to know how many jerseys you see just walking around the street in Washington State right now. Well, everywhere, obviously. I would say the grocery store the day before or the day of the Super Bowl, I went to the grocery store with a friend to get some stuff. And it was not crazy, busy because it was about to start. But everyone, I don't know what they're called. This is how bad I am, but like the green, fuzzy hats with the hair. I don't know. It's a thing around here. Anyway, so I saw just some, you know, like an older woman with like a fuzzy green kind of like Dr. Susan Coney hat, a bunch of those. And I know people whose kids skip school to go to the parade. And that was like huge downtown.

Some of the pictures of that were huge. I know everyone's very excited. And as even though I said, I hate football, which sorry, I do. I did enjoy. I did enjoy. I watched the last half of the game, which everyone says, that's what was worth watching. And it was exciting. Yeah, we were non-football people. I was with a bunch of it on.

And we were turned it on. And all of a sudden, we were like, oh, that's awful. Look at that. And I don't even want to say what I saw because it's so embarrassing how I don't even know. But one of the offensive guys, bigger guys. Yes. One of the big guys got like a. Oh, yes.

And that was an amazing play. I don't really know how to describe. was, but I could see like, that was great. Yeah. We were all talking about it here. We're like, if you're that guy and maybe, you know, you have never scored a touchdown in your career and then you do, which happens. Like in football, linemen have those moments.

And, but the time you do is in the Super Bowl. How incredible. Oh, it was so good. And I saw so many people talking about how boring the game was and I get it. Like, oftentimes the Super Bowl, I think can be a pretty boring game. Like, it just can be. But I, I guess you, if you're invested in the teams, obviously it's not boring. I was, though, perturbed for the first, basically the first half of the game, there were no touchdowns.

It was just the Seahawks scoring field goals. And I was like, if we win this game or even worse, lose this game, having only scored field goals, that would be so disappointing. But we made it. We scored a couple touchdowns. It was awesome. But, yeah, it was a big, it was a big, big victory. and I've seen so many friends from back in Seattle post pictures and videos of them at the parade. And it just looks like so much fun.

Ugh, it's so good. But it's a very wholesome team. I love our guys. Did you watch the game, Mary Lisa, at all? Well, I was going to say, it ended up being more like background noise because it was my birthday. So it was kind of celebrating with some different folks. And so it was playing in the background and there were a couple people that were very invested in the game. But I will say, I am.

I'm extremely glad that the Patriots did not win because that was my main objective here is to see the Patriots lose and not win another Super Bowl. Because I think if I'm, I might be wrong. So we might have to fact check me on this. But I think that if the Patriots won another Super Bowl, they would have beat the Steelers record. And that would have been pretty upsetting. Oh, that's right. You're a Steelers fan, aren't you? Yeah.

Where's Kim when we need? Kim's going to be listening to us and just like, man, I wish I could have provided. commentary. Yeah, exactly. I should fact-check these girls who don't know what they're talking about. Well, that's awesome. I'm glad you watch. And hey, I think I speak for all Seahawks fans and we say we will take the bandwagon fans from the Super Bowl who are just rooting for us to root against the Patriots, or more likely just rooting against the Patriots. We'll still take it. We'll still take it. Well, let's jump into the news of the week. Meredith, we're going to start with you. This was kind of a wild story that took a lot of folks by surprise. So kind of a, I don't know,

an abrupt start to a morning here as we saw this news roll in. Talk to us about this El Paso Airspace, you know, situation that went down over in West Texas. Yeah, so El Paso Airspace is closed, and the initial restriction, and normally we don't do super specific times in our articles, but this one happened so quickly, and it was like an overnight situation. So at 1130 on Tuesday, the FAA issues this temporary flight restriction over El Paso, citing special security reasons. And so they set it for 10 days through February 21st. El Paso International Airport posts this travel advisory on social media. Like all flights to and from El Paso are grounded, commercial cargo, general aviation.

So everything comes to a halt. And the public's very confused about, you know, the link, the scope, what's happening. And so then Wednesday at 5.54 a.m. in the morning, the FAA lifts the airspace restriction. So very quickly, it was only about six and a half hours. And they post, like, there's no threat to commercial aviation. Like, all flights will resume as normal. And so still, obviously, confusion because that's a big deal to close airspace. So U.S. Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, posts on X that the FAA and the what he calls the Department of War acted swiftly. And he addressed this action. he calls a cartel drone incursion are the words that he uses, that it's been neutralized, and there's no ongoing danger to commercial travel. So obviously, those are also, like, big words and, you know, like a big situation to describe very quickly. And so politicians weigh in on this Congressman Tony Gonzalez mentions that a similar incident occurred in November 2025 in Hudsbeth County nearby. And he just kind of talks about it, how after

collaboration with federal partners, that temporary flight restriction was also lifted expeditiously. Joaquin Castro, Congressman as well, chimes in and calls it an extreme and unprecedented move. And he said that Donald Trump needs to immediately give Congress and the American people a rational explanation for such extreme and unprecedented move. He also said that the FAA has abruptly lifted its unprecedented 10-day closure of El Paso Airport. This rash decision will erode trust in public safety. Shortly after that, we see Senator Ted Cruz chime in talking about how he's been working with the FAA, Department of War, other agencies. They're looking for more information about the closure. And he added, I'm hopeful, more details can be publicly shared in the coming days on interagency coordination.

So we also saw after the article, I know that the El Paso mayor chimed in saying it was unnecessary. And he highlighted that there were emergency flights. And he talked about medical flights and everything that had to be. rerouted and just how it looks people are this isn't a case closed people want more answers and so hopefully we'll get some more of those in the future absolutely wild to watch all this unfold in real time too like the at first it was i don't know twitter was just a blazed say the least after it was like okay this 10-day airspace restriction is wild this must be huge and it was like oh never mind and everyone just like what is going on like it just it really eroded a little bit of trust in what was

in the information that was being disseminated. Yeah, it was, Twitter really was a blaze, honestly, and it was very bizarre. It felt a little bit like you get a little bit of whiplash because everyone's reading, oh, my gosh, you know, it's closed for 10 days. This is hugely significant. I mean, when's last time this happened?

Some people were saying after 9-11, and then all of a sudden they say, it's open, we're good to go, basically. Don't worry about flying. And I think some people were probably a little bit uneasy. Like, well, are you sure? because just a couple minutes ago it was closed for 10 days. Yeah, exactly.

And people didn't really know what to believe, even though, you know, communication became clear so quickly, it still was like, can we believe this when we just were told airspace should be closed for 10? It was just wild. So, Mary to thank you for, you know, covering that for us and jumping on that story. I'm very appreciative. It was wild to watch that all go down. Mary Lisa, let's talk about some political news here.

