The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - January 12, 2024

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free Gonzales Flag t-shirt 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. This week, the team discusses:Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign stops on behalf of Republican candidates who supported school choiceThe candidate challenging a Texas Supreme Court justice seeking the incumbent’s removal from the ballotThe Texas Nationalist Movement asking the Texas Supreme Court to put its TEXIT proposition on the state GOP ballotGov. Greg Abbott raising $13 million in the second half of 2023The residency challenge against candidate Brent Hagenbuch for Senate District 30 being postponedAttorney General Ken Paxton asking the Texas Supreme Court to enforce last year’s $3.3 million whistleblower settlementTexas’ licensing regular announcing steps it is taking to combat human traffickingU.S. Housing and Urban Development reporting that homelessness rose in Texas in 2023ERCOT saying that Texas’ power grid is prepared for the cold front next weekThe Texas A&M president pushing back against a report criticizing its partnership with QatarSpecial prosecutors being named in the case against Smith County Clerk Karen PhillipsThe National Championship game expected to bring 100,000 people and $200 million to Houston

Happy, happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here, and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. This week, the team discusses Governor Greg Abbott's campaign stops on behalf of Republican candidates who supported school choice. The candidate challenging a Texas Supreme Court justice seeking the incumbent's removal from the ballot. The Texas nationalist movement asking the Texas Supreme Court to put its Texas proposition on the state GOP ballot. Governor Abbott raising $13 million in the second half of 2023. The residency challenge against a candidate in Senate District 30 being postponed. Attorney General Ken Paxton asking the Supreme Court

to enforce last year's $3.3 million whistleblower settlement. Texas's licensing department announcing steps it is taking to combat human trafficking. U.S. Housing and Urban Development reporting that homelessness rose in Texas in 2023. ERCOT saying that Texas's power grid is prepared for the cold front next week. The A&M president pushing back against a report criticizing its partnership with Qatar. Special prosecutors being named in the case against Smith County Clerk Karen Phillips and the national championship game that was expected to bring 100,000 people and $200 million to Houston.

Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Howdy, folks. Mackenzie DeLulo here with Brad, Cameron, Rob, and Matt. What a full, what a full crew we have today. How delightful. It is a wonderful week, I must say. I was going to ask, Brad, how are you feeling? Actually, I know.

I'm on cloud nine, and I how are you feeling? Actually, I know. And I've been on cloud nine since about six minutes into the first quarter of the national championship game on Monday. Yes. So what do I owe you? Pork chop.

That's what we decided. I owe you a pork chop. So that will happen whenever you want. Are you going to put the stuff over there? We are. Yes.

Huskies lost. Michigan won. Go blue. That's like a little a little treat for you. But I Michigan just played so well. Dominated. Dominated. Yeah, absolutely. So I'll give you a pork chop. It'll be great. And you're just on cloud nine. I am. This is, I am a beleaguered Michigan sports fan, including Detroit sports. Is that how you say that word? I don't know.

Beleaguered? Yeah. I believe so. Okay, great. Cool. And the teams that I've actually cared about, I've never seen win a championship.

So is this finally happened? Is this the greatest sports moment of your life for you? I believe you said at one point earlier in the week that it was one of the top five moments in your life overall. So does this take the sports for you? Is that a real top five moment? I don't know. I'd have to list out the other top. Yeah, I probably can't even think of the top five number one is being hired by the Texans that's exactly

right number one is being hired by us but we're really I am genuinely happy for you and you care 10 times more about the result of that game than I did and so I as much as I was disappointed and sad and in a little bit of a depression that evening in this week I'm very excited

for you. And I know it means 10 times more to you than it would to me. I put way too much emotional energy into this. But there's a lot of solace in that. There's a lot of solace in that. Growing up, going to the big house for more games than I can count, watching my teams just be terrible for such a long stretch of my life. I can't have it any other way.

What a way to end the drought. What a time. I really am so excited for you. Okay, well, let's go ahead and jump in. Brad, you are our first reporter to talk about a story this week, so it fits. Governor Abbott is hitting the campaign trail this week, ramping up the school choice crusade

that he's been on for over a year and a half now. Give us the details. So Abbott is making campaign stops with at least seven incumbents and one candidate for an open seat this week and next. They are in order beginning Thursday, Pat Curry, one of the two candidates in HT56, and then incumbents J.C. Jatone, Briscoe Cain, Cody Harris, Candy Noble, Karanda Tamesh, Stan Kitzman and Mano day. Each of those members has a primary challenger. Some are more formidable than others. You know, one, one that really sticks out as, as a potential flip in this case for the

anti-impact impeachment side of the GOP in this feud we've had talking about is probably to mesh. And I think that's HG 65. She faces Mitch Little, who was one of the counselors for Paxton during the impeachment trial. But each of these members is facing a challenger and they each voted for, of the incumbents, voted for school choice, which is why Abbott is backing them. Abbott's endorsed every returning House Republican who voted this way, his way, on the Rainey Amendment. So far, Abbott has backed six challengers to incumbent Republicans who voted against the voucher proposal. That's Chris Spencer in HG1, Joanne Schaffner in HG11 Helen Kirwan in HD58, Mike Olcott in HD60, Stormy Bradley in HD72, and Mark LaHood in HD121. The issue is one of two pillars of the GOP primaries, along with last year's impeachment of Paxton, and it's created a fascinating schism between top state Republicans.

Abbott and Paxton are on opposite sides of at least 22 legislative races and that includes the SD30 race that Cameron's been covering where Governor Abbott is behind Brent Hagenbaugh and the Attorney General is behind Kerry DeMoore. Also, we see that race particularly heating up in court over the residency issue of Hagenbaugh. But it's interesting to see these two heavy hitters in state politics falling on opposite sides of so many races. And of course, for Abbott, his campaign war chest is going to, we'll see how much he's willing to put towards this. Millions of dollars is probably how much will be put in.

