The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - March 28, 2025

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free "Remember the Alamo" hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/Learn more about the Data Center Coalition at: https://www.centerofyourdigitalworld.org/texasLearn more about The Beer Alliance at:https://beeralliance.com/The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.This week on The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup,” the team discusses:Sen. John Cornyn Makes 2026 Re-Election Bid Official, Awaits GOP Challenger‘Governor Hot Wheels’: Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett Responds to Backlash After Abbott CommentTrump Department of Homeland Security Terminates Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, Venezuelan Parole ProgramDOJ, Chile Collaborate to Deport TDA Gang Members, One Apprehended in TexasTexas Senate Gives Initial Approval to $336 Billion Budget for 2026–2027 BienniumFederal Judge Blocks Texas A&M University System's Drag Show BanTexas Blocks Biden Administration Foster Care Rule Requiring Affirmation of Children's Gender IdentityTexas Senate to Consider Siting Mandate for Renewables, Sparking Property Rights FightTexas Democrats Lambast Trump, Musk, Abbott over Department of Education EliminationTexas Democrats Shift Messaging on Public Safety, Criminal Justice Legislation SlateTexas ‘Big Three’ Push School Choice with Former Arizona Gov. Doug Duceyand MORE!

Howdy folks, Mackenzie here with Mary Lee's Cameron and Brad. Why I went the opposite way that today, I just thought I'd mix it up a little bit. Yeah. That's a big day for mixing it up. Um, happy Thursday guys. Feeling, feeling a little bit of the dreary weather kind of hitting the office a little bit. Little bit.

Yeah. Um, I'm fighting against something right now. I don't know what it is, but I'm not at a hundred percent, but I'm going to give a hundred percent in this podcast. You always do Cameron. Because the listeners and the readers deserve it. They deserve Cameron's commentary. Cameron's saying that at about 75 percent volume of what he usually does. Not even loud, but it's just you can tell he's reined in slightly a little bit. Yeah I voluntarily well I came into the office with you know battery at a hundred percent And I was working on something with Mary Elise early this morning

And that took about 50% of my battery down. Oh my bad, so I'm gonna I'm gonna use the rest. She, I'm gonna use the rest. My bad, she says. I'm gonna use the rest. It was fun though. It was fun. Very interesting. Yeah, there was diagrams. There was a whiteboard.

There was a whiteboard. Whiteboards, arrows. I was checking the lines this morning. Lots of Googling going on. It was fun, it was fun. But, you know, we're gonna do our best today. Yeah, we're gonna do our best. Well, on that note, we can go ahead and jump into the news.

I was in a riveting, since you asked, you know, I was in a riveting insurance hearing this morning. Here's the thing, Brad oftentimes at the beginning of the podcast is preoccupied, and if I do direct a conversation to him, looks visibly annoyed. So I chose not to today, and then he got mad about it I just I don't know when I can win or when it'll be a loss. So

Other things to say Bradley No, it was just fascinating Was it he did he brought it up in the office? It was it if you were in the office at the time you would It actually is pretty interesting although a grin total of five people probably give a crap. I was editing your piece last night and I opened it and I was like, oh my gosh, it's six pages. And Andrew's like, what is it on?

And I'm like, what do you think? It's like something boring. And I was like, to most people, it's not boring. See, that's the thing. Just niche. Fascinating. Well, it's boring Well, it's boring until it matters, you know, cuz that's a good way to put it right because What it had if you want to just give like because I think it's interesting as a really have that piece on our docket

Because it has to do with things hail and wind insurance, correct Brett because it has to do with hail and wind insurance. Correct, Brett? Eight? I think it's eight. Yeah, we have it here. No, the article, are you talking about the hearing? The hearing. Oh yeah, the hearing is just insurance generally.

Right, but it might sound boring, an insurance hearing, but if people think about the issues that occurred in California with fire insurance, or the issues that have occurred in Florida with insurance going out of the state because of hurricanes this is what's happening here in the state and lawmakers are trying to address this insurance issue before becomes a bigger problem for people I think a lot of what does is try and do things before they have issues like California does.

That's oftentimes the trajectory or the aim, which is very interesting. And I'm not saying the issues Brad covers are unimportant. They're very important. And oftentimes they're far more interesting than the subject matter might yield thought of. But if you look at California and Florida, how insurance has become a huge problem in those states and how it became a really big story for people. That is sort of the overlay with what's going on in that hearing Brad was attending today. It makes sense. Cameron, you just took the rug out from under me when it comes to making fun of Brad, so I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Well, Brad, I hope now that he is zoomed in on his phone, I do actually need to come to you for a story. I'm sorry about it. Senator Cornyn confirmed to something we already knew was happening this week, but it's made it official. Give us a rundown of the announcement. I'm distracted because I'm getting text messages about this very issue right now. Insurance or Cornyn?

Cornyn. Ooh, spicy. Insurance or Cornyn? Cornyn. I just put out a tweet of a poll that's kind of rippling in a lot of different places. So, Senator Cornyn announced officially this week that he is running for re-election. We all knew that was going to happen. That's not a surprise. But he hadn't come out with an an official launch video yet and he did so games on The senior senator from Texas is seeking reelection officially in his video. He the Voice-over says and President Trump's first term. He made America great and Texas Senator John Cornyn had his back

then pan to Cornyn eventually and said, he said, we can't go backwards to inflation, crime, and DEI. President Trump needs a partner who's battle-tested to restore law and order, cut taxes and spending, and take back our jobs and supply chains. The radical left thinks they can flip Texas blue, stop President Trump and reverse the America First agenda. The Texans have a message for them, come and take it.

They have a couple of thematic takeaways in this. Cornyn's acting like he's the nominee already. Obviously, somebody's going to jump in against him or multiple somebodies. Chief among them, Attorney General Ken Paxton, who for all intents and purposes looks like he is going to jump into the race. Maybe then we see a different bit of messaging from Cornyn, but as usual, when an incumbent is running for reelection, they're going to act like they are their party's nominee officially. And so that's kind of the angle we're seeing

with this messaging. Also, he's talking specifically about the Biden administration and what happened under their tutelage. Obviously, Trump is in office now. We'll see in a year or so what the big issues are vis-a-vis the Trump administration. But for now, he's playing on what worked really well

for Republicans in just battering the Biden administration and national Democrats over the economy and crime, all this stuff. So it's kind of a classic hits ad, at least as things go right now, but things might shift when we get closer. Absolutely. Thank you, Bradley. Yeah. Is your poll the Tweetery, by the way?

