Lena Hidalgo’s Rodeo Stunt Sets Off A New Political Reckoning

A Houston Rodeo scuffle turns into a real test of political leadership. We walk through the chain of events that led to County Judge Lina Hidalgo being escorted out of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the accusations that followed, and why some Harris County officials are now openly talking about resignation and reduced duties. If you care about local government accountability, crisis leadership, and how public narratives get manufactured, this conversation puts the spotlight where it belongs. 

We also pivot to something a lot of families have been asking for: a clearer Houston Rodeo dress code. From “shirts and shoes required” to limits on overly revealing outfits and offensive graphics, we talk about what changed, why it changed, and the only question that really matters long-term: will it be enforced next year and the year after that? Along the way, we connect the dots between unenforced rules at big public events and the broader feeling that standards are slipping everywhere. 

Then we hit the hard stories: a West Texas alien smuggling case involving a seven-time deportee, new safety measures in Klein ISD after multiple incidents in one week, and a look at Harris County courts reporting a sharp drop in pending felony cases. We’re joined by Michael Quinn Sullivan from Texas Scorecard to discuss Texas school choice lawsuits involving Islamic schools and the eyebrow-raising rise of superintendent salaries across Texas. We close with a developing report on an Afghan immigrant who died after entering ICE custody and how fast politics rushes in before the facts do. 

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Transcript

Welcome And How To Text In

SPEAKER_08 0:03

From D in the heart of Texas, it's Houston's gun loving Patriot, and the voice of reason. This is the Lonestar Conservative Michael Wilson.

SPEAKER_15 0:30

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative brought to you by Texellent AC Service. And what a good Wednesday morning it is, if not a little bit cool. The day will be an absolutely gorgeous day. I don't want to say perfect, because the thing about perfection is that you're kind of always chasing after it. I don't know that there actually is perfect weather. But if there were, today would certainly be very close. We're going to have highs in the mid-70s today. And we'll talk more about the weather as we get closer to the end here of the first hour. I just wanted to bring up that today is going to be a gorgeous day. It's a great day to be tuned in here because we have a lot of a lot of stories that came out yesterday and this morning that we're going to cover here on the show over the next two hours. If at any point during those two hours you have some sort of a disagreement, a story that you saw that I didn't get to, that I didn't cover, that you want to hear me cover, or you have a question about literally anything, feel free to text in. The number is 713-779-5978. One more time. That is 713-779KYST. Those text lines stay open through the entirety of the show, and that number never changes. So if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, disagreements, encouragements, just text in at that number and let us know here at Patriot Talk 920. With that being said, I mentioned that we have a lot of stories to get into. That also means that without further ado, we're going to start it off.

Lena Hidalgo Rodeo Confrontation Fallout

SPEAKER_15 2:06

Specifically, you guys might remember the series of events beginning with Lena Hidalgo's. It really actually did not begin with Lena Hidalgo at the rodeo. It actually apparently, as we found out last week, began before that when Lena Hidalgo's staff was communicating with rodeo executives when they were told that the Meghan Moroni concert was sold out and they would not be getting shoot tickets for Lena. So that's where the story really started. And then despite knowing that she couldn't be down there, despite being explicitly informed they were sold out and she would not be allowed to be in that area, she went down there to intentionally cause drama. I mean, there's no other way to look at it. And so she goes down there. Of course, drama. That's what happens. Um, it results in sort of this situation where at the end of the day she ends up being escorted out of the rodeo entirely. And of course, that resulted in accusations of manhandling. It resulted in accusations of racial bias and sexist bias. That the reason that she was treated the way she was treated was not because, you know, she broke the rules, was not because the rodeo executives had literally already told her that she couldn't be there and now had to enforce that rule. It wasn't because she stirred up drama. No, no, no. It was because she wasn't a white male. Had she been a white male, it would have gone entirely different. All of a sudden, if she'd been a white male, they just wouldn't have been sold out magically somehow. Nevertheless, that's kind of what we know happened last week. And then, of course, it resulted in her doing this press conference where, you know, she went back to the rodeo to do a press conference and she ended up being escorted out a second time because they did not want her there anymore. Uh her ex-officio director title was, of course, stripped away from her as well. Shocking there, the rodeo didn't really want to associate themselves with her. And then, of course, as a result of that, you also had Paul Bettencourt, Senator Paul Betancourt, who came out and uh essentially said, you know, I think it might be a wise idea if you resign. And he and he made it clear this is not just because of what happened at the rodeo, by the way. There is a this is a culmination of things. The rodeo is a good example of the sort of person that you are, of the sort of drama that you stir up, of the sort of lack of leadership. I mean, he directly compared this, of course, with the opp being with in the Office of Emergency Management. And how, if you're the county judge, you have a lot of authority, a lot of power, and a lot of responsibility should there be an emergency, you know, over the rest of the over the rest of 2026. Should God forbid there be a hurricane or some sort of storm that does that has devastating consequences, Lena Hidalgo is responsible for largely making sure that we respond well to that and that people are taken care of. And I think Paul Beding's point has been, you know, the kind of person that knows in advance they're not supposed to be somewhere, goes in anyway, with the sole purpose of stirring up drama, does that, stirs up drama, and then takes the focus off of that, acts erratically, throws in racism and sexism as being issues that were not true, is not the sort of person you generally want leading your county, especially in a time of, you know, devastating consequences, especially in a time where you're dealing with these sorts of emergencies. I think it's a fair thing to say. And so now it turns out uh that commissioners are going to discuss calling for Lena Hidalgo's resignation over this rodeo situation. Uh Tom Ramsey said that he plans to discuss moving forward with or without County Judge Lena Hidalgo uh during tomorrow's meeting of Commissioner's Court. The first, since of course Hidalgo was kicked out of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo last week. The incident last Tuesday triggered when Hidalgo and several guests tried to access that premium seating area, for which they did not have tickets, for which she had tickets a ton of other times, up to $9,000, if you if you guys remember. They just didn't have it this time. Uh it also turns out uh that Hidalgo departed for a European trade mission on Sunday and is not gonna be it, she's not gonna be present for the meeting. Um I think I think she plans to be there virtually, I believe, uh, but she's certainly not gonna be there, uh be there physically. So we'll see if she shows up even through some sort of Zoom thing. She may not. I don't think it would surprise anyone if she just does not show up. I mean, there's been plenty of times that she's just not shown up or left in the middle. And so we'll see. Come tomorrow if she's present, at least in a virtual sense. Uh, but nevertheless, you guys probably remember that all of this has not been new to Commissioner's Court. If you've been paying attention to Lena Hidalgo's outbursts, you might remember times where she's gotten into it with multiple different commissioners. Times where she's stormed out of Commissioner's Court and even done so dramatically on purpose, right? In the sense that we talked about this before as well, but you see her storming out, saying, Shame on you, shame on all of you, shaking her finger at people, and then she leaves and then immediately texts because we got the text messages, she immediately texts her friend, Oh, yeah, I'm gonna make it to the concert in time to get merch, don't worry. Like this this is the sort of thing where you can you can uh obviously see the performative nature of Lena Hidalgo. And you know, sometimes it makes sense, right? Sometimes you understand. And yeah, I mean it's still evil, still gross, it's still obviously performative. But I mean, at least when your goal is to pass childhood, you know, care credits and your goal ultimately is some sort of you getting to do something, you get it. I don't know what the goal was with continuing the argument at the rodeo. Nevertheless, this is where we are. Now, Tom Ramsey, uh of course, on Commissioner's Court, has labeled it all goes conduct as selfish and self-centered and vowed to discuss the topic at tomorrow's meeting in an appearance on The Amigos, a weekly radio show hosted by Paul Betancourt. Ramsey said if she had any ounce of integrity, she would resign on Thursday. There will be that conversation. And frankly, if she doesn't, I'm gonna be looking at ways where we'll just ignore anything she does in the court. I have no respect for her at this point. She doesn't need to be involved in the budget, she doesn't need to be involved in any decisions going forward. Now, it is not specifically on the agenda tomorrow, um, you know, some sort of item calling for Hidalgo's resignation or or even a reduction in her duties, uh, for instance. But Ramsey said on the radio show that he planned to bring it up as part of a resolution honoring the Houston Rodeo. Betancourt also said that that, of course, Hidalgo's increasingly bizarre behavior made him concerned about the entirety of the office. Uh he said there's just so many problems. She's acting members of both political parties. She's not showing up to Commissioner's Court. She took time off to go check in for some sort of mental health situation. But through all of this, I have never said that she needs to resign until now. Because at some point, you kind of wake up and you realize, you know, this is just a theory, but maybe she's not gonna get better. You know, maybe, and this again is just a hypothetical, this is a hypothesis. We'll test it out. Maybe all of that drama causing, stirring up, inability to behave in any sort of a mature fashion, maybe all of that is just part of who she desires to be. And so it's not really gonna change. It's not gonna go any better. She's not gonna end up randomly one day just, you know what? I think I'm good with the drama. Especially not anytime soon, as far as it appears. Now, of course, God can work in anyone, and we pray that he does. But as far as we can tell, this sort of drama-causing inability to actually do the job that she's being paid by the taxpayers to do, was elected by the taxpayers to do, uh, I think is worthy of discussing her maybe stepping down. I think is worthy of maybe discussing, you know, her at least getting a reduction in the things that she actually has to do, or actually has the authority to do. And I know that Senator Paul Batengore has been quite kind in the fact that he has not called her for her resignation until this moment. I've not been so nice as I've said multiple times, Lena Velgo should have resigned a long time ago. She should never have been elected in the first place, to be quite honest with you. I mean, I'm not I'm not sure if you understand this. It would have been better had she never been elected. And the day that she was put into the position after the first election was the day she should have resigned and never come back. I think everyone, basically everyone would have been happier with that. I think that would have worked out much better for Aris County. I think that would have worked much better because you have to remember, right, this doesn't just impact the county level, because of course that's very important, it's very large, but be aware, you guys probably also remember that her ongoing sort of feud with Mayor Whitmire, again, causing drama where they can't get along, has resulted in a sort of rift between the city of Houston and Harris County, which should work great together. Considering they're they they could be, you know, both half the same entity. They could they could work on a lot of things together and reach a lot of a lot of faster conclusions, and instead it's resulted in, again, that sort of rift between the county and between the city. Because she seems totally incapable of just being a normal human being. And so be aware, Hidalgo's also missed, I think, more votes than any other member of Commissioner's Court since January of last year. Um I will say the last we we don't know how this would go if Ramsey brought it up. If he said, hey, let's let's call for her resignation. I don't even know if you can fire her through Commissioner's Court. Whatever that process looks like, we don't know exactly how the other commissioners would vote. Because of course you had Democrats on Commissioner's Court. I will say, however, uh that if you look, for example, at Leslie Brianis and Adrian Garcia, both of them did vote to censure Lena Hidalgo the last time anything like this came up. Uh, you know, that was after, of course, the whole kids' field trip to bully commissioners thing that they said was totally inappropriate. And so the Democrats did actually vote uh to censure Lena Hidalgo, which was which is more of a formal thing than anything else. Uh, but it maybe it at least does highlight that they're willing to do so. Maybe it's at least a nudge in the right direction that maybe they'll agree that Lena Hidalgo's time is up, she's done enough. I I think it's totally fair that we kind of move on and you can you can go work somewhere else. To get a text in, by the way, it says, I like how the rodeo was like bye, Lena, and while we're at it, no more public butts. We have a dress code now, we'll kick all the problems. Which, by the way, you're spoiling the show. Okay. That was what we were gonna talk about in the next segment was the updated dress code from the rodeo. So thanks so much for spoiling it. I guess I guess that's a little bit of a wave for me to see that I was coming up on the end of the break coming up on the end of the first segment and needed to go to the break. That was a that was a little nudge, I guess, for me. Uh, for me to put on the music, say we're going to the break, we'll be right back. And we will, we will be right back with an update to the Houston rodeo dress code, because it actually did get updated. I know they talked about this for a long time. There's always been these conversations. Oh, we're gonna put a dress code in one day. We're gonna have to. Well, now they finally have, and uh, it's pretty good, actually. It's a pretty good updated dress code, especially compared to what they had before. We'll talk all about it when we get back. As I said earlier, if you leave a text in, let us know your thoughts on any of this. The number does not change. It is 713-779-5978. One more time. That is 713-779-KYST. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. Don't go anywhere. Because, like I said, we'll be right back with the update address code from the rodeo after the break.

