The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - May 3, 2024

Episode Date: May 3, 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:The Texan’s fifth anniversary!Dozens of UT Austin protesters arrested, many of whom are not affiliated with the universityOver 500 faculty signing a “letter of no confidence” in the university presidentThe UT System’s investments including Israeli companies and weapons manufacturersTwo Texas GOP congressional members pressuring the Biden administration to enforce a water treaty with MexicoTexas elected officials challenging the Biden administration’s changes to Title IXThe City of Fort Worth canceling a speaking event with a “de-transitioner” activistThe Austin Police Department investigating an “overdose outbreak” affecting 51 peopleHarris County voters now electing members to their appraisal district boardAmarillo residents signing enough petitions for the city council to vote on a “Sanctuary City for the Unborn” ordinanceThousands of illegal immigrants being flown into Texas through a federal program

How big is Wally? Wally is probably like... Between 4.30 a.m. and 7 a.m., he said, someone came in and stole Wally. Maybe that's Wally. Made his way to the river. No, there's no way. Wally would never be so aggressive.

Oh. Well, I don't know. I'm unconvinced this animal is domesticated in any way, shape, or form. But this man does have an alligator as a pet. And he brings it to old folks' homes. He shares it with his... He brings it into town on a leash. And he brings it to old folks' homes. He shares it with his, like, he brings it into town on a leash. And folks accept it.

They pet him. There's no muzzle or anything on this alligator. He has never hurt anybody. But it is, it's an alligator. Yeah. I think Wally would make a nice pair of boots. Wow. Wally!

Well, happy Friday, folks. It is Cameron, Rob, Mackenzie And Kim and Holly are joining us Kim and Holly thank you for joining us And you know helping me Outnumber the boys for once I'm excited about this How about that It's awesome is what I'll say

I'm excited about it Boys what do you think about this being outnumbered It's awesome, is what I'll say. I'm excited about it. Boys, what do you think about this, being outnumbered? It's uncharted territory. Yeah, I'm a bit nervous. I'm not on the pod that often, so I feel like I'm kind of with them outnumbering y'all. I feel like it's Kim, Holly, and me against you two. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.

Cameron, do you feel the same? Yeah, I'm feeling very nervous right now um i'm not sure well you should what the hopefully there's not too many questions coming from kim and holly yeah but i'm ready i feel like i know my stories this week so they pepper you with if they yeah if they come after me with questions, I'll be ready. So I've been preparing for this. Yeah, we're just gunning for you, Cameron. Holly's gunning for you. Oh, no.

Oh, my gosh. Well, it's been a great week at the Texan, particularly because we celebrated our fifth anniversary. Absolutely. And Holly and Kim, y'all have both been with us for almost the entirety of the five years, which is wild. Kim, when did you start with us? August 2019. So quite literally just months after we launched in April of 2019. And Holly, what about you? In April of 2019, I was actually writing some pieces before we even launched. That's so crazy. Oh, it's so awesome. Yeah. You and Brad were our first hires in that way, which is awesome, which is so great. But yeah, we celebrated

our fifth anniversary. If folks have not already gone to check out our silly little video, they definitely should. I'm just sad that I didn't get to be in it with the Nerf guns. You know, I raised two boys and Nerf guns were part of the landscape in my home. And so it looks like a lot of fun. The landscape. That's brilliant. Well, for a while there, back when Daniel was a reporter, he oftentimes and Isaiah, I believe, would show up in my office, turn the corner, and just start peppering me with Nerf bullets. And I said, guys, you've got to realize, like, I'm game, but I can't be unarmed.

So Daniel gave me a little tiny pistol that has three bullets. Like, that's the extent to which it can hold ammunition. So I'm at least partially armed. Yeah, no, you need the big one with the, you know, the big cylinder of the big cylinder of 20 Nerf darts. Those are much better. Exactly. Thanks, Holly. I appreciate it. But that's a throwback right there. But we did, yeah, for folks who have not seen, we did film a video in the office. Kim and Holly would have provided plenty of additional humor. we um yeah we had quite a time daniel initially was there was no mention of it go ahead there was no mention of us

we were nameless for a while remember holly we were the contract i know we'll add that to our grievances yeah yeah isaiah really that's probably why we weren't on the video because we are just content. This is bringing back old hearts. Old hearts. I don't have a dog in the office. I don't have cookies every day. I mean, this is just cookies. We do have cookies every day.

Yeah, cookies every day. Every single day. If we had cookies every day, I think we'd all look a lot different. Yeah. It'd be tough, but regardless. We'd have more marathons.. I've done more marathons. Yeah. These two can keep

the marathons. Yeah. Cameron really is the one who's keeping the marathons. I'm like an infant in my running skill, but regardless, folks,

we so appreciate you supporting us for the last five years. We could not have done this and kept just the business and company growing each year if it was not for y'all. So thank you for engaging with us and our content, both written, podcast, whatever it is. Thank you for subscribing. If you've not subscribed, please go and do so right now.

It keeps us going. And I think that's something that Connie and I talked about in our interview is how proud we are that any of the funding for the Texan up until this point has been from either Connie and Phil themselves putting their money where their mouth is and saying, hey, we want to change the media landscape in Texas or from our subscribers. Like those are the sole ways that we have been funded, which I think is incredible. Yeah. And because of our subscribers, we've been able to offer all new content offerings, right? We have new podcasts, new newsletters. And so because of our subscribers, we can On that note. You can always become a patriot. You can always become a patriot. Absolutely. That's exactly right, Kim. Thank you so much for saying that. We can always have more patriots. If you really believe in our mission, you can pay a little extra.

Just support the cause. Support the team. Absolutely. Brad always says that it helps him feed his dog. And Winston needs a lot of food. I will say I am watching Winston right now while Brad is out of the country. And he eats a lot of food. I will say I am watching Winston right now while Brad is out of the country, and he eats a lot. That's because, Mac, your dogs are the size of, like, small cats.

Yes, my dogs are very small. Yes, they're like 20 and 6 pounds, so they're very small, whereas Brad's Winston. And Winston's not even that big of a dog. He's maybe 40, 45 pounds. But compared to Milo. Compared to Milo, he's a giant, and he eats a lot of food. So please become a Patreon subscriber. Do it for Winston.