No, it's not, but I can mention it. Mention the poll quickly. Yeah, so Texas Policy Research, I forget the name, it's some standard blank name, but it is a Dem affiliated pollster, which actually I think makes this more interesting because they have a primary head-to-head between Paxton and Cornyn and it's Paxton's up by a decent amount. Ten points, eleven points. Yeah, eleven points.

38% Paxton, 27% Cornyn. They also gauge Colin Allred the 24th nominee for the Democrats against Ted Cruz Allred's at plus seven net fave unfave still at 33 percent no opinion never heard of which is something that plagued him during the election all throughout 24 Cornyn's at minus 22 percent net fave unfave and Paxton's at minus 5 percent, NetFave, Unfave. So it's pretty interesting numbers there. This is one poll. But this is the first head-to-head that I've seen that isn't an internal poll from one of the two camps.

Like the only one I've seen was a Paxton poll. Right. Not had Paxton up. We've seen some third party polls that were not head to head and so very difficult to really make heads or tails of. You just have to like add up the willingness of people to vote for a candidate singularly, but we're starting to see some more develop and as we know who's gonna be you know in the field other rumors of candidates actually Wesley Hunt's campaign just made an ad by today that's gonna go statewide he's not in the race

right now but he is being rumored Jasmine Crockett as Mary Lee's mentioned in her newsletter this morning it definitely looks like she's aiming for this, or at least mulling it. Yeah. Allred, Dallas Morning News reported that Allred's considering this, so a lot of heavy hitters. We'll see who actually pulls the trigger. Absolutely. Well, on the Jasmine Crockett note, Mary Lee, if you're gonna come to you, a Texas Congresswoman, Jasmine Crockett made national headlines this week. Yes. A very interesting comment about Governor Gray Gabbott that went absolutely viral, explain the situation. Yeah, really garnered national headlines. Everyone was talking about it. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was speaking at a human rights campaign event. It looked like it was a banquet and she

was speaking about a few different political figures and then she said of Abbott, I'm gonna quote her here, she said, we in these hot ass Texas streets honey y'all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there come on now and the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot ass mess honey and then she said that she was gonna move on because she's got other people to diss. So, of course, it got a lot of attention with the headlines everywhere saying, Governor Hot Wheels, Texas Congresswoman makes an, some people said, ablest comment about Governor Greg Abbott. And there were a lot of Texas lawmakers that weighed in on this comment,

this behavior. and Representative Randy Weber has filed a motion to censure her, and if you remember, Congressman Al Green was another Texas congressman that was censured recently for his conduct during Trump's joint address to Congress. I believe Holly covered that. So Representative Randy Weber introduced a censure and he said that he is doing this for her disgraceful and violent attacks against our governor of Texas,

saying that this kind of rhetoric has no place in Congress. And I'm gonna read you Crockett's, most of Crockett's response because it's also noteworthy that got millions of views on X when she posted a response to all of this backlash. She said, I wasn't thinking about the governor's condition. I was thinking about the planes, trains, and automobiles he used to transfer migrants into communities led by black mayors, deliberately stoking tension and fear among the most vulnerable. And here she was referring to when Abbott announced in January 2024 that Texas had been transporting illegal aliens,

over 100,000 non-citizens, to sanctuary cities across the country. And so I believe she was referring to that. She linked an article that was about that below her comments. She said, literally, the next line I said was that he was a hot-ass mess referencing his terrible policies. At no point did I mention or allude to his condition she said that she's even more appalled that the very people who support Trump a man known for his racially insensitive nicknames and mocking those with disabilities are now outraged so definitely a wild news story this week and we'll see if the censure actually goes through with congressman Al Green

it was pretty quickly passed through voted voted on. So yeah, keep an eye on it. Absolutely. And it is wild to watch just the virality of this moment. It certainly was responded to by, you know, many different Texas members of the Texas delegation, but also folks from all around the country in elected office. So very interesting to watch, especially considering, you know, her apparent aims for higher office eventually as well. So lots going on Jasmine Crockett. Certainly is, we were just talking the other day, it's wild to think she was a freshman in the Texas house not that long ago and now she's got this national

profile. It's really wild to watch. But Mary-Li, thank you for your coverage. Cameron, coming to you. A controversial migrant parole program was shut down. Give us this update. So this is in regard to the CHMV or Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans parole program. And this is a program that was started under the President Joe Biden administration and it's long been the ire of both federal and state lawmakers. And for those unfamiliar with how this program works, back in 2023, the White House explained that under this new system, 30,000 individuals per month from those four countries

who have an eligible sponsor and pass vetting and background checks can come to the United States for a period of two years and receive work authorization. So this was reported about on a number of different occasions by border security and immigration think tanks where reports of hundreds of thousands of individuals were being flown into the interior of the United States through this program. Last April, Attorney General Kim Paxton, alongside America First Legal and 20 other state attorneys generals, they filed a lawsuit trying to shut down this program.

Then in August, Senator Ted Cruz issued a letter requesting information regarding this CHMV program. Well now the DHS is revoking the temporary parole status of the 532,000 individuals flown into the country as part of this program. And the notice from DHS is rather interesting. I'll just read one section of it here for people. Quote, parolee is inherently temporary, and parole alone is not an underlying basis for obtaining any immigration status, nor does it constitute an admission to the United States.

So that's sort of echoing the larger theme of the Trump administration cracking down on illegal immigration, these parole programs, incentivizing the illegal immigrants to self-deport in some instances, also increasing the number of raids that are occurring across the country. So many different aspects that Trump administration is employing to try and tamp down on illegal immigration. And moving forward, the notice also details how parole determination should be done only on a case-by-case basis, taking into account each alien's unique circumstances.

