The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - May 10, 2024

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

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.This week, the team discusses:Molly Cook beating Rep. Jarvis Johnson to finish out the term in Senate District 15The Tarrant Appraisal District gaining three new elected board membersOne Harris County Appraisal District election heading to a June runoffDallas voters approving $1.25 billion in bond propositionsA look at other bonds and ballot propositions across Texas on the May 4 electionGranbury ISD’s May 2024 bond failing and the Hood County Republican chair being arrested on felony chargesSpeaker Dade Phelan creating a new House subcommittee on “Hostile Foreign Organizations”Ted Cruz and Ronny Jackson proposing a bill to refund ranchers for lost livestock from Texas wildfiresCarroll ISD passing a resolution denouncing the Biden administration’s Title IX changesThe mayor of Baytown bringing back a defeated proposal to bail out a city-owned golf course projectAn update into the Austin Police Department’s opioid overdose outbreak investigation

I want to jump in on this and just say that there's an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies where I believe it's Jeb's banker says, you know, you have to buy stock. And so he fills the like the backyard of their mansion with like chickens and pigs and cows. It's a great episode, a great episode of a great show. I did not expect the Beverly Hillbillies to be referenced on this week's episode. Well, y'all said it, not me. Cameron said it. No, you definitely said it.

Cameron, you introduced the... You definitely said it. Rob, bring in the culture. Bring in the culture. That's right. Well, howdy, folks. It's Mackenzie here with Rob, Cameron, Kim, and Mary Elise. Mary Elise is making her inaugural appearance on the podcast. Mary Elise, welcome. Thank you. Happy to be here.

We're excited to have you. And we also have a furry friend. This is Poncho. Poncho's a... What are you thinking, buddy? He'll sit on my lap until he doesn't want to anymore, but he's just joining today. We're excited to have him. Welcome, Pancho. Mary-Lise, how have the first two weeks at the Texan been? And tell us some sort of embarrassing story about what, or how, how should I phrase this?

Tell us something that you were annoyed with Brad about upon. Oh, my gosh. No, I'm not. Just because he's not here. Actually, since I just got here, he's been on vacation basically the whole time that I've been here. Slacker. Total slacker. Yeah.

Not much interaction there. Yeah. That's good. But it's been good. I'm happy to be here. Yay. And she's already published several stories up at the Texans, so make sure to go and read her coverage.

They're awesome. And, Kim, welcome back. This is your second week in a row with us. This is a treat. I know. It's unheard of. It kind of is in some way, shape, or form. Okay, poncho's done.

Well, we're excited to get to all the news stories this week. I do want to say right off the bat, I got a new phone, and over half of my contacts, why did you smirk at me, Rob? I didn't smirk at you. Why did you scoff at me? See, no, no contention over that. Because you were just talking about the phone earlier and now you're like, oh, on the pod. Well, now let me talk about the phone again. Yeah, because half of my contacts are not on my phone. So it's hard, especially in this business, when people are texting you things,

to not know who that person is because the messages themselves aren't loading either. So I have no text history to contextualize who's messaging me. It's superior Apple technology. It's just so advanced that you can't even load a contact. This is the first time I've had that problem when I've gotten a new phone. Do you know how many problems I've had? Do you know how many times I've had that problem? Zero. Rob, how old were you when you got your first phone? My first ever phone? Like, my first ever phone was a flip phone

when I was, I believe, 9 or 10. I still actually have it. Oh, yes. I still have it. It's like this big. We didn't talk about that. Yeah, it's a fun thing. I never want to get rid of it. I want to have that thing when I'm 80. Yeah. I think that'll be really fun. Okay, so you've switched phones plenty of times. I didn't get my first smartphone for like several years after the fact, though.

Yeah. Okay. I don't know. Me too. I got a flip phone in seventh grade, and it was a big deal when I upgraded to having a keyboard on the cell phone. That's a huge deal when you don't have to click a number three times. Was it T9? Totally.

Yeah, those things were very obnoxious. Yeah, they were. Anyways, well, I will stop talking about that now since apparently I've overstayed my welcome with that topic. Let's go ahead and jump into the news. Rob, you're going to cover some stories for Holly this week and make sure that her coverage is covered. Excuse my redundancy. Texas had a special election for state Senate District 16 this past weekend. This is largely where we'll hang out for the first few stories

talking about election results. Who won that election, Rob? So I want to say here that this was my bad. It's Senate District 15, not Senate District 16. That's on me. I totally also know that, and I still said 16. It's 100% 15. You failed the test. I did. I failed hardcore. All righty. So Dean of the Senate John Whitmire, Dean of the Texas Senate, one of the longest members of the upper chamber, left to run for mayor of Houston, a position that he won last November against Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. This year, Democratic political activist Molly Cook defeated Democratic State Representative Jarvis Johnson for the right to finish out Whitmire's term through the end of 2024.

Cook also ran for SD-15 in 2022 against Whitmire, but lost with 42% of the vote. She is a former emergency room nurse and has campaigned in favor of abortion and LGBT rights, as well as against school choice and against expanding the I-45 freeway in Houston. It's called a freeway for those of you who are, oh no, what is it? No, everybody calls it a freeway. What we have is called a feeder road. That's what everybody calls the side roads on a highway. That's not a freeway, though.

No, it's not a freeway. I completely messed that up. I had to get used to those coming to Texas. Who calls that a freeway? Do people call the feeder roads a freeway? No, the feeder road is the side road next to the highway. And from what I understand, that's only a Houston thing. Nobody else calls it a feeder road in, like, the rest of the country. Oh, I see. Like a frontage road is, I think, what we call it in other parts of the state. Okay to the highway. And from what I understand, that's only a Houston thing. Nobody else calls it a feeder road in like the rest of the country.

Oh, I see. Like a frontage road is I think what we call it in other parts of the state. Okay. Is that right? I get confused sometimes, feeder road, freeway. Anyway. Gotcha. Yeah.