There was a new poll that came out. This was very interesting. And I think we've seen a lot of people react strongly on social media about this as well. Just interesting news. And again, I'll preface. We always say this when polls come out. Polling is just one indicator of how a race might go. It's a very, it's a small sample size, always a margin of error.

It depends on how the questions are asked. But this is from a very reputable source. So at least it gives us some indication, perhaps, of where voters are leaning. It's not viable. It's not, you know, doctrine, but it is very interesting. So walk us through the top lines and specifically some statewide races in the polling that you saw. Yeah, like you said, this is, of course, polls aren't a definite, you know, a definite answer as to how the election's going to go, but it's definitely going to be used by all

the campaigns, especially the ones who did well in this poll. And they're going to throw it up their opponents and say, look, you know, this is how far ahead we are almost like you just need to give up. But this was, say, you said, from a reputable source. So this is from the University of Houston's Hobby School of Public Affairs. So this poll was released yet. And so this poll was released, yesterday morning. And it got responses from likely voters in both the Democratic primary elections in Texas and then the Republican primary election. And they looked at these folks voting records in 2024, in 2022. And then they said they also looked at their perspective intention to participate in the upcoming elections. So kind of the real basic top lines from this was we saw

congressmanship Roy pulling ahead in the Texas Attorney General race. We saw him in first place in this poll. While Texas comptroller candidate Don Huffines, I'm saying comptroller, Kim's can get me for not saying controller, but Texas comptroller candidate. I say control or too. It's how it's spelled. I know it's not like there's a lot to be said there.

But yeah, probably get a little bit of flack in the YouTube comments. But Texas Comptroller candidate, Don Huffines. and then the incumbent Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Sid Miller, are also taking the lead in their respective Republican primary races. We saw a prior report from this same survey by UH was released, having to do with the U.S. Senate, and of course, that got a lot of traction because that's one of the most watched races statewide and also just across the country. It seems like the race for Senator John Corrin's seat. it showed Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, is being in the lead with 38% in the Republican field.

And then on the Democratic side of things, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was leading with 47%. So it broke this down into a couple of sections because it covered several statewide Texas races in this poll. But the race for Attorney General for Ken Paxton's current position showed, like I said, Congressman Roy taking first place, with 33%. Then he was followed by state senator

Mays Middleton with 23%. And then also his colleague, State Senator Joan Huffman, followed him with 13%. And then last place was former U.S. Assistant Attorney General Aaron Wrights, who collected 6%. So Wrights was in last place in this poll.

And then there was 25% of the respondents that said that they were undecided in this race. this is a significant amount undecided. And then the likely Democratic voters that were fielded in this Texas Attorney General primary race chose state senator Nathan Johnson. He received 25%. So he was in the lead. And then Joe Jaworski followed with 22%.

And then another Democratic candidate, Tony Box, had 13%. And then a whole 40% of the respondents were undecided on who they'd select for this Democratic primary for Texas Attorney General. This is a race that we've been covering a bit on this podcast recently, the Texas Agriculture Commissioner race. So we saw that incumbent Sid Miller is actually leading in the race for re-election. And he's running against Nate Sheets, who was recently endorsed by Governor Greg Abbott.

We covered that. It was significant because we've seen that Miller and Abbott have kind of been at odds over the past couple years, have different political disagreements. dating back to COVID-19, and then a recent dust up over comments from Miller where he spoke about kind of a lack of communication and collaboration between the governor's office and the Texas Agriculture Commissioner's office. So Sid Miller is leading per this poll against this Abbott-endorsed candidate, Nate Sheets.

And so 62% of one aspect of this race that they poll. was asking if you know enough about the candidate to have an opinion on them. 62% of the likely Republican voters said that they know enough about Miller to have an opinion on him, while a whole 36% say the same about sheets. I don't think, I think I feel to mention this, the percent that they each collected, but Miller collected 48% while sheets received 18%. Then moving on to the Texas comptroller, after Comptroller Hager was named the next Texas A&M University Chancellor,

Railroad Commissioner Christy Craddock, and then the former state senator Don Huffeinz jumped into the race. And then not long after that, they were followed by former state senator and acting comptroller Kelly Hancock. He jumped in. He announced his bid for a full term as Texas Comptroller Public Accounts just shortly after he joined agency as an employee. So this survey or this aspect of the survey for the comptroller race showed that Huffines is in the lead with 33%.

And then he's followed by Craddock with 21%. And Hancock was behind her with 13%. And then another candidate, Michael Berlinga, received 4%. The voters who said that they were undecided went up to 29%. So 29% of the likely voters said that they're undecided on who they'd pick for a Texas comptroller. And then going back to this question that the respondents were asked about it, do you know enough about this candidate to have an opinion about them? 63% of the voters said they do know enough about Huffines to have an opinion on him.

So 63%. And then Craddix was 57%. Hancock was 42 and then 34% per Burlinga. We also saw some results in the Texas governor race. On the Democratic side of things, we have state representatives. of Gina Hinoza running for Texas governor. She took the lead in the Democratic primary field with 37%. And then Chris Bell, who's also going to be running against her in the Democratic primary,

received 7%. And then Bobby Cole was right behind Bell with 6%. And then another candidate, Patricia Ebrego received 5%. And then there are four remaining candidates that had a combined vote intention of 13%. and a total of 32 of the 32% of the likely voters in this race said that they were undecided who they'd vote for Texas governor in this primary. And then Abbott did lead in a matchup. They did a prospective matchup between Abbott and Inahosa.

Abbott did lead against her with 49%. But Hinojosa was close behind with 42%. And then a libertarian candidate, Anthony Creester, took Glass Place. and then 9% of voters said they're just undecided if it were to come to that. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick was also in this poll. He received 46% in the general election sample, while the leading Democratic contender planning to go against him for lieutenant governor, State Representative Vicki Goodwin, and she received 41.

So Patrick was at 46, Goodwin was at 41. Something else that we threw in here that was interesting. they did a favorability section, asked, you know, how favorably do you view the governor and the lieutenant governor? For Abbott, he, respondents said that they viewed him favorably at a rate of 51%. And then 41% said unfavorably. And then 2% said, we just don't know him well enough to respond. But Patrick received an unfavorability rating of 43% percent.