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Houston Rodeo Adds A Dress Code

SPEAKER_15 19:50

So here in the final week of Houston's Livestock Show and Rodeo, officials say they are finally making adjustments to the event's dress code policy. Now, several posts circulating online over the weekend showed people wearing revealing outfits, with some users criticizing the clothing choices and arguing the rodeo is supposed to be a family-friendly event where attendees suggest more appropriately. And of course, uh there's lines for everything. I get it. You're like, ah, what about what about the short shorts? What about this top where you have the old uh 70s-style top? Like what where's the line? And I get it. That's a hard line to draw for a lot of people on modesty and appearance and what's appropriate for especially bringing your kids. That's a tough conversation. Uh but I think there obviously is stuff that we can certainly draw the line before. I get that there are some things that are a little harder to determine that require a little more debate, that require a little more conversation as to what's appropriate. There's other things that don't or shouldn't require much debate at all. For instance, uh there was there was a post about a woman who was wearing a short, and I mean very short, tight leather skirt, uh, who when she went over, well, you can probably guess. And so I think people fairly were like, that's probably out, or that probably should be out by dress code policy. I think we should have a dress code policy uh that's basically just nudity. And at some point, you gotta enforce that and say you you can't be here. You gotta wear clothes, actually. And so apparently they confirmed that guests maybe stopped at the inference at the entrance if their clothes do not meet the new guidelines. So here's the new guidelines. Officials say their guests must follow these rules when attending the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. And I'd love to find out if this is going to apply every year thereafter. And I'd love to know if if this is still gonna be true in 2027 and 2028, or if this is just for the last week of this year's rodeo. Things have been especially dramatic between the Carnival shutting down over the weekend, Lena Adalgo, that they just are throwing in some dress code policies to make it a little cleaner, or if this is a new policy because things have really gotten out of hand. I'd love to know. But nevertheless, here's the policy. Shirts and shoes are required. I don't want to know what could say. You know how there's a rule? This is a a little side you know story. For almost every rule that exists, other than just the very basic rule. You know, very basic rules of thou shalt not murder, uh rules morally given by God. For rules that have been made, right, at colleges or what have you, a lot of times rules are made because someone broke them before they existed. I I I know, you know, you'll have you'll have the same thing with with you know regular schools as well. You'll have a kid who does something crazy, but they can't get in trouble because they didn't actually break a rule. So then that becomes a rule at that school. That happens all the time because kids are creative and they'll find ways to do new crazy things. And so I gotta wonder who is showing up to the rodeo without shirts or shoes. But shirts and shoes are both required now. There are no obscene graphics or offensive language allowed on clothing, no overly revealing outfits, no gang-related clothing or symbols, no face coverings, unless for religious, medical, or cultural reasons, which of course they're not going to verify, so you can wear face coverings if you want. Um, but for the most part, they they also have a general code of conduct, which of course this is again, this is updated yesterday by the Livestock Show and Rodeo. And so they they say you can't bring a firearm, weapons, knives, chains, ammunition, impact weapons, chemical agents, no alcoholic beverages, narcotics, or legal substances. You can't come in intoxicated. In fact, if you are intoxicated while inside, we have the right to remove you. No domestic pets, of course, with the exception of service dogs. Um proper and then they go over proper attire. And so I think it's I think it's a great thing that all of this is going on. I I think it's it's high time that the rodeo finally does something like this. I mean, even they even go into the behavior of acting loud, obnoxious, and lewd. Because things have gotten significantly out of hand at the rodeo. And it's very unfortunate, right? It it really is very upsetting because the rodeo should be a family-friendly place. It should be a place, as I mentioned last week, where everyone can kind of come together, have a good time, maybe drink a beer, have some really good food that's probably gonna make you sick because I can't imagine that any of the ingredients in the rodeo food is good for you. Probably get sick, but but it's worth it at the end of the day because the food's good. To listen to country music, watch guys ride bulls, watch people race horses, whatever, whatever it is that you're watching, that's a time where everyone kind of feels like a Texan. Regardless of you know whether you're a city person or you're a country person or you're a farmer or you're not, everybody kind of comes together and they all feel like we're we're one group of people. We're all Texans. We're all part of the great city of Texas, the Lone Star State. And when you start introducing factors that take away from that, it makes it hard to get into that, right? When people are using language everywhere and they're they're addressing it appropriately in front of kids and and stuff like that, it gets difficult to maintain the sort of composure that you need from a family-friendly event where everyone can kind of come together and feel like we're all part of the same group. That's difficult to do when some of the group is behaving disorderly, when they're addressing like Lord knows what, that that gets a lot harder to have that sort of environment. And so I think it's high time that the rodeo starts drawing some very serious policies. Uh and the the only question now is well, there's two. The two questions now are gonna be whether or not this is enforced going into the future, right? Again, 2027, 2028, if this is a a now, this is the code of conduct for the rodeo. It's been updated and this is how it'll be. Or uh if it's just a this year thing. And the second question, possibly more even more importantly, is whether it'll actually be enforced. Because rules are great. I'm I'm glad you put them in there. At least in principle, that means that you support them, which is good. That's good to see. That at least in principle uh you support having these sorts of rules in place. I'm glad of that. But that will ultimately be relatively meaningless if you don't kick people out for you know breaking the rules. And of course, I know you're like, well, we just had to shut the rodeo down. I know that that's different than seeing someone dressed inappropriately and you having to be the one who tells them, hey, you gotta leave. You having to be the security agent that says, Yeah, you gotta, you gotta get out of here. You're not dressed appropriately. That's gonna be a lot harder. That's gonna be a lot less likely if anything is. And so hopefully, we actually do see widespread enforcement. Hopefully, you know, they are out there saying, Yeah, you can't wear that. Yeah, I don't like, you know, that's not appropriate. You can't or you know what? Not even escorting someone out. I think it'd be way easier if you really train the guards at the entrance gate to look for this stuff. Then no one has to be escorted out. No one it hasn't have to be a big scene, it doesn't have to be a big deal, right? It can literally just be you saying, Yeah, you can't come in wearing that. Feel free to, you know, go grab some other clothes. But uh you can't wear that. Actually, it's a it's a good opportunity if you want to make some extra money to set up a clothing cart on the side of the road with modest attire, right? Set up a clothing cart, you know, they do this outside all the the baseball games and what have you. Set up a clothing cart out there with a little with a little you know, modestclothes.com and people can come stop by your by your little wagon and uh buy clothes that actually cover their body. That'd be that'd be a good idea. But hopefully it actually does get enforced. That's that's my large point here. And it's difficult when it does not get enforced. It kind of like it's kind of like a lot of our laws. A lot of them sound good in principle, but then when they don't get enforced, no one really does anything about them, kind of results in uh being a little sort of a lackluster bill in general. Oh, we're gonna ban explicit books. And then you turn out the the bill doesn't really have any teeth to it, and schools won't get in trouble for not following it, and the result has been that a lot of schools didn't follow it until they, of course, added stuff about funding and and actually added teeth to it. That was largely the problem. And so hopefully this gets enforced. Hopefully, the in general our laws get enforced. That'd