That's our new slogan. Well, we're getting rid of things in our freezer right now, which is a really good thing because Brad brought like a giant bag of frozen food and eggs and rice, like all this stuff to feed Winston. And we would not have been able to. We're not at the stage where we have two fridges, you know, one in the garage and one in the house. It's not, it's not where we are in our lives. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. So it worked out quite well. You'll get there. With my husband's appetite alone, we're almost there. So, okay, well, let's go ahead and jump into the news, Cameron, and we're going to start with you. It's been a crazy two weeks of protests at UT Austin. We've seen this happen throughout the country, but UT Austin,

very close to home here. Give us the latest on what's going on. Yeah, so last week, me and Brad actually did a bit of a deep dive on what's been going on. We talked about all the arrests and the student protests that have been going down at UT Austin. That's on the Send Me Some Stuff podcast. But the latest that has come up is actually over 500 faculty have signed on to a letter of no confidence in the university president, that's Jay Hartzell. And I came across this when the American Association of University Professors stated that the letter included this over 500 signatures was actually sent to the UT Faculty Council on Monday. And so they are actually going to be having an upcoming meeting where this issue will be addressed.

So we'll see if anything comes to fruition because of this no-confidence letter. But we've continued to see protests and attempts at what protesters are saying is an occupation of the South Lawn, continue to see police intervene and attempt to break it up. And a lot of the chants that have come from the protesters and a lot of their demands that they voiced is in regard to what they say is UT and their investment in the state of Israel. And so I thought to myself, brought this up to Mackenzie this week and said, is there any validity to these claims? So we sort of dug into this a little bit. What I found is, I'll provide some background here. First is the UT Austin budget

for the 2023-2024 year is just over $3.9 billion, of which more than $600 million comes from grants and contracts, $400 million from gifts, and $730 million from tuition. So that's a bit how the budget is broken up. Then there's actually a federal website called the College Foreign Gift Reporting Database, all the foreign gifts and contracts from other governments, outside entities to universities and colleges here in the USA. And so between June 22nd, 2020 and February 13th, 2024, the most recent contract from Israel to UT Austin was reported on June 27, 2022. So this year is 2024. This is more than two years ago, or almost two years ago. And that total of that June 27, 2022 contract was for $1,110. So very small amount as compared to the larger budget more generally and the over

$600 million that comes from grants and contracts in total. Some other interesting information I came across is the University of Texas and Texas A&M Investment Management Company oversees and manages $70.1 billion in assets. And they have an endowment that totals $55.5 billion, according to their 2023. $55 billion? Billion. With a B. With a B. So we're talking a lot of cash here. And so what's been interesting is as I was digging into how are these endowments being managed and where are the investments going?

Because they actually do an audit of all their investment related assets and liabilities that are managed by this management company. And so Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Microsoft, Amazon, those are all listed among a thousand, more than a thousand different companies that are invested in as part of this management that this investment management company does. So just to provide some additional context here, the Amazon shares that are owned are worth $64 million. Microsoft, $104.6 million. Lockheed Martin, under a million. Raytheon, $584,000. General Dynamics, $486,000. General Dynamics, 486,000. Boeing, just $8,452 worth of assets. And so again, putting into context that these shares, they own shares, yes, in some of these weapons manufacturers, like I mentioned, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Boeing. But as it relates to this huge amount that they have in their endowment, the almost $60

billion and the investments that total almost $75 billion, it's fractions of percents. And so it's important to put that into context when the protesters are chanting out that they need to divest from Israel or how America might be somehow one step or two steps away from sending weapons to Israel, providing funding for this war. Again, it's fractions of a percent in terms of how large this endowment investment company is managing their assets. And just a little bit more information. I know this is a bit of a long segment, but it's important in the larger scheme of things. It's kind of a big deal right now. It makes sense. So I came across two Israeli companies that were also listed as investments.

There was a cybersecurity company called Checkpoint Software that they had investments in that are valued at $9.2 million. And then Teva Pharmaceutical, which was valued at $101,000. So again, a fraction of the multi-billion dollar worth of investments that this fund is managing. And so that's the background on some of the chants and the divestment rhetoric that has been profited from or offered rather by the protesters. And we continue though to see talks about the coordination of these protests and like what's really the background of how are they so organized really. And so we actually saw a statement come from UT Austin, where they said following Monday's protests that, quote, weapons have been confiscated in the form of guns, buckets of rocks, bricks, steel-enforced wood planks, mallets, and chains. And the statement

goes on to explain that staff has faced physical assaults, police officers have been head-butted, struck with horse manure. I saw that come up on my timeline as well. I was like, that's crazy. And police vehicles have been subject to slash tires. So some aggressive action from the protesters here and being reiterated by UT Austin, essentially them offering a reason why the response has been what it was. And in terms of the arrests that have occurred, we've seen over 79 arrests. But what was interesting is a majority, or I don't know, it's 45 of them were not students at UT Austin. So just an interesting tidbit there is that the individuals who are being arrested at these protests are not affiliated with the university.

And so some other outlets like the New York Post and Wall Street Journal, they have claimed that these protest agitators are actually receiving funding from George Soros connected nonprofits, such as his Open Societies Foundation. So again, George Soros making his way into the news with these protests. I did try to dig into that as well and found Snopes essentially casting some doubt on those claims being made by the Post and the Wall Street Journal saying that the money that was sent from George Soros connected nonprofits was sent between 2016 and 2022. So more than a year before the protesting began. But there is an established connection between the nonprofits and some of these agitators at the protests. So just all that together, just important context for people to understand when

you're viewing these protests, there's a percentage of these people that are not connected to the universities, and they've been using aggressive tactics, as explained by UT Austin in that statement. And when you're hearing chants about divestment from Israel, it's fractions of a percent of the endowment that is invested in companies that are connected with Israel. So it's layers upon layers of information that people are trying to navigate through, and they feel like they have to take a side on the issue one way or another. But it really takes a nuanced deep dive to understand the full wide context of what's going on. So hopefully that provides some insight for people. Absolutely. And I'd say, folks, I mean, Cameron covered like three different articles in that

segment. So definitely go and read his coverage of the Texan just to get more insight. And if people are still wanting more coverage, more information on this stuff, I've been writing about it for weeks now in my redacted newsletters, providing why are the geopolitical conflicts arising right now and what is causing young people to seek out causes. Like I dive into all the different nuances. Yeah. Yeah. Especially in terms of the violence that is occurring on these campuses. It is very shocking to people, but there is a history to it as well. And so I wanted to provide some information for people to understand, like, young people are seeking out causes because essentially right now there's a lot of information.

I know I'm going off on a bit of a tangent, but there's a loneliness epidemic. There's people consuming social media at rates that are unprecedented. And so the way they're essentially isolated from reality and then getting sides of a story that are not maybe manipulated, but heightened to a level to elicit certain emotional reactions, you can almost see how the downstream effects of on-campus violence is going to be a result of that. And so I tried to provide some information for people if they want to check that out. It's on the redacted newsletter. Subscribe and you'll get it in your inbox. Subscribe and you can access it on our website. The moral of the story, subscribe.

