The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - July 2, 2021

Episode Date: July 2, 2021

On The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup,” the reporters talk about what it was like behind-the-scenes of President Trump’s border visit with Governor Abbott and other Texas officials, interim charges seeking to address border security issues, a new border crisis disaster declaration that shuffles the list of included counties, charter school applications denied by the state education board, an overview of how constitutional carry became law, critical race theory controversies in Fort Worth ISD, a new candidate jumping into the race for agriculture commissioner, and a drastic restructuring of Harris County government.

Howdy howdy and happy Independence Day weekend. Mackenzie Taylor here on another edition of the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. This week, our reporters talk about what it was like behind the scenes of Trump's border visit with Abbott and other Texas officials. Interim charges seeking to address border security issues. A new border crisis disaster declaration that shuffles the list of included counties. Charter school applications denied by the State Education Board, an overview of how constitutional carry became law, critical race theory controversies in Fort Worth ISD, a new candidate jumping into the race for agricultural commissioner, and a drastic restructuring of Harris County government. Now folks, Independence Day is around

the corner and no one values independence quite like Texans. Ticket from Sam Houston, who said Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression. Come from what source it may. Now for a limited time this summer, get a free Sam Houston t-shirt with the purchase of an annual subscription to the Texan. Visit thetexan.news forward slash Sam Houston. We appreciate you tuning in. Enjoy this episode. Howdy, folks. Mackenzie Taylor here with Daniel Friend, Hayden Sparks, and Isaiah Mitchell on another edition of our weekly roundup podcast. We have a lot to get into today, but first, we have an obvious absence for the second week in a row. Brad Johnson is not, is no longer with us.

He's no longer with us. No longer with us. Now that's temporary, but he's no longer with us. Right, Hayden? Yes, I'm looking at an empty chair right now where Brad should be sitting. Actually, that's where I should be sitting. Yeah, that's usually where Daniel sits. In fact, this is throwing me. Everyone is sitting in the wrong spot except for me and you, Mackenzie.

I know. We're solid. I have the headphones on this time, and I'm still sitting where I need it. You're still in your usual spot. That's right. She can't move on. I can't. I'm stagn sitting where I need it. You're still in your usual spot. That's right. She can't move on. I can't. I'm stagnant.

I can't do much. I want to petition our podcast listeners. This is random, but I feel like it's very important. And right off the bat, we need to petition our listeners to go follow Isaiah Mitchell on Twitter. Isaiah, what's your Twitter handle? Hold on a second. Just look it up. Maybe that's why you have no Twitter followers.

I'm kidding. I only have like three times as many as he does. I only have triple your followers, Isaiah. Humble Brad. Twitter dwarf. So it is at Isaiah Mitch underscore TX. Nice. Very, very easy.

In your defense, I have been on Twitter way longer than you. I just hit my thousand tweet threshold. It made me very sad. Why? Oh, because you have a lot of... Because I don't like Twitter. Yes. Yeah.

If you like charts, I post a lot of those. They're great charts. Check out my charts. They're color-coded. They're beautiful. I love them um well wonderful well gentlemen let's get into this we have a lot to go over now hayden and daniel y'all just got back from a pretty interesting and special border trip um give us a rundown of what happened in

hodogla county who all was there let's just get right into it. Former President Trump joined Governor Greg Abbott in a border visit near Pharr, Texas, which is a far away place from Austin. I'm sorry, I couldn't help it. That's amazing. In Hidalgo County to showcase his signature product or signature, the signature project of his presidency, which was the border wall between the US and Mexico. And to promote Governor Abbott as he faces challengers in the Republican primary for governor. So what were some of the ideas that Trump expressed in his speed? What was what were the narratives he was, you know, really going home on? Much to the chagrin of Democrats, if I can attempt to pronounce that word. Trump is openly mulling a second presidential campaign he has expressed interest before and he did again

yesterday when he said jokingly to Dan Patrick, who he has endorsed, he asked him, are you going to be my campaign manager if I decide to do this again? So he is egging on that belief that he is possibly going to run again. And I think that probably creates anxiety among a lot of Democrats who still vividly remember his defeat of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election and his record-breaking performance in the 2020 presidential election. Even though he lost that contest, he still received more votes than any other sitting president. So I think that is the most important thing he said yesterday, is that he is still very much considering another run for the White House. And of course, since he has only one term under his belt, he's eligible for another four years in D.C. as the country's leader.

So he very well could be a candidate in 2024. And he continues to believe that he won the 2020 presidential election and that it was declared improperly in Biden's favor. Of course, his campaign introduced a number of lawsuits in the aftermath of the 2020 election, and they were unable to prove his claim that he won in the federal district court system, which is why, of course, Biden is president today. So those are the big things that he expressed. And he also touted Governor Greg Abbott and promoted his reelection campaign, as well as the reelection campaign of Dan Patrick, who he endorsed in May, if I understand correctly. He commended

Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has sued Biden a lot, especially over immigration, and stopped short of endorsing Paxton, though, because George george p bush who is running against paxton is also vying for trump's endorsement and it looks like trump is yet to make a decision as to which one of those two men if either of them he is going to endorse it's been a very public rhetorical battle between the two about whether or not trump will endorse one of them and trump said what did he say daniel he said he said something along the lines of his endorsement would be coming that he would be weighing into the race yeah but he also has said that he he likes both of the candidates yeah and appreciates both of them it's a very interesting summit of personalities at this uh at this border visit but let's let's hone in on what the governor said what were some of the

border security stats that abbott highlighted as we know senator huffines Don Huffines, a former Republican state senator from Dallas, is one of Abbott's strongest critics, and he has been a fierce opponent of Abbott on issues ranging from immigration over the coronavirus response as well. And Abbott has made immigration and border enforcement the central issue in his governorship as of late. According to Abbott, yesterday, Operation Lone Star has apprehended some 40,000 illegal immigrants and 1,800 criminals and has confiscated enough fentanyl to kill enough to kill everyone in Texas. Of course, that doesn't mean there was some plot to kill everyone in Texas with fentanyl. That's just the amount. That's just the amount, yes, of narcotics that have been confiscated by state authorities. Via Operation Lone Star, Texas DPS has also raided 41 stash houses, according to the governor, which is, of course, places where criminal syndicates keep human beings and

