The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - November 19, 2021

Episode Date: November 19, 2021

This week on The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup,” the team covers the latest in lawmaker retirements and campaign announcements, a state legislator switching parties, a federal investigation into a North Texas school district, a redistricting lawsuit in Harris County, a tragic instance of human smuggling at the border, discrepancies in COVID-19 vaccination data at the state and federal levels, photos of barbed wire fencing serving as the border wall shared by the governor, threatening remarks made at a Texas school board meeting, grand jury subpoenas issued in Harris County over a controversial vaccine outreach contract, more tracts of land purchased for the Panther Island project, and State Board of Education hearings on controversial curriculum.

Happy, happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie Taylor here bringing you this week's News Roundup. Our team covers the latest in lawmaker retirements and campaign announcements, a state legislator switching parties, a federal investigation into a North Texas school district, a redistricting lawsuit in Harris County, a tragic instance of human smuggling at the border, discrepancies in COVID-19 vaccination data at the state and federal levels, photos of barbed wire fencing serving as the border wall shared by the governor, threatening remarks made at a Texas school board meeting, grand jury subpoenas issued in Harris County over a controversial vaccine outreach contract,

more tracts of land purchased for the Panther Island project, and state board of education hearings on controversial curriculum. Thanks for listening. We have a great episode for you today and are so glad you tuned in. Well, howdy folks. This is Mackenzie Taylor here with Daniel friend Hayden Sparks and an exciting new addition or well, y'all have been on the podcast many times before, but it's been a while. We have Kim Roberts and Holly Hansen as well, joining us from their respective spots in Texas.

Ladies, thank you so much for joining us. Good to be here. It's great to be here. Yay. We're so glad you're able to join. It's always fun when we can have our reporters from all over the state join us and talk to us about beats that we don't usually get to talk about on the podcast. So thank you, ladies. We have a lot to get into today. Our

first section is just all about Lawmaker Retirement's announcements, where they're going. There's a lot of moving and shaking in the legislative world. Let's start with potentially the least surprising announcement from this week. Beto O'Rourke is once again running for office in Texas, this time statewide, after he was a congressman and then ran for U.S. Senate against Ted Cruz and then ran for president. He's back in Texas running for governor. Was anybody actually surprised by this news? Was this a shock to any of y'all? Not at all. Yeah, I think that's kind of where we're all at here is um you know he officially launched a bid we've been expecting this for a long time the governor governor abbott had even

come out with different ads ahead of uh betto's announcement uh talking about different issues green new deal health care whatever it might be to try and you know get ahead of the messaging so we're certainly uh just not shocked that he entered to try and get ahead of the messaging. So we're certainly just not shocked that he entered the race. And this is really the first big Democrat candidate that we have in terms of the gubernatorial field here, which will be very interesting going forward. And I don't know who else in terms of big names in Texas might enter on the Democrat side. And this might be the big candidate in the race. We'll see what happens.

Yeah. I think the most surprising thing there was how late he jumped in. Yeah. The fact that he did. It was just, we've been waiting for months. Literally months. Campaign seasons start a little bit sooner, especially with statewide. They don't have to go through redistricting like everyone else did.

So that was, it's just kind of bizarre that they didn't jump out sooner. It wasn't like he was waiting for the boundaries of this statewide district to get figured out before he actually jumped in the race. No, certainly. Well, Daniel, we're going to stick with you. Let's talk about a new candidate for Bexar County judge and talk to us specifically why this is important on the state level. Yes. So representative Ina Menjarez, who's from San Antonio, her district is kind of in the southwestern portion of San Antonio and Bexar County. House District 124 includes Lackland Air Force Base. So it's a little district down there. It's a democratic leaning, um, by about, uh, D 68% with the new maps. Um, now representative Minhar has announced this week. And so she's going to be one of the big names to watch in Bexar County after the current judge, Nelson Wolf, decided not to seek reelection. Yeah, absolutely. We'll see how that ends up and how the field solidifies as time goes

on. We're getting close to the filing deadline. Hayden, let's go to you. Someone that we've been watching a lot over the last few months, Michelle Beckley. Once again, switch to the office that she was running for. Give us a little bit of history on where she's been in terms of her decision making and where she's landed. Well, Michelle Beckley is definitely a vocal person at the Texas State Capitol. She was one of the Democrats who chose to break quorum when Republicans were considering the Election Integrity Protection Act during the first and second special session, or when they tried to consider it in the first special session. And while she was breaking quorum that first time, she announced that she would challenge Congresswoman Beth Van Dyne, who of course is in

the 24th Congressional District, who is a first term congresswoman representing that district. But after the redistricting process, Republicans drew Beckley into the 26th congressional district, they put her residence in a different congressional district, and they drew the 24th, which Beckley had said she was going to run for, to be even more Republican-leaning, and it virtually diminished her chances of defeating a Republican in the 24th District. After that, and it's worth mentioning also, she was also redistricted out of her House District, House District 65, and of course, she resides in Carrollton, but that district was made more Republican as well. It's a very strong Republican district now. And of course, there is already a Republican challenger, Karanda Thymesh, who has announced in that district. instead. So she had talked about wanting to run for Denton County judge. She criticized Denton County officials for their redistricting efforts. And though she flirted a little bit with the idea

of running in Denton County, she ultimately decided that she would run for the statewide office of Lieutenant Governor, who is also the president of the Texas Senate. And the incumbent of that office, of course, currently is Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. So she joins two other Democratic challengers in the primary, Mike Collier and Matthew Dowd. Both of which I'd say have fairly high profile candidacies, particularly Collier being that he's run for this position previously. So we'll see how this all shakes out for Beckley. But Hayden, thank you for that. Daniel, let's go back to not be seeking re-election next year. He's been in the Texas House for 23 years, first took office in 1999.

His district still is pretty Democratic. The Texas Partisan Index rating that we have puts it at a D61%. So it's likely that a Democrat will win again in the upcoming election. But you never know. Things happen sometimes that are crazy. But Democrats are favored to win there. And yeah, he is moving on to other things. He's also, I believe that he's actually getting engaged.

