The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - June 5, 2026

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to check out our articles at https://thetexan.news/ and leave us a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.

Well, howdy folks. Welcome back to another episode of the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. I'm your host, senior editor Rob Lauchess. And joining me today are reporters Mary Elise O'Barr and Meredith Dyer. How's everybody doing this morning? Doing well. How about you, Meredith? Yeah. Good question. How are I doing? Well, I finally, I'm in my car, as you all can see. I had come to another, I was in another area of town doing something and thought I would just stop by a library to do this podcast, which immediately ensued into chaos of poor Wi-Fi and the least like soundproof room I've ever been in in my life. So I quickly found a Starbucks, which is always great for some Wi-Fi if you need to grab it. And so here we are. We're getting things done on the road. Absolutely. Modern problems require modern solutions.

Oh, Starbucks is such a, like, if you need a quick, if your hot spots not working or you need something real quick, it's so great to just like stop buying. Starbucks is great for like everything except coffee. I mean, they've got. No, it's true. Yeah, I feel like, I don't know about y'all, but I feel like the Starbucks coffee might as well be McDonald's coffee, to be honest. Oh, McDonald's coffee is so bad. I actually think it's worse. And I'm and I'm not like a coffee snob, so that's how bad it is.

Like it is like an iced anything too. Oh, it's just it's bad, bad. Well, that's not coffee at that point. That's a milkshake, you know. Not like a frozen one, just iced coffee. No, like, not like a blended frappuccino or something. Those probably tastes good there. But like, you know, just like an iced coffee or an ice latte is like pretty rough.

And at McDonald's, so. Yeah, I don't think, I feel like getting a latte from McDonald's. It's kind of like in the Happy Meals. when they give you an apple slice. Like fresh fruit does not belong in McDonald's and neither do lattes, to be honest. So yeah. It's not the right. It's not right.

You're right. I'll tell you, though, Bucky's coffee is fine, but Loves. If you're ever on a long drive and you need a good truck stop coffee, loves has great coffee. So I had to make that. I made a drive once up to Nebraska for a friend's wedding a few years ago and we had to drive all night. Maybe I was just delirious because it was like 3 a.m. But that coffee was fantastic.

I mean, 3 a.m. coffee might just taste different in general. I do love Chick-fil-A's ice coffee, though. I like their vanilla ice coffee. So if you've ever needed to have a sweet little. I like their frozen lemonade. Yeah, that's pretty good. Did you all see, by the way, this crumble cookies, new dirty soda that they launched that has like 186 grams of sugar? Yeah, because America doesn't have an obese.

city problem already. That's like five days worth of added sugar per the American Heart Association for like a grown adult man. I'm sure it tastes really good. I mean, you know, if you can even taste it after you go into like a diabetic coma in five seconds. This is the Mormon's fault, you know, because it's all started and it's true, started in Utah with these mom influencers that did the sip or whatever it's called.

I don't know what it's called, but it's like some dirty soda situation that got going and now everyone's online oh make a dirty soda and I'm just like yeah okay sure I mean listen you I drink I eat and we all do something we have a little guilty pleasures but it's not it's not mine so I saw somebody on Twitter who said that um Utah has gone the same path as uh the middle east and that because the religion prohibits the consumption of alcohol they just turn to incredibly sweet food as the uh as the alternative Having lived in a Muslim country for a few years, this is very, very true. If you want a-

I bet the sweets are very good though. A tea or a coffee or anything, you're going to get everything's going to be extra sweet. How interesting. I didn't know that. What was the best dessert you had living over there? Okay, well, I lived in a country that used to be a French colony. So they had a lot of French bakeries. They would eat and they would, their food, their go-to bread was like baguettes and stuff.

But there was a French bakery in, you know, an East African country that had an almond croissant that I've never, even having gone to France. It actually was my favorite. It's a French baker that makes it. And it was like. That sounds really, really good. Yeah. Yeah, the countries with like, like with Vietnam, Vietnam has a big coffee culture because they were also colonized by France. And that's why a Von Mies sandwich right is on a baguette.

So that's pretty interesting. I didn't know. Okay. Oh, Bonnees are so good. Bonne is really good. I'm thinking that that might be what I go get for lunch after we finish recording here today. I know, Rob, when you suggested that a good substitute for ThunderCloud would be a Bonmee, I did take you up on that recently, and I was really happy because I do miss ThunderCloud subs here in Houston.

I don't think we have one in Houston at all. Yeah, Houston doesn't have like a local sandwich chain like ThunderCloud as far as I'm aware. I mean, you can go to like a subway if you, but I think I'd rather have Starbucks coffee than a subway sandwich, to be honest with you. Yeah. That's a strong statement there. Not a fan of subway, to be honest. But do you know what I am a fan of, though? I am a fan of talking about Texas primary runoff elections.

So we've talked about food for, I think, a good while and I'm starting to get hungry. So we'll have to change the topic at some point. But Mary Elise, it has now been over a week since Texas primary runoff. Tell us what stood out to you about the elections and share some of the themes you found. Yeah. So the runoffs are over. So some people would like to think that you could take a breath after the runoffs. But of course, it was like the second that the results are announced, the parties are like,

all right, now we know which candidate we're going to be attacking. And it started going after them, which makes sense. you want to use up all the time that you can over these next, I think, six months, but leading up to November general election. But it definitely was the end of the line for some really, really intense GOP, specifically campaigning. It was kind of defined by the endorsements that were issued, really a sentiment of anti-establishment, and then some pretty significant long-time-incomecy losses. So President Donald Trump, which I think we probably mentioned last podcast, he had definitely an influence on these primary runoffs, these GOP runoffs for sure.

You know, Trump, one thing that we highlighted in here is how loyalty is so important to him, but it doesn't necessarily guarantee an endorsement. We highlighted two different Texas State House reps who were part of passing the redistricting. that Trump had requested in Texas to potentially get some more GOP seats. So state representative Briscoe Kane and then state representative John Lujan. Although both of them, Trump ended up endorsing the person that was running against them in the runoff. And those individuals both ended up winning here. So that was notable from these runoffs. Kane was defeated by Alex Miller, Trump endorsed.