narcotics, and they use those locations as places where they conduct their criminal activities. As Abbott has made immigration the forefront of his governorship, he is promoting the results of this state-led anti-immigration, anti-illegal immigration effort that he launched in March. So he took yesterday's press conference with Trump as an opportunity to show not only has he been committed to Operation Lone Star and enforcing the southern border, but he is also committed to the Border Wall Project, which he launched this month, as well as an apparatus for individuals across the country to donate to that Texas state-led Border Wall Project. Good stuff. And two too it's interesting that this is all highlighted in

you know contrast to the vice president's visit which will uh you know we've talked about uh before but this is all interesting to see national republicans texas republicans come to texas and highlight the border when that is so much of the conversation at the national level and at the state level um but it's being know, contrasted very starkly by the rhetoric coming from the White House. Now, who else was there to support the president? This was quite the crowd that we had at the border. It was there was a slew of lawmakers. And both at the state and federal level, there were lawmakers. What was interesting to me is there were lawmakers for Congress members from other states. I saw Lauren Boebert there and Madison Cawthorn was there as well.

There was another Republican from Georgia named Jim Banks. So there were some out of state members of Congress there. The Texas members of Congress that Trump commended from the stage, Brian Babin, Ronnie Jackson, Louie Gohmert, Michael Cloud, August Pfluger, Jody Arrington, Roger Williams, Pat Fallon, Chip Roy, Michael Burgess, and Pete Sessions. And I don't think I'm forgetting anyone, but that's the list of members of Congress, Republicans in Texas that Trump commended from the stage. That, I think, reflects that Republicans are unifying around this border wall project. And when this press conference took place, they were literally

in the shadow of an unfinished border wall. We were there at the Border Patrol station staring at a glaring gap in the border wall that Trump started. And Abbott gestured toward the gap in that wall and said, Biden needs to start right here and finish this border wall project, finish what Trump started. There are fierce opponents of the border wall who believe it is a symbol of hatred, it is a symbol of division, and that it is unwise and not very useful to border security. But Republicans are still very much in support of it. And I think that is reflected by the number of Republican members of Congress from Texas who showed up to support the president and who is, I think, fairly could be said to be the mantle of the Republican party, even though he is no longer president. Certainly. I want to talk real fast, zoom out a little bit and talk with

both you and Daniel about the process. I think it's very interesting how this all works, how you check in as reporters, what a trip like this entails. What was it like once you got there? What was the check-in process security like? How many other reporters were there? I mean, it was, the photos looked like it was just crawling with people. There were all sorts of different legislators, officials, but also members of the press, very notable members of the press. We have photos of Hayden standing next to Jim Acosta, which was quite the quite the ordeal. And he, you know, had some had definitely had some things to say about who was included in the media pool. But let's talk a little bit about the behind the scenes aspects and the logistics that go into a trip like this.

There were several different events that were going on during this trip. So I think Trump and Abbott did some kind of a border wall tour, which the press was not a part of. Then they had like a briefing before that with DPS officials and other border officials, sheriffs, stuff like that. There was some press who had signed up for that because it was in a limited space.

They had a pool of reporters they selected from different media outlets that were there to stream and then they provided the live feed. And they told reporters ahead of time, hey, these will be the outlets included in the pool. Yes. That was part of the media advisory. Yeah. Yeah. And. That was part of the media advisory. Yeah. Yeah.

And so there was that. I think there was some mix up at the last minute. There was actually some other reporters on the bus with us because we got to the DPS headquarters where the briefing was taking place. That's where all the media arrived. They checked in. The media then, who were not part of the pool got on buses that would be taken to where the event at the border wall was taking

place. And so when we were on the bus, uh, waiting to go, there were some other reporters there who, I think, uh, I don't remember which outlet they were from, but they were actually part of the pool. They didn't realize that they were supposed to be in the briefing. And so there's some mix-up at the last minute, and I think that might have been, there was some shuffling at the last minute of getting some people in to fill their place. So stuff like that happens on the fly. It's not...

Logistics. That's how it works. Yeah. But as Daniel pointed out, based on Jim Acosta's tweet, after he showed up at the check-in at the DPS headquarters one might think that it was a total surprise that the border security briefing wasn't going to be open they told us that well in advance that it was going to be a select number of outlets and the process for selecting those outlets wasn't any less arbitrary than because he mentioned that there were other people allowed to be in there.

And that process, I don't think, would have been any more arbitrary than the process of selecting the original list. So that that was peculiar to me that he would be surprised. But of course, it's not surprising that he had adversarial things to say about Abbott and Trump he is yes I mean you mentioned I was standing next to him while at the end of the press conference there was no Q&A there was no opportunity for press to ask questions but when they wrapped up and Trump kind of did his farewell and they started to leave the stage Acosta just shouted out a couple of questions. Specifically, he wanted Trump to apologize for the, well, I'll be fair.

He asked him if he was going to apologize for the January 6th riot. I think most people would probably take that as a hint. Wow. He wanted him to apologize for it. And I was standing right next to him. The crowd of people in front of us just turned around. And I think, I don't know who it was who said this, but some lady yelled out, nobody wants you here.

So it was very confrontational in that moment between Acosta and the Republicans who were there attending the press conference. But of course, anyone who has kept up with Acosta, who is one of CNN's main correspondents, knows that he has had a very confrontational relationship with Trump, especially while he was president. Absolutely. And you all got bussed to location, right? Was it other reporters and photographers that got bussed? So they had, when we first arrived at the DBS station, there were actually, I think, eight or nine charter buses outside of the DBS station. They moved some of them away. I think that they used them later for the press who were arriving later. They were part

of the pool. And then also the different congressional members who were there, state lawmakers, whoever, that were bused to this location. The location where the border event took place was not made public. I think that was kind of a safety precaution. There were some protesters who were supposedly planning to protest at the DPS headquarters. I never saw place was not made public i think that was kind of a safety precaution um there were some protesters who were supposedly planning to protest at the dps headquarters i never saw anyone but uh again i was on the bus so yeah i might have missed that um and so then there was some other security measures that of course that we went through um when we go over to the capital and it's just the the governor just the governor and

lieutenant governor um which is still kind of a big deal in state politics there's not as much security like you have to go through the security at the capital that everyone has to go through but it's not nearly as intense as it is with a former president who's under secret service protection certainly um so the governor yeah there's a lot more at stake here with this even just with the sheer number of officials who were there, security will be very different. And you have that many people. Yes. So some of the security things that we saw, you know, when we got there with the buses, there were three buses that were bringing reporters. So when we got there, I think we got there before anyone else did.