So 43% of the respondent said they view him unfavorably and then favorably by 41%. So of course, the primary election is less than three weeks away now. I think we're getting close to two weeks. And early voting does kick off next Tuesday. So it'll be just a couple days away when this podcast goes out. So like McKenzie was saying, of course, this is nothing concrete. We'll see lots of polls before these elections. but it's definitely interesting to get your hands on and discuss,

just to get a little bit better grasp of where we're standing right now before these elections. But we'll see, of course, ultimate results in the coming days. Absolutely. And a couple more notes on polling. One, this is like, you know, conducted the University of Youth and Hobby School Public Affairs. This is their poll. And, you know, so third party, a lot of the polls you see released ahead of the primary are going to be. the either internal polling released by campaigns that hire somebody to pull for them.

So sometimes those can be very indicative and it's fair polling. And sometimes it's not because it's coming from the campaign and they want to, it's more of a PR move than an actual test of where the elector it is. But again, it all depends on who the pollster is for those, right? So you can not have to take that with a grain of salt. It can be indicative of where the elector it is. But that's why this one is notable is because it is that third party. But I will say a couple of takeaways, I think are interesting.

Obviously, these statewide seats for comptroller and for attorney general are open seats. It's the first time we've seen, you know, office statewide elected offices with open seats at this kind of level in a long time. And so folks are vying for these spots. We have very formidable candidates vying for these spots who have a very long history of, you know, courting the electorate or representing their districts in the legislature. Um, so these, it will just be interesting because likely runoffs are going to be in play here. And it really is just a race to make sure no one gets over 50% and that you kind of get in that first or second spot. If you can make it to a runoff, the game changes entirely. And I think the attorney general race right now, of course, it's shaping up to look like, okay, Middleton and Roy in the runoff.

What will that look like if they make it there? Does that change the polling? Of course, you see Roy kind of in the lead here, and he has been in the lead for a long time in this race. But Middleton is spending millions and millions of dollars. And you see the effect of that, again, if this poll is in the indication, in that his ranking is, and his rankings are increasing, he's been in second for a long time, but the percentage by which he trails Roy shrinks as he spends more and more money. So what they're going to run off?

Who knows? In Comptroller, it's very similar. How Fines has run for governor before. He's been on the statewide ballot. And I think there's a lot to be said for the governor being like, hey, maybe we can find somebody else to take this spot. There's some movement behind the scenes where the governor is supporting other candidates, specifically Craddock has a great relationship with Craddock.

And the same, maybe I can funnel some dollars here. That's going to be an interesting race. And I think we see in the numbers here, Huffins also, as somebody who's been significantly in the lead, may have a little bit of tripping away at that margin. So what will that look like come election day? Who knows? But we'll keep an eye on all of these.

Very notable, too, like you were saying, Mary Elise, that Nate Sheets, the challenger to Ag Commissioner Sid Miller is not polling as highly as maybe his endorsements might. You might assume based on who's endorsed him. So wild to watch. Very, very wild. But fun, all around to check this out and go read Mary Lisa's piece to get all the insight on all of the polling. But this is what Politicos live for ahead of election today. Our polls like these, we want to know what's going on.

We want to know how messaging is hitting. And I think this is a great instance in which that's the case. So thanks for covering that for us, my dear. Meredith, let's come to you. Let's talk more about the March primary, but let's talk about some races that oftentimes go under the radar but are very important specifically for those with school-aged children. Let's talk about the State Board of Education.

Yes. So the State Board of Education is just before I kind of dive into a little bit about some of the races, just a little review of what the State Board of Education does. Because the State Board of Education is thrown out into a lot of articles along with the Texas Education Agency. And sometimes it's good to just clarify what each of those groups does. So when it comes to education in Texas, we have the Texas Education Agency. And they are running things day to day. they have the commissioner who is appointed by the governor, confirmed by the Texas Senate,

and so no one in the TEA is elected. Then we have the State Board of Education, which is 15 elected members who all represent, you know, a section of Texas, and they're elected by voters not appointed. So that's what this election is coming up. So what does the SBOE actually do? So they adopt what we call the Texas essential knowledge and skills. It's a mouthful. The teeks.

So basically what kids learn in school. schools, this group is deciding that. They improve instructional materials, textbooks. They oversee the permanent school fund, which is this multi-billion dollar investment fund that supports public schools, which if you ever want to go on a little rabbit trail, that's an interesting one with a lot of history that dates pretty far back. It's very interesting. It's something unique that Texas has. It's very cool to look at. They set graduation requirements. They approve open enrollment charter schools.

Sometimes they'll serve as an appeals body in different like educator discipline cases. But they do work together. And so the legislature will pass these laws. The SPOU will set curriculum standards policy within its authority. And then the TEA is going to implement and enforce those policies. So the commissioner doesn't answer to the SPOE. They're separate authorities. And so we have eight seats up for election out of 15.

So a large amount of seats are up. Four incumbents are seeking reelection and then three seats are being vacated by current board members. And so this means that like more than half of this board could potentially change. And just as a reminder, I won't go through each of them because there's many different candidates and all of these eight different races. So please check out the article, kind of see who is running on a pose. See there's different Democrat, Democratic and Republican candidates for the different primaries. And we also use the Texas partisan index, which we have available for all of our races. And so we kind of run through each of the districts and which way they lean.

So, yeah, they would like all these other races, Mary Lisa is talking about, they'll go to that March 3rd primary. And then they would have a runoff as well if no candidate receives a majority. And then back to November for the general election. So, yeah, check it out. There's a lot in there. And, you know, see where you live, if where your kids go to school, all those different things. things. We got that for you. Yeah, absolutely. Big race. Oh, yeah, Mary Leaves, jump in.

Well, I was just going to say, I find that very interesting how you were explaining their role, because I think that definitely your average Texan does not know, unless you're pretty involved in kind of local politics. You don't know the control that they might have over your child's education or just your local community in general. So it was very interesting to learn more about what the SBOE is doing. And to know that there's an election, yeah, we're actually selecting these folks. And some of the things that we've covered, like the reading list,

like the TEA made this reading list because it was in the bill that they would make it. But then they have to go to SBOE to get it approved. And so that actually is coming up in April. And so those things that we, sometimes they get thrown out in this way of like, oh, TEA, SBA, okay, something with schools, but realizing like this is a group that if you disagree or agree, you can go and vote, to change if you don't like what's in schools. If you like what's in schools, if you, you know,

if you want to see, if you are concerned about more of the meat of what's being taught is where the SBOE is gonna come in in that case. And after COVID and I think a lot of the conversations about DEI over the last few years, the SBOE seats have been a lot more, they've been paid a lot more attention to, I think by parents and folks around the state,

especially as we saw school board races receiving the same amount of attention, folks really did start to pay attention and care about these races, as they should, right? I mean, you want to know who's making the decisions that affect your child education so directly. So definitely go check that out, and we'll keep an eye on these races. It's important stuff and all about it. Meredith, thank you so much. Let's chat through another spicy case here.

