The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - January 27, 2023

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

Get a FREE “Fake News Stops Here” mug when you buy an annual subscription to The Texan: https://go.thetexan.news/mug-fake-news-stops-here-2022/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=weekly_roundupThe Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion. Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast. This week on The Texan’s Weekly Roundup, the team discusses: Patrick revealing that he is “absolutely” running for reelection in 2026 at our 88th Session Kickoff event and his thoughts on the Senate’s legislative priorities and relationship with the HouseThe state unemployment rate falling below four percent for the first time since February 2020Gov. Abbott calling the Senate’s $15 billion property tax relief plan “a good start”Patrick releasing his committee assignments and chairmanships for the Senate this sessionA new Exxon Mobil refinery expansion boosting output by 250,000 barrels of oil per dayA South Texas sheriff asking law enforcement in Texas and other states for help with the border crisisA report on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion practices at the University of Texas at AustinControversy over a bill to prevent citizens and governments of hostile nations from acquiring land in TexasA federal judge in Dallas sentencing a human trafficker to 25 years in prison

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here, and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup Podcast. This week, the team discusses Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick revealing that he is absolutely running for re-election in 2026 at our legislative kickoff event, and his thoughts on the Senate's legislative priorities and relationship with the House, the state unemployment rate falling below 4% for the first time since February 2020. Governor Abbott calling the Senate's $15 billion property tax relief plan a good start. Patrick releasing his committee assignments and chairmanships for the Senate this session. A new ExxonMobil refinery expansion boosting output by 250,000 barrels of oil per day. A South Texas sheriff asking law enforcement in Texas and other

states for help with the border crisis. A report on the diversity, equity, and inclusion practices at the University of Texas at Austin. Controversy over a bill to prevent citizens and governments of hostile nations from acquiring land in Texas. And a federal judge in Dallas sentencing a human trafficker to 25 years in prison. As always, if you have questions for our team, DM us on Twitter or email us at editor at the texan.news. We'd love to answer your question on a future podcast. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Well, hello, folks. I didn't say howdy folks i feel like i've betrayed everything i do on this podcast howdy folks it's mackenzie here with hayden with brad with matt with rob how do you have a new

addition to the team our newest addition to the team joins us today his name is cameron abrams we're so excited he's our newest reporter cam, say hello to our audience. Hello, everyone. This is Cameron coming in for the first time. It's so exciting. Cameron's going to be covering social issues, education for us. This will be his two big beats. We're excited to have him join. Cameron, this was your first week on the job, and you were thrown into the fray here with it being a very busy week just for the Texan in general. We had a huge event that we put on this week and it was day two of your job. I promised you we wouldn't put you on stage on day two of your job here, but you still had to, you met a lot of folks at the event. You met a lot of lawmakers kind of thrown into the fray of Texas politics.

How are you holding up so far? Well, at least I know how crazy it's going to get. I got that in the first two days. Yeah. So now everything's going to be easy. Downhill from here. Exactly. But if you were going to throw me on stage, I would have been ready. Yeah. I had questions prepared. I didn't know anyone, but maybe it would have just been a fun conversation.

There you go. I like it. Well, we're so excited to have you. Tell our audience like two fun facts about yourself that might be surprising for folks to know. A couple fun facts. Well, I'm coming from California in Sacramento. So NorCal bro, coming at you. I did live in Kansas, though, for two years. So I know what the Midwest is like. I've been to the South a bit. So I'm not completely unfamiliar with this area. So I'm excited to be here. Everyone's been super nice.

Haven't got as many California groans as I thought I was going to get. Well, good. Everyone's been nice. We'll ramp that up then. We even introduced him to real Texas barbecue. That's right. That's right. Iron works right down the street from our office.

That was like priority number one for Daniel, I believe, for him in this office. That's his favorite place to go. Well, thanks for coming in. We're so excited to have you. And it's going to be a fun time we're throwing you right into the fray here at the pod too you're going to do awesome matt uh let's talk through the biggest news that broke this week in terms of our event um lieutenant governor dan patrick uh did us the honor of joining us on stage and uh talked about

his future political plans that were definitely a big part of that whole discussion on Tuesday night. Give us the scoop on what was revealed. Well, when our awesome senior editor, McKenzie DeLillo, put Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick on the spotlight spotlight and posed those intense journalistic questions and explored what his future political ambitions would be. Statewide news was revealed after the lieutenant governor was just sworn in the other day to his third four-year term in office. There's been a lot of speculation and rumors that maybe he won't run in four years. Maybe this is it, that sort of stuff. And whenever you post to him, what's going on? He came out clean with it and said, you know what? Absolutely, I'm running again. I will be running again in four years.

And those were his exact words was absolutely. Absolutely, yeah. He said, and here's the reason. I love what I do. He said he has the easiest job in the Senate. And he kind of elaborated on that by explaining how the senators work really, really hard. And he kind of gave a really good example whenever you think about it. There's only 31 members of the upper chamber, whereas you have 150 members in the House. And they all work on that legislation. They have fewer committee assignments, et cetera, et cetera. And they send all those bills up to the upper chamber that the members up there have to deal with all of that work product. So you end up with more committee assignments, just kind of how he described it is it's a lot tougher job.

And he really praised the way all the members in the upper chamber work and get along together. And he explained that, you know, while there's partisan disagreements on issues, at the end of the day, they work alongside each other, they get to know each other as friends, they respect one another, etc., etc. And, you know, he kind of used that to just describe the general atmosphere up there. He also talked about how if Republicans will do what the people ask us to do, continue to do it in future elections, he was predicting that Republicans will continue to be overwhelmingly elected and remain in control,

not just in 2026, but I believe he even, you know, kind of speculated on beyond that. So, it was a very interesting insight, not only to his own political ambitions, his plans, but, you know, the reasoning behind it. Yeah, absolutely. And I think the lieutenant governor has multiple times said that he wants one of his senators to be his um successor in one way or another and i think there's a lot of speculation and this is again very much speculation about after having drawn the straws of who will be up for re-election in two years versus four years it's like okay well was the lieutenant governor planning on

running again the whole time was this a recent decision after those straws were drawn nobody knows but it's interesting given his comments previously that his intent is to have one of his senators replace him in eight years in a yeah so we're talking about 2031 which just feels bizarre 2030 say that out loud painful to try and count that high at the moment yeah seriously i cannot tell you guys how many times i which is ridiculous because four years is so easy to count how many times i was like it's 2026 2026 2020 i was scared on stage i was gonna get the year wrong when i asked him the question which is so ridiculous um but yeah matt thanks for your coverage of that.