Just a question of how close to 10 million it is I suppose but the governor is very much on this crusade he wants school choice next session and because of the math in the house the only way to get that across the line in a form that he approves of is flipping seats yeah which we've seen time and time again. That's not happening right now. So here we go. Primary time. And protecting incumbents that backed him. Yeah, absolutely. What's different about the governor's involvement this year?

So Abbott endorses every cycle and occasionally he will put money in, usually for polling, sometimes ad buys. It just depends on the race and how much he wants to get involved. But this year, it's all about school choice. In 22, he endorsed some especially incumbents who were among the most focal critics of school choice, a voucher proposal, education savings accounts, whatever you want to call it. A big example of that is Representative Glenn Rogers in HG60. of school choice, a voucher proposal, education savings accounts, whatever you want to call it. A big example of that is Representative Glenn Rogers in HG60. He faces Mike Olcott.

And an interesting part of that race is Abbott endorsed Rogers in that last year. And in large part because of Olcott's ties and support from Defend Texas Liberty, which was a big backer of Huffines in the campaign against Abbott last year or in 22. What a tangled web we weave. Yes. But now the roles are reversed and Abbott is very much against Rogers. Rogers won by,

I think it was like 300 votes in the runoff against Olcott. There won't be a runoff because there's only two candidates. So winner take all in this primary. But that's probably the most interesting dynamic, I'd say, of these House races and Abbott's involvement in them. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Brad, thank you. We're also going to jump in here to your next section. It was a very busy 24 hours on the Texas issue on Wednesday. Fill us in on where we're at. So we've talked previously about the petition effort, the 139,000 signatures submitted to the Texas GOP to place a question of Texas on the GOP primary ballot that would be non-binding. If it was on there and passed, would be no texas it's just

basically an opinion poll of voter base so uh the the rpt i think we mentioned last podcast uh rejected that and they cited a couple of region reasons uh specifically um the the timeliness of the submission the rpt was argued that they that tech the texas nationalist movement had to submit the the petition the day before the filing deadline on december 11th but then the bigger contention is that uh tnm used docusign to get electronic signatures of voters rather than wet signatures with ink and paper. So that was rejected. 13 days later, and this was Wednesday, TNM finally filed their petition, finally filed their lawsuit against the Texas GOP asking Skodeks to order the party, the Texas GOP, to include the question on their ballot. They objected to the two claims made by the party, the Texas GOP, to include the question on their ballot.

They objected to the two claims made by the party and its rejection. I link to the document in there. If you want to read it, you can. But overall, they say this is, they point to the Texas Uniform something act, electronic something act. I forget what the exact name, but it's a law in code that permits electronic signatures on legal documents. And they are saying that that applies to the election code. The Texas GOP says that's not the case.

It doesn't apply to the election code. That's its own specific thing. Therefore, almost the entirety of these 139,000 signatures submitted are invalid. And so that was submitted early Wednesday morning with the Supreme Court. Before the end of the workday, the court dismissed the petition. It was pretty quick. quick uh but then later in the evening uh tnm filed another suit in travis county district court asking that court for a temporary restraining order against the printing of ballots until the question is included so um a lot of back and forth in a very short window of time but right now the

party won we'll see where this district court case goes. But overall, ballots are going to start being printed here very soon. And at some point, this is going to be moot. Just a question of, is there any action legally before then? Yeah. So Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi, the group of which he heads is being sued, um, was asked about this this last week. What do you have to say? So on, uh, Chris Salcedo's podcast, radio hosts for TV talk show hosts,

I think out of Houston, Rinaldi said he thought the lawsuit threat was bluster. Obviously the lawsuit has since been filed. Um, but didn't go, didn't have any legs initially. Then he was asked if Texit would bring out larger turnout to the polls and if that was a good thing for Republicans having more opinionated voters turning out. And Rinaldi said, yeah, just the wrong ones.

Now, TNM jumped on that soundbite. Before I even saw the full interview. I saw the clip and it cuts off real fast. They clipped this, obviously, in a way to drum up some opposition, right? And they did. But the thing is, he didn't say that. He did say those words that I just quoted, but then he followed his soundbite by saying that voters, the voters to which he's referring are, quote, people who don't usually vote in the GOP primary, moderate voters motivated

to vote against it. Rinaldi said he wants the sole focus of this primary being on the Paxton impeachment and school choice. He staked out very clear positions for school choice against the Paxton impeachment. He's endorsed candidates based on those two. The party chair endorsing candidates he said uh actually in this interview um you know it's quote gotten so bad that i will endorse in which previously he said he would not right or

he would in a private capacity but not as gop chairman well it went from um you know i'm going to stay impartial to them in the private capacity. And now he's just like, I'm doing this. I feel this is worth it. And, you know, he's getting involved in endorsed David Covey.

Who's running against state feeling he's endorsed various others. The most notable endorsement arguably of this primary cycle for him. So, yeah, this, they've had a back and forth and it sounds like they, um, the party and the Texas nationalist movement have a lot of, uh, friction between them at the moment. There's a lot of, um, uh, you know, harsh words being exchanged between them.

No, no love lost. And it's, uh, it's going to continue. And, you know, whenever I write about this, I say that, you know, Texas has amazing staying power for an issue. And it really does. But that hasn't been, you know, followed up with actual votes or, you know, advancement in the legislature. And they have a lot of people to convince, you know, like this is not, um, this is not a straightforward issue. So, uh, though it will continue to be an issue. Is it just because Texas has this rebellious spirit about it? And so that's why it continues to stay.