They had all the reporters get off the bus and leave their equipment on the on the bus for a dog to come in sniff and check for any um i assume they were looking for you know bombs or weapons or of some sort drugs or anything um and so they had a dog doing a sweep on the bus and then they had the reporters waiting outside uh first we went into like this, I don't even know what kind of building it was, what kind of facility it was. It was some industrial thing. Pretty empty, but they had restrooms and stuff for the breasts.

So we waited there and then waited for the bus to be swept. That took a little bit for the dog to show up. The dog was, he seemed very happy when he showed up. The dogs were happy doing their jobs. Happy until he smells something he doesn't like and gets a command from his, you know, handler. I was really worried they were going to find the Clif Bar in my bag. Little snack.

They did not. So that was some of the security things. Also, while I was standing outside the building waiting for the bus to be swept by the dog, I noticed there were some people standing out a little bit in the distance and they were taking pictures of the roof. And I'm like, what? I looked up. I couldn't see anything because I was standing right there.

But then later, when I was at the actual event, a little bit farther away from the building, I turned around and saw what they were taking pictures of the building. There were some security snipers on the roof. Yeah, I figured the roof there you go kind of making sure that everything was safe there there was also um up along where the the wall had not been completed there were some uh snipers up there you know just making sure the event was secure there were also some on a truck on the other side of the event so it was you, you know, well secure. There were police, plenty of police,

especially when the former president came in with governor Abbott. There was a whole motorcade that came in, which was kind of fun to watch and get some cool pictures of. But yeah, that was, that was the big security stuff that we saw. That's so cool. Well,

gentlemen, thank you for going for us and providing that coverage. Certainly some incredible photos from Daniel and some awesome coverage from Hayden. So y'all, thank you for that. Hayden, we're just going to keep you talking here. Bless your soul. But we want to talk through interim charges issued by the Texas House Speaker this week relating to the border. What happened with those charges this week? The Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, Dade Phelan, published a list of what are called interim charges for 12 Texas House committees. And all of these charges were related to border security and the illegal immigration crisis. Okay, so what are interim charges? The 87th Texas Legislature and all legislatures is only in session for a limited amount of time

lawmakers are entitled to a regular session that lasts 140 days every two years per the texas constitution and they are only allowed to convene outside of that if governor abbott or whoever the governor of texas is at the time calls a special session. And of course, the governor has the discretion to decide what is deemed an item of consideration for that special session. Interim charges are responsibilities that Texas House committees have during the interim between sessions. So the reason that these charges are given to committees is so that they can do things like monitor, review, recommend, and examine different issues. So if you read these interim charges, they aren't executive type of commissions. They are to study different issues and to give recommendations for courses of

action for the executive branch of government, which enforces the laws. So that is different from, for example, the governor's role, which is to send reinforcements to the border and take other actions similar to that. It's mainly these committees are going to

be studying the issue of illegal immigration. Good stuff. Now, which committees received these charges? As I mentioned, there were 12 committees that were affected. The appropriations, corrections, county affairs, defense and veterans affairs, homeland security and public safety, human services, international relations and economic development, All 12 of those committees have specific roles in the border disaster. For example, the Juvenile Justice Committee will work out and study what the state should do when it takes a minor into custody for an immigration violation. A couple of other examples are the Appropriations Committee will be working on looking over whether pandemic recovery dollars can be used for a response to the border disaster. Of course, at the Texan, our goal is to make this process as accessible as possible. So you can

easily access a copy of the interim charges if you'd like on our website, the texan.news. So head on over to that article that's on our front page, and you'll be able to see a copy of Phelan's unarmed charges to those 12 committees. Awesome, Hayden. Thank you. I'm curious to see how this interim study from these committees will affect the next legislative session and how policymakers approach the issue. Thank you for that.

Daniel, we're going to stay on the border. Isaiah, we're going to come to you eventually, I promise. I promise we're coming to you. You don't have to. But Daniel, let's talk about a piece that Brad wrote. You're going to you um but daniel let's talk about um a piece that brad wrote you're going to cover this for him in his absence again he's just slacking off what the heck bradley yeah i let him do the writing and i'll just talk about it he's your intern he's doing the research for you so then you can just you know provide it in in spoken form

okay yeah sure we're going with that we'll go with that it doesn't quite make sense but okay you know but he's not here so it doesn't have to we can just poke him a little bit and see what he does okay um but let's talk about this so as the governor continues to talk more and more about the border crisis this becomes more political particularly in light of the primaries that are approaching eventually once we figure out redistricting, but they are approaching regardless. What does this landscape look like now?

yes. Like you said, redistricting, it'll be interesting to see how they gerrymander these statewide elected positions. Yes. Um, notoriously gerrymandered.

You could, you could really, you know, skew the, which voters get put in the district of Texas. Yeah. You really got that one almost past me i was like naughty and like oh my gosh i see what he's doing yeah yeah um so redistricting is not gonna play a role in the statewide elected officials that's why we're

seeing some i think those are going to be the the races to watch for the next few months uh they're going to be the ones where you actually know what candidates will actually be in the race. Because after redistricting, I guess it's a little bit different with congressional seats. You don't have to be in the district to run, but it'll be different for all the other races. So with the governor's race, especially, there has been some growing discontent with Governor Abbott, especially over the last year with the COVID-19 pandemic and his responses to it. We're actually coming up when this podcast is going to be released. It's the one-year anniversary of the face mask mandate, which, you know, whether you, I guess it depends on what side of the aisle you fall on, you might be in love with that or you might absolutely hate it. I have a feeling which way our Facebook commenters would side. But that has drawn some

