The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - March 20, 2026

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free "Remember the Alamo" hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.Nearly 4.5 Million Texans Participated in March Primaries, Democratic Voters Led With TurnoutBinkley Drops Out of Congressional District 32 Runoff, Endorses YarbroughArmed Man Wearing Tactical Gear Arrested for Attempted Entry to Klein Elementary SchoolAntifa Members Convicted Over 2025 Prairieland ICE Facility AttackAfghan National, Former U.S. Forces Ally Dies in ICE Custody After Parole Status ExpiredFederal Judge Extends Texas ESA Student Application Deadline Amid Muslim School Exclusion AllegationsCornyn Signs on to U.S. Senate Bill Revoking FDA Approval for Chemical Abortion PillAustin ISD March 'Pride Week' Draws Scrutiny from Republican LawmakersGalveston Officials Advocate for Land Bridge with Rail Access Between Galveston and Pelican IslandsTexas Jobs Council Established by Abbott to Prepare Workforce for ‘High-Demand’

Well, howdy, folks. We are here for another one of the Texans' weekly roundup podcasts on your host managing editor Rob Lausus. And with me today are senior reporter Kim Roberts, reporter, I believe Mary Lease, are you a senior reporter or not? I can't remember. I'm not sure. I'm going to have to check with the lead report after the podcast. Okay, there you go. So we're with Mary Elise and also reporter Meredith Dyer. How's everybody doing this morning? Very well. Good stuff. It's fun to have you managing the podcast. It's been a little while since I've been on the weekly roundup. Yeah, I think those podcasts with Cameron back in the day,

but I haven't been on the roundup in quite a bit. So it's fun to be back. Very well-dominated, so welcome. When do you think was the last time you were on this podcast? It's got to have been over a year. I think maybe, maybe in primates. and the 2024 primaries, actually. I think all of us were on to talk about it.

I didn't have anything to contribute, but it was fun to be part of it. So did everybody survive the cold snap that came through earlier this week? Survived. Yeah, that was kind of bizarre. Arrived. I loved it.

It's a bit chilly for me, but I'm glad to see the warmer temperatures headed our way. But 90 this early in the year is a little excessive. Yeah, if we could stop the yo-yoing from like 40 to 90, that would be fantastic. Yeah, I think within the span of a week, I went from 30s to 90s and the span of seven days, just so classic Texas. Yeah, I think that's the last thing we need. But we do have a pretty good week's worth of news to get into here. So we'll just start at the beginning, Mary Elise.

With the Texas primary now behind us, there are a few turnout-related numbers that stand out. Why don't you give us the top lines? Yeah, so we did a piece on looking at the turnout from the primary, of course, and now we're approaching the runoff, and so these numbers are going to be looked at pretty closely for a number of reasons, but there were about 4.5 million votes cast in Texas' primaries, and that was on March 3rd. And Democratic voters actually accounted for more than 2.3 million of those. So setting overall a record in the amount of votes cast in a Texas primary, and then that's stronger showing we saw from Democrats versus Republicans.

So the primary election, we covered so many of the races, but it included over 800 statewide and local races. And, of course, there was that top of the ballot won, the U.S. Senate primary that we were watching very closely. that saw, you know, on the Republican side, we saw Senator John Cornyn proceeding to run off with Texas Attorney General Kent Paxton. And then on the Democratic side of things, we saw State Representative James Tala Rico beat Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett.

So he ultimately collected the Democratic nomination there. So with using kind of the U.S. Senate race as a benchmark contest, because the Texas Secretary of State hasn't released that, including just a single-state. statewide turnout figure. Texas Democrats really saw a solid showing in their voter turnout. We saw about, like I mentioned, 2.3 million Democratic voters participating in the primary as compared to 2.2 million Republican voters that turned out. They're about 18.7 million registered voters in Texas. Of course, they're not identified by party as Texas doesn't have.

Party registration has open primaries. Any voter can participate in either primary right, but only can participate in a runoff if they can only participate in the runoff of the party that they voted for in the first primary round. So we've got Harris County, which has over 2.7 million registered voters, of course, is the most populous county in the state. And it's the third largest in the country, Harris County. It reported 355,200 Democratic votes that were cast in Harris County, and then about 13% of those participated in early voting. Republicans saw a turnout of about 198,000, and they had an early voting rate more so closely to 7.3%. And just across the state, Democrats participated in early voting at a rate of about 11.6%. And the Republicans came in in regards

to early voting with 10.5%. Of course, there's a number of factors at play here. of why Republicans might be less prone to show up for early voting versus Democratic voters might be more motivated by some of the promising candidates to show up early for voting. Of course, there's a number of factors there play. This primary was the first time in about two decades that Democratic voters outpaced Republicans in early voting. And that early voting window went from February 17th to February 27th. So 10 days there.

and there was more than a million total votes cast within that first week window. So pretty strong turnout there. Another aspect of the turnout that we focused on in this piece was Latino turnout, which is kind of serving as a hallmark for both parties after we saw the predominantly democratic demographic shift towards voting for President Donald Trump in 2024 by 55% in Texas. But this group saw 149% increase in Democratic primary participation from the 2022 primary. And that was data collected by a vote to Latinos. They put together a post-primary analysis.

And Latinos do make up around 24% of our state's voting population. So their vote, of course, is key for political operatives on either side to collect. So I would encourage folks to go check out this piece just to read it for all of the numbers I might not have fit in, but just a couple very interesting top lines from this primary and turnout related numbers. Well, thank you for that rundown. You certainly did give us a lot of information. And as you said, there's even more in the article. So it's definitely worth a read. I'm in particular interested in the fact that Democrats, there were actually more Democratic primary voters than Republican primary voters.