And then Lujan was defeated by. Carlos de la Cruz, also Trump endorsed there. Yeah, and then there was another Trump endorsement that had everybody's attention for quite a while in the U.S. Senate race where Trump was repeatedly teasing that he was going to issue an endorsement. He said after the primary election happened in March, he said he's going to endorse somebody and then ask the other to drop out. Well, that never happened. And we had, you know, we spent, we wait. for a while. We had some things lined up ready to go in case this were to drop, but it didn't for about two and a half months. And then Trump did, of course, end up ultimately endorsing Paxton. And Paxton really easily won this runoff. Cornyn actually set a record with his

36% of the vote as the lowest vote share from an incumbent U.S. Senator in a head-to-head primary were runoff since 1974. So it was not a good night for Cornyn. Great night for for Paxton's team. Yeah, and then something that we also covered in this piece was kind of the reaction of Cornyn after losing this election. Because a lot of people are speculating what Cornyn's path moving forward is going to look like now, especially since a lot of his campaigning in Paxton's two was aligned around marketing themselves as very loyal to Trump, a very aligned

with Trump's agenda. So some folks who were speculating, is Cornyn going to kind of go against some of the main MAGA priorities, or is he going to just at least feel more free to vote on some things that aren't necessarily Trump aligned or MAGA aligned? Cornyn has posted some interesting things on X since he lost his runoff, which we included in this piece. He shared one fable in particular on X that was about a frog who trusts a scorpion to not sting him if you would carry the scorpion to the other side of the river. And then as the two are midway across that river, the scorpion essentially dooms him both to death as it stings the frog.

Definitely an interesting thing for an elected official to post, especially after he lost his runoff. So, of course, speculations run wild about who's a scorpion, who's a frog. Our listeners can maybe think about what they would say the scorpion represents or the frog represents, but I have some ideas. They probably involve, you know, could be Cornyn, Paxton, Taurico, the GOP voters, or President Donald Trump, just a possibility there. But also, Cornyn's loss represented a significant grassroots victory because, and it was

representative, I think, of kind of push back against the establishment GOP. the margin that he lost by, I think, signals that the Republican priority right now is still aligned with the MAGA platform. And seeing that Paxton's endorsement by Trump probably had a significant weight in this election, I think that that probably indicates that the Republican Party is still pretty influenced by the MAGA platform and just Trump in general, still very keen to listen to what he has to say. elections. Another, you know, long-timing elected official, excuse me, that lost during this runoff was Congressmanship Roy in the Texas Attorney General race. State Senator Mayes Middleton defeated him. He took 55% of the vote, and then Roy had about 10% less than that. And so, Congressman Chip Roy will no longer be serving the U.S. Congress. That was another significant loss there.

Of course, he wasn't an incumbent for this position that he's looking for, but he's just somebody that's been an office. And he's been a representative. This was a race that took place without Trump's endorsement. So that was definitely a strategic move, I would guess, by Trump and his team to not endorse in this race. But everyone is well aware of, of the different spats that have gone on between Congressman Roy and between President Donald

and Trump. They've had their fair share of disagreements. Roy has tended to be a little bit more independent. He'll take some independent votes from the Republican Party, and he's clashed with Trump over disagreements. Another victory that I would say was maybe a victory for the grassroots and just was an interesting candidate, although he didn't win by a whole lot. He did win in the Texas Railroad Commissioner Race, Commissioner Race, which Meredith covered, I believe. So we saw the former chairman of

Tarant County Republican Party Beau French win ultimately against the incumbent Jim Wright. This was interesting because, I mean, French is, he is, could be considered a more bombastic with his language.

He's very, he likes to post a lot on, on X and he's very clear about his views on some more controversial issues and he's definitely more aligned with the MAGA platform as far as his posting on X goes. He had been publicly condemned by one of our most powerful leaders in the state, elected leaders in the state, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. This was when French had put out a poll asking whether Jews or Muslims were a bigger threat to America, and then Patrick had called her his resignation. And then interestingly, after, this isn't in the piece, but interestingly, after the race, French

listed people who had called him and congratulated him and that he was looking forward to working together with, even though they hadn't necessarily been on board with him while he was running, they had endorsed right, just considering that French was a little bit different of a candidate. but Patrick was not listed on those people who had called him and that were looking to work together with him. Although since then, French did share that he had a phone call with Patrick and that he believes that they're going to be able to unite and work together moving forward, which probably signals where the Republican Party of Texas is, you know, hoping to unite. This is a good signal for the Republican Party that Patrick and French are going to. kind of work together at least. You know, it might be grit in their teeth and work together,

but they're going to work to unite as the parties head to the general election. Because that's a big thing that, you know, both Republicans and Democrats, but particularly Republicans with this Senate primary runoff was pretty divisive. And so now they're really looking to, okay, we need to unite as we head to this general election. So we cover a couple other themes in this piece. I recommend folks go check it out and read it. But just some different themes and top lines from the runoff, of course. You could probably talk about this for quite a while longer.

But yeah, go check out the piece for sure. Well, thank you, Mary Elise. I agree that that could probably be the entire podcast if we wanted to, but that's what we had last week's podcast for. I recommend everybody go watch that one as well. Right after the election, we talked about a bunch of the biggest races. but thank you again for Mary Elise for giving us the rundown on that. Turning to you, Meredith,

we've been following the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program during its initial rollout. Give us the latest update with the program. Yeah, so throughout this, there's going to be a lot of little updates, and so we'll keep checking it out, but just as a quick little review, Texas Education Freedom Accounts or TFA is a program

that where eligible families are given awarded funds that they can use for private school tuition, tutoring, curriculum, therapies, different things that are approved, about 10,500 per eligible student. And if you have disabilities, what your student does, they can qualify for up to $30,000 and then $2,000 for homeschoolers. So they had added about 3,800 students to the list, but it was a little bit of a kind of a restructural. structuring and it keeps, it raised the amount slightly to about, I think, currently there's about 98,000 active awards that are still out there. But what happened was they had two different tiers that they gave awarded funds to. And the first one was back in April. And it was students with disabilities and their siblings, which is interesting. I think sometimes we write that. And basically, if you have a sibling and they are going to go and be a part of this program, they want to

keep the family together for that so that you don't have to be split in where your children are going to school. That's kind of what it appears to be. So they allow the, if you have a child's disability, their siblings as well are allowed in the program and awarded funding as well. And so they did about 42,400 students in that first round. And the second round shortly after that is about 53,000 students. And this is solely on income. So it's about if you have a family four with $66,000 or less of an annual income, you would qualify for that. So what happened was some of these families declined their awards. Others chose homeschooling.

And so they went from the $10,000, $500 down to $2,000. So it freed up more money. So if enough of them did that, then they would kind of, everything kind of shifted. And then they saw how much was available after that. And so they awarded about $3,300 on that income-based a loan. So that second tier for lower-income households. And then they also added an almost 300 more special, well, they would qualify a special ed, but students with learning disabilities. And there's also with their siblings as well, so almost 180 of their siblings.