Second Amendment Pitch For GOA

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SPEAKER_09 31:36

Patriot Talk 920 is your Houston base camp for the America First Movement. I'm Todd Starns, and join me weekdays at 11 on Patriot Talk 920 and online at PatriotTalk920.com.

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SPEAKER_06 34:07

Here's Jim Dotton, host of Texas Home Improvement and owner of Dew West Foundation Repair.

SPEAKER_14 34:13

It's no secret, this year has brought us a lot of rain. And that means your foundation is about as good as it's going to get. So if you're still noticing cracks in your walls and doors that are sticking, call us today so we can help correct the problem before it gets out of hand and more expensive. Call the best. Call Dew West Foundation Repair 713-473-7156 online at du-west.com.

SPEAKER_19 34:38

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SPEAKER_01 35:08

Houston, this is Tom Gresham inviting all gun owners to join me live every Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. for gun talk. Call in with your questions or range reports, and let's tackle everything Second Amendment. Here on Houston's Leader for Gun Owners, Patriot Talk 920.

SPEAKER_15 35:53

So

Seven-Time Deportee Human Smuggling Case

SPEAKER_15 35:54

Luis Francisco Corona Montano, an illegal alien from Mexico with seven prior deportations, has now been sentenced to 71 months in prison for transporting fellow illegals in West Texas, including an unaccompanied minor who was ordered to jump from the vehicle. In March, the U.S. District Court of Appeals upheld a sentence, finding it was irrelevant whether he knew she was a minor to receive a sentence enhancement for her transportation. So basically they were deciding whether or not that's fair. Well, he didn't know. Doesn't matter. He still did the crime. He still do the time. And so in May of last year, Corona Montano picked up a group of six illegal aliens from the desert brush near Fort Hancock in his SUV. While driving west toward I-10, a Border Patrol vehicle began following him. Colonel Montano then reportedly ordered an illegal 17-year-old female to throw herself from the vehicle while the SUV was still moving. Border Patrol agents stopped to help the girl and activated their light and siren for him to stop. He instead sped away and ordered another alien to jump on the vehicle as he entered the interstate. Texas State troopers ordered, offered assistance, and successfully deployed a device to deflate the SUV's tires. He then made it off the highway and lost control and crashed. He and five others were apprehended by Border Patrol agents and found to be in the country illegally. According to court filings, each alien was supposed to pay at least $9,000 to be smuggled. Now, in June of last year, Colonel Montana was indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas for conspiracy to transport illegal aliens and transporting aliens. He pled guilty without a plea agreement. He's like, Yep, did that. The president's uh the pre presentance report increased his offense level because one of the aliens transported by the defendant was a minor who was unaccompanied by the minor's parent, adult relative, or legal guardian. Colonel Montano objected to this enhancement, arguing that he did not know he was transporting a minor. And sentencing the district court overruled his objection and applied the enhancement, sentencing him to, of course, 71 months in prison. He then appealed to a U.S. to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, saying you can't do that. So the Fifth Circuit has now affirmed the district court order, holding that sentencing guidelines do not impose a scient uh science a requirement for the transportation of a minor, uh, which is a legal term, of course, referring to someone's like intent. You don't get to look at it and say, I know that you know you didn't really think about the fact that she was a minor, at least you claim you didn't, but did you transport a minor? Because if so, it doesn't matter whether you're like, well, I didn't know, you should have known. Right? You probably should have found that out. And so this means the defendants are ultimately strictly liable for transporting unaccompanied minors, regardless of whether it was done knowingly or intentionally. Now, Michael Laram, uh, he's the spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas, said the criminal complaint filed in May of 2024 indicates that he had been removed from the U.S. seven times, the last being New Mexico on January 25, 2024, just a few months prior to his arrest near Fort Hancock. And so apparently he was convicted of illegal reentry into Mexico in 2015, improper entry in Arizona in 2017, second illegal reentry conviction in Arizona in 2020. Records also that he was first caught illegally across the border in Arizona of 2009. Uh he was paid $20 to smuggle 4.31 kilograms of marijuana in a jacket. And so I think, again, we've said this numerous times, but we'll happily say it again. These are the sorts of people coming across our border, and there are undeniable cultural differences between us and our neighbors on both sides of the uh border, north and south, and further south and further south, and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, there are very vast cultural differences and beliefs in our countries. And when you throw people over that line, you you throw people in this country, they're not gonna behave like we'd expect them to in this country. They're gonna behave like whatever country they came from, where a lot of this stuff, unfortunately, is normalized. Uh, and that's not trying to be rude to Mexico or or what have you, but Mexico is not a great place. The number of times I've heard legitimate stories uh from people who have been in Mexico, especially you know, all this ongoing stuff with the cartels and what have you, people have said, you know, it it actually like legitimately is not safe to travel through Mexico in a lot of in a lot of the areas. It's not just like Houston where you're like, oh, it's the third war at night. No, no, no, no. It's not even just that. It's the entirety of the country, many, many, many whole parts of it you have to avoid. You gotta stay away from because they will just kill you. They'll extort you and then kill you. They'll do whatever they want to you. And it it it is a cultural problem over there because the government doesn't hold people accountable. It doesn't do largely the job of government, which is of course to to pursue justice against the wicked. And we do that here in America. Thank goodness for that, right? Thank goodness that we do, or at least try our best to used to do it better than we do now. Regardless, these are the sorts of people that have come into our country, these are the sorts of people that consistently have been found here, and of course, again, I'm sure there's plenty of people here that have not committed illegal re-entry and have not smuggled drugs and people into the country and and minors and told them to jump out of cars. I'm sure they're relatively well-adjusted human beings who came here to work a job, right? I'm sure those people exist. I'm sure they're out there. The question is not whether they're out there. The question is do we have an obligation as a country, as a government, to make sure that everyone who entered this country illegally is held accountable for doing so? Which, by the way, unless you did these sort of extra crimes, held accountable generally means that you uh, you know are deported, that you have to go back home. Now, with that being said, when we get back from the break, we're gonna jump over and talk about client ISD because now parents have gathered to sign a petition uh for safer schools after three different incidents in one week. We talked a little bit last week how they formed this parent safety coalition. And now uh they're signing this petition. You also have client ISD admitting that they're going to add safety and security measures after those incidents. So about both perspective with the school's perspective and the parents' perspective when we get back from the break. As always, if you'd like to text in, the number does not change. And we'd love to hear from our listeners. Disagreement, question, concern, etc., at 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. You are listening to Lone Star Conservative. I'm yours, Michael Wills, and I'll be right back after the break.