Subscribe. There you go. Become a Patriot subscriber. Definitely worth reading. Yeah. Cameron, thank you so much. Rob, we're going to come to you. You're covering for Matt today. I am covering for Matt. Yeah. He has some, you know, some, I don't want to out what he's got going on, but he's got some stuff going on.

So we're going to cover it. And he's highly embarrassing. He's the only person in the world. Exactly. Had his wisdom teeth removed. There you go. Yeah. It's really not a big deal.

But let's have you cover his stories this week. So two members of Texas's congressional delegation sent a letter over a water treaty in Mexico. Who are those members and what is the treaty? So two weeks ago on April 19th, Representatives Monica de la Cruz and Jody Arrington issued a joint letter to U.S. Trade Representative Catherine Tai. The letter asked for a meeting to discuss the ongoing water shortage in South Texas and argued that Mexico has failed to uphold its side of a water treaty with the United States, that being the 1944 Utilization of the Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande Treaty. I guess ink was free back then.

We're going to write all this stuff out. With the way printer ink costs now, nobody would say something like that. But the treaty requires Mexico to send 350,000 acre feet of water every year to the U.S. over a five-year cycle. However, according to the letter, Mexico has often been late in providing the water over the last.S. over a five-year cycle. However, according to the letter, Mexico has often been late in providing the water over the last 30 years. And at this point in the current five-year cycle, it owes 750,000 acre-feet, the most it has ever owed at this point in the five-year cycle. How does this affect Texas?

So South Texas, says the representatives, is currently facing drought conditions, and they argue that Mexico's refusal to provide the water is only making the situation worse. Water is very important to the region for agriculture. Texas, for example, exported $7.3 billion worth of agriculture products last year. De La Cruz also noted that recently the last operating sugar mill in Texas closed down, resulting in a loss of 500 jobs. So that's not so sweet. That's not so sweet. All of this comes actually after a group of 11 state lawmakers led by Representative Terry Canales sent a letter to the Biden administration earlier this month asking for help in addressing the ongoing water

crisis and Mexico not sending the water that it is supposed to send. So yeah, definitely go read Matt's coverage. Absolutely. Rob's editing prowess is involved as well. I know we need to keep moving, but I just want to mention, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago on a podcast. And one of the things I was interested in is who's managing the negotiations between the United States and Mexico. And we found out there's actually an international body that manages water systems. And so I think it will be interesting. It's something I might dig into is who are these people on this board managing these

negotiations? Because obviously, internationally, these are appointed individuals. So it could be interesting to look into who these people are. Oh yeah, for sure. No, that was a fun, that was a, it's a very bureaucratic name of a body too. Cameron, we're going to come to you here. Following changes to Title IX, state elected officials are urging the Texas Education Agency to ignore the rule. Tell us what's going on. Yeah, just for some context real quick, Title IX is a federal program that instructs educational institutions that receive federal funds from the Department of Education to carry out their educational programs, quote,

in a non-discriminatory manner free of discrimination based on sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity. Included in the issues of Title IX are athletics, financial assistance programs, admissions, recruitment, and sex-based harassment investigations. Well, this new rule, coming from the Biden administration and the U.S. Department of Education, includes how federal civil rights law protects, quote, discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics. And a key provision in the rule change now, quote, recognizes that preventing a person from participating in a recipient's educational program or activity consistent

with their gender identity subjects that person to more than diminish harm. So the emphasis on not only sex stereotypes, but gender identity has sort of raised eyebrows among Texas elected officials, especially someone like Governor Greg Abbott, who actually issued a letter to President Biden saying, quote, Texas would not adhere to the new rules. Interesting there. And also, Rep. Briscoe Cain penned a letter to the TEA Commissioner Mike Marath, and he said he was going to be calling on Mike Marath to promptly direct all superintendents in Texas to ignore the proposed changes to Title IX. We also saw the Texas Freedom Caucus issue a similar letter to Mike Moran saying they were going to urge him to instruct all superintendents to disregard the proposed alterations. And then again, Kim Paxson has sued the Biden administration and the Department of Education over these Title IX rule changes.

So Texas elected officials pushing back against the Biden administration, especially when it comes to these Title IX rule changes, as it is explicitly changing how they are identifying gender identity and how schools that receive federal funding are going to be managing that. So just some interesting developments there in terms of the Title IX rule change. Absolutely. Cameron, thank you. Kim, we are coming to you. Recently, the city of Fort Worth canceled an event related to a hot topic we've seen in the legislature and otherwise talked about in Texas here for many years now, gender transition. Tell us what happened.

So Mackenzie, on April 20th, the Latinos United for Conservative Action, or LUCA, I'll use for short, they go by that, scheduled an event. They had an event scheduled titled The Danger of Transgenderism. And it was going to feature a young man named Abel Garcia who had presented himself as a transgender woman for a few years and had reversed course and returned to living as a man. And the event was to be held at the city of Fort Worth's Victory Forest Community Center. The LUCA had applied to use the center, had been approved, had paid the deposit weeks in advance. Everything was ready to go. They'd been advertising it. And two days before the event, the city's park and recreation department head contacted LUCA and said that the event would not be allowed in the city's community center,

and he cited some of the city's non-discrimination policies and offered a full refund to the group. Of course, with two days to go, that was pretty short notice to have to move the venue, and Luca's response was that anyone was welcome. They were not discriminatory. Anyone was welcome at the event. And it was important to have it as part of this national conversation, not only in Texas, but across the nation, talking about this issue of trans ideology and its impact in many areas of society. Absolutely.

So then what did city officials have to say? Did they weigh in about the decision? So the Texan was provided a statement that Fort Worth Mayor Maddie Parker made in response to an inquiry by a Republican precinct chair who asked her about the issue. And she said she disagreed with the decision and had made her disagreement clear to city management. She cited First Amendment free speech concerns being implicated, and she said she had asked the city management to revisit the decision and the policies that led to the decision because she felt like they were unclear and had led to a bad decision. I reached out to the assistant city manager who was indicated to be responsible over the area of park and recreation, but she did not reply to my questions about the city's

decision and its timing and whether it allows LGBTQ groups to use city facilities. Carlos Tricios, who leads the state chapter of LUCA, said he was not satisfied with Mayor Parker's response or the city's actions, and he wants the city to take stronger action against the employees who made the decision. He said that LUCA is considering legal action. The event was held at a different location. The weather was also bad that day, so that contributed. But they still had some decent attendance at the event. And I was able to speak with Abel Garcia, who was able to come and tell his story and his experience. And he provided a lot of interesting insights about what happened to him, which I included in my article that I hope readers will go and check out at the Texan. Yes, please go check out Kim's story at the Texan. Kim, thank you so much. Lots of back and forth there, lots of different statements and