Let's go, Mary Elise. The Supreme Court of Texas, the state Supreme Court, heard a case that received a lot of support from Texas House Republicans. Give us the details. Yeah, this week, the Texas Supreme Court heard an interesting case. It saw a lot of momentum from Texas House Republicans before it was heard, but this has to do with a detransitioner sworn Aldaco. This is her case against her health care providers, her counselors who were involved in obtaining different gender modification procedures as a child.

And so she, as she got older, she ended up regretting those gender modification procedures and chose to sue her health care providers and just the individuals that were involved in approving this, the different surgeries and medications and such. And so a group of Texas Republican House lawmakers signed a statement issued a statements, essentially saying we'd like to declare support. for Aadako in this case. But they also talked about an aspect of her lawsuit. That's really now the focus of the suit that has to do with expanding or questioning the statute of limitations in this case for a malpractice related lawsuit. So that's really the focus here is that if her suit against them

is still valid considering the different timeline and considering the current laws around statute of limitations. So some background leading up to this is that in July 2023, Aldaco sued a counseling group and then other healthcare providers that were involved in obtaining these gender modification procedures for her, which included a double mastectomy. And she sued them for $1 million after, like I said, she came to regret the surgeries as an adult and then detransitioned is what a lot of folks are calling it.

Court documents state that she first received the, what they call life-altering cross-sex hormones at age of 17. And so the defendants are her counselor, Barbara Rosewood, who wrote the letter recommending the surgery as a, quote, gender affirming procedure in the winter of 2021. And then that letter was accepted by Crane Clinic, which is also a defendant in this suit, which then performed the surgeries on Aldaco. And then so we saw that progress in court. Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth rejected Aldaco's appeal and November 2024, claiming that her on the basis that her medical claim had expired. And that was approving a previous judgment that had been issued by Tarrant County District Court. And then later the Supreme Court of Texas accepted her petition for review.

That was in mid-December and then scheduled the case for arguments on February 11th. So we saw that just happened yesterday. And so this letter from the lawmakers that was issued on February 4th addresses all of these different aspects of her story and that her appeal had originally been rejected on the basis that her medical claim had expired. They wrote, We respectfully urge recognition that Ms. Aldaco should be permitted

to proceed with her claims based on the timeline of her case, as well as that Texas law must protect patients' access to justice, rather than foreclose it through limitations periods ill-suited to these circumstances. That was signed by 60 Texas House Republicans. And so what they're referring to is the current statute of limitations for health care liability. Right now it requires it to be claimed within two years with incident. And that's the basis upon which the Tarrant County Court was ruling against Aldaco's case for proceeding. As they were saying, the medical liability claims are filed over two years.

after the surgery. There was legislation that was introduced during two different sessions during the last 89th and the same bill was introduced in the 88th session. But it was legislation that would have expanded the statute of limitations for child gender modification, malpractice-related lawsuits, as it says in Ondocco's case. But it wasn't successful during the sessions. and the signies of this letter, the lawmakers said that they do intend to bring it up under a new bill. Both of these pieces of legislation during that respective sessions were filed by state representative Shelby Slosson,

and she kind of spearheaded this letter that was signed by 60 House Republicans. But it did say, you know, we do plan. We have full intent to file the same legislation again and try and get it across. They said, I'll read another quote from their, letter, they said the medical respondents desperately seek to avoid responsibility for harming Ms. Aldaco by arguing the two-year limitations period began to run a Ms. Wood penned her infamous gender-ferming double mastectomy letter, rather than when the debilitating surgery was performed on Soren. And so they noted that, and how that's an important aspect of the litigation

that's ongoing, is that they believe that the two-year limitations period began when the letter was written approving her for surgery, not when the actual surgery was performed on Soren. Aldaco did inform the defendants two months before she chose to file the lawsuit. The lawmakers had some more pretty strong words here. They said, by the respondents absurd math, if the botched surgery that relied on Ms. Wood's letter of February 2021, and Ms. Wood is a counselor who wrote this letter saying that Aldaco could need it to get this surgery or could get this surgery, and that would be gender affirming. And they said the limitations period would have expired before Soren was wheeled into the OR

before the surgeon lifted the scalpel. Before Soren awoke post-op to discover horrible complications, a preposterous interpretation. And that was the quote from the lawmakers in this letter. They also noted legislation that did pass during the 89th session that we covered closely here at the Texan, which was Senate Bill 1257, and that requires insurance companies to cover negative adverse results from gender modification procedures and detransitions. And like I said, it ultimately passed during the 89th session. It was very contentious. You know, the Democrats were arguing you're just wanting to decencystifies people,

insurance companies from covering gender modification surgeries. And some of the Republicans said, well, you know, one line, you remember, State Representative Jeff Leach kept saying was, if you take someone of the dance, you have to take him home. So he kept reiterating that, that the insurance companies had to be willing to cover these. But that was mentioned in the letter from the lawmakers. Yeah, so this, you know, we see that this issue is also being spoken a lot at the federal level. Of course, it has a heavy focus here in Texas with the Republicans really honing in on it. but we saw all sorts of executive actions taken by President Donald Trump almost immediately after he took office.

So he signaled that that was pretty important to him. And then just recently, it's been a topic that's been back up in the new cycle because the American Society of Plastic Surgeons issued a clarified position on the issue, saying that they think there's insufficient evidence demonstrating a favorable risk benefit ratio for the pathway of gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions in children, adolescence, which is what All Docker received. So we'll see what the Texas Supreme Court decides to do here. So the oral arguments were heard just yesterday. They ended late afternoon. So we'll see where this goes forward and we'll be sure to keep covering it as it progresses. Mary Leaves, thank you. This is, again, one of those instances where you see what happens in the legislature really kind of make its way to the courts. Very interesting. So go read Maryle's

Lee's coverage there. And the 60 names are fun to read through too. see what your representative did. Marylees, thank you for covering that for us. Meredith, we're going to come to you. Let's talk about another issue that's been huge. And talking about the Sweet Board of Education earlier and why these races are important. This race, you know, relates, or excuse me, this story relates directly to that. But talk about the, you know, Texas school involvement in the ICE protests that are going on. There are a few members of the SPOE who weighed in on this situation. Walk us through what's going on. Yeah, so the student anti-ice protests have been going on since January 30th, and I believe

even up until yesterday, I know the day before. So they're not going away. And we've covered some of the TEA statements, the governor, things that have been said about these warnings that have been issued, guidance. So this is an example like we just talked about with the SBOE and the TEA and how they can work together or interact with each other. So three members of the SBOE wrote a lot. letter to to EA Commissioner Mike Morath expressing concern about what's happening. So this is just

an informative letter, them making an official statement. Like we said, one doesn't answer to the other in that sense, but they do work together. So Brandon Hall, Tom Maynard, and Julie Pickren, who is featured in the article about the primary because she's running unopposed in the Republican primary. They send a letter to Mike Moraph talking about these concerns they have about students leaving school grounds is one of the main things. And then they discussed and talked about that they believe in some cases that they were apparently encouraged to do so, is what the letter talks about. And so the TEA had released guidance earlier saying that state law prohibits school systems from supporting or opposing political activism that disrupts learning, encouraging or facilitating students, leaving class for political demonstrations. And they talk about different, like in this.