SPEAKER_11 42:41

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SPEAKER_10 42:49

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SPEAKER_15 43:11

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SPEAKER_17 44:10

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SPEAKER_16 44:15

If you are of Medicare age or getting close or you have a loved one that is, be careful with those unsolicited phone calls that I know you know about. We get told about them all the time. What you need to know is that many of those phone calls are not even legal. They're coming from offshore call centers. Sometimes they're calling regardless of whether you're on the do not call list. Isn't that nice of them, by the way? It's really sweet of them to just do that because they are thinking that they can't get caught. Bottom line is when you get on there and you talk to them, they're already kind of operating sidelong of what should be done. And sometimes people end up in plans that they did not intend to enroll in. And so what do you do? Call somebody local. If you got a local agent, my gosh, call them and get in front of them. And if you don't have a good agent, think of an organization like Senior Health Services where you can sit down, talk about what you're looking for, and get the help that you need. You don't need to be talking to phone operators in other countries that you don't know who they are, where they are, or what in the world they're doing.

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SPEAKER_02 45:41

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SPEAKER_01 46:10

Have you thought about buying a gun or even carrying a gun? But you don't know if that's smart or where to start. I Can Help. I'm Tom Gresham, host of Gun Talk. Call in Sundays between 1 and 4, right here on Houston's Leader for Gun Owners, Patriot Talk 920.

SPEAKER_15 46:48

Which, again, as I've said before, knowing me and the way that I respond to things, that'll probably take the whole of the segment, which means the weather and the client ISD stories both be put off at the top of the second hour, unfortunately. So this text in, it says, Good morning, Michael. I like the new rodeo dress code. I remember when I was in high school in the 60s, girls had to wear dresses and the skirts had to touch your knee. I wish we would go back to this type of dress code in our schools. Also, back in that time period, by the way, at beaches, at public beaches, police officers used to check uh the attire of what people were wearing because they didn't want people to wear immodest stuff, even on the beach. And that's become normalized to wear like literal thongs to the beach. Didn't used to be the case, as it turns out. There used to be a standard that we held. The thing that's crazy to me, and and by the way, this is one of the worst parts about feminism, other than the fact that feminism was literally created to tear apart the family unit, to destroy just the natural order of things. Apart from that, one of my least favorite things about feminism is the fact that most of the questions it asks are never they're always can we do this, not should we? That's the that's the root of feminism. Well, we want the right to do this, but there was never a question, do you think it's good that we have a right to do this? Do we actually think that it's good? Is this beneficial? This is like the the drug addicts who say, we should have a right to drugs. The government, you know, like they're they're anarchists, they're libertarians, the government can't take away our drugs. Did you ever stop to think that maybe it would be good if they did? Did you ever stop to think that maybe that's not a good thing? That maybe having those rights is not good for you. And in the same way, you look at what people are wearing to the beach, to the rodeo, to school nowadays, and all you can really think, at least, oh, I can only think to myself is is this better? Did anyone really think this is better? Oh, we have women have rights. And it's like w what to to dress like this? Is that a good thing? Did you ever stop? I know you stopped asking yourself if you wanted extra rights. I know you stopped to ask yourself, can we do whatever we want, wherever we want, whenever we want. Did you ever stop to ask yourself, is that beneficial? Is that actually good? I was having a conversation with somebody literally yesterday about something kind of similar to this. I'm not gonna go into the details, but something kind of similar to this. Where at the end of it, I was like, you know, people think that these are the things that'll ultimately make them happy. It turns out, you know, the happiest I've ever seen people is when they just do what God's called them to do. And for most women, that ends up being, you know, being a good wife, being a good mother, and also probably not dressing horribly, probably not wearing things that would make any normal human being blush. With that being said, when we get back from the break, we're gonna cover the weather and then the two different perspectives in Klein ISD. You will not want to miss that, so stick around. You're listening to Lone Star Conservative. Text in 713-779-5978. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. I'll be right back at the top of the next hour.

SPEAKER_08 49:59

From deep in the heart of Texas, it's Houston's God-loving patriot, the voice of reason. This is the Lone Star Conservative, Michael Wilson.

SPEAKER_15 50:26

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative brought to you by Texellent AC Service. We have now made it to the second hour of the show. We're gonna kick it off, of course, by going over the weather and a little bit about Klein ISD. By the way, I I I have some people wondering to answer the questions a couple people texted and asking. To answer your question about Texas Scorecard, yes, we are having Texas Scorecard on today. Very exciting guest, actually, Michael Quinn Sullivan. Uh been around. You guys, you guys know Michael Quinn Sullivan. We've had him on before, especially back when they did the when they first finished uh the Red Power documentary over on Texas Scorecard. He came on. Great guy, uh, has done a lot of the work here on Texas Scorecard and founding it, all that sort of stuff. But we're doing that at 7.30 today. So we're we're not we're not missing out on Texas Scorecard, don't you worry, but it will not be at 7 o'clock, it'll be at 7.30 instead. So make sure you stick around through the rest of the show to catch that interview in its entirety. In the meantime, we are going to cover the weather and the updates from Klein ISD during this segment.

