It’s time again for our weekly political round up and analysis of national, state and local political stories. On this edition of Houston Matters, we discuss the latest on reports that fired FBI Director James Comey wrote a memo recounting President Trump asking him to shut down the Bureau’s investigation into the President’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, as well as allegations that Trump shared “highly classified” information with Russian officials last week, a day after dismissing Comey, amid the FBI’s ongoing investigation of Trump campaign officials’ engagement with Russia, and Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election. We also discuss Senator John Cornyn of Texas removing his name from consideration to be the next FBI Director, and a number of developments in state politics, as the Texas Legislature enters the final two weeks of the 85th regular session.

Joining us to offer their analysis this week are three guests: Brandon Rottinghaus, professor of political science at the University of Houston and co-host of Houston Public Media’s new podcast Party Politics, Mark Jones, political science fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, and Elizabeth Simas, assistant professor of political science at the University of Houston.

Also this hour…

Lunch Shaming

When children in public schools can’t pay for their lunch, it can be an awkward moment where they are given an alternative, cold lunch — or no lunch at all. Some are calling this practice “lunch shaming” because students will typically get their lunch items before paying, and then when they can’t pay, the food is thrown away or taken from them. Feed the Future Forward is a local charitable organization that is looking to alleviate this issue by paying off any outstanding balances for student lunches, and some school districts in the area have partnered with the group to use those donated funds. To learn more about how the public school lunch system works and what’s being done to provide for students, we talk with Kenny Thompson, organizer of Feed the Future Forward, and Darin Crawford, Food Services Director for Cy-Fair ISD.

Extremely Shorts Film Festival

For 20 years, Aurora Picture Show has presented its Extremely Shorts Film Festival, showcasing hundreds of short-form film and video works. The festival features films from all over the world, each of which is required to be less than three minutes long. This year’s festival is May 19-20. We learn what’s in store this year — and hear a few clips from some of the curated films — as Maggie Martin talks with curator Mary Magsamen.

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