Cook has also touted her own personal experience as a woman who has had an abortion. And she also said she would be, quote, the first member of the LGBTQ community or LGBTQ plus community to ever serve in the Texas Senate. Representative Johnson was a Houston City council member from 2006 to 2012 before state rep Sylvester Turner left the Texas House to run for mayor of Houston. Johnson succeeded Turner in House District 139, and it seemed like he tried to make lightning strike twice by once again trying to take a seat, being vacated by someone who was leaving to run for mayor of Houston, but it did not work out this time. Yeah. So Cook won this election, and this term that she won election to lasts till the end of this year. So what about

the new Senate term when the legislature convenes in January? That's a fantastic question. Thank you. So Cook and Johnson also faced off in the March 2024 Democratic primary for a full term in the Texas Senate, along with four other candidates. In that race, Johnson took 36% and Cook took 21% of the vote. The two will face off again in the runoff elections slated for May 28th, and it remains to be seen if Cook's victory in the special election will turn the tide in her favor in the runoff. Even though she isn't going to serve in a legislative session this term, at least one has to hope not that we're not going to have a fifth special session at this point in the year. Cook can still participate in interim hearings on various issues that the lawmakers call between the sessions.

So it's one of those. Didn't we have a case of this last year as well with somebody who won a special election and then had to immediately go to a runoff? I was going to say, yes. Well, I was going to refer to the House District 2 special election where Brian Slayton was expelled from the Texas House. And there was a special election and a primary and a runoff. And we still are in that cycle where, yeah, we have a lot. If I can ask a point of clarification, the primary between Jarvis and Cook, Jarvis got more, a higher percentage of the vote, but Cook won the special. Yeah, so Jarvis took 36% of the primary, Cook took 21% of the primary, and there were four other candidates. Is that just a fact that there were more candidates running in

the general that split the vote? And when it then going into the special, we see Cook taking the win there. It seems a bit surprising if Jarvis got more votes in the general, then Cook wins. We're not talking about the general, we're talking about the primary. Oh, the primary. It's always interesting how, you know, one person could have the biggest plurality, right? But then all of the other smaller people might end up getting behind the person with the second biggest plurality. You know, assuming that this is basically the same voting base, it might be the case that, you know, 80% of them wouldn't vote for Cook, right? Unless it was just against Johnson. And I will say too, if an incumbent is pushed to a runoff, which is not the case here, we're not dealing with incumbency in this case, but if somebody, this is a litmus

test, I think for folks watching the political sphere is if an incumbent is pushed to a runoff, it bodes very poorly because it meant that there was, there were more than 51% of people, or at least 51% of voters who did not want to align with the incumbent. So then if the incumbents push to a runoff, there are enough voters based on just that sample size to kick them out of office. So it brings up for me, I'm sorry for going on too much of a tangent with this, but the idea of ranked choice voting, where if we saw in this primary election where Jarvis did get the higher percentage as compared to Cook, but you said those other candidates, those voters went to go vote for Cook in this special. If in the primary election, if it was

ranked choice voting, all the four other candidates that were the first choice of voters, they may have put Cook as their second. You know, that would have given an indication for the special election. Yeah, it would be a very different result in that way. Kim, I think you have something to add here. I think it also is a big indication of how important turnout is. It's just such a huge factor. And, you know, we've got the primary, then we have the May 4th special, then we have a primary runoff coming up. I mean,

it's just getting your voters out every time is a challenge. Absolutely. And when you have, this is why we see some of these special elections tend to align or be scheduled with a different election, uniform election date, like May 4th, right, where people are already coming to the polls. So the hope is that there will be greater turnout and more voters by, you know, by definition will be able to come to the polls because they're already voting for other candidates, not just coming to the polls for the SD15 race, right? So that's also something to consider. But yeah, turnout is very important. It remains to be seen this June if we're going to get a similar turnout for people to vote in there since, you know, June is a time people

don't normally expect elections to happen. And, you know, this is a special election, but it just, it all just depends on messaging, as you said, how many people you can get out. So we'll have to see how that turns out. Absolutely. Good questions, Kim. Killer. Kim, we're coming to you. Based on a new constitutional amendment passed in November, appraisal boards held elections last week all across the state. Tell us what happened specifically in Tarrant County. Well, as you mentioned, Mackenzie, voters did approve a constitutional amendment last November that created new seats on appraisal district governing boards in large counties in Texas, and Tarrant County is one of those. And it has an appraisal board that has

faced, shall we say, some controversy and criticism over the last couple of years. Tarrant County residents are well acquainted with that. And so as part of this constitutional amendment, three new board members were elected by Tarrant County residents to join the appraisal district board. And they join the five board members who are already there governing the district. Those five board members have been elected by the taxing entities who get a portion of votes based on their taxing roles within the district. So like the city of Fort Worth, the largest city in the Tarrant Appraisal District has the largest number of

votes for electing a board member to the Tarrant Appraisal District board. But now voters got to elect three just in a regular election. And that was on May 4th. And so the three members added to the Tarrant Appraisal District Board are Eric Morris, who is currently a Hultum City City Council member, and then Callie Rigney, who is on the Colleyville City Council, and then Matt Bryant, who formerly served on the Carroll Independent School District School Board. They all won their seats for those three places. Each of them did have opponents. And notably, each of those three were endorsed by Republican County Judge Tim O'Hare. Yeah, absolutely. So what are the duties of the Appraisal District Board? What do they do? How do they affect locals and taxpayers? So while the Appraisal District sets the taxable values of properties within counties, the Appraisal district board isn't involved in that daily operation.

But they do set the governing policy of the appraisal district. And so they have an impact on how the appraisals are carried out. three candidates, part of their platform for running for these positions was to support the reappraisal of residential property only every three years. It's currently reappraised annually. And so the idea is that this could give some relief to the residential property owners who might not get an annual value increase because their taxes are based on their appraised value. And this is allowed by Texas law currently. You can do it up to every three years rather than annually. And plus, the candidates said it might save operating costs for the appraisal districts who wouldn't have to appraise every property every year. And then further, the candidates

said that they plan to advocate with the state legislature to cap the residential homestead increase of appraisals to 5%. Currently, state law allows appraisal values on residential homesteads to go up by 10% a year, and they would cap it at 5%. So again, that would give residential property owners some relief. Commercial properties, not so much. They don't have the homestead exemption cap like that. But anyway, it's an idea to give residential property owners some relief and it would be a role that the members of the appraisal district governing board could impact. They could play a role in that. Absolutely. And I will say Kim is an expert on

this. Even before the podcast was, we were rolling, she was answering questions from Daniel that were just like, how does this work? And appraisal districts, I feel like are such a behind the scenes entity for most folks. They're not aware of what happens in their appraisal district. So very important reporting. So Kim, thank you for that. Expert might be generous. Expert might be generous, but thank you. I think it's pretty darn close to the truth. Holly, are you ready? Sure. We're coming to you, Rob. Another Holly Hansen story. Harris County also had elections for three positions on its appraisal district board. How did those turn out? Well, first I want to say just because Holly and I are both like from the Houston area does not mean we're the same person. Sorry, that was a little bit... Well, you guys do look so similar. Absolutely, yeah. I think it's the hair. from the Houston area does not mean we're the same person. Sorry, that was a little bit... Well, you guys do look so similar. Absolutely, yeah.