discussions, and it's important to have all the facts straight. So thanks for reporting that for us. Cameron, we're coming back to you. Monday saw Austin, Travis County EMS and Austin Police respond to 51 overdoses, which resulted in four confirmed deaths. Give us the details. Yeah, so this came across my timeline this week, and I thought it was interesting that we're seeing such a large number of overdoses occur here in Austin. And so there was actually a press conference that was held on Tuesday where Travis County officials said they will be investigating the source of what is being described as, quote, the largest opioid overdose outbreak in years. And so like you mentioned, there were 51 overdoses to which emergency services responded to on Monday. During the press conference, the chief medical

examiner for Travis County stated that there had been four confirmed deaths and a possibility of eight total deaths. And they actually have two individuals who have been detained on suspicion of being involved in the overdoses. One of those individuals was charged with illegal possession of a firearm. And opioids were stated as being the cause of the overdoses, but officers could not say for certain that fentanyl is suspected as causing the overdoses until the toxicology reports are concluded. And to put this in a larger context for people listening, there was a city council meeting held in March where the acting assistant chief for the Austin-Travis County EMS presented a slideshow where he said Travis County now has twice as many opioid overdose deaths than any other county in Texas per capita. So it appears this is a ongoing and continuing issue here in Austin

in terms of the opioid epidemic where me and Brad, I'll mention our Send Me Some Stuff podcast again. We talked about drug decriminalization in a few different states and the outcomes of certain laws that have been passed. And we're seeing here that addiction is a problem that reaches everyone. And one of the things I think it's important to mention is during the same press conference, they said it wasn't just homeless individuals who were overdosing. They said there were people that were housed. They said there were people at their workplace that had overdosed. So it's affecting everyone, just something that people in the community should be aware of. Absolutely. And I will say too, listen to Send Me Some Stuff that was dropped on Wednesday of this week, typically on Monday each month.

But this week, our conversation or my interview with Connie dropped Monday. So that's why Send Me Some Stuff was delayed by a couple of days. But a lot of hot topics discussed in that, including this very sobering story here. So, Cameron, thank you for your coverage. Holly, last but certainly not least reporter to go on this pod today. I will say, you know, you may have a bone to pick with Rob because he put you last here. Okay. The fellow Houstonian is the one I need to come after that I see.

Yeah, exactly. The fellow Houstonian, Rob. What do you have to say to that? I'm sorry. I could barely make out what Holly was saying. Yeah, right, what do you have to say to that? I'm sorry, I could barely make out what Holly was saying. She just said my fellow Houstonian was the one who put me so far down the list here. Absolutely. Absolutely, he says. Oh my gosh. Well, Holly, according to a new constitutional amendment, large counties must now add three elected members to appraisal district

boards. What exactly does an appraisal district even do and how does this amendment change that function? Right. So this is a board of directors. So what they do is they manage the budget and the operations for the district. They don't actually have a lot of input into the actual property valuations, although they do have some leeway in setting policies for those valuations. You know this is all part of a law that passed last year in the Texas legislature and then was approved as a constitutional amendment. I know Kim has already written about the elections that are taking place up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and I wrote a new article about what's going on here in the Harris County area. One part of the argument was that these boards really don't have enough citizen input. So they consist of board members who are appointed in Harris County. You've got one that's

appointed by the county commissioners, one appointed by the city of Houston, and one appointed by the Houston school district. And then all of the other school districts, of which there are 26, they get to appoint one representative. All of the other cities get to appoint one representative. And all the municipal districts, excuse me, municipal utility districts and so forth, get to appoint another. The elected tax assessor collector has been a part of that board, but that person, even though they were elected, didn't have a vote on the board. So they were just an ex officio member. So the idea is that now we would have these countywide elected board members who would be a little more answerable to the taxpayer, and that was the concern. So any county that has a population of greater than 75,000 gets these additional three board members, and now that tax assessor collector is also a voting member of the board. Another big change is how the members appoint what is called the

Appraisal Review Board. And those board members have, interestingly enough, in Harris County, and I did not know this until I started researching this article, those board members are appointed by the Civil Division Administrative judge, which seems very unrelated. And the board members, board of directors really didn't have any say over who these people were. These are the people that kind of make that final decision when you challenge your taxes. So if you can't come to an agreement with a member of the division or the department, then you go before a panel of these people. And in Harris County, you can have as many as 180 of these people on this appraisal review board. Right now, there are only, I think, 117. So it's not even fully staffed.

But what's happening now with this new board of directors, these three elected members will have more sway over who gets appointed. The board of directors will appoint these appraisal review board members. It all gets very complicated. But unless two of the three elected members agree to appoint someone, there are no go. So they kind of have a veto power over those appointments and giving a little more influence over what's happening with those people. Interestingly enough, part of the testimony about why we needed this change in law regarded some of the policies that some counties were implementing for these review boards in Fort Bend County. The board actually told some of the

appraisal review board folks that they could not bring calculators into these hearings. They couldn't actually do any calculations about the percentage of increase. So there was a big cry for some reforms that would help people have a little bit more influence over what's happening, this kind of obscure board that's discovering our appraisal rights. Absolutely. And definitely, I would say to folks, this is an issue that Holly has covered for many moons now. So go and read her past coverage, make sure that you're up to speed on what's going on, because there's a lot to understand here generally, and legislation always, when it is enacted, shakes it up a little bit here. So, Holly, has there been much interest in the ongoing elections for these board positions?

Unfortunately, no. In Harris County, which is the most populous county in the state, there's only been a voter turnout of about 1.3 percent, so a very small turnout percentage, although we did have a lot of candidates file for these three open positions. We've seen some partisan groups weighed in. Both the Democrat and Republican parties have made endorsements in these races, and to the positions, there are actually five candidates vying for that spot. So it is hotly contested. But in other counties, we've seen a lot less interest. In Galveston County, for example, they canceled the elections because they only had one person file for each of the open positions. So it's kind of mixed. And to be fair, it's a May election. It typically has very low turnout. These first candidates who win these elections will only serve a shortened term, and there'll be another round of elections in just two years.