criticism. And so there's several prominent people who are running against Governor Abbott in the primary election. The two biggest names in the race right now, the first one to get in was kind of a well-known humorist, chad prather uh conservative with a big following uh nationally i think uh who's running against the governor and then more recently who got into the race was a former state senator don huffines both of these candidates are coming at abbott from a further right perspective so more trying to attacking him from the right yeah yes which uh to my knowledge abbott has not really had a really competitive primary challenger like this in the past before yeah um or one that's well funded like yes uh or at least huffines foreseeably will be

yeah um and so with that uh huffines has actually come out and really hammered Governor Abbott for his response on the border, not necessarily the things that he's done recently, though he's criticized that too, but also the fact that the governor has been in this position for several years, and he's just now coming along to address it in the ways that he's doing. The full-on resume. Now, tell us more about the specific things that Huffines is criticizing the governor for. So one of the things that he came out with early in his campaign was he was pushing. He was saying that he was going to build a wall. That's what he wanted to do. Not rely on the federal government to do it. Obviously, Biden is not wanting to do that naturally for political reasons. But Huffines said that he wanted to do it. And so now he's saying that Greg Abbott, quote, stole my campaign's idea to build a wall along the Texas-Mexico border, which Hayden has provided coverage on Abbott's plan for that. One of the specific things that

Huffines has criticized about Abbott's plan is kind of the crowdfunding method where he's trying to solicit donations from the public to build this wall, uh, rather than just pulling from, I guess, state resources, uh, to do it. Um, and then also ahead of the event on, uh, Wednesday, when Abbott and Trump were at the border wall, uh, the Huffines campaign released a press release, uh, criticizing Abbott for not sending enough National Guard troops to the border to kind of support them. I think there's, according to the press release, I think there's 19,000 National Guard troops in the state, and Abbott has mobilized 500 for working on the border specifically. And so he's saying that's

not enough. We need to do more. Got it. Now, is this the field or will Abbott draw more challengers? It's yet to be seen whether or not he'll draw any more notable challengers. There are a lot of other challengers, you know, from the Libertarian Party, Reform Party, Green Party. I guess Green, those would not necessarily be primary challengers

different parties um but there's a there's a lot of other candidates who don't have quite as much of a platform to be running on uh but there are some other rumors going around about uh potential candidates one of the big ones is that uh the current gop chairman alan west is considering a run uh he recently announced his resignation from the party chairmanship. And so we'll see if he's going to run for that office or if he might be running for a different office. That's yet to be seen. It was also rumored earlier that Sid Miller, the current agriculture commissioner, was going to run for a higher position, possibly the governor. He had been critical of the governor and lieutenant

governor. And so it was rumored that he might be running for one of those positions. But he recently again announced that he'd be running for reelection to the agriculture commissioner position. One of the things that Trump said at the border conference right after Abbott kind of introduced him was he emphasized his own endorsement of the governor uh for his re-election and i was kind of saying that that's that has kept other people out of the race so we'll see if that continues to keep other people out of the race or if other people say you know what it's time for a change and run uh even against regardless trump's endorsed candidate.

Yeah. Which Huffines has said, you know, I'm still the Trump candidate. I align more with his policies. That's the argument Huffines is putting out there, especially post Trump endorsement, which is a hard hurdle in our Republican primary to overcome. Well, Daniel, thank you for covering that for us. Hayden, we're coming back to you. Give us a rundown of Governor Abbott's latest disaster declaration, specifically relating to the border. This is not a podcast table.

This is a ping pong table between me and Daniel. That's exactly right. Poor Isaiah. I know. I'm all right with him. Sorry, man. He gets a little break at the front end. He's going to have to work, you know, pull it, pull it, pull a lot of weight at the latter half here.

But certainly Abbott issued a border disaster declaration on memorial day that covered 34 counties it was one in a series of border security steps that he has taken just as daniel was discussing moments ago and as i discussed earlier the latest proclamation modifies the original disaster declaration with a shuffled is the word that you used and i really like that word it's a shuffled list of counties that reduces the number from 34 to 28 which counties were excluded and which were added the counties that are included in this new disaster declaration in total are brewster brooks crockett culbers Culberson, DeWitt, Demet, Edwards, Frio, Goliad, Gonzalez, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Jim Hogg, Kimball, Kinney, LaSalle, Lavica, Live Oak,

Maverick, McMullen, Midland, Pecos, Presidio, Real, Terrell, Uvalde, Valverde, and Zapata. So if you are in one of those counties, your county is covered under the latest disaster declaration. And it's important to note that these are also counties that are cooperating with Operation Lone Star and have declared their own states of disaster at the local level. So in that regard, they were already under a state of disaster. But the new ones on the list are DeWitt, Frio, Kimball, Live Oak, and Midland. Those are the ones that Governor Abbott added. And the ones he removed are Cameron, Duval, El Paso, Hidalgo, Kennedy, Reeves, Starr, Sutton, Webb, Willisey, and Zavala. So it's a bit ironic that Abbott would remove Hidalgo County from the disaster declaration, and then that's the location of the press conference and the border visit so that's a little bit interesting but hidalgo county was removed from the border disaster

list and that's one of the larger counties that was removed including el paso yeah and it's interesting to watching numbers and seeing okay well how do the numbers affect these specific areas that were then you know removed from the disaster declaration now what's the point of a disaster declaration what does it do what extra power does it give officials to combat a crisis? I'm not an expert on Texas Disaster Act, obviously. I can't really speak to all the specifics of that. But I can say that there are powers that the state government has during a disaster that they do not have, it does not have when we are in ordinary times. Abbott has used the Texas Disaster Act for the coronavirus as well. And this proclamation gives

the state the ability to suspend laws. And one of the items that was on the proclamation is childcare facilities that quote, shelter or detain unlawful immigrants are going to lose their licensure or have lost their licensures for lost their licenses for conducting business as a child care facility. So those are some of the things that the state can do in a time of disaster or emergency that legally they wouldn't otherwise be able to do. Got it. Well, Hayden, thank you for that. Isaiah, we are finally coming to you, my friend. Now we have some very, now that we've kind of finished the border stuff here, we have probably some more spicy stuff to get into, wouldn't you say?

