Pratt on Texas

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Texas electric grid has the attention of both the House and Senate but both sides of the legislature are missing the mark in their proposals and it will cost ratepayers dearly. Expert Bill Peacock joins us to discuss the issue of the ERCOT grid and why politicians can’t seem to address the actual problem. Peacock says Senator Hall is the one putting forth the correct approach.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Anti-Wimp Update: Couple burglarizing parked cars stumble into flying lead.Last week’s oil and gas rig count saw a rise in Texas.Candidate for Abilene City Council, Place 3, Cynthia Alvidrez discusses her campaign in the last segment.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Much from the legislature from gun rights and border damage compensation to local government overreach and taxpayer funded lobbying. House committee inserts ban on D.E.I. into higher education budget and Austin newspaper reporter misrepresents what D.E.I. is in practice. This is the piece I mentioned from The Texan on Rep. Burrows’ bill on keeping local government regulation from encroaching on state authority: https://thetexan.news/local-preemption-bill-draws-businesses-municipalities-unions-in-house-committee-hearing/Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.I wonder how long the U.S. Border Patrol chief will have his job after being truthful with Congress? That an other border and immigration related news including: Border Patrol chief says there have been 1.5 million ‘Gotaway’ illegal aliens during Biden’s term.We get closer to which elected official in Lubbock County is protecting the seedy “game rooms.” Why run down the commissioner pushing a fix (Corley) with untruths about the ordinance if you are not doing the bidding of the worst of the “game room” operators?And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Since it’s wall-to-wall coverage in media, I want you to understand what is the very legitimate argument by plaintiffs in the Amarillo federal court against the FDA and it’s pushing of a drug for chemical abortion. Despite media shading the plaintiffs, the case, and the judge as pure partisan political actors, there is a serious issue at stake and it is about government agencies following the law and their own rules all of the time, not just when it suits the political views of the people involved. Key stories to read:FDA Lacks Authority to Approve Abortion Pills, Claims LawsuitTexas Case Could End Access to ‘Dangerous’ Abortion-Inducing Drug NationwideOur Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Pressure pays off and pro-homosexual activism resolution pulled from House calendar. And other news from the 88th Texas Legislature.Pilot accuses Bryan’s mayor of holding plane for ransom after emergency landing. Story turns into a look at insider sweetheart deals unrelated to the plane.State Rep. Tepper has problem with Lubbock County not acting on the seedy, and everywhere it seems, “game rooms.” Again I ask: What elected officials in Lubbock County have been protecting these places and are any of them on the take from such?And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Tons of key bills in the House and Senate are getting hearings and earning press coverage. I’ll cover some of the bills I’m watching.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Fox News reported yesterday evening: Chinese ‘Long March’ rocket reenters Earth’s atmosphere uncontrolled, disintegrates over Texas. Expert on space Robert Zimmerman discusses the event.The Texas Education Agency will assume control of Houston ISD in June. It’s not a new situation and the district has fought this off since 2019, losing at every turn, but that has not stopped the Houston Chronicle from running a scare-the-public campaign. In reality the only people who will be affected negatively are some insiders at the district.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: The war between the Texas House and Senate over how to provide property tax relief is fully underway. It also seems to be a bit of a war between some fiscal responsibility groups too.Texas House Takes First Swing in Property Tax Appraisal Reform Fight With SenateAppraisal Caps Overwhelmingly Rejected in HB 2 House HearingThe big problem is all sides are working themselves hard on something that doesn’t truly address the problem. Both bodies should be working on a permanent phase out of the school M&O property tax.Frankly we should adopt both the Senate and House items: M&O compression; lowering the appraisal cap to five percent and applying it to all real property; increase the homestead exemption, and; adopt the exemption for business personal property. That could all be done except that leadership decided to keep tax relief to a number well below what revenue projections show they could do.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.KCBD: Commissioner Corley to reintroduce game room regulations following shooting, hours after proposal was tabled.I ask bluntly: Who, if anyone, is on the take to protect these places? Why have two DA’s, a sheriff, and others been so inactive on this issue for years – years after the legislature gave them the tools to manage the issue? Who is on the take? Or, why are they so lazy so as to have ignored the issue for a decade?And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Border and illegal immigration related news from both the border in El Paso and the statehouse in Austin. On Sunday about a thousand rushed the U.S. border checkpoint at an El Paso border crossing. And Friday, the legislative bill filing deadline, several serious bills were filed to change and further enable Texas’ response to the invasion along our border with Mexico.Texas House Looks to Create Border Protection Unit, Invoke ‘Invasion’ Clause to ‘Deter and Repel’ Illegal AliensTexas Files Bills to Remove Migrants Crossing Border, Stiff Prison Terms for Re-EntryOur Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Texas Senate School Choice Plan Grants $8,000 Student ESAs, $10,000 Reimbursement for Rural Districts | The Texan. If reporting is correct it is outrageous to call school districts “rural” with up to “20,000” students! Additionally, though it may be needed to pass the choice bill, paying districts $10,000 per student they lose is setting up encouragement for them to shed students instead of get better to attract students. Districts end up with more money per student anyway if they lose students because they then divide their property tax take among fewer pupils.Governor Abbott names three Texas Tech system regents: Cash, Culp, and Sweatt.Podcast Extra segment on the Battle of Refugio – the 5th segment in the podcast of today’s show.