So he's going to be married by the next legislative session and is also expecting a grandson soon. So family things are happening. Lots of personal life developments for him. Pretty cut and dry there. Another retirement. Speaking of drama, though, let's talk a little bit about Representative Alex Dominguez opting to run for Senate, particularly in light of a Senate retirement there and some scuttlebutt as to who should actually have the seat. Yes. So a lot of drama happened during the redistricting session over the South Texas area, especially in Cameron County, which covers the Brownsville part of Texas. And one of the districts that was affected was House District 37, which is represented by Alex Dominguez.

Republicans actually took that district and shifted it to be a little bit more competitive. It's going to be one of the potential toss-up races to watch. It definitely favors Republicans a lot more than it did now that they made some changes to it. But in the process of doing that, they also drew Alex Dominguez into Representative Eddie Lucio III's House District. Now, Lucio was retiring, but his dad, who is in the Senate, Eddie Lucio Jr., is also retiring. And so that Senate seat will be up for grabs. There's speculation that Lucio's son might be running for that district. That did not pan out. He's actually just going to continue working on different business stuff. So that leaves the

seat open, the Senate seat open. And Representative Alex Dominguez has announced that he is going to be running for that seat. He has the support of former state senator Winnie Davis. And so that will be an interesting race to watch especially as some other races some other candidates have also jumped into the race uh including lucio's previous challenger uh sarah barrera sarah stapleton barrera um who had a pretty contentious uh primary race with lucio last time um so we'll see how this primary race turns out now. Certainly some name ID to deal with there on Dominguez's side with going up against that previous opponent of Lucio's. So Daniel, thank you for that. Holly, let's talk about the Harris County area. And this is a

lawmaker who lost reelection in 2020, now opting to run for a local spot. Now, it is worth keeping in mind that Harris County locally elected positions do wield like those positions and folks who do have those offices do wield a lot of power. So it's not like you're out in some rural county running for commissioner there. This, in fact, can be a step up for some lawmakers in terms of the power that they actually have. But talk to us about the latest development in Harris County. Exactly. You know, Harris County is the largest district or county in the state of Texas. And so, you know, there's a lot of responsibility and an enormous budget there. Kalani won in 2018, her seat to the Texas House coming out of Katy, which is to the west of Houston. And she kind of

went on that Beto Cotell's wave that came in that year that really swept a lot of Harris County offices. She lost at that race back to Mike Schofield in 2020. And now she's announced a run for Harris County Commissioner Precinct 4, which is interesting because there's already a Democrat candidate who's announced a former civil court judge who has the backing of some of the very powerful Democrats on Commissioner's Court in Harris County, namely Rodney Ellis and Adrian Garcia. So there will be an interesting Democrat primary coming up this year. And of course, the Harris County districting map is in limbo, perhaps because there is a lawsuit against the way they've redrawn these districts. But if the map holds that precinct for district that she's running for, does lean Democrat very heavily. Absolutely. Well, thank you for that, Holly.

Daniel, one final retirement happened Thursday this week. Talk to us about Garnett Coleman. So Representative Coleman is in the Houston area. He has had some health issues this year. I believe earlier this year, he actually collapsed on the House floor and had some issues there. Later on, it kind of escalated a little bit more. He had to have his leg amputated this summer. Now, while he was having his surgery, his Democratic colleagues in the House, that was when they broke the quorum. Initially, he did support the quorum and wanted to be in solidarity with them and support their efforts to basically prohibit the GOP from

enacting their election bill plan. So there was some contention there, but Coleman was actually one of the members who came back to establish the quorum. And so he is kind of notable for that. He was the, when he came back, that's when the quorum was reestablished. Of course, there had been some other Democrats to come back as well before then.

But his olive branch to the Republicans is really kind of what made the quorum happen again, the legislative process to continue. But he announced that he will be retiring. He's not going to be seeking reelection. So that will leave another Houston area seat open for a freshman representative to come in and fill that in the next legislative session. Lots of open seats we're dealing with, particularly in light of redistricting. So it'll be interesting to see what kind of legislature we're dealing with come 2022. Wow, I had to do the math there. Okay, well, that wraps up our lawmaker retirement slash announcements section. Thanks for sticking with us, folks. It was a lot to get through. But Hayden,

let's go back to this. This is also a big development in terms of the legislature. But we had a state representative come out and switch parties this week, a former Democrat now turned Republican, Ryan Guillen from South Texas. Talk to us about how significant this move is and what kind of sparked this action? Well, it's certainly significant for Representative Ryan Guillen to switch from Democrat to Republican. He has been a Democrat for 18 years, at least since when he was elected in 2003 to represent his district. He has been a member of that party for many years. And this district is in the Rio Grande Valley, which of course is shifting red. That was seen in the last presidential election. And I want to encourage our listeners to go read this article by Brad Johnson. I'm reporting on

or doing this segment on his behalf because he's not available at the moment. But excellent article deals with a lot of the nuances of how it came to be that Guillen joined ranks with the Republican Party. And his voting record reflects part of the reason why he has made the switch. He was the only Democrat in the Texas House to vote for the Texas Heartbeat Act and one of few Democrats to support constitutional carry. He was also one of the Democrats who stayed behind and did not break quorum with the rest of his colleagues in order to prevent the passage of the Election Integrity Protection Act. And he more or less remained neutral on that piece of legislation. So he was not exactly a strong voice for the Democratic Party and that is the backdrop for his ultimate decision after

redistricting to switch from D to R. Certainly. Now talk to us about the response he received from Republicans when this move was announced and then also talk to us about the response he received from Republicans when this move was announced. And then also talk to us about the Democrat side as well. Well, the welcome from the Republican Party included Governor Greg Abbott and, of course, and then Speaker Phelan was by his side when he made this announcement. He also had the support of the chairman of the Republican Party, Matt Rinaldi. And this has been an ongoing conversation between him and the party in terms of him making the switch. He was also discussing this with a former Texas House member from Hidalgo County, Andrew Pena, who was a Democrat and switched back in 2010 to the Republican Party and is now a candidate for the 13th Court of Appeals.