Heat Dome Weather Talk And Climate Claims

SPEAKER_15 51:31

So let's kick it off without further ado by by discussing what we see in the weather. After near freezing temperatures yesterday morning, Houston could hit its first 90 degree day of the year. Just a few days after that, by this weekend. The unseasonable heat comes as a sprawling area of high atmospheric pressure, resulting in a March version of a heat dome that moves in from our west. As a result, daily records could be tied or broken from California to Texas through the end of this week. Now, this morning's temperatures, anywhere from uh 10 to 20 degrees warmer than yesterday's lows, near and in some places below freezing, market interest will step up for us as we're undergoing this sort of warming trend. Even if lows, which by the way, we're in the low to mid to upper 40s, might still feel cold when you walk outside. For anyone who's a native Houstonian or who's not visiting from out of town up in the north, for anyone who, you know, lives here, uh, this is still cold weather. Just so we're clear. Just so we can all kind of agree, reach a consensus. Uh, 45 degrees. I don't know exactly where the line is between nice and cold, but it's gotta be above 45 degrees because I was outside this morning and it was not warm. It was not comfortable. It was certainly below the line. Maybe, maybe if you wear enough clothes, enough layers, you can consider it to be pretty nice. But but somewhere above 45 degrees, below 60, is the line where the line goes from it feels pretty nice outside, it's a little cool to it's cold outside and it needs to warm up a little. And so even though we were a little bit colder yesterday, we're a little warmer this morning. And uh, as we go through today, I mentioned earlier during the show today's going to be a beautiful day. That's because Wednesday should reach the mid-70s, uh, which is pretty close to average for mid-March. But I hate when they use the word normal instead of average. Because normal and average are two different things. Normal assumes that it's usually this temperature, which is a different thing than saying that this is the average temperature. The reason that's different, I'm just saying that averages are are one of the best ways we can we can guess what normal is. But averages don't give us that information. For instance, if this year, let's say this year, our average, just as a hypothetical little little thing, our average temperature this year, our normal temperature every day it reaches close to 90 degrees as as the high this March. And next March, most most days, it reaches 60 degrees. Well, if you average it out, the average temperature would be 75, right? In between 90 and 60. But if I said that normally in March from those two years, it was you know, temperatures around 75 degrees, everyone should look at me and say, that's not true. I don't think we've ever had a March where it was around 75 degrees. Usually more extreme than that. And you'd be right. And so the average I don't think is a good way to call it normal. I think that's a I'm not trying to be pedantic or anything, but I think that's an unfair analysis of calling it normal uh because it just averages out temperatures and we change year over year for what the temperatures are. I mean, for instance, literally today, the high is in the mid-70s. Yesterday, the highs barely made it out of the fifties. I I mean it was it was cool yesterday, made it into the sixties, uh, but we started off the morning with lows in the 30s. And so I don't think it's fair to start talking about normal when you're averaging out extreme temperatures on both ends of of the weather of the meteorological spectrum. Nevertheless, it's gonna get even warmer tomorrow and Friday as afternoon temps are gonna warm up as much as the upper eighties for the next couple of days. By Friday, a few neighborhoods could briefly touch, uh, if you look out west of the Brazos River, could briefly touch 90 degrees. Now in Houston, the risk of 90 degree heat increases as we head into the weekend. As high air pressure builds overhead, it acts like a lid on the atmosphere, forcing up, forcing air to sink down. The sinking air warms as it compresses, keeping cloud development to a minimum. With fewer clouds, more sunshine reaches the surface, allowing temperatures to climb more efficiently during the day. At the same time, winds are shifting to the southwest, pulling in warmer, drier air from inland areas rather than muggy Gulf Coast air, which can sometimes hold temperatures down. Higher up in the atmosphere, that same west to southwest flow is reinforcing the warmth with temperatures aloft running usually, unusually high for March. Put it all together, and what you get strong sunlight, clear skies, sinking air, and a steady feet of warm air from the west, it creates the ideal conditions for temperatures to reach 90 degrees for the first time this year, uh, here this weekend. Now, Houston usually reaches 90 degrees for the first time in early May, based on just, again, averages uh going back about 100 years. But the earliest 90 degree day ever recorded was February 20th of 1986. Uh only two other years in our recorded history, again, only about 100 years, have seen the first 90-degree day occur in February. Only nine years have recorded first 90-degree day in March. Most recently was literally last year on March 13th. So since 2016, Houston's average first 90-degree day has been April 21st. And so if Houston reaches 90 degrees this weekend, it would be several weeks ahead of what's average. Not what's normal, what's averaged. Nevertheless, it's not a reason for concern. If you're one of those one of those people out there that's listening and you're thinking, oh man, it's getting warmer, we're already doing better than last year. Today is March 18th. By the weekend, we're gonna be what, March 21st by the time we reach we're already more than a week ahead a week a week later than last year. We've been we've been playing this heat game since 1986. This is not a new development for us to reach. I mean, again, 1986, we had our first 90-degree day back at in in the middle of February. So it's not unheard of for us to have relatively warm temperatures going in to March. It's not crazy for that to happen. And my larger point there is twofold. And I've said this before, but it's been a minute, so I'll say it again for all you climate activists. One thing you don't seem to understand, the first is of course, again, that the the temperature changes year over year. Some years we hit 90 degrees early, sometimes we hit it late. Sometimes we hit 100 degrees early, sometimes we hit it late. Sometimes it's warmer, sometimes it's cooler. Weather shifts, that's what it does. I don't want to say it's coincidental because we believe in the sovereignty of God, but I I will certainly say that it's not out of out of, you know, out of the ordinary, even, but especially calling it crazy and alarming to have warmth some years and not so much warmth other years. It's just the way the weather works. Additionally, and I think an even bigger point that I like to bring up for people is keep in mind our records don't stretch back that far. And even the records we do have are a little unfair because they're not nearly as accurate. They were not nearly as accurate back then. And on top of them not being nearly as accurate, you also have to keep in mind that between population shifts, shifts of exactly where you have the recordings taken, how accurate those recordings are, we don't even know if over a hundred years ago if the recordings would have showed something different if you'd had the population density you have now, if you'd had the industry you have now, uh, if you look, say, here in Houston as a good example. You have no idea if in 1912, if you would have had this many people living in Houston and this many, you know, in this much industry going on, what the weather would have been like. We don't know. Things change. And so using that as some sort of alarmist mentality to subject people to fear is crazy. It's not rooted in reality. The earth is I I I think it's it's crazy enough being a young earth creationist who and I'm I'm not uh I'm not apologetic about this. You can call me crazy. I think the the earth is six to ten thousand years old. It's not an old earth. But even you know, you take their position, which if you're a climate activist, largely you're probably also an old earth evolutionist. You believe the earth is billions of years old. If it's billions of years old and you have a hundred years, that's a blip. That is a literal blip. You're taking one tiny subset in terms of weather history as your evidence for some sort of alarming activity. And you have no idea what the earth used to be like. You you have absolutely no clue. It could have been that we used to get to 105 by March. You don't know how the world has shifted in a billion in billions of years. It is absolutely insane to take that information and use that as some sort of mentality that we should all be fearful for where the