And they go on further to say that it should be done at points of entry. So lots of updates there on this controversial program. There's already been some lawsuits filed. The ACLU is arguing that the DHS is violating the Administrative Procedure Act and there's a number of other stories, some that I've already mentioned in this segment, the others being the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, flying these Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador. That's caused a

huge dust-up, but many aspects to the Trump administration's actions trying to stop illegal immigration. So there's sure to be more updates as the administration rolls along here so keep everyone updated. And certainly watching those border numbers to see how these policies are affecting the actual you know influx of illegal immigration. Right. Cameron thank you. You're welcome. Mary-Lise, the DOJ is deporting three gang members of a very familiar gang that we've reported on plenty. Tell us about it.

Yeah, and this is kind of a good segue from Cameron's topic. So this is the United States Department of Justice's announcement that they're collaborating with Chile to deport three Trans-Diaragua gang members, which we've covered a whole lot here. TDA gang members. And one of these members was apprehended, indicted, and imprisoned in Texas. And Chile's collaborating with our DOJ because they're wanted there for a whole bunch of horrific crimes they described to them but they

are all member they are all citizens of Venezuela some of them have dual citizenship but so one of these three men that was listed by the DOJ is he has it looks like he's got two names that he goes by but one of them is Rafael Gomez Salas and he was indicted in the United States district district court for the southern district of Texas back in February, so about a month ago, for illegally reentering the country. And he had been deported to Venezuela in 2023. And he's a citizen of both Colombia and Venezuela. So he's one of the ones with dual citizenship.

But he's wanted in Chile, and this is why they're collaborating with us, for extortion, kidnapping, resulting in homicide, kidnapping for extortion, an unjustified firearm discharge, and criminal association. And then the two other ones that are wanted in Chile, the two other gang members are wanted for similar crimes. There's kidnapping with homicide, kidnapping for ransom, and criminal association. You can read all the details about those specific individuals. But the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanch, said that in a press release when he was announcing we're going to deport these three members, he was saying how they pose a grave risk to

public safety and national security. and as Cameron was referencing, they have been declared alien enemies through the Alien Enemies Act. And he said that they would have already removed these violent gang members to Chile to face justice if it weren't for the nationwide injunction imposed by a single judge in Washington, D.C., which happened at the same time as that you were mentioning the flights of these TDA gang members. And so that's Judge James Boesberg. He's a chief judge for Washington, D.C.

And that's a whole back and forth right now with Judge James. And he's trying actively to prevent President Trump's deportation efforts. And he's arguing that he needs confirmation that these individuals are indeed gang members saying we need more details. And so Blanche said that we hope common sense and justice will prevail.

And if you remember, Trump declared TDA and other gangs as foreign terrorist organizations on the first day of his presidency within hours of taking his oath. And then that was about four months after Governor Greg Abbott designated TDA as a foreign terrorist organization and which during that announcement Abbott pointed out that this gang is associated with the murder of Laken Riley who's been a she's the she was the 22 year old student who was murdered by Venezuelan national Jose Ibarra And he was in the country legally, so I'm sure we're gonna see a lot more of these arrests I mean, it's every time I record the podcast. We're talking about trend a ragua and

Arrests and the deportations of illegal aliens. So this is just just more Yeah, it it's quite a controversial action the Trump administration has taken and lots of commentary on both sides of the issue going on, not just regarding the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, but the injunction the Washington DC judge has placed on the Trump administration. And it appears the Supreme Court is going to have to take up the issue to determine the capacity for which the executive branch can invoke some of these actions. So there's a lot of runway still to go, but in the meantime, we're getting more and more things happening actually

on the ground here. And I'm sure there's more to come too. Absolutely. Well, Mary Elise, thank you so much for your coverage. We're gonna take a quick break and hear from one of our sponsors. Did you know data centers support 364,000 jobs in Texas and contribute $3.5 billion in state and local taxes.

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Okay, great. The first step toward accomplishing the one constitutional requirement that the legislature is actually tasked with occurred this week in the Senate. What happened? So, Texas's initial $336 billion imprint for the next biennial budget passed the Texas Senate in unanimous fashion on Tuesday. SB 1 by Senator Jonah Huffman outlines $176 billion in all article spending in the 2026 fiscal year and $160 billion in 2027. Texas budgets on two-year cycles. That amount, that total, is a $16 billion increase in spending from the current biennium's budget as originally drafted.

Now it's not exactly the same as what we're going to end up with because there's always supplemental appropriations made during that biennium. That is projected to be, I think, $3 billion less than what this blueprint is passed as at the moment. So, you know, cost increase as the biennium goes on and you know, things pop up that you didn't think were expenses that you didn't think were going to pop up to. So that is how the budget process generally works. Some of the top lines of this budget as drafted, $2.5 billion for new water infrastructure,

$4.3 billion to raise the average teacher salary from $54,000 to $69,000. Now keep in mind that's not a flat number. That's an average of what we're going to see for all the teachers. There's different increases for rural teachers, how experienced they are, all that kind of stuff. That's just a baseline average. Six billion dollars in new property tax relief, which a forty thousand dollar increase in the standard homestead exemption. That is notable because Governor Abbott's called for in his state of the state at least ten billion dollars in new property tax relief

And of course that is different from the property tax relief overall the last session. We talked we heard about You know eighteen18 billion roughly in tax relief. Well, it was really in new tax relief about $13 billion because they were continuing compression that had been adopted in the 2019 session. So a lot of complications to that, but generally right now we're at $6 billion. The different blueprints, the Senate or the House wants to increase the business personal property tax from $2,500 to $250,000. That's quite a significant increase. The BPP exemption, so the

amount of money that a business doesn't have to pay tax on and that's inventory, anything that helps it make income. The Senate's version though is $25,000, so a significantly lower increase to that. So businesses are going to be a fight over that between these two chambers over how much in business focused tax relief to provide. Other items, $500 million to increase the school safety allotment, $4.4 billion more to the Texas Medicaid program, $39.9 billion overall to the Texas Department of Transportation for all of its purposes, including highway expansion and repair. $6.5 billion toward continued border security operations. That's interesting because there's a lot of talk about now if the Trump administration is taking over, does the state of Texas have to provide as much money as it did? Well, the answer is at least for now, they will. House, I don't think it's gonna push back on that much at all, maybe

quibble on things here and there, but the general appropriation is gonna stick. And then of course, one billion dollars for the ESA plan. A lot more in the piece, but yeah, check it out. The only thing, other thing that stuck out to me was on property taxes. Patrick touted this budget, of course, along with Huffman. But Abraham George, the RPT chair, kind of panned it. And he said, this is not good enough. We need more for property tax relief. So stay tuned on that fight.