I think it's the hair. Also, Holly did help us find you, Rob. That's a good point, yeah. That's one part of the reason why I'm here. It all works out very well. So I am very glad to be covering Holly's stories. I can't do it justice, but I'll do my best. What were you saying? What was your question?

How did the Houston County or Harris County, my Houston County, well, that is like actual, yeah, ridiculous, ridiculous. How did the Harris County Appraisal District Board elections turn out? Sure thing. So in place one, a candidate was elected outright, Kathy Bluford Daniels took 50.35% of the vote against Bill R. Fraser, who took 46%, and Ramzi Issa Ankar, who took less than 4%. However, the races for places two and three will both head to June runoffs after neither candidate won an outright majority. In place two, Kyle Scott took 47% of the vote in a five-way contest and will face Melissa Noriega, who took 25%. In place three, Erica McCrutchin took 41% and Pelumi Adelaike took

21%. And those two will also both face off in June. Adelaike beat the third place candidate Amy Lacey by just 369 votes. It's also interesting that Blueford Daniels also came close to a runoff with nearly, what was it, was less than half a percent over the 50 mark. So there's some real contention over who's going to fill these appraisal district board seats. Absolutely. Yeah, that's an interesting thing to look out for. I like the name McCrutchin.

McCrutchin. McCrutchin. That's just an aside. That's a good one. Thank you. Who came out to back candidates in these races? Absolutely. So Harris County Appraisal District elections are nonpartisan. There are no party affiliations.

There's no primary elections. But that doesn't mean the parties didn't have their preferred candidates. So the Harris County Democratic Party and the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation both endorsed Bluford Daniels in place one, while the Harris County and Texas Republican parties both endorsed Fraser. The leaders of their respective packs in places two and three, Scott and your favorite McCrutchian, were also both backed by the Harris County Republican Party. So Harris County as a whole leans Democratic. So it remains to be seen if in each of these runoffs, the GOP-backed candidate will be able to swing some voters their way or if maybe, you know, as we were just talking,

depending on how these votes turn out, if the other candidates, maybe if they leaned more Democratic, they'll sort of come together to put a Democratic-backed candidate in office. So that just remains to be seen. It does. Holly spoke with political analyst and professor at the University of Houston, Mark P. Jones, about the runoffs. Give us a little bit of a glimpse into what he had to say. Sure.

So here's an interesting fact he mentioned. Jones said he expects turnout to drop from 2%, which was last Saturday, to just 1% in the June runoff. And, you know, as we were mentioning, turnout is everything. So I really recommend reading the article where you can see more of Jones's analysis. But I also wanted to correct, I think, something that I said earlier in the pod about the runoff between Cook and Johnson, that's not going to be in June. This one is going to be in June. There's just a ton of runoffs happening right now. This one's going to be in June. The one between Cook and Johnson, the locality one, but yeah, the local one. Yes. But the May 28th runoff is where June and June is not named June

is a month. Um, I don't know how y'all do this every week. But yeah, that'll be the Cook and Johnson are going to, they're going to face off on May 28th, along with a lot of those other runoff races. So there you go. So for clarification, all the state level, state rep, Senate, all those races will be statewide offices will be in May. But then the localities and their runoff elections will be in June, just to confirm. I was going to come back to that later. Just make sure we're on the same page. Sweet.

There you go. You caught it before I did. Okay. Well, Rob, thank you for covering that for Holly. You're so welcome. Killing it. Kim, we're coming back to you. Another election story on May 4th.

Voters also went to the polls about bond proposals. We love to report about bonds here at the Texan. Tell us the outcome in Dallas. Well, on May 4th, speaking of turnout, fewer than 40,000 voters participated in the election to approve $1.25 billion worth of bonds proposed by the city of Dallas. And just for perspective, Dallas has about 1.3 million residents. And so 40,000 people turned out. Some had encouraged the city to wait until the November election to put the bond propositions on the ballot, because in November, you would have

a greater turnout generally. I mean, it's a national election with the president at the top of the ballot, but the city council went ahead and moved forward with the May date. And there were 10 bond proposals on the ballot. They all passed by very large margins, several with over 80 percent of the votes cast. The largest bond that they passed was for five hundred and twenty one million dollars. And it was for streets and transportation projects within the city. A couple of the other large bond proposals out of the 10 included $345 million for parks and recreation, which if I recall correctly from listening to the Dallas City Council, includes

some upgrades at the Dallas Zoo, and $90 million for public safety, which is interesting given some of the moves across the nation by large cities to decrease funding for police and public safety. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson praised the passage of the bonds, claiming it was needed as Dallas attempts to compete with other North Texas cities for development, for relocation of corporate headquarters, for things like that. So Dallas is going to have some upgrades based on these bond proposals. Absolutely. Thank you, Kim, for your coverage. Cameron, we're coming to you. Another election story. Voters headed to the polls for a variety of different ballot propositions. You did a roundup piece before and after. Tell us what happened with those.

Yeah, we've already hit on all the bonds and appraisal districts and all that stuff's really important. And I mentioned that in this wrap up. But there was also some interesting things that were proposed for voters to cast a vote on. Here in Travis County, there were three different neighborhoods who voted to disannex from the city. And just for some context, when a city can annex land, which is essentially them acquiring the land, and during the 88th legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill that addressed areas that had been annexed by certain municipalities intended to end involuntary annexation by mandating elections to potentially reverse those annexations. And the legislation also provides how to manage the transition and then how to meet financial

obligations and things of that nature. But what happened over the weekend was with over 91% of the vote, residents of Lost Creek voted to disannex from the city of Austin and the neighborhoods near Blue Goose Road and in River Place also voted to disannex. So just interesting developments there, you know, pushing back against maybe some of the things that are going on in the city of Austin, people wanting some more autonomy from the city there. There was also an interesting ballot proposition in Lubbock. It was Proposition A that was going to decriminalize some small amounts of cannabis or marijuana. And that was defeated with over 20,000 residents casting votes against that proposition. And I just thought the decriminalization aspect was interesting.