Well, it was its own nation, right? So it's ingrained in the culture, ingrained in the history. I think the, the current wave and Daniel Miller with the Texas nationalist movement told me this in an interview, the current wave of support they're seeing,

or at least interest is because of a democrat in the white house and especially among republicans when that is the case you see more willingness to leave the union interesting so if let's say donald trump wins again in 2024 uh they'll probably take a hit to the amount of people willing to go to bat for this. But there's still a huge contingent of people, still a minority, I think, probably, that support it, but a lot more people than you'd think, probably. Especially because it's just a lot of its gut reaction to the current incumbent in the White House and especially economic problems that are

occurring right now. Absolutely. Well, Brad, thank you so much for covering that for us and certainly something that will continue to go on for a while here. So we'll keep an eye on it. Matt, coming to you, Texas Supreme Court candidate Brian Walker is seeking to have his opponent, incumbent Justice John Devine, removed from the March Republican primary in a lawsuit filed with the state Supreme Court. This all kind of broke over the weekend. Give us the rundown. Attorney Eric Opiella filed a petition with the state Supreme Court on behalf of his client, Judge Brian Walker, who presently serves on lower state appellate court, and it's challenging

incumbent Supreme Court Justice John Devine. Devine is seeking re-election to the court for a third term, being first elected to the court in 2012. Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms. In the lawsuit, the argument is based on a law that requires statewide judicial candidates to obtain 50 signatures from voters in each of the state's appellate districts. Voters may only sign one petition for a candidate for the same office in the same election, and any subsequent signatures are considered void. Walker contends a number of voters signed his petition first in May of last year, and then those same voters later signed Devine's petition, causing those signatures to be void.

He contends that there are enough void signatures to drop Devine's total number to 45 signatures in the El Paso Appellate Court District region, five short of the number needed for those district signature requirement thresholds. Based on this, Walker wants Devine's colleagues on the state Supreme Court to order Republican Party of Texas Chairman Matt Rinaldi to remove Devine from the March primary ballot. And as Walker's lone opponent, such an order would result in Walker winning the primary by default. Both Devine and Rinaldi are fighting back, filing responses with the court, raising a variety of arguments. creating the so-called emergency court petition here at the bottom of the 11th hour, as ballots are either beginning to be or probably already being printed in some local jurisdictions.

Both contend that the statute, if applied as Walker is wanting it to be, would violate both the Texas and U.S. constitutions, with Devine specifically pointing to the First Amendment. With all the filings before the justices to be considered now, we're expecting a decision from the court very soon. There you go, Matt. Thank you so much for your coverage. Yeah, Matt or Cameron. Matt Rinaldi's name has continued to come up. Is it typical for the chairman of the Republican Party to always be involved in lawsuits like this? Because I feel like he's named in so many lawsuits. Is this typical or is this something new that's been happening?

I could actually address that a little bit quickly. We have a story coming out on the Texans soon that addresses kind of a believe, of the Texas Democratic Party. They are the filing authorities for certain candidates to file with. And one of the lawsuits that we write about is against the Harris County Democratic Party chairman, who's also a filing authority. And so essentially what you're trying to do is ask a court to issue an order making one of these filing authorities take a particular action. So that's why the lawsuit has to be directed against the filing authority, not against the opposing candidate, so to speak. But the opposing candidate in the lawsuit gets to respond and make a counter argument if they want to. Okay, that clears up a lot. Thanks, Matt. Yeah, there you go. Matt, thanks for your coverage. We always appreciate it. And certainly a counter argument if they want to. Okay. That clears up a lot. Thanks, Matt.

Yeah. There you go. Matt, thanks for your coverage. We always appreciate it. And certainly a big story. Again, we have lots going on this week. Rob, welcome back to the podcast. Good to be here, Mackenzie.

Thank you very much. We're so excited you're here. You are covering Hayden Sparks' stories today, as today was his last day as a senior reporter here at The Texan. We are so, so sad to see him go. And I'm just so thankful for his willingness to spend the last few years so diligently reporting for our listeners and doing so, so admirably. I know a lot of folks appreciate his reporting and so well. We will miss him so much and wish him the absolute best. And Rob, we are thankful that you're here today to try and fill his exceptionally large shoes. So thank you for being here. Well, thank you for having me. I will do my best.

Can I ask you a very personal question? Alrighty. In terms of shoe size, if you're filling his shoes, Rob, how tall are you? You're six? I am six foot five. Six foot five. That's very tall. I would wager that you might have larger shoes than Hayden, but the metaphor still is fine, right?

I would say that the metaphor is definitely fitting. Okay. We'll work. We'll work with it. There you go. Okay, Rob. Well, let's jump into this. Governor Abbott is preparing for a busy Republican primary season this year.

We talked a little bit earlier about the money he's raised, but let's get into details. How much does he have to spend? So according to a filing with the Texas Ethics Commission, Abbott raised $13 million from July through December 2023. According to the campaign, during comparable periods, he raised $7 million in 2015 and $7.8 million in 2019. So this is definitely a big step up from those two years. After the end of the 88th regular legislative session in 2023, Abbott raised $15 million in just 12 days from June 19th to June 30th. So he's definitely one of the best fundraisers in the state. According to a news release, Abbott's campaign has $38 million between two accounts. Now, Abbott is not running for he's not up for re-election

this year. So what will he be spending that money on? Indeed, he won re-election against Democrat Beto O'Rourke in 2022, and therefore he won't be back up until 2026. But there are campaigns he's going to be interested in because, as Brad's mentioned, he has a major axe to grind over the issue of school choice. It was one of his major issues in the regular and special sessions of 2023. If I recall, two of the four special sessions were called specifically to address school choice, among some other issues. But the school choice issue ultimately died in the fourth special session after the Texas House voted to strip a provision for education savings accounts from its education omnibus bill. The governor is backing many of the Republicans who voted to keep school choice, and he is opposing many who voted against it. Interestingly, as Brad also mentioned, Attorney General Ken Paxton is endorsing primary house candidates,