Both you and Cameron will be covering the Senate during the legislative session. So excited to see. And you need to totally check out our story on the Texan dot news where we have an embedded video showing the discussion between McKenzie and Lieutenant Dan Patrick. That's exactly right. Thank you, Matthew. We're going to come to Cameron and Brad here who are going to tag team on this next story with more in-depth information about what else Patrick had to say on stage. Very enlightening discussion. Before you get to that, I have to roast Cameron for a second. Okay. Kansas is very much not a Midwest state. It is a great plain state. I am from the midwest sir this kansas is not a

midwest giant flat square i've always heard that i've always heard that it was pivot the mic toward like yeah towards you there that's perfect it is not so is it part of the west but here's a great plain state where are the great plains the midwest no i would have thought the exact same thing as cameron i did not push back now i wasn't going to missouri for missouri is midwest missouri is the edge of the midwest interesting we got a lot of head shaking i think i'm right here i think okay mr california but you're gonna get that thrown in your face a lot although i will say i didn't push back because people in Texas, if they hear anybody equating Texas to a Midwest culture to the South or like, or nothing like that, it's Texas. Yeah. Earlier, I thought you were about

to say when you said you lived in Kansas, that you had your basis covered because you had lived in the Midwest referring to Texas. And I was about to get all over your case, but you saved yourself by saying that you've also been to the South, which was acceptable. Only a few times. I played college baseball, so I traveled around a little bit. And I came down to Texas a few times. It's always been lovely.

Never lived here before, but I loved it before I even came here. There you go. That's the right answer. Brad is still bristling about the disagreement over the Midwest. I'd be interested. I'll look up a map. Maybe we can discuss that at the end of the pod if we have time, but we have so much to get into. It might be a subject for next week. Comment, comment underneath the podcast. What do you think? Who's right? Cameron or Rob? Yeah. Or Brad. Brad. One of these, one of these boys. Yeah. Rob has nothing in his fight. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's pivot to Cameron and Brad's coverage of these boys. Yeah, Rob has nothing in his fight.

Okay, well, let's pivot to Cameron and Brad's coverage of these issues. Again, the lieutenant governor had a lot to say about running for re-election, but then also about different issues like his relationship with former President Trump and potentially facing off with Ron DeSantis. Talk to us about that issue specifically. Well, he made it quite clear that he is a trump guy yeah and his direct quote yeah yeah so i thought we all kind of knew that as he's worked with trump in the past here in texas his uh re-election campaign his election and then re-election campaign here in texas right And you did ask him about DeSantis and his thoughts.

And again, he said, I just don't know him, but he loves what he's been doing in Florida. But, you know, maybe they can get to know each other before things start. But he just doesn't know him. And he made clear that he's a Trump guy. And he actually said he's gotten some phone calls from Trump and their team about working on some policy together. So I thought that was very interesting. Yeah. Well, more background to that is that back when Trump had a rally here,

I think it was the Robstown one that Rob went to. He, the former president said that essentially dan patrick is the key to trump's endorsement in texas whoever uh whoever dan patrick calls him up and says hey i got a great candidate for x race trump's like yes that's my guy and so the two are very close okay it's very true um fascinating so let's talk about school choice it's obviously one of the bigger topics politically The two are very close. Okay. It's very true. Fascinating. So let's talk about school choice. It's obviously one of the bigger topics politically heading into the legislative session. What did Patrick have to say about the Senate's plan to address that issue specifically?

Well, again, Patrick, he said we have to have school choice. We just have to have it. And so, you know, in past sessions, the legislature has been successful in a lot of these education bills. You know, the main ones being the banning of CRT in K-12 schools, the protecting women's sports. And so, they know how to get things through the House, through the Senate, passing the law. So this is the next big step for them, the next big challenge. And this is going to be the main focus coming up in this next session. So we'll be interested to see,

because it's going to be a test because there are some rural Republicans who are a bit uneasy, how the rural school districts are going to be treated in this yeah absolutely well let's get it go ahead during his inaugurational speech he said rural districts would be somehow bracketed out yeah and that was something you asked him about yeah and it was interesting that was like when i asked him about it he like very much was quick to correct and say that he had some clarification to make on that particular comment. So, talk to us about those bracketing out comments. Well, he made sure to say he was

tired. He went through one of those 15-hour days. So, maybe his statements weren't as clear. So, he took the opportunity in the conversation together to clarify that. And he said it wasn't about bracketing out the parents, but rather making sure the money was going to be bracketed out for the school districts so things could work correctly with the budgeting. And he understands that there are some concerns with some of the rural Republicans, but he wants the option of school choice for those rural districts to be available basically said that if that is necessary to get a school choice bill across the finish line then he will the legislature will adopt some form of that yeah

and the final form of which is is obviously yet to be determined but um he would rather have a school choice bill with some sort of bracketing of the funding as cameron said um and then have no bill at all in order for it to get across the finish line so then also university tenure is a big topic for patrick and he's talked a lot about it previously um What did he say in this latest conversation? Well, I think the quote that really caught my attention, I'll read it verbatim here. Getting all these professors who don't like America, who don't like Texas, who don't like capitalism, who are trying to pollute the minds of young people going to college, I would like to see them go to another state that would be a success yeah i think my question was like what would success look like for you this

session and so he said these people moving out of state which is far more than i thought he would um would say it's interesting some other things that he mentioned that i thought were interesting he talked about the relationship between the house and the Senate, talked about the speakership, specifically said he would not like that job because you have to keep 150 members happy rather than 31. And also the fact that the speaker is appointed by those 150 members, whereas Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor, is elected statewide. Very different underlying incentives there for political action right and so it was interesting to hear him provide that perspective to this and then there we put a bunch of other things in there um where in the article where you can either listen to the

recording itself or read our write-up it's something that really stuck out to me that i think will hold a lot of implications for this session is a comment he made on chapter 313 abatements and the speaker has said that reviving that program is something here's the top priority for the house this session we've also heard other state reps such as Jared Patterson say specifically that if that revival includes renewable generators, getting those abatements, that's a non-starter. So I'm not sure how that's going to fare in the house.