Right. Yeah, and it'll be interesting to see, as you said, with the Latino turnout for what went for Republicans and then seemed to go for Democrats, the 26th general election is going to be very exciting to follow for that. Now, speaking of another primary race, or in other words, the primary that wasn't Kim, there was going to be a runoff in the redistricted Texas Congressional District 32 race, but one of the candidates dropped out. tell us more. That's right, Rob. Congressional District 32 was redrawn by the Texas legislature last year as part of its attempt to get more Republican majority districts. It starts in Dallas County and extends eastward through several counties, and it flipped from being a district Democratic-leaning 62% to a Republican-leaning district 60% on the Texas Partisan Index. So, In the Republican primary in March, there were nine candidates, quite a heavy-duty primary,

but the top candidate actually came out, almost winning a majority, Attorney J.C.R. Burrow, came close to an outright win with 49% of the vote. So he had to face a primary against second-place vote-getter CEO and Pastor Ryan Binkley, who took about 22% of the vote. Tuesday of this week was the last day that a candidate could drop out and not be placed on the ballot for the runoff. And Binkley announced on Tuesday afternoon that he would be dropping out of the race and he threw his support behind Yarbrough. Just the day prior, Yarbrough had announced that the other seven candidates in the race had endorsed him. So it seemed inevitable that he was going to win, I suppose.

but Binkley did thank his supporters. He called for unity in November, where Yarbrough will face Democrat Dan Barrios. I'll just mention that this is an interesting district because before it was redistricted, it was represented by Julie Johnson, who replaced Colin Allred when he ran for Senate. Both of them are now in a runoff for the Democratic nomination

for Congressional District 33. So they're both running again, but in a different congressional district and running against each other when they had both previously represented the same district. So kind of an interesting dynamic there that we'll be following. And I just encourage our readers to go check out the Texan dot news. Thank you for the rundown, Kim. Definitely another very interesting story here. You know, especially with these concerns in the U.S. Senate race over, you know, whether or not either Attorney General Ken Paxton or incumbent Senator John Cornyn was going to drop out, seeing the fact that one of these candidates

actually did drop out and, you know, avoid a runoff. It means, you know, I guess it makes a election, it makes runoff election night less exciting for us, but it does mean there's a little bit less work for us. So it all kind of balances out. That's true. Very different dynamic in this congressional district race, a much wider spread between the two candidates who were in the runoff than obviously in the Senate race. Yeah, because you said in Yarbrough got 49. percent, right? So, I mean, he was, he was knocking at the door of a majority. Yeah, for most of the night, he was actually had over 50 percent, but then it dropped down. Yeah. There you go. Well, definitely a very exciting one. Thank you for sharing that with us, Kim. Turning to you, Meredith,

Klein ISD has had a few firearm-related incidents apparently recently, including a man in tactical gear attempting to enter an elementary school. Give us the details. Yeah. So this last week, Klein ISD had three different gun-related incidents happen. And the one that stands out the most was this man who was a 39-year-old. His name was Kyle Chris. He entered Zwingk Elementary in their main entrance, dressed in tactical gear and allegedly armed with a taser and a gun. This was on March 10th. He lived four minutes away from the school.

And he just walked up. He was able to get through the first set of doors because of a 15-second gap between another parent and And then there was a second secure door system. So this is why, you know, schools want to spend money on these types of security measures. And so another, a second set of doors stopped him from getting through. And he apparently was claiming to be a security guard, although they looked it up. He has no kind of licenses or law enforcement credentials of any sort. And then he was arrested more than 24 hours later and charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon in a prohibited place. And his bond was set at $75,000, which later it has been updated that he has been released on bond according to court records.

And so Klein ISD delayed notifying parents. And the reason for that was they said they were working with the FBI, that they were working with the Texas Department of Public Safety, delayed informing parents just because they didn't want to tip off the suspect who was under surveillance and eventually arrested. So this is the main one that made the headlines because it was such an unusual and extreme situation. There were also two other incidents, one before and one after. On March 9th, a student accidentally discharged a gun in a high school restroom at Klein Collins High School. No one was injured. A student was expelled and arrested with felony charges accepted by the Harris County District Attorney. There wasn't any lockdown just because they said they responded to it

so quickly. There was no need for that. And then in Klein High School, a couple of days after this tactical gear incident, a student brought an unloaded gun that another student saw reported it to staff and they were also arrested and expelled with felony charges as well. So the superintendent of Klein ISD, Jenny McGowan, talks about how she just, you know, praises the staff and students that were involved that followed their training that responded very quickly. she talks about the layered security they have, that they have armed officers, secure vestibules, like the one that stopped this man from entering. And then cameras. But she did add, you know, at the same time, she said, incidents like these remind us that we must always continue strengthening our safety measures or efforts.

These ideas are not in conflict, but they go together. So she's saying that after spring break, which is next Monday when the students come back, they're going to have increased police presence, random metal detector screenings. They're going to have canine searches on different campuses. and so the students will see that presence on their campuses. So obviously parents reacted with being concerned because this is quite a few incidents in one week. So a group of parents formed the Klein ISD Parent Safety Coalition with concerns. They were gathering together to get a petition signed, send, they sent a letter to the district and state lawmakers

asking for a reply within 14 days for certain security demands, some of which the district. already said they will be providing like metal detectors. They wanted more staff training and they also wanted increased police presence. So they're asking for more safety measures. The district is saying that they are going to be stepping up. So we'll just see if that is enough to satisfy what the parents want in the future. Gotcha. Definitely some harrowing stuff. So thank you for sharing that, Meredith. Yeah, hopefully, as you said, they'll they'll be able to increase some security measures and, you know, to make sure the students stay safe. Thank you for sharing.

Kim, turn into you next. Last week, participants in the North Texas ICE facility attack on July 4th, 2025 were convicted. Lay that out for us. So, Rob, you know, there's been a lot of controversy surrounding ice and enforcement around the country. But to remind our readers, there was an attack here in North Texas last July. And last week, a federal grand jury convicted nine Antifa members who participated in that attack on the Prairieland Ice Facility in Alvaredo. It's a detention facility south of Fort Worth on July 4th last year. It was a 12-day trial.

The press release that it involved more than 45 witnesses, lots of evidence. And the apparent ringleader of the attack was a man named Benjamin Song, who was a person. convicted and he apparently recruited others to join the group. Just as an aside, seven other defendants besides these nine did plead guilty last year and several of them cooperated with law enforcement in the trial testifying. The defendants were convicted for various offenses. Some of those offenses include rioting, providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to use and carry an explosive. The ringleader that I mentioned before, Benjamin's song, was actually convicted of attempted murder. One Alvarado police officer was injured on the scene

and was taken to the hospital. He did survive and is apparently doing okay now, which is good. As a reminder to our readers about the attack last July 4th, the defendants dressed in dark clothing and they had face coverings. They arrived at the iced detention center with firearms, wearing body armor, and they even had carried first aid kits containing materials to treat gunshot wounds. I would presume that meant they were expecting to get in sort of a gun battle.