I don't think we'll reach the sheer level of wildfire that we did in session last last time in 2023. That's a high bar. But yeah, absolutely. There might be some fireworks. And we this is all groundwork. Everything we were reporting on up to this point has largely just been groundwork laid for these big policy fights that are coming over the next month and two months really. So keep an eye out for those Bradley. Thank you. Cameron, there's been an update in the Texas A&M Drag Show ban, give us an update. Yeah, so for those unfamiliar, Texas A&M,

they passed a resolution to ban drag shows across their 11 campuses. And this was a resolution that was passed essentially in response to a LGBT group that was planning to hold an event on the Texas A&M University's main campus and after the resolution was passed the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression or FIRE people are I'm sure are familiar with them now they

filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of this LGBT group and we had a pretty straightforward ruling from the judge that said quote it is a ticketed event only those who want to attend do so anyone who finds the performance or performers offensive has a simple remedy don't go so with this motion for a preliminary injunction it will block the board from quote enforcing its ban and permits the playing performance to go forward on the a&m college state campus so as of now the resolution to band drag shows is blocked from enforcement and

this actually comes after the ut system sent passed a similar resolution after Tarrant County Judge Tim O'Hare urged the Board of Regents to do so Governor Greg Abbott sent a letter in January to Texas state agencies to reject woke gender ideologies so seems to be some pushback from our high-select official here in the state. Because college universities are tax-funded entities, there seems to be some disagreements on how both the federal aid, federal, or not federal, state government and college institutions are handling this issue. So as of right now, the resolution

is blocked from being enforced. We'll see if there's further rulings, appeals, but we will keep everyone updated. Cameron, you're great at keeping everyone updated. It's your job. You do it well. You do it particularly well. Well, I never know how to end a segment when I'm talking. I know. So yeah, that do it particularly well. Well, I never know how to end a segment.

I know. Cause. So yeah, that's it. Sometimes you just trail off or you stop in the middle of the set. We should do an episode where we just make the most like that transitions. Like, well, that's it. What you got. That concludes. That's all folks.

Yeah. That whole thing. Maybe we'll just play the loony tunes. That's all folks. Yeah. That whole thing. Maybe we'll just play the loony tunes. That's all folks. Like every single time. Well, because it used to be I would just stop at the end and I'd look over at you. And I'd be like, oh, you're done. Yeah.

Transition really helps me know when to jump in because I don't want to cut you off. I don't want to preliminarily end something. Maybe you have to come up with some variations of I'll keep everyone. Maybe hand signal too like, okay, there you go. Yeah. Or I don't know. We'll figure it out. We'll work on it. It has to be specific. We'll workshop it. We'll workshop it. Amen, brother. Mary Lee is coming to you. A federal district judge has just ruled in favor of Texas and against a Biden administration rule. Explain what's going on. Yes, so this was a ruling by a federal district judge and it was against a 2024 rule from the Biden administration and it was siding with the Texas Attorney General Ken Pax and this has to do with foster care homes

affirming a child's quote LGBTQI plus identity. And so this was something that the Biden administration, the health and human services department was, had established this rule in 2024. And they were saying that foster care homes have to affirm a child's identity, LGBTQ plus identity, whether that looks like housing them with the desired gender members

of their desired sex or providing these gender modification surgeries or treatments to affirm the child's identity. It could include hormone blockers, castration, and then other of those surgeries that would be considered affirming or gender modification surgeries or treatments. And so Paxton attempted to halt the rule back in September 2024. And it was this rule scheduled to take place on July 4th, 2024. And then Judge Jeremy Kernodel of the Eastern District of Texas granted him that, that he could stop the rule on March 21st, so this week.

And he ruled that the Biden administration's rule was in violation of state law and determined that Texas is likely to suffer irreparable harm, according to the court documents. And Paxton had been arguing in the original lawsuit against HHS that they were trying to shoehorn gender identity into the statutes governing our nation's foster care systems. And he was also one point that he made, he was concerned that the state already has a lack of foster care providers and that this would only exacerbate that issue and make it more difficult for Texas to be able to recruit in foster care providers under

the new conditions this new rule that the administration had proposed and it defined in the rule it defined these these identities that the children could possibly identify with as LGBTQI plus minors, children with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning, and intersex status or identity. So that was their definition, very broad definition of these different identities. And Judge Kernodel summarized his legal opinion was when he announced that this rule that he would grant Paxton's halting of this rule. He said that HHS was imposing a nationwide rule requiring experimental and controversial treatment on our nation's most vulnerable children in foster care. And he added that the problem for HHS here in this lawsuit, in this attempt to push this

rule forward, was that the agency lacks any statutory authority to do so. Yeah and I think this is emblematic of two really interesting things the pendulum swing between two different administrations and their approach on this gender identity issue but then also when you funnel down the broad topic of gender identity issue. But then also, when you funnel down the broad topic of gender identity and how it affects someone like a foster kid, where many of these minors who are seeking out

these types of gender affirming care procedures or cross-sex hormones or whatever it may be, there is a growing body of evidence that these are vulnerable, not just in their day to day lives, whether it be a foster care child with unstable home environment, but also that can lead to a psychological vulnerability, which makes that minor or that child more susceptible to these sorts of ideologies that can leak into how they are self-identifying, which

can lead them to wanting these types of affirming care interventions. Child gender modification treatments. Yeah. Yeah. So I think, like I just said, two different viewpoints from federal administrations, but then also emblematic of the most vulnerable being subject to how these procedures and modification treatments are

taking place. And now state government and courts push back against that. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you both. Bradley, coming to you, we mentioned a piece earlier that I call boring, it's really not. It's very good. Tell us about this piece by this bill that Senator Coolcourse is working. So Senate Bill 819 is legislation that would require renewable power generators to have siting and permitting requirements in the states.