letter, these SPOE members commend the TA for laying out some potential disciplinary actions that would happen. They would, students would mark the absence, schools could lose their daily attendance funding for those students. If teachers encourage it, they could face investigation, sanctions, and they specifically added, which is kind of a big deal, that districts that allow or walkouts could have not only investigations or sanctions, but they could lead to what we unofficially call a state takeover where an appointment of a monitor, a conservator, or a board of managers is brought in. So that's kind of a, those are some big words there. There's a big statement that they make. And so Governor Abbott Wade in as well, which this letter also commends him for his statements about it at a different unrelated press conference.

He was asked about it and he said things like one of his quotes was, if you're a student, you have a job and that's to be in the classroom. Protests by leaving school are not allowed by law. And he also talked about how the Supreme Court addresses this free speech issue that's been brought up. in different with different lawmakers, different reporting, the idea that students do have free speech. But the U.S. Supreme Court specifically, it doesn't include leaving campus to attend a protest as part of that free speech. It talks about disruptions and it does not include things that would disrupt the activities in the school that are supposed to be taking place. So Abbott also raised some safety concerns. There was an incident in Nebraska where a student was hit by a car during walkout. And so he specifically goes to that and says, his quote, was, if there's

any student who gets run over because of a protest in Texas that was allowed by a school to take place. I fully expect that school district and the leaders to be held legally responsible for that. So these three SBOE members are really wanting further action. They praise the TEA and Abbott and commend them for what they've done, but they talk about how recently Levi Fuller has been appointed as the Inspector General of Educator of Misconduct, which we did. We have an interview with him that you can check out on the Texan. And they asked the case. Commissioner to direct Fuller to investigate the cases where educators facilitated or encouraged these protests. They also talk about how they wanted to coordinate with the Texas House

Oversight Committee in the future to talk about compliance with school safety requirements tied to grant funding. And then one of the main quotes from the article or from the letter was, it appears that a stern warning is simply not enough. And that's referencing the fact that even after the TEA issues these guidance, the governor talks about it and has discipline measures we do see walkouts going up until like a day or two ago. So there was a couple of lawmakers that had comments about this. State rep Aaron is Weiner said the governor's threats. She said, Governor Abbott's recent threat to school districts where students have engaged in protests against ISIS violent and unlawful conduct is yet another attack on public education in Texas

as well as the First Amendment rights of our students. We also saw U.S. rep Lloyd Doggett weigh in on that as well. Students have every right to protest, even though Governor Abbott threatens them, but the most effective protest is at the polls. And he talks about how he doesn't think that Texas schools are doing enough to fulfill what he called their legal responsibilities to encourage eligible students to begin what could become a lifetime of civic participation. He also kind of like harkens back to his younger years where he said he volunteered, I believe, as a middle schooler in Austin putting up signs.

So he was focusing more on the idea of civic participation. State rep Jeff Leach urged parents to talk with their kids about consequences, find safer ways to express their views. And he had a quote about the legal side of it, saying we are also already working on legislation for next session that will crack down and prevent this activity in the future, including possible criminal penalties for encouraging, aiding, and abetting such walkout. So it's going to be interesting to see how these protests play out in legislation in the next legislative session and how schools are going to keep dealing with them if they keep happening and just how much longer they're going to go on. Absolutely. Again, the legislation, it's fun watching in the interim, the pain points for legislators, how they'll address these things come next session. It really is, and this is going to be one of those for sure. So we'll keep an eye on that. Meredith, thank you for your coverage there. Maryle's let's talk about another spicy story this week. There's a presidential commission shared by Texas' own lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick. And it was sued this week.

Tell us why. Yeah, well, this commission has really been one of the focuses in the news recently for a couple different reasons, actually. But they all kind of happened just at the very start of the week. So this is a presidential religious liberty commission at President Donald Trump. Trump created. And Lieutenant Governor, like you said, Dan Patrick chairs it. And it's now facing a legal challenge from a group of individuals and some interfaith plaintiffs. And so they're suing the administration at the commission for its supposed lack of, lack of religious and ideological diversity and its membership.

So the commission was created through an executive order by Trump, and its stated goal is to safeguard and promote America's founding principle of religious freedom. Its main focuses, its main planks are determining threats and responses

that might be related to defending parental rights and religious education, school choice and conscious protections, and then also houses of worship, free speech for religious entities, and institutional autonomy. And so the lawsuit specifically focused on the composition of the committee's membership. And so it was filed on Monday, which was when the commission was holding its fifth hearing.

That was focused on the rise of anti-Semitism in the United States. That was the title, the hearing, the focus of it. And so the suit was brought forth that day by the Interfaith Alliance, a Baptist Reverend Paul, Russian Bush, and then Muslims for Breast. progressive values, the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and then Hindus for human rights, so they were the ones that filed this lawsuit. And then the defendants include Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, the DOJ, then the commission itself, and then federal officer of the commission, which is Mary Margaret Bush. The suit is alleging that the commission is specifically violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which was established in 1972,

and it essentially provides guardrails for such committees that are created through the executive branch, so by the president's order, including that they have to be, quote, reasonably balanced in their points of view in this lawsuit is saying that it's not. So the plaintiffs believe that a body meant to advise on religious liberty and celebrate religious pluralism in this country, excuse me, cannot be fairly balanced within the meaning of this act, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, when all but one of its members, members represent Christian denominations. So it reiterated that several times during the lawsuit that almost all of the members represent Christian denominations and some shape, reform. They said it will

not be able to represent or reflect the concerns, real world understanding and history of America's diverse array of religious minorities or of interfaith organizations like plaintiffs. So this lawsuit was filed in the district court for the Southern District of New York. And the plaintiffs are trying to get injunctive relief through a declaration that the commission is in violation of the act that I mentioned by not being, quote, fairly balanced. And then forcing the defendants to include disclaimers whenever they produce any reports, which this commission will be doing, based reports on religious liberty and different ways that they can help improve it in the country, et cetera. to include disclaimers that note that it's not fairly balanced and that it's in violation of its act on any reports that they produce. And they also asked for immediate disclosure of all materials prepared for

and by the commission, citing the act and its requirements. And so they noted that they recognize that this commission was established to protect religious liberty for all Americans. But they said that defendant Trump has issued. several statements making clear that the commission is in actuality, concerned solely with what the administration terms, Judeo-Christian issues. They said it's a largely homogenous group without a diversity of perspectives.

