The City Tried A Shell Game For $110 Million

Houston tried to walk a tightrope on immigration enforcement, and it may have stepped straight into a funding trap. We break down the City Council vote to amend Houston’s ICE-related ordinance, why the mayor says the rewrite was negotiated with the governor’s public safety office, and why Governor Greg Abbott still publicly warns the city could lose around $110 million in public safety grant money. If you’ve been trying to understand what “cooperation with ICE” means in practice and how state contracts can force a city’s hand, we lay it out in plain language.

Then we zoom in on what enforcement looks like on the ground. ICE Houston reports 277 arrests in a two-week period tied to people in the country illegally who also had prior criminal convictions, with the agency citing hundreds of combined convictions across violent crime, drug trafficking, and sex offenses. That data point reframes the local policy fight and raises the question every big Texas city is trying to answer: where does local policing end and federal immigration enforcement begin.

From there we hit a rapid set of accountability flashpoints across Texas politics: the unresolved Texas Lottery rigged jackpot scandal, an appeals court ruling on Adrian Garcia’s illegal dual appointment, fresh school choice data from the Texas Education Freedom Accounts rollout, new concerns about educator misconduct investigations, a $39 million East Downtown homeless shelter operations deal, and a judge’s resignation that comes with a lifetime ban from judicial service. 

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Transcript

Houston’s ICE Ordinance Fallout

SPEAKER_05 0:08

The voice of reason. This holds the conservative Michael Wilson.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative back here on Thursday morning for this edition of the Lone Star Conservative. It is good to be with you this morning. Of course, throughout the show, we got lots to cover today. Obviously, lots happened with City Council yesterday between walking back, well, potentially walking back. We'll talk about it. I'm teasing. Walking back the ICE ordinance. Actually, we've heard that Governor Greg Abbott actually has actually given a response to Houston City Council over their sort of amended ordinance, which, by the way, the city attorney said they did in some sort of collusion with Governor Abbott. And so we'll talk about, you know, whether or not it was enough, especially given they worked with Governor Abbott on the amendment, supposedly. So we'll see what he said about it. Also throughout the show today, don't forget, we'll have the weather update at the bottom of the hour. We'll kind of we'll spend the first little segment going over updates to ICE between the ICE ordinance, Governor Abbott's responses, uh an announcement from Ice Houston over how many people were arrested over the past two or at least in a two-week operation period. Um, some updates on Adrian Garcia. You guys might remember we talked with Richard Vega just a couple weeks ago about this ongoing lawsuit with Adrian Garcia, because Adrian Garcia, you know, was appointed to the the the this flood board and maintained a level of taxing authority and vote authority over there. Allegedly it's fraud. Allegedly, you can't do that. And so we've got an update coming out from the court in that case. Well, to talk a little bit about school choice, we've got some studies coming out about where the money for school choice is going, aka what the families who are getting school choice are desiring out of it, why they're applying, what their story is. We also have a CISD employee who uh, you know, was accused of, let's say, misconduct with a former student, um, which is not surprising, but it's there, as well as a new deal that the city of Houston has now approved. Uh it's for the Harris Center for Mental Health to run the East Downtown Homeless Shelter. It's a $39 million deal. Like I said, lots to get into. Let's let's kick it off talking a little bit about what's going on with ICE, because obviously there's lots of issues with ICE's ability to operate in Houston. Now, and I know that the Left Would have you believed the ordinance they passed originally did not limit ICE's authority per se. Instead, all it had to do was with uh with the specific cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement. You see, ICE is still totally allowed to operate. There's no reason they can't. There's nothing stopping them. We just we just don't want any part in it. I know that state law says we need to have a part in it. I know that if we're going to be law enforcement, that means enforcing the laws that we don't necessarily like, that we'd rather let people break, and that's part of the job. But all of that makes us uncomfortable. And so we're gonna pass an ordinance for the city that violates state law, violates really the oath of office, makes it more dangerous to be a police officer for the Houston Police Department, the union for the police department, which unions are notoriously liberal, even the union doesn't like this. This is insane. And so of course there began the conversation. Because once Governor Abbott started threatening, you know, $1, $14 million, somewhere in the $110 range, $110 million range, started threatening that's that funding as it being a grant from the state, and saying, Hey, when you decided to get this grant, when you applied for it and we approved you, one of the requirements was that you would be dedicated to public safety. It's a public safety grant. And in the terms of the agreement, part of public safety is your cooperation with federal law enforcement, which includes immigration and customs enforcement. By doing this ordinance where you have now intentionally limited that cooperation to a degree where it's not limited anymore, it just doesn't exist at all. You've broken the terms of the agreement that earned you this grant. I'm not just threatening you. You did this. You broke the agreement, so now your grant money's gone. Right. And uh it's not as it f is as it turns out, it's not so fun for a city to lose over a hundred million dollars in funding, especially as they're coming up very soon on the FIFA World Cup. By the way, a massive event that needs uh unbelievable security, financial support from the city. And so to lose $100 million on the eve of that coming up is is not only not a good look, it's really bad for the city. And so immediately after the vote, Mayor Whitmeyer said all sorts of things about how he warned everybody, how bad of an idea this was. Still doesn't make sense why he voted for it, and has been in talks apparently with the governor going over the potential for an emergency meeting to be called in order to either repeal or amend the ordinance. Originally we all thought it would be just a repeal, right, which you needed 12 votes to do. And he came out late last week when he was talking about the rescheduling and then did an interview on Monday where he said, okay, so we're not gonna attempt to repeal it because that we don't know if we have the votes, and we don't really want to repeal it. We want some of the effects, but we don't want to violate the terms of our agreement or violate state law. So we're going to amend it to make sure that anything that could be in violation of those things is kind of gotten out of there while we're still managing to do the bulk of the policy. Trying to get the best of both worlds, right? Have your cake and eat it too. And so they voted 13 to 4 ultimately to approve Mayor John Whitmeyer's amended