So it was, yeah, just like some people, what they get, they get the award. They were encouraged to just apply, even if they didn't see the school they wanted, even if they hadn't been accepted. The comptroller was just encouraging people, apply, apply, apply, just get on the list in case. you know, in case you're able to use it. And so there's a lot of reasons why people would opt out. Maybe they didn't get into a school that they would like to. Maybe the school that they thought was going to be on the program didn't end up being approved or applying. There's personal decisions like that. So when everything kind of shifts, it just opens up more opportunities for other students. And so these parents have to choose their schools by July 15th. And they need to start,

schools have to start verifying enrollment at the end of July as well. And then some of these initial funding will start to show up in their accounts in July. So a lot in July, mid-August as well, we'll see some more of that rollout. But it's just something that throughout the summer, more and more people will either get taken off this waiting list, which I think the waiting list is about 175,000 students because there's 275,000 roughly that applied. So if only about 100 are on, then that's a larger waiting list. So a lot of people would love to be a part of the program.

So we'll see who gets to in the end. But yeah, that's what's the latest update with TFA. Well, thank you very much, Meredith. It's great to see how the TIFA program went from being this like, well, education savings accounts in general, just a couple of years ago were something that, you know, struggled to get through the house. And now the program is actually being implemented.

You know, it's great to see, it's always fun to watch something that was, you know, go from conception to a reality, you know. And it sounds to me, Meredith, like, We've actually got a few things coming up in the education world this summer. And I believe you even wrote about it in your newsletter report card, which I recommend everybody go and read because there's not just education savings accounts related things happening this summer. But there's a lot of education related things happening this summer. So thank you very much, Meredith, and I recommend everybody go check out report card.

And of course, Mary Leases the 40, great newsletter talking about all things Congress, which. Never run out of things to write about with Congress. Although, of course, after the 2030 redistricting, we'll probably have to change it to like the 45 or the 47 or something like that. I don't even think about that. Yeah, unfortunately, it won't be as nice as the 40 anymore, but that's a problem for another time. But there is a problem that we can't put off to another time.

Mary Elise, we had breaking news coming out over the past 24 hours for Texas and specifically its agriculture industry. What is going on? Yes, well, this is something that Hannah followed pretty closely, but I'm picking up the baton here today. The New World Screw Worm is now in Texas, this destructive flesh-eating livestock pest. It was discovered just about a week ago

or within the last week in a three-week-old calf and Zevilla County this week. So this is really, frankly, horrible news for the Texas agriculture industry. And, you know, in a press call last night, USDA, Secretary Burke Rawlins acknowledged, you know, this is, we have to be aggressive. This is not a good day for the United States. It's not a good day for the agriculture industry. But hopefully, they will be able to contain it, hopefully be able to respond quickly enough to. not allow it to be as destructive as it has been in the past.

So originally, State Representative Don McLaughlin let Texans know in a press release on Monday. He had received reports of New World Screw Worm presence, which was thought to have been defeated in the U.S., but it's been monitored as it's come closer and closer to the Texas-Mexica border. But he alerted folks that there had been presence of NWS. one mile from the Texas border.

And he suggested that the federal government had both abandoned Texas on border security previously and now was failing to take seriously the threat of the screw warm and its impact on livestock, wildlife, and then the economy's built around those. Shortly after he issued this call to action, the USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins,

she kind of pushed back in a briefing and said, you know, the closest confirmed sighting of NWS, has been 25 miles from the U.S.-Mexica border. But then on Wednesday evening, the USDA confirmed that they were actively working to confirm a potential case in Texas. And then while she was on a call with Texas Press on Wednesday night, which we were on.

Rollins confirmed that their NWS had been found in a three-week-old Calfs-Melika cord in Zavala County, which is represented by McLaughlin. And she discussed a number of efforts that they're putting forward that are taking shape, the people that are on the ground right now to combat this deadly pest. She spoke a lot about this new sterile fly facility, which broke ground in South Texas and mid-April that Hannah covered. Sterile flies are the standard response to these screw worms, which was thought to have weeded out their presence in the U.S. as they're supposed to essentially breed with the pests and then sterilize them. So we will be following this.

This piece will be out. We listen to this podcast. But we'll be following these developments. Rollins, we'll be hosting a press conference actually on Thursday evening. So we're recording this Thursday morning. So we'll be tuned into that press call as well to see if there's any further developments, if there's any more cases, and just what they're doing on the ground to respond to this. new world screw worm.

Well, thank you very much, Mary Elise. I think that the price of beef has gotten way too low in this country, and I'm very excited that now we have this pest, which is assuredly going to drive the price up. So everybody who's been talking about grocery prices, which if you've been on Twitter, sometime in the last year, you've probably heard about. I imagine that, yeah, hopefully, of course, the federal and state governments combined can do something to contain the pest. But unfortunately, it looks like it is going to be, it's just not good to see it coming back into the U.S. after it was eradicated originally. So speaking of another issue relating to the border of which over, of course, is where the New World screw worm, excuse me, it's believed to have crossed. Matt Stringer, who's been a reporter with us for several years now, he is no longer working at the Texan. He finished up his The Docket, his last edition of The Docket last week.

And this week, he wrote one of his last pieces here. We're going to miss Matt very much. But one of his last pieces here is on the Big Bend Border Wall saga. So I will step into his shoes and do my best. to cover this great story that he wrote, which I recommend everybody go and read. But there has been a concern over the federal government's plan to construct a steel barrier border wall in the Big Bend area, including an original plan that I believe would have actually put a wall in the national and or state park. Or at least this was like a popular concern at the time. The issue began last fall when then Secretary of Homeland Security, Christy Noam, issued an order waiving all regulatory restrictions in order to push the construction of border barriers through in the Big Bet sector.

Excuse me. Critics argued that the decisions surrounding border infrastructure were being made by officials in Washington with little understanding of the unique economic, environmental, and geographic realities of the Big Ben region. So part of the problem here is that, you know, as national and state parks, one of the big reasons why people go to Big Bend is for the environment, for the wildlife. It's a very tourism dependent area. And putting up, you know, massive steel border walls would kind of not only would it disrupt the natural beauty, but it might also disrupt, for example, migration patterns from animals that move in and out of that area, which, you know, if you disrupt the environment, disrupt the ecosystem, disrupt the wildlife, that could be a big bird. on an area that is so dependent on its natural beauty and tourism to survive economically. There have been multiple bipartisan groups that have organized against the construction of a wall and have been demanding further transparency and communication from the Trump administration.