They began by shooting off fireworks and vandalizing vehicles and a guard shack at the property. There were pictures of those, and then it escalated to a point where there was a, body cam recording of one of the members of Antifas yelling, get to the guns or something similar. They will be facing sentences. They haven't yet been sentenced. They've been convicted, but not yet sentenced by the federal judge. Their sentences will range from 10 years to 60 years. A life sentence is possible for the ringleader or Benjamin Tong. So just an outcome, the attorney general

of the United States, Pam Bondi did mention how she expects more of these kinds of trials and convictions because they're taking these kinds of attacks very seriously. So we'll see. Hopefully there won't be any more attacks on detention centers, but we'll cover it if there are. Yeah, thank you for your coverage on that, Kim. ICE has definitely been a very big issue ever since President Donald Trump was reelected back in 2024, and I think it's only going to continue being a big issue. But that actually takes us to our, yeah, thank you. That actually takes us to our next story.

Mary Elise, an individual passed away last weekend while in ICE custody. Give us the details on that situation. Yes, this is another ICE-related story. This is an individual who passed away. last weekend while in ICE custody, and it's gotten a lot of attention just because of who this individual is and just a lot of questions surrounding his death. So he was an Afghan national. His parole status expired last year. And so he was in ICE custody for about a day before he passed away. The cause of his death is unknown. It is currently under investigation, which ICE

announced. His first name was Muhammad. He passed away on Saturday morning. He was reportedly an American military ally alongside American forces during the war in Afghanistan, which his family highlighted and a press release on Sunday. He was taken into custody by ICE on Friday and then placed in immigration proceedings, during which ICE said he did not report any prior medical history. He, so he was paroled originally into the United States amid the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan back in 2021, and then that status was set to expire in the summer of 2025. In ISIS press release, they described him as having a known criminal history. They listed two instances of this criminal history.

One arrest concerning fraud related to the SNAP program, a supplemental nutritional, and assistance program. And that was about a month after his parole's expiration. And then a second arrest that they listed was related to, quote, theft in November 2025. And they didn't provide any more details

regarding that one. His family shared the response to his detainment and then his death in a statement through this activist group called Afghan Evac. They said, for many years, he worked alongside American forces during the war in

Afghanistan. It was dangerous work, but he believed in helping bring stability to his country and protecting the people around him. After Afghanistan fell, the United States helped evacuate our family in 2021, and we came here hoping for safety and a better life. They described how when he was arrested by ICE, they said his children were watching because he had been prepared to take them, had been preparing to take them to school that Friday morning when he was arrested. The same evening, ICE contacted emergency medical providers as he began reporting shortness of breath and chest pains while he was being held in one of their processing rooms. So this was ICE Dallas Field Office's processing rooms. I said that he was immediately transported to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, and there he received breathing treatment.

And he was held overnight for further monitoring, which his health care providers had suggested. Then the next morning during breakfast, his provider said that his tongue became swollen, prompting a medical response. And then I stated, after multiple life-saving efforts were attempted, he was declared deceased at 9.10 a.m. I said that they will, of course, be making the proper notifications to Congress and other inquiring entities regarding his death. And they pointed out that the law does require them to publish details on these related in-custody deaths. within 90 days. His family just further commented on how they can't understand how this happened. They said he was only 41 years old and said he was a strong and healthy man,

so he didn't have any preexisting conditions that they mentioned that may have caused this. They said his children keep asking when their father will come home. We reached out to ICE weren't able to get at this time further details about this death and some further details about the individual. This is what we have right now. His family's response, of course, they have a lot of questions, and ICE is promising to investigate and let the public know what happened here, why he passed away.

But just a story that's gotten a lot of attention. And so we'll see where it goes from here, how ICE responds, what they find, and how his family moves forward to. Thank you for covering that one, Mary Elise. definitely another, definitely another dark story. What's strange to me is hearing about the swollen tongue, you know,

I wonder if, could have had some kind of allergic reaction or something combined with shortness of breath. It's definitely very strange circumstances. Right. Right, yeah. Well, for our next story that we have, Meredith, this week was supposed to be the deadline

for families to apply to the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program, the school choice program that was created in the 2025 legislative session. But a federal judge has pushed that deadline to March 31st. Fill us in on what happened. Yeah. So the headline for this week was supposed to be some kind of rundown or stats about kind of what is the end result of this six week application period. But, a federal judge on March 17th, the day of the deadline, extended the TIFA applications to March 31st. Just as a little rundown about the TIFA program. So right now, over 230,000 students have applied and more than 2,200 schools have signed up to participate. So just in case you don't remember, or you're new, about each student will get about $10,500.

And then a student with disabilities could get up to $30,000 if they're eligible. and then homeschool students would get $2,000. And so they're also prioritizing low-income students and students with disability. So that's the rundown of the program. Recently, there has been some legal issues, including a couple of lawsuits that I'll give some details about in a second. But the U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett said that he found it troubling that no Islamic schools had been approved. And he ordered the comptroller's office who oversees the program to send applications to all schools who had not received them. And so this is coming amid allegations and lawsuits that Islamic regarding allegations that

Islamic schools were excluded from the program. And so the first lawsuit came in on March 1st and it was filed by a Houston parent. And it involved the Houston Quran Academy Spring. And the defendants they listed were Acton Comptroller Kelly Hancock, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and the T.EA Commissioner Mike Morath. So the claims were that the school met all of the requirements. but was excluded due to Islamic identity. And they were alleging violations of the First and 14th Amendment

and claims this specific individual was claiming that he would be losing more than $20,000 in funding for his family. So a second lawsuit filed March 11th was by three parents and then three schools, Bayonne Academy, the Islamic Services Foundation, and the Eagle Institute. Not schools. A couple of them were organizations that work with schools or are overseeing schools. And they named Hancock and then the Tifa program manager at Mary Catherine Stout as their defendants. And their main claim was just on the idea that schools, the allegations of schools could not apply. So they were saying that families were discouraged from applying because they didn't see their Islamic school on the approved list.