We'll see. But Patrick said specifically, and this is the first time I've ever heard him say this, take credit for this, is that he killed Chapter 313. Senator Lois Kulkhurst was the main senator back during the 2021 session advocating to not renew the chapter three 13 section in code. And, uh, she, she was the main advocate,

um, in the Senate on that. There were others as well, but, um, Patrick flat out said that, Nope, that was a top down directive.

And he's the one that ordered that to be killed. He specifically cited the fact that renewable generators get such a large portion of or got such a large portion of these abatements and while it's more of a it's not a as attention grabbing of a topic as like school choices this is going to be a huge fault line in the legislature big implications yes of where state money will be directed. Yep. Yep. Absolutely.

Well, gentlemen, thank you for that breakdown. We appreciate it. Bradley, we're going to hit with you. And Cameron, well done on your first segment on our pod. Thank you very much. Killed it. Killed it. Bradley, Texas hit a milestone in its economic recovery from the pandemic last month.

What happened there? In December, the state's adjusted unemployment rate dipped below four percent for the first time since february 2020 the reason i say adjusted uh is because it doesn't take into account um farm jobs uh changing in agricultural jobs because those are seasonal and so how they do the calculation, I have no freaking clue, but that is the difference. And so the state added twenty nine thousand five hundred non-farm jobs in the month of December and set another record employment total of thirteen point seven million. More than five hundred and thirty Texans were without jobs last month. The rate has been hanging at or around four percent for a a while but only last month's drop below it and as i said that is the the first time it has dipped below that since the pandemic really set in um which started in like in march or may excuse me in march 2020 and really took off in the next

few months from there we saw it jump up to like 13% unemployment, which is something we have not seen since the Great Depression. Certainly. Give us a breakdown of these business sectors and areas of how the state performed specifically. So the mining and logging sector, which includes a large chunk of the oil and gas industry, added 2,100 jobs. 1,300 came from the upstream oil and gas sector, which upstream includes things at the wellhead. So anyone pulling gas or oil out of the ground, that would count here. And so that number, the mining and logging sector number is 21 higher than a year ago and then december 2021 and so it shows substantial recovery from the pandemic that caused oil prices to plunge and production to wane as after it adjusted to the new demand which dropped significantly because

nobody was driving anywhere planes werenes weren't flying anywhere. And so we've seen this industry have to react one way abruptly to adjust to a stark demand change. And now it's going back the opposite way because demand is returning. And it's significantly changed from the previous one. Just one example is that a lot more people are working from home. So the use of utility gas is generally higher compared with office space electricity use. So that is going to take a while for it to meter out for water to find its level. The largest numerical job increase, though, from November to December of 2022,

was 21,000 jobs for the service sector. And that is one that really was hit hard during the government closures. terms of metropolitan areas mcallenberg mcallen edenberg edinburgh mission and beaumont port arthur have consistently posted the highest unemployment rates those were in the hot in the six percent levels amarillo austin round rock have consistently posted the lowest those were both in the mid two percents two very different areas of the state where does this put the state as a whole? So Texas is outside the 30 states with the lowest rates, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And still, as of November, had 87,000 job openings. I could not find that number for December, but still a lot of people looking for workers. And you could talk to any business owner, I'm sure, and they'd probably tell you that. We're sticking with you here, Brad, going to a different topic. The governor made his first remarks on the Senate's budget,

which is the most tangible form of anything we have on the budget so far. Specifically, it's $15 billion set aside for property tax relief. What did he have to say? So as for his thoughts on that, Abbott said it's a quote, a good start, but added that he will be pushing for more. He reiterated that he wants to provide the largest tax cut in history, but that the final form of those cuts have yet to be hammered out. Of that $15 billion from the Senate, $3 billion is planned for increasing the homestead exemption from 40k to 70k about

one-third of the total is to maintain previous compression and the other two-thirds is for a new reduction rough plans also the budget will begin in the house this time because it senate led last time so this is only just a very rough blueprint overall the state has about 32.7 billion dollars in projected treasury surplus dollars for its array of spending that the legislature will consider this session there's almost an additional 27 billion dollars estimated to be in the economic stabilization fund the state savings account but the legislature has said dan patrick greg abbott included that it will not spend all of the money how they're going to save it not sure but um abbott's comments are notable because he previously called for using at least half of the surplus to cut taxes

back when he estimated when the estimated total was 27 billion dollars and this current plan uh would reflect less than half of that new total add this to the previous largest cut that occurred in 2006 which was 14 billion dollars so based on raw numbers it would eclipse that being the largest property tax cut in history but if you account for inflation um that line would be at about 20 billion dollars and so we'll see if abbott is able to pull up that total at all how much uh maybe enough to get to that that 20 billion dollar line maybe not so we'll see there you go we're pivoting back to cameron and rob here we're going to chat with both of y'all. The lieutenant governor, before he had his conversation with us on stage, released his committee assignments and chairmanships for the Senate this session. Were there any interesting assignments that stood out immediately?

Well, firstly, we have Senator Charles Schwertner was- Wow, you pronounced that very well for your first time. That was well done. You know, I've been practicing, going in the mirror, reading aloud. So if I get anything wrong, please correct me. We know there's a lot of Germans in the Midwest, and he's entirely familiar with the Midwest. So the name just came naturally. Oh, man. Well, Charles Schwartner was reappointed to chair the Committee on Business and Finance, and they will oversee a range of things from utilities to business regulation. It will also oversee the ongoing ERCOT market redesign for the Senate. Schwartner criticized the Public Utility Commission's new plan as unnecessarily complex. And so Patrick and Schwartner seem to take a different stance on the grid reform from Governor Abbott, who seems more content with the new changes. Also, Patrick appointed Senator