Klein ISD Safety Incidents And Responses

SPEAKER_15 1:00:12

weather's going. Nevertheless, I want to jump over to Klein ISD here because Klein ISD parents have now gathered to sign this petition. Uh, this petition uh basically to call for stronger safety measures, specifically in regards to gun safety in the district after you have these these separate gun incidents. And now Klein ISD has actually responded to concerned parents, worried about their children's safety. After that petition created by a group called the Klein ISD Parent Safety Coalition called for several safety changes. Uh Klein ISD has put out, of course, the details of those incidents. One of them was, of course, an accidental discharge. Another was a man in tactical attire entering the front office of Zwink Elementary School after the door was not secured correctly. And the third incident was at Klein High School when a student brought an unloaded handgun to campus and showed it to other students. And so that student was also detained. Nevertheless, Klein ISD is now responding to those safety measures. Uh they said they're going to increase police presence at each school in partnership with additional law enforcement agencies. They're going to expand random metal detector screenings on an unannounced rotating schedule, and increase random search of the canine police units in partnership with additional law enforcement agencies across campuses. The district is also asking parents to provide feedback and to do the following one, talk to their children over spring break about the seriousness of bringing a weapon to school. Any student who chooses to bring a weapon into one of our schools will leave in handcuffs, will be expelled, and will face felony charges. They said ensure that any firearms are stored safely and securely, and remind their children that if they ever see or hear something that does not feel right, the right move is to tell a trusted adult immediately. But again, a lot of these things, well, you need to keep your guns safely locked away and stored. I understand state law, right? I understand the reason behind a lot of these regulations. But as we've highlighted before, the regulations are not the reason for these gun incidents. The reason that these things were happening are not because you didn't store your handgun correctly. And we know that that's not the primary reason, because not so very long ago, students had access to firearms. That used to be quite normal in American, especially in Texas culture, that kids certainly had access to their parents' guns. That was never really a concern for people because kids used to understand the seriousness of a firearm. And it wasn't because there were more training courses or or or because there were a bunch of mass shootings and we made it very clear. It was because we used to have a normal people. It's because we used to be a normal, civilized society where we were able to have these sorts of conversations where you say, you know what? Uh we understand what a firearm is used for. Kids grew up shooting them. Kids grew up hunting. Kids grew up with access to them to defend their home if need be. And nowadays, if you leave them unlocked in an area where kids can access them, they want to take them to school and show their friends. They want to play around with them. They want to accidentally discharge them. People want to show up to schools with them and commit actual violence. The culture has shifted dramatically, which of course requires a lot of these more, you know, activist-style things where you have metal detector screenings, where you have stronger security on campus. But all of that is not necessary because of the access to firearms. That's not the primary driver behind these issues. The issues are very clearly more due to a cultural change in the way our country operates, in the way that our children are being raised, and in the way ultimately that we view firearms and we view violence. It's become normalized to view violence as not necessarily a good thing, but as something that just happens. Rather than saying, no, this was all preventable, this didn't used to happen. We used to have no issues in this manner. Mass shootings now used to be a massive problem like they are today. And it was not because there were less firearms, it was not because children didn't have access to them and they were more secured. No, none of that. It was very obviously something else. Nevertheless, with that being said, when we get back from the break, we're going to jump over because Harris County courts have seen a sharp drop in pending felony cases since or pending felony prosecution, since Sean Tier as the new DA has come into office. And here's they kind of asked officials how did you how did you see this sharp drop? What kind of led to this? And officials have responded. We'll talk all about the details of that sharp decline when we get back. As always, if you would like to text in, the number is 713-779-5978. One more time. That is 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. And we'll be right back after the break. Stick around. We'll talk soon.

SPEAKER_09 1:04:48

Patriot Talk 920 is your Houston base camp for the America first movement. I'm Todd Starns, and join me weekdays at 11 on Patriot Talk 920 and online at PatriotTalk920.com.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:02

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Harris County Felony Backlog Drops

SPEAKER_15 1:09:11

After months of declining criminal caseloads in Harris County courts, prosecutors declared victory yesterday in clearing out a crippling backlog of felony cases caused by Hurricane Harvey and exacerbated by the pandemic. District Sean Tier said at a news conference, quote, the backlog is not numbers. Every single one of these numbers is affecting a group of people, the accused and the victims who have to deal with this in a real meaningful way. The backlog improved, and three new state district courts opened their doors to lighten the load for other courts back in 2024. The average number of cases then dropped to levels not seen since Hurricane Harvey wreaked havoc on the criminal justice infrastructure in downtown Houston back in 2017. In the weeks before the storm, which flooded the criminal courthouse, the county's 22 courts had an average of about 930 pending cases. The number climbed as courts worked out other of county other county buildings, and the pandemic later forced inverts and proceedings to stall even more. By 2021, the average more than doubled to over 2,200 cases amid a nationwide rise in violent crime. One court stopped holding trials altogether for more than a year. The jail population also increased, prompting authorities to spend millions to house inmates elsewhere, which we're all well aware of. The backlog meant that that many people would not see justice for an extended period of time. And so this year the situation surrounding caseloads is far different. The backlog has dropped to an average of 730 cases by the end of February. Commissioner Adrian Garcia credited some members of the judiciary for calming the backlog and named four judges, Bell and Pennagay, as was Brian Warren and Natalia Cornelio at some of the top performing courts. Here also attributed the sustained decline in caseloads to pushing more cases to trial, which allowed other prosecutions to end sooner. A defendant can face multiple charges but not go on trial for all of them. And so if you have, say, one individual who you get to plead guilty to one of the crimes in exchange for not having to face the other trials, well, you take that person out of four different trials all at once. And here's prosecutors dismissed more than 26,000 felonies during his more than 10 months in office. And th this is kind of reminiscent of what I said when Chantier first took office. And I remember because the claim overall, if you guys can think back, was hey, violent crime has dropped dramatically under my tenure. And I said that would be great if those facts were exactly what you wanted them to be. Because as I highlighted back then, and I'll highlight it again now, one of my main concerns with this sort of claim in general is that it is dictated on the basis that violent crime, the statistics are by law enforcement reports rather than through criminal trials. Because our our violent crime rate is largely rooted in criminal convictions. What that ultimately ends up meaning in many cases is if you, for example, if I were elected district attorney and I went in and said, I'm not going to prosecute a single case. Every single case, I'm going to make sure it gets dismissed. I'm not going to push for any cases to go to trial. If we can do that, then our violent crime rate in Harris County will drop to zero. Boom. I have ended violent crime. And you think to yourself, not only have you not ended violent crime, but actually it's getting worse because now people know they're not going to be prosecuted if they do it. Now you have even more would-be criminals who are incentivized to commit crimes. And so I'm not sure I buy the whole facade that we've just fixed the problem. There's less pending cases. We did it. Congratulations, pat ourselves on the back. We know that Chantier has pushed for second chances. We know that Chantiere even admits to dropping 10,000 cases, them just being dismissed. We know that you've got a lot of this stuff going on where they're labeled as nuisance crimes. They don't end up going to trial at all. Instead, they get mental health assistance or whatever that that ends up looking like. And so it makes us kind of wary to say, yeah, you succeeded. Insofar as success would actually look like pursuing justice. And I'm not convinced that that's what happened here. And so you know, again, I I think a lot of these different cases are not being pursued to their fullest. We've had a number of cases where I personally have watched in real time Sean Tier have a case just dropped that I think should have been pursued. We've been given very limited details. There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of transparency on many of these issues. I think it's resulted in people rightfully and reasonably wondering is violent crime actually getting better? Is our court system actually functioning more efficiently? Or are we pursuing this with the end goal of there being less cases? And you're willing to achieve that end with any means necessary, including just dropping cases that you should not drop. And those may look the same when you merely look at the data, the data that we have available. But I promise you, those things are far from similar. And so hopefully, oh, you know what? Again, I would love to be wrong. That's the thing that's crazy about this. I would love for Chantier to have come in and actually done a pretty good job. That'd be great. If we can all walk away and crime is better, I'm not going to complain about it. But given what we've heard coming out from the courts, given what we've heard coming out from, you know, our our jails, the criminal justice system, the number of stories we cover here on the show where people are given slaps on the wrist for violent crime, it has inevitably resulted in people saying, I'm not sure that I believe the words that you're saying about violent crime. I'm not sure I buy it. With that being said, when we get back from the break, we're gonna have Texas Scorecard coming on. Michael Quinn Sullivan from Texas Scorecard coming on to talk about two kind of connected things. The first being this ongoing, these ongoing lawsuits of Islamic schools saying they're owed taxpayer dollars to be a part of this program, this school choice program, and talking about superintendent salaries that have been rising consistently. If you'd like to text in, the number is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. We'll be right back with Michael Gwent Sullivan from Texas Scorecard after the break.