And so the state's position with the comptroller overseeing the program, they say that they don't collect or use religious affiliation in decision-making. it is noted that when they first made announcements Hancock did tell CBS news that like 83% of the original applicants schools were Catholic. So there was a note on that. They cite processing delays, especially with certain accredited schools. And the attorney for Paxton, Hancock, and Marath said that there were issues tied to these Cognia accredited schools, which I'll explain in a second. and that there were delays also tied to the Texas private school accreditation commission or test pack. So, okay, private schools are accredited by a group called test pack. The TEA oversees them and then they approve these agencies, which there's about 20 of them listed on the website.

There's a group called Cognia just for some background that is an approving agency. So last December, Kelly Hancock requested this legal opinion to Attorney General Ken Paxson, asking him about Cognia schools because there were some hosted events. linked to care from some of these schools, which if you, just a little background, if you don't know care, it's the Council for American Islamic Relations and very popular in the headlines nowadays. So care was associated or linked to some of these schools with some events, and they're saying that this is what has contributed to some of the delays. The reason care is hot-button issues because Governor Abbott designated them and the Muslim

Brotherhood as terrorist and transnational criminal organizations. And so critics are saying that they're using this really broadly to exclude Islamic schools. And Kara is saying, you know, that the group has not worked with several of these schools and questions. And they're also calling in the exclusions discriminatory. So after that December request, Paxton comes back in January, issues a legal opinion and confirms that Hancock and the Comptroller's office can block funds if they're tied to terrorist organizations or foreign adversaries. So that's where it stands. There's the lawsuits saying that they're not tied to care, that this isn't legal, and they don't have that ability to do it. Having said that, Abbott, during, I believe it was last week, post to X, like doubling down, he posts a Washington Post article that says,

Islamic schools excluded from Texas's one billion voucher program. And he said, this is a quote from him. That's right. want school choice funds going to radical Islamic doctrine with historical connections to terrorism. I signed laws banning Sharia cities. I signed, I designated care in the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations. And I will pass another law that completely bans Sharia law in Texas. So this comes amid a larger growing topic that will come up in the legislature next year and is coming up now of Sharia, Sharia law in Texas,

being an issue. And so we've covered the Sharia-free Texas caucus that's formed by Republican lawmakers on the Texan as well. And then also in one of our rundowns about the different propositions, about I think 95% of Republican voters voted for Prop 10 saying that Texas should prohibit Sharia law. So this is in the headlines. People are discussing these kinds of things. So there was an advocacy group called the Texas Private Schools Association, which is different from test pack. It's just an advocacy group that said their executive director, Laura Colangelo, said some of these schools, these Islamic schools, are desperate to participate. She said they have strong community culture. They're excellent schools. So I hate they're

being cast in a negative light. So those lawsuits are ongoing. They have not come to any kind of conclusion or issued any results yet. We did talk to Tifa spokesperson Travis Pillow, he made a point that I think is misunderstood about these deadlines and maybe wasn't clearly, like, clearly communicated to the public is that March 17th was the student and family application deadline. So you don't have to pick your school when you apply. You just apply to be in the list to be prioritized or chosen through lottery or whatever happens next. So you go into the pool, into the list. And then they are over the spring and summer, they will continually be approving different schools and so by the time they get to the deadline somewhere I believe, I believe it's in August

or July where you have to choose your school. Like there will be more schools added to the list. The lawsuit though was claiming people just aren't signing up because they don't see their school. So there maybe was that breakdown of communication there. So they just wanted to give families more flexibilities as they continue to approve schools. But having said that, the deadline is for March 31st. The lawsuits are ongoing and schools are still being reviewed and approved. And what's really interesting about this is the TIFA program and the Comptroller's office is going to take the waiting list and the amount of people that have applied for it to the legislature next year as proof of the demand for this program and using it to try to get more funding because right now

it's only a billion it will think they estimated around 100,000 families maybe could be serviced if it goes with the calculations that they had. And so giving them two more weeks if they've gotten 230,000 over six weeks will make the list significantly longer if it continues at this rate. So whether you agree with it or not, it will give them a larger waiting list and more stats and data to take into the next legislative session. So we'll see how many end up applying. Yeah, it's definitely, I was a little bit confused. I remember reading this at first. Like, I thought that the student applications hadn't closed yet, but you're saying that it's, They extended it because they said the student applications, like students would have applied if these schools have been available.

Yeah, the lawsuit that they were speaking to when they made this deadline decision to push it back was the one that claimed that the Muslim families, or maybe just families that attend Muslim schools, were not applying at all because they would look and not see their school on the list. And so they didn't apply. While they could have applied and maybe later the school would have been approved, that's where maybe the communication breakdown was. They didn't seem to understand that. Gotcha. Yeah, it's interesting how this is sort of another battle in the ongoing kind of proxy conflict over like Islam and Texas as a whole issue.

As you mentioned with the Islamic Tribunal issue or the Sharia law issue, there was a governor Greg Abbott last early or late last year called for an investigation into a group called the Islamic Tribunal in Dallas. which is, it's a, from what I, it's not like a, it's not like a law firm or anything, but it's a place where Muslims could go to have, like to have questions answered or disputes settled according to Sharia of Islamic law. And this obviously caused a lot of Texas Republicans some consternation, you know, concerned about the possibility of. some kind of, you know, parallel legal system, right, which is a no-go, I think, for Texas Republicans. So, yeah, as you said, it'll be very interesting to see in the legislature what they're going to do to address this issue. And as you said, with care especially because care, if I recall correctly, denies that they have, you know, any kind of involvement with any kind of terrorist organizations.