Currently there are none. There are no specific siting requirements for fossil fuel generators, but they have something similar because of the clean air permits they have to obtain. So there is some sort of like engagement publicly on this stuff and on the renewable side there isn't and so these things can go anywhere provided you know you purchase the land and you pay the money and you know, you do that. There is a push by Senator Colquharson, the author, but by conservation groups specifically to establish these requirements so there's some level of regulation where these things

can go. The biggest example in this is the many thousands of acres that were purchased by a Chinese billionaire on which he was planning on putting a wind farm. Now that became the face for the China land bill that we're seeing move through the body. But it has this other offshoot too because the wind farm was going to be located close to the Devil's River, which is a very pristine, untouched part of nature in the state. And so these local groups there fought it and didn't want it there because it would disturb not just physically the Devil's River area, but like the viewpoints and so the pieces is pretty lengthy so I'm not gonna go into it all but

Check it out if you're interested. It's It's an interesting political fight because you have These conservationists and environmentalists on opposite sides when typically they're united Almost other yeah almost every other issue and so almost every other issue. And so then you have the fact that the state is growing rapidly and we need power to support it. And that's kind of the industry, the renewable industry, their case, their argument is that we need this power and you can't tell people to do with their properties. If they sell their property to a wind farm, then that's what they do. The other side is saying, well, we need

at least some sort of responsible permitting on this. There's an interesting wrinkle in this on a report that was commissioned by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for their staff to examine the effect on wildlife of these solar farms and wind farms and I list out the findings basically in the piece. But the interesting thing is that this thing has disappeared. Nobody really knows why. It was commissioned, they talked about it in a November meeting at TPWD and they have not released it yet. And the findings are not great for the renewable industry, you know, specifically in terms of effect on wildlife and tourism viewpoints as well. That's the big, that's a big point of contention against

specifically wind farms because you get these big hulking turbines that disrupts scenery. So there's this, it's a really niche fight, yes, but it affects a lot. Well, not so niche that people might expect because actually JD Vance on the Joe Rogan podcast mentioned his issues with wind farms. Do you remember this? No. I didn't watch that. I don't have three and a half hours to just sit and listen to an entire Joe Rogan

episode. Well someone who's gonna be elected to possibly the vice presidency at the time. I think it's worth tuning in. But, um. Put it on 2X speed. That's what I hear. Well, he called it the biggest scam out there and called them ugly. So the niche issue of it not just disrupting the ecology of an area, but the aesthetics, the viewpoints

that these wind farms cause, you know, made it all the way up to the vice president. So it is an issue. And infrastructure and energy will always be at the forefront of what the legislature is dealing with. On any given session, to this session, there's a lot of that going on. Yeah. Okay. Bradley, thank you. Go read his piece. We're going to take another ad break here from a sponsor.

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but that's okay. I'm going to forgive him because he gives me far more interaction during the pod give me quite as satisfying of a response when I went to that ad break. That's okay. I'm going to forgive him because he gives me far more interaction during the pod than anybody else. Some raised eyebrows, some like slow nod, the raised tilt. Yeah. He's got, he's got a lot of, uh, reactions for me that helped me get, get the job done. Okay.

We're going back to you Democrats have reacted to Trump moving to dismantle the department of education this week here in Texas. Tell us what the response has been. Yeah. So I'm sure everyone is aware now that president Donald Trump has signed a executive order to what he says, begin eliminating the U S department of education and well, the reactions have come fast and furious. A number of, well, one lawmaker, one congressman, Rep. Greg Kassar, he came to the Texas Capitol,

held a press conference with a number of Texas Democrat reps here. And Greg Kassar said, quote, I want to start today by being crystal clear about what's going on. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are stealing from America's children in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. And that was sort of the running theme of the press conference that I attended this week. Lots of mentions of Elon Musk. And it's probably warranted because there's

been lots of pushback on how Musk and the Department on Government Efficiency has operated, cutting and slashing what they call waste, fraud, and abuse. And so we heard from Gene Wu, who said, quote, while Governor Abbott should be in Austin working on the absolute highest priority in the state, which is keeping our public education system afloat, he is in Washington, D.C. hamming it up with the president. And that is in reference to Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Ken Paxson, they were all at the signing of this dismantling of the Department of Education executive order. So this is

again a running theme for Texas Democrats pushing back not just against Donald Trump and what he has done with the Department of Education but pushing back against state elected officials and their approach to education in the state. So this is sure to be a running issue as we move into the larger school choice fight in a couple weeks and that's going to be something that is going to require a lot of a lot of piecing together the arguments as they are going to be presented on not just the House floor but through the committees and things so something I'll be attuned

to and I'll keep everyone updated. Are you ready for the day that the ESA bills on the House? Are you ready for that day? He blinks along he goes well I I try and think about last session because the school choice fight went into multiple special sessions. Are we going to get something similar? It's possible but it seems like there's a larger contingency of pro-school choice members in the House as compared to last session. So will that lead to the bill having an easier time of passing during the regular session? Or is there another shoe to fall here where we're going to see GOP conservative members pull out of their support for school choice Just not sure we're gonna have to wait for the day to come. Yeah, absolutely

Well Cameron, thank you Bradley. Let's talk about Texas Democrats shifting their messaging on public safety You wrote a piece this week detailing how that policy fight has kind of evolved over the last couple years. Give us some intel. So they Texas House Democratic Caucus held a press conference last week. It was a counter messaging event to the GOP bail reform items that were gonna be heard in committee that day and that were heard in committee.

Holly's got a good piece on that more broadly. But I thought it was interesting because the democratic members really focused on, we want to block violent offenders away and we want to reduce crime. And that's us. You know, their opponents will say, Oh, they never cared about this. It's just not true. They have different set of priorities. And it depends on which kind of Democrat you're talking about, right? Like they're the ones, more moderate ones are very much, you know, lock them up, throw

away the key, at least more than the very progressive ones are. But it's still been, it's an issue that really divides the Democratic Party because the progressive activists on the left are very much for very lax bail policies, at least in the way we think about it now in relation to what Republicans are trying to advance in the legislature. Then you add the context of last election, and this was a millstone hung around the Democratic Party's neck, both nationally and locally, they got their teeth kicked in in the election, and this was a big part of that. And so they're shifting their messaging and focusing on a lot of these other bills.

They have their own bail reform amendment that is slightly different than the Republicans' version. It limits the, whereas the Republican bail, denial of bail amendment is broader, it includes more, you know, violent offenses. The Democratic one is more tailored and I have it in the piece. You can look at the different breakdowns of it.