Robert Nichols to chair transportation, which is interesting because Nichols has broken with his fellow Republicans on some issues like rape and incest exceptions to Texas abortion law and raising the age to purchase a firearm to 21. Yeah, absolutely. Now, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan has faced a lot of criticism from grassroots Republicans and the Texas GOP delegates at large for appointing Democrat committee chairman in the House. Did Patrick appoint any Democrat chairs in the Senate? Senate, which was Senator John Whitmire of Houston. Now, the interesting thing is that Whitmire has announced that he is running for the mayor of Houston in November 2023. So he's not going to be serving a full term in the Texas Senate. Whitmire will be chairing the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice. Now, he is a vocal critic of judges in Harris County. He

criticizes what he sees as lax bail policies that allow repeat offenders to go free and he actually attributed um the uh higher than normal homicide rate in harris county to these uh bail policies which he claims are too lax um he even participated in events with anti-crime organization crime stoppers of houston which holly's written about a bunch on the harris county houston area crime stopperspers of Houston is also critical of Harris County's bail policies. So at the 88th session kickoff during an interview with our amazing senior editor, Patrick said that Whitmire is the Dean of the Senate and is very knowledgeable about the state's prison system. So, you know, and he's also chairing a committee that's made of mostly Republicans. So it's not like as a Democrat,

he would prevent Republican bills from getting through, but that because of his prestige as having been in the Senate so long as to earn that title Dean of the Senate and being so knowledgeable about the prison system, I think he said that he's been in charge of it since 1993. He said Whitmire is, is, is, you know, a good fill, a good fit for the position. But of course, after Whitmire does leave in November, there will be no more, or perhaps earlier, I guess we'll have to wait and see exactly when, but there will be no more democratic chairs. Um, uh, he also appointed, uh, Senator Paul Bettencourt, who's not a Democrat, but it's interesting because he's also in this Houston area, very critical of Harris County's, the sort of way that they're doing things over there. So Betancourt will chair the committee on local government. But it's interesting to

see those sort of figures making their way up to chair committees in the Texas Senate. Certainly. And interesting how, you know, even if Betancourt's been a chairman of other committees previously, that local government as a former local elected officials, whereas he's landed this time, have the new senators, the freshmen that are now joining the body, have they received any positions? Yeah, four have received vice chairmanships. We have Senator Mays Middleton was assigned to be vice chair of higher education. Phil King to business and commerce. Kevin Sparks to nominations.

And Pam Parker to veteran affairs. There you go. Thank you so much, Cameron. Bradley, Exxon recently made a noteworthy announcement about one of its petroleum refineries. Refinery is back in the news again. Give us the details. Company announced expansion of its beaumont refinery uh specifically that is nearing completion and will become operational during the first quarter of this year it's been in the works since 2019 and will expand capacity by 250 000 barrels

of oil per day that will grow the exxon facilities capacity capacity to 620,000 per day, making it the second largest refinery in the country. Exxon will now own three of the top six American refineries in terms of output. So what does this mean for the broader context of the refinery industry? It's a sizable jump in capacity, but it remains the case that there hasn't been the development of a new large-scale refinery in almost 50 years. 1976 was the last year one was built in the United States. Capacity expansions have been done and have helped, but they take years to complete for a moderate increase in the output capacity. And so we've seen this, we talked about this over the summer.

The refinery capacity has really stagnated for a multitude of reasons. But one of them is the lack of development. And the Chevron CEO stated explicitly that he doesn't see a large-scale refinery ever being built in the United States again. Because it's federal regulation and specifically the federal government's posture towards the energy industry makes these companies not really see a long-term return on investment. And so therefore they don't pump in the money. They instead try and tinker at the margins as best they can and so it's a real

problem that the u.s is going to have to deal with um you know anecdotally i filled up this morning and gas prices were back up i paid 320 this morning and uh it had been had dipped to like 280 that i saw around election time coinciding with release from the strategic petroleum reserve by the biden administration uh but that seems to be done now and um prices are going back up and so one of the reasons the prices are going up and have gone up is the stagnating refinery refining capacity there's more uh products competing for that set of refining output but also we've seen a massive we're seeing demand return and so people are wanting to drive more go places and so all this is is really causing a bottleneck and people are

feeling it at the pump there you go thank you bradley you. You finished right as I was taking a sip of my coffee. Delightful. Hayden, it has been so long since we've heard your voice. It's been like 30 minutes. Well, I needed to know why Brad had a copy of Personal Bankruptcy for Dummies on his desk. So, I'm just kidding. That was a lie. It's because of all those oil prices.

Yeah. Yeah. That was really quick. We were just talking earlier about how Holly is really quick with her comebacks, and that was a lie. That's because of all those oil prices. Yeah. Yeah. That was really quick. We were just talking earlier about how Holly is really quick with her comebacks, and that was really quick. Oh, thank you. You did a great job. I do my best.

Yeah. Well, well done. A South Texas sheriff recently appealed to law enforcement departments outside of Texas for help with the border crisis. Talk to us about some of his comments. Sheriff Brad Coe is the sheriff of Kinney County. He has been one of the most outspoken voices on the border crisis and sounding the alarm about illegal immigration.

He published a letter on social media that he sent to sheriffs in Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma asking for assistance with enforcement along the border. He had sharp words for what is going on in his community. He said, quote, the safety and security of our country has been constantly under threat since early 2021 by those who have no desire to seek asylum through lawful means. Due to our geographic location being situated between Del Rio and Eagle Pass, we are painfully aware of the degrees to which illegal aliens will wreak havoc in our communities, end quote. And he went on to talk about how people do not feel safe going outside their property or even on their property and that the local schools have put up what he called military barricades around their facilities

to prevent smugglers who are evading law enforcement from getting to school children who are on that property. Sheriff Coe asked these law enforcement departments for any personnel or assistance that they could provide. And that includes what he called manpower equipment or operators. And this is against the backdrop of the enforcement encounters that were reported in 2022, 2.38 million. I've repeated that number a lot. And then into this year, the record looks like it will probably be broken again for fiscal year 2023. Was this an unusual request? It was not because there are already law enforcement from out of state and throughout Texas who have gone to the southern border to assist with this. I remember about a year ago

in December 21, I went to the border on a ride along with a Galveston County constable who entered into a memorandum of understanding with Kinney County as well as other law enforcement, especially from Galveston and Goliad counties, to help respond to human smuggling cases, car chases, and other enforcement needs in that county. So there have been law enforcement from across Texas helping with this. And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis even sent National Guard troops from the Sunshine State to Texas to help with enforcement. And New Hampshire even recently sent some National Guardsmen to help with enforcement. So we have law enforcement from as far away as New England and Florida responding to the border crisis. And Sheriff Coe is asking for even more help as illegal immigration and illegal crossings continue to increase. Thank you, as always, for your wonderful border coverage.