There you go. Holly, thank you so much for your coverage, as always. Kim, we are coming back to you. Another beat that Kim has covered extensively here at the Texan, cities across the state have been adopting sanctuary city for the unborn ordinances. This movement almost goes as far back as our launch at the Texan here. What is the status of the effort in Amarillo? Well, Mackenzie, as you mentioned, over 50 cities and several counties across Texas have adopted these kinds of ordinances outlawing abortion from conception. And they also include a provision outlying what they call abortion trafficking, which is transporting someone through the city or county for the purpose of getting an abortion. So the residents of Amarillo have been trying, some residents of Amarillo have been trying to get the city council to adopt one of these ordinances since 2021. And there was a newly elected city council

this past year, and they've been working on it some, had some discussions, had a work session about it, but still hadn't adopted it. So on December 29th, some citizens undertook an effort to initiate the city ordinance being voted on to push the issue along. And last Thursday, they turned in over 10,000 signatures on petitions urging the city council to adopt the ordinance protecting unborn children. They had a minimum requirement of 5,761. So they tried to safely get enough signatures over that amount in case some of them aren't valid or aren't registered voters. I spoke to one citizen volunteer, Robin Ross, who's helped with the petition drive. She's personally invested in the effort because she told me that she survived a

failed abortion attempt by her mother. And so she's really committed to this cause. And she hopes the city council will go ahead and adopt the measure based on the signatures. It has to vote on the measure according to the city's charter, but if it doesn't adopt it, then the measure will go before the voters in November. Other cities have had it go before the voters. One nearby, a city nearby to Amarillo is Lubbock, and they passed the sanctuary city ordinance through a ballot initiative in 2021. So we'll see how this process plays out in Amarillo. We'll continue to follow it and other sanctuary city efforts around the state. Another complex issue and saga in Amarillo that Kim breaks down for us at the Texans. So Kim, thank you so much and definitely go read all her coverage there.

Cameron, we're coming back to you. Thousands of illegal migrants have been flown into American airports and entered through ports of entry in Texas. Tell us about what's going on. Yeah, so the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security obtained documents revealing the extent of a Biden administration program that flies what they called inadmissible aliens into the country. And thousands of those were landing right here in Texas. In the statement

that was posted on Tuesday, the committee said that, quote, more than 400,000 inadmissible aliens have been processed at over 50 airport locations through this new Biden administration program. Well, I say new, but it started up in January 2023. And the program is the CHMV, that stands for Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan Mass Parole Program. And so between January and August 2023, Houston had 7,923 individuals flown into a port of entry. Dallas received 2,256 and Austin saw 171. And like I mentioned, the program started up in January, 2023. There was a statement from the Biden administration at that time announcing the quote new border enforcement actions, where it stated DHS is a significant scaling up its air and ground

transportation capabilities to quickly remove migrants when warranted or transport migrants to less congested border sectors for further immigration enforcement proceedings. And this was first brought to my attention just about a month ago we saw a report from the Center for Immigration Studies who brought eyes to how this program was being employed flying individuals from out of the country into the interior of the United States and we've seen quite a bit of reactions to it we actually saw Attorney General Kim Paxton and American First Legal included with 20 other state attorneys general file a legal challenge to this federal program

and I thought another interesting aspect to this is in a recent poll conducted by the Texas Politics Project 39% of Texas voters said immigration and borders border security were the most important problem facing the state. So as this Biden administration program flying migrants from outside of the U.S. into the U.S., many here in Texas, border security and immigration continues to be on the mind of voters as they head to the poll in the coming months. Absolutely. I will say too, at the Texan, we take a lot of care in the verbiage we use. We do our best to figure out the exact accurate term to call folks as they illegally enter and then are processed by the U.S. And so it's certainly complicated to cover and Cameron does a great job. Because there is, like you mentioned, there's a big gray area between a legal immigrant and a migrant and an inadmissible alien. There's not a clear

definition for many of these terms and they're used interchangeably many times in press releases, in administrative documents. So for us here at the Texan, we do the best we can in using the correct term in the correct situation. Yeah. And oftentimes you'll see us put quotes around terms because it's something somebody else is saying, not us, right? So definitely take that into consideration.

Cameron, thank you. Holly, we're coming back to you here. The city of Pasadena has been in and out of court with a local business owner. Wild story. Can you give us some background on what led up to this conflict? Sure. So I'm not sure how to pronounce his first name properly. It's Zayel Sepulveda. He often goes by Oz. So you'll see his name listed as Oz in court documents and so forth. But Oz is an auto machinist and he's been operating in a lease space for some years, but he wanted to expand

his business a few years ago. So he purchased a property that was already housing an auto machinist shop and he thought he would just be able to reopen his own business there under his own business name, Oz Mechanics. But even though that shop had been operating for 30 years with just five parking spaces, the city of Pasadena says now that they have this new ordinance and there's a strict formula for deciding needs 28 parking spaces. He tried to get a variance. He tried to come to some kind of agreement with the city because he said this was unreasonable, wouldn't even fit on the property that he has. They couldn't come to an agreement, so he did file a lawsuit. This winded its way through the courts for a while, ended up in the appeals court, but then the city of Pasadena came to a settlement agreement with him. They entered into that settle agreement in 2022. They agreed that instead of 28 parking spaces, he could have a more reasonable number,

seven parking spaces. Everyone thought the lawsuit was over, but when Oz submitted site plans and engineering drawings to provide those seven spaces, the city said, well, no, we have these other ordinances that you have to comply by, and they include something called a minimum aisle width and a further setback from the street. He pointed out, according to what they're asking, he can't even fit that on his property. And he tried to, again, come to a resolution, but as the city would not back down from that, he filed a second lawsuit. And so now they are back in court fighting over this situation. Yeah, absolutely. So then, you know, this week there was a hearing in Harris County. What was that about and what happened in the courtroom? Yeah, so there's actually been two

hearings, I believe, in the past 30 days. The city is represented by a well-known attorney. His name is Bill Health, and he often represents municipalities through something called the Texas Municipal League. They are a taxpayer-funded organization. They provide a number of services to cities and often legal representation in these kinds of cases. So this attorney was before the judge on Monday. And what the city is arguing now is that they have immunity in this new lawsuit that alleges a breach of the settlement agreement. Judge Bo Miller of Harris County took a pretty dim view of that argument. He said he thought it would be really bad public policy for the city to enter into a legal

agreement and then turn around and claim immunity when they were sued for not complying with that agreement. Sepulveda is represented pro bono by a group called the Institute of Justice or For Justice. They're a nonprofit that takes on cases defending property rights. Most recently and notably, they won a case against the state of Texas before the Supreme Court in a 9-0 decision that regarded those ranchers in the DeVilliers case whose land was flooded by actions taken by TxDOT that created a dam and ruined their property. So these attorneys are there with Sepulveda. They push back, of course, on the city's claims that they had immunity. They also pushed back on claims from the city that Sepulveda's plan requires cars to back into the right-of-way of traffic. They noted that there