They said, its members consist almost exclusively of Christians with one Orthodox Jewish rabbi. They said that represents a near perspective that America was founded as a Judeo-Christian nation. It must be guided by biblical principles. So that's a couple different quotes from the lawsuit that they fired. But it was interesting that this was filed the same data that they had their fifth hearing, which was actually a bit of a fiery hearing, one of the individuals that was on the commission, started arguing a bit about what does anti-Semitism really mean and asking questions such as if you were anti-Zionist, does that equate being an anti-Semite? And so a lot of kind of heated back and forth between her and some of the rabbis that had been invited to testify about anti-Semitism in the nation. And she is an individual who is, was a former pageant queen and had, she talks about, she believes she experienced some religious discrimination because she was posed with a question in the final round about defining what is marriage.

And so she said, well, she defined it in the Christian manner. It's between a man and woman. And anyway, so she cited that throughout some of these interactions. But she was removed by Patrick, I believe it was yesterday from the committee. So that's one of the aspects of how this committee's been in the news for kind of different reasons. But this all happened kind of on the same day, all connected. So we'll see where this lawsuit goes. But there's definitely been way more attention drawn to this commission.

And they are specifically citing this act. And they've got a couple key points about just the lack of ideological diversity and the membership of this group. So I forgot I didn't mention some of the members that are on this commission in case folks don't know. But you might recognize a couple of these names. There's the vice chair is Dr. Ben Carson. And then Ryan T. Anderson, who's president of Ethics and Public Policy Center. Then there's Catholic Bishop Robert Barron. And then the woman I mentioned, former Miss California, USA, Carrie Boller,

then Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Pastor Franklin Graham, Rabbi Solovec, and Pastor Paula White, and some lawyers on there as well. So I would recommend our readers to go check out the article itself and read more about it. But this lawsuit has been filed and we'll see how they respond. and where this winds up and if the commission really is in violation of this act or not. It seems very spicy back and forth. Mary Lisa has some great tweets up too if you want to get some firsthand knowledge so go check that out. Mary Lisa, thank you. Meredith, let's talk about Attorney General Ken Paxton announcing a very significant development in the colony

range case that we've been following for years now. Give us the latest. Yeah, there is a lot of coverage about this on the test. if you want to get all the background. So Paxton announced that working with Trump's Department of Justice that there was a $68 million settlement against developers of Colony Ridge. And so this settlement resolves a 2023 federal lawsuit brought by the DOJ and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a 2024 lawsuit filed by the Texas Office of the Attorney General and federal court. So both of these cases alleged deceptive lending and marketing practices by Colony Ridge. And so what is Colony Ridge? So it's an expanding development north of Houston in Liberty County. It's advertised. It advertises

owner finance loans without requiring credit checks or proof of legal residency. And so it was run by Brothers Trey and John Harris. Like I said, multiple articles on all of these different points that we're making here. It's existed for more than a decade and has about 50,000 residents. which is about half of the county's population in general. And so in February 10th press release, Paxton describes the development as a de facto illegal immigrant community. So quote from the letter. So after the settlement, U.S.

assistant attorney general, Hermie K. Dillon said in a press release on the same day as well, intentionally targeting vulnerable borrowers with the American dream of homeownership and then trapping them in a predatory scheme is not only wrong, it also violates our civil rights. laws. Dylan also stated that the DOJ is going to go after lenders, financiers, and land developers who participate in schemes, which he said ultimately encourage illegal immigration. And so what is in the settlement? So at least $20 million is going towards law enforcement, which includes funding to build a law enforcement center in the area. And then some of the funds can also be used to establish 287G agreements, which allow local or state agencies to partner

or with ICE on immigration enforcement. And so Paxton also talked about how the developers are going to be forced to pay. He said tens of millions for improvements on infrastructure. He talks about roads, creating, and he said the whole point of this is to, quote, create a legitimate and livable community suitable for U.S. citizens, not an underdeveloped slum designed for black market sales to illegals. So there's also land sale restrictions as a part of the settlement. So for three years, it freezes any sale of new residential plots.

and restricts purchases by individuals from countries such as China and Iran. And so it also requires stricter underwriting and identification requirements to, quote, ensure that Colony Ridge never again is a haven for illegals. Some of just the past, more recent law enforcement activity that's happened in Colony Ridge, which we've reported on, is last year in February 2025, there were a couple of incidences that were pretty big. ICE announced 118 arrest during a multi-agency raid involving alleged offenses ranging from homicide to drug trafficking. And Governor Abbott spoke about that raid saying that ICE was targeting criminals and illegal immigrants.

And he said that he had worked with Borders Tsar Tom Holman on that for months. Around the same time, they also authorities arrested three illegal immigrants. They seized 350 pounds of meth. And they also said that each of these three individuals had previously been deported. at least four times. And so in his closing statement, Paxton said, Colony Ridge endangered American citizens by allowing illegal aliens to run rampant on its streets, in its schools, and in its community. Now it's time for those responsible to pay a steep cost for their unlawful action. So the settlement is a very significant development

in this years-long controversy that's involved so many different people, attorney general's office, federal agencies, law enforcement, state leaders, the governor. So this was a big story that broke and we'll keep an eye on what else happens with Colleen, the Origin and the Future. Absolutely. Meredith, thanks for covering that. Ladies, before you went to our Tweetery, I want to take a couple minutes here and talk about your newsletters,

folks, if you do not receive our newsletters in your inbox, basically every day, we have weekly newsletters, we have monthly newsletters. They're going out all the time. I'd encourage you. These are subscriber only. So go to the Jackson. Dot News and subscribe and make sure you get these.

I mean, we have a litany of different options, and they're pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. Well, let's tease you. And Mary Lisa, let's start with you. Talk about the 40. Okay, yeah, well, this edition of the 40 was fun, as is a lot of political coverage, honestly, right now leading up to the elections because things are just getting so intense, a lot of very interesting interactions, and then polls like we've been talking about. But I've been covering our congressional delegation, our Texas congressional delegation

in Washington, D.C., and so I've kind of been weaving in some of the different elections that are happening for folks who are vying for a position in this time. delegation and then also just some updates on what the delegation is up to in D.C. currently, the ones who are currently elected. So in this, I did cover one of the UH surveys that had been dropped earlier on Monday that showed Paxton in the lead. So it just kind of discussed what that poll looked like, where he's at with Cornyn and then Congressman Wesley Hunt. So we've got a couple numbers there and then kind of took a look at the Democratic primary, which is one that's only become more and more spicy as election becomes closer.