We appreciate it. Bradley, you broke the story on a new report from the National Association of Scholars on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policies at the UT campus. Give us a brief overview. So the report analyzes policies concerning curriculum and instruction, DEI type commitments

as hiring or promotion requirements and the vast bureaucracy created to police the campus for things like, quote, microaggressions. I spoke with NAS comms director, Chance Layton. One thing he told me was this movement creates a feedback loop. Do you have a bunch of people looking for racism and their job is predicated

on finding issues of race on campus? They're going to always find issues of race on campus because otherwise they don't have a job. There's a lot more detail in the article. So I recommend you give it a read. The report is also linked in there. It's only like 20 pages, so if that's something that interests you, it's not a difficult read. But it really shows a lot of surprising things that are in there that are internal policies within the University of Texas.

Absolutely. And I will say, folks, if you hear anything in the background, I'm'm just gonna put the elephant in the room and if you can't hear on the podcast then that's fine and we don't need to say it but there is construction happening in and around our office so if things sound like they're falling from the sky they potentially are and we're just going to pretend like we don't yeah the other day i was in a meeting with mac and in the middle of our conversation it sounded like someone just started a chainsaw right above our heads and we were yelling at each other sitting four feet away and then it stopped and we were still yelling when i'm operating my chainsaw do i should i be letting y'all know yes please we prefer a

heads up could you put it on the calendar so we aren't meeting during the chainsaw episodes that be great yeah i'll make sure to try and work on that in the future that's one thing cameron the calendar is king in this company. Partially just because I like to know what's happening. I always knew Rob was back there chopping our stories up. That's, you know, in more ways than one, apparently. That's the only, that's why they keep me around. I like to print them out and just cut through enormous stacks of paper with a chainsaw.

That's right. I think Rob and I also go back and forth between being good cop, bad cop, which is funny. I don't think we fill one role all the time, which cracks me up. Okay, Matthew, we are coming back to you. State Senator Lois Colcourse recently filed a bill that seeks to prevent foreign nations that are hostile to the United States from buying more land in Texas. But Democrats in the legislature have taken issue with this specific provision contained in the bill. Talk to us about what has made this bill so controversial. Senate Bill 147 was filed by Senator Lois Kohlhorst, who is a Republican from Brenham,

in response to concern that foreign countries with policies hostile to the United States are buying up land in Texas, including insensitive areas. Giving one of many examples in a press release regarding the legislation, Kulkors pointed to the acquisition of 130,000 acres by a man and a business organization with ties to the Communist Party of China. The acreage was located near Laughlin Air Force Base, which is near Del Rio, Texas. The bill would prohibit several specific countries,

including China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea, from buying war land in Texas, as well as companies with ties to those nations or their citizens. Now, Democrats have taken issue with the prohibition on foreign nationals from buying land, saying it prevents legitimate immigrants from being able to, say, purchase a home, etc., and partake in the American experience. They have also decried the provision as bigotry and racism. Now, both Senator Kulkhorst and Governor Greg Abbott, who supports the bill, have rejected the Democrats' claims and have said that they are a mischaracterization of what the

bill aims to do, and have said, said in essence that the final bill will not prevent anyone who is legitimately seeking to immigrate to the united states from owning land and re-emphasized what the bill's stated purpose is and that is to prevent hostile nations to the united states from buying strategic land in texas this is one of the only pieces of legislation the governor has come forward and said he's willing to sign at the end of the legislative session. We're curious if this will be one of those items that he adds in as one of his priorities, too, when he does come forward. That will be interesting, yes. So, wonderful. Thanks for your coverage of that issue. Hayden, some criminal justice going on here. A 45-year-old man received a prison sentence for human trafficking. Tell us about this very shocking criminal case. In my article, I wrote 45-year-old

man, but I probably should have written 45-year-old male because men do not do the things that this individual did. But this case was very shocking. The Justice Department announced that this 45-year-old male received a 25-year sentence for sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. He pleaded guilty the day that his trial was set to begin. And part of his guilty plea was he admitted to force, fraud, and and coercion and another count of sex trafficking. He, for decades, had been forcing women into prostitution, commanding them to work all hours. He had committed extraordinary cruelty against them, including beating them with extension cords in fits of rage when he didn't get what he wanted, including when they did not produce the income that he, for whatever reason, felt entitled to. He even admitted that while he was in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon from 2014 to 2019, he continued to run this drug trafficking organization using a, uh, using, uh,

communication that had been presumably smuggled into the prison. And while awaiting trial, he was able to get his hands on a cell phone that had been brought to the prison unlawfully. So, he confessed to continuing this criminal enterprise, and he is now off to prison for 25 years. There were other defendants in this case. Two females were convicted of assisting this criminal operation. They coached the victims on how to solicit prostitution on the streets of Dallas. And there was a 911 call in this case where one of the victims called her mother, obviously distraught. And I just cannot fathom getting that call from a family member who's stuck in sex trafficking. So, absolutely, that's the kind of case that you're reading about. It just makes you sick at your stomach. And I think there's definitely a measure of grace in our society that this

person's punishment is not worse than merely sitting in prison for 25 years. Because I think most people would agree that he deserves much more suffering than simply being removed from society. Just absolutely egregious and violent crimes that this person committed. What did the feds have to say about this case? Well, they also emphasized the brutality of it and emphasized that it's important for people to report any type of human trafficking. The United States Attorney Leah Simonton said, quote, human trafficking is happening under our noses. And the heartbreaking 911 call in this case illustrates just how brutal these situations can be for victims. We hope that during, insert name of convict who I'm not going to say, time behind bars, his victims can begin to heal from the pain, both mental and physical he inflicted on them.

And then they provided contact information for the National Human Trafficking Hotline, which I personally encourage anyone to reach out if they feel that they have witnessed human trafficking. I have never witnessed something that I personally thought was human trafficking related, but definitely call that number if you believe that you have. Certainly. Well, Hayden, thanks as always for your coverage of very difficult issues. We're going to move on to the tweeter-y section here. Pivot very hard from that difficult story and talk through some things we saw this week uh were newsworthy broadley why don't you start us off as you pivot your mic

so something that caught my eye is um one of lieutenant governor's tweets put out uh i think it was yeah wednesday and it's continuing a long-running feud between himself and a former uh state house chairman chris patty uh patty is now a lobbyist for various companies including a couple in um in the power industry and the feud stems back from when patty was still in the legislature he was the chairman of the state affairs committee through which all of the ercot power grid uh reform legislation went through and so um patty had his hand in all of that he was involved in all these high-level discussions uh negotiations and so the pair really bristled over uh this really