I wrote about how the DEA is potentially moving on changing the categorization of marijuana federally. And we've seen some different pushback from the state here on cities that have attempted to decriminalize marijuana. So another city attempting to do something similar, but it was defeated by voters. So just some interesting things here that maybe people were going to be interested in headed to the polls. So disannexation, marijuana, two big things people were casting ballots on. Big deals. I wonder, River Place is a fancy neighborhood in West Austin. I'm curious because there is a really great hike around that area that is actually very hilly, lots of steps. And in Austin, a lot of hikes are kind of like nature walks, right?

It doesn't really get your heart rate going. I'm curious, but they make you pay sometimes. I wonder if this will affect whether or not I have to pay to hike there. I don't know. I think the neighborhood itself was already, that was already their call, but I'm curious. Anyways, it's a side note. Kim, we are coming back to you, Cameron. Thank you.

Granbury ISD, speaking of bond issues, the bond proposition in that district included some controversy. Can you share the details of what happened in Granbury ISD? So there have been lots of bond issue elections on May 4th, but the story in Granbury caught our attention. Granbury is a small town of about 12,000 located southwest of Fort Worth in Hood County. It's actually quite a quaint little town with a lake and it has a cute little town square with shops and restaurants and the Granbury Opera House with the Broadway on the Brazos series. My husband and I went to Granbury for an anniversary celebration as an aside and we enjoyed our time. So it caught my attention, the tale of the bond election in Granbury.

Now, first notable thing is that Granberry has proposed three bond packages over the last two years, and this being the third, all three have failed. This time, the bond package was for $161.5 million. It included renovations to nine campuses and a new elementary school and some repairs and things like that. And those who campaigned against the bond packages, it's a group called Granbury Concerned Citizens. They say that they do support the schools and they want to make sure that the schools have what they need, but they don't think that the schools need to take on all this long-term debt in the form of bonds. So they worked to turn out voters. And we were talking about turnout quite a bit during this podcast.

In a May 4th election, this was surprising, 20% of registered voters in Hood County, Granbury ISD turned out for this May election. And they defeated- Which is high for an election, right? That's a high, yeah. Yeah, that's a pretty high turnout. A lot of it, like in Tarrant County, it was around 6%. And in Dallas, like I said, 40,000 voters. So this was a high turnout for this and

they defeated the bond package. However, there were some interesting things that happened that we thought our readers might like to know more about. So there was the sign controversy. Now, sign controversies are not unusual in elections. There's usually some accusation about sign stealing and things like that. But this time, the sign they designed had a caution style sign on the sign. So it's like a sign within a sign. And the city told them that that was a violation of city code and the transportation code because it looked like a traffic sign. It said caution high taxes ahead. And so we have a picture of it in our story online. And they said that violated city code and they were pulling them up. And so they got that settled. They worked with

the group, they put some alterations on the sign and that was all settled. But there was more. The Hood County Republican chair, who was also involved in opposing the bond package, got arrested and not some small arrest on a felony, a third degree felony charge surrounding the use of this school bus as part of the campaign to oppose the bond package. I have lots of details in the story, but let me just sum up a couple of things. He told me that he had secured the proper registration for tags to use the school bus. Apparently the sheriff's department disagreed that he was properly using a temporary tag. And they said that he knowingly made a false entry on a government record. That's the actual felony

for which they're charging him. Because when he went to apply, he didn't acknowledge citations he already had for the bus use. And it's kind of a little bit of a complicated story i don't want to get on to all the details but i encourage readers to go check them out it's quite interesting and we'll we'll let you know what happens with that case felonies controversies bonds it's a fantastic story definitely go read it at the texan thank you kim cameron we're coming to you okay i think that was our last election story. Knock on wood. Yeah. So we're going to pivot here.

Okay. Are you ready to pivot? Let's do it. House Speaker Dade Phelan announced the creation of a new select committee in the legislature. Tell us about it. Yeah. So Dade Phelan made this announcement on Monday, and it was the creation of the House Select Committee on Securing Texas from Hostile Foreign Organizations. And the newly formed committee will be chaired by Rep. Cole Hefner

and six other members of the Texas House, including Chair of the House State Affairs Committee, Rep. Todd Hunter. There was an immediate reaction from Representative Brian Harrison, who called the move to create the committee, quote, pathetic. And he noted that Senate Bill 147 to prohibit the future sale of real estate to foreign governments, companies controlled by them or citizens of those respective countries, was not passed legislative session. And so this was something interesting, the fact that America is sort of finding itself in larger global turmoil in terms of the growing standoff between, whether it be China or Ukraine and Russia or Israel and Palestine.

And so this SB 147 was something we've been paying attention to. And we wrote a story a while back about how the Chinese Communist Party actually launched a, quote, information warfare against that bill. And there was a unclassified slide from the Air Force called the China threat that was released that we reported on. There was also a cyber attack from a Russia hacking team that occurred in a small Texas town. And so we've seen Christopher Wray from the FBI talk about heightened potential threats posed by cyber attacks. We saw Congressman Henry Cuellar was recently charged with unlawful foreign influence. So there is precedent that has been set in terms of how America should best combat against foreign threats. And so we'll see what the developments in terms of policy will come out of this new select committee. countless examples, even here in Texas, of foreign organizations and foreign governments having

influence on the Texas economy, infrastructure. So it seems like it's going to be something interesting to follow. Folks might say, what role does the state of Texas have to play in any sort of foreign policy discussions or foreign influence discussions? but I think there have been plenty of instances either addressed by the legislature or spoken about in committee, testified to. We've written on different instances where, okay, no, there are things that are happening that affect the state. And I think it's interesting to bring in the border in this conversation as well with the rise in illegal immigrants at the border, many of those coming from countries that are adversarial to the United States. And those in the military community, if our listeners follow those types of conversations, there have been warnings about foreign government

actors making their way through the southern border, which could potentially lead to a domestic attack. And so in terms of threats being assessed just here in Texas, that's a big one. And like I mentioned just a bit earlier about the cyber attacks, that's going to really be a new frontier that Texas will have to address in terms of policy. And I don't think I mentioned this last week, but I actually went to a conference, an AI summit, where a large part of the conversation was about addressing and assessing future cyber attacks. So there are conversations being had. There's the select committee being created. So Texas, with the size of its economy, the size of its population. There's a lot at stake and a lot of play. There's a lot at stake. So it's going to

be interesting following this committee, seeing what sorts of policies develop out of it. Absolutely. Thank you, Cameron. Mary Elise, your first story on the podcast. We're coming to you next. Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Ronnie Jackson proposed a bill last Friday aiming to help Texas livestock ranchers financially recover from the recent wildfires. A crazy story here in Texas. Tell us about it. Yes. Yeah. So I found this particularly interesting because my family's in the ranching industry. But so as we all know, North Texas and the Panhandle experienced what was declared as the largest wildfire in Texas history earlier this year, during February. And it's estimated that at least 7,000 cattle were killed in the fires.