And so we saw Congresswoman Crockett in the lead, as I mentioned a bit earlier in the podcast. So I usually do a couple different sections. Another one that I covered was Congressional District 32 and what the race is kind of shaping up over there to look like. This used to be Congresswoman Julie Johnson's seat, but she decided to run for CD 33 after the redistricting and such. but we saw that one of the Republican candidates for CD32 was endorsed by President Donald Trump

so we'll have that in there as well and then covered one of our Democratic Congress members Congresswoman Escobar Ronica Escobar she has been doing periodic visits at some illegal alien detention facilities specifically Camp East Montana and she had an interesting X thread

the other day post thread where she was discussing the different different things that she's observed and her concerns and what she thinks needs to happen moving forward to just put a little bit of a spotlight on what, you know, our different members are up to what they're spending their time right now doing. I also mentioned in here that the DHS funding is still pending. I've been kind of doing some updates about that and recent newsletters because the next deadline for DHS funding is February 13th.

So they're still trying to negotiate. Democrat senators are asking for more consent. more reform and the Republicans are still remaining without enough votes and the upper chamber to get the bill crossed. So yeah, I would definitely recommend to go check out the newsletter. It's kind of fun. It's a slightly different tone than your average article. So, and it's just a different subject, too, with it being Washington, D.C. kind of a different focus.

And it's called the 40 because we have our 38 congressmen or two senators, so the 40 representing Texas in Washington, D.C. Amazing. Mary Lease, thank you. Meredith, what do you got? Yours is new. Yours isn't the newest newsletter that's joined our ranks, the report card. What do you have in report card this week? Yeah, I am the baby of the newsletter family. Yeah, so every week, usually I'll pick a topic that relates to something that's been in the news or something related to education that's an ongoing issue, but taking it a little bit deeper and widening out or zooming in. And so this week I talked about the ice protest. because there was so much going on that didn't just fit neatly into one article or even two articles. And there were so many things going on outside of the state as well. It's a national ongoing situation. So that doesn't always, yeah, fit in with the Texan.

So I just walked through kind of some of what the public is seeing in these protests and some of the concerns that some people have brought up after they've seen thousands and thousands of students nationwide pour into the streets with these protests. As I was actually writing the newsletter, there were students like down the street from me protesting and someone texted me. So I kind of got in my car and went and saw like, what's going on? Like, are there teachers with them? Are there police? You know, what was it? It was a pretty small group. But it was happening, right? And I live in a smaller town. But the main concerns that I kind of talk about are safety teacher encouragement or involvement, student behavior linked with student discipline that's been an ongoing issue with teachers.

And then the last one was the academics that have been brought up as well. So just this idea that this is also something. You have to be careful when you're looking on X, you know, some of these are not like anything. Some of them are actually legit and from the area that they say they are. And then some of them you need to go and make sure you're finding actual reporting on them and make sure that this is, you know, this is coming from the place it is. And this is the right year and everything like that.

But some of the things like what Governor Abbott mentioned about the student getting hit by a car. That was something that I brought up as well because it was legitimate and it was very, very dangerous. So it's just this idea of everyone's getting kind of a front row seat to some of the things that are going on in schools that we've heard about. And how do we, like, how do people feel about this and how are some of these schools handling it or going to handle it? And what does it kind of mean? One of my ending quotes or my ending statements I said was it's just, it's not, some of these things are not a good. look for public schools that are already struggling, which we report on school closures a lot.

We report on declining enrollment. We report on just the academic state of Texas and a lot of other states around the nation. So just seeing that this is what's going on during school and specifically some of the behavior that was pretty aggressive and very expletive-laden and all of those things, just raises some questions from people about public schools and what's happening there. So there was like a little snapshot or a big snapshot actually peek into what teachers and administrators are seeing on a daily basis. Absolutely. Mary, thank you. Well, let's move on to the tweet. Yeah, so folks, go subscribe to the Texan before we go into Tweeterie. Subscribe to Texan and get it all in your inbox. We have some fun tweetery things this week. I'm going to start

because I think, you know, with my American flag sweater, we should talk about the Olympics. It's just more excuse for me to talk about the Olympics. But I'm not sure if y'all saw this week, but it went a little viral. There was a clip of a cross-country skier. It literally is this, it's just an incredible, you know this, Maryleith, you saw this? Yeah, I don't have much context for it. I don't know what he won or what country he was from, but it was insane seeing what was an uphill cross-country skiing?

Uphill, yes, cross-country skiing. So this is a Norwegian. I would butcher his name if I were to try to pronounce it. but a Norwegian country skier, a sub six-minute mile pace uphill on skis. Okay, this person is going between 10 and 11 miles an hour the entire time this clip goes. And he gets to the top of the hill and he just takes off. Like, it is unreal. That's faster than I can run on it.

I can run an interdial for that speed for like 15 to 30 seconds. Like, I'm, I mean, I'm a slow runner, so do not gauge. fitness based on my abilities, please. But it is, it's just ridiculous. Like, he's, yeah, 11 miles an hour. Like, you couldn't tell, you couldn't tell that he's having to, you know, he has those heavy things on his feet or that he's in snow, you know, he looks like a, just a regular runner that's running pretty fast. And it's on snow. That's just so crazy to me. Um, like, have you ever cross country skied, either of you? No. Have you? Yeah. So there's a place in Washington. called Leavenworth that like includes it in a lot of their in a lot of like hotels in different

places you stay so I've done it like two or three times it is so hard and I was a runner and I would like I even when I was very young and was I could run fast like faster than that even I I could it's so hard and anything in the snow is also hard I have a friend who lives in Denver that we always do something hard in one year we snow shooed like three miles up a mountain and I cried actually i was also coming back from living overseas i was so out of shape but the idea of elevation and the snow the the endurance is that's wild that's insane i've heard all i've heard about cross-country skiing repeatedly is how is just how difficult it is that it's an unbelievable workout and so to watch this person literally go faster than i could ever dream of up a hill in snow cross-it's just unreal like the

Athletism of these people. Also, the, I mean, there was a Jordan Stoltz. He is an American homeschooled, which I loved. And he won the, or gold in speed skating. Yes. And he's like, just his full family just seems so wholesome. This is the sweetest. But while commentators were, you know, commentating on his race, they were talking about how these skaters get up to like 38 miles an hour. I mean, 40 miles an hour on skates. Dang. I'm freaking real. Anyways, I just love the Olympics.