obscure thing called netting within the securitization legislation Basically, they fought over how to hand out money in the form of loans to the companies who lost or gained money during the blackouts. And so Dan Patrick tweeted on Wednesday, like Vistra Corp, which was a client of Patty's earlier last year in March. Patty registered as a lobbyist. And then after getting a lot of criticism for that, including from the lieutenant governor, he withdrew that. Now he's back as a registered lobbyist for various companies. He said, like Vistra, I hope paddy's other clients um he lists them out no he has no credibility and it's not welcome in my office for his quote disingenuous and unprofessional conduct last session on the grid um it's just it's a very odd odd feud to have

that publicly for the lieutenant governor to be going after another elected official or former elected official yeah like that very interesting and it's like specifically interesting when a statewide elected official uses their political capital and it isn't even political capital but uses their platform to call out someone so specifically especially the lieutenant governor i think it's it's rare to see that from him. Um, one to have the situation happen is actually not that rare. A lot of, uh, legislators become lobbyists after they retire from the legislature.

Um, but to specifically name somebody and say, you're not welcome in my office, I'll be at after a very public fight and feud over a very important and huge issue. Um, it's still very fascinating and very rare those who also feuded over the the electricity repricing bill that did not make it through the legislature

because the house did not pass what the senate did and so it seems like all of that is is the root cause of this and those two really butted heads quite a bit behind the scenes on these on these pieces of legislation and it's come to personal tax absolutely thank you bradley hayden what about you laura logan who i believe was a reporter for fox news matt is that correct no she was for 60 minutes actually she 60 Minutes, which is what she's really well known for. She went to Fox News for a little while. Okay, so a journalist, Laura Logan. Yes. I was wrong. Well, partially right. So, she was on 60 Minutes, tweeted about a piece of legislation proposed by a Congresswoman, Sheila Jackson Lee, who represents the Houston area, I want to say. And this bill purports to, it's called the Leading Against White Supremacy Act of 2023.

And no one, obviously everyone is against white supremacy and there are violent things that happen. But the language of this bill is interesting. It seems like it could be broad enough to encompass things that are not necessarily white supremacy. And it says it has a provision in here that says the department of justice can undertake other actions that it deems necessary and appropriate to interdict,

mitigate, or prevent such action from culminating in violent activity. So, a couple of questions that I would have about this bill is, first, you know, would it include other types of racial supremacy? In other words, would a racist attack against an Anglo-American person also be covered under this bill? Because it seems like it would only cover racist actions by white people or by those who were committing a white supremacist specific crime? And then is the language of this bill broad enough that it would include legitimate speech as a possible pretext or precursor to a violent crime? For instance, a lot of people believe that calling illegal immigration an invasion is a form of hate speech, and that it's rooted in white supremacist rhetoric. So those would be my two questions for Congresswoman Jackson Lee upon

reading this bill. But Laura Logan included a link to an article that to an outlet that I'm not familiar with. So I'm not going to sit here and say the name of the author or anything, because I don't know anything about it. But some of the language of the spill definitely is food for thought. Absolutely. Thank you, Hayden. Matthew, what did you see that caught your eye? Did you call me?

Did I already? What? Did I just call you Matthew? I think you called me Hayden. No, she said, thank you, Hayden. Oh. And then we had gone to math. Okay.

I was like, I really don't think so. Matthew? I think you called me Hayden. No, she said, thank you, Hayden, and then we had gone to math. Okay. I was like, I really don't think so. I am known to do such things, but I don't think I did that this time. So, I saw an interesting report on Twitter by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. And they are issuing a

prediction on U.S. crude oil production over the next two years. And the forecast is that we will break records for the next two years. The EIA is saying that there will be an average of 12.4 million barrels per day produced by the U.S. in 2023 and 12.8 million barrels per day in 2024. The previous record was 12.3 million barrels per day in 2019. So maybe with more oil, we'll have lower prices at the pump. Maybe, possibly.

Not entirely sure how the economics behind oil works but there you go we've got a lot of it it's so true okay rob why don't we pivot to you and ask about your uh tweetery from this week it's quite uh fascinating um patrick's fee tech a political correspondent for the texas tribune tweeted out me can we get a starbucks off congress downtown here in austin uh and then austin responds um and it links to an austin 360 article about a uh a coffee shop that is charging 150 dollars for a special cup of coffee they're going to sell 22 of these cups um in austin i believe it's it might be in austin or it might be nationwide but apparently it won an award. It's a super good cup of coffee. But I'll be honest with y'all, to the people in this room and everybody listening, I don't really know if any cup of coffee is worth $150.

That's kind of what I'd expect to spend for perhaps like a really good night out, like at like a really good, you know, fancy restaurant or something. It's not what I'd expect for a cup of coffee. When my morning Folgers gets the job done for you know pennies on the dollar it's uh i just don't know i don't maybe if i was a millionaire i could justify to myself spending this much money but i'll be honest i mean if it was like one of those days where your schedule is just crampacked and you're grumpy and you didn't get your cup of Folgers that morning. And I don't know, maybe. I'm trying to think of a situation in which I would be so desperate for coffee. I'd pay $150. The sad part is I can imagine some of those restaurants that'll put like gold flakes on pizza and charge like a thousand dollars.

Yeah, I agree with rob my net worth would have to be at least one million dollars before i even considered it i can you know if i had that much to to waste i suppose i would try the coffee it seems to must be at least tasty coffee but you know you can probably get coffee that's not any worse for a significantly cheaper price this coffee in my hand was brought to me this morning by my dear husband and he paid eight dollars for it and that to me is absolutely absurd absolutely absurd so i mean i i it is my coffee order and it is a high maintenance coffee order so it is my fault however that to me is ridiculous nevertheless 150 but again there are situations

in which i think i might be desperate enough to pay 150 for coffee and one of those may have been the morning of the kickoff if i did not bring coffee myself so my tweeterie from the week is a quote from uh senator kelly hancock that matt tweeted about this week during the event quote your articles at the texan were more accurate than any others in the state of texas this uh was what senator kelly hancock a republican from north texas told brad referencing his reporting on the texas grid specifically so just wanted to toot our own horn there as we're about to do that for a few minutes here as we talk about the event pivoting to the event people i'm so grateful for how it went folks, so many of y'all came out,