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School Choice Lawsuit And Texas Education Spending

SPEAKER_07 1:19:44

Hey, good morning. It's great to be with you, Michael.

SPEAKER_15 1:19:46

Great to be here. And I'm very excited because these have been ongoing issues. I think people are getting really concerned. I think school choice actually is evidence of all this in the first place, interestingly enough. But I'm hearing some updates coming out from the school choice side of things. Particularly, we know that there's been these Islamic lawsuits. Just for our listeners who might not be aware of those lawsuits, can you give us some background, what those lawsuits are, what they're accusing our government of, what that whole situation is looking like right now?

SPEAKER_07 1:20:15

Yeah, so you uh, you know, the school choice program was passed last year, uh, went into it goes into effect for the 26th, 27th school year. So, you know, next fall is when the program is rocking and rolling uh with kids and their families being able to take take dollars um and use them uh for uh private school tuition or for um uh even uh tutoring services, um, homeschool uh needs. So uh the school tourist program coming into effect for next fall. Well, for next coming to effect next fall, you have to start having an application period. The legislature funded um approximately 100,000 of these accounts, accounts for about 100,000 students. Well, and an application process, an application process uh opened in February and the last for a month until the middle of uh middle of March. March 17th was supposed to be when the application period closed. Not a first come, first served program, though. This is a program where um the the last applicant put in has the same chance of getting uh getting an account as the as the first one put in. Okay, so all these things are really important to understand because you have to have all these rules around the applications and the weighting and then where the money can be spent. And this is now the important part for the office. Uh last year, Governor Brigham designated the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations as defined by state law, and as criminal, uh transnational criminal organizations again as defined by state law. Uh Controller Hancock and Attorney General Paxton uh looked at this declaration, looked at all the restrictions that exist and also schools that are affiliated with care or with the Muslim Brotherhood cannot participate in this. Uh so the AV, uh the controller wrote some rules around that. Um, the attorney general uh verified those rules, and it's now that kind of went into effect for any school wanting to participate. Well, as you might imagine, the Islamic schools are kind of up for arms. They want to be able to access these dollars, and what they are claiming in their federal lawsuit to say, just because we're affiliated with these terrorist organizations uh that's defined by state law, just because we're affiliated with them doesn't mean you should be able to exclude us from the money. Um and that's kind of a question in front of a federal judge who um yesterday, at literally the last moment, ordered the school force program application period to be extended by two weeks. His reasoning was that he is troubled by the exclusion of Islamic schools. You're not terrifying, I'm not really sure here and I'm thinking. Is he is he just wanting to punish the state by giving them more work with more applications to file? Um, is he hoping that um that remember this guy gets to make the decision? Is he hoping that he will rule in favor of the law? It's very unclear why he took the path of extending the application period because the application period has nothing to do with whether schools can receive the money or not. So it's it's a little it's kind of an odd situation, but it's all driven by a gem by an Obama-appointed federal judge being uh frustrated that Islamic schools can't participate in Texas's school choice program.

SPEAKER_15 1:23:55

Right. And that original lawsuit, which was from a father of uh of two children who attended an Islamic school, was of course saying the problem is that because of the restrictions, I'm not going to apply for school choice at all if I know it can't go here. And so if you don't do this before the deadline, I won't even be able to apply. So even if they get approved as a vendor later, I'll be out of the first round of school choice applicants. So my only thought, maybe, is the judge is going to rule in favor uh in that case that it has to go uh to the Islamic schools and the extent of the deadline so all the Muslim parents have time to put their applications in. That's that's literally all I can think of is as to the purpose of this.

SPEAKER_07 1:24:34

That is as good of an explanation as any. And of course, the the the fallacy was when he filed the lawsuit, there were already more than 100,000 applications in. And that's we were I mean, this number is really, really amazing, Michael. Uh again, the legislature funded 100,000 slots. You put a billion dollars in the program, and you and you do out the the complicated math, and you figure out that you've got about a hundred thousand students who can who can participate in the SDS term. About a hundred thousand. Um well when he filed his lawsuit, there were already more than a hundred thousand applications. I mean, there are going to be people who who meet every possible qualification, who you know, trick all the marks of marks of the uh you know, income eligibility, uh uh the student economic uh social economics, of the um of educational uh uh perhaps problems that might exist. There are all these things that would make your application more weighty, but who still won't get in the program just because there's that hard limit on the on the funding side of it. Right. So there's just uh you know a bit of a fallacy in the in the notion that he thinks he would qualify, you know, for because he's able to afford a federal lawsuit, his kids are already in a private school. Um it's it it would you know, just as a passive observer, seem unlikely that this guy um you know is you know the low income, all these other kind of all these other kind of things. So you know the everything about this laws, about these lawsuits sound like they're geared uh to uh to judges wanting to make laws rather than simply interpret the laws. And here you have a judge making the rules around Texas' school force program.

SPEAKER_15 1:26:16

Right. And of course, we have to keep in mind uh that this guy is also, at least in the first lawsuit, this guy is self-representing. So he's also uh a lawyer who seems fully capable of representing himself in court. Uh and you also have to keep in mind, of course, that you already have an opinion from the attorney general. Uh we mentioned this sort of this sort of team-up between the attorney general's office and the comptroller's office, where Paxton has come out and and formally put an opinion out saying, I I think ultimately, and this was because of a question from the comptroller's office, I think ultimately the comptroller has full authority to determine where that funding goes. He's he's the budgetary officer. If he says the funds can't go there, the funds can't go there, and I'll back that up in court. And so I I'm still a little lost on where it goes from here. Did you mention that this is the same judge in the Islamic school case, that this is just maybe the first step in that case?

SPEAKER_07 1:27:03

Yeah, the the this definitely feels like the judge kind of priming the pump for uh for his legislating from the bench. And yeah, the we've long had these questions about judges who decide to impose themselves rather than simply interpret the laws as they exist. Like if if it were the case that the controller had misdone the uh the the application period, then absolutely you could see extending the time period. Um if if people hadn't been able to access the uh the application portal, all sorts of very reasonable reasons why a judgment would step in and say, hey, you you've got to let more people apply because because you messed up over here. Um this is a judge seeming to say, I don't like certain aspects of what the state has what the state officials have have done, the legislature's done. the comproller, the attorney general have done. So I'm going to begin going in and rewriting these rules. Now that's not the that's not the job of the judge. Unfortunately, that's what we have been allowing federal judges to do, and it's uh it's a conflict with our constitutional system.

SPEAKER_15 1:28:15

Right. And it's it's this sort of we we've kind of coined it judicial activism and it's been a problem not just in school choice and in public institutions. It's also of course been a problem with deportations, with immigration policy, border walls, uh LGBTQ, gender transitioning, all these sorts of things. So you've had this sort of you mentioned legislating from the bench. We've seen that over and over and over again. And that seems to be the case again here. Before we go to the next story, I also want to highlight, I want to ask you, so you mentioned that it's funded for about 100,000 students give or take. And so of course we we surpassed 100,000 a while ago. What number are we up to now? Because obviously that'll also have a level of indictment on who gets in.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:54

Yeah so according to the Compton Prolers office there have now been more than 229,000 applications submitted. So more than 229,000 students have applied for one of these one of these scarce accounts. Kelly Hancock you've got to give the guy credit um as our acting comproler um his statement you put out late yesterday uh had had a little bit of a a little bit of a mischievous giggle to it because of course he was one of the architects of the school choice program while he was in the Texas Senate. He's really anxious to see a lot more people apply um in part because it uh it it it will put pressure on the legislature for expanding that program in the next legislative session. If only a hundred thousand people would have applied uh the Democrats and the opponents of school choice would have used that as a uh as as something like see you know it's not really that popular a hundred thousand people out of you know five and a half million students in our public schools uh you know we we we we don't need school choice instead the fact that uh that in a one month period a month and a half period uh you have had you know uh more than 200 and nearly 23000 people apply probably going to extend up to 300,000 by the time this uh this extension um expires that's going to put pressure on the legislature uh to reexamine their assumptions regarding this program.