It's very controversial. It's very controversial. Now, it actually is very controversial, but the actually is pretty controversial. But talk us through the exciting world of what happened at the state school board meeting on Friday. So the State Board of Education blocked the development of four charter chains and approved three others. And this is notable because they have never rejected a majority of charter applicants before, at least in the living memory of some of the members and some lobbyists. Yeah. In other words, most groups that apply for a charter in a given meeting get one. The most contentious charter that was granted was for Rocketship Public Schools, and they

plan to build two elementary school campuses in Fort Worth. Now they're going to proceed with that. And their vote passed the meeting. They passed the meeting by a single vote after a lot of argument. What kind of argument? What was the conflict all about? So on one side, you've got supporters that are ready for an alternative to the traditional ISD, which is in this case Fort Worth ISD.

And in particular, Rocketship has its eyes on the Stop 6 neighborhood, which is a Fort Worth neighborhood that has some struggling elementary schools, and they're proposing two new elementary schools so if you look at their report cards i picked one or two and linked them in the article as is prototypical for a lot of failing public schools and traditional isds they spend more than the state average per student in the case of these stop six schools about two thousand dollars more per student than the state average stop sex being a neighborhood in east fort worth yeah yeah but um their achievement record they've got an f in student achievement of the report cards and a c overall so um tom maynard that that

was that was the basis for maynard's vote for rocket ship it was different for uh some of the democrats like marissa perez diaz, a very vocal Democrat on the board. She says that she voted for Rocketship because of the support she saw from parents that showed up at the meeting. She wants them to have options. She believes in it because they believe in it. On the other side, you've got critics that mistrust the charter's practices. Rebecca Belmedero, another pretty outspoken Democrat on the board, said that she doubted the high academic performance of Rocketship's existing schools and claimed that they have only been able to achieve these good scores by squeezing them out of the students through coercion and overstraight practices. She says that when they're taking these standardized tests that they force the students to stay long and keep working to get it right. And I've got more for allegations in the article. There are also four Republicans that voted against Rocketship. They didn't speak very much in the meeting. Jay Johnson was one Republican who ended up voting

for Rocketship in particular. He voted against four other charters. And so he spoke for a lot of Republicans and maybe the four that voted for Rocketship in saying that he tends to oppose a duplicative parallel taxing system in the charter system and would often prefer to just have one ISD in a given place. There are also a lot of Democrats who claim that Governor Abbott and Mike Morath, both big statewide Republicans, had taken a deep interest in getting Rocketship approved. Ruben Cortez, one of the members, actually kind of stopped the meeting to ask the board's lawyer if Marath was allowed to try and persuade the members

to vote one way or the other, because apparently Marath had reached out. The lawyer said he wasn't aware of any prohibition, but also very honestly reminded Cortez that he works for Marath, and so might not be the best guy to ask. Now, charter schools tend to be a very hot topic. Education period is a very hot topic in terms of legislative intent and funding. But walk us through a little bit of the political divide and explain to our listeners why this is so contentious and how the battle lines are drawn. really um yeah reared its head in the meeting uh marissa perez diaz who voted for rocket ship had a very even vote over the course of the meeting um like a three and four vote in between the seven charters of approving and vetoing and so as she mentioned you know i'm i'm not about the whole charter versus isd and so y'all might say what is charter versus isd a lot of times they're framed or cast as being in conflict with groups like teachers unions, administrators unions, and pro-pub ed, really traditional are Republicans, usually older Republicans in

smaller or more rural neighborhoods in the state legislature that are not a fan of charters because of their constituents. You could talk about that a lot, about how many of their constituents are employed by local governments like the ISDs, but it's not public versus private because charters are public. And so the way they get approved in Texas is that the commissioner receives applications and he picks from a pool. In this case, there were 27 applicants and he chose seven. He sent those to the board. And the board has 90 days to veto them. So it's not like they actually actively approve.

Technically, their vote is to take no action. And so they can decide we're just going to get out of the way and let these charters go ahead. But we also have the power to veto them. And so in this case, that's what they did, is they stayed out of the way for three and vetoed four. Got it. Isaiah, thank you for covering that for us and explaining that so well.

Daniel, let's talk more about constitutional carry because we haven't talked enough about it on this podcast. And I mean, we really should. It deserves more attention. It should get more views than it is getting. constitutional carry because we haven't talked enough about it on this podcast and i mean we really should it deserves more attention it should get more views than it is getting on the website you're a little salty that isaiah's suppressor article is still trending above i don't know how it's the top trending piece still yeah i feel you i really do it's it's not very just like not very just you know you can you can carry a handgun without a license. It seems like big news.

But then also you can make it a little bit quieter. Oh, man. I suppose. They get really loud about how quiet they can now make their firearms. I suppose the difference is like Texas is like the 21st state to pass constitutional carry, whereas it's kind of leading the way in the suppressor thing. And the Texas made part of it, too, where like that has a fun angle for a lot of texans also if you just google texas suppressor our article comes up right away yeah the search

terms are pretty decent regardless uh you wrote an awesome piece this week about how constitutional carry became law this legislative session certainly something that's been tried for many years now and finally came to fruition. What were the expectations of constitutional carry passing going into this legislative session? So talking with different people who were involved in the process, different advocates for constitutional carry, I think a lot of them were hopeful going into the session like they are every session. I think if you ask anybody who lobbies the legislature for something, they're optimistic that the legislature is going to do something this time. And so I think they were hopeful that something would happen. But they were also, if they were being honest about their realistic expectations, I think they were kind of skeptical if it would pass or not. You know, going into session,

this was the first time the legislature was meeting after the COVID-19 pandemic began. Everybody was talking about the Disaster Act. There was talk about, you know, how should we, you know, protect businesses from liability with all the COVID restrictions and whatnot. And so there were just a lot of, uh, COVID focus. And then as you got into session, then of course, everything shifted to the Texas freeze

and the energy grid. Uh, and that became the, the lightning rod issue. But, um, I think there were some signs that people saw, started to see where the, there was movement on constitutional carry. Now, what signs in the House specifically suggested that there might be movement? So I think the first one, when people started being a little bit more optimistic, the thing that happened before session began was when Dade Phelan secured the votes that he needed to become speaker. Yeah, a new leadership regime in the Texas House.