So we've got this national program that's already set in place for times like this. It's called the Livestock Indemnity Program, whether it was caused by animal attacks or if it was adverse weather like these fires. But it misses something. It doesn't include the losses of unborn cattle, and that's what this bill focused on. So what Ted Cruz and Ronnie Jackson proposed on Friday was an amendment to this livestock indemnity program. So they introduced a bill that would amend the program by including the words additional payment for unborn livestock. And it specified unborn livestock that were lost on or after January 1st, 2024. So if this is passed, it means that the United States Department of Agriculture would have to establish additional payments for excessive unborn livestock losses. So for the

unborn livestock that were lost after deaths of gestating pregnant livestock. So yeah, and the general consensus seems to be from these Texas ranchers is agreement and appreciation of the bill. Multiple groups got behind it and publicly supported it. For example, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the Texas Farm Bureau, American Farm Bureau Federation, and Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. So I had the opportunity to speak with the president of Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. His name is Carl Ray Polk Jr. And to quote him directly, he said, the livestock indemnity program is a helpful resource for ranchers recovering from natural disasters, but its effectiveness is limited by

a gap in the program. The Livestock Indemnity Program fails to compensate ranchers for the loss of their calf crop. In the Texas Panhandle, the devastating effects of this gap are particularly glaring in the wake of the recent wildfires. He also added that this legislation will help the program better reflect the true losses faced by ranchers and will shorten the time needed to recover from devastating events like these wildfires. And Cruz just summarized how he saw the bill would help this industry. And he said the Texas ranchers are the backbone of the Texas agriculture industry, saying that he's proud to introduce this legislation to strengthen

the livestock indemnity program. He sees that it will give Texas cattle producers the relief they need to build back their herds and restore this pillar of Texas agriculture. So while that covers the baseline of the story, I definitely encourage listeners to go check out the article on the website. Also, my article links to Matt's coverage of the wildfires that occurred in February. If you'd like to learn more about those, it's pretty interesting. Absolutely. Quite an array of different topics there. We

certainly appreciate your coverage, Mary Elise. Great job. Great first segment. You killed it. Cameron looks like he has a question. He just gets this look about him. My mind just started thinking, because when I hear livestock, my mind was like, they're almost treating livestock like stocks on Wall Street, where if the agricultural department was buying futures in livestock, with the amount of devastation that occurred in the unborn livestock, they essentially lost out on an investment. But in this instance, they're going to be paying these farmers who made bets on futures

of their livestock. So it's interesting policy perspective, like that's how they're treating it. I want to jump in on this and just say that there's an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies, where I believe it's Jeb's banker says, you know, you have to buy stock. And so he fills the like the backyard of their mansion with like chickens and pigs and cows. It's a great episode. A great

episode of a great show. I did not expect the Beverly Hillbillies to be referenced on this week's episode. Well, y'all said it, not me. Cameron said it. No, you definitely said it. well y'all said it not me cameron said it no we know you definitely said it you definitely said it rob bring in the culture bring in the culture that's right oh my gosh well mary lee's um well done thank you for sharing that with us and certainly folks go to the texan.news and read all about it. Cameron, Carol ISD.

Yes. A school district that Kim has reported a lot on, and you delved into it this week, passed a resolution in response to the Biden administration's Title IX rule changes. Tell us what happened. Yeah, so they passed a resolution that, quote, denounces a new Title IX rule change that essentially changes how a federal civil rights law protects discrimination, quote, based on sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics. And this resolution passed by a unanimous vote. Board trustees

provided their insights into the proposed Title IX rule change, which prohibits, I'm reading from the text here, of the rule change, quote, adopting, I'm reading from the text here of the rule change, quote, adopting a policy or engaging in a practice that prevents a person from participating in an education program or activity consistent with their gender identity. And the gender identity portion of this rule change was sort of the tipping point for much of the discussion and pushback that I heard when I was listening in to the school board discussion on this resolution. And we've seen quite a bit of pushback to this rule change. We saw in late April when the Title IX rule change was announced, Greg Abbott issued a letter to President Biden that said, quote, Texas will not adhere to the new rules. Briscoe Cain, a representative, a state representative

here in Texas, he also issued a letter urging superintendents to ignore the proposed rule change. And also we saw Kim Paxton, he sued the Biden administration and the U.S. Department of Education over this Title IX rule change. And then actually here on the day of the recording, it's May 8th, we saw Greg Abbott send a letter to Texas public university systems and community colleges instructing them not to comply with President Biden's recent update to Title IX, nor adopt any new system-wide policies related to this revision. So Title IX rule change, getting a lot of pushback here in Texas Boat

at the highest level of office from the governor all the way down to school board resolutions. So we'll see if other school boards across the state enact similar resolutions. Certainly. And Kim, I know that you probably have plenty to add to this story as well. What are your thoughts on everything that's going on with Carol ISD? Well, I just think that I wanted to point out, I think, unless you've seen something I haven't seen, that this is the first school district to do this. Is that right, Cameron? The first that I've seen, if something slipped through the cracks that I haven't seen, but

this is the first one that I saw headlines about. And I think they were kind of on the forefront of leaving the TASB and some other issues like that. So Carol ISD tends to be in the news for things like this. Yeah, they seem to be at the front leading the charge on many of these issues. Like you mentioned, the TASB issue, even gender-segregated bathrooms. You know, they led the charge on that. So, yeah, Carol ISD really stepping up in these different instances. Yeah, been in the news plenty.

If you search Carol ISD on our website, you will see a lot of stories. So definitely go check those out, Cameron. Thank you. Holly, coming back to you. Good to be here. Also, it's hilarious that you reacted immediately when I called you Holly. You're just accepting it as your fate. I was expecting it, yeah.