For example, this past March, all five of the region's elected county sheriffs put out a statement. That statement said, quote, as elected law enforcement officials serving the Big Bend region of Texas, we share a commitment to strong, effective border security. Now, they also added that the region's natural geography serves as a barrier itself to human migration. People have pointed out that this is not an area that typically has lots of people crossing over. The geography itself is kind of an impediment to that. So putting up a steel wall might not really serve as big of a purpose as it would in other areas. And they said modern surveillance technology has proven effective in combination with traditional.

border security approaches. So questioning the need, not just the, not just questioning the negative effects of building a wall, but also asking potentially, you know, what good would a wall really do in an area that doesn't actually have as big of a problem with illegal immigration. In April, 14 county judges representing every county along Texas southern border sent a letter to the current Secretary of Homeland Security, Mark Wayne Mullen, asking for more communication and cooperation in making these border security plans. And the Department of Homeland Security now plans to show that they will implement sort of smart technology in the Big Bend National Park,

but that a permanent border barrier will be built immediately on both sides of the park and along a portion of Big Bend Ranch State Park. So something else of note here is that the region at issue is entirely contained within Texas Congressional District 23, which if you've looked at a map, is that in the enormous congressional district in West Texas that was represented by former Congressman Tony Gonzalez until he resigned last month over the controversy involving his affair with a now deceased staffer. Something to point out here is that there are two candidates seeking to succeed him, a Republican and a Democrat, the Republican being Brandon Herrera, the GOP nominee who almost defeated Gonzalez in a primary runoff in 2024 and did take him to a runoff this time until, Gonzalez resigned and, you know, isn't running for re-election. And the Democrat is Katie Padilla Stout. Now, both of them have expressed concerns over this wall. So it's not just, this isn't a partisan issue. This has become a bipartisan issue. Or really, you could kind of frame it as a local versus federal issue of local officials saying, you know, you guys need to understand where we're coming from and how this would be disruptive, whereas perhaps you could say the federal government is, you know, pushing for a kind of top down plan where, you know, where they can have their nice uniform border wall across the border.

But so like with so many things, Texas will always find a way to be a thorn in the federal government side. So we'll see what continues to happen. Of course, there's continuing this. The pushback has caused DHS to change its plans, but other communities are expressing concerns over the plans that they are still planning to implement. But I think that that's just, that's the nature of government, is you're always going to have some pushback. from someone somewhere over something. So again, I would highly recommend everybody read Matt's full story on the matter. It has a lot more detail than what I was able to go into here.

But Mary Elise, for another sort of border immigration-related story here, Texas is continuing to focus on whether our commercial driver's license holders are proficient in the English language. Tell us what their latest move has been. Yeah, the Texas Department of Public Safety announced that they're only going to be offering commercial driver's licenses and permit exams in English after they previously offered them in both English and Spanish and translators will not be allowed if an individual is taking an exam and they don't know English, they need a translator. This is really aligned with what the Trump administration has been doing recently. regarding ensuring that those who are operating these large vehicles, who are receiving these licenses in the United States, that they are proficient in the English language for a number of reasons expressed by the Trump administration,

but one of them being just being able to understand the road signs that are in English here in the U.S. So CDLs, of course, they're required for operating vehicles, very large vehicles, with a gross vehicle weight rating of over 26,000 pounds, or those that are designed to carry 16 passengers or more. Or it also includes any vehicles that are transporting hazardous materials, materials such as, you know, that would include semi-trucks, 18-millers, some buses, and dump trucks. So the DPS announced that on Monday

that both CDL and commercial license, learner permit, knowledge examinations, would be solely offered in English, no longer will be offered in Spanish. They did say that the hands-on CDL skills test, which includes a pre-trip inspection, basic control skills, and the road test has only ever been available in English, and will, of course, continue to be only available in English. I spoke to somebody with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that's under the United States Department Transportation.

they were on board with this change. They said the Texas DPS is taking all the right steps to keep American roads safe. The broader impact of these changes is safer drivers and safer roads for everyone. Some steps that have kind of led up to this and that have been a part of this pattern of related to English proficiency,

ensuring that our CDL drivers are fully proficient in English language. In late September, 25, the DPS announced that they would no longer be issuing CDLs to certain non-citizens in response to an emergency rule change that had been issued under the President Donald Trump administration because they had seen, quote, a troubling series of fatal crashes caused by non-domiciled CDL holders. and then just urging for reform to the nation's processes for issuing these licenses to non-citizens. Since then, DPS did announce on Monday that they've approved those with H-2A visas or temporary agricultural workers to once again be allowed to receive CDLs and CLPs by Texas. So the FMSCA said that they think that by clamping down on non-domiciled licensing loopholes

and demanding rigorous verification, Texas is shutting the door on bad actors who try to play by their own rules. This is a beautiful step towards securing safer roads for every single American. Previously also in September, Governor Greg Abbott had issued his own directive to the Texas DPS, stating that commercial truck drivers in Texas must read and speak English proficiently in order to obtain or maintain their licenses. And this was really in response to an executive order by Trump, which had asked the Secretary of Transportation to reverse previous guidance from previous administrations that, quote, watered down the law requiring English proficiency for commercial drivers. So like I said, this is a pattern. And this is a theme that the Trump administration is sticking to. And they're really cracking down on this issue.

So this is just another development in that. And so these commercial driver's license and permit exams will no longer be available in Spanish and just English. Well, thank you for covering that for us, Mary Elise. It's certainly been an issue going back for a little bit of time. Concerns over illegal immigrants getting commercial driver's licenses or just in general people. who, you know, can't speak English, can't read the road signs. Thank you for covering this issue. Meredith, turning to you for another, you could say, tangentially related issue over, you know, cleaning things up, if you will.

Earlier this year, the Texas Education Agency named its first Inspector General for Educator Misconduct. And Meredith, you talked with Levi Fuller about the agency's latest resource. Give us the details. Yeah, so the TEA made, they launched this educator misconduct dashboard as part of an overall student protection resources center. So we have links to all of this in the piece where you can go to the resource center, which we'll have mentioned. And we also link directly to the misconduct dashboard. So the dashboard is this intended to give parents and taxpayers. They said that it was made with them in mind access to information about misconduct reports, investigations, disciplinary actions.