But it is like, it would be an increase from what we have now if that were to pass. I think Ant Johnson, representative Ant Johnson has that amendment. You know one thing she told me that I thought was actually pretty interesting I hadn't thought about before in relation to the Republicans proposed amendment, she's concerned that it would proposed amendment. She's concerned that it would gum up the system more because you would have more people first of all in jail, which is already really overcrowded, specifically in Harris County. Um, and there her whole point is people that we can let out that we that will return and on their own recognizance and show up to court, we should, provided they're

not a threat to public safety. But there's that. And then you add the fact that when you do have someone in jail, you need to give them a timely trial or pretrial because that's constitutionally required. And so that if you have more people in jail you have more immediately necessary trials and that backs up the court even more. So I thought it was a very fair point to make and I'm interested to see how they thread the needle on that in this. Well is there a push for them to

hire more judges to oversee these Like for example, there are yeah. Yeah, cuz there is legislation to create more courts. Yeah You know, we saw a few courts created last session Yeah, I mean it's Then do you have enough qualified judges, right? If you're creating 20 new courts Do you have enough judges qualified ones to fill those roles? Are you just throwing, um, you know, newbie lawyers in who've never done this before? And then that causes its own backup problems. So like this,

this is a quagmire of an issue. And I think it's very notable that Democrats are, why, why is that? We just like to quiet wire. Yeah. I'd never heard that before. You never heard that. You haven't seen Family Guy, obviously. Maybe we can think of Hamilton. Well, then it leads to the issue of the ideology of those judges that are being hired to oversee those court proceedings. Because that's been an issue as well. The judges, you know, the judges... Well, that's the whole reason that the Republicans are advancing bail reform because you have judges

who are very much letting people out who they probably shouldn't who then go and commit crimes and kill people. That's the reason this is an issue right now. But this, to pass this amendment, it's gonna require Democratic support. It's failed each of the last couple of sessions. And when we say amendment, we're talking a very different thing than just something that's tacked onto a bill too. Like this is a constitutional amendment. You need two thirds of the House. Which is a hundred votes. Republicans have 88. That's why the Democrats are so consequential in this kind of fight. Because you actually physically need that number, like some contingency of Democrats. Every session it's like, okay what number can we get

of folks who will cross over party lines? In similar way, you know, bail reform in some ways divides the Democratic coalition as school choice can and has in the past. So it's very interesting to kind of watch that happen and be brought into primary fights. Yep. Okay. Bradley, thank you. Cameron speaking of school choice, let's talk about a big three press conference that happened this week. Very notable for many reasons, but tell us what happened.

Well, and I think the most notable reason is that this was the first time the big three had met in a public forum since house speaker Dennis Bonnen had all big three together. Is that right, Brad? I think during session. During his first joint press conference they've had during session. Yeah, so it was notable for that reason and then also notable because former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey joined them and Doug Ducey was the one who initiated the school choice program in Arizona. So he was there to sort of provide an example and support for the big three who were all

very much encouraging the lawmakers who were lined up behind them during this press conference to encourage them to pass school choice. And Governor Greg Abbott said we are on the cusp of another type of game-changing piece of legislation. Next week the Texas House Education Committee is expected to pass out of the committee school choice for the first time in the history of Texas. And that piece of legislation is House Bill 3. I've written about it extensively. People can go check out the piece if they want the details. There was some ribbing that occurred where Dan Patrick commented about Burroughs being the House Speaker and saying,

I know it's his first year. It's taken him a few extra weeks to get his feet on the ground to get set up, but I expect to see a flurry of great bills including school choice to come out of the Texas house. And Burroughs has said on multiple occasions that he does expect school choice to pass out of the house. And like I mentioned in an earlier segment, there's an estimated 80 members that have entered the 89th session, expressing some sort of support or interest in approving ESAs during this session. So, but again, we don't know until the vote comes, because there's been lots of pushback from Democrats,

obviously being much more in the pro-fundings public school camp. But a very interesting comment that came out back in February, I attended a press conference where Gene Wu said he believes, quote, there's a lot of members on the yes side who are kind of wishy-washy. I don't know if he has had conversations behind the scenes. We've seen some individual members express some skepticism about school choice publicly. So we'll have to see how everything lands once the bill gets to the floor. We'll finally have an answer. Absolutely. An answer we will have. Cameron Cameron thank you. Mary Elise a bill has been introduced in the Texas

Senate that would close a loophole that allows strip clubs to stay open at nearly all hours. Explain what's going on here. Yes I feel like some of the stories I'm covering on this pod are a little bit wild this week. You have some salacious stories. Yes salacious that's a good word. So this is a bipartisan bill that's been introduced in the Texas Senate that would prevent customers from bringing their own alcoholic beverages to certain sexually oriented businesses, which are essentially strip clubs,

but can include other businesses by closing a loophole that allows these entities to remain open nearly 24-7. So this was Senate Bill 287 introduced by Senator Boris Miles and then co-authored by Senator Charles Perry which is why I said it's bipartisan. So it would essentially prohibit the consumption of alcohol on the premises of a sexually oriented business such as a strip club. Those include listed in the Bell Nightclub, bar, restaurant, or similar commercial enterprise that provides live nude entertainment or live nude performances unless the site has an alcohol license from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. But the catch here is that, and this is TABC,

they only permit that if you have a license with TABC, they only permit that if you have a license with TABC, they only permit the sale of alcohol until 2 a.m. And so this is something that looks like strip clubs and similar businesses have kind of found a loophole where if there's almost under the table, just bring your own beverage, BYOB, then customers will stick around for much longer than if alcohol is cut off at 2 a.m. You can't bring your own alcohol, you have to buy it there. It's not available at 3 a.m. So yes, and it had the hearing in Senate State Affairs on Monday and Senator Charles Perry was sharing that he was encouraged or moved

to be a part of this legislation because of situations that were happening in this community. And he was saying that there's a business, a sexually oriented business that was allowed to operate until all hours of the night. And then the neighbors that are around this venue are reporting increased crime and other problems associated with patrons of the venue and he said I'll say that most sexually oriented businesses try their best to run a safe and legal establishments we do need to look at the bad actors within the state

saying the legislation would require BYOB bring your beverage businesses to get a permit under the Commission and he's saying in this way we'll have some oversight these businesses and he said bad actors will be forced to operate in good faith. He told the story of Aspen Blessing whose family he said her six siblings and parents visited his office after the bill was filed and so she was killed in a car accident tragically by a drunk driver on March 10th, 2024. And the person, the drunk driver who killed her was someone who was leaving one of these strip clubs intoxicated and hit her car head on and killed her.