is land there for the cars to back out without pulling into traffic. The attorney for Sepulveda also informed the judge that the city of Pasadena has refused to comply with certain standards that come with any lawsuit called initial disclosure, so they haven't disclosed any information. They've also refused to cooperate with any requests for information, what we call discovery. And the judge contemplated perhaps issuing an order for them to compel them to cooperate, but the attorney for the city said the judge couldn't do that because there is a pending claim of immunity asking to dismiss the whole lawsuit. The attorney also told Judge Miller that he couldn't even order them to meet and confer and try

to come to a resolution of the property outside the court. And at the close of the hearing, Judge Miller seemed pretty frustrated with the situation and what the city was asking for. And before he had even issued any kind of formal decision about the claim of immunity, the city had already filed an appeal with the First Circuit Court of Appeals. What this does is it kind of freezes the case, and it could delay the case for many months, perhaps even years. The First Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas is notoriously slow, so it could be quite a long time before this is resolved. In the meantime, Sepulveda has to

continue to pay rent on the property he leases for his business and utilities there, and that's at a cost of about $1,500 a month. Not a lot of money, perhaps, to attorneys representing the city, but a lot of money to a small business owner, and that's an addition to the cost that he incurs on this property that as of this time, he cannot use to operate his business. This feels like something that you might find to be the perfect script for some sort of movie down the line, right? I think this writes itself. You know, and there are parallels with some of the other cities that I've seen in southeast Texas where I do a lot of coverage. There's parallels with the city of Kemah, which uses the same attorney through the Texas Municipal League to defend them in multiple lawsuits that are pending against the city.

Often those, at least one other right now, is also tied up under appeal before that First Circuit Court of Appeals. So it could be a very long time for those waiting for some sort of resolution to get a decision out of the court. Absolutely. Holly, and thank you for your diligence in covering that. We appreciate it. Rob, I almost called you Matt because it's Matt's story, but we're coming back to you. It's Matt's story, but I'm doing it today. That's exactly right. A state law passed last year, created a new grant program for smaller Texas counties to assist in rural law enforcement. This is the one we heard a lot about last legislative session. The Lieutenant Governor talked a lot about it leading up to the legislative session as well. How is that going? So Senate Bill 2 by Senator Drew Springer, which, as you noted, was one of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's legislative priorities last year, created a grant program for rural law enforcement in counties and jurisdictions with fewer than 300,000 people.

So, we say smaller counties, but that includes 236 out of 254 counties in Texas. So, almost all of them. Those are all counties are eligible for this grant program. And according to Comptroller Glenn Hagar, his office has received over 500 applications and has already dispersed $126 million. So Hagar said regarding the program that it will help law enforcement in jurisdictions also that have, quote, defunded the police. So it seems to be going well for the purposes of the program. How much money does the program have?

So the legislature appropriated $300 million for fiscal year 2024 and fiscal year 2025. It also sets rules on how law enforcement agencies can spend that money, though. To quote Matt directly from his article, because he put it better than I could, sheriffs are eligible for between $250,000 and $500,000 in grant funding, depending on county population. They may also use it for supplementing salaries and purchasing new equipment, but must prioritize salary requirements for deputies who conduct traffic stops and jailers. And is it too late to apply to the program? Yes, it is. Boom. For this year, for this fiscal year. For fiscal year 2024, yeah, it's closed for right now, but applications will be accepted in the application window for fiscal year 2025, which, of course, begins on October 1st, 2024 for some reason.

But that'll be when that goes. So it's not too late for next year. It's too late for this year. It is too late for this year. Yeah, we're already like, what is that now? We're on May, more than halfway through the fiscal year, I think. We'll put it on our calendar. Absolutely. well rob thank you you're well done covering matt's stories today thank you very much yeah getting your wisdom teeth out is not that much fun no it's really not i feel like it would be very difficult to talk on a podcast it'd be almost impossible

it wouldn't be entertaining. The funny thing is you could do two recordings. One like where you're still loopy on laughing gas and then one after where your jaw is still kind of wired shut. So that was, yeah.

Has everyone got their, I don't know why we're going into dental history now, but I don't have my wisdom teeth out. They grew in perfectly, which is really, I still had to have braces. No, my teeth were crooked.

I didn't have braces. But my wisdom teeth, for some reason, decided to cooperate. So it's wild. I still have my wisdom teeth too. Yeah. I do too. Okay. Really?

Am I the only one who's had his wisdom teeth out? I'm a little bit older and it's a problem. Yes. And that's what I think. I just went to the dentist last week and it was a new dentist. They were like, you still have your wisdom teeth? I'm like, is this bad? Like, what's the deal?

But they seemed, as long as it doesn't bother you, I think it's fine. Yeah. I had mine out, but not the way everyone gets them out now. I didn't have a nice oral surgeon experience. My dentist just, I was awake and it was not good. That does not sound fun. No. I'll warn you, if I could go back in time i'd have mine out when i when i was young but it's too much to do now so cameron we're we're out of luck

sounds like i'm keeping them yeah i have an emotional attachment to them got it so there's no there's no way yeah you need to keep your wisdom teeth since you have so little wisdom to begin with. Exactly. It's true. Well, now I feel better now that we've shared our dental trials and tribulations for bringing up Matt's. This is incredibly personal, and I just, I don't know, I felt a little exposed right now. I understand, and I realize that I'm now making all y'all make up for my transgression of just telling everyone that Matt got his wisdom teeth out and airing out his medical history. So I got to eat as much ice cream as I wanted to after I got my wisdom teeth out, because it's hard to eat food when you when your jaw feels like you can barely open it.

But so I did get to eat a good amount of ice cream. Had to take these teensy tiny little bites because I couldn't open my jaw. So I had to take a teensy little bite, let it melt on my tongue, and then keep doing that over and over again. That's wild. So when this comes out, I'll be at the oral surgeon's office with my daughter tomorrow

getting her wisdom teeth out. No way! Oh, that's funny. There you go. Get her some ice cream. It's just a week for dental things she's allergic to milk she can't have ice cream i'll make her smoothies that she can have but no straws you can't drink from a straw because it'll pull right yep right you can't do that oh man it's like little spoon-fed smoothies or yeah that's not fun fun oh great well good luck to Felicity, Kim. It's going to be delightful. I'm sure she'll be so excited to have her. Yeah. As a kid, you want them out because you get ice cream. But in hindsight, in reality, it's just a debacle. It's no fun. It's a whole debacle.