He was discussing this with them, and this move culminated right after the redistricting process, which also, I'm sure, could have played a role in the decision as well. Absolutely. Well, Hayden, thank you for that. And we'll continue to follow that, but it'll be very interesting to see the reception he receives legislatively when assuming he gets reelected to that position. I do know that there is a Republican challenger that he'll have to face off against. So it will be very interesting to see how this all shakes out. Hayden, thank you so much. Kim, we're going to come to you. Talk to us about a Carroll ISD investigation. This school district in North Texas has been in the news for weeks now, months now, and for very controversial reasons. So give us a little bit of a background and talk to us about the nature of this investigation. Thank you. Well, Carroll ISD

is located in mainly the city of Southlake and Northeast Tarrant County and is a perennial powerhouse in football, but also a lot of people move to the city for the schools because they often receive exemplary status from the Texas Education Agency. And so it's a well-known school district around the state. And this week, the Department of Education announced it was investigating the school district on three different matters of civil rights violations. Now, Carol has been in the news for a number of months because there were social media videos made by students that were considered racist. And the school district established a diversity council and they created a cultural competence action plan. And critics of that found that it was controversial because in many aspects contained what they consider concepts related to critical race theory and other issues. And so elections

were held in May and then again in November where families who margins and to kind of overcome the CCAP that was being proposed. And then recently, some news came out where a secret recording of a district meeting with teachers, a district administrator mentioned the Holocaust and said, if you have books related to the Holocaust, you may need to have books with an alternative viewpoint. Now, the district did apologize for those remarks and said they understand the Holocaust is not a controversial topic, but that they are trying to figure out how to comply with HB 3979. 3979, I think, but the critical race theory bill of the legislative session. Yes, which requires balance when presenting controversial topics. So they claimed that

the issue came up because of that bill. So anyway, there's no clear, right now, the information from the Department of Education is pretty limited. We don't know exactly what they're investigating, but it is related to civil rights violations. So hopefully we'll get more information as the investigation proceeds. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about those potential outcomes. What do we foresee being a potential end result of an investigation like this? So the Office of Civil Rights under the Department of Education is conducting the investigation, and they are given the scope to investigate Title VI and Title IX and other various laws and violations. And so the first thing they do is just conduct an investigation, which involves reviewing

documents, doing on-site visits, conducting interviews of interested parties. And then after that, they'll figure out whether or not the district was in compliance or out of compliance. If they find the district was out of compliance, then they seek voluntary compliance. According to the OCR's website, they seek voluntary compliance from the school district. If they can't get voluntary compliance, then they can seek further measures, including possibly removing federal funding or seeking an investigation by the Department of Justice. But that is way further down the line after the investigation is conducted and they determine by letter findings whether or not the district was in compliance or out of compliance. So lots, lots to be done before we know the result.

Absolutely. And you know it's a big deal when you have national news organizations following this as closely as they are right now. So we'll continue to keep an eye on it. And Kim, you've been reporting about this from the get-go. And congressmen weighing in on it as well. Yeah.

Yes, absolutely. It was Chip Roy, right, who weighed in on this issue? Chip Roy, Beth Van Dyne weighed on it also recently. Holly, let's go to you and talk about a lawsuit that you've already alluded to, but let's get into the details of a Harris County redistricting lawsuit whom identify as ethnic minorities, and the two counties' Republican commissioners, Jack Cagle and Tom Ramsey. And they are alleging that this new map actually violates rights, voting rights, under the state constitution, not the federal constitution. So they're appealing to state law, which is sort of a unique approach, legally speaking. What has happened is there was a new map that was unveiled at the very last minute, and it was adopted by the Harris County Commissioner Democrats on the Commissioner's Court in a 3-2 vote. This map effectively swaps two of the prec precinct. So it takes everything that was in, mostly everything

that was in Precinct 3 and swaps it into Precinct 4. Precinct 4 was slated and is slated to hold elections this year, in 2022, I should say. And what this lawsuit is noting is that under the state law, counties have staggered elections. So one year you'll have the odd numbered districts elected commissioner, and then in the next 2018, and they should have the opportunity, they say, to elect a commissioner again in 2022. But because of the swap, now they're in a different precinct and will not be able to select a commissioner until 2024. And what the plaintiffs are arguing is this effectively takes away their voting rights. Whether or not a court will agree with that remains to be seen, but they did cite some cases where the court does seem to frown upon this kind of activity. Although the cases they cited, it looks like a special election was called to cure the problem. So they expect this to go all the way to the state Supreme Court and have that body weigh in on this finally and tell them what can and cannot be done. They've also presented a map that redraws the districts without moving any residents into or from an even number precinct into an odd number precinct and vice versa. And so they say that would also cure the problem.

Got it. Now talk to us just a little bit about, you know, I think folks are fairly familiar, at least with the terms in redistricting when it comes to state, federal districts, but in terms of local districts. Talk to us a little bit about that process and how that's maybe different from congressional or state legislative redistricting. So, the way they would tell you that it's different is when you elect a state or congressional representative, they're going up to those bodies and advocating for their constituents in crafting legislation. In this case, however, with the county commissioner,

these commissioners here in Harris County certainly have direct responsibility for managing a number of things within their precincts. So, for example, they actually manage the road construction and maintenance. They manage the parks. So they do have direct responsibilities for things that are having on for, if you will, the infrastructure and services that the county provides. And so it is a little bit different from those other kinds of representatives. And so that also may play into this lawsuit to some extent because there is a huge interruption in services and the county is currently working on a transition plan that it will take maybe as long as six months to work out.

Got it. Well, Holly, thank you for following that for us. Very interesting to see this kind of play out at the local level and, you know, Harris County in and of itself. I always joke there's always a story there and you're on the forefront of a lot of those happening. So thank you for following that for our readers and for me, you keep me informed. Hayden, we're going to come down to you and talk about an instance of human smuggling at the border, more border drama happening as always, but talk to us about how many defendants there were and what offenses they are accused of committing. Well, there are a lot of different crimes that these individuals are accused of. I won't run through all of them because it's a lengthy list. There are 10 defendants, one of whom is from Ohio. The rest are from Texas, and they're all facing an 11-count indictment. There was a smuggling incident

earlier this year in March near Del Rio, in which a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper tried to pull over the motor vehicle operator, and it ended in a car chase that killed eight illegal aliens. So, these 10 individuals face charges ranging from transporting illegal aliens resulting in death to human smuggling. The individuals who are charged with transporting illegal aliens resulting in death to human smuggling. The individuals who are charged with transporting illegal aliens resulting in death face being ordered to prison for the rest of their natural lives. It is a most serious crime in the United States to smuggle someone if it does result in the death of that individual. And they are also charged with smuggling. The driver of the vehicle who was involved in the car chase is also charged with smuggling, resulting in serious