Abbott’s Funding Threat Explained

SPEAKER_01 6:40

immigration ordinance, purportedly bringing an end to the weeks-long standoff with the state over more than, again, $100 million in frozen public safety funding. And uh, and this is what I'm just kind of talking about. The city attorney, that's Arturo Michael, he said that the amendment, which which makes really no major changes to the actual measure itself, uh, he said that the revised language was negotiated directly between the mayor's office and the governor's public safety office. Like that was the whole conversation was hey, is this enough? Hey, will this qualify? If we reword this and this is switched around, are we gonna get our money back? Are we gonna kind of knock off the investigation? And so a spokesman for the governor called using to vote to revise its ICE policy, a step in the right direction yesterday after initiating reckless policies that undermined law enforcement. He added that the governor expects full cooperation with GHS and will use every necessary tool to protect Texans. However, and this is where it gets kind of wild, hours later, so they've they've passed this amendment. Governor Abbott, as spokesman for his office, has come out and said, Oh, yeah, we're good. It's a step in the right direction after all this reckless policy. A few hours later, he goes on the Will Cain show on Fox News. And he said, the Houston Police Department, quote, has not agreed to fully comply with its state contract, warning the department could still cost Houston $110 million if it doesn't detain illegal aliens and encounters and notify immigration officials. Do you under I I want to make it very clear. I'm I'm glad that this is a hill to die on, right? I I'm actually I know that it impacts Houstonians and that it's a lot of money. I'm aware of that. I'm very glad, don't get me wrong, that finally the governor is, for lack of a better term, standing up to all of this. It's been long enough that all of our regional, all of our localities have just been kind of allowed to get away with it. You know, Dallas, Austin, we've talked about it. They have similar policies, that now they're of course also facing potential grant losses and what have you. But this has been a long time that that these major, these major areas, and this is this is true of states as well, but these major areas have been allowed to get away with essentially whatever they wanted. They they were allowed to do just about anything, especially when it came to immigration enforcement. They could say we're not going to cooperate. You guys remember back when we had sanctuary cities, where it they literally made it appear like a city on a hill, but a hill for illegals. Come here and you will be safe. We'll keep ice out. Right? You guys remember the Sanctuary City debacle years and years ago. This is very reminiscent of that. Except this time, one major difference is that it appears like the governor's actually willing, and and we get to debate whether it's for optics or uh, you know, who's kind of behind a lot of the push. But it doesn't really matter because this is a good policy to have. You're gonna follow state law, you're gonna follow the intent of the state law, and you're gonna follow it to the letter, or you're gonna lose everything you get from us. We're not we're not helping you if this is the kind of city that you're going to be. And I think that's a, by the way, a fair position to hold. I I don't think it's problematic at all that our governor I know people are saying, do you want the governor to have this sort of ubiquitous power over the cities? Don't you want local government to be the primary determinant for the for the lives of the people that live therein? No, actually, I don't. Do I think that in general local governments should be the most capable and competent when it comes to protecting you? When it comes to your daily life? Sure. Of course. Of course. Because their entire intent is to work on a smaller population scale of specific people. And that means there's going to be policy differences between someone that lives in Houston and someone that lives in in Alvin and someone that lives up in Conroe, and someone that lives over in Austin, and someone that lives over in San Antonio, they're gonna be they're gonna be vastly different ordinances and policies, uh, not that violate state law, and not that are necessarily that big a deal, but because we have different ways of life. Minor cultural differences. And so, yes, if the cities were great at their job and they truly cared about the citizens, they cared about the people, then yeah, I want them to have you know a level of authority. And they do, by the way. But if we're gonna start having a conversation about one of the main jobs of the federal government, which by extension makes it one of the main jobs, really, of making sure the state government need does has what it needs to continue, it comes down to immigration. That's one of the main jobs of the government to get that's one of the main purposes. You know, I've I've debated anarchists before, and they're actually, you know, sometimes they're pretty crazy. Okay, sometimes you talk to them and and they really are just, I just want my freedom to do whatever I want, but don't worry, I'll only do good. That's kind of the position. But they have pretty good answers, pretty reasonable answers for a lot of arguments. One thing they're really bad at is handling mass immigration. They don't really have an answer. How do you stop this from happening? Well, we band together. That's not enough. They'll find ports of entry. You need an organized task force to deal with this differently than you would maybe a self-defense scenario if you want to own the land that you are on, or you're gonna get invaded. That's what's gonna happen. And so when you refuse to cooperate with really one of the numbers, one of the number one roles of government, the government has stuck its little grimy hands into just about everything, right? Literally. From from fiscal policy, over taxation, LGBTQ issues, redefining marriage, what we're allowed to say and do and think. Right? The government has put its hands into just about everything it can. If the pie is out there, you'll see the government's handprint in that pie. And yet, one of the only real actual goals that the federal government that the government should hold, which is making sure we're not invaded, that no, they don't want to do it. No. No. We'll promote the LGBT World Softball Series. That'll be great, right? We'll we'll come out and do stuff like that. But protect the citizens from foreign invasion? No, we would never, we would in fact, not only are we not gonna protect them, but the people who are, yeah. We're gonna stand up to those guys and tell them we're not cooperating with you. That's where your city's at. And when the city gets to that point, I gotta be honest, I'm glad to see the state putting them in their place. That's what needs to happen. I I know that Mayor Whitmeyer doesn't want to deal with it in the sense that it it'll be very difficult for the budget and and what have you if if we don't get the money back. I almost think, though, uh that the left needs to learn a lesson here. Because they're they're largely in charge, right? They they as of now, for the most part, the city is sort of under their reign and control. And the reality is that so long, so long, they've just been allowed to do whatever they wanted. No consequences, no repercussions, kind of just a situation where eventually it just kind of blows by. Eventually, people just stop talking about it. Eventually, the the state government or the federal government just kind of ends up saying, fine, I guess you can have it back, without so much as a solution at all. And the left has gotten incredibly comfortable getting to win with no one to stand in their way, with no

ICE Arrest Numbers And Crimes

SPEAKER_01 14:52

one to say, actually, you're not allowed to do that. Right? It kind of reminds you of a criminal on a subway who's being derogatory and threatening people. And then you have a Daniel Penny, right? I know you've never dealt with a guy who does not appreciate the way that you're threatening other people and is willing to hold you in a chokehold until you s until you just, you know, stop. But clearly that needs to happen because no one's putting in your place. And and that's where our cities are at. That's where Austin is at, that's where Dallas is at. It's probably where San Antonio is at, that's where Houston is at. And I'm sure there's rural communities too that are, you know, not making national headlines that also have their own problems. I don't want to write it off and say that the rural communities are perfect. They're not. In fact, sometimes the blatant corruption is even, you know, sometimes even worse corruption-wise. But these big cities have essentially been allowed to play whatever games they've wanted. They've had free reign to just do things. Even things that the people don't like, that don't align with the the values of the state of Texas, and that don't align with the values of the great country that we live in. They've just been allowed to do it. And we're finally sort of reaching what appears to be a fever pitch, uh, which which, by the way, again, like credit where it's due, right? I uh I have admitted on this show, I will continue to admit, I think that Governor Greg Abbott is a moderate by basically any conceivable metric. I do believe that. I don't think that he's some, you know, far right sort of individual, some sort of, you know, right wing fella. I think he's far more moderate uh than people even often give him credit for. I think his optics are more are further right than his actual policy agenda. And but but that's not gonna stop me from saying when he does stuff like this, I'll I'll give a round of applause. I'm I'm willing to say good job. Because that's what needs to happen. These cities need to start understanding that they have to play by the rules, that they do not get to run this state into the ground, that they do not get to violate state law, that they do not get to violate trade agreements, and that they do not get to come in and throw away what should be the number one goal of a good government, the protection of its people. And when you do, when you decide that you're too big for your britches, and you think you get to pass an ordinance that does it, you can whine all the way back home afterwards that you warned and you told people this was a bad idea, but you voted for it. And your little amendment trick to reword things did not fix it. So feel free to go back to the negotiating table. See what Governor Abbott says, see you know what, maybe, maybe he'll change his mind. I hope he doesn't. Because I read some of the actual policy changes, and and they are legitimately just nothing. I I mean they're really just fake. They're just fake. The the policy changes themselves are ultimately relatively meaningless. Again, it was not a repeal, it was only an amendment. And and so the revised ordinance essentially just says that that um they redefine ICE administrative warrants. Uh they remove language that say the warrants don't technically qualify as what whatever, even though, again, that doesn't change actual policy of what the officers are supposed to do. Uh, it also I think it took away the word only from the detention language. And so it kind of broadens how long officers can hold them under their discretion, because before it was they may only hold them for the crime of which they're pulled over, but they said, well, what if they find another crime after they pulled them over? They find drugs. Okay, so we do need to actually write in that they don't get special protections for being illegal aliens. And so, like I said, they've made these very minor differences that that again, they only really amount to nothing. And so I hope Governor Abbott keeps keeps it going. Because if this is what we're gonna do as a sort of response, I know it's big news. They repealed, they they amended the ordinance. No, they didn't. No, they didn't. They tried to play a shell game and move around the ordinance and move around the words in order to get $115 million. I get it. I understand. $140 million is a lot of money. I'd play a shell game for $114 million. I understand. But let's not pretend like they did anything of value or anything of note because they didn't. And you know they didn't because it wouldn't have gotten 13 votes if they had. Okay. It would not have gotten all that Democrat support if it had actually done anything. It would have been much closer. So we'll see. I I I really do hope that Governor Abbott keeps going. I know that that's a mess. I know that it makes, you know, things difficult, budgets, taxation, et cetera. I understand that, but these big cities need to stop being allowed to just get away with everything and anything they want to do, especially when those things are incredibly damaging to the actual people of the city and this country. I I'm I'm fed up with that. With that being said, when we get back from the break, I said we're gonna talk a little bit more about ICE. The uh we have a an announcement coming out from ICE Houston uh that reported a certain number of arrests over a two-week enforcement period, which we'll talk about the arrests and how that went after we get back from the break. As always, if you would like to text in, the number is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. Hang tight, because I'll be right back with those numbers from Ice Houston after the break.