And so the whole overall website that they're, he said they're like working on and overhauling and really trying to make it accessible to people as you can look up people's educator certification. If you have read an article or heard something about someone and are wondering, are they still a certified teacher? What happened with them? There's that look up. There's the do not hire registry, which is very clear that these people have been placed on for specific, very serious reasons. And then there's also instructions and tips for people if you want to report, like how you can report abuse, neglect, misconduct, things like that. There's just a lot of accountability resources. So the dashboard itself, it came from like public feedback because there is, there's an ongoing issue in Texas with educator misconduct.

We see it in the news. We've covered some serious issues. But honestly, if you cover all of them, you would be busy all day every day. I mean, it's constantly happening. And you'll see on the dashboard how many there are, how many reports there are. And then after that, how many investigations after that, how many certifications or do not hire placements are made? So it kind of walks you through the numbers in that sense.

And so Levi Fuller wanted people to know, like, we're listening to you and we know you have concerns. We want to make this information accessible to you. So the reports are increasing. So they have data from fiscal year 2025 and 2026 on the dashboards. That's what they have. There are a few other. There's like one section that has something dating back to 2020, but in general, it's like kind of comparing those two years. If you go onto this dashboard, just to give you a little hint, if you hover over almost every section of all the different tabs, there's even more an extra info. There's definitions and extra data about things. It's a little delayed. So I actually missed a few of them until it was pointed out to me. And then I realized, oh, all of them have almost, almost all of them have some kind of data that pops up. So, yeah, from 2025 to 2026, which 2026 is not over yet, there was about 6,500 to about 13,400, which is more than double and just a lot of reports.

But that's just reports itself. So we talked talking with Fuller about like, why are there so many more reports this year than last year? And he felt that because there are some stronger penalties for failing to report, there's also the centralized portal for superintendents that they create. to try to make it more streamlined and easier for them to report. There is a lower reporting threshold. Before it was like, do you have like this reason to believe that this is happening,

changing into like there is some kind of evidence, like something that you've seen that would cause you to report that. And so he just repeated a couple of times. He believes that administrators are reporting more out of an abundance of caution, just wanting to be on the right side after we've had so many unfortunate incidents within schools. And so obviously not all these reports are going to become investigations. So the investigations, they made a note there. Like sometimes we'll get multiple reports on the same situation.

And so we'll just like kind of combine those and make sure that all of that is under the same folder or the same investigation. And they're not all separate. So there's about 5,5,500 investigations in 2025. And so far in 2026, which is not over as well as a couple more months. about 9,700. So also a huge increase there. And a lot of cases end up getting closed. They don't have like the sufficient evidence. So of the reports that are closed, about 85% of them are closed because they don't have evidence to move forward with that investigation. And so what are we investigating? Like what are the things that people are reporting about that they're looking into?

The largest one was, and honestly, it doesn't surprise me as I thought about it. But I think because the inappropriate relationships and sexual misconduct definitely the bigger headlines in the news, school-related violence, which is a very broad category as well, it's anything from intentional violence to things like improper restraint, neglect, verbal abuse, and different types of physical interactions, which that could run the gamut of what happens to lead to those things. So that increased also about double the amount from 21, 2,200 to about 51, 5200. So inappropriate relationships had about 1,500 investigations. There were 822 in a very broad miscellaneous category.

And I only laugh because it's like ranges from social media related stuff to arson, bribery, criminal trespass, harassment. It just was like so many things could fit into that as well. And then some other categories, 483 into drugs and alcohol, 441 into sexual misconduct, and 364 into non-school-related violence, which was also kind of wild stuff. It was things like aggravated assault or kidnapping, murder, abandoning, or endangering a child. So a lot of like heavy criminal in that non-school violence. And so I asked Fuller about like, are you going to continue to work on this dashboard and update it? For me personally, I told him, like, I would love to see districts.

like click on a district and see like the breakdown of what's going on in each district for these things because some districts will have more than others. Also just some of the like there are some disciplinary actions eventually like that you'll see people that are suspended and you can be suspended for simply leaving your contract within the year. So sometimes there's like disciplinary actions that are taken that are not as serious as other ones. So he did mention that like one of the things his department is like we tried, well we first

changes we did was on the disciplinary reports, which are included in this whole resource page. They're under the dashboard. You do have to click on them and read through them. They are not in any kind of like easily, like to filter them. Like it's not very easy. And so I was just asking if that would be a little bit easier because they do include the districts and the teacher, the district, and the action taken against them if they're on the do not hire, whatever that is. And so he just pointed out that he really did work to get the districts there. So you can go find the districts in the names. But he kind of like, yeah, we've gotten that feedback that people do want the district data, like, easier to access. And he's like, we want it to be easy. We want it to be there for the

public. He's told us it is in the work. A lot of things are in the works. And he doesn't want to, like, he can't announce them right now, but he says they're overhauling their process. They're going to roll out, like, some serious projects based on the feedback of parents, administrators. Stakeholders, people that want to know what is going on. And I want to look at a district and know, like, what's the issues here? And what. what's going on with the teachers. So hopefully we'll see some more projects like this. But I definitely encourage you go check out this dashboard because it actually is when you get to it. It actually is easy to see the data where sometimes it's very hard on government websites to figure out what's going on.

So this one I just would say give it a little check it out. Well, thank you very much, Meredith. Certainly it sounds like a very important resource. And I know you had a great conversation with Levi Fuller. And I know you also interviewed him earlier this year, is that right when he was first hired. So definitely recommend everybody go check that out. Turning next to a story that was written by Holly, who unfortunately also can't join us on the podcast today, but it was still a great story,

so I wanted to bring it up. This is about a McKinney woman whose house was partially destroyed by police while they were in pursuit of a fugitive, and she just won a lawsuit against the city in a federal appeals course. decision. Holly has a knack for picking up all of these really interesting, like local stories dealing with property rights issues. She's written extensively on the city of Kima, and now she has another one in McKinney. So under an opinion by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals at the end of May, the McKinney woman whose name is Vicki Baker is entitled to nearly $60,000 based on the

value of damages incurred in 2020. However, the award is a mere fraction of the legal costs that were incurred in fighting the case. So they started back in July 2020 when a fugitive led police on a high-speed chase after he kidnapped a 15-year-old girl. The man whose name is Wesley Little, he broke into Baker's House, which was currently undergoing, which was at the time, I'm sorry, undergoing renovation. Little did release the girl, and then the McKinney Police Department SWAT team, you know, did a bunch of stuff to get into the house. They ran over a fence in an armored vehicle. They used tear gas grenades. They used explosive devices.