bodily injury because he did injure additional people both inside his vehicle and in vehicles that were involved in the car crash. And it's one of those stories where there's a lot of illegal activity and tragic events happening all around. Very tragic and very complicated legally as well. So Hayden, thank you for covering that for us. That story is up on our site. Daniel, we're going to come to you now. COVID numbers tend not to be always consistent and are a little bit difficult to parse through. And we're grateful that you do that for us on behalf of our readers so that we don't have to. But talk to us about

new numbers released from the Department of State Health Services, the new analysis on the number of COVID-19 cases and fatalities between people who are unvaccinated and those who are vaccinated, and how those necessarily don't match up with some other federal numbers. Yeah. So the Department of State Health Services, which is the Texas Health Department that's been covering all the COVID data, they've been releasing the daily case numbers for a year and a half now since the pandemic began last March of 2020. So for quite some time, they've been giving regular data. One of the things that they had not been providing until recently when they released this report last week

was the number of cases and hospitalizations and fatalities broken down by people who are fully vaccinated and people who are unvaccinated. So there hasn't really been any analysis of how many breakthrough cases, that is people who are vaccinated but still end up with the virus, become infected with it. There hasn't been any tracking of how much that has really happened until they released this report. Now, when they released this report, they did give some information about comparing the vaccinated cases versus unvaccinated cases. And like the data that's provided by the CDC and other organizations like that across the country and even out in the world, they do show that vaccinations, people who are vaccinated,

tend to have less severe cases, tend to have cases less often, especially with fatalities. There's a lot fewer fatalities according to the data that they provide. Now, the interesting thing about the DSHS report is that it was half the difference as the CDC. So just to give you like the base numbers here, the DSHS says that unvaccinated people were 13 times more likely to become infected with COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people. The CDC says it's half that at six times as much. So there's a stark difference there. And there's about the same stark difference with fatalities, which the DSHS says unvaccinated people are 20 times more likely to experience COVID-19

than fully vaccinated people, whereas the CDC actually says that number is around 11. So quite a big difference there. That's just kind of an interesting thing. Certainly. Interesting is a good word for it. Now, did the department provide any answers as to what this discrepancy might be due to or, you know, answers in terms of your questions that you posed? Yes. One of the things that he, the director of the media relations at the DSHS told me was really emphasizing this idea that jurisdiction by jurisdiction, you see differences and variables that could affect why Texas says one thing and the CDC says another. So he says, as you'd expect, there'll be differences depending on the time period being looked at and the state of the pandemic in a particular time and place. So basically what he's saying is the cases in Texas aren't necessarily going to be the same as cases in another spot.

And also the dates are a little bit different. So whereas the state report really looks at kind of the fall of the wave of cases in September, the CDC data analysis that they provide looks at the numbers in August primarily, which is when the cases were rising. So it's a little bit different time zones, but they're still both focused on that same wave of Delta cases. And then he also pointed out that there could be some other variables from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, such as the people, different policies that are in place, like masking and distancing, vaccine coverage, methods in collecting and analyzing the data, and different things like that. But it is interesting looking at the CDC, the states that are listed in that.

There are some places that have very different policies than Texas. So you have places like Colorado and Michigan, Massachusetts listed on here, New Mexico. But then you also have a lot of other jurisdictions that participate in the CDC numbers as well that do have policies and even data that's pretty similar to Texas. A lot of Southern states like Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, there's a wide host of states there, covers a lot more territory. So there is, it's not a, I think it's a little bit crazy to say that, you know, just chalk it up to all that. And that's the only explanation for the differences between the two, since there are so many jurisdictions

that are like Texas that the CDC uses. Yeah, certainly. Now talk to us a little bit about the limitations of the survey itself. what's being reported here as first of all, it's specific to cases and deaths and only to those who actually get tested and have their names matched to the immunization record registry that Texas keeps track of. So if you go and you get vaccinated and doctors are required to submit your information to the vaccination registry in Texas. So that data is provided now it's private information. You know, they were very very uh try to keep that as confident confidential as possible so when i tried requesting data about this more

specific data like we can't release anything that could potentially give away personal information so they're they're careful with that but your personal information does get added to this registry when you get vaccinated and then that data is matched to the names and date of birth of people who get tested and test positive or on death certificates for the fatalities. So that's kind of how the matching works. Now, it's not really clear, you know, how often people are actually going to go to get tested and then have that information be added to the system, the overall system and be reported in such a report like this. Because if you have a bad case of coronavirus and you go to CVS and you get a self-test kit

and you test it and you know you test positive for COVID and you're just going to stay there and isolate, if it's not a bad case, if you don't have to go get hospitalized for it, you're not necessarily going to go see a doctor and that's not going to get reported into this survey. So there's some limitations on the survey there. They also, the report itself does acknowledge several limitations that include potential lags in reporting, as well as variable linkage of case vaccination mortality data that might have resulted in misclassifications that could influence kind of the rate ratios that they use. And then another limitation that they note is that immunization data for COVID-19 are dependent on clinician report of status to the immunization

registry. So if a doctor fails to add the vaccination status to the registry, then they're just going to assume that that person is unvaccinated. So there's some assumptions being made there that could affect the report and the numbers there. Another thing to keep in mind is that this survey is very limited, again, just to cases and deaths. It doesn't touch on to other factors and things to be considered about when we're looking at the pandemic, such as the overall transmission of the virus. It doesn't examine if vaccines do anything to necessarily prevent the transmission. It's just the testing if you test positive. Another thing, it doesn't really examine this idea of waning vaccines, the waning efficiency of the vaccines that we've heard talked about, where vaccines might be efficient

when you first get them, but over a period of six months with a new variant and different factors like that, it starts to lose its efficiency over time. That's one of the reasons why you hear people talk about booster shots now to try and tackle that problem of waning. The report that was released doesn't really explore that too much, especially since it's limited in a very limited timeframe that it looks at. And then it also doesn't look at the different types of vaccines and the efficiency for that. The CDC data interestingly does, which I include some more details of that in my article if you want to look at that.