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SPEAKER_01 24:48

And ICE Houston, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement's Houston field office, announced that it arrested 277 people over a two-week period in April, who the agency says were in the country without legal authorization and had prior criminal convictions. According to ICE, the arrest took place between April 6th and April 17th and involved individuals with a combined 751 criminal convictions. The agency also reported that those arrested had previously entered the United States illegally, a total of 654 times. ICE said the group included individuals with convictions for a range of offenses, including child sex crimes, homicide-related offenses, robbery, drug trafficking, and assault. Among those arrested, the agency reported 17 people with child sex offense convictions, six with homicide-related convictions, and sixteen with drug trafficking convictions. The agency also identified 15 people as gang members or associates and said two of those arrested were foreign fugitives wanted for murder in other countries. Because of course, it's just the best and brightest coming here. Don't you guys know? It's it's just the best and brightest. It's it's the future engineers that are on their way across that border. Give them a life here and they'll show you. I know they're wanted for murder and and gang affiliations back in wherever the heck they came from. But don't you worry. They just want a different life here. Don't don't don't worry about them. Don't don't think about the fact that they're, you know, living next door to you and they might, you know, come into your house and hurt you. Right? Don't think about never mind, no, that was dark. Don't think about that. That's never gonna be an issue. Ever. Except it literally is because that's happening across our country, and these sorts of people are the ones carrying it out because they're allowed to be here. Why do we still have dozens of people in this country who are here illegally wanted on child sex acts? Why is that still a thing? Why are they still here? How are they? I mean, we we have, again, so much work left to do. Additional convictions they listed, driving while intoxicated, drug possession, assault-related offenses, robbery, burglary, theft. Uh, they also reported convictions for offenses like resisting arrest, fraud, hit and run, stuff like that. And so they released the names and details of several individuals during the operation. Uh, they released these names. Haiti Mercado Rodriguez of El Salvador, identified as an MS-13 gang member and foreign fugitive convicted in her home country of homicide related and other offenses. I said she was arrested April 9th and remains in custody pending removal. Min Doitong Nguyen of Vietnam, who I said was convicted of murder in Houston in 1991 and has had a longstanding removal order, he was arrested April 16th, same thing. Carlos Carmona Paloma of Mexico, identified as a foreign fugitive, wanted for homicide. He was arrested April 6th and has been since deported as of April 21st. Luis Hernandez Martinez of Mexico, who I said was convicted of murder in Upshur County in Texas, he was arrested April 9th and deported April 11th. And the last, uh the last big name they gave was Leobardo Nieves Vasquez of Mexico, who I said was convicted of intoxication manslaughter in Angelina County, Texas, and he was arrested April 7th and deported April 9th. I solicited of course multiple people with convictions for sexual offenses involving minors. That's Pedro Joel Martinez, Antonio Martinez Campos, Eric Eusebio Cortez, and Manuel Navaret Aralano. The agency said that they have been deported, some remain in custody, et cetera. And so I said the operation was conducted, of course, with assistance from federal, state, and well, they said local law enforcement partners. That might stop if you're doing a Houston operation. We'll see how that shapes up because there's a solid chance you're not going to get any assistance there. Um though, the Houston field office, just to be clear, uh for some background, I'm making a joke here about them not cooperating with the Houston Police Department. The Houston field office for ICE, it's because we're a major city, it actually covers something like 60 counties. Uh, I don't have the exact number, but it it's it's a ton. I think it goes all the way from like Beaumont to Corpus Christi and out towards Waco. It is a massive little area that we cover under the Houston Field Office. So they say it's Houston, but that's that's the whole, you know, Southeast Texas area that's covered. Uh, which makes sense. That's why we're able to do such massive. It wasn't like we had 277 child-convicted sex assaults from illegals here in Houston. It is the Houston field office, uh, but it's it spans far and wide. With that being said, this is what I'm talking about. I understand there are a lot of illegal aliens here who came to this country, committed no further crimes, at least not violent ones, want to work a job, want to make things better for their family. I get it, right? I a as a husband and a father, as really any man should have the drive to do, we as men desire to make life better. Right? We we want to work hard to provide an inheritance. The Bible calls us to do that. That's something that men have an innate desire to do is to work hard and provide well. Not just provide a little, provide well. And that's why we're willing to do more and more and more and take on more responsibility because we ultimately want the best for our families. We want better than whatever we have today. We want better for them tomorrow and the day after that. Right. So I do understand the position of an illegal alien who says, I want a better life. I also understand that I don't get to do whatever it takes to give them a better life. If I decide I want to give them a better life, so rather than doing it the right way, I'm gonna go rob a bank and I end up getting caught and going to jail, I don't get to say, Well, I just wanted a better life. Sure. And you stole somebody else's stuff to do it. When you break into this country, you're taking land from Americans, you're taking jobs from Americans, and you're taking the culture away from Americans. And that's wrong. And it's illegal, and you must face repercussions for that. But even if that were true, right? E even even if you know we could have the conversation about illegal aliens sticking around if they're not violent, if there's no right, we've already addressed that. They'd still need to go home. But the legend have you believe that everyone is like that, that everyone is just a happy, go-lucky, normal kind of illegal alien. They just they're not even you're dehumanizing them by even calling them illegal aliens because they're just people who want to work and want a good life. How about the 277 residents in two weeks from Wego to Beaumont? Are those just your run-of-the-mill non-dehumanized people? You got MS-13 gang members, convicted pedophiles, convicted murderers, hit and runs. These are the people that you're saying we should defend, that you're saying deserve to get to stay here, that you're saying should have a shot at keeping a future in this country? No. No. Absolutely not. In fact, if they are gonna stay in this country, there's only one way they're gonna do it, and that's by being buried in the ground here, actually. Because if you touched kids or you're convicted on murder, that we you're right. I actually agree with you, we shouldn't deport them. If you were convicted of touching children, or you were convicted of murder or hit and run, this sort of intoxication, which is really murder, here in the US, no, I actually do think that you should be put to death. For sure. I I I actually agree with the left. You should not be deported. I just take it a step further. You should also just be hung publicly so everyone is aware of what happens to you. Because this is this is insane. This is in our country. This sort of evil is in our country. And it's going to mean, by the way, regardless of who wins 28, right, regardless of where this country goes from here on out with the midterms and the next presidential election and and all that, regardless of all of that, you need to be aware uh that that that you have an obligation, you have a duty to protect your family, your home, and yourself. You have an obligation to do that given to you, by the way, by God, that you don't get to overlook and pretend isn't there, bury your head in the sand and say, hope the government saves me. No. You have an obligation to protect your family. And that requires a couple things. One, knowing how to shoot, right? And I've said this before. You know, you have rights, use them. Go to the range, go practice. You can even make a day out of it. Go with some of your friends. If you don't have friends, make some friends there and then go with them again another time now that they're your friends. Go to the range. Learn to shoot well. Practice. They have plenty