SPEAKER_15 1:30:31

Right on top of that just as a quick side note for for all of our listeners I also want to highlight because of course the judicial system is complicated enough as it is but if you keep in mind, say this judge does ultimately rule in favor of the Islamic schools and says that the comptroller is forced to to send tax dollars to these schools, to the program, should those people who apply to the program who are in these Islamic schools receive some of that funding, them at least being eligible vendors, I'm sure there's going to be some sort of appeal process for that as well. I don't know what the case will be with this federal court, but I'm sure there'll be some sort of appeal process to say a judge doesn't get to over and undermine the authority of the comptroller in terms of spending the taxes financials.

SPEAKER_07 1:31:14

Yeah the the Attorney General's office and the comptroller have already said that they will be continuing to pursue all legal avenues in this case. You know, because the the this kind of precedent is really important is set aside the importance merely as it relates to specific programs, school choice, should tax dollars go to fund terrorist organizations or people affiliated to missions those questions are important. But yet there's also the spill out effect of when every time you give judges uh the unfedered right to simply rewrite rules, rewrite laws they don't like, it undermines our republic. And so I think that's when you see the attorney general the counselor the governor all say that no matter what this federal district judge in Houston would no matter what he rules there will be an appeal and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals based in New Orleans is a very friendly court to uh to state rights and to conservative principles it is almost impossible to imagine that this judge's rule if this judge were to do something crazy like order money to Islamic schools that that would be allowed to stand. The Fifth Circuit's not going to let that stand. And certainly this current makeup of the Supreme Court will not let it stand. The problem though for everyone is the confusion and the angst caused uh by a judge who thinks that he's a legislator rather than the judge.

SPEAKER_15 1:32:37

Right. And I think again this highlights this this important dichotomy between this sort of federal judicial activism as opposed to the sovereignty of the state of Texas to make our own determination as to where our tax dollars go. But as we're getting closer to the wrap up here, I real quickly want to highlight superintendents kind of connect this back a lot of people since they're applying for school choice that also means that many of them probably will pursue avenues that are not public school. Some certainly will pursue public school but many will not and so we've seen this declining enrollment that has been by our leaders attributed to a variety of causes. But while we're seeing declining enrollment we're also seeing something else pretty interesting specifically superintendent salaries shockingly not following the same direction as enrollment yeah I'll I'll tell you what the uh every year you see more and more superintendents making more and more money.

SPEAKER_07 1:33:22

Latest data coming out from the Texas Education Agency and folks can find the story at TexasCoolcore.com written by Aaron Anderson uh digging into the data digging into superintendent salaries and this year uh yay Texas we now have 16 superintendents in the state making more than $400,000 a year a couple of them making more than half a million dollars a year as superintendents and these aren't in you in your head you might think oh these are all no these are the 16 biggest school districts now that's not true um in some cases these are very small school districts um there's no real rhyme or reason connecting superintendent salary with the size of the district or the complexity of the student population um this is all just spending other people's money uh meanwhile of course you have people oh no our teachers aren't well paid which really isn't true anymore all these claims on education being underfunded but meanwhile you have superintendents uh making $400, $500,000 a year. A lot of questions folks need to be asking about where their dollars are going. And what actual academic value you're getting out of a super out of a school district the superintendents making uh making half a million dollars a year what is the what's the value to the students there as opposed to other school districts where the superintendents are making maybe a more um appropriate uh sum for a public servant working in public education.

SPEAKER_15 1:34:51

Right and of course we know we have that problem here in the Houston area as well it's been a massive problem with the spending that we've had uh that has not seemed to you know whenever you spend this kind of money the hope is that you see a valuable return on investment that's that's verifiable and data driven and uh everything from from any sort of metric that used to apply that other than the state's own metrics on itself has not been phenomenal news. And so I think it's shocking for everyone to see if if schools were doing phenomenally and if they if if test scores were consistently going up, students were becoming more prepared for post-education life, whether that's college, trade school, you know, just the workforce, maybe there could be an argument that okay, we can spend a little more money on this. It's it's doing quite well. But we've not seen that argument made and so it's it's shocking I think to see these salaries continually rising while the other things are still staying stagnant or even worse, getting worse. Nevertheless, with that being said, Michael I appreciate you coming on this morning. Can you tell everyone you gave the website can you give it again let everyone know where they can find all the stuff we're talking about and so much more about statewide reporting.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:50

Yeah we'd love to have folks check out the work of our team at TexasScorecard.com that's TexasScorecard.com someone is always keeping score in government and in politics we think it ought to be the citizens and the taxpayers so Texasscorecard.com is where folks can find the news affecting the Lone Star State.

SPEAKER_15 1:36:09

Perfect and Michael again I appreciate you so much for giving us your time this morning for coming on being a part of the show and keeping us updated on all the stuff going on around the state of Texas.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:18

Thanks Michael you're a great patriot.

SPEAKER_15 1:36:20

Absolutely with that being said from the break talking about an Afghan man who worked with U.S. military who died in ICE custody and of sure the left is just up in arms about it text in 713-779-5978. I'm your host Michael Wilson you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative.

SPEAKER_11 1:36:36

Be right back after the break hi this is Harold Gunn and this is Bill Olston. Texas Outdoor News is the longest running most awarded outdoor radio show in the state for a lot of good reasons.

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Afghan Detainee Death And Closing Thoughts

SPEAKER_15 1:40:18

an Afghan immigrant whose family said he'd been evacuated from his home country after working for years with U.S. forces died at a Texas hospital after immigration authorities detained him. Federal immigration officials called Mohamed Nazir Paktiwal a criminal who'd been arrested for alleged fraudulent use of food stamps and for theft of his military service he just claimed it was there. A San Diego based group that elsewhere settled Afghanistan evac uh pushed back against the federal government's claims about this guy, one of several people who've died in recent months after being detained and so the president Sean Van Deaver said calling a man a criminal without a conviction while claiming there is no record of service without checking interagency systems looks less like fact finding and more like damage control. The government should be explaining how a 41-year-old father of six died less than 24 hours after entering ICE custody. They don't have a cause of death it's still pending but his family said he was not ill so we cannot understand how this happened. He was only 41 years old and as a strong and healthy man his children kept asking when their father will come home. He was arrested by ICE on Friday and during his medical intake he complained of shortness of breath and chest pain, which sounds a little bit like natural causes that that at at best maybe you could make an argument that they should have been some sort of life saving care uh that was given. We'll have to wait to see what the cause of death is officially from the examiner's office I think before we can make any real determinations. But yet again this seems to be a case just just on the surface where the left is really upset because a person who allegedly abused our our system, who came to this country as a refugee, abused our system and then died of natural causes potentially is some sort of hero in the minds of the left, somebody that we should all look up to. It reminds you of the George Floyd incident you have this guy who's high on fentanyl, who's going crazy, uh, who police take down according to the letter of their training and the people punished are the police officers for being racist. It's very reminiscent of that yet again. And as I'll highlight again I don't care how you've assisted us I don't care who you are if you're breaking the law you should face repercussions. That'll do for the show today. Thanks everyone for tuning in I hope you enjoyed today's edition of the Lone Star Conservative I'm your host Michael Wilson. Lord willing I'll be back bright and early tomorrow at 6 a.m in the meantime enjoy this very beautiful day highs in the mid 70s sunny skies here on Wednesday and ladies and gentlemen Godspeed