Yes, so there was a change. There was, in the previous session, they were pushing for constitutional carry again, and that kind of got killed by Dennis Bonin when there was the whole conflict over the Second Amendment activist and the thing in his house and the whole ordeal. Yes. Quite a crazy thing. You can go look up some details on that. But then after his whole speakership kind of fell apart

and there was the vacancy in that and there's this new election, Phelan came out on top and that was good for gun advocates because he has been very pro-gun in the past. One of the pro-gun bills that passed in the previous session was a disaster carry bill, which allows people to carry a gun, even if they do not have a permit to carry a gun, if they're evacuating in the first week after a disaster. And so, you know, during the freeze, when things kind of hit the fan, if you were evacuating your home, there was a disaster declaration that Abbott had declared. So if you were evacuating your home, going to Oklahoma where it's warmer or something, then you would be able to carry a gun with you legally.

And you could carry it in Oklahoma because they have constitutional carry already. Yeah, exactly. Um, so, uh, you had, uh, his pro-gun record that pro-gun people were, uh, kind of supportive of, uh, Rachel Malone, who's the director for the Texas branch of gun owners of America, uh, told me, you never know what's going to happen when somebody gets elected to a speakership. Uh, but we were optimistic that we were going to see a friend and speaker feeling, or at least somebody who was fair about it and didn't do anything to block constitutional carry. So that was kind of the first thing. The other thing that happened that I think really secured the likelihood that at least constitutional carry would get a hearing and probably be voted out of

committee was when Phelan appointed James White, who had authored a constitutional carry bill in the past, to the Homeland Security Committee, which is the Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee, which is what the bill traditionally goes through. Yeah. And so just previously chaired by a Democrat. Yes. And the bill has, I think, it's at least received a hearing. I think there was one that was even voted out. I think it was white's bill in 2017 that got through a committee uh didn't make it to the floor um but uh when white was appointed uh that was kind of a sign that something was going to happen there's going to be a pro-second amendment person uh in the path of these gun bills certainly and not only a pro-Second Amendment person,

but somebody who had actively chosen to file it multiple times previously. And so when I interviewed White for this article, he was telling me that his district is very pro-Second Amendment, it's very conservative. The people who elect him want him to pass this legislation.

And so he said that it could very much be that in having a discussion with the speaker, he could have said to the speaker, Mr. Speaker, I respect your judgment. I thank you for the opportunity to lead a group of Augusta members on the Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee. But if I'm going to be on this committee, I think this is a discussion that we're going to need. So there's probably some conversation, even before he was appointed to the committee, of, you know, this is a bill that we want to see go through. And so there was a whole ordeal with the hearing on that. Of course, this was right after the storm had happened. Everybody had been focused for that for two weeks. And then they had this marathon hearing there were some grumpy activists who did not like the constitutional carry being put at the end of the list and so it was heard

you know in the early hours of the morning because it was heard after the george floyd bills yeah and uh but in his interview white was like i was right to have that long hearing. And he said, you know, if everybody had had those long, those long damn hearings, then more bills might have been passed. Such a James White quote. Now, in terms of once I once I got past that and the House started to get through the process of saying, OK, yeah, we're going to pass it. We're going to send it over to the Senate. That's where a lot of folks thought it would die was in the Senate. That was the talk among legislators, among staffers. OK, well, the House passed it. Now it's going to send it over to the senate that's where a lot of folks thought it would die was in the senate that was the you know the talk among legislators among staffers okay well the house passed it now it's going to die in the senate really quickly give us an idea of the

roadblocks that the legislation overcame so there were a lot of republican lawmakers who were supposedly on the fence dan patrick came out with a statement after the house had passed it and he said basically the senate doesn't have the votes to do it. It's not going to pass. He's not going to bring it to the floor unless it gets the votes. And then there was a lot of activists who started calling. Anecdotally, I've heard they were just flooding the lines with calls, pushing lawmakers, pushing Dan Patrick to get this bill through the process.

So there was a lot of political pressure going on. And then there was some movement that happened. Now, the thing that I think was a hold up for a bunch of Republican lawmakers in the Senate who were really like standing in the way whether they would decide whether it would pass or not. And their hold up with the bill was the opposition from law enforcement officials. And I talked with the legislative director for the Sheriff's Association of Texas, and he was involved in the negotiations on it, and he said that there was not a law enforcement organization anywhere in the state that liked the permanent permanent constitutional carry bill. And so it was really the Sheriff's Association who, you know, most of their members, sheriffs in the 254 counties, a lot of them are rural sheriffs who are in support of constitutional

carry. Of course, sheriffs are an elected position. So these people in rural counties, which are very Republican, are going to support a policy that Republicans like. But there were also some of the more urban sheriffs, maybe suburban sheriffs, who are a little bit more on the fence because they're dealing with a different situation than the rural people. And so they were the organization that was really the focal point of, I think, pulling some votes in the Senate towards getting it passed. And so they had several amendments added that were added to the bill, and that was what Republicans in the Senate got their support for the bill. Now, there was some concern expressed by Gunners of America, and then Representative Schaefer, the bill's author, also told me that he was also concerned that a couple of these amendments from the Sheriff's Association were actually not germane and could cause a point

of order in the House. But that didn't happen. Schaefer said we were shocked, but Chris Turner swung and missed the Democrat who filed or who raised the point of order raised on the wrong amendment. And so the bill went through. There was quite a bit of drama there. There were other lawmakers who looked at the bill and they said, no, these amendments are germane. So some debate there, it's not really clear what happened, but at the end of the day it passed and the lawmakers got it through this session wow what a roller coaster and if you want more details go read it it's very good stuff and there's a timeline at the end always good to see that as well isaiah we are coming back to you now kim roberts our north texas reporter had an awesome piece this week really covering what's going on in fort worth ISD with critical race theory. Could you explain more in detail the allegations against Fort Worth ISD and their

response? So the district for some time now has been spending money on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. They created a racial equity committee in February 2016 and adopted a policy to quote fight institutional racism. The district website's language also assumes a number of critical ideas about race, like the notion that racism is a structural rather than interpersonal phenomenon that pervades American systems, like public schools, for example. And a number of parents say that the district's professional development, which is training, includes critical race theory ideas. So Kim got the chance to talk to one teacher who participated in a diversity training in late January for Fort Worth ISD, for the equity committee, actually.