Texas Lottery Rigging With No Justice

SPEAKER_01 33:53

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SPEAKER_06 36:37

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

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SPEAKER_01 40:47

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. So let's get into this. Three years ago, you guys might remember, I think I reported on it something like two years ago. Three years ago, an international gambling ring aided by online lottery ticket resellers and the Texas Lottery Commission rigged a $95 million jackpot. The scandal, of course, entered mainstream in the early days of the 2025 legislative session and resulted in the end of the Texas Lottery Commission. They were like, okay, you're doing a terrible job. You're out of there. Fast forward to more than a year later, since that legislative session, and no justice has been meted out as of now. Invest, according to multiple sources, investigators have failed to follow up on low-hanging leads, by the way, leads that should be very easily traced down. Recent reporting out of Australia suggests that the man who claims to have quarterbacked the bulk purchase of tickets and the former head of the Texas Lottery Commission have not even been questioned about their roles in the scheme. Don Nettles, a longtime lottery watchdog and publisher of Texas Lottery Report, called the inaction shameful and directly named Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton in her criticism of the stalled investigation. Back in January of last year, Abbott ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate, and Paxton announced his own probe after public outrage over the $95 million win. To date, we have zero state authorities who have announced any criminal charges or enforcement actions which are tied directly to the scheme. In other words, nobody is being held accountable. Nobody is facing justice. They're not even trying to track down the Blizzard Face Justice, which I don't want to say it's weird or it's suspicious, but I will say it's weird and suspicious. Executives linked to one of the key players in the purchasing, Lottery.com, have been accused in legal filings and SEC actions of defrauding a church in California. Lottery.com itself and a businesswoman out in Florida. So they have a lot of issues. These funds have been cited as a potential source of funding, with clear prosecutorial action in Texas being completely absent. Civil litigation in Travis County remains ongoing. You have a lot a lawsuit by lot of Texas winner Jerry Reid, which alleges that the jackpot award violated state law. In his suit, he's claiming that he's the rightful winner of the jackpot. Uh wouldn't that be nice? A civil case in California and judicial proceedings emerging in Michigan are expected service to overlapping banking, corporate, and communications records, involving some of the same actors and issues, all that sort of stuff. Nevertheless, one thing that I think, and this is something that we're talking about, you'll incl you you can look at, say, the Texans for fiscal responsibility. They're sort of a a a watchdog of money. They're calling for an end to the Texas lottery. You know, you can't defraud people if you don't have the lottery in the first place. You can't have a fake jackpot winner if you don't have a jackpot. You can't have a rigged jackpot if you don't have one. And yeah, of course, there needs to be accountability. We we can't we can't move on and say end the lottery, we can all just have a good time. It still was fraud, right? It still was. As an obviously rigged game. And so we still need to find those people and hold them accountable for what they did. But after that, lottery's over. That's that's my two cents. I I'm I'm so done uh with the things, especially because this is not a conversation about, you know, again, I've said before, if you want to have a poker night with your friends, I have no problem. I'm not an anti-freedom guy. I I don't think that's up to the government. But when you have stuff that very clearly takes advantage, especially of lower income folks, uh like the lottery, and you can look at this in Louisiana as well. When you have these sorts of things that contribute to the cultural decay, that contribute to financial loss and hardship, there's just no benefit. Other than, of course, I guess the state gets more money that they don't need, but there's no there really is no benefit. And especially when it's being run so horribly that they're there it's just a total abysmal failure. I think it's time to put an end to it. With that being said, after the break, you guys know what time it is. We're coming up on the final segment of the first hour, which means that after this short break, we're going to come back. We're going to do the weather report covering everything going on, of course, today, uh, tomorrow, this weekend, and going into, hopefully going into next week, assuming I make it out of this weekend. We'll talk about it when we get back from the break. You're listening to Lone Star Conservatives, text in 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and I'll be right back. So stick around and we'll talk soon to wrap up the first hour.

SPEAKER_06 45:36

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SPEAKER_00 49:08

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Houston Weather And Storm Risk

SPEAKER_01 49:48

So, of course, the weather is now taking a bit of a warmer turn as we get into this morning. We're also seeing a return to drier conditions, by the way, following two days of rather wet and unsettled weather. Now, while most of the next several days are going to feature plenty of time that's dry, they do come with a major catch. Rising temperatures. It's late April, after all, and Houston has yet to record its first 90-degree day of the year, a milestone that as of recent years has happened as early as March. Nevertheless, could increasingly hot weather also bring the threat of some severe storms again? Well, today, starting on a pretty familiar note, uh, with patchy fog throughout the morning. Similar to yesterday, some areas could see dense fog develop around sunrise, which of course could prompt the National Weather Service advisory to to sort of come out and say, hey, fog, dense fog, watch out for it. Um, the weather should gradually improve through mid morning with fog clearing out by about 9 a.m. By the afternoon, clouds are also gonna thin out enough to allow for a warm and somewhat humid day. Temperatures are gonna climb into the middle to upper eighties across much of the Houston area, which would be right in line with late April norms, but of course, feeling a little bit steamier given the high humidity and coming off of some cooler days right behind us. Now, rain chances beyond the day are gonna drop considerably, though they don't drop entirely. Uh each day through this through the upcoming weekend features at least a small chance for a stray afternoon or a small evening storm. Uh, as is common during the warm season, daytime heating will be the primary driver for daily storm development. Now, a few streamer showers are possible through this morning, mainly east of Houston. By the afternoon, the risk for a stray shower will align itself mainly west of the Brazos River. For most of us, that puts our rain chances at less than 20%. Doesn't mean no, just means rare. An isolated storm risk is carried over into Friday and Saturday as well, but within a very important caveat, uh, a few atmospheric disturbances will pivot across Southeast Texas on those days. Those uh will be invisible from the ground, and they may be just enough uh to get a few strong storms going. The overall setup doesn't strongly favor widespread severe weather, uh, but one key ingredient will be in place. Uh it's called connective available potential energy. It's a kind of a measure of how much fuel the atmosphere has. Um, higher air like that uh means that it can rise more rapidly and build stronger thunderstorms. And so we don't expect wild widespread severe weather. There will be a possibility of a few stronger storms, especially north of Houston, as cemeters continue climbing toward the 90 degree mark this weekend. Now, with that being said, at the top of the next hour, we're gonna come back and talk all about Adrian Garcia and the update as to that court case, everything that went on with his apparently his dual appointments. We'll talk all about it. Stick around. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. Text in at 713-779-5978. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and I'll be right back with that update at the top of the next hour.