In Baytown, the city council rejected a proposal for increasing funding to a city-owned golf course project. But now the mayor is pushing another proposal through. What's that all about? So Baytown Mayor Brandon Capitillo pushed for Baytown to strike a deal with developer Rio Valeriano in 2022 to revamp the city's T36 golf course through Valeriano's LLC Build Baytown 1. It was narrowly approved by the city council in April 2022. Construction has been slow, and last month, Baytown resident Byron Shermbeck learned which the city later confirmed that build Baytown one was in

default over the project. The city had already paid build Baytown one $5.8 million for the development of the golf course and now Capitio is seeking more money for the project from the city's general fund uh capatio was also going to ask uh the baytown city council to give city manager jason reynolds the authority to negotiate and enter into an agreement on his own authority for golf course uh for the course facility management with Troon Golf LLC. Troon Golf LLC. Holly spoke to former Baytown Mayor Calvin Mundinger,

so many good last names on this podcast. I know, right? About the project. Can you tell us some of what he had to say? Yeah, so Mundinger signed onto a letter from city residents accusing Capitio of, quote, strong-arming city council members over the golf course vote. He said that the city council rules mandate a six-month waiting period before bringing a failed

agenda item back for consideration even though the council just recently voted against it after multiple executive sessions I believe last week. And executive sessions are basically where a governing body can act and discuss something behind the scenes without the public being privy to those conversations. There was a vote on Tuesday night over the matter. How did that turn out, Rob? Well, by a four to three vote, the council adopted a short term option that will shift another one point nine million dollars to support the golf course. And it will contract with the management company for continued operations through September 30th. And that comes with the option of two 30-day renewals.

Cameron's got that look again, people. If you're in Baytown, I hope you like golf. I hope you like golf. That's right. It just happened this morning. I was listening to a podcast on the way in. Shocker. And the conversation got on to golf courses. Wow, that's a wild thing.

Well, just an interesting fact here. Golf courses now cover about as much of America as Delaware and Rhode Island combined. Really? And the person I was listening to on this podcast was saying that there was actually a study done about artwork and what people prefer in certain depictions of art. And the consensus sort of came back that it was landscapes. People prefer to look at landscapes, but they like to see like a sun, large bodies of water, open plains. And the commentator I was listening to is sort of relating that to what I just mentioned about golf courses, why they are, you know, building that, why are they building them everywhere? And he, his analysis was, there's actually a evolutionary psychological reason for that is that during, when we're a

hunter and gatherers, we would prefer to be in open plains for hunting. And you don't want to be in wooded areas because it can be disorienting. So this is sort of us harkening back to that, that those hunter gatherer instincts. So not golf course. Well, well, if you think like we, we don't go out and hunt food,

but we still have this urge to be in these certain geographical terrains. And so golf courses are sort of a proxy for that and a manicured clean yeah and that's represented in people's preference for certain works of art as non-rustic i see what you mean so mac you come from seattle an area that if i recall correctly is mountainous and heavily wooded. Do you feel like some kind of anxiety in your hunter-gatherer brain from being in such an area? I'm just curious. Being in a wooded area? See, I grew up in Texas, of course, which is a very wide, flat, open area. So I'm just curious if in the Pacific Northwest, do people have some kind of low-level anxiety over the fact that they're in an environment? Well, grunge music came out of that.

I think there's a low level of anxiety or high level of anxiety in a lot of Seattleites for other reasons, which we do not have time to go into. But that's just my perspective. I also think weather plays a big deal. I do not, however, think the geology or geography of the state has much to do with that because it's gorgeous. And if you feel in any way, way shape or form that you're in nature and you have gorgeous mountains and trees and all sorts of beautiful things to look at all the time that's not a bad

thing for your mental health it's a very good thing so it would just be better if it was flat uh absolutely not yeah mountains are amazing i just thought that'd be interesting but i do think the big sky like i loved texas in that regard like it's just amazing in and of itself very different but i i mean i've been in texas so long now it's like seems forever ago that i was in seattle but yes it it is much more uh claustrophobic if somebody from texas was to move there but that's not how uh locals feel that's fair golf courses are a surprisingly controversial thing you know there's all these environmental activists who say that they're a huge waste of

water you have people who say that they tap into this part of the human brain you know they're an interesting it's an interesting thing over golf courses yeah you know i believe even in austin we still have this debate over whether hancock golf course in central austin should be turned into a park instead. But also, it's already, which, that's a whole debate, right? It already kind of is a park. Yeah, it's already kind of a park, and people use it as a park, and there are Frisbee golf stations, and dogs are off-leash there, and it's gorgeous.

Yeah, so, regardless. Very, very interesting. I'm glad we could go off on that tangent. It was a good tangent. Cameron, thank you. Last story, Cameron. Last week, we reported on a recent surge in opioid was a good tangent. Last story, Cameron. Last week, we reported on a recent surge in opioid overdoses in Austin. Give us an update.

Yeah. So like you mentioned, we reported on this recent surge in opioid overdoses. And we saw on Monday that there was actually five individuals that were arrested. And then on Tuesday, APD provided an update during a press conference about this ongoing investigation. They mentioned that these five individuals were arrested as they were going through this undercover operation here in Travis County and in Austin. But they mentioned that these suspects are, quote, not linked as of right now to any of the overdose victims. And APD went on to explain how they're still trying to identify the dealers responsible for the source of the narcotics. What was interesting is they mentioned that the drugs that were essentially involved in these overdoses were fentanyl-laced drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and interestingly, marijuana, something you don't really think is going to be

laced with fentanyl. They said it is pretty rare for marijuana to be laced, but it is something they've seen in the past. They did explain one of the theories that they have for this surge in overdoses is because as these drugs are being passed from dealer to dealer to dealer and eventually to buyers, the narcotics are being mixed with this fentanyl. Essentially, fentanyl makes them more potent, more addictive, laden for the user eventually. And so just something for our listeners to keep an eye on. Like I mentioned last week, that it wasn't just homeless individuals

who were affected by this overdose outbreak. It was people who were housed. It was people at their workplace. So affecting the broader community. And one last thing I'll mention is the APD spokesperson spoke about the interconnectedness of the individuals involved in these overdoses. And they said it's sort of like a loose group that is working together. They're still trying to identify further up in this chain of operation, but they don't have any information as of right now about cartel involvement. So it's an ongoing investigation of something. I'm just keeping my eye on. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for following up on the story on that as well.