And then they found that little inside the house had died by suicide. Baker's insurance did not cover the $60,000 of damages to her home since it was caused by police. And the city did not compensate her either because they said the destruction was for the public good. Now, in 2021, she filed a federal lawsuit with assistance from the Institute for Justice. And in 2022, a jury found the city liable under the Fifth Amendment to the Senate. the U.S. Constitution, as well as a provision under the Texas Constitution, requiring the governments provide adequate compensation for damage to property through physical damage or policy that deprives the owner of the use of the property. The city then appealed the

verdict, and in 2023, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the portion of the case dependent on the U.S. Constitution. But they left Baker's claim under the Texas Constitution in place for redress while keeping the case within the federal court system. And then the lower court again found the city liable for damages to Baker's property, but the city appealed and argued that the case had to start all over in state court. And then in an opinion from May 22nd, the Fifth Circuit rejected that argument and said, no, you know, yes, this is under the Texas Constitution, but no, she does not have to abandon the federal courts and start all the process all the way over again in state court. they cited a 1980 Supreme Court of Texas opinion in steel versus the city of Houston, in which innocent third parties are still entitled to compensation under the Texas Constitution, even when their property is destroyed for, quote, great public necessity. Jeffrey Redfern, one of the Institute for Justice attorneys who represented Baker, told the Texan that although Baker's case may not look important at first glance,

it is a significant case as an affirmation of property rights in Texas. So I would highly recommend everybody go read this story by Holly. I couldn't even get to like half the details in the full story. So very interesting to see, you know, legal cases are always interesting to follow because they rely on all these technicalities. Like, for example, saying, oh, sure, well, if this is under the state constitution, then we need to start the whole process over in state court. You know, lots of, lots of cities have, this is something Holly's also. written about is that a lot of cities use these kind of delaying tactics, and some of them have gotten pretty good at it.

So definitely check out Holly's reporting on the situation. But Mary Elise, this is not the only story relating to a lawsuit against a city that we have talking about today. Texas, the state of Texas, is suing a city for an event that was being held, if I recall correctly, this coming weekend. Tell us what's going on there. Yeah, this is, like you said, the state of Texas suing a city, the city of Denton, although it's over a rather different subject. So Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Denton for a private event that's being held on its community center grounds because it will include or had planned to include gender neutral changing rooms.

And so he's saying that's in violation of Texas's law, which requires a separation of those publicly funded intimate spaces. such as bathrooms by biological sex. The event was called Big Gay Swim Day and was self-described as a private pool party scheduled for this Sunday, June 7th, and planned to be hosted at the Denton Civic Center pool in Quaketown Park. Now, this Civic Center pool,

whenever the facilities closed down for the day, they usually allow two hours for private rental, so that's when this event would happen. would be in those two hours following it being open to the public. So Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the suit against several elected officials in Denton and his goal was just to cancel the event entirely. And then he said also to get injunctive relief to prevent the city from future potential violations of this law. Yeah, so this is the one that we've covered extensively before at the Texan news.

Just this bathroom bill, as people call it, separate. operating bathrooms, intimate spaces that are publicly funded by biological sex. We saw most recently Paxon launched an investigation to Austin ISV in March to determine if it was in violation of SB 8, which is the bill that law was carried through. And so in this case, in this Austin ISD case, we saw a parent had first submitted a complaint and then reportedly contacted the school district on several occasions and had no response. within the court documents on this case, there was a complaint from Denton resident,

Steve Sullivan, who wrote to the city manager and a city council member and said that this plan to operate gender neutral changing rooms on the premises of the center may be in violation of this law. Then Sullivan went on to report this to the office of the attorney general, which is what brought this lawsuit about.

We were able to, speak with the interim director of marketing and communications, Kayla Herod. And as she had told this resident before that had emailed them, she said that this big gay swim day was a private rental, not sponsored by the city, but she also noted that while they promised to convert the gendered bathrooms, she said no facility signage can be tampered with during those private events, whether it's like temporary covered or altered signage. She said that goes against the law. So, yeah, we got a comment from her.

And, you know, there were pretty strong words from Paxton, but she said the city of Denton is aware of this lawsuit. But before this action was taken by the Attorney General, staff practically took all necessary measures to ensure full compliance with state law in advance of this rental on June 7th, including informing the organizers as certain elements of their advertising conflicted with state law and advising them of their requirement to comply. So I would say it looks like the city's probably on board with

with Paxton's concerns here and they, you know, contacted the group that was going to be hosting this. It's notable that the website Pride Denton, which is one where the group that would be hosting this big gay swim day, they had an entire

page dedicated to this pool event just describing what can you expect, what should you bring, what should you not bring. But on there they list that you can't expect that we'll convert the gendered bathrooms. That page though describing the event is gone. If you go to it, it says something along

lines of this page is no longer operational. Although it still is listed as an event happening by Pride Denton, it just doesn't have a whole page dedicated to laying out the details. So we'll see this event. It looks like it's set to still move forward this weekend, but it appears as though maybe the bathroom

aspect of it won't be a concern. But if it is, I'm sure the Attorney General's office is going to be on it and potentially the city will be watching that closely. Well, thank you very much, Meredith. I'm sorry, Mary Elise, we know that, of course, when it comes to things like this, I think we can't say the Attorney General's office is usually pretty, pretty, you know, like a dog, that bites and doesn't want to let go, you know, when it comes to things like this. So thank you, very. They hear Gaye Swim Day and they're ready. They're on it.

Yeah. You said the name is Pride Denton, like one solid word. Yeah, it's, I think it's, you probably say it like Pride Denton, but it's, it's all one word. So it emerges the Pride and Denton. Yeah. So you can, if you look at them up, you will see pretty quickly that all of their events, and just kind of what they're about online. All righty.

Well, thank you very much for giving us the rundown on that, Mary Elise. I'm not going to mess your name up again. Turning now to you, Meredith. Texas Southern University published a new survey on Texans' views about K-12 public education. How do voters feel about the state schools? Yeah. So the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center at TSU, went and talked to 1700 registered Texan voters and asked them about, you know,

what do you think about public education, K-12 public education? And they also asked them about the Texas Education Freedom Accounts, which we're always talking about. And the survey included 614 parents or guardians of school-age children. So as we're all talking about this, there's a lot of information in the survey, which is interesting, but we just kind of pulled out some things that stood out. And so they asked them about state level, district level, and then they asked the parents if it applied if they were a parent, what they thought about their child's schooling situation.