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: It is bill filing deadline day in the 88th Texas Legislature. I’ll review numerous items before lawmakers with special emphasis on:Dispatchable Power Floor, Reliability Fees Among Senate’s Priority ERCOT Reform Slate | The Texan, moreRep. Burrows a co-author of the bill to replace Chapter 313 with another program to handout school tax breaks to companies. The list of sponsors reads as an attendance role for the RINOs.Texas Lawmakers Seek to Replace ‘Elections Administrators’ with Elected Officials in Large CountiesSenator Sparks Files Local Government Debt Reform Aimed at Amarillo’s Spending ManeuverTexas Senator Files ESG Crackdown Bill Prohibiting ‘Social, Political, or Ideological’ InvestingOur Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Employment data: Texas Adds 48,600 Jobs in January, Marks Five Percent Growth in Jobs Added Over the YearVisa, Mastercard Suspend Plans To Track Gun Purchases After BlowbackAbilene’s police chief resigns after a very short term in the Key City.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: It’s back to the border debacle with two important court rulings; one federal from a State of Florida lawsuit and the other in Texas court about taxpayers footing the bill for attorneys for illegal aliens in civil cases.Plus comment on the Matamoros murders of Americans the media decided to share and why you hear so little about how bad it really is in much of Mexico at the moment.Also, Chip Roy has a few good things to say about a potential Biden policy change on the border while Democrats fume over the same.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Local sales tax numbers show cities are mostly rolling in new cash and at a rate greater than inflation.Comment on how Texas Tech’s athletic director and administration has a now long and shameful history of not standing up for the people they hire. They don’t side with the adults trying coach but reflexively side with and coddle the immature, self-entitled athletes who cannot take direction. It goes back to the Mike Leach travesty.Even the slow to see reality Texas Capitol insiders now admit what I’ve told your for years is a problem with non-leadership. Don’t get sidetracked over Speaker versus Lieutenant Governor fighting as that’s long been the case and is part of how the system is designed in a bicameral legislature. The real admission is that the other part of the triangle, the Governor, doesn’t do a whole lot to provide leadership.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:(This show originally aired on 9 February 2023.)Our Lone Star story of the day: We talk with John Sailer of the National Association of Scholars about Texas Tech’s D.E.I. political litmus test used in hiring.The Texas Tribune reported:During a meeting of the Texas Senate Finance committee Wednesday, Texas Tech University System Chancellor Tedd Mitchell said that the situation in the biology department was not a universitywide policy.“I don’t believe in litmus tests of any kind,” Mitchell told the committee. “It’s no more appropriate to ask them if they’re a Christian or Muslim. When we find out something like that has occurred, we stop it.”I find it very hard to believe Mitchell because otherwise, what is the purpose of the university founding and funding the inherently political D.E.I. movement with its Texas Tech University Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion? That office doesn’t teach classes, it teaches faculty and staff, university-wide, how to be D.E.I. political warriors. Note part of its own description: “We establish our culture through shared practices and traditions, through our artwork and our food, through our words and our actions, through our practices/policies/procedures,…” [Emphasis added.]Governor Abbott has sent a letter reminding our state agencies not to use inherently political D.E.I. in hiring but of course the press constructs the story to lie to the public about what is D.E.I. and frames it as an attack on “diversity.” D.E.I. is not about promoting diverse points of view otherwise people would not be penalized for disagreeing with some of its Leftist political tenets – as people were at Texas Tech, proven in Sailer’s reporting.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.7 current or former City View ISD officials have been arrested.Huge scandal of “persistent failures to report sexual misconduct by administrators at City View ISD of multiple incidents over an eight-year span” leads to arrest of seven current and former administrators. More..Speaker Phelan releases Texas House committee assignments. I will comment on these more in coming days but for today: How does Rep. Hubert Vo get a Speaker appointment to the Elections Committee?! Has anyone bothered to learn how he got the seat from Talmadge Heflin?And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

A special edition of Pratt on Texas from the Gonzales Memorial Museum sitting 10 feet from the “Come and Take It” canon with museum director Gary Schurig. (Originally aired in May of 2022).https://www.gonzales.texas.gov/p/departments/gonzales-memorial-museumwww.PrattonTexas.com