joined us. It was a largely sold out event. I mean, people came and went throughout the day. That's how these day long events work. But as far as ticket sales went, it was largely sold out. And we're so grateful for the success for y'all making the trip. I know a lot of folks came from all over the state to come listen to us pose questions to lawmakers and blather ourself a little bit there in the middle of the day. We're so grateful. It was awesome. Gentlemen, I want to talk through your favorite parts of the panels you moderated. I'll start out. One of my favorite parts of the whole day, Holly Hansen moderated a panel on abortions and vaccines. Unbelievable panelists

we had. Representative John Howard, a Democrat from Austin, Representative Caroline Harris, a Republican from Round Rock, and Senator Lois Kohlkorst, a Republican from Brenham. And Representative Howard and Senator Kohlkorst were so different in their approaches to policies specifically about these issues, but simultaneously so knowledgeable. And they have a ton of rapport based one on their backgrounds and the issues they care about. They care a lot about the medical field and have a lot of knowledge about the issues. And I had not realized how much they'd worked together on these specific policy areas. Fascinating to listen to the conversations. I so recommend, we will be rolling out these panels so folks can listen to them after the fact slowly to make sure that people get access who were not able to show up.

There's just nothing like it is in person because you can see something that you would not expect. a Democrat, you know, having such mutual respect for each other and being able to say, OK, on this portion of an issue, we agree and we can, you know, move forward on these issues. We disagree. And yeah, we're going to have a battle there. But at the end of the day, you know, being able to legislate and compromise. Yeah. And that's just not a part of the legislature that you hear about or see firsthand. Yeah.

Like that event was able to afford. And I think if they had not had such rapport and history with each other, they wouldn't have been able to be as honest as they were in conversation with each other from stage. a respect and a diplomacy and also just a very like strict honesty about the positions that they were taking, if that makes sense, that they wouldn't have been able to do, I don't think, if they were more unfamiliar with each other and each other's conversation styles and histories. So I just love, I loved that conversation because it was such a difficult panel to moderate one. And also, I think to be on with such just differing policy, it was just very impressive to watch these ladies navigate the issue so respectfully, but also so truthfully. Very, very interesting. So that was my takeaway. Hey, what about you? What were what was the favorite part of a panel that you moderated?

Well, I appreciate all of our panelists. And shout out to Holly for that moderation. Absolutely. And thank you to everyone who attended. Thank you to everyone who made time from their schedules to be with us at that event. It was an excellent event. Daniel and Mackenzie deserve a lot of credit for all the planning that went into it but the border panel especially i i think i was grateful that that was a bipartisan panel and we got to hear from both sides of the aisle um it was fascinating to see the the the agreement um between Flores, Representative Canales and Representative Morales, as they discussed an issue that is usually just the topic of partisan punchlines. They really unpacked some creative policy proposals, especially Representative Morales with some of the discussion of the

state receiving revenue from an application for to work here in Texas. And obviously, they didn't all agree on everything that they said, but they at least had a substantive discussion. And I say at least that it was a good substantive discussion. And most of the time, people, that's not how this issue is discussed. It gets very emotional. And it usually ends with somebody being accused of being a racist or somebody being accused of supporting wide open borders, which didn't happen at this panel they talked it out and had a a real debate on on the substance of immigration and border security i appreciated them um or i appreciated our audience for the way that they handled uh handled that topic as well so um that was that was a highlight for me and and then of of course, we heard from Senator Hall and Representative Kane, too, on election integrity issues, and that panel very illuminating to hear um some very bipartisan discussions i swear that construction we are moving offices soon and knock on wood i do not believe construction will be part of the equation it sounds like they are drilling right outside yeah it does

like on the door on the door oh brother yeah maybe they i don't know it's it's it's pretty darn close but those are my two favorite like my favorite panels because there is so much discussion about issues that are so i think usually difficult and um like such creative policy for holes like you were saying we're part of the discussion so yes i have a favorite quote bring it on on the entire day i'm ready and that was from Representative Harold Dunton whenever they were speaking about education. Yeah.

And he says, by the way, there's a lot being said right now, throwing a lot of blame on Governor Greg Abbott about this takeover of the Houston Independent School District because of all the going-ons and failures of the district and School District because of all the going-ons and failures of the district and that sort of stuff.

And, you know, he was referencing a lot of attacks by his own party on the governor over this whole thing, you know, saying Abbott's trying to, you know, usurp your local control and this sort of stuff. And he's like, it's not Governor Greg Abbott. It's Harold Dutton. Yeah. A Democrat taking blame for that. i'm the one that got the ball

rolling on this and i was just like wow well it's interesting he was saying like democrats were coming to him saying man can you believe this move by abbott and this democrat state rep is like no i that was my night i was i'm game for this i thought of it myself very interesting in that clip will be up we have an article coming out about that today on Thursday. So excited about that reporting. Bradley, what about you? Highlight from the day either on a panel that you were moderating or something else. From the energy panel, there was some legit back and forth and disagreements uh sometimes passionate disagreements and

all the panelists senator nathan johnson senator kelly hancock representatives jared patterson and charles cunningham are all very knowledgeable on the subject and uh it was good to see some back and forth and real disagreement because i mean there was some of that but there was not like actual debate going on in these panels yeah um most of the people just said what they wanted to say and then uh you know didn't really address other things other members said but that happened on in in this panel on on the topic of esg and so i'm sure that'll be up at some point and you can go watch that and um on such a complicated array of topics i think they did a pretty good job of of giving their positions yeah it was fun to hear about that one i was not listening in on that one

specifically sound like you had anything more pressing to get ready for yeah no not at all that was right before lieutenant governor dan patrick joined us so it was a i was not but i also brad like energy in the grid i just it's way above my pay grade i'll just be honest it was the panel that i was like man if i listen to this i'll be i'll be dreaming about megawatts so what kind of what kind of editing have i been getting these last three years really above your? Really airtight editing. No, but it was, I heard great things about it. And y'all definitely had some great policy discussions.