many of them based on whether or not they voted to impeach him last year. So that puts him up against Abbott in a lot of primary races, including SD30, which has the very interesting situation between Brent Hagenbuch and Carrie DeMoor. And I think Cameron has a thing or two to tell us about. Cameron's making a funny face. I can add one thing on the fundraising stuff. Um, so that 13 million is to the Texans for Greg Abbott account, which is the one he usually raises money into. Uh,

it's the one he spends money on in, but he also raised 6 million and put it into, um, I think the candidate account, like a cash on hand account, which is separate. Um, I don't know if this is explicitly going to be what happens but it seems like a signal that that's going to be for probably these primaries

it's probably not be all end all but it's interesting because that account had not really been used much it had like two200,000 in it compared to upwards of $20 million in the other one. So just an interesting behind-the-scenes strategy there. We'll see where he spends the money from, but just kind of odd. I think it's fair to say that he has a lot of money to spend. His time around is plenty. He's a prolific fundraiser, and folks all over the nation who keep an eye on these things know. He's crazy good at what he does.

Rob, thank you so much. Cameron, so let's talk about this race, SD30. You traveled to Denton this week to watch this hearing that we've heard so much about, about residency in person. Tell us what happened. There was a lot of anticipation for this hearing. And as I arrived, there was a pretty large crowd waiting to get in. It was very interesting to see just some brief background on what's going on here because Hagenbaugh, his residency in the district has continued to be questioned by other candidates. We've seen videos of people traveling to

SD30 where his supposed residence is alleged residence. And so multiple of his opponents have presented evidence that he has put his office in SD30 as his residency while he currently lives in a separate district. This is what's being alleged. And the hearing Monday was based upon a lawsuit that was filed from Kerry Damore, who is attempting to challenge Hagenbaugh's eligibility for running an SD30. And interestingly, prior to the hearing and the arguments beginning, and his lawyers filed briefs. They filed evidence that really took the court by surprise, it seemed, because the judge appeared not to be super happy with how things were going down that day. At one point, the judge said she was at a complete loss because of the filings were not in the court system. Hagenbaugh's lawyers said, quote, it was not strategic to not include

these new lease discovery items in the system on Monday morning. And because of these new documents being in the system and discovery needing to take place with these new documents, the judge said the case would be postponed. And so they have set a new date for a hearing that will be Friday, January 19th. And Carrie DeMoor was very available after the hearing. She spoke with reporters saying, quote, I don't take joy in doing this. I'm doing it because I think the voters matter. And this is sort of been echoed by other candidates who are challenging Hagenbaugh's residency. Just today, as we're recording on Thursday, Jace Yarborough had filed a brief in the second court of appeals, and that was actually denied. And he was also challenging the residency claims. So this rollercoaster of a ride that is SD30 does not

seem to be slowing down. And as new developments come out, we'll keep reporting on it. Absolutely. And Cameron, thanks for going up there to watch all of it firsthand, given our readers, again, firsthand look at what was going down. We'll keep an eye on it. Bradley, coming to you. Another update in the still lingering whistleblower lawsuit against Attorney General Ken Paxton occurred this week. What happened? So last month in appeals court ordered depositions of Paxton and three aides for Assistant week filed a motion to stay that approval. That's that directive.

The deposition order with it filed it with SCOTUS, along with the mandamus petition asking the Supreme Court to take the case, which would move it from the appeals court to the Supreme Court in expedited fashion, essentially. He asked the court to grant this relief by January 16th. In those filings, he also asked Skodeks to enforce the $3.3 million settlement that was announced back in 22, but fell apart last March when the House voiced opposition to appropriating the sum. That then turned into the impeachment inquiry and yada yada we all know what happened after that he ended up being acquitted

and so he basically wants the settlement to be enforced and ending this lawsuit the settlement in addition to $3.3 million, that still hasn't been approved by the legislature, mind you,

it included something about retracting a statement that called these whistleblowers rogue employees. That's a big part of it. Right. According to the whistleblowers. Right. Yes. Right.

And those were the two part of it right according to whistleblowers right yes right and that was that was kind of those are the two pillars of it but the whistleblowers responded in their own brief advising the court to dismiss the motion after the acquittal the supreme court reignited this whistleblower case when it granted their request to resume the litigation in a formal court following paxton's acquittal on all 16 charges against him in the court of impeachment. I think we've covered that impeachment trial quite a bit, so we don't need to rehash all the details. But this whistleblower case is the center of most of those impeachment charges. And now it's back in a formal court and we'll see where it goes.

But a lot of eyes can be watching that for sure. Where are we at with the depositions? So they've not been scheduled yet, but they were expected to occur in January or February. I'm not sure if there's any intention to try and get deposed more people, but, um, those, those four, four obviously packs in himself a big one, right. But, uh, the others are, are going to be interesting to see what, what is said in there. Um, you know, I mentioned this on a previous podcast, the result of this lawsuit is going to leave somebody with a lot of egg on their face. Either what was ruled in either the acquittal that was ruled in the impeachment trial

is going to be further substantiated and the house and the speaker and the whistleblowers are going to look bad, to put it lightly, or the opposite happens and this comes out to be quite a, a bombshell. And we have previously unknown stuff that said, and Paxton comes out looking really bad. I suppose there's a third option that just kind of meanders into nothing. Right.

That's a possibility, but, but unlikely. Yeah. I'd say this is, this is going to come to a resolution one way or the other. And it'll it'll be at the Supreme Court at some point. Right. And when we say, oh, so go ahead. I would say it currently is. But, you know, that's only a mandamus petition. But whatever happens, the appeals court probably will reach the Supreme Court. Yeah, which already is a fascinating dynamic. And when we say first assistant, Brent Webster, we're not talking about an administrative assistant in any way. This is the first assistant attorney general. This is Paxton's right hand, the number two in the office. So I just want to make that clear, too. OK, Bradley, thank you so much.