Let's move on to our Twittery section. Rob, you got something historic. I do have something historic and something historical for that matter. Shocking. Shocking shocking color me so shocked this is my favorite thing to do for the tweeter e-posts but um yeah so as we are recording this it is may 8th uh 2024 it is victory in europe day 79 years ago today was when uh germany signed its unconditional surrender at the end of World War II, bringing an end to World War II in Europe. So I believe the Japanese surrender was not until it's disputed over whether it was,

I believe, August 15th or September 2nd was like the official day because Germany had in truth surrendered a little bit before May 8th, but they didn't sign like the formal document and everything until May 8th. So the war against Japan would not end until, of course, the end of the summer or beginning of the fall. But yeah, so victory in Europe day. So a very big and important day. Yeah, next year will be the 80th anniversary.

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, so. Okay, amazing. Well, we should do some sort of you know texans on ve day piece to commemorate that would be a fun piece actually do you want to put on the calendar so we don't forget for next year yeah for next year i'll do it right now that's what i do sometimes and connie does it kim does it too we all put ideas on the calendar so that we can make sure that we don't forget stories that we like but i that would be a fun one. Very, very fun.

I love it. Rob, thank you. You're very welcome. And we are recording a day early this week just to accommodate some remote work schedules, some time off for folks. So it's that time of year. Everyone at the Texans vacationing in one way, shape, or form. Except for Cameron. Anyway, moving on.

Okay. So, Cameron, why don't we talk about your tweeter-y for the week? So the TikTok divestment bill that was passed is part of this larger package that was passed, what was it, last week? People for that. Two weeks ago? It's been an ongoing saga. But essentially, China must divest from TikTok, and they are given a certain amount of time to do that. Well, TikTok is actually filing a petition seeking to overturn what they say is an unconstitutional TikTok ban. And if you go through the petition that was filed, there's a subsection called a divestiture that serves TikTok's U.S. operations from the rest of the global integrated TikTok business is not commercially, technologically, or legally feasible. You're like, okay, what are they going

to be explaining here? Well, at one point in the petition, it states, I'll quote here, the Chinese government has made clear that it would not permit a divestment of the recommendation engine that is a key to the success of TikTok in the United States. So we've seen TikTok. There's the Chinese TikTok. There's the United States TikTok. It's supposed to be separate entities and there's been the

I forget the CEO's name but he's been in congressional hearings just peppered with questions about China's involvement with TikTok and it's essentially been denied for years now but with a statement like that

it gives insight into how the Chinese government views the role of TikTok in the United States, because so much of the pushback has been how the algorithms are essentially pushing certain types of content to users in the United States, something that I've mentioned in newsletters countless times. Most recently, not this week, but the week before about the hashtags, I stand with Palestine or the hashtag, I stand with Israel, was being pushed at different rates to users on the TikTok platform, which people were inferring was leading to certain support for either side of this conflict. So TikTok's involvement in political discourse and cultural discourse in the United States is well-founded.

And I think a statement about the Chinese government worried about this divestment, it's interesting to say the least. So we'll see, you know, this legislation's going to be tied up for years. Whoever the lawyers representing TikTok on this are going to get paid. I was going to say, they're going to have a nice little pretty payday. Yeah. So just an update for our listeners who have been following the TikTok saga. Yeah. And it is a saga. Oh my gosh. Kim, I'm going to wait and go to you last because you have something that would be really fun to just add in at the end.

I think it would be a phenomenal note to end on. So I'm going to go to mine for this week. My San Antonio, my essay published a story, Texas couple ties the knot with romantic wedding at Buc-ee's. How could we not? And I will shout out Cameron. Cameron feeds me so many things for my newsletter every week. It's usually like alligator spotted or hawk birth caught on camera

or something animal related. He likes to send you some stuff. Cameron is sending me stuff. I'm sure that's shocking to anybody who knows him or listens to our podcast. Well, if you ever need a laugh, like in the middle of the day, you just go read headlines. Yes. Because there's so many funny stories, fun stories, too. Fun, such fun stories.

Oh, my gosh. And this is one of them, and you killed it with sending it to me. I'm so excited about it. I'm just going to read directly from the article because they say it beautifully, who wrote this story. It is Gabriel Romero. I want to shout him out because this is phenomenal journalism. When thinking about a dream wedding, people might think about a stunning white dress, immaculate flowers, a jamming band, and families and friends in attendance.

It's doubtful that a bride's wedding walks to the altar and sees Bucky the beaver. But not all brides think the same. One wedding took place a few feet away from a massive wall of beef jerky in one popular Texas-based travel center. Yes, a couple renewed their wedding vows inside of Bucky's travel center. The groom, Stan Siegler, shared video of the moment

in the Bucky's Lovers Facebook group. Whoa. That's arguably my favorite part of the entire article is that there's a Bucky's Lovers Facebook group and if's arguably my favorite part of the entire article. There's a Bucky's lovers Facebook group and if Maslin's husband Aaron is not part of this Facebook group, then I will be very shocked. The bride was wearing a pink Bucky's shirt and bow.

Hal Stigler was wearing a Bucky's button-up t-shirt. I didn't even know Bucky's had button-ups, but apparently they do. A button-up t-shirt? That's what it says. And Bucky was standing in between the couple during the love-filled ceremony. Guests and employees gathered around the wedding ceremony while the two exchanged rings. I pronounce you husband and wife, and you may now buy beaver nuggets, the minister said in the video, just before the couple kissed in front of Bucky.

Wow. They got permission from the manager for holding the wedding people very much is like a cold here in texas yes you watch your words carefully does everyone have a favorite food item from bucky's yes go ahead yep the uh cookie dough chunks cookie dough chunks. Cookie dough chunks? Yeah, just like a small refrigerator, usually near the section where they have like the warm pecans, sugary pecans, and they are delicious. It's just chunks of cookie dough, like bites of cookie dough. They're delicious.

It's fine. It's not as good as the fudge. It's got to be the fudge. The fudge is the best. The orange creamsicle fudge was always one of my favorites. But for like an entree, definitely that brisket sandwich. Okay. Ooh.

Okay. They also have a Philly cheesesteak taco. Unreal. It's by far their best taco. Kim and Mary Elise, do you all have a favorite Buc-ee's item? The bathrooms. The bathrooms. They are very nice.

Such a good answer. The only right answer. They are very nice. Okay, what are those? The Icy's, that's what they're called, right? Oh, yep. Classic. They're really good.