Go Team USA. I'm in mourning over the ice dancing silver medal. That's, oh, that was such a bummer. And there's some drama surrounding the French team who won gold. I don't know, Maryleys, have you seen this? I have seen that, yeah. And I really wish that our couple had won. They're also married, which I think is really sweet to see.

It's like a team project. It's so sweet. Yeah. Yeah. When he tells their love story, I saw it on something on social media. It's very sweet. Yeah. They just seem like such a lovely, lovely couple.

They also... And she designs a lot of the costumes for other teams from all around the world. I think is so cool. Whoa, that's cool. Yeah. She can do everything, basically. It's like, okay, you're, you can... My Olympic talk. Literally. You're a world-class athlete and you can design beautiful things.

How wild. I know. Well, Mary-Ales, what do you have for us? Yours is much more newsy. I started off with the little treat. Yours is much more newsy and topical. Yeah, gosh, now I feel kind of bad to bring the tone much more serious, but I think it's very interesting because it has to do with immigration enforcement

because that's been such a hot topic. And specifically Minnesota, where we saw so many things unfold there. And then we saw Borders'R. Tom Homan was sent over there, which was also interesting because it indicated, potentially indicated that President Don Trump wasn't happy with how things were going under the current leadership for immigration enforcement. So he felt the need to send him borders our Homan.

Anyways, Homan just announced that the Trump admin is ending immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota. So essentially, drawn the troops out. Yeah, which is very interesting because a lot of the response has been consistently we will keep pushing forward. You know, you protesters aren't going to affect us. But I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of factors that went into Holman's decision here

and Trump's decision to pull out in Minnesota, whether they determined that there was no need for them there anymore, if they just determined that things were too tense and that maybe they'll return later. I'm not sure. But, yeah, that is more newsy than the Olympics conversation. I enjoy talking about Olympics more, to be honest. I did. I thought, hey, I'll start. I never start. Maybe it'll, you know, take some pressure off you, ladies, have to talk so much. And then I realized my folly in the topic, like, switching from something very, like, light-hardening. Very serious. Yeah, yeah, smooth transition all around. But it will be interesting. I'm curious to see how this, this operation ending in Minnesota, what the rhetoric going into November will look like. Will it continue how much? Because we know the attention to ban of voters is so.

short and so there will always be something really going into a midterm where you know controversy abounds there was no shortage of that in politics but will the conversation still be surrounding the ice operation or will move on to something else it'll be very interesting um thank you marillies meredith what do you up for us we'll sandwich this is like an oreo we've got you know something lighthearted has been serious and now something lighthearted again to end on a good note well i don't know if i would say lighthearted this is really serious I was like, wait, did I read this incorrectly? Oh, dear. I always pick something lighthearted, usually because I'm just like, I can't.

I hit a point where I need something funny or whatever. This isn't funny, but so I was an American girl doll person. And you will see a lot of my tweetries are Meredith's mourning, the loss of, you know, the 90s or the early 2000s going away. But I, and I also love the books. I'm also a big book person as well. As a kid, I read all the books. And I did have Addie. She was a new doll.

I got the new doll. She had hearings. I was very excited as well. I also learned, I mean, she has a historical story of going through the Underground Railroad and all that. So the point of these dolls is to introduce girls to history. There's like women, suffrage, slavery, immigration, World War II. There's so many things that are going on there. And they, for their 40th anniversary, made these modern era, American.

girl dolls that are based off of the historical ones but have none of the history and they just took their historical costumes and made them into like mini skirts they made all the dolls really skinny like kirsten who wasn't hers was like immigration she has like uh space funds i i just hate everything about it it's it's like and it's disgusting so my favorite quote from the internet from twitter was this one user who said you've ripped out the heart and soul of my childhood you have sacrificed your character at the altar of modernity and I wish you no success in your endeavor. And I agree with that. And I will say the company that makes American Girl dolls has kind of come a long way. They are not the company that they were. But this was just such a core memory. I,

every major holiday for like five or more six years, I don't remember. And then if I got like good grades or something, my parents would get me one little thing each from Addy. And I have the entire collection. It's in a box of my parents. And I think it's worth thousands of dollars. Sometimes I think about selling it. But anyway, or I'm trying to think of someone I could get it to. But anyway, it just, I don't like to see Addy, whose main story was about coming out of slavery and freedom in the north, having a little mini skirt. And I don't like that. So, yeah. Welcome to Meredith Complaint Corner about the 90s going away. Addy was such. She was just a beautiful doll.

Oh, my gosh. I had, which one did I had? I had one that you could, like, I read all the books, but the doll I got looked like. You could pick one that looked like you. Like, I picked one out that looked like me. My sister had Molly. And I think I had one of the historical ones, I think, I think I had. But now I'm miss.

I don't know. Molly was the World War II one. Molly was, like, summer camp, canoe. Oh, so good. I love Molly. My sister, you know, Molly had braids and glasses. And I remember we ruined her hair accidentally because the braids made it difficult. Like, the braids were high maintenance. And if you ended the braids, you were in trouble if you didn't know exactly how to take care of it. So Molly's hair got ruined very quickly. Mine maintained its luster. I think I either had, either Kirsten or I had Felicity. Blonde or red hair? This is important. I know, well, Felicia red hair and Christian blonde hair. I can't remember which one I had.

My memory is just serving me poorly, but they're just so good. Did you have an American girl? The books are so good. I did, but I didn't have a specific character one. I had the, because you could, weren't she saying you could have the ones that kind of look like you pick it out, but it's just kind of generic. Yeah, I had a, I had kind of like a blonde one with freckles, and I really loved her. Very important to me. Oh.

They're so good. Man, well, that bums me out. I hadn't seen that, Meredith. But I'm, you know, like you said, everything changes over time. It's not what it once was. Whatever. We can relive the glory days. I should purchase those books and make sure I have them for Elsie.

That's, I think, an important. I think I need to make sure. I don't know where they are. Like, I know I own them. I feel like I don't know. I feel like I don't call me on this. I should look into if you can actually get all of them now. I feel like that was also something people were up in arms about.

Oh, gosh. Okay. I've started a problem. This is so when you just end the podcast, but it's been a project of mine to, like, find books I loved as a kid and add them to our library, so we have them. So I've done a lot of, like, Amazon used book purchases. So I'll add this to my radar here. But we'll figure it out. I'll find them. I'll let you know what I come up with Meredith. Well, ladies, thank you for joining on the podcast. This has been the M-Gals on the weekly round of this week. I'm sure this will not be the last time, folks. Thanks for listening and we'll catch you next week. Go Team USA. 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

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