And this teacher said that participants had to engage in a white privilege exercise that arranged them by skin color. So in response, the district has said that critical race theory itself is not taught at the school. And they noted there is no course offered on critical race theory in fourth isd and it is not part of the curriculum now could you explain the complications around claiming that a school actually teaches critical race theory so i don't i don't think it takes a phd to understand that um generally in america we think about race either as a structural or an interpersonal thing in broad categories. Yeah. And critical race theory is an old academic discipline, like, you know, 40 or so years old, that is just now getting popular because there are a lot of writers that are bridging the gap between academia and, you know, the popular literary world like Ibram S. Kendi.

Yeah. And some other writers. So can you teach these ideas without, you know, saying like, all right, students, we're going to crack open some Kendi today. Right. You know, that's the question, right? So there are complications when a school says, we don't teach critical race theory.

But here are some tenets. Some depth is required. Right. You know, and for the most part i think people are some people are worried about like kids cracking open like a candy text in class or something for the most part um again this also this isn't this is just like a fact that critical race ideals have long influenced um a lot of training for teachers and, you know, the Texas Association of School Board Members and administrators and things like that.

You know, like my mom went through a lot of this professional development that was race related and involved the idea that certain standards like meritocracy can produce unequal outcomes. But that's for teachers and not curriculum, right? So there are complications to recognize. And there's for teachers and not curriculum, right? So there are complications to recognize. And there's a little bit more detail in the article. Good stuff. Well, thank you for covering that in Kim's stead, Isaiah. Daniel, real fast, let's talk through James White's latest announcement. We already kind of talked about

him earlier in relation to constitutional carry, but there's big news that he announced this week. Talk us through it. Yes. So he announced this week that he's going to be running for agriculture commissioner in the Republican primary. So he'll be facing the incumbent, Sid Miller, who said he's going to be running for reelection. Now, why does he want to run for this position? So when I was actually doing my interview with him on constitutional carry, he told me that he's been there for, I think, six terms, five or six terms, and that he is a proponent of term limits. And so kind of based on that, he's like, you know, I think it's time for me to move on. And so he was, you know, at that point planning to not run for reelection for that position, leave that office open to someone else in his district. And then he said that he eventually came out and said that he

wanted to run for agriculture commissioner. He hinted at this in kind of a big way on the Chad Hastie show. I think that was last week before his announcement. He said, quote, I hope and really think I'll be on the ballot again. I like the idea of being in the position to promote and protect Texas's number one largest industry in the state. We need all Texans fighting, promoting, and protecting our Texas agriculture. Um, because he said it's, uh, under siege on the border from transnational gangs, under siege from all types of federal overreach and regulation under siege from the economic market cartels that are driving down prices of our farmers and ranchers where they can't make

the money they deserve. We need Texans fighting and promoting and protecting our Texas agriculture, and I hope I'm in position in the future to do that. Now, this primary election, we're already looking at multiple statewide primary elections that actually have a little bit of juice behind some of these campaigns that we haven't seen in a while. What will this primary election look like? Yeah. So I think, you know, you have the gubernatorial race, you have the attorney general race, which we've talked about on the podcast already. And those are a little bit more heated. I think there's a little bit more mudslinging and tax going on back and forth. So far, there hasn't, I haven't seen any of that from these two

candidates, of course. It just started. So there's plenty of time for that to happen. But I don't think it's going to be quite as heated. Now, it will be interesting. I mentioned that Sid Miller had been critical of Abbott and Patrick. He'd filed lawsuits back in the fall against Abbott's kind of changes to the election, kind of circumventing the Constitution in the lawsuit, that's what he argued, to change the election policies. And then he also sued Lieutenant Governor in his official capacity for the COVID restrictions that they had in the Senate this session. And so there has been some criticism there against the statewide officials. So it'll be interesting to see how those officials might wade into the race and back someone else. They could potentially back White. We'll see if that

has any impact on the race or not. Absolutely. Well, Daniel, thank you for covering that for us. Isaiah, this will be our last topic of the podcast. I would love for you to talk to us a little bit about a piece from Holly Hansen, our Harris County reporter. Now, Harris County as an institution is undergoing some very significant structural changes. Yes. What's new? So County Judge Lena Hidalgo proposed a new realignment of county government to create the office of an appointed administrator. And the idea would be to structure the county kind of like the way a school district is structured,

or you've got a superintendent that has, you know, substantial power. And then the board beneath that superintendent has, has less power. You know, you also see this at the city level. Adler proposed something similar on a ballot that got shot down.

By substantial margins. Yes. The difference here is that the county commissioner's court and not the citizenry voted on this proposal. And so in a narrow three to two party line vote on Tuesday, the Harris County Commissioner's Court approved this proposal to appoint a county administrator. And so they created this office by a three to two vote upon a proposal from Judge Hidalgo. Now, there has been a lot of opposition to this proposal, I think would be safe to say,

particularly from local activists and concerned citizens. Why are they opposed to this proposal? Some of those groups that you mentioned were concerned about the opacity of the county's decision. It was evidently made very quickly and with not much chance for public input according to their allegations. Some of these groups that are lovely Holly Hansen sites are regular critics of Hidalgo, like Charles Blaine of Urban Reform, the C Club in Houston, which is a conservative group.

However, there are also some new critics joining the chorus, like the Houston Regent Business Coalition, very much more in the suit and tie crowd than the grassroots bunch. Stacey Fairchild and the Houston Super Neighborhood Alliance. And so, opposition to this particular proposal is a little bit broader than some of Hidalgo's other ideas. Certainly. Well, thank you for covering that for us and making sure that our awesome regional reporters get a little shout out on this podcast.

Yes, indeed. Good stuff. Wonderful gentlemen. Well, thank you for covering things so thoroughly. You guys are awesome. Now, I want to talk, we're nearing the 4th of July weekend. It's going to be fun.