Yeah, that's definitely my favorite. A classic gas station delightful thing my guilty pleasure when i stop at bucky's is but most a lot of gas stations have them but bucky's have them these are not popular candies at all but i love those peanut patties those pink peanut patties oh that's so funny oh my gosh which i hardly ever eat candy i try to stay away from sugar but those things will tempt me isn't that crazy ridiculous i was gonna say that you had just told me that you very rarely if you basically said you never eat candy so the fact that that is what tempts you and now we're fascinating to me weird yeah yeah interesting oh bucky's is so good i always head straight to the jerky i don't go to the wall of jerky

i go to the jerky counter yep where they have just the long strips in their trays yeah they always offer free samples i say yes thank you thank you so much get a pound of jerky always and then i say i i'm gonna save this you know eat a little bit here you know a little later no just i just i just start snacking on the which flavor do you get i've been getting the turkey jerky turkey jerky is so good it's so is it i've never i haven't had it from bucky's yeah it's really good okay turkey jerky in general is just delicious. Andrew gets the bohemian garlic one. That's his favorite jerky, and he gets it every time. Yeah. Eat a piece of gum after that.

Yeah. Don't get me started. Exactly. You just keep the vampires away and go. Just make sure we're all clear of vampires. Mary Elise, your first tweeter-y. Welcome to the tweeter-y section of the podcast. Thank you.

Okay, so I recently ran across this guy on X or Twitter or whatever, and his name is Derek Guy. Okay, so I always thought that guys had it so much easier, like getting dressed and, like, picking out their clothes and stuff. But basically he provides commentary on men's suits, and I learned so much I never knew before. Cameron is, like, freaking out over here here nodding his head and going fantastic account i just i think it's hilarious i mean here he's talking about the workwear guy

he has issues with jordan peterson's suits because they lack shaping like something's odd with the friends it's just super bizarre i didn't know that people thought about that but go he goes into depth oh yeah oh you know i've seen that thread yeah yeah yeah that's fascinating well yeah rob are you looking it up i am looking it up right now yeah i do stand by i do think men's suits have far more variety than women give it like give them credit for there's a lot and there's etiquette and different kinds of things that you can't wear with I understand all of that like your lapel collar all of that is so intricate and I'm like completely inept to answer questions about any of it but I do know that there's a lot more than meets the eye I still do stand by the fact and ladies I'm curious if you agree with this after reading that thread that women still have a much more complex choice to make when it comes

to clothing i still stand by it yeah i mean i don't know reading through his tweets i almost think we're kind of equal interesting well it's just i always thought that it was harder on women though like this was not a this this is a golfing polo right this is a golfing polo. Right. This is a golfing polo. I have no idea how much anxiety went into picking my shirt for today. Really? I have no idea.

That's stressful, Rob. It wasn't very much. I'm just saying you don't know. But see, men, if they put on a shirt in pants, they don't have to think about, does the shirt stylistically go with the pants, the cut of the pants? Isn't that? Women have to think about all of shirt stylistically go with the pants the cut of the pants isn't that well women have to think about all of that yeah that's fair that's also fair that's sort of what that account does is he's trying to bring a heightened awareness for men to pick better options for their clothing uh and think more think more about Yeah, with more complexity about their clothing choices. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Interesting. Like a big thing is for this guy, he talks a lot about how men are choosing suits that are way too tight. Like I don't know if you've seen this trend where guys will wear these super tight shirts and super tight pants because they're trying to, if they're athletic, they're trying to show off their figure, essentially. Show off their figure. That's hilarious. He's trying to provide some insight where if you actually wear a more loose-fitting suit, it's going to not just look better, but you're going to be able to move better.

It's going to look better. It's more functional. And it fits right. And it's not tight. just look better, but you're going to have – be able to move better. It's going to look better. It's more functional. And if it's right. If it's not tight. Yeah. Tight, tight. It reminds me of that actually this – I'm looking at it right now, the image of the 2003 versus 2018 NBA draft suits that they were wearing.

Oh, just like tents. 2003. It's these enormous blocky suits with like – they're huge. Like the coats go all the way down and the pant legs go all the way down and they're just like, they're, they're big and billowy. Whereas the 2018 suits are like very trim, you know, and that's like been the style. And now we've gotten to the point where people are wearing like suits they

barely fit in. So now the style might go back again. It's how it works. Mary-Lise, did you have any idea you would spark such conversation with your Twittery choice? That was so awesome. I did not, but I just, yeah, this is fascinating. I'm learning so much. Cameron really got on board with it very quickly. He knew exactly what you're talking about.

Well, his account has helped me. Looking at what he says about tailoring and men's clothes helps when I go and choose clothing now at the store. You know, so, you know, provide some help for me. Totally. It's smart. Okay. Well, Mary-Lise, thank you. Kim, we are coming to you on a wonderful note to end our podcast on.

Well, I just want to remind all our wonderful listeners that this Sunday is Mother's Day. I remind you who have mothers to at least call them, if not something more. And I think I'm the only mother. Yeah, I'm the only mother on this podcast. So I'll wish my fellow mothers Happy Mother's Day. And if you're looking for a gift idea, besides a card or chocolate or flowers, you can subscribe to the Texan. Drive your mother to the Texan. And if you become a Patriot subscriber, make your mother a Patriot subscriber and she'll get a mug, like my favorite. I love

this Yeti mug. And she could get one of these personalized. And that would be a great Mother's Day gift. But seriously, I hope all the mothers out there have a wonderful Mother's Day and enjoy it and that your kids get to spend a little time with you or at least have a nice conversation. So good. And if folks did not see the product placement, Kim did show in the video version of this podcast, her awesome Yeti. And Kim, you have three wonderful children that you are so proud of and have raised to be awesome members of society. And if you've not read Kim's Blue Bonnet Bulletin, she talks about it, too. It's homeschooling her kids and just the backstory, a little bit of her family and a little bit, not a ton. Not a ton.

But it's fascinating and so fun to read about bit of her family. And a little bit, not a ton. But it's fascinating and so fun to read about Kim, your family. So I could go overboard on them, but I won't. We had a wedding recently, my son got married, but we didn't have it at Bucky. So I didn't know that was an option. Well, you missed out maybe next time. I have another son getting married next year. Maybe I'll suggest it. Yeah, you've got a lot of family weddings going on. it's and it does seem to happen in batches i know for my family all of us got married within a year and a half of each other so it just sometimes happens in in batches it's pretty wild but happy mother's day in advance kim happy mother's day holly connie i think that's that's that's those are the moms on our shout out jill Jill. Shout out. That's my mom.

Jill. Shout out Jill. Shout out Char. Shout out Kathy. Look at that. Happy Mother's Day. Well, folks, thanks for listening to our weekly roundup, and we will 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.