And then another thing to keep in mind is that it doesn't examine the likelihood of reinfection for people who are unvaccinated. So it doesn't compare people who are vaccinated to people who are unvaccinated but already had the virus and the rates there. It doesn't touch onto that as well. Which is more of an antibody question is kind of what we're getting at there. Okay. Well, Daniel, thank you for covering that for us and explaining that. We so appreciate your coverage. Hayden, let's talk about the border again. But let's get down to the border wall. Let's talk a little bit more about this. Talk to us specifically first about the history of the governor, the border wall, promises he's made, and where we're at with that project.

Well, the border wall was promised by Governor Abbott in June after the close of the regular session in the 87th legislature. And there was a lot of discussion about what might have contributed to the timing on that. The governor's race was heating up. We had two candidates at that point, Chad Prather and Don Huffines. And Huffines, of course, has made border security the forefront of his campaign. He has advocated a wall. He's advocated closing commerce to a degree between Mexico and Texas as a way to put pressure on leadership to get the border crisis under control. And of course, in fiscal year 2021, we saw a record number of apprehensions, not including those who escaped custody or evaded custody.

The border wall was part of Operation Lone Star or the Comprehensive Border Security Plan that Governor Abbott described. He set up a crowdsourcing campaign or a crowdfunding campaign. And it received the bulk of the donations, the vast majority of the donations came from a Wyoming billionaire, Timothy Mellon, who is the grandson of a treasury secretary that we had years ago. So, Governor Abbott promised this project and a project manager was selected in September. So, this project has been underway for only a couple of months and it is being overseen by the Texas Facilities Commission. Got it. Now, talk to us about the pictures released by the governor about border wall progress that sparked a lot of conversation. Well, it's probably fair to say that this could be described now as the border fence

project, because these pictures that the government posted do not depict what most people would probably picture when they think of a wall. This is barbed wire fencing. There were two images. One of them was just barbed wire fencing that looked like it was ready to be put into place. And then another image of a completed barbed wire fence with a convoy of front loaders. And it appears to be individuals in fatigue. And they're all wearing helmets. I don't know if they're doing construction or if they're just touring. They could be part of the Texas National Guard. It's unclear from the picture who these individuals are, but it does say, Governor Abbott did say that construction of strategic fencing continues along the Texas-Mexico border. Miles of razor

wire is being used to repel illegal immigrant crossings into our state. Progress is being made on our border wall. Texas is securing the border, end quote. That was the tweet that accompanied these two images. So it is very clear that the governor is showcasing this barbed wire fence as the result of the border wall project, which has received hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding, and only, I believe, $54 million in donations, including a $53 million donation from Mr. Mellon. So most of that came from Mr. Mellon. And then we had some from the general public and then hundreds of millions in taxpayer funding. That's the funding source for the border

fence project. Well, Hayden, thank you for that. And yes, I think a lot of folks were surprised to see those photos tweeted out by the governor. The border in and of itself is controversial. And a lot of folks care very deeply about how the wall is constructed, whether it's constructed. And so there were quite a few opinions flying around there when they saw barbed wire fence. Thank you, Hayden. Kim, we're going to talk to you about another North Texas school district. There were some threatening remarks made specifically at a Fort Worth ISD school board meeting, what was the context in which they were made? So Fort Worth ISD has been the center of some activists, as we've seen around the country, concerned about the use of critical race theory concepts within the school district.

And also Fort Worth has struggled to get its rankings up for passage of the standardized testing among its students. And so parents and residents have been attending school board meetings and speaking out about those issues. And this meeting on November 9th was no different. So during the public comment section, several parents had spoken and then another person got up and spoke briefly to the school board and then turned around and seemed to address the audience and criticize them for their criticism of critical race theory and then proceeded to say

something like, I have a thousand soldiers ready to go. And then when he was being escorted out of the room by the security, seemed to indicate that he would bring his sons back next time locked and loaded. And so remarks like those alarmed several of those in attendance. Given the situation and the recent news from the Department of Justice that they'd be investigating remarks that seem to be violent in nature, this raised alarm among some of those in attendance at the meeting. Yeah, certainly. And I think locked and loaded is a direct quote, right? That's specifically the words he used. Yes, that was on a, so he was away from the microphone when he said those. And so

that was caught by a cell phone by a member of the audience. Man, cell phones catch everything these days. It's both a blessing and a curse. But talk to us about how the school district has responded specifically in terms of the concerns raised by some of those parents in attendance at the meeting? Yeah, so I was able to speak to one woman in attendance who said that they have sought a response from the school district seeking better security. They are planning a protest December 14th continuing. They said they won't be intimidated by this until they get a response eliminating CRT and they continue to plan to protest. So they want heightened security at the next school board meeting, but they said they haven't gotten a response. I sought a response from the school board president, Toby Jackson, but didn't receive a reply.

I checked with the Fort Worth Police Department. They do not provide security at school board meetings. And they referred me to the city marshal's office. I checked with them. They provide off-duty officers that the school board can hire them as security, but they don't officially provide security. So right now, I don't know of any increased security being planned, but people are seeking it because these remarks certainly alarmed those who were in attendance. Kind of reminds me of the system that Texas has in place that allows churches to hire security, you know, out of their own pocket, often to police officers, whatever that might look like. It seems

like that's a similar case for these school board meetings is that it has to be sought out and hired by the board. Yes, at least in this situation. I don't know statewide whether some school districts may have their own security, but Fort Worth ISD does not seem to have their own.

They hire off-duty officers to do it. Got it. Well, Kim, thank you for following that for us. We'll continue to keep an eye on that. Holly, we're going to come to you. More Harris County drama. We have some grand jury subpoenas here. Walk us through, you know, who do we think has been issued a subpoena? What's the deal with this entire story?

Sure. So the backstory we've written about quite a bit at the Texan. In fact, I think we were one of the first to bring this issue to light. But there was a contract that was awarded to a Democrat strategist for, quote, vaccine outreach in the community. And at initial approval, there wasn't much information provided in the process as early as January of last year, where some of the standards for hiring a vendor were altered, possibly to favor this vendor. We don't know. Also, we discovered that UT Health Science Center had scored more highly on the bidding scoring sheets, but they had been disqualified by a staffer from Lena Hidalgo's office, County Judge Lena Hidalgo. So, you know, there was a lot of political pressure, a lot of political outcry from both

sides of the aisle here in Harris County. And finally, the court voted unanimously to cancel the contract. But that was not the end of the story. Now, no one is able to confirm or deny these things, but it's pretty well known that the Harris County District Attorney did assemble a grand jury. Subpoenas have gone out. I'm not sure exactly when they went out. Again, the commissioners and those who are supposedly subpoenaed have not been able to comment on it, but from what I know, at least one commissioner received a subpoena last Friday. Interestingly enough, it seems that not only have commissioners been issued a subpoena and the county judge, but possibly some other individuals who work for the county. Also, some of the communications that have gone between the county, the purchasing agent and the other entities that bid on the project.