So we've already talked about what TFA is and what that program is. It was interesting. They asked them how familiar they were with it. And so just overall parents, about 57% of them, said they were very or somewhat familiar, so they kind of leaned towards being more familiar. And then 43% said they were not very familiar or not at all familiar with what was going on with TFA, which is something that we've reported on. I know that they wanted to get the word out and make sure that everybody was really aware of it.

And they even said they were going out. I asked multiple times out specifically where and how they were going out and didn't necessarily always get the details on that. But they did say a goal is that we want to go make sure we spread the word. We want to make sure everyone knows about it. families that had higher familiarity with it were like parents with college degrees were more likely to know about it. Urban parents compared to rural parents knew more. Black parents knew more in those families. Parents already using private schools, charters or homeschooling were more likely to be familiar with the program as well.

So then they go and ask them like, how do you feel about your local schools like at your ISD is what's going on there? So 72% of parents rated their school district as excellent or good. And then 49% of non-parents gave the district a positive rating. So we did find throughout this that, like, parents were more likely to view what's going on education-wise as positive, and non-parents were more likely to view it as not as favorably. Then they went to statewide, and they asked them, like, how do you view public education statewide? And so two-thirds of parents viewed it still positively. And then similarly in the 41%, so a little bit of a drop for non-parents said they viewed it positively.

So some, it wasn't too off there, but it definitely went down a little bit when you like go out to statewide. And then we, they looked at age groups. They broke each of the questions and the topics down by so many different things. But when they talked about age, they found that younger people, so Gen Z was the highest, had the highest favorability about six. C1% saw public schools positively, and then it just would go increasingly down as you got to Millennials, X, Baby Boomer, Silent Generation. So that was always interesting to me just because statistically, we do know that Gen Z has gotten a statistically lower quality of education and their ability.

Yeah, they're like, where they're performing is significantly lower. And so it's just interesting that they view it more favorably. And it makes, I mean, it does make sense. somebody posted like a 1970s reading list the other day online. And the books that were on there would be books that, you know, students are not reading to this day. And that's some of the books that are literally being argued about right now, whether they should be on a required reading list or not. And a lot of pushback against that, that they're too hard. Political differences as well, 54% of Republicans rated Texas public education in the state as good or excellent compared to 42% of Democrats, which also makes you think.

for a second just because stereotypically Republicans are more, you would think of them as more like negatively looking at education and Democrats is more positive public education. But I think that just is a testament to just the changes that are happening in Texas public education that do fall still under some of that public like state funded situation. And so some people might think, oh, Texas education, there's so many things going on there, like whether it's school choice types of things that are happening. And then obviously people, 88% of public school parents thought that their child's experience in school was good or excellent compared to 98% of private charter and homeschool, which of course the homeschoolers, I hope would say, I hope they'd say yes. I'm like, you're the teacher. And then, yeah, we just, at the end of it, we kind of just added in a little bit of some data about where is Texas. This is what people think and feel about what's going on, but what is going on. So we included some NAP scores, which is like, can refer to. to it was the nation's report card and just like where we are standing wise. We are eight in fourth grade math, like listed. And 37th though, in fourth grade reading, then 34th and eighth grade math and 44th and eighth grade reading. So there's some lower numbers in there. And then just some star results and just giving some people some things to think about. This is what people in Texas that are registered voters think about what's going on.

And it's always good to check in with the people. Well, thank you very much, Meredith. I think the most interesting takeaway from this is that parents who have kids in school and kids who are the closest to being either in school or out of school tend to have just generally a more positive view of public education. Whereas it's the non-parents and the people who have been out of school for a long time who you would think then are just are less close to school. They tend to have a more negative view. I think that that's very interesting. I guess I would assume it would be the other way around that. like kids would have the worst view of their own schools and parents would. But yeah, that was that was a very interesting result. I would not have assumed that. I would love to if they had added in a little bit about teachers in here. I'd love to hear teachers' thoughts on all of these things because parents are not in the schools every day.

The kids are in the schools, right? And we do know that statistically teachers are not 100% satisfied with what's going on. So I would throw a huge wrench into, not wrench, but like just add another layer into all of those things. That's a good point. Actually, maybe that'll be the next big survey to come out. And of course, if that is the next big survey to come out, you can catch it at the Texans. So make sure that you are keeping up to date with us because who knows, maybe that'll be the next big. Maybe that'll be the next big thing.

For our final story of the week, I wanted to touch on a story that one of our other reporters, Kim Roberts wrote that I thought was really interesting. We have written on this one before, but it was kind of a smaller, just sort of a single piece, but there has now been an update on this one. So, who can make gold and silver coins that have the image of Texas on them? This is the subject of a lawsuit right now. The company, private company, Texas precious metals, which is based in Shiner, sued acting Comptroller of Public Accounts, Kelly Hancock, for infringing on its intellectual property

rights and exceeding his statutory authority in operating the Texas Bullion Depository, which has started offering its own gold and silver coins. So Texas precious metals has been around for a while, but they have a trademark on producing like gold coins that have the image of Texas on them. And the Texas Bullion Depository, which was created in 2015 by Texas Huxes, House Bill 483 by State Representative Giovanni Capric Leone, signed by Governor Greg Abbott, announced in December 2025 that Hancock, I'm sorry, Hancock announced in December 2025 that the depository would begin offering commemorative precious metal products to investors and collectors. That phrasing is very important. They are called Texas Lone Star Coins and Modern

Texas Redback Gold Notes. Texas precious metals sought a preliminary injunction to stop the depository from designing and selling the coins. And U.S. District Judge David Allen Ezra first had to address whether the state of Texas is immune from suit based on sovereign immunity, that being the idea that you can't sue the government without their consent. In this case, the court said, no, they're not protected by sovereign immunity because they had filed an action in another district court against Texas precious metals on related claims. So the judge said, well, you guys are already sort of in federal. court. So you don't have sovereign immunity on this issue anymore. The next big issue, though, is did

they exceed their statutory authority in selling these things? And they said, and the judge said, no, the legislature likely intended to allow them to sell commemorative coins and notes as promotional items. Then we get to the real tricky part, which is, did, by selling commemorative coins, was the Bullion Depository offering legal tender. This is kind of the trickiest part. Ezra found that the state's use of the word coin was misleading because he said the common understanding of coin is synonymous with money or currency. But because the depository website disclaims the coins as legal tender, the court then had

to see, you know, is the use of the word coin here what caused, what would potentially cause confusion among customers? And the court wrote, quote, the possibility that the state of Texas entry into the precious metals market may cause consumer confusion or divert customers does not render its participation unlawful. Rather, such effects are an inevitable consequence of marketplace competition. And the court therefore declined to issue the requested injunction. They were also not persuaded that Texas precious metals trademark was infringed, arguing that. Yeah, so they have what's called their mint mark, which is the geographic outline of Texas. With, I believe, Kim reported they have 4.6 million coins in circulation today, just quite a bit.