And I believe they're even fighting this in court maybe. Actually, I see Mary Elise. You have something to say on the issue. Yeah, I was just going to add the, well, I saw that this morning, I believe he made it just a couple days ago. But Representative Suleiman Lalani just made a new, it's called Texas Interfaith Legislators Caucus, kind of addressing the caucus that Meredith mentioned,

the Sharia-free, Texas Sharia-free caucus. But so I think that's kind of indicating. of what the legislative session is shaping up to be with this whole issue really being at the forefront. They're responding, and so it's going to be interesting to see what the dynamic is just concerning this whole topic and how it's really blown up. And he talked about, he said Texas Muslims are being turned into political targets, and then he said that he condemns the recent escalation of inflammatory rhetoric aimed at Muslim Texans, because we have seen definitely an increase in this, just conversation overall. but just an interesting tidbit there. So I was going to say one thing that I talked to representative of state reprent money about the Texas or the Sharia Free Texas Caucus. And one thing he wanted to clarify because I've seen comments online as well as, you know, where are their actual Sharia lobbying practice, like the legal side of it?

But that's why they call it Sharia-free Texas and not Sharia law because it's Sharia focusing on some of the lifestyle. and belief systems within Islam that they believe are go against the West. And so he talks about, we lay some of those out in the article and he talks more specifically about what that looks like. Yeah, I'll be, I'll be very excited to see where this all goes and what the legislature's, as you said, being divided. Is it, you know, is this interfaith, last thing, Mary Lease, is this interfaith caucus all Democrats in the same way, I believe Meredith, that the, Sharia Free Texas caucus is all Republicans? I didn't see an entire a completed list of the members of the caucus,

and I'm sure it's shifting pretty quickly, like people are jumping on board. But the names that I did see listed, such as State Representative Gene Wu, it looked as though it was all Democratic. And Sharia Free Texas is all Republican. I asked money about that as well, and he said that it's open to everyone.

It just, he started with the Republicans first. And he mentioned the two specific Muslim members, Wajani and Lelani, wanting to reach out to them in the next couple of weeks. So we'll see if that happens. Well, that will be very interesting to see how that ends up shaping up. Another new dynamic, a new factor in the Texas House, always, of course, where all the, I think, craziest and most chaotic stuff usually happens in the legislative session. So Mary Elise, actually, we're going back to you now.

U.S. Senator John Cornyn signed on to a bill recently addressing the chemical abortion pill this week. Tell us about that. Yeah, so Cornyn, as you said, is now a co-sponsor of new legislation that was introduced in Congress that would poll federal approval for the chemical abortion pill Mithopristone and then also allow for the manufactures the pill to be sued by women for cause of injury, death, or medical complications that result from Mithopristone. So this is called a safeguarding women from Chemical Abortion Act, and it's being authored by United States Senator Josh Hawley. And when he introduced this, he first expressed frustration that he believes the United States Food and Drug Administration,

the FDA, is kind of slow walking. It's review of Mithmet. Fipristone just expressed frustration with the pace in general that they have been looking at this. So Cornyn is currently the only co-sponsor of this bill. The official text for the entire bill has not been uploaded, so I would imagine that there will be more folks that sign on later. But as of now, Cornyn is currently the lone co-sponsor of the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act in the U.S. Senate. I signed on this past Thursday, so when you listen to the podcast, it'll have been just about a week and a day since. A little bit of background, nearly all of the Republican U.S. senators, which included

Cornyn and Senator Ted Cruz, made their concerns surrounding the chemical abortion pill known to the nation's leading health directors in early October 2025. They wrote to the FDA and the HHS are requesting that those agencies would halt the distribution of those products until they were able to conduct a full and comprehensive review of Mithrapristone. This came to shortly after the FDA had approved another generic version of Mitha Pristone, and that kicked up a lot of deaths among flight activists who were then questioning how committed is this current presidential administration to our cause. the bill describes, and like I mentioned, not the entire text of the bill has not been filed yet,

but the bill describes one of its provisions as establishing a federal tort for harm to women caused by chemical abortion pills. And as we've covered, Texas passed a law back in 2025 with civil liability for chemical abortion pill manufacturers and distributors. So this allowed any citizen to be able to sue. the producers of these drugs, and then the reward amounts for damages would be dependent on the person that filed the lawsuit, dependent on their relation to the affected pre-born child. FDA Commissioner Dr. Marnie Macri did affirm in the fall of 2025 through a written letter to 22 different state attorneys general, which included our Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. He committed to a top-to-bottom review of Miphypristone, which is one of the two kind of key drugs that are used in chemical abortions along Misa Pristol.

So both Texas and Florida have sued the administration over the approval of the pill, just the process that the pill was approved under, which the Department of Justice has put on hold, and they cited the pending review of the drugs saying, you know, got to put this on hold because this review is still pending the review over Mephypris stone is still in process. The letter I mentioned a second ago from the 51 senators in October requested that approval for all the new generic versions of the pill be suspended pending the application of this provision called risk evaluation and mitigation strategy It's a protocol, which was previously issued for the product in 2011, but then was scrapped by a Democratic administration. So Cornyn explained his reasoning for signing on to this bill. He said the data is clear that Mephypristone, a male-order drug that kills unborn children,

also threatens the life of the mother and can cause severe adverse reactions ranging from sepsis to hemorrhages. He said grounded in both science and scripture, directing the FDA to withdraw approval of harmful chemical abortion drugs is essential to protect the lives of our most vulnerable and ensure the strongest possible safety standards for women. The legislation has also been introduced in the House. One of our Texas congressman Chip Roy, through his support behind the bill, he said in an ex post, responding to someone else who was discussing the pill-related bill, he said it should be banned. So kind of through support there behind the bill.