It's a whole debacle. Well, as we move on to our tree tree section here, folks, we have all sorts. I'm looking at the list here. We have some fun things to discuss. So Cameron, why don't we start with you? If we're going to start with fun ones. Okay, yours is not necessarily the most fun. Mine is just to touch on the subject that the U.S. House passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023, and they passed it by a vote of 320 to 91. We'll have an article up on the Texan website by the time our podcast is published as well, but I'll just provide the reactions that some online commentators, I didn't include that in the article. I'm more focused on the policy and more of the policy-related groups that have reacted to it. But people such as Charlie Kirk of Turning Point, or it seemed like all the Daily Wire crew,

Matt Walsh, Michael Knowles, even Ben Shapiro, had voiced opposition to this new piece of legislation. And the main part of it is because it would seek to establish the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism as a standard for the Department of Education. And again, I'll point people to one of my newsletters that I wrote a few weeks ago about Abbott's executive order that it also included this same definition in some of the issues that people had brought up about it. So people are interested. We'll have an article up on the site. And if you want a deeper dive into it, check out Redacted. Redacted. That's exactly right. Speaking of

newsletters, Kim, why don't we go to you? What do you have for our tweeter-y this week? Shameless plug, because I'm not on Twitter. I wanted to encourage people, subscribe to the Texan. I have been having so much fun discovering good news to share from around the state. And I've written two Blue Bonnet bulletins with stories of just ordinary people doing really cool things. And I'm actually going to an interview this afternoon for my third version of the Blue Bonnet bulletin, which I hope will also be inspiring and encouraging for people to read.

So check them out. It's a lot of fun to read about. I try to focus on, you know, really just ordinary people that so that people can feel like I could make a difference in the world. So there you go. It's awesome. And I said this before on the podcast. I've said it in my newsletter. I've said it everywhere. But what I love about Blue On A Bulletin is how we all sat around chatting about what could Kim's newsletter be? And all of us thought this would be like good news, would be such a fun angle for Kim to take. And then she, on her own, pitched that idea as well. So just fun to see that come to fruition. So definitely

check out Blue Bonnet Bulletin. I will plug also monthly newsletters. Rob's Precedented Times is out as of this podcast being out. And Holly will have her Ripples newsletter out in just a week and a half, two weeks, something like that. I was about to plug my newsletter, and now you've just done it for me. Sorry, Rob. I didn't mean to do that. I didn't mean to steal your thunder so blatantly. That was a bummer. I apologize.

I appreciate your apology. Thank you. I accept it. I just keep making – As a fellow history major, I love Rob's newsletter. Oh you. I accept it. I just keep making choices. As a fellow history major, I love Rob's newsletter. Oh, thank you very much. Thank you. I think you're going to like the tweetery we have today as well.

Well, why don't we go into that, Rob? What's your tweeter? Oh, why don't we? I think that's an excellent idea. So I think it was Cameron who put me on. Absolutely. I think it was Cameron who put me on to this earlier this week. But there was a woman in Austin, Texas, who this week purchased for $34.99 a genuine Roman bust of Sextus Pompey, the son of Pompey the Great. According to CNN.

Is it Pompey or Pompey? What? Pompey or Pompey? I mean, either one. The Latin is like Pompeus. I said Pompey. Buty? What? Pompey or Pompey? I mean, either one. The Latin is like Pompeus. I said Pompey. But in English it just turns into Pompey. He said Pompey.

Pompey. Pompey. Yeah. So then I was like, I think I said it wrong. Tomato, tomato. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

But yeah. So it appears that a soldier, a U.S. soldier in Germany after World War II, like looted this bust and brought it home. And then possibly his relatives sold it or donated it to Goodwill and gave it away. So this woman in Austin bought it. And yeah, it's a 2000 year old Roman marble bust. And there's this great, great picture of she's like buckled it in her car like she has like a buckle over the neck it's fantastic for $35

that's like an anti-roach joke totally is she going to be allowed to keep it though I mean are they going to trace it back yeah I was going to say yeah no it was to trace it back? No, no, it's been returned. Yeah, I was going to say. Yeah, no, it was done in

2018 is when it was bought. And then it's now going to, it's now in a museum and it's about to be shipped back to Germany. So this month is what's happening. Well, my question is she's giving it back. Does she get a refund of her $34.99? Good question. That's a really good question. I think she get a refund of her $34.99? Good question.

That's a really good question. I think she'd have to take that up with goodwill. Yeah, I think that's a goodwill problem. Although I would also, if I were her, be like, hey, I've contributed to the historic narrative of the world. Yeah. So I'll, you know, I'll eat the $35. Absolutely.

There could be a tax deduction in there somewhere. That would be pretty good, honestly. Looking for write-off. Yeah, all about a write-off, always. There's also two other interesting historical bits that I have for today as we're recording this on May 2nd. Today is the day that the Nazi German forces

surrendered in both Berlin and Italy in World War II, six days before VE Day, which is the day that the war officially came to an end in Europe. So that's a big deal. 1945, the fall of Berlin. And also on today, May 2, 2011, was the day that the U.S. finally got Osama bin Laden. Wow.

Yeah. So it's a big historical day, honestly. Was that 2011? That was 2011. Wow. Okay, that's wild to think about. For some reason, it feels so much, I don't know, longer. And who made the first announcement that we got Osama?

Does it seem like it was longer ago to you, McKenzie? Who? It feels like it's probably him. Mike Cena. Oh, that's so interesting. John Cena? Or John Cena. I was like, who are you talking about?

There are two conversations happening right now. I'm not certain if I have. I was relatively young when this all came out. I'll send you this offline. Thank you. Thank you. Holly, I think it feels longer ago because it almost feels like I was, that would have meant I was in my later years of high school.

And it feels as though I was much younger. And I don't know why. I don't know why it feels. I think it's probably age perspective, right? I'm a little older and it feels more recent to me. Yeah. I think your percentage of your life has passed. I don't know.

I don't know what it is, but that's wild to think about 2011 that I was. Wow. That's wild. I have no idea where we started. Oh, with Pompey. With Pompey. That's right. It all started with Pompey.

Not Pompey the Great. His son. The son. Sextus Pompey. Yeah. We must make sure that the record is clear on that. Absolutely. Holly, why don't we come to you?