SPEAKER_05 52:52

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

Adrian Garcia Dual Office Ruling

SPEAKER_01 53:20

I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. It is a genuine pleasure to be with each and every one of you this morning. By the way, if you would like to text in during the show, I know, I know. Sometimes I can talk a little fast, sometimes I can get a little rambly, a little ahead of myself. If there's anything that you missed, anything that you want me to go back over, uh any questions you might have about something that we're covering, feel free to text in, let us know. The number is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. Now, we're going to kick off this segment holding a little local government accountable, but in a sort of weird way. And that that'll make sense once we get into this story, once you kind of understand what we're talking about. Because we're starting off the second hour, talking a little bit about Adrian Garcia. You guys know who that is, obviously. That would be our Harris County Commissioner. And we talked with Richard Vega, I believe it was last week, but it may have been the week before, kind of going over a lawsuit because he was appointed to a multi-county flood resilience board. Uh and he kept, by the way, his commissioner's court appointment during that, during all of that, which essentially gave him this sort of just reminds you of like a dual citizenship. Why why are you also a citizen of somewhere else? Shouldn't you have like sacrificed that? Why do you still have it? Kind of sends your your eyebrow up, kind of raises your eyebrow a little bit, wondering, are you fully loyal to America or do you have dual loyalty? Kind of kind of the same thing here. You're not supposed to do that, right? It's it's not good. Apparently, the the move to be at a dual appointment was illegal. The court has now found that it was illegal. And we're all thinking, yay, we did it, we got him. Only one small problem, hence why I mentioned it was weird. He will not be forced to resign from commissioner's court, according to the appeals court ruling. That decision uh came again. You you have Mark Golloby, we've had him on, Richard Vay, we've had him on. Uh they they kind of sued Harris County in August of 2024, alleging that his appointment to the Gulf Coast Protection District constituted a conflicting loyalty and should by law trigger an automatic resignation from Commissioner's Court. You by doing that, you're automatically done. Harris County attorney Jonathan Fombone argued in court that Garcia's appointment was illegal to begin with, and therefore void from the start. The First Court of Appeals agreed, ruled the move violated a common law incompatibility, prohibiting officials from appointing themselves to other offices. Therefore, Garcia's appointment was void and did not affect his resignation as a county commissioner. Now, Vegas said in a statement that he plans to appeal the decision to the Texas Supreme Court. He said our legal team is examining this matter at the highest level of the state judiciary, and we intend to continue forward with this process because we believe strongly that we have a legitimate case on behalf of the people of Harris County. Meanwhile, of course, you also have a spokesman for Garcia's campaign who said the lawsuit was nothing more than an attempt to overrule the will of precinct two voters. Um maybe but precinct two voters aren't the ones who broke the law, actually. If if I get elected president one day, I run to resident, I win the election, I'm in there. I'm I'm commander in chief. I get in there, and then I go in and I commit legitimate war crimes and I get impeached and removed. And people during the impeachment trial say, You removed the the the elected the people, what the people want. You were removed the guy who the people wanted. I think it would be fair to come out and say, No, we removed a criminal. The people did want him, and then he did illegal things that constituted his removal. That's how it works. If my boss, you know, hires me, and then I get arrested, and he says, Well, you're undoing. I hired him. That's the will of the people. Yeah, but he also committed a crime. Sorry. And so this whole claim, well, it was the will of the people that I be elected. Sure, they did vote you in. And then you went and you broke the law. It was an illegal appointment by going in and appointing yourself to another taxing authority. You did that. The people didn't do that, the people didn't ask you to do that, the people didn't elect you to do that. You did it of your own volition. You don't get to point then to the people and say, I was the duly elected commissioner. Sure. And then the duly elected commissioner broke the dang law. That's what happened. You are the one who did that, and you should be held accountable for it. Nevertheless, Grant Martin said, Republicans have tried for years to unseat Commissioner Adrian Garcia. After losing again and again at the ballot box, they're now wasting taxpayer dollars by filing frivolous lawsuits. I know the court literally ruled that he broke the law, but it's frivolous. Can we can we define that word for a moment? Can can someone pull up the dictionary uh and and define the word frivolous? Because I was under the impression that frivolous was some sort of uh something that described not having any serious value. It's pointless, really. A waste of time. It's a waste of time to hold elected officials accountable. Is that really the position of Grant Martin? That it is a waste of time, it is unserious to hold, even if ultimately the point of the lawsuit is not that he's unseated, but he's held accountable in some other way for this sort of blatant fraud, regardless of how that plays out, how that pans out, are we saying that it's worthless and and pointless to hold those who are in office to a higher standard? Not even a higher standard, to any standard. If we have any standard at all, then the law and abiding by the tenants therein are under that jurisdiction. If there's any standard at all, don't break the law should be it. If we had only one standard, I mean we didn't care if they were Christian, we didn't care if they cared about the people, we weren't concerned with their background or their inability to do a good job or their consistent issues with the budget, none of that was the standard, though all of those should be standards. If the only standard was you have to abide by the law while you're in the position, or even you can even strip it further. You're allowed to break the law while you're in that position. But but you could even have a smaller standard. The standard is only you're not allowed to use your position to break the law. Right? If you decide to break into a car unrelated, that was your personal thing. But if you break the law using your position, if that were the only standard, that would be the last standard left. And even that one they're calling frivolous. That should tell you how little they care about abiding by the law. It's rules for you, not for them. That's that is literally what they're saying. He said, Voters know and trust Commissioner Garcia's steady, responsible leadership. Maybe it's just me, but I I actually don't consider uh breaking the law to be steady or responsible. And maybe I'm old-fashioned. Maybe, maybe I'm a I'm a you know, 50-year-old in a 25-year-old's body, right? Maybe that's how it is. But I was under the impression that responsibility included your willingness to follow the law. I I thought that was a part of it. If you're gonna be responsible, right, George Floyd doesn't get to come out and say he was responsible and steady, right? That's not how it works. You don't get to break the law and then call yourself a steady and responsible leader, but that's exactly what they're trying to do. And so they said Garcia's they trust his leadership and they will continue to keep him in office. Now, the Texas Constitution bans public officials from holding two offices, right? We under we understand that. That's why the appeals court ruled the way they did. Common law incompatibility extends beyond that, drawing on judicial precedent to prohibit officials from appointing or employing themselves and from accepting positions with conflicting loyalties, which is exactly what Adrian Garcia did. Accepting a conflicted second role is considered an automatic resignation from the first under common law incompatibility. Vega and Mark Golloway both argued that since the Gulf Coast Protection District contract with Harris County, Garcia's appointment constituted a conflicting loyalty, and that he had effectively resigned from commissioner's court. The pair asked the court to make him resign and call a special election to replace him. They also asked that any three two votes Garcia decided on Commissioner's Court be nullified. The first Court of Appeals, however, uh said the first step in evaluating the claim was to determine whether the appointment itself was legitimate, and the court found that it was not. But here's here's my issue. And I'm not going to come in and say that I'm smarter than the appeals court. What I will say is just on the face, this doesn't make sense. Because if the case is that your appointment was illegitimate by nature of it being illegal, then the common law is literally pointless. Then that then that law that says then the first is null null and void, then there's no point in that existing at all. Because every appointment would be that way, right? If you el if you appoint yourself to a a second conflicting loyalty position, then by nature you you did something that was illegal. By nature you did that. And so in any case that you do that, well, then the whole point of the the first shall be resigned from is completely pointless. That's a pointless law to have. But I don't think so. I think this is a way to say, well, obviously he broke the law. Right. I think that's pretty clear, but we don't want to remove him. So how do we get away with doing that? How do we get around that? And so as a result, the court ruled that Garcia never truly joined the flood board, and thus he never held two offices at once because the joining itself was illegitimate and illegal. Now, to go give you a little bit of background, the Gulf Coast Protection District was created back in 2021. And it was kind of to take a regional approach to flood management. Uh, it's led by an 11-person board of directors, with one appointed by each of the five counties, Harris, Galveston, Orange Chambers, and Jefferson. And the remainder of those positions are filled by the governor. Garcia was named by himself to represent Harris County back in August of 2021, roughly a month after the district was first created. And so Harris County Flood Control Director Tina Peterson was appointed to replace Garcia back in August two years ago in 2024, the same month that the lawsuit was filed. They filed a lawsuit and they said, Oh, you know what? Uh that's a that's a good point. I'm gonna I'm gonna move out of this position. I'm gonna not do this anymore. Obviously, everyone knows that it was fraudulent. Everyone understands that it was illegal, but they don't want to remove him from the position because that would create a mess. That would be a difficulty. They don't want to remove him from commissioner's court because that would create a series of events that leads to, well, what about all of these votes? Are they all changed? Are they all different now? Yes. Is that a mess? Yes. But as I highlighted when we had Richard Vega on the show, it being a mess is not the fault of the of the justice system. You holding Garcia accountable to what he did is and the mess that that creates is not the fault of the accountability. It's the fault of the crime that was committed. You can't come out and say, well, that'll create a massive mess if we do this. No, the mess was created in 2021 when he joined the board. That's when the mess was created. And it was not created by us, it was not created by the appeals court, it was not created by the law itself, it was created by Adrian Garcia violating said law. That's where the mess was created. And I'm sick and tired of not actually holding our elected officials accountable. This happens over and over and over again. That our people who believe they hold power, by the way, all their power actually comes from we the people, they believe they hold some sort of power over the people. And as a result, when they do something that's illegal, rather than being held accountable to the fullest extent of the law as it was intended to be used, instead they just gloss over it. They say, Well, yes. Was that a violation? Sure. Yeah, right, it was, right? He's not allowed to do that. But since he wasn't allowed to do that, we're just gonna say he didn't do it. What kind of sense does that make? Since he wasn't allowed to, we're just gonna say that that that appointment itself, because it was illegal, was really just illegitimate. And therefore he didn't actually do it. Does everyone kind of see the game that's being played? They want to call the lawsuit frivolous. You know what's frivolous is coming in and saying, Yeah, you broke the law, you illegally did this, and we have law that specifically deals with cases like this. We're gonna ignore all. We're just gonna gloss over and pretend like it didn't even happen because it was illegal. It it's completely backwards from how anybody else would be held accountable. If the person was on the right, they'd be held accountable differently. But the left gets to get away with it. Now I we we are hearing, like I mentioned, that they're they're planning to appeal it to the Supreme Court. Hopefully, hopefully, what we see come out of that uh is is much greater success at the Supreme Court level. That the Texas Supreme Court looks at that and says, this doesn't make any sense. That's not how accountability works. We have common law to deal with sp situations specifically like this. Exactly what Adrian Garcia did, we have laws to deal with and we're going to use them. Right? We don't know what's going to come out of the Texas Supreme Court. It's at least a good step that we did admit that it was illegal, right? That's that's that's a good first step from the appeals court. At least they found that what he did was illegal. I don't like the conclusion of what that means. Right. I don't like where they took it, but I do like that they at least found it was illegal. That that should have been obvious. But we have due process for a reason. So we did find that. And now hopefully when this does get appealed at the Supreme Court, the Texas Supreme Court, hopefully what will be ruled on is for them to say, so you found it illegal, but then didn't follow the course of action that is done by that illegality. Because the course of action says that the moment he did that, he sh he was he was officially his first position was voided. And so any vote he took from that moment on is by nature voided. And again, is that gonna be a mess? Yeah. But it already is a mess because he did it. That's how it works. With that being said, after the break, we're gonna come back and we're going to touch on school choice