So this is interesting because abortion overall since the overturning of Roeveyweight at the federal level, for the most part, there's not been much going on. There's been almost crickets from Republicans on this issue. They've been focusing a lot more on messages relating to immigration, the more recently focusing on affordability, just topics that are a bit more moderate, especially with the United. especially with the topic of affordability. So we haven't seen abortion really being at the forefront in a bill like this in a little while. So it'll be very interesting to see where it goes, where it winds up, and then what kind of support it's going to receive and what the response from, if there is one from the White House, as far as this bill goes, we'll see how far it gets. Yeah, it's all really interesting, Mary Lease, especially, as you said, this is an issue that at the congressional level kind of took a backseat to other issues after Republicans got this big win in the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

So, excuse me, it'll be interesting to see if they try any other avenues like this, like, as you said, trying to get FDA approval revoked for chemical abortion pills that they might not have the votes to outright ban, right? but they could, you know, put pressure on the agencies themselves to sort of change the rules that make it harder to get an abortion. So that'll definitely be an interesting one. And one thing I'll just point out is that kind of the angle that they're going at as far as this piece of legislation in particular, it's in the name safeguarding women from Chemical Abortion Act. They're coming at it much from the approach of these pills are dangerous for the women. And of course, they've mentioned that it's also aborting a pre-born child, but they are much more coming at it from the angle of this is dangerous for women, and that coming at it from the angle of that the FDA should not be approving this drug, and that also women should be, in a sense, empowered to be able to sue the manufacturers of the pill. So it'll be interesting to see if maybe the response is better to that versus coming at it from the approach of it being.

more focused on a child versus the mother. There we go. Like, as we said, with the Texas House, there's always something to watch. And with Congress as well, there's always going to be something to watch. But now getting back to a more local level, Meredith, Austin ISD will be celebrating Pride Week next week and has received some pushback from Republican lawmakers about whether this complies with state law. What were the reactions and what were the concerns? Yeah, so Austin ISD is celebrating Pride Week next week from March 23rd to the 27th. It takes place during March when most people know that the National Pride LGBT month is in June.

They said that because students are not in school, they want to celebrate it when they are in school. And so that's why it's kind of randomly in March a little bit. This is something that I did some searching. and if anyone knows of another district that's celebrating a Pride Week, please email me. I'm interested in that. I just couldn't, it seems to be that this is the only one, I think, and reports might say, oh, not many, but I could never find any actual names of other school districts that are celebrating a Pride Week so clearly and openly and, like, outlining exactly what's going on and all of that on their website.

So I'm just curious about that, but couldn't find any. So Austin ISD stands out in that way. The district says that they believe that when, they said, when students feel safe, and can show up as their full selves at school, they're better able to engage in learning and thrive academically. And so they have a full list of, you know, different activities. Some of them are silly and, you know, wearing funny socks or different things like that.

But there's also very clearly like a pride theme that goes along with them. They make a note that all these activities are outside of instructional time. So they are during the school day. Some of them before after school, but some during lunch, during advisory periods, things like that. And they wanted to make clear that no, there was no district provided, like, classroom activity suggestions as there have been in the past. And no district funded merchandise. But they did note that PTAs or student groups can, like, fund or organize different activities if they would like as well.

But they do note that there will be, like, pride flags on campuses. Like, specifically, people are asking to, like, raise the pride flag on the flagpole. And that there will be, like, displays, posters, books, student art, historical materials. they said that our pride-themed or like up around the school in different places. So the law that people are concerning or taking issue over is SB 12, which is also known as the Parental Bill of Rights which passed last year. And it was focused on DEI, diversity, equity, inclusion policies in K-12 schools, but it also had very specific sections about instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity, student clubs based on those topics or assistance.

in social gender transitioning schools, calling different names, using different pronouns against the student's biological sex. And so this idea is, is them doing it during class or doing programs? Is that count as instruction? Does it count? It's not instructional time. So they were very clear, and most like, because of the law, they were clearly laying out exactly how they were believe they were complying with it. But one of the co-sponsors of the bill, State Senator or Mays Middleton spoke to the Texan and about this and was very critical of Austin ISD. One of the things he says was, no wonder their enrollment has declined, which is true. They are about to close down 10 schools and they have a very large budget deficit as well.

He is currently about to go into a runoff in May against Congressman Chip Roy for Attorney General. So he said, Middleton said, if I'm elected Attorney General, I will sue them to force Austin ISD to follow the law. He went on to say that it's illegal for an ISD to provide instruction, guidance, activities, or programming regarding sexual orientation or gender identity. And he said, this is the same school that fought us against the Ten Commandments in school in classrooms law and is also willing to break the law to force Pride Week on children. State Board of Education member Brandon Hall has been very vocal about this in reporting and also on social media as well. And he just said, I am done watching my constituents exorbitant property taxes, especially through recapture, pay for Austin ISD to sexually indoctrinate kids through their illegal annual Pride Week. And he talked about defunding Austin ISD and criminally investigating superintendent, Mattias Segarra. So he just was saying like there should be some kind of state intervention in this situation.

Texas Public Policy Foundation executive director Robert Henneke talked about how they drafted their rules. and he said it was clearly drafted in a way to attempt to circumvent these requirements by specifying that it's not during instructional time or that it's being funded by the PTA. He talks about it being like a backdoor for like a non-approved kind of sexual sex ed instruction without parental consent. They did know on the website that if parents don't want them to, you know, take quote, what's the word? Take, wow, what is the word? Well, if they don't want them to be involved in this, that they would, they can get them. taken out of it and tell the school that they don't want them to participate is the word I was looking for.

Participate. I'm like, why was that word? And so the district responded, you know, they really emphasize that they are complying with the law, that the reason people choose Austin ISD they believe is because of their inclusion and things like this. They had a very specific note on the website about taking pictures and privacy. and so they had this guidance about maintaining campus anonymity is what they said, that they were, staff and families were instructed that they should not,

they should avoid pictures that had school signage, logos, mascots, room numbers, distinct campus features. They just talked about anything that identifies where this is taking place. We don't want that to be online. And one of the, the reason that they gave for that is the executive director of communications for Austin ISD said that a photo of a student last year was circulated online. said resulted in hateful and threatening comments. And so she went on to say we recognize that once a photo is out on socials, we lose control of how it's used. And so yeah, it's just a unique

situation where most other districts seem to view the law as Pride Week would not be an option, but Austin ISD is very carefully writing it and doing it in a way and changing it from years prior based on the law, but still continuing to celebrate. So we'll see if they can to celebrate it in the years, you know, what the future age used to do about this. Well, there you go. It'll certainly be exciting to see, as you said, Meredith, especially in an environment now where it seems that public school districts have all of this sort of contention with the state, you know, amid state takeovers, claims about local control. It will be, it will be very exciting to watch. Education is certainly one of those, like,

very big, like, issues at the forefront. seems always in every legislative session. But speaking of another local issue, Kim, the Seawolf Parkway Bridge in Galveston was damaged by an oil tanker in 2024. What are the plans for repairing or replacing it? So I guess it's a little bit of the nerd in me, but infrastructure issues seem to draw my attention. And I saw this issue and I thought, wow, that's really interesting.