And, you know, a grand jury is just looking into an issue. This is not an indictment, but they are probing the situation, looking at these communications and trying to determine if laws were actually broken. And at some point, there may be some indictments. Looking at Texas law, there's a wide variety of areas under which an indictment could occur. There's, you know, bid rigging, as we commonly call it, which is really a misdemeanor, actually. But there's also some possible felony charges that could come that stem from abuse of office or abuse of power. And of course, as is the case with any grand jury, you could have a no bill where there's no indictment at all. But it is very interesting. And there was a parallel case in Houston. So Houston also had to cancel a contract

for low income housing that may also have been, I don't know, finagled with behind the scenes prior to the award being given to someone who is closely associated with Mayor Sylvester Turner. Well, Holly, thank you for following that. Well, yeah, I think that is fascinating for so many reasons. And the outcry from the public, I think, has been largely bipartisan. And there are just a lot of questions that I think a lot of citizens in Harris County want answers to. So thank you for following that for us. Kim, we're going to come back to you. Panther Island, speaking of taxpayer boondoggles, let's talk about Panther Island. Let's get down to business. But there have been additional land purchases that have come to light.

We've already had land purchase for this project and there are additional ones even after. I mean, there's a lot to get into here, but even before federal funding is officially approved. So walk us through a little bit about what raised our red flag about these purchases and where we're at with the project. Well, as you just mentioned about Houston and Harris County and bipartisan criticism, Panther Island has been under criticism by multiple citizens. And there's recently been a water district accountability project established that is looking into the Tarrant Regional Water District and their transparency. And they've been regularly attending board meetings. And at this week's board meeting, the board approved a $3 million purchase for several parcels of land, four parcels near what will become a drainage channel as part of the Panther Island project. Panther Island is also

Central City flood control, but locals just tend to refer to it as Panther Island. So the Tarrant Appraisal District website shows the parcels of land appraised somewhere around $600,000. And yet the Water District is under contract, well, approved a contract to pay $3 million for them. And so that raised some red flags. The Water District did say that they had a state licensed appraiser, real estate appraiser. And we do know that there sometimes can be differences between what the appraisal district has as their value versus what the market might sustain. So we can take that into account. But it is almost five times or around five times the amount that the appraisal district has on these properties. Also, lending to the criticism is that the Water District has already bought $93 million in parcels for this project.

And one of the issues with that is that they're sitting there with dozens of parcels of land around the downtown Fort Worth area, not paying into the taxing entities that would normally get because the Tarrant Regional Water District is an exempt organization as a governmental organization, so it doesn't pay property taxes. And in addition, no one knows when there's going to be more federal money. See, the Tarrant Regional Water District is a local partner in the Panther Island Project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is a federal partner who's supposed to dig the drainage channel and continue with the construction of the flood control part. And no one knows when any funding is coming to complete that part. So they're holding this land,

some of it for well over a decade, and we don't know when there's going to be any more money coming. Now, you kind of alluded to this, but talk to us a little bit about where we're exactly we're at with the project and what next steps might look like. Well, in July, when one of the bridges was opened, I believe the North Main Bridge that was built by the Texas Department of Transportation, Congresswoman Kay Granger from the Fort Worth area announced that she expects to see some federal funding in 2022. However, it doesn't look like there was any in the recent infrastructure bill.

And so I don't know she said that, but we haven't seen any evidence of it coming. And so I don't know what the next steps are. There needs to be money before any next steps can happen and there hasn't been money in over three years. Got it. So we'll see. The jury's still out.

Yes. Okay. Well, Kim, thank you for that. I know transparency on this project has been something a lot of taxpayers are hungry for. So thanks for providing some. Hayden, we're going to come to you on a piece that you and Isaiah reported on this last week, specifically about the State Board of

Education and some new curriculum that they're debating about whether to implement or add to their arsenal. Talk to us about what instructional materials the board was considering and what the objections were. Well, as you mentioned, Isaiah is the one, the point person on these topics, and we did work together on this. He provided some excellent background information, and I was able to follow up on our piece regarding the outcome of the State Board of Education's decision. They considered four motions regarding the curricula that would be on the approved list for the 2022-2023 academic year. They included textbooks that had content that is, and the word controversial feels a little bit too light to describe the beliefs around this topic. There is information in there about gender identity being distinguished from physical sex. There are materials about LGBT issues and abortion in these curricula.

And there were several hours of testimony. One of the, well, and we'll get to the testimony in a second, but the four motions, of the four motions, only one of them passed. And the one that passed was to approve a textbook by Quaver Education entitled Quaver Health, which covered 100% of what is called the TEKS criteria or the TEKS curricula standards, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. This curriculum was to be health education. However, what came forward in this meeting is that much of it is sexual education, which Texas is an opt-in state for sexual education, as was noted by a board member. And they ultimately only adopted the Quaver Health text. There were a few other texts that they did not adopt. One was Live Well Middle School Health by Human Kinetics. That was the publisher. And then another textbook entitled Lesson B Adaptive Online Health Education. And then there was another one, I believe by Goodwill. There was a fourth publisher that was also rejected.