Texas School Choice Awards Breakdown

SPEAKER_01 1:07:36

because more than 42,000 students have received the initial awards, right? The application window ended a few weeks ago. Thousands of applications from Houston, Dallas, other major districts. We'll talk about what we know about those 42,000 awards, sort of why they applied, all that sort of stuff when we get back from the break. As always, if you would like to text into the show, let us know your thoughts, questions, concerns, maybe even a disagreement you've had. With something that I've said, you said you think Adrian Garcia shouldn't be voided because it would be too big a mess. And you agree with the appeals court. Text in, let us know your reasoning. The number is always open. The number is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. Hang tight, because we'll be right back with school choice after the break.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:30

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SPEAKER_01 1:12:37

So thousands of families in Texas's largest public school districts are seeking to leave or supplement their local campuses through the state's new school choice program, according to newly released data from the Texas Education Freedoms Accounts rollout. Now, acting comptroller Kelly Hancock announced that more than 42,000 students will receive award notices in the first round of the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program, with priority given to students with disabilities and their siblings. A closer look at the data shows where demand is concentrated. The state's biggest school districts. And it's not just, I don't think it's just a population issue. Houston ISD leads the state with 1,558 student applications, the program's top priority tier, followed by Dallas with 1,313, and San Antonio with 1,139. Other large districts, including Fort Bend with over a thousand, Cyprus Fairbanks ISD with 900, and Fort Worth ISD with 800, also saw a ton of people apply. And so the numbers suggest that even in taxes and large public school systems, thousands of families, many with again special needs students, are actively seeking alternatives. This should highlight something because the data before was, hey, just apply for school choice. And we know we had hundreds of thousands of applications, well over double or triple the amount that we actually had the funding for. We didn't really know where that was coming from. Which sort of families desired change. And I don't think it's just population density that's driving these large, large districts to see the most number of applications. I don't think it's just, well, of course you'd expect that. That's where the biggest population density is. I think it's more than that. I think that it's parents in these massive districts saying, I don't like the quality of education I'm getting out of this, and I want an alternative. And so Hancock put out a statement and said the legislature made low and middle income students with disabilities the first priority for the first year of school choice here in Texas, and that is exactly where this process starts. These awards put tens of thousands of Texas families one step closer to the educational path that works best for their children. Governor Greg Abbott also praised the rule out saying the program marks a major step forward for education in Texas. He said school choice funds being distributed to Texas families pave the way for Texas to become the number one state for education. These accounts will give parents the freedom to choose the best learning environment for their children, regardless of their income or location. I congratulate acting comptroller Kelly Hancock for his work on kickstarting the program, aiding in the success of so many young Texans and the future of our great state. So the first round of awards is heavily focused again on students with disabilities. According to a fact sheet, 63% of applicants in the initial awards group are students with qualifying disabilities, and 37% are siblings. So the first 42,000 literally just went to disabled families. That's where the first 42,000 went. Most of those students have documented needs. I think roughly 63% of those were verified using an active individualized education program. Now, while the program has been promoted as a way to expand educational opportunity, especially for underserved families, then it also highlights how families intend to use it. About 74%. Again, this this is over about three-fourths of the applicants are expected to enroll in private schools, with 26% selecting homeschool or other options. The income breakdown shows the program reaching both low and middle income households. Just over half fall at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, while 49% fall between 200 and 500% of the poverty level. The Comptroller's Office also noted that approximately half of the students of the first round previously attended public schools, while the remainder came from private or home school settings. Now, additional award notifications are expected in the coming weeks. Again, I think they're going to conduct a lottery uh next week, during the week of April 27th, determine which students in the next priority tier, primarily low-income applicants, will receive funding for the 2026 to 2027 school year. Students who receive awards will have, I think, until middle of July to accept funding and choose an option for where their funding is going to go. Whether it's going to be with a vendor, private charter school, or if you want to homeschool your students, whatever that sort of looks like. But I think this is actually massive data that people need to be looking at. Because the reality is that our public schools and and you can debate this as much as you'd like. You can say, well, we need to fix it. I agree. But the data is very reliable that our public schools are not good at crafting quality education for our children and our young people. It is it is an abysmal failure by any available criteria when it comes to education. And that's not even getting into the abuse and uh the lack of qualified teachers. That's not even getting into the issues of indoctrination and wokism, critical race theory, sexually explicit content in school libraries. All of those are real issues that are plaguing our public schools. But the number one issue, the number one driver is are your children going to be well educated in this particular position? And unfortunately, for years, the answer has been a very clear and resounding no when it comes to public school. By by, again, any metric. You look at test scores, you look at graduation rates, you look at career success, and so on and so forth. You're not crafting the best students you could be with the educational opportunity of public school. The government schools are not doing their due diligence in that regard. And parents are well aware of that. Turns out parents are very well acquainted with their own children. And so there's a reason that you have so many parents applying from these massive districts. And again, I don't believe that it's merely because these are the highest populated areas. I think it goes much deeper than that. I think it's that parents in these massive districts have come to the realization that these massive districts don't actually care about their children and are not dedicated to actually teaching them and educating them in the way that these children deserve. And parents know it. And now there is an option on the table to say, do you want to take them out? We'll give you the money that you need in order to enroll your child in a private school. We'll give you the money that you need in order to homeschool your child. Whatever that looks like uh for your particular family, whatever the needs are that your family has, we have those opportunities available. And uh three-fourths of them are saying, Yes. I I I want nothing to do with public school ever again. I I don't want anything to do with this system. It is a it is a total and abysmal failure. And we've been highlighting that on the show for years. That that is not a new position that I've held. Really, I've held that my entire life as a homeschooled student. I I had friends who attended public school, and I saw the educational cr I I saw the quality of the education system. I saw the things they were learning. And it was it was a a worse-taught version of something I had learned four years before everybody else. That was not because I was smarter or more gifted. It had nothing to do with it. It was because the education w was just terrible. It was because it was not oriented in a way to create students who were intelligent, who had critical thinking ability, who wanted who who were ambitious, who were dedicated, who wanted to learn. No, it was just can you test well? That was literally the only question. And even that, the answer often was no, you can't. It wasn't designed to teach anybody. It