Matt, we're coming to you. The largest state regulatory agency has announced they're using a variety of tools to join the down on human trafficking, an issue that has continued to get worse in light of the ongoing crisis at the southern border. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation described how the agency is using continuing education for licensees in key industries in which human trafficking may be encountered that teaches them how to identify and report trafficking. In addition, the agency trains their own employees in this and conducts unannounced inspections of licensees where they keep an eye out for potential signs of trafficking. One other new tool in their toolbox is a new law authored by State Representative

Ben Bumgarner, which allows the agency to issue an emergency order suspending a license if a law enforcement agency finds that actions needed to prevent human trafficking. The agency pointed out that last year alone, 58 massage parlor licenses had to be revoked for prostitution and trafficking-related offenses. This story highlights the wide variety of actions the state is having to get creative and take in order to combat widespread human trafficking issues facing Texas. And as one other note on this story, I always like to remind listeners the difference between human trafficking and human smuggling. Smuggling is simply concealing or being paid to transport somebody, potentially illegally in the country, to conceal them from law enforcement and transport them. Critiquing is the forced labor of an individual.

It can also, it can be anywhere from forced employment to sexual related offenses, et cetera, et cetera. So it's a very serious and horrible issue that we continue to have to report on from time to time. But it was very interesting to see the actions the state's taken, particularly our state regulatory agencies, to join the fight in this issue. Absolutely. And today, January 11th, is Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Oh, how appropriate that we're talking about this story on such a day. Yeah. And if people are encouraged to wear blue. Cameron's wearing blue for those who cannot see, which is everyone, but the people in this room.

Well, Matt, thank you so much for your coverage. Phenomenal as always. And Cameron, blue shirted Cameron, we're coming to you. Yes, I'm here. Blue shirted Cameron. I like that nickname. On January 11th. That's so good. I thought it was you. Yes. I'm here. Blue-shirted Cameron. I like that nickname. On January 11th. That's so good.

I thought it was because of Michigan. Go blue. Cameron, homelessness continues to be an issue affecting the entire country. And here in Texas, some new numbers show an increase over the past year. Tell us about it. Yeah. So with the year coming to an end, a lot of groups and departments are releasing year-end reports and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, otherwise known as HUD, they reported that between 2022 and 2023,

Texas experienced a 13% increase in homeless individuals. However, over the course of the years between 2007 and 2023, overall, that amount actually declined by 20%. What was interesting is they broke down the population of these homeless individuals. And when they looked at homeless veterans, that number also increased over the past year by 325 individuals, which is a 19% increase. And this analysis noted that San Antonio and Dallas actually accounted for over one third of the increase. And they did an analysis on a single night in January of 2023, which they said, quote, Texas accounted for 6% of all veterans experiencing homelessness.

Again, I'll note over a long-term look at these homelessness numbers, specifically with veterans, Texas did experience a decrease between the years of 2009 and 2023 by almost 63%. So despite what I mentioned with the increase over the past year, there has been a long-term decrease. Absolutely. So what are some Texas cities trying to do to fix this homelessness issue? Yeah, this is something I've tried to keep an eye on as best as I could over the years. And because coming from California, homelessness is a serious issue. And when I came here to Texas, I wanted to make sure I'm following that a bit. And I came across Houston that has actually seen an improvement in their homelessness population with a policy they call housing first, which is interesting because California and Utah have attempted to institute similar policies,

but haven't seen the same results. So it's just interesting in Houston, housing first policies work, whereas in other states, they are not. And here in Austin, it was really cool. There's a tiny home, like mini community that they started up here in Travis County, where individuals who are seeking to get off the streets can effectively come to this community and pay very low amount of rent rates so they can attempt to reintegrate themselves into society, really. So we're seeing Texas cities attempting to improve things. And I'll just reiterate just the one-year increase overall, the population of homelessness is going down in the state. Absolutely. Cameron, thank you so much for your reporting. Bradley, another big news week for you is I think a lot of folks are in your mentions and in our mentions talking about the cold front hitting Texas.

Let's talk about the power grid. What are we looking like here? Here we are again. Your favorite, Brad. Yes. It's going to get cold. Yeah. Definitely. favorite brad yes it's gonna get cold yeah definitely but this winter storm that's gonna

hit monday and it looks like extend uh into tuesday and in parts of the state wednesday possibly uh it's nothing like the february 2021 winter storm and i feel like a broken record on this uh but i guess it falls to me to do this so i don't need my bug out bag or anything you don't need to loot in heb it's gonna be cold and you won't want to go outside but um it's not it's not a catastrophe in waiting uh the storm like i said isn't close to the one three years ago it's not that way in severity uh there's not the level of precipitation in fact it looks like there's not any precipitation coming just a cold front and it's not as um you know it's not as large in scope across the state uh you know comparing

projected and again this is the forecast subject to change, but comparing the projected temperatures in this storm compared to back then. Take Austin's. Austin's low in 21 is half of what Monday's projected low is. DFW's Monday projection is triple what it dipped to in 21. Um, also it's expected to last a day and a half, maybe two days, depending on where you're on the state in 21, it lasted five or more. Um, also it had five inches of snow across most of the state. Uh, it's just not comparable and, um, we shouldn't act like that um and you know i understand the the worry because it was a terrible storm um in 21 and it was a terrible situation and people died but uh this is not this is not that situation um so what if it's not likely, ERCOT expects to have enough generation, especially if the wind blows, to meet the demand.