So he's just reinforcing that this is an investment in public safety. And a representative from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission spoke at the hearing and said he has general support for the bill. He did have one issue with the way that it's worded. He said if these establishments do allow full nude entertainment then they couldn't get a license because that's one of the rules that TABC has. If it's fully nude then there's some prohibitions in their code that would prohibit them from getting a license. And so he was saying that we do currently license establishments that are effectively topless, but he said that

they have to be covered quote from the bottom portion down. So this will be I'm sure continuing interesting discussion, but it was left pending in committee on Monday afternoon. Yeah I think it is fair to say we expect this to be Brought through the process at some point. It'll probably happen relatively soon. So we'll keep an eye on this one Mary Elise Thank you Cameron very quickly because we need to move on to our two year section I do want to mention a piece you wrote this week There's been a wave of attacks at Tesla dealerships and now one has happened in Austin Quickly add anything that you want to to this story, but we'll be quick because we got, we got some tweeter to get to.

Yeah, I'll be quick. Uh, the FBI, uh, had warned about quote arson, gunfire and vandalism. And at these Tesla centers and now this incendiary device was discovered at a dealership in Austin. And this is coming on the heels of a string of incidences where there have been these attacks at Tesla dealerships and showrooms. Reportedly, 48 instances of this just during March.

And according to the New York Post, a new federal agency task force has formed to investigate the issue. So there's going to be more information coming out. I'm sure if these are loan actors, coordinated actions, we're just not sure right now, but something for all of our readers and listeners to keep an eye on. Absolutely.

Cameron, thank you. Let's move on to the Tweetery. Bradley, let's go to you, because you have three Zs at the end of your, yeah, tell us more. It was a glorious week under the pink dome. Do you know why? I do actually, but you should continue to tell us. It was Staffer's Super Bowl on Monday because the long-awaited return of the Breakfast Bowl happened Shout out three several days who?

Asked me to talk about this. I was already going to I was going to say yes This is certainly not unprompted. Yes. This is this is a big day for legislative staffers You know one in particular has been waiting for this for a long time Sal Mendoza. He's Terry Leo Wilson's chief he's been tweeting about this for years, but They finally got the breakfast bowl back in the Capitol Grill after a five-year hiatus, I think many years I don't know well people are saying the main issue was the the shell the shell the tortilla shell the tortilla shell Yeah, cuz he can't you can just you can throw eggs and beef and whatever else is in it avocado in a bowl

And say oh here you go breakfast bowl, but it is not the same thing Yeah, so I have not had one yet. Did you have one when you were back in? Oh, yeah, how well read one one to ten Well, I don't hear my order when I would go to the Capital Grill would be a cup of Texas Pecan coffee, delicious, and several breakfast tacos. That was my order. The Breakfast Bowl, I'm not typically a huge breakfast person, I typically get to the Capitol around 7am. I was not in the mood for like a big breakfast bowl. Well my question for you,

Brad, with the taco shell of the breakfast bowl, is your plan of attack, do you eat the contents of the breakfast bowl and then eat the shell after or do you use the shell to scoop the contents of the bowl into your mouth so everything is finished at the same time. Well I've never had one so I don't know how I would do it. Well we're game planing this out. I think I probably would eat some and then once the shell itself comes more revealed then I'd start breaking pieces off. It's more revealed.

Okay. Scooping it like chips. Yeah. Okay. And then I'd do that until eventually there's nothing left. Yeah. It sounds like a very fun and interactive. I mean I do that until eventually there's nothing more. It sounds like a very fun and interactive, I mean, I had one a very, very long time ago.

I do not remember much more than that. I think perhaps it is incumbent upon us to go to the Capitol and have a breakfast bowl morning, one morning and test these out. That'd be awesome. I think that'd be fun. But have you guys gotten anything from Capitol Grill? Would you guys ever make it over that way? Yeah.

I feel like probably. I've just, I've just gotten coffee. Okay. Yeah. I haven't been there. Are you a coffee drinker? Am I right? Oh yes.

All day. Okay. All day. I was like, I haven't noticed this. Um, that is a big deal. Very big deal. Shout out through several days. Cameron, what you got?

Well, chat GBT in their image generation feature was loosened over the past few days where people can now upload a variety of different photos and have those photos altered in some sort of way. Well, the one that caught fire was this sort of anime style image generation and it was at least filling up my timeline to the point where I was unable to use X at some points because everything I was scrolling by was just AI anime images. You know it's so funny seeing how the day-to-day operations of X work because over the weekend it was dominated by morning routines. Then the first half of this week it's been dominated by these AI anime images. How do you pronounce this?

Ghibli? Ghibli. Thank you for that. It's just funny funny like what's gonna be the next new thing to dominate X? My timeline was nothing but that this morning. Yeah. Yeah. It was awful. Yeah some of these are out holes you don't really want to be thrown down but the algorithm throws you down it. Like you have no choice but to be part of it like the JD Vance memes I'm not kidding I could not I could not get away from them like it was my entire feed I like I would scroll 20 posts and would all be JD Vance well cuz if you mean linger in front of one of them or you well cuz Cameron would send me them

and then I would click on them and And I swear my algorithm was screwed after that. Anyways, that's my story. Um, but there's a lot happening in text ledger with those. It's very funny to watch those just whirl around. Yeah. So, well, and it's, it's tough for people like us who use X to actually do our jobs. Yeah. for people like us who use X. To actually do our jobs. Yeah, for work. I know. We're good.

It's just fun, yeah. Yeah, but some people use X just for entertainment. So they're probably loving this. Like, it's so funny, Brad or Rob or Mary Lee will share stuff. I'm like, have you seen this? I'm like, no, we're operating on completely different algorithms. I have no idea what this is.