was designed to produce, oh, well, at least our test scores are good, but you couldn't even achieve that margin. You couldn't even get there. You couldn't the one thing that you you tried to do in an attempt to make yourselves look good, you couldn't even do that. And all of the available data coming out from the school choice rollout, the first round at least, has showcased the same thing. These massive districts that want to claim that they're doing a good job, these these massive districts that are not teaching your kids well, parents are fed up with it. And the moment that there was an opportunity for them at no cost to them, no added cost, because of course we pay property taxes and what have you, and then at no added cost to what they're already paying, be able to get that money back to send their students where they think their students deserve, immediately, how many people applied and said, I'm done with government schooling? I'm done with this terrible education. Hundreds of thousands of people. And by all our currently available data, three-fourths of them are just are just fed up. And they should be, by the way. That's not unreasonable. That's not crazy. They're not insane for being kind of fed up with this. The system was designed to do that. It's it really is. If you look at any design facet of the government school program, it's it it was almost designed to be. I don't know if you could do worse if you tried. The children are not educated, they're not able to critically think. When you go to a college and you meet public school stud people who were public schooled for their primary education, Charlie Kirk had to learn this very often. He was presented with it all the time. They're not able to think for themselves. They're not capable of forming their own thoughts and opinions. They're not competent enough to think through the issues in front of them and reach logical conclusions. They have no idea how to do it. This is why there's been a massive surge in in full grown adults who are saying, I don't know how to be an adult. I I don't want to grow up. I don't want to have to have responsibility and bills and a job. I'm not interested in any of that. I don't know how to do it because they weren't raised correctly. Because they were being raised by a government that doesn't care about them. And all of the data from school choice is showing that parents know the exact same thing we do, which is it's not working. With that being said, speaking of our schools, you know what we'll do in this segment. Before we're going to the record, we'll do we'll do it in this segment. Because we have this teacher, uh, an East Texas educator who's now under investigation for alleged misconduct with a former student. The educator worked for the Anderson Shiro Consolidated Independent School District, a two-school district in Grimes County, just northwest of Houston. Superintendent Sarah Barowicks notified families and staff about the investigation just about a week ago and said that the employee is no longer with the district, according to a report. Barrowicks said the district took immediate action to ensure students' safety and well-being in accordance with board policy and law. Barowicks said as soon as we received this information, we immediately contacted the Grimes County Sheriff's Office and they initiated a formal investigation. We are fully cooperating with law enforcement as they work through this process. The Grimes County Sheriff's Office said no arrests have been made and no other details are available. But investigator Shannon Acosta urged parents to ask their children if any staff member had contacted them outside of school or in an inappropriate way. And so you also, by the way, have another East Texas teacher, also under investigation out in Russ County. Uh they said a Henderson ISD teacher was accused of indecency with the child by exposure, but asked the state for permission to withhold more information, citing again an ongoing criminal investigation. And as we know, this happens, uh has happened hundreds, if not thousands of times across the state of Texas. It's right here at our front door. And then you wonder why so many parents want to leave. These things are ongoing. On top of the terrible education that we already covered, on top of the sexually explicit content found in school libraries, on top of the obvious indexination, how many s how many how many school districts still do things like Pride Week and have Ramadan displays? This is consistently going on. Parents don't want that for their children. They they want better because they know their students deserve better. Their children do deserve better. You throw all those things into this mixing pot, and then on top you sprinkle in a little sexual abuse, and you wonder why the school is failing. You wonder why people don't feel comfortable sending their children on the school bus to get to school. Because it's not safe for them. It's not safe spiritually, it's not safe educationally, and it's not even safe physically. There's no metric by which you can judge public school system and say, well, that's good. No, it's not. At every level, it's bad. It's been, again, a failure. And these cases where you see these sort of sexual abuses ongoing in our school system, again, they just highlight what we all already know, which is the public school is a terrible, terrible place to send your child. That it is one of the worst things I think that you can do for your child is to send them away for eight hours a day to be away from their family. Again, I've highlighted it before. Do you know how many hours from I don't know if it's kindergarten or first grade through twelfth grade that you will lose out on being able to be around your children and to raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord? You're going to lose out on 15,000 hours of time that you could have spent with your child educating them correctly. That's what you miss out on. All because it's free. You miss out on the the availability to protect them from these would-be abusers. You lose out on the ability to r to raise them to know the truth, to think for themselves, to be capable and competent people. You throw all of that away the moment that you enroll your child in public school. And really the only argument I've ever heard, the only argument I've ever heard for why it's better is, well, because homeschoolers will be antisocial. I promise you, if you do it right, it's not true. Are there antisocial homeschoolers? Yeah. But let me be clear, there's also antisocial public schoolers. That's that's not an uncommon feature. That that's a generational thing more than anything. Social media is a much larger contributor to antisocial behavior than any sort of school choice program, than any sort of decision you make on whether your kids will be at home to be educated or be sent off to abuser playgrounds. All right? That it has nothing to do with that. If you if you educate your children right, you keep them off of social media and you do things the way that you should, you have extracurriculars, they're allowed to have friends, you go to church, they're not going to be antisocial. I I am evidence of that. If you've ever met me in the bed, I am the direct opposite of antisocial. I have zero issues with sociability. I promise you. My whole job is to speak publicly. That's what I do. I was homeschooled. It has nothing to do with that. There is no reason at all that you should be sending your children away 15,000 hours throughout the course of their life by the time they're 18 to receive a subpar. It's not even a subpar, a terrible education. And for what? Nothing. And now that school choice is available and there's funding, because the only argument before was, well, I can't really afford it. Now that they can't afford it, how many students desire to leave? Hundreds of thousands of them. When we get back from the break, we're gonna switch gears a little bit and we're gonna talk about this approval of a $39 million deal for Harris Center for Mental Health to run the Edo Homeless Shelter. We'll talk about kind of where that deal came from, why that's happening, and what that'll look like when we get back. As always, if you would like to text into the show, let us know your thoughts on anything we're covering, or by the way, anything we're not, if there's a story that I haven't covered that you want to hear more about, either from our local area of Texas or a national issue, feel free to text in and let us know. The number is 713-779-5978. One more time. That is 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. You are listening to the Lone Star Conservative, and I'll return with that homeless shelter update after this short break.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:44

Patriot Talk 920 is your Houston base camp movement. I'm Todd Starns, and join me weekdays at 11 on Patriot Talk 920 and online at Patriot Talk920.com.