It looks like they're expecting demand to get above 80,000 megawatts, which would be a winner record. But if rotating outages were to occur, as long as they stay rolling or rotating, you'll lose power for 30 minutes, then it'd go elsewhere. And that's an inconvenience. That's not a catastrophe. Uh, but it, it would be a bad sign politically for,

um, you know, state leaders who have said flat out that the grid is totally fixed. Um, but overall, this is not, this is not going to do that. And,

um, just to show how much of an anomaly the 21 storm was uh you know the amount of of megawattage that had to be shed from the load during that storm was 20 000 megawatts you know if we hit 80 000 that's a fourth of the entire load and so uh we've only had rolling blackouts in ercot four times since ercot was founded in the 70s uh the first one they had to shed 500 megawatts second one a thousand the third one four thousand and then you had to jump to 20 000 so that's how much of an anomaly this was it's it's just simply not not the case and also another thing that is different the critical infrastructure designation problem

has been fixed where you had wellheads cut off from power when load was shed and so you had this cycle of i can't produce the fuel necessary to generate electricity that's been fixed also the plants uh generators have been weatherized and um and it could still run into some issues but it won't be like what we saw so overall it'll just be cold cold yeah however given the past week it should be plenty windy it's true i don't know about y'all but i kept waiting honestly for the power lines outside my place to like i was waiting for the lights to flicker it was so windy i know i kept checking on one of my neighbors has a little thing standing outside their door like a little thing of potted plants so i kept checking to see if that had blown over

or not certainly some hefty winter weather to keep an eye out for but um as far as the grid goes we're looking we're looking okay it'll be fine there you go thank you bradley great matt coming to you a global anti-semitism watchdog group made a series of accusations against texas a&m in a report saying the school could be making weapons related to technology available to entities hostile to the u.s but the university president says that this is not true. What does each side saying give us the details? So a report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, or ISCAP for short, is arguing that an education partnership

between Texas A&M University and the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar could make advanced nuclear weapons technology, or advanced nuclear technology, I should say, and weapons manufacturing capabilities available to hostile foreign entities. And the school president says this simply isn't true. To highlight what Ice Gap is saying, apparently since about 2002, Texas A&M has had an education partnership with Qatar where they've actually built a campus, T-A-M-U-Q, over in Qatar that focuses on engineering. They also say that Qatar has put hundreds of

millions, if not billions of dollars into the partnership, and that the nation of Qatar has a series of contracts with the university where they have access to or ownership of proprietary information and technology. And they're saying through this, they could gain access to a partnership with the Qatar campus with a defense contractor that makes military weapons for Qatar. And they also pointed out the fact that Texas A&M has access to advanced nuclear study materials. Mainly, I believe it's for nuclear power generation, that sort of thing. But the gist of the report was that with this access, and they're partners with Qatar's alliances or connections with hostile foreign nations such as Iran. They also alleged that there were connections between Qatar and like the Hamas terrorist group, that sort of thing. That if they got this proprietary technology or information that they could make it available to them and that needed to be investigated and reforms needed to be taken to ensure that that didn't happen.

Well, TAMU President Mark Welsh, who's a retired general, pointed out that the Qatar campus was open for education and research purposes in chemical, electrical, mechanical, and petroleum engineering, specifically because it was in a major oil and gas region. We should note that Welsh has an extensive military background, along with numerous decorations. He has served as the chief of staff for the United States Air Force. He was an advisor to the National Security Council, an advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and a former president. I believe former President George W. Bush, if I recall correctly. So he has extensive military intelligence and national security background, and we felt that was important to point out whenever he released his rebuttal. He also pointed out that the Qatar campus does not have or access to or offer any of the nuclear engineering

related courses, doesn't have access to the technology, etc. Therefore, through that connection, they wouldn't be able to make that information available. To quote Welsh in his statement, he said, quote, contrary to what the articles have implied, no nuclear technology, weapons or defense related national security research is being done at the Qatar campus. Nor does Qatar campus have any connection to nuclear reactor research done in Texas or the Los Alamos National Lab. The insinuation that we are somehow leaking or compromising national security research data to anyone is both false and irresponsible. Now, after we published two stories, one on the initial allegations from IceGap, along with a subsequent one covering Welsh's comments, IceGap put out another statement defending the nature of their reports, and that's pretty well where the saga has rounded off. We have the allegations from the watchdog

and the rebuttal from the school president. So a lot of interesting details in these reports. We encourage our readers to go online to the Texan and take a look at the allegations and facts being raised to see for yourself. Absolutely. Thank you, Matt. Rob, coming to you, what is happening in Smith County with its county clerk? So Smith County Clerk Karen Phillips turned herself into the county jail in April 2023 on the charge of interfering with public duties in an incident that was recorded on a police officer's

body camera in March 2023. Phillips allegedly interfered in a traffic stop of her adult son. She paid a $1,000 bond. However, the Smith County District Attorney's Office has refused previously to prosecute Phillips because, and when I say previously, I mean within this case, not within some previous thing, because Karen Phillips' husband is Terry Phillips, a Smith County commissioner for Precinct 3. So thus creating a sort of conflict of interest. Yeah, absolutely. So talk to us about who will be handling this case. So Jeff Harrington and Dana Falwell of the Henderson County District Attorney's Office will serve as special prosecutors. Phillips' arraignment was scheduled for Friday.

That is today when you're listening to this podcast. But that was pushed back because she said she needed to find a new attorney after firing her old one. She allegedly heard him make a false statement to a judge. So spicy, interesting stuff. You know, that's that's local politics for you. So true. Oh, my gosh. Well, certainly something to keep an eye on. Rob politics for you so true oh my gosh well certainly

something to keep an eye on rob thank you so much bradley we're gonna end on something i think you're gonna enjoy i think you're right this is a little bit more fun for you perhaps than the grid at this point at this juncture yes okay you wrote a piece on the expected economic impact of the college football playoff championship in houston what are some of the numbers on that? So going into the game, I haven't gotten numbers after the fact back yet, but going into the game, Houston, they of course hosted the championship game that I gloated about at the beginning of this podcast. And they played the game at Energy Stadium where the Houston Texans play. They estimated that 100,000 people would be coming to Houston for the game and the surrounding festivities.