So I would never choose to live on an island if it were my choice. But this Seawolf Parkway Bridge was damaged in 2024 by an oil tanker, but it has been in need of repair and replacement for a while, even before it was damaged by the oil tanker. The Texas Department of Transportation has been planning for its replacement with another high-span bridge because it was built in the 1960s. It only has two lanes, very narrow shoulders, and it causes delays for those trying to travel between Pelican Island and Galveston Island or vice versa.

Actually, the Texas A&M Galveston campus is on Pelican Island. For those maybe not as familiar with that part of Texas, Pelican Island is a smaller island north of the east end of Galveston Island. So if you know where the Bolivor Peninsula is, that's on the eastern side of Galveston Island. Pelican Island is over in that area. So in a presentation in 2023 about the bridge before the oil taker damage, the Textot had explained that they've been spending money to repair and maintain the bridge at the cost of about $12 million.

They described it this way. The deterioration of Seawolf Parkway Bridge has been. progressed to the extent that an additional deterioration could result in sudden bridge closure. Since this bridge provides a sole access to Pelican Island, bridge closure would effectively cut off access for all users, including evacuation and emergency services. So it's the only way in and out of Pelican Island by bridge, and it's very important, and it's not looking good. So the reason this story is important right now is because local officials in the Galveston Pelican

Island area are seeking a federal study to see if they could build a land bridge rather than another high span bridge because they think that would have several advantages. It would allow for rail access over to Pelican Island. They say it would stand up better to the strong currents in that channel and that it would reduce sedimentation. Regarding the strong currents, and I am certainly no expert on marine currents, but apparently the currents are so strong there that sometimes shipping can only operate between six and eight hours a day in that shipping channel rather than 24 hours a day. And the advocates of a land bridge believe that the changes to the currents based on a land bridge would allow shipping

to occur 24 hours a day. Also, a land bridge would reduce sedimentation. The channel often has to be dredged annually to keep it deep enough for the shipping requirements, and that costs about $30 million, so that would be some savings in that regard. Just for those who might be interested who live in the area and want to learn more about this discussion, there is a public meeting next week on March 25th that Galveston Wharves, which is the Port Authority group in that area, we'll be having a meeting to discuss the bridge idea and potential development on Pelican Island. And so people can attend that meeting.

And there's also a lot more in the article that I wrote about this bridge project. And so I hope people will go check it out at the Texan. Yeah, they definitely should because it was a fantastic article. And I believe, Kim, there's, what, like 800 people. who live on Pelican Island, right? So they have to figure out what to do with that bridge before too long. Yes, and they're hoping that so the plans to build the high span bridge are continuing. Those are not going to stop while they do this federal study of a land bridge.

But they really want to get the design right because, you know, it's going to cost probably somewhere around $300 to $350 million to build this bridge. And so they don't want to have to replace it sooner than later. They want it to give the access they need for rail, for vehicular traffic, obviously. And so it's a big deal. So they're going to continue moving forward. They're hoping that construction can begin maybe in 2028, so a couple years from now. And meanwhile, I guess they'll just have to keep patching the current bridge, keep it operational.

Yeah, hopefully it does stay operational so that, as you said, the people of Pelican Island can have access to, like, emergency services when they need it. Yeah, it's infrastructure, as you said, is an interesting one because it's something you don't really think about, but it takes years to get done and it costs tens of millions of dollars. Right. And it has such an impact on people's lives, like roads and bridges that people need access. Yeah, all of us who live in Texas understand the incredible impact that road construction can have on our lives. Absolutely. But when you build infrastructure, of course, someone has to act. actually be building it. You know, someone has to work on it. Mary Elise, Governor Greg Abbott established a new council related to the workforce, I believe recently. Give us the rundown on this

new initiative. Right. So Governor Greg Abbott just held the first meeting of this new initiative. He's established, which is called the Texas Jobs Council. And its goal is to prepare the state's labor force to meet what he described as the influx and demand for various jobs. And then just to strengthen its overall workforce development. So there are a dozen appointees that are on this advisory board, and many of them are in various labor unions, including Teamsters, Plumbers local union, pipe fitters, local union, and then the International Union of Operating Engineers. So the Texas Jobs Council was announced at its inaugural meeting at the governor's mansion, and that was on Monday, so at the very beginning of the week. I haven't described Texas as currently being, kind of using some terminology that we see Trump using, and just kind of, that was a thought that came to my mind when he said this.

He described Texas as currently being the hottest state in America for business and labor opportunities. About a week before this new board was established, it's worth mentioning that ExxonMobil announced its plans to redomisile, its legal home from New Jersey to Texas. and that was after a unanimous decision by its board of directors. And within the same week, and I believe Kim covered this, President Donald Trump announced that the first new American oil refinery to open in 50 years would be constructed, excuse me, in Brownsville, built by America First Refining.

Among some of the other companies that we have seen recently kind of relocate to the Lone Star State, included in the fall of 2025, Coinbase, which is the largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, they moved their headquarters or announced they'd be moving their headquarters from Delaware to Texas in the fall of 2025. And the chief legal officer for this company described Texas as having an environment that welcomes ambitious companies like Coinbase with open arms. So this advisory board includes leaders of several different groups.

It includes the Texas Association of Manufacturers' President, Tony Bennett. Then we've got the Texas Oil and Gas Association, President Todd Staples. We've also got the Texas Association of Builders President Scott Norman. So some significant leaders there that have joined this advisory board. Abbott described what he sees as the need for this council as for us to maintain our dominance, business, and labor. are working together to meet the high demand for high-skilled labor, and then positions like electricians, pipe fitters, welders, plumbers, truckers, and a whole lot more. He said, today we galvanize that partnership with the launch of the Texas Jobs Council.