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SPEAKER_01 1:31:53

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star

Teacher Misconduct Allegations In Schools

SPEAKER_01 1:31:57

Conservative. So, Houston City Council also, so on top of the whole ICE ordinance amendment thing, they also approved a pair of ordinances allowing the Harris Center for Mental Health to operate the city's new homeless services facility in East Downtown, advancing a central piece of Mayor John Whitmeyer's plan to address street homelessness. The measure authorizes both a lease for the city-owned property and a thirty-nine million dollar deal for the Harris Center to run the facility through April of 2029. The facility is expected to include up to 222 beds and serve 750 people per year with onsite employees working to transition people into longer term housing. Now, Whitmeyer praised city departments and partners involved in the deal effort, calling the project a model that has drawn attention from the U.S. Department of Housing and urban development officials. He said even the HUD officials yesterday, as they looked at the homeless issue across the nation, they like our holistic approach and our public safety emphasis. Whitmeyer said the facility will include a law enforcement presence, including Houston Police Department, homeless outreach officers, and a sergeant stationed on site, which he said reflects sensitivity to surrounding neighborhoods. The Harris Center will operate the facility as a 24-7 easy entry site for people experiencing homelessness. The funding will provide for facility operations, utilities, on-site food preparation and meal service, supply, security, pet care maintenance staff, and case management services. Remember, I said the site is the first of several facilities the city plans to open with the goal of getting the homeless out of our neighborhoods and off the streets of Houston. Now, of course, when it was first announced last year, the project had a bit of critique. Residents near the site in East Downtown raised concerns about public safety, the concentration of homeless services in the area, and what they described as a lack of community input and engagement during early planning stages. And so, of course, some residents voiced frustration, uh question whether the facility would bring more disruption to the area that it would actually help. And so city officials have defended the site's election arguing services need to be located near areas that already have high concentrations of unsheltered people, and that the facility is designed to move people quickly into housing rather than serving as a long-term shelter. And so again, funding for the project comes, I think, $30 million in federal disaster recovery dollars and nine million dollars from the city's End Street Homelessness Fund. And now we've got another $39 million coming from the county level. I don't necessarily have an issue with a lot of these projects. I think they're good. I think we should have a goal if we're gonna be a first world nation of as much as possible ending homelessness. Right? Not just because we believe in some sort of social welfare, but because it's bad for everybody. Right? It's not just bad for the people who are homeless, it also happens to be bad for everybody else. Because in these areas, culture decays, criminality gets worse, people become desperate, and desperation leads to crime. All these other sorts of issues are tag-ons to the driving issue of homelessness. But I can tell you right now, if you want a solution to the homelessness problem, and and I'm not a politician, I I am not running for office, I'm not making this a campaign issue. What I am saying is if we want to discuss realistic success, if we want to have a conversation about what actually drives fixing the problem at hand here, if we want to say, hey, we want to fix homelessness, I can promise you that more shelters are not going to be the the thing that ends it. I I don't think it's a bad contributor. I think it might be helpful and beneficial in certain ways. But if we want to discuss, hey, what's actually going to end homelessness? What's actually going to make this problem significantly better? You can look at examples where it's already happened. I I've highlighted this before. Take a look at Singapore. Singapore does not have a massive homelessness issue. It's imperfect. There's things going on behind the scenes that we don't know about, but it is significantly better than what we have here in the States. Do you want to know what Singapore and I would argue this is causation, what they've primarily done that I think has eradicated homelessness? Not only do they have very specific laws uh for for homelessness, and it you're you know, it really is illegal and and you will go to jail. But the bigger thing that I think Singapore has done that we're just unwilling to do is have stricter punishments for people who deal drugs. I know you guys have seen the homeless population. These are not people that are down on their luck, having a rough day. These are people that are that are they're begging for your money and everyone knows it so they can go buy more drugs. And especially with the fentanyl crisis where it is from all the mass immigration and drug trafficking, people are dying out there. And and homelessness is is becoming chronic. Where it's not you're down on your luck for a month. You lost your job, you got evicted, and you're looking for a new place. It has become a lifestyle choice where people are making the money they need to make by by begging on the street corners to get their drugs, they have their tent, they're good to go. If you want to really like eradicate homelessness, I promise you one of the driving factors is the drug epidemic. And I'm not talking about the war on drugs and some useless motif that doesn't actually do anything. I'm talking about actually going to town on the drug dealers, people that are manufacturing, producing, and distributing the drugs from the street level dealers all the way up to the big cartel facilities. Everybody involved in this mess needs to be put to death. Maybe, maybe 20 years down the line, we can go back to some sort of public flogging for a first, you know, first infraction. But as of now, it is such a major epidemic, they just need to be given the death penalty. You need to go after the people that are producing the problem. Going after it and saying, well, we'll give the homeless place to live for a time. That's great. That's excellent. Good on you. It's not gonna change anything because people are getting in that position because of drugs. You could just eliminate the the the precursor. You could eliminate the driving problem by eliminating literally the people who are causing it. Going after the drug dealers that are causing death, loss of productivity, and mass homelessness. Just execute them. That's not a hard conversation to have. It's very justifiable by any metric. I think it's fair to say that we need to start having much stricter punishments for those

$39 Million Homeless Shelter Deal

SPEAKER_01 1:37:53

those people who are destroying our country, the people who are producing and dealing those drugs. Put them, put them away forever in the ground. That that is the solution. And do it publicly, by the way, just as a side note, because you want to scare all the other drug dealers into saying it's not worth it to do it anymore. If they see their friend publicly hung, they might think, you know what, I don't want to wind up like that. I'm gonna cut it out. With that being said, to wrap up the show when we get back, we're gonna talk about a judge. That is Judge Speedland Gonzalez, who has resigned amid disciplinary action. This Democrat judge had apparently already been suspended for unlawfully detaining an attorney, and that has now moved on to a full-blown resignation, which we'll discuss after the break. And again, the high standards we should have for our officials. If you let next in, this is your final opportunity. The number is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779 KYST. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. I'll be right back to wrap up the morning show after this short break. So stick around and we'll talk soon.

SPEAKER_06 1:38:59

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

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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 gonna 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.

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Why is my Medicare supplement so expensive?

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My prescription drug plan sucks.

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SPEAKER_16 1:42:00

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SPEAKER_00 1:42:30

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Judge Resigns And Gets Banned

SPEAKER_01 1:42:58

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. So this judge, Speedland Gonzalez, and know that is not the fastest mouse in Mexico, unfortunately, uh it is a terrible judge. Judge Rosie Speedland Gonzalez has agreed to resign from the Bayer County Court 13 bench. She was suspended without pay two months ago by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct following her indictment for i unlawfully restraining an attorney. She was first elected to the court back in 2018 when she became, and you had to know it was going to go bad from then, the first publicly homosexual judge elected in the county. I don't know that that's a bragging point. Nevertheless, uh this all kind of started back in December of 2024 when she reportedly handcuffed a defense attorney during a courtroom dispute. Uh, and and that was uh obviously wrong. Everyone knew it was wrong at the time. And so uh this week, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct released Speedling Gonzalez's voluntary agreement to resign from judicial office in lieu of disciplinary action. So we'll kind of cut our case out because she's saying she'll she'll just leave. So we don't have to do anything. The agreement is signed by Speedling Gonzalez and the chair of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. It states the parties agree that the allegations of judicial conduct could result in further disciplinary action, and that the parties to this agreement are dis desirous of resolving these matters without the time and expense of further disciplinary proceedings. Upon heading the agreement, she resigned her duties as a condition, they're not gonna pursue further discipline. Right. And I think that's a fair settlement. Importantly, here's what's great actually. You're gonna love this if you're anything like me. The agreement states that Speedling Gonzalez, quote, shall be forever disqualified from judicial service in the state of Texas, including sitting or serving as a judge, standing for election or appointment to a judicial office, and performing or exercising any judicial duties or functions of a judicial officer, including the performance of wedding ceremonies. In other words, she's done. Not only did she resign, but the agreement says she can never serve again. And that is what I've been calling for for our elected officials forever. That if we're gonna have any punishment at all, when you're when you're accused of these sorts of things, on top of whatever the punishment for the base crime is, on top of that, you we should be able to say very clearly and distinctly, you are never allowed to hold that position again. You've thrown it away, you've thrown it in the garbage, you've violated the terms of your agreement, you're banned from ever running. And they did that in this case. That'll do it for the show today. Thanks so much for tuning in. You've been listening to the Lone Star Conservative. Lord willing, I'll be back bright and early for the last show of the week tomorrow at 6 a.m. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your Thursday. Should be a little less rainy, a little warmer, and Godspeed.