Rob and Cameron, I'll come to y'all too. Were there any takeaways y'all had from the day or things that you enjoyed most listening to? Rob, why don't we start with you? One of the things that I really appreciated is I was the the sort of time keeper for the event so i was required to watch all the panels and sit there and you know make sure that we weren't going over time now obviously these the people hosting the panels they knew what they were doing my job was more ancillary just to try and keep it intact but

they did a great job with their panels um but it was interesting for me as someone who, you know, I haven't been with the Texans since the last legislative, I wasn't here for the last legislative sessions. This is the first session I've been on. And it's just very interesting to get to see all of the politicians really in person, you know, you see them in pictures and you see them in videos and then you see them in person. And it's, it's, it's sort of, it's just, it's just an interesting you know difference right i've only ever known these people by uh having read stories about them or maybe maybe talked to a couple of them over the phone but it was interesting seeing them really filtering in and out you know getting to just getting to see that that was really interesting i really enjoyed

it yeah fun to see them all in person very very, very true. Cameron, what about you? Day two on the job and you were flooded with more policy information than your brain could probably process. Well, that's exactly right. This was my first exposure to Texas politics. And I was really just trying to absorb everything from the panels and trying to put some names to faces and hearing policy positions. But what I was really impressed by was when I looked over the audience, how passionate each individual Texan who was there, how invested they were with paying attention. They were taking notes. They had their laptops out, looking stuff up.

That was really interesting. Something I'd never really seen before in local politics, especially coming from California. You can really tell how passionate Texans are about Texas politics. So, that was really cool to see. I could not agree more. I'd say in the interview with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, I really was fascinated just to hear one, how willing he was to answer a lot of these questions that were pretty pressing. But also I think the clarification on the rule bracketing out of districts was really fascinating to hear his discussion about that. I loved listening to it. I also loved him talking about his boots. He was wearing these really cool boots that had the Alamo on the front of one and the Capitol on the front of the other. And we talked about that on stage, which cracked me up and was interesting.

I think lawmakers have the most creative and interesting boot configurations I've ever seen. They're so fun. Yeah, it was awesome. Any surprises that y'all had specifically? I would say one surprise for me. We had a reporter panel at right before lunch where we were on stage at a Q&A with the audience. Really fun to hear from so many readers and subscribers about their like loyalty to the company since day one. It was so encouraging to hear. We're so grateful for y'all. It was really humbling. And I think Connie and I both thought that folks would leave for this panel. We're so grateful for y'all. It was really humbling. And I think Connie and I both thought that folks would leave for this panel. We're like, nobody really wants to listen to us talk. And folks stuck around, even though it was right before lunch. And there are

still a few people who said it was their favorite panel of the day, which I do not understand. But it was really kind of folks to say that. And we're just appreciative that y'all listen to us on the podcast and read our articles and just stay in touch with us in the ways that you do. So that was a really fun, I think, interactive part of the day on my end. Any surprises that y'all had during the day? Well, speaking of that panel, I got a question that I really, it was a surprising question. It was a really good question. And that was about our access as reporters to the Senate floor of the session. As you may know, during COVID, reporters that are credentialed members of the media for both houses typically have access to

the floors where they can have a better view of what's going on and get the lawmakers and discuss, you know, what's happening, et cetera, et cetera. And this session, the House has lifted that restriction and reporters going back on the floor in the press pool. But the Senate so far has not. And so, we were asked about that. And whenever I got my credentials this session, all I remember hearing about was, you know, we wouldn't be going back on the floor. And I really didn't give it much thought beyond darn. So, it was a good question to think about. And one of the things that I would have wished I would have been able to think of at

the time to give an example was a comparison with the U.S. House of Representatives. During the speaker vote, C-SPAN had full access to be able to show what was going on amongst the members. And there was just all this conversation across America that because of that latitude during that time, Americans were able to see interactions that they would have never dreamed were happening. You know, conversations between firebrand Republicans like Representative Matt Gaetz and AOC and different things like that going on the floor that gives you context to what goes on during the discussions on policy. And that's really what I think happens on the floor of the chambers at the Texas legislature with having members of the media there is they can give that extra added context to

what's going on to the people. There's a lot of value. Yes. And so, if I hadn't thought about it some more and had the opportunity to be quicker on my feet, that's what I would have said. Would have added. That makes a lot of sense. Brad, Hayden, anything you'll have on your end?

Surprises? Takeaways? Final thoughts? Final blathers? I think I was surprised with how many people actually showed up despite it raining basically all day. Yeah. Usually that depresses turnout for all kinds of things. But people showed up despite that

so yeah it was awesome and i will say part of the reason we are gradually releasing the footage and audio from the day is so that for those who were able to come and did purchase tickets um have some exclusivity in that regard as well and so we can kind of pump out some content so those will be released um as the weeks go on we have already lieutenant governor dan patrick the full interviews up on the site some clips are up we'll have um some clips from representative denton up today as well so we're we're putting them out we're just gradually doing so um yeah hayden anything from you final thoughts this has already been mentioned but it did surprise me, the announcement by Governor Patrick

that he would run again in 2026. I thought he would sidestep that question, not because anything about him, but usually four years out from a reelection bid, officials are understandably reticent to commit. And it was very interesting. And when he said, absolutely, my head popped up. I was like, wait, what? What did he just say? That's news to me. Yeah, it was news interesting and when he said when he absolutely i my head i was like wait what yeah

what did he just say that's news to me yeah it was all of us yeah crazy well for a second i thought did i did he already say that and i missed it or yeah it was i i really thought that uh this was going to be his last uh term so it caught me it caught me off guard but uh i was just very uh very thankful for the for those who attended and um that was the biggest surprise for me was his his announcement and shout out to um kim roberts as well who handled all the lawmakers logistics when she was there and uh was just awesome and participated on the reporter panel and it's just a rock star for our team and again to shout out to daniel because daniel uh really did the the lion's share of the work on this event and so i'm just grateful and it turned out so well he killed it it was

awesome um for anything from like logistics with the museum to the graphics on the screen daniel was the the mastermind yeah he isn't he's not in here but if i don't if he had somehow been sick or something like the week before, I don't know what we would have done. Well, he was sick the week before. Oh, wow. Yeah, he was sick. That's like Thursday, Friday. He worked from home. He had a head cold.

Oh, my goodness. I was so nervous that, but he got so much better. He worked incredibly hard the past several months on this event. So major gratitude to him for making this all possible absolutely well folks thanks for listening to us blather cameron welcome to the team folks we will be catching you next week on another episode thanks so much thank you to everyone for listening if you enjoy our our podcast, rate and review us on iTunes. And if you want more of our stories, subscribe to The Texan at thetexan.news. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

And feel free to send any questions for us to our mailbag. We are funded entirely by readers and listeners like you. So thank you for your support. Tune in next week for the next weekly roundup. Thank you to everyone.