So that's the outline of the curriculum, the curricula that was considered. Talk to us about the outcome of the actual votes the curricula that was considered. Talk to us about the outcome of the actual votes themselves and answer questions about how permanent they are. I think that's a question I've gotten a few emails about, and I know a lot of folks are confused as to what this actually means going forward. Well, it's important to remember that these decisions were made while the Board of Education was in a, as sitting as a committee of the whole, which in a parliamentary sense means that their decisions are less permanent. They were not acting in the capacity of the State Board of Education. They were considering it more informally as a committee as opposed to as the full board. And of course,

all the membership of the board was there, but that is the nature of them considering it as a committee of the whole. So, some of the testimony that led up to the decision, notably Texas Values, which advocates religious liberty and socially conservative values, presented that the TEKS, as agreed upon in prior years of the Board of Education, specifies that it's supposed to be focused on health education. And this was more along the lines of sex education. Mary Elizabeth Castle, who's the senior policy advisor for Texas Values, summarized their organization's views as well as the views of many, many Texas parents. Quote, just to quickly go over their problems, they encourage sexual activity at a young age. They mentioned consent when we agreed on refusal skills on the TEEX. And then they have the topic of gender identity and sexual orientation that was not agreed on by the board and thousands of

parents who testified, end quote. So, that was one perspective that was presented. And then there were other perspectives that were presented along the lines of young children need more information to avoid unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. But it's important to note that the curricula that they were considering was for kindergarten through eighth grade. So, we're not even talking about high school, we're talking about middle school and younger. Those were the decisions that were made. In terms of their impact, as I understand it, school districts have the ability to select their own textbooks. And there was some concern about school districts being left empty-handed in terms of health education texts. But of course, the local school districts do have authority over the curriculum they use. As I understand,

school districts, they have to keep the state board in the loop as Governor Abbott has called on the Texas Education Agency to also investigate the possibility of obscene materials in textbooks. so-called abstinence plus style of sexual education, though it is informed by sexual health doctors and medical professionals who believe that this is something that needs to be addressed. There are concerns that when the curriculum is focused on that, that it could encroach on parental rights and introduce minors to explicit concepts too early. So that was the outcome of the state board of education vote as they were sitting as a committee of the whole. Most of the curriculum was downvoted and only one publisher was placed on the approved list for the 2022-2023 academic year. Well Hayden, thank you and Isaiah for making sure our readers are informed about that

issue. And we'll continue to watch developments on that subject. Okay, folks, let's get to a fun topic. We are right around the corner from Thanksgiving, which is very exciting. It's going to be awesome to spend time with family and eat really yummy food. Let's talk about some traditions that we have in our families or just have accumulated throughout the years. So, Kim, I know Kim is raring to go on this topic. So, Kim, talk to us about Thanksgiving traditions that you all hold dear. Well, our listeners may not know, but I am a very big Dallas Cowboys fan. And I can't remember a Thanksgiving when I wasn't watching the football game.

But this year we are possibly establishing a new tradition. We are going live to the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving. So fun. Who are they playing on Thanksgiving? The Raiders. Should be a win. Anyway, it's a good year to go because they're actually decent this year. I've watched many years when they were not.

So that is one. And then my second I wanted to share for your benefit, Mackenzie, is the day after Thanksgiving, we get out our Christmas decorations because that's the appropriate time. And we play Christmas music and we put up the lights and the Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving. I think that's our family tradition too. Even though I miss Christmas all the time, that's not true. I like it when we get closer too. But I think that's our family tradition as well is immediately on Black Friday, we pull out all the Christmas decorations and get

it going. It's a great time. Well, I love that. Holly, what about you? Oh, you know what? One of our favorite things to do on Thanksgiving is just eat a lot. And I'm you know, I know the great pie wars will begin soon, but I love a really good pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream. But it's got to be a good one. Not one of those, you know, grocery store, super sugary pumpkin pies with no spices. Oh, I love that. I had a Friendsgiving last night. My church small group got together and we basically just brought a bunch of homemade delights. And I made for the first time a pumpkin cheesecake, but it was like a Basque cheesecake, so it was not very sweet. It was, I mean, obviously still was dessert, but it was not overly sweet like a lot of cheesecake is. And it actually turned out quite well, Holly. I think you would have, if that's your criteria for a good pumpkin dessert,

I think you would have liked it. Give me that recipe. I'm all over it. I will. It was really easy too. It was, it was, it made, it made you look like you knew what you were doing, but it was not very hard to do. And I just want to second Kim that it is appropriate to put up your Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving, not before.

This is really important. Thank you, Holly. I appreciate it. You're welcome. I think it's acceptable, but not ideal. To have it up prior to Thanksgiving? No, after Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving. I think ideally you should wait until December.

Wow. I agree. I usually wait until Advent, but since my baby is coming home from college and will be returning to college before Advent, then, you know, we're going to do it. I think that's why many families do have the tradition. Like even my family does have the tradition of oftentimes doing it on Black Friday just because that's when people have the day off. Yeah. People don't have. And family home, right? I mean, not everyone can be home between Thanksgiving and Christmas if they live further away from their families.

So logistically, it often just makes the most sense. Exactly. I will say I do have my Christmas tree. My roommate surprised me and got a little Christmas tree for our house and it's already up. I knew it. It's already up. Hence why I addressed Mackenzie. Called out. I like it. Boys, Haydenden do you have any fun thanksgiving traditions well i don't know if it's so much of a thanksgiving tradition as it is a black friday tradition oh fun for some reason uh certain members of my family are possessed to fight the black friday crowds and charge into Walmart or Target or wherever.

No, we don't actually care whether we buy anything. It's just fun to go out there and see what kind of deals you can get and then duck and run if anyone decides to lose their mind and tackle a grandma for a flat screen TV or something crazy like that. But I know we've gone Christmas shopping on Black Friday before. Not everyone likes it, enjoys that. Some prefer to just kind of relax after Thanksgiving and enjoy the company, the extended family. but usually at least three or four people get excited about Black Friday. And I know used to, you had to get up at the crack of dawn on Black Friday, but now they've moved it forward to Thanksgiving evening. So people are literally doing the dishes after Thanksgiving dinner and doors are already opening at retail locations all over the place for Black

Friday. So we were mad. we were pretty sore about that. They kind of ruined Black Friday by doing that. It seemed like last year, fewer of them did that. I don't know if that was because it was COVID or if they're getting away from it, but maybe they are. Maybe they'll stay closed on Thanksgiving. I hope they do. I kind of like the barrier between Thanksgiving celebrations and Black Friday craziness.

I feel like those two don't need to overlap. Keep it a little sacred. Keep the time with family a little more sacred. So we need to all get our Christmas list to Hayden right away so that he'll be ready. Yes. If you could send that to me and, you know, that way I can use my millions of dollars and buy everybody Christmas presents. We'll go to Brad because he has that parking garage business that we'll have.