But then somehow they overlap on some things. Yeah. It's very odd. It's all within the same war. It's just weird, but yeah, it's very funny. Marylis, what do you got? Yeah, I changed my Twitter a little bit. Um, but this is about podcaster at the white house.

They are holding, it looks like they've invited a bunch of podcasters to discuss. Um, President Trump's plan, his America first agenda with a bunch of podcasters to discuss President Trump's plan, his America First agenda with a bunch of cabinet officials, which I think is really interesting because the Caroline Levitt was saying in this video where she was talking about podcast row, she was saying I bet that these podcasters get a lot more viewership than she listed CNN and I think maybe the other was CBS or something like that. Yeah. But I just think that's wild how podcasting has taken a front-row seat.

I mean literally in the presidential administration or in the media room. I think it's wild how podcasting is so prevalent now. Yeah well even in the campaign it's like continuing into the administration right? Yeah. It's very interesting. Front-row seat that was really well done and inadvertent, but that was well done Wait, what was you said front row seat and you're like, oh literally so smooth. So well done. Thank you I thought about that for like 15 minutes before did you really know? Like dang girl, if you look at like key demographic breakdowns of viewership of these big networks They are in the toilet.

Yeah. Really. And people are gravitating towards podcasts, YouTube, where that's where they get their news now, X, as we were just talking about. So it's a smart media strategy from the Trump administration to do this. And especially inviting, uh, friendly hosts to talk to. Because that's something Democrats are trying to react to right now.

We've seen someone like Gavin Newsom start up his own podcast. And we see someone like Jasmine Crockett really try and get out there and get her face and her message in front of a bunch of people. We see Democrats going out doing town halls, trying to generate some sort of attention on what their messaging is. So the strategies between the two parties, Republicans leaning into friendly podcast hosts, Democrats doing more of the ground game, town hall style messaging.

We'll see how it lands. We got the midterms coming up and- That's a wild sentence to think about. My gosh. But- We're barely half with your session, Cameron. I know. But it's just interesting the difference in strategy here.

And I'm probably like a lot of people who are listening I get most of my news through individual content creators I don't listen to Fox News I don't listen to CNN or MSNBC I'll read the journal sometimes Wall Street Journal but that's only after it's a specific article has been promoted by a individual that I came across on X. Yeah. You know, so... Just a different funnel.

Different funnel. Totally different funnel. Yeah. But I think it's worth... I'm sorry if I'm going down a little rabbit hole here. But I think it's... I laugh because that camera says that every podcast... But I think it's worth mentioning that these major news outlets, whether it be the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, they are still, or CNN even, they're

still doing the on the ground investigative work that these individual content creators are using to then bounce their ideas off of. So as people are listening to name your favorite podcast host, they are commenting on news. Whereas the investigative work is being done by the major news outlets still. Is there going to be a transition in the future? You're good. Brad just said something that was distracting. Yeah. Is there going to be a transition to where Is there going to be a transition to where individual creators or maybe these alternative media sites start doing more of that investigative work? We've seen someone like Chris Ruffo with City Journal and with the Manhattan Institute try

to generate some content that way hiring reporters. So is that going to be something that is the sourcing change, right? Like where people go to actually get their news out. Is that going to be something new that pops up? So lots of, lots of interesting stuff to think about in the media sphere. Always. That's why we're here. Um, I want to quickly touch on our March Madness brackets and, um, maybe we can provide an update. Go for it. OK. Cameron's number one. But now Cameron, his max point score

is a little lower than the folks breathing down his neck. So unless something happens, you know. So do you win the bracket by just total points? Total points, yeah. OK. But you get more points for picking the winner or getting the final four right. Like they increase more and more. The longer it goes.

And in second place we have Holly, me, and Phil. My secondary bracket, Phil's first bracket, Holly's first bracket. All in third place. I will say if you go to the group forecast, my secondary bracket has the highest percentage chance to win currently. Wow. Why? Why are you smirking about that Bradley?

That's just the name of your bracket. It's true. I'm laughing at the password you created for the bracket Bradley. There's a theme. You're insufferable. And then, where did it go? Why did I toggle off? Okay, so, and in third place, it's really fifth place, we have Rob

and Cameron's number one, which has a high ceiling, so that one could, you know, skyrocket Cameron. Kim and Brad are in seventh place, Jaden's in ninth place, Seth's in tenth, Jaden's in eleventh, Brad's is twelfth. Brad your brackets are kind of having a tough time. I know. Yeah. I said in my message it was a rough weekend for me. I will say Mary Lee, your bracket that was chosen I think strictly on aesthetics of the logos is second to last. So truly not performing the worst.

Yeah, it was the worst not too long ago. So I'm pretty excited about that. You're climbing the ranks. Yeah. You never know. Climbing the ranks very methodically. One spot at a time. One spot at a time.

So far it has only been one. But. I'll just wait. The only person so far who has lost their national champion is Kim's loyalty bracket which had Baylor. That's so sad. Everyone else is alive. That's pretty good. Yeah. Now I lost St. John's which was my runner-up in the Final Four team and that was bad. That was a pick purely based on That was a that was a pick purely based on

Story, you know rip Patino going yeah narrative taking this mid-major Man, it's basketball. It's kind of a mid-major not exactly close enough close enough Well, we'll keep folks updated, but I'm liking my chances right now Phil's Bracket is looking pretty good too. He's got like a 20% chance to win. So we'll see what happens. How'd you see 20% chance to win? It's 19.9, I rounded because math. Where do you see that? Do you see the group forecast?

If you go to the bracket. I'll just look at the screenshot. Oh, I'm on the actual interface. I'll take your word for it. Minus 26.7%. Phil's is 19.9. Holly's is 13.5. Cam's is 10.1% chance to win. Whoa!

And then it goes down to single digits from there. I found a new thing this year that I didn't know existed. So you know how there's the quest for a perfect bracket? Yes. Well, there's the reverse, which is hoping to get every pick wrong to see if he can do it and it didn't happen. Wow. There was one guy left on the second day and he I forget who won but a lower seeded team won.

I would like to know if anyone else thinks that Cameron's wow he just said sounded remarkably like Owen Wilson. On that note folks thank you for listening and we'll catch you next week. 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 subscribe to The Texan at thetexan.news. 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 thetexan.news. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.