The stadium holds like 72,000 people roughly, so significantly more people than the stadium, than just those going to the game. They also expected the economic impact of this game and all the commerce that comes with it to amount to between $150 and $200 million. So the process for bidding on this began in, I think, 2016, and I think it was officially announced in 2017.

This is, of of course the last four team playoff but next year they expand to the 12 team playoff and if I remember correctly some games will be played on campus like in the early rounds but still Houston will be in the mix for later round games

and you know, it's what the fourth largest city in the country. So they can handle this kind of thing and turned out my personal joy notwithstanding. It turned out to be a great event and Houston benefited a lot from it.

Yeah, we'll see what the actual numbers, the magnum opus numbers look like, but right now that's huge. That's huge. And was an energy i can't believe it's stadium right energy stadium yeah yeah and they had um uh like the fan zone which had a bunch of stuff uh you know booths games things like that at the george r brown convention Center. Then you have, obviously, bars hosting things. They said they had some pop-up concerts for

fans over the weekend and just a massive event with the festivities. Yeah, and even seen names like Michael Jordan and Derek Jeter and whoever else was there. Huge names that are just hanging around Houston. At the game. They were in a box together.

Yeah. Derek Cheater, Michigan fan, by the way. I saw. His sweatshirt. Yeah, he's from like. Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo. That's right.

Oh. Well done, Cameron. Cameron with the sports trivia. I like it. Well, growing up, I was a Yankees fan. Were you? Absolutely. That's why I don't like you. Well, because my favorite I was a Yankees fan. Were you? Absolutely. Don't like you.

Because my favorite player was Roger Clemens. At the time, he was on the Yankees. Oh, okay. Specifically when he was on the Yankees? Yeah. Wasn't he? He was a Blue Jay and a Red Sox before that, but he was an Astro after. Okay.

I was like, he played for a Texas team. Okay, so Astros. Interesting. But specifically his tenure on the Yankees. Yeah. Okay. I was like, he played for a Texas team. Okay, Zastros. Interesting. But specifically his tenure on the Yankees. Yeah. Okay. But were you, okay, but explain, like, were you a Yankees fan before? I was a Clemens fan first

than a Yankees fan. I've always been more of a fan of players than teams. I think that makes a lot of, yeah, that makes sense. I think fewer people do that than what makes sense, but. I think a lot, yeah,

a lot of people do that. Yeah. That's nice. Cause then you can insulate yourself from betrayal. If a player that you love leads a team that you love. Yeah. I don't get the heartbreak. Which I've experienced before.

Brad gets when his team is loose. You just want your player to play well. Exactly. That makes sense. You get all the enjoyment with none of the suffering. Exactly. But also when your team wins, you don't get that same, you know, rush. Speaking of that, and being from Ohio, the best example of this is LeBron James.

It's amazing how many Miami Heat fans all of a sudden cropped up in Ohio. Right. So strange. Left the Cavs. It's very strange. Very strange. Also under a tweeter. Rob, just been fun for us to talk about here.

I do. One of my favorite things to talk about is, of course, what happened today in history. And today, as we're recording, this is Thursday the 11th. So here are some interesting things that happened on January 11th throughout history. In 1757, Brad's favorite founding father, Alexander Hamilton, was born. Who said he's my favorite? I just said he's your favorite. We're going to relitigate this.

No, we're not. So, yeah, so he was born on the island of I can't remember if it's Nevis or Nevi. I don't remember if it was French or not. But point is, he was born on this day. So future U.S. secretary of the Treasury. But also on this day in 1908, his other favorite president, Theodore Roosevelt, declared the Grand Canyon in Arizona a national monument. So did the spindle top happen today or was that yesterday? Oh, my gosh. Declared the Grand Canyon in Arizona a national monument. Did Spindletop happen today or was that yesterday? Let me double check that right now because Spindletop would also be a good thing to bring up. Let's see here. That happened in the West Indies, right? Where Alexander Hamilton. January 10th, 1901.

Oh. Wednesday. Okay. There you go. I'm looking at that famous photo right now of all of the oil gushing out. It's incredible. You know, there's a rumor that Spindletop isn't actually the first oil well in the Permian Basin. Let me guess.

It was in Odessa? I think it was by Big Spring. I can't remember. I remember this historian wrote a big op-ed about it in the Midland Reporter-Telegram one time, and I read all about it, and it seemed like a pretty good argument. But, you know, Spindletop, just kind of something about the name. It's catchy. People are used to it. And it gushed oil for days straight. Yeah, it was crazy back in the day. We had a great report out in December on the first oil well in Ector County.

It wasn't the first oil well, like Spindletop purports to claim. Actually, as a matter of fact, I think I hyperlinked in a link to the story about which oil well is supposed to be the first first oil well. I think you did yeah over there to uh to our story on the texan and check out the information about the uh we connell well there in ector county it's a good story there you go absolutely check it out folks how bad do you think it must have smelled when all that oil was just coming out of the ground because it must have reeked i would have to imagine. Probably. You're probably spot on.

You know, it, of course, made them a ton of money. So, you know, I think most of us would be willing to. Yeah. Yeah. They may not have. They may not have even smelled it. They may have been more concerned. They've only smelled the money. Yeah, exactly. Absolutely.