We already established last week that I'm a billionaire after my rescuing the what was it? Did I say it was the Zimbabwe King or something? I don't know. I can't remember what I said. Yeah, the Prince of Zimbabwe or something. Yeah, something like that. My email scam. So I'm already rich. I can buy all

of your Christmas presents for the year. But Daniel has all the penny stock money. That's true. Yeah, well, I'm still waiting on it. They say it's going to happen soon. It's going to go up, but I'm still waiting on it. So maybe Hayden this year and Daniel next year. Maybe we give Hayden

our list this year and next year we'll make Daniel foot the bill. Sounds good. Perfect. Hayden, our family's not big on Black Friday. We went once late at night and we thought it would be so fun. And we just went to the Target downtown in our little town that we grew up in. And we decided it'd be fun to dress up in weird clothes. So I wore a big red sock monkey pajama onesie

and walked around Target. And that's the extent of my Black Friday explorations. That's about all I know. Somewhere there is a picture of you in this. I will gladly show it. Yeah, I'll gladly show y'all. I'll try and find it but that is uh yeah that's the extent of my of my time with my black friday explorations i'll find

i'll find the picture and i'll show it to y'all while we're recording here daniel what about you thanksgiving traditions this year i think my family is going to be tossing tradition out the window because we're not going to do turkey wow barbecue fun so what kind of like brisket okay yeah brisket and ribs and i think we still might have like a turkey leg or two so there's going to be a little bit i guess we're not like completely getting rid of it but the main dish is going to be some some brisket so okay um i endorse this i really don't like turkey it's a little overrated i get that i guess the the nice thing about turkey growing up was always like you'd have turkey for thanksgiving but then you would have lots of leftover turkey that you can use in casseroles and you know whatever for the next

two months it's a long time that's for certain do you all uh subscribe to the idea that thanksgiving leftovers are better than actually on thanksgiving no yeah i don't either i think i get tired of it after a couple days which i hate to say because i love the food but it is so much better the day of than it is with leftovers except for the pie except for the pumpkin pie oh a pumpkin pie wait so you like your pumpkin pie not just the day of not fresh out of the oven i like pumpkin pie yes yes for yes it doesn't last very long around my house but but you'll have it i'll have it for breakfast there's my little sock monkey onesie i don't know if you can see the feet here there's little sock monkeys on the feet were there people staring at you when you yeah okay

i still have a beef with my sister because she wore like a black track suit which is not that eye-catching whatsoever like it's just sweatpants and she was like oh my gosh everyone's looking at me and i was like no they're looking at your like six foot tall sister in a red sock monkey onesie that's quite the contrast i was like they're not looking i promise they don't think you're dressed weirdly it was definitely your skyscraper of a sibling in an all red onesie. I'm trying to think of Thanksgiving traditions. When we just cook, we each have a dish we cook each year, someone in our family. So I'll make the sweet potatoes. That's usually the dish I make. My sister makes the stuffing. My dad does the turkey.

Sometimes we do turkey and ham. But I think the turkey for my dad is like a task to try and make better each time. So it's a challenge for him. He tries to make it better each year because it's not easy to cook a good turkey. It's really not. He's tried all sorts of different methods and it's been fun. We love that. We usually watch a Christmas movie the night of Thanksgiving to kind of usher in the season. So sometimes it's Elf. Sometimes it's just something like lighthearted that we watch every year and check the box. Sometimes it's something a little more like it's a wonderful life or something like that, a little more classic.

But Kim's making faces at these Christmas movies. I really don't like Christmas movies. But your comments raise another question that I'd like to ask. Do people call it stuffing or dressing? Because I call it dressing. What about y'all? I mean, I say stuffing.

I think that might be a, I grew up in Washington. So maybe that's a Northern, a Northern part of the States kind of thing. I want to say that I say stuffing, but I think i use it pretty interchangeably likewise i think my my new orleans grandmother called it dressing okay hayden i also call it stuffing i i don't recall ever calling it dressing so

what wait kim what did you say you call it? Dressing. You call it dressing? Yes. I mean, I've heard that it's also called that. Say that again? I said I am a Texan. She's saying she's a Texan.

Maybe we should put out a Twitter poll and see what most folks who grew up in Texas call it and find out what folks say. Kim, real fast before we head out, I do want to mention one thing that you said. Do you just not like Christmas movies period at any point during the year, even, even in the throes of the Christmas season? I think we had this discussion last year and. Am I just forgetting it? Oh my goodness. There are very few.

If I cannot presently think of any christmas movies i really like i will tolerate them but i do not really i feel like it's a wonderful life no okay i feel like it's a wonderful life would be up your alley but no no okay well no sad no and certainly not elf sorry oh okay That's fair. I understand Elf is not everyone's cup of tea. It is certainly my cup of tea, but I understand how it's not everyone's, especially in the Christmas time when there are so many classics to watch. White Christmas, like these classics, those aren't your favorites? You don't like that, Kim?

Oh, Mackenzie, no. No, I'm trying to find some sort of exception to the rule. I love to listen to A Christmas Carol on CD. Focus on the Family has a beautiful production of A Christmas Carol. Oh, that's awesome. I love watching productions of A Christmas Carol at Christmas time. I think that's so fun. Daniel put a graphic in our in our channel here it looks like there are a few states that call it dressing um but that stuffing kind of is widely considered the right term for most of the

folks in the states even in texas is what it's saying daniel did you examine the the sample size and i did a google search and then i had to i had to add the word map to it because i just put dressing versus stuffing and i just came up with pictures of dressing and stuffing um but then the that was like the first map that came up that i saw according to my grandmother's statement correctly, it looks like the South says dressing. Interesting. And my grandmother, I have her handwritten recipe card for dressing with oysters in it. Oh, yes.

I know that is quite a classic for some folks. I've never had it, but I know. I think my grandparents ate it too. Yes, it does. Oysters are very much an acquired taste. Very acquired. Well, folks, this has been so fun. Holly and Kim, it's always just such a fun time when we can have you on the podcast with us.

Thank you for making time today to join us. We so appreciate your time. It's great to be here. Thanks for having us. Well, folks, happy Thanksgiving team. Happy Thanksgiving. And we will catch you next week. Thank you all so much for listening. If you've been enjoying our podcast, it would be awesome if you would review us on iTunes. And if there's a guest you'd love to hear on our show, give us a shout on Twitter. Tweet at The Texan News.

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