We are unified on a mission that benefits all Texans. So a report will be produced by the council in November 2026 with recommendations for the legislature and also with some executive actions, they'll suggest directed at strengthening the state's workforce development system. So that report will come in November 26. So we'll see what recommendations they come up with and then kind of how that shapes out in legislative session if it takes kind of takes shape in any pieces of legislation. Well, very nice. Thank you for sharing that one, Mary Elise. Yeah, it'll be exciting as you said, to see how it will shape the legislative session. I think it's interesting how you have, I think, you know, the Republican, the Republican Party

and Labor unions seems, you know, I think traditionally it's been considered kind of an odd couple, but it seems like recently that's getting less and less odd. If I recall correctly, the Teamsters Union did not endorse in the 2024 election, right, when they were expected to endorse the Democrat. So showing just the teen-seest bit of cozying up to the GOP, which I think is interesting. Well, and we saw a number of unions come out and endorse a bit before the primary election, and they endorsed him for re-election, which was pretty notable and kind of another indication of what you're pointing out there. Very nice. Yeah. It was definitely had some good news this week.

But moving on to the next section we have is our tweeterie, Who has some interesting, anybody seen any interesting tweets? I have one, but I'll wait. I can go first. Oh, okay, you go. Speaking of good news, when you're reporting on education, just nationally and locally, there's a lot of negative statistics right now that people are trying to work and fix. And so there was this article that said, Texas cell phone ban is leading Dallas kids back to the library.

So, you know, I've geeked out about books in the library, so I clicked on that. And basically, it's a correlation that seems to be the causation. But at the start of this last school year, they've compared book checkout numbers in Dallas ISD. And they are, I think it was up. One of them, they said it was increased by about 100,000 books between the last and the current year. And so there's some other stats of different schools. And they have like some specific schools that anywhere from 40 to 100. 35% increase of book checkout.

So they're like, oh, kids, when they're done with their work and they can't get on a phone, they go to the library. It's like, oh, what a novel concept to push children to try to make a better decision. And so it's just, it's always nice to be something, but some stats that are good, some good news. So that made me really happy because I'm a library. Right. There you go. That actually kind of leads into my tweeterie as well, in a sense.

because everybody has to go read Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah before Dune 3 comes out on December 18th, 2026. The new Dune trailer dropped earlier this week. It actually premiered live on TikTok. There's not actually a great way to watch a movie trailer because it's like a vertical screen for, you know, a big horizontal, horizontally filmed movie. So it was a bit weird. But the Dune 3 trailer dropped. I don't have a horse in the race about whether or not Timothy Chalemay deserved an Oscar for Marty Supreme. Marty Supreme was a really good movie, but so were sinners and one battle after another.

So I will say, though, you know, science fiction has traditionally been kind of snubbed by the Oscars, but we'll see if Doom 3 will be good enough to maybe get a win there. So definitely check out that trailer if you haven't. I'm excited for it and excited that. Dune 3 is actually going to be releasing the same day as Avengers Dooms Day. Really? Really? Really?

Yeah. So it won't be like another Barbenheimer. Because those movies had like different target audiences. And so it was fun to see them together. But with, they're calling it Dune's Day, you know, the audiences might overlap just enough that they might actually cannibalize each other. So I'll be seeing Dune. I don't plan to see either one. I was the barb-

I don't think Ken is this. I saw both of them, so I don't know what that says for me. You saw about Barbenheimer? Yeah, well, Barbie and Oppenheimer. Both of them were in my, I was the audience. Did you see him on the same day, though? No, no. That's fair.

I did not either. I did see them different people, because they are different audiences. I think that's very fair, yeah. That was definitely a fun one. Okay, well, my. tweetery is pretty silly, but I've been really enjoying all of the clips that Rodeo Houston is putting out. I think the rodeo is just so fantastic. But this one was from the Mutton Busters program, and I love watching that because if you're not familiar with it,

there's these little kids who gear up in their cowboy cowgirl outfits, and they ride sheep. And it's basically, it's kind of a y'all. younger version of the bull riding. They try to hold on as long as possible, and it's super cute, because it'll last like maybe four seconds until they fall. This one little girl I was watching, I think she was from the Katie area of Texas, and so she fell off probably within like three or four seconds, and usually a sheep will just take off, like they don't care about the ride or whatever, but this one almost like did a 360 and jumped up on its back legs with its front legs, like up in the air.

And it was hilarious because the announcer was like, oh my gosh, look out for the sheep. It almost looked like it was going to attack her. But it didn't. It was just this little girl had fallen and the sheep just kind of like did a little a little jig there and it was very hilarious. I wish we could play the video. But you'll have to go look it up because it was pretty funny.

And someone, a lot of people had funny comments and response, but someone said, you know, finally the sheep are fighting back, you know. These little kids keep riding them around. and this one was just, this one was just fed up. So anyways, that was pretty hilarious. That's cute.

I got to go watch that video. It sounds fun. I love watching cute animal kid videos. Mine is also lighthearted, and it kind of relates to Meredith's, like kids getting out of their phones. It was a staple of my youth to go to Six Flags, amusement parks at Flegged over Texas in Arlington.

but I just saw when I was perusing for something to talk about during our tweetery section, and I saw a complaint about spring break attendees at Six Flags that many of the attractions are closed. Someone said that only seven out of the 12 roller coasters are open, which was a little bit surprising because you'd think that they would expect a pretty big crowd during spring break at Six Flags and that they'd have their rides ready. So the wait times were pretty long. one wait time was estimated to be 300 minutes on the Six Flags app. Can you imagine five hours?

I skip that ride. But anyway, it's interesting to see people are still going to six flags, but apparently there's some attractions closed there. So I don't know if they'll have them ready for the summer season, but I hope so for those who, because it's not cheap to go to Six Flags. Yeah. No, it's true. I haven't been to Six Flags probably since high school, I think.

I think we did a like a field trip there, but it's been a while. Or the rodeo on it. I haven't gone back to the Houston rodeo since before COVID, which I remember when that rodeo got shut down was when my family was like, oh, this COVID thing's going to be a big deal. Yeah. We're going to know because of that. Yeah. Well, thank you, everybody, for joining us for this week's episode of the weekly roundup.

You can check out all of the articles we talked about in the description below at the texan. Thank you to Kim, Meredith, and Mary Elise for joining us. And I hope that I have been at least a decent substitute for McKenzie as the host of this podcast. And hopefully she will return next week for the next episode of the Weekly Roundup. And we'll catch you all next week.