All sorts of great things will be happening, I'm sure, in all of our lives. What kind of 4th of July traditions, all of you are looking at your computers or phones and not looking at me right now. And I just want to shout all of you out and say, hey, boys, heads up. Let's talk here. Aiden looks like a schoolboy who's been reprimanded. Now I'm like intentionally looking at my phone. I'm not really looking at anything in particular, just looking at my phone. Got it. Okay. Yeah. Well just looking at my phone got it okay yeah well that's wonderful we'll we'll have a we'll just i was listening but i was listening with my ears not my eyes yes but as we go into a fun topic that typically requires a little bit more engaged oh isaiah's closing his computer what

what wonderful gentleman i work with. Traders to the cost. Daniel, on my list of favorites today, you're nearing the bottom. I'm so sorry to tell you. That was brutal. Sorry I'm not Winston. Oh, okay, that's fair. That's fair. Fourth of July traditions. What kind of traditions have y'all, do y'all's families have traditions?

Is there something you look forward to on the Fourth of July? I like to blow stuff up. Delightful. Me too. Roman candle style or TNT style? Roman candle style. Do you like to hold them and point them at other people? No.

Okay. I was about to ask that if anyone has ever lit a Roman candle and pointed it at someone. My dad would and my brother, but us girls did not. We would shoot each other with bottle rockets. Not throwing candles, though. Okay. Because that's just a flaming ball of fire. There's no, like, object.

It's just... Well, actually, I guess there is, but it's an object that's entirely surrounded and on fire. So... That's true. Yeah, we'd shoot other rockets at each other. That's fun. I prefer to keep my independence day free of anything that might cause me to lose a finger or a hand.

So I enjoy fireworks. Very sensible. But you observe from afar, perhaps? I observe from afar or light them and run. You don't stick around for the detonation. Or play chicken with it, like light it and then watch it, watch the fuse burn and then run away at the last second. None of that appeals to me. I think I generally do the same thing, but the one exception would be like smoke bombs.

Those are fun. Those are fun. They're not dangerous. One of my favorite things to watch as men or just the male species talk about fireworks is how their eyes light up i think anything that like can blow up or be on fire or potentially cause harm it just incites a lot of excitement among your uh kind yes well you know you're talking about gender as a social construct or something blah blah blah you know those little poppers you throw them at the ground and they pop yes those don't really

explode i still love those those are fun we like to throw those at our mom's feet oh my word that's your poor mother can you are you are you gonna have some more this year i mean probably yeah i'll probably get some too those we need to save some for the office. Yes. Just for fun. Well, the thing is, it's not just like, I heard McKenzie's guess. My mom is very particularly afraid of popping sounds. She didn't like rodeo clowns as a kid with the pop guns and everything.

Those cans of biscuits, you have to unwrap them and they kind of pop. She would call us into the kitchen to open them for her. Cause she hated the feeling of having it pop in her balloons. She hates balloons. So you choose to take advantage of her fear. Yes. Got it. Strongly.

Such a, that's such a boy mom problem. You know, it's, I feel like moms of boys have to, you know, have a little bit thicker skin in that regard be ready to go to battle ready for popping ready for popping that's right um i eat a lot of watermelon on the fourth of july that's just what i like to do i love watermelon and i could eat a whole watermelon one sitting do you eat it i'm not like i could do you put anything on it no well i'm imagining like a cartoonish watermelon sized lump traveling down your soft, you know, and it just falls on a boom, you know.

You just created a Looney Tune that it was like. Well, you didn't clarify. You said you could eat it all in one sitting. Does that mean you eat it all at once without taking like cutting it or taking a bite? No, of course. The rhyme is not Hayden, Lord. Like if you just had a ham in one hand, would you just like take a bite

and pull out just an empty bone? Oh gosh. That sounds like a Tom and Jerry cartoon or yeah, Bugs Bunny or something. There you go. I will say one of my claims to fame is that at church camp, I was in ninth grade. It was a high school camp.

And there was one, I Isaiah's making fun of me, but there was a station at which you had to eat a lot of watermelon. It was a relay race. So there was like water balloon station and a potato sack race and all those kinds of things. And one of the stations was a watermelon eating contest. And of course, all the other teams chose their like 12th grade big giant male to eat the watermelon because they can just demolish it quickly i was ninth grade i was the youngest grade there and i was a girl and i will say that i beat all the guys in eating the watermelon that's impressive yeah i'd not feel very good for the rest of the day but i i did it and i won which is by far the best i was full of watermelon did you eat the seeds i feel like that'd be an advantage.

Did you turn red and have watermelon seeds like appear on your face or something? Exactly. It became some sort of, what's the superhero that has that problem? Is there one? Am I totally not remembering this correctly? Before you said the word superhero,

I was about to suggest the word excretion and then it went in a totally different direction. I don't know of any superhero that excretes watermelons from his pores yeah i don't either um yeah i can't think of any okay well i'm glad my knowledge is so poor well gentlemen um any final words for our listeners uh try breadcrumbs in your hamburgers. Wow. Yeah. Are they seasoned? I mean, if you want, it's more structural than anything. You put egg in there too? No. Okay.

I guess one could. Yeah. I know some people who put breadcrumbs and eggs. Interesting. Like a binder. Oh, are you? Yes. Eggs.

AYG. AY. In honor, and I will say say this in honor of the Texan I will be lighting a sparkler and riding the Texan with the sparkler Hayden Sparkler

you should take one of those pictures that high school girls take you know where they have the sparkler and they got a DSLR camera and they decide that they're going to be a photographer

yeah the long exposure right I would appreciate that if you would do that for us but that would involve me using Instagram which I don't like doing so unfortunately I probably you would do that for us. But that would involve me using Instagram, which I don't like doing. So, unfortunately, I probably won't do that.

Bummer. I'll tell you about it. Okay, that works. I'll get into the detail. Wonderful. Well, folks, thanks for listening and sticking with us. We'll catch you next week. Thank you all so much for listening.

If you've been enjoying our podcast, it would be awesome if you would review us on iTunes. And if there's a guest you'd love to hear on our show, give us a shout on Twitter. Tweet at The Texan News. We're so proud to have you standing with us as we seek to provide real journalism in an age of disinformation. We're paid for exclusively by readers like you, so it's important we all do our part to support The Texan by subscribing and telling your friends about us. God bless you, and God bless Texas.