Driving the news this week was the release of President Biden's FY2024 budget. The presidential budget demonstrates the priorities that the administration deems most important to the country. In fact, President Biden himself has often quipped: “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”
Governor Greg Abbott today debuted the Laredo Police Department’s (LPD) new Texas Anti-Gang (TAG) Center during a ribbon cutting ceremony in Laredo. As the ninth of its kind in Texas, the Laredo TAG Center will collaborate with other law enforcement agencies on the investigation and arrest of criminal gangs, organized crime such as Mexican drug cartels, and violent crime in the Laredo area.
The new rule drastically shortens the timeline for states to develop and submit their plans. This attempt to rush states could leave them exposed if the EPA decides to disapprove of the plans. The EPA’s disapproval would enable the federal government to seize further regulatory power and impose a burdensome and unnecessary federal plan on states.
The primary concern of the people who ran the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) -- the bank that just went bust -- was not banking. Nor was it making money for the bank's shareholders or safeguarding the funds of its depositors. Their primary concern was social activism -- LGBTQIA+, DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), and climate change.
“Senate Finance Committee Chair Joan Huffman filed SB 10 to help our Texas Senior Retired Educator, and create a Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for retired educators as of December 2021. Since the end of last session, as I traveled the state and retired educators thanked the Legislature for those checks – but also asked for a COLA, I told them, whatever you think is best, we'll do this session," said Patrick.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Texas National Guard are continuing to work toward securing the border in the absense of any Biden White House effort, and the struggle to stop the smuggling of drugs, weapons and people into Texas – as well as prevent, detect, and interdict Transnational Criminal behavior between ports of entry.
“When you think of hot-button public policy issues, what usually comes to mind are things like Property Taxes, School Finance & Pension Reform. However, the issue of Daylight Saving Time's roused passions on both sides,” said Senator Paul Bettencourt as he filed his two bills to let Texans vote on keeping Daylight Saving Time. If passed, the bill would require a vote on the November 7th, 2023 General Election..
"At a time when colleges and universities have unprecedented endowments, bloated admin costs, and ballooning tuition, it's time for lawmakers to reevaluate lifetime employment at taxpayer expense," said State Sen. Brandon Creighton, Chair of both the Senate Education Committee and the Higher Education Subcommittee, as he announced legislation to ensure Texas campuses are open to intellectual discourse.
The Republican race is not the only game in town. There is a lot of action in 2024 besides Trump, DeSantis, and the Asterisks. The Dems have their own nomination race, and there are a bunch of Senate showdowns.
“Today the Texas Senate announced a bold agenda to fix the Texas Power Grid once and for all," said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. "Since Winter Storm Uri, I've been abundantly clear – we need to bring new dispatchable generation (primarily new natural gas plants) online as soon as possible to make sure Texans have reliable power under any circumstance. That's why I named Sen. Schwertner's SB 6 & 7 as two of my Top 10 Priorities."
"Yesterday, another Federal Court announced what Texans & Americans have known all along: President Biden's open border policies are – in the words of Judge Wetherell – 'akin to posting a flashing Come In We’re Open sign on the Southern Border,'" said Gov. Greg Abbott, responding to a U.S. Federal Judge's ruling that the Biden White House has been violating Federal Law by releasing illegal immigrants en masse at our Southern Border.
The legislation mandated an end to a longstanding military service academy rule that forced pregnant female students to permanently withdraw from the academies, give up legal custody of their children, or abort the child, and forced male students that fathered a child to choose between giving up legal custody or withdrawing.
Texas added 48,600 positions in January 2023, reaching 13,782,300 total nonfarm jobs. This marks the 16th consecutive record employment high based on a revision to the December 2022 report. Since January 2022, 654,100 jobs have been added in Texas, marking an annual growth rate of 5.0 percent.
What's common to the pandemic of smash-&-grab, carjacking, fighting on airliners while in flight, and deadly Saturday night shoot-outs, is that there's an apparent assurance for law-breakers that there'll be no consequences for their actions. And why wouldn't thugs and law-breakers believe this – after 120 days of rioting, looting, arson & assault in the summer of 2020's "mostly peaceful protests" there were few Antifa indictments, fewer convictions, and almost no imprisonments?
"With over 820 miles of the Southern Border located in my district, this is the epicenter of the Border Crisis,” said Texas Cong. Tony Gonzales. “Through meetings with Local Law Enforcement, Border Patrol Agents and landowners, we were able to see yet again the challenges & frustrations Americans face every day," said Gonzales while leading a group of his fellow Congressmen through Eagle Pass & Uvalde, Texas.
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced today he will be sending Cities, Counties, Transit Systems & Special Purpose Taxing Districts across Texas $1 billion in Local Sales Tax Allocations for March – which is up 9.9% when compared to March 2022. These "allocations" are based on sales made during the month of January 2023, and are often seen as an indication of the direction of present, and/or future economic trends.
After having previously sent letters to CVS and Walgreens warning them that both Federal Law and several States’ Laws expressly ban using the mail to distribute dangerous abortion-inducing drugs, Texas Attorney General Ken and some 20 other states have joined together to notify Albertsons, Costco, Kroger & Walmart that shipping abortion pills in the mail is illegal. You can read their letters to each company in this article.
About the "much criticized" Rasmussen Poll that's been in the news as the woke-leftist media killed the Dilbert Cartoon – it asked American Adults: "Do you agree or disagree with this statement: 'It is OK to be white.'" In response, 53% of Black American adults strongly or somewhat agreed, 26% strongly or somewhat disagreed, and 21% said they were "not sure." The white male creator of the popular "Dilbert" comic strip thought that was concerning.