Well, I like that. Today in history. Thank you, Rob. Matt, coming to you. What you got? Well, I tweeted out a picture from the National Park Service of a photo. Yeah, this was crazy. Over by Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Not too terribly far from where I am in Fort Davis. Showing a large RV laying on the side of the road, on its side, on the side of the road. No, wait, it was in the middle of the road on its side.

Yeah, that's what happened. Anyway, the photo was illustrating the severe windstorms that we have been having. And let me tell you what, I don't know how things have been there in Austin, but here in West Texas, it has been crazy this past week but they had um according to the national park service they had guests up to like 95 miles an hour something like that it was sounds like hurricane levels but just absolutely crazy so if you have a great big huge r, might not want to drive it up to Guadalupe Mountains right now.

Yeah. Lots of crazy weather around the state and more coming this weekend. Cameron, what do you got for us? So I saw some articles published about personalized license plates in Texas that were rejected. And some of these are pretty funny. Okay. So like, but they're not even super bad. Like one is Goon with three O's.

Someone wanted E, Karen. You know, obviously some are a bit on the edge. I won't reiterate those for our listeners, but it's just like, if someone wants your mom as a vanity license plate. They couldn't.

They couldn't get it. I say let them have it. May I ask you, of the ones that you could say on the air, which one would you want most? L-yeah. L-yeah. That's so funny. Is it actually spelled that way or are you just censoring? E-L space yeah. Okay, that's actually really funny.

But have you ever had a vanity license plate never have i ever would you get one i would not no no don't want to be too recognizable i yes but i that's actually a part of it i thought about that but i also um don't i think i think someone was funny and then wouldn't a couple years later like i'm concerned about the longevity of the plate and then i wouldn't want to hassle with the you know that's why I don't have a tattoo fixed yeah I'm with you on that

you'd regret it after the first day and then you'd be stuck with it different than like a license plate number I feel like you can think of art that you'd like forever but I don't know to each their own they do stick out on the road though. They totally do.

I don't know why your eyes like gravity toward them. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. Cameron. That's a fun one. I want to, I want to see the rest of them after the pod.

Okay. Bradley, what do you got? Well, keeping with, apparently this is the sports edition of the Texas roundup. Uh, Wednesday,

Tuesday, Wednesday was a wild 24 hours in sports. First, we had your beloved McKenzie Pete Carroll. Yep. Step down as head coach. Sounds like he's going to remain in the organization in some role. Which is confusing, but we'll figure that out when the time comes. But that guy's an institution. First at USC. won national titles there

and was a really good coach and then he went to Seattle and won what? How many Super Bowls? One Super Bowl. But we went to two. Should have been two if you had just handed it off to

Marsha Lynch. Okay, that was sad is all his mentions. Most of the mentions in the tweet below the announcement from, I can't remember the reporter's name when it first broke, were positive.

Most of them are positive about Coach Carroll, but a few were negative. And the ones that were negative were about, why didn't you let Marshawn run the ball? So it's just a sore spot for sure. But regardless, that has nothing to do with his legacy. He's an institution. Great ball coach. Absolutely. His players love him.

His players love him. Then he quickly got one-upped by a wide margin. Majorly. Nick Saban, head coach of Alabama, greatest college football coach of all time. No big deal. Announced his retirement. And that was shocking. That's going to send... Dominoes are going to fall.

They haven't yet, which is surprising. You'd think they would have had someone lined up, but it doesn't appear that Sark at Texas is going to go. The Oregon coach, Dan Lanning, already said he's not going to go take that job. That leaves potentially, I think it's going to be Washington's coach, Mack Mac Kalen DeBoer yeah

but we shall see on that and then another goat announces retirement at least from his current position we'll see if he gets another job Bill Belichick

is leaving as head coach of the New England Patriots and we still haven't had a decision on whether Jim Harbaugh is going to go pro. Yeah.

This is just. How would you feel about that? He has a championship. If he wants a Super Bowl, go for it, buddy. Yeah. Go for it. Just. What if the Ravens win the Super Bowl this year?

That'd be interesting. Yeah. Harbaugh brothers. Yeah. Almost as odd as those two facing off in the Super Bowl. Yeah. Whenever that was, 2012 or something. Um,

just a wild day in sports. And I will see if any other dominoes fall, but no Bella track to Alabama. Could you imagine? He's going to go deal with or put up with recruiting high school kids. Just like culturally Bella check. Who's like new england in a person yeah what's so amazing about those college coaches that have sustained success is the recruitment yeah of players like they have to evolve with the times to recruit these players the process is nuts yeah yeah the other interesting thing is that uh michigan ended nick saban's run at Alabama.

How do you feel about that? Like, is there a fourth down goal line stop? Yeah. Are you feeling happy? Yeah. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. This year in sports, it's made up for all the other trash.

You got to remember that next season. Although next season, you know, I'm sure it'll be great next. But you got to, you know. Yes. Remember this. Oh, yes. Remember this moment. Bask in it.

I love watching. I am basking, for sure. I love watching some players come out, like Richard Sherman, who left the Seahawks to go play for the Niners. We pretend to not know about that. But he, even him posting about him and Carroll's, like all the players coming out and saying things about their coach. It's just, and for Saban too, all these guys. That's very nostalgic.

I love the videos of Pete Carroll throwing balls to his receivers running routes in practice. He's just this 70-year-old dude, still got it. It's funny. He's a player's coach. Which is also a criticism when he first came.

Is he going to be tough enough? Or is he going to be able to whip this team into shape? And well, they won a Super Bowl. Yeah. Had a great run. Legion of Boom. Anyway, now I'm getting very nostalgic. Should have worn my Hawks jersey today.

Well, listeners, thank you so much for tuning in and listening to this sports edition of the Texans podcast. We appreciate you listening each and every week and especially this week. Yahoo. Go blue. Have a great week. Thank you to everyone for listening If you enjoy our show rate and review us on Apple Podcasts

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