In reaction to the court's decision, Texas precious metals, chief executive officer and co-founder Tarek Saab told the Texan that although the court chose not to grant an order for preliminary injunction, the decision is noteworthy insofar as the state's use of the word coin might confuse customers. something which has been a core part of our position all along. He also noted that the court rejected the state's attempt to, quote, avoid accountability through sovereign immunity defenses, ensuring these claims will now move forward on the merits. So coin collectors, this is the story for you. Gold and silver, you know, the people who are fans of gold will find this story interesting. Yeah, definitely check out Kim's reporting on this subject. And as with all the stories that I have covered for our reporters today, my unworthy self has hopefully done as good of the job as I can.

But again, there's more details in all of these stories. So definitely go check them out. Now turning next to tweeterie. I know we were talking about food at the beginning of this podcast and I'm even hungrier now than I was before. So to wet my appetite even further, Mary Elise, do you have some food-related tweetery for us? Yes, and actually this could be tied into New World Screwhorn, too, but this is an article by the Washington Post about Texas barbecue joints that are closing because of skyrocketing beef prices, particularly Briscuit, in case you haven't noticed, brisket has gotten a bit more expensive.

So, you know, they interviewed some different barbecue owners who are concerned about this, and I would imagine a lot of consumers are concerned as well. But with this grew worm, I'm sure it's going to, there's no way that this New World's grew worm isn't going to affect our beef production. And that's just going to have a downstream effect on our barbecue, even our brisket. So just a little bit of food news for you there. Well, thank you very much, Mary Lees. Did you all see, by the way, that Panda Express has now launched a brisket item?

Gross. What? Everything about that is not. That's gross. Yeah. It's actually getting like decent reviews that I've seen from some articles. They're saying that it might be one of the best things they have on their menu. I love Panda Express.

Okay, Rob, you should try it and then report back and tell us what you think. I guess that'll be my next week's tweeterie. Yeah, I'll have to. Oh, gosh, maybe that's what I'll do for lunch. I did say I was getting hungry. But, oh, is that so bad? Oh, whatever. Meredith, turning next to you for tweeterie.

Sorry. I just Panda Express. I grew up on bad Chinese food from Safeway from the grocery store. I don't think you have Safeway's here at all. And so I don't know. I did a lot of that growing up. My mom loves that stuff. And so then it just stayed away from it.

Okay, mine is not food related. It's just kind of like heartwarming. And it's one of those things that sometimes Twitter does the right thing and like it's the right people looking at the right post. And I really hope that this works out. It's a guy. His name is Rodney Smith Jr. He's from Huntsville, Alabama. He has this organization called Raising Men and Women Lawn Care. I hope there's no scandals related to this. You know what I mean? When you go to talk about a Twitter post, you saw that you're like, this looks like a normal, very wholesome thing. And they get children to do the 50-yard challenge. So they have six-southing, wow, can't talk you there. Six-thousand kids across the country that have pledged to do 50 yards for either elderly, veterans, disabled, military, like a their lawn for free. And so he's asking the White House and he's starting to get up a little traction. I'm, you don't have to get maybe some more reposts, but he's asking the White House if he could bring some kids with him for the 250th anniversary to mow the lawn on the White House for free.

And which would be funny because it needs to look really great and not that they're not doing good job, but you know, these are kids. And but he just, he says, I want them to see how a simple act of service can lead to extraordinary places. He also wants to bring a lawnmower to get assigned by president to auction it off for veterans support. And so anyway, that would be somebody posted off too about the lawns covered with like UFC crap, but then somebody else posted there's a whole other lawn over here, whatever, the south or north, whichever one is not covered right now. But that would be really cute.

I think I would like that, but that's sweet. I like that with you. Very nice. Well, my tweetery is tangentially related only insofar as it's related to the White House itself. Kalshi politics. The prediction markets continue their slow but steady intrusion into every single aspect of human existence. But Kalshi Politics tweeted out that Hunter Biden has a 14% chance to run for president as a Democrat in 2028. Biden, 2028 might become a possibility if Hunter Biden decides to run. People say like, oh, that'll never

happen. That's impossible. I'm pretty sure, you know, most people would have said back in 2014 that, you know, reality TV show host Donald Trump running for president would seem pretty unlikely. So you never know what's going to happen. There's been some other developments on the Biden side recently with, I don't know if any of you all read Kamala Harris's book, 107 days that came out at the beginning of this year. Yeah, it was the beginning of this year talking about the 2024 election. but there has also been a little bit more controversy over this. So in that book, I did read it actually. Yes.

I waited for a very long time from the Austin Public Library to get a copy. And they had like a lot of money. Well, no, that's the public libraries are great. That's, you know, that's, they're awesome. If I do buy a book, I go to half-price books, though. That's my favorite bookstore. But so, yeah, so then Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro released a book and he had gotten a little bit of shade in Kamala Harris's book.

Kamala Harris's book kind of made Shapiro out to be like when he was being considered for a VP position. He's kind of made out to be a little bit like he was kind of being a social climber or like, oh, could I install artwork in this parts of the, like he was more interested in like the vice president's residential accommodations. And then in his book, he was like, oh, I wasn't. And then Jill Biden is releasing a memoir now. And actually, Joe Biden announced that he is also going to be releasing a book in September just before the midterms. So this Kalshi politics thing was kind of my segue way into getting into this, which is that we will be reading, having a book from the man himself about what he things went down in that election. So I've seen some people.

Yeah, I've seen some people who are more Democratic aligned saying like, why are they doing this? because it might introduce a little bit of just a tad bit of chaos right prior to the just before all this happens. But, I mean, I'm looking forward to it. I imagine I'll have to wait even longer for that book at the library. But, yeah, I mean, all these books coming out, it's an exciting time. You know, if I had a nickel for every time somebody released a book talking about the 2024 election, I would probably be able to buy my Panned Express order with it. so.

Probably so. Absolutely. Well, thank you to everybody for joining us again on this week's episode of the weekly roundup. You can catch us here next Friday morning. Thank you very much and have a good one. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to

podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, visit us at the Texan. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting us an email to editor at the Texan. News. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.