Okay. You know, I hate to point to my own work, but on Twitter, I actually had something out the day we're recording this podcast. I got another tip that another person has been fired from Harris County Judge Lena Hidalgo's office. It's someone who had been there for, I think, the last four years. And so it's kind of a surprising firing there. There's been a lot of turnover in Hidalgo's office. And whether or not it relates to the indictments of three of her former staffers, we don't know. Of course, you know, a couple of weeks ago, or yeah, I guess it was a week ago, we learned that the district attorney here in Harris County is referring those cases or turning those cases over to Attorney General Ken Paxton's

office to continue to investigate and prosecute. And that's all in relation to the $11 million COVID vaccine outreach contract that they tried to allegedly give in a bid rigging scheme to a crony of Lena Hidalgo's and some of the other members of the commissioner's court. So it's just kind of interesting to see that continued turnover happening there. It's a hot story here in Harris County. The other thing that I saw this morning is our friend, Charles Blaine, over at Urban Reform. He's the president of that organization. He has a video from the state commission on jail standards has given some orders to Harris County. They've had ongoing difficulty at the jail here. And there's actually multiple buildings that encompass the jail here. There's actually multiple buildings that encompass the jail population,

but it's been sadly understaffed. There's been a lot of violence in the jail, a lot of uncontrolled situations there. And it looks like the state commission is ordering the county to cap the inmate population. That means they're going to have to send more inmates to other facilities. Right now, the county spends millions of dollars a year sending them to some facilities that are out of state. So they're really having a problem. And part of the problem is just a very slow criminal justice system here in Harris County with a criminal case backlog of over 100,000 cases. Yeah, a big story and one that we've been covered for a long time and seems to never go away and wild. So also, Holly, I appreciate you pointing to your own work because Brad is not here and

he does that almost every single podcast. The Twitter section is always like, well, I tweeted this and you did it far more gracefully. Is that the first Brad reference we've had? No, we talked about Winston and we talked about Brad being gone. Yeah, Brad is a broad. you did this and you did it far more gracefully is that the first brad reference we've had no i talked about winston we talked about brad and gone yeah brad is but then we're talking about winston you're not talking about brad i'm stepping into brad's shoes is that what you're saying i'm saying it you know the torch needs to be carried and it needs to be carried more gracefully than he does each week and so i appreciate you being the one to do it because, Brad, we all know.

I'm not as curmudgeonly as Brad on screen, maybe off screen. That's one of Holly's secret weapons is her behind-the-scenes curmudgeon-ness. Real fast, my favorite thing I saw on Twitter this week is, of course, the alligator in the Rio Grande. I can't not think about this. I think about it multiple times a day. It is wild to think about. If you've listened to this podcast for months, you've heard me talk about any sort of crocodilia family member. I really enjoy just learning about them and finding out.

I think folks often forget that there are alligators in Texas. And this video that went pretty viral this week, this video has almost a million or right around a million views. Eagle Pass local resident came across an alligator while fishing this morning in the Rio Grande. Previous sightings of alligators have been confirmed by border patrol. I do want to turn up the volume on this video for a second so you can hear this alligator. He is, the video is of him with his tail in the air and then simultaneously his nose lifted out of the water, his whole head lifted out of the water,

and he is making quite a crazy sound, and you can see his throat, like, bellowing. It is a wild sound that this alligator is making. I'm going to turn this up so folks can hear it. It kind of sounds... That's just like a Jurassic Park sound effect. It's literally prehistoric sounding, which is appropriate considering it's a giant reptile. I know you find them fascinating, but having grown up in Florida, I find it horrifying. I couldn't hear the recording that you played, but I've heard them plenty of times.

I absolutely hate alligators. Which makes so much more sense if you grow up in a place where there is plentiful as like field mice, right? I mean, they are everywhere in Florida. Yes. And they're scary. And they'll eat your dog or your kid or, you know. Yes. They're terrifying unguarded and uh there's a lot of them

and they're pretty scary creatures um so i can't stand them i still sometimes have nightmares about them well on the other side of the scary monsters that you guys are talking about something that came across my timeline oh dear this week was actually an AP story. A Pennsylvania man who credits an alligator named Wally for helping relieve his depression for nearly a decade says he is searching for the reptile after it went missing during a vacation to the coast of Georgia. This is the pet alligator that he has in his house, right? Yeah. This is that guy. Wally is missing?

Wally's missing. That's bad. This isn't just a pet. This is an emotional support alligator. Have you seen videos of this, Cameron? I am very familiar with Wally. No. How big is Wally?

Wally is probably like- Between 4.30 a.m. and 7 a.m., he said, someone came in and stole Wally. Maybe that's Wally. Made his way to the real world. No, there's no way. Wally would never be so aggressive. Oh.

Well, I don't know. I'm unconvinced this animal is domesticated in any way, shape, or form. But this man does have an alligator as a pet. And he brings it to, like, old folks' homes. He shares it with his, like, he brings it into town on a leash it is and folks accept it they pet him there's no muzzle or anything on this alligator he has never hurt anybody but it is it's an alligator yeah it's an alligator but he's missing according to the guy who who was friends with wally his i don't want to call him his owner i'd call him his friend his

friend he said there were people in his area who were threatening to take Wally and release him back into the wild. The problem, of course, is that Wally's been out of the wild for, like, what, 10 years now. He doesn't really. Wait, so they found the guy who took Wally? No, that's what he's saying. He thinks that the people who stole Wally would have been, like,

people who said, oh, we need to return Wally to the wild. Yeah, because Wally's not going to survive. The problem is an animal that's been, you know, tamed for 10 years. Totally. Yeah, might not have. Being fed his lunch every day. Yeah. I think Wally would make a nice pair of boots.

Wow. Wally. This is the Floridian coming out of Wally. Yeah. Wow. This is where this is coming from. Purse. Good purse.

Okay. Now we know. Okay. You know what? We're going to get the FBI on the phone because we have suspect number one right here.

Right here in... Yeah, there are people who are very mad about this on Twitter. Like, there are people who are mad

about this on Twitter. You may have a pretty big contingency of Wally lovers coming after you on Twitter if they get any more of this.

This is a real community. Oh my gosh. This might split the office. I know. Pro or anti-Wally. Pro or anti-Wally. That's exactly right. I am anti-Wally. You don't even know Wally.

We couldn't tell. We couldn't tell you were anti-Wally. My anti-all reptiles. They're just kind of big. I hate the snake house. I can barely believe what I'm hearing. I can barely believe what I'm I can barely believe what I'm hearing

yeah they're a lot they are well on that note I did not realize that this would open this yeah Cameron

Cameron you're just causing division yeah we're rife with division now well folks thank you for

listening to all of this banter Holly and Kim particularly thank you for joining us today Rob thank you also for stepping into Matt's shoes this week, because he is probably high on laughing gas right now. Absolutely. Yeah. It's been a real blast. Also, if you love hearing the sound of Rob's lovely voice on the pod, listen to the daily rundown each and every day. He's great.

He does a great job. Thank you very much. Okay, folks. Well, thank you so much for listening and we will catch you next week. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple podcast,

Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, subscribe to the Texan at the Texan dot 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.