Y’all-itics early release: June 12, 2022

That is the state of public education in America today. School safety is under such threat, many educators say it is all they think about. And after the Uvalde tragedy, it certainly has the attention of students, parents, teachers, lawmakers and just about every Texan there is. While Democrats push gun control, Republicans push the “hardening” of schools. Can common ground even be found? In this special, early release edition of Y’all-itics, we turn to an expert in public education in Texas, Austin ISD Superintendent Dr. Stephanie Elizalde, who will soon take over the same job with the Dallas ISD. The experienced educator who’s worked in some of the largest school districts in Texas tells us whether the proposals being pushed by Republicans would work, from single entrances to arming teachers to random safety checks. She also explains the steps she thinks we should take to keep our kids safe and return to the core mission of public education. It is a wide ranging and engaging conversation led by WFAA anchor/reporter Teresa Woodard, who took over for the Jasons (they are both taking some much needed family time… and we hope you are too during these difficult days).

Guest

Dr. Stephanie Elizalde, Austin ISD Superintendent

Rural Texas counties that are inland and politically conservative have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid that Congress set aside for populated coastal communities that are often underserved. Federal lawmakers had never set aside billions of dollars just to help Texas communities hit hardest by Hurricane Harvey prevent another disaster. But a federal investigation revealed that not only did communities in need get nothing initially, the plan that Texas used to distribute the money was discriminatory.  Some of those dollars, for instance, were going to build a road between a Home Depot and a Wal-Mart in a community hundreds of miles from the Gulf Coast rather than to install better drainage in Houston. So, the Jasons called up David Wheaton, the Advocacy Director at Texas Housers. His organization sounded the alarm and filed the complaint that launched the federal investigation. And they’re now trying to claw back cash owed to some of the least privileged neighborhoods in Houston and surrounding coastal areas.

Guest

David Wheaton, Texas Housers Advocacy Director

www.texashousers.org

Imagine if you get your COVID-19 vaccine through a patch. No needles or syringes. And the patch stays stable at room temperature for months making it easier to ship to low and middle income nations. This is the future of COVID vaccine research and some of the best work in the world is being done inside a lab at the University of Texas at Austin. Their interest piqued, the Jasons called up lead scientist Dr. Jason McLellan, whose work has been integral to all of the leading vaccines against COVID. But it’s where this field is headed that’s truly exciting. They’re trying to figure out a way to go from a genome sequence of a virus to manufactured vaccine in only 100 days. That would be three months, instead of the already historically fast ten months it took to manufacture the COVID vaccines. And even that speedy timeline was only made possible through the work of McLellan and his team. In this episode of Y’all-itics, you’ll hear the stories behind the work that’s saved millions of lives across the globe. And wait until you hear why McLellan’s bid to develop a universal coronavirus vaccine was rejected… FIVE years ago.

Guest

Dr. Jason McLellan, Scientist/University of Texas Professor

Extremes are now more extreme. Record highs and lows are constantly being broken. And the water is already starting to rise along our coast. Scientists say it’s not longer a projection. It is now reality in Texas. The United Nations released an alarming report on climate change earlier this year. And the lead author is from the University of Texas. So naturally, Y’all-itics called her up. And Camille Parmesan very matter-of-factly told the Jasons the goal of the report wasn’t doom and gloom, but factual presentation.

And she says looking strictly at the numbers paints a startling picture. Climate change is not only speeding up, its impacts are more severe than scientists thought even five years ago. But Parmesan says you already know this if you survived the Big Freeze that crippled our power grid for days and left hundreds dead in 2021. We can no longer say “this doesn’t happen in Texas” because it does now.  The Jasons also sit down with award winning WFAA journalist David Schechter who discusses his most recent investigations into climate change in Texas. Things are changing so rapidly, even tornado alley might now be moving.

Watch David’s Reporting:

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/west-texas/planet-warming-effects-behind-oil-production-west-texas/287-5eba6b44-9d84-4d36-836c-d032a02ac53d

https://www.wfaa.com/article/tech/science/climate-change/is-tornado-alley-shifting-what-is-dixie-alley/287-c027113c-752b-4cfd-8d50-5c32394bdf11

IPCC Report: www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/

Guests

Camille Parmesan, UT Professor/IPCC lead author

www.jsg.utexas.edu/researcher/camille_parmesan/

David Schechter, WFAA Reporter

Some of the fallout from Russian’s invasion of Ukraine is now only 250-miles away. But it’s not in Texas. It’s above our heads, up in space. The Russian Federation is threatening to abandon the International Space Station. And it’s a threat NASA must take seriously. Russia is one of five international partners on the ISS, along with NASA, the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada. And all four partners outside of Russia are having lengthy and serious discussions about a Plan B. But if Russia does bail on the ISS, would it just drop out of the sky? And how could NASA even begin to make up the loss? In this episode of Y’all-itics, the Jasons call up former Astronaut Chris Cassidy, who’s trained extensively in Russia, with Russians and on Russian equipment. He says one of the first steps following a collapse in cooperation would be to simply close the hatch between the two modules. It would then quickly get complicated. But Cassidy tells the Jasons he thinks the Russians need us more than we need them. And he explains how it might change business at Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center near Houston, TX.

Tens of thousands of criminal cases are backing up in courtrooms all across Texas. Dallas County Commissioners say their county is at the point of crisis due to the backlog… and they’re blaming judges. In fact, John Wiley Price says if you average all 17 felony criminal judges, they’re only holding around 12 trials a year. That’s half a normal year. And Commissioners are so frustrated, they are about to start naming names in an effort to “motivate” the judges to clear more cases. In this episode of Y’all-itics, the Jasons meet up with veteran and award winning WFAA reporter Rebecca Lopez. Rebecca’s been following this issue for years and she recently discovered the backlog is about to cost Dallas County tens of millions of dollars. And she has stories about this backlog happening all across the state. Rebecca also tells the Jasons about the growing problem with judges allowing violent offenders to be released on minimal bond.  

Watch Rebecca’s reporting:  

www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/dallas-county-commissioners-say-some-dallas-county-judges-are-not-clearing-dockets-fast-enough-creating-huge-backlog/287-d3b87245-5500-448f-8547-bf1195bc99c3

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/dallas-police-chief-upset-over-some-violent-offenders-being-released-after-bonds-lowered-by-judges/287-72be5665-6c2d-4b71-bc2d-97e29f8806a2

If you visited downtown Dallas 20-years ago after 5pm, you would have found yourself in the middle of a dead zone. But over the next two decades, downtown Dallas added 20+ acres of parks, a feat no other downtown can match. Four priority parks are the centerpiece of this effort: West End Square, Pacific Plaza, Harwood Park and Carpenter Park, which celebrates its grand opening this week. In this episode of Y’all-itics, Jason Whitely and fellow Dallas resident and WFAA anchor Chris Lawrence have a conversation with Amy Meadows, the CEO of Parks for Downtown Dallas, the driving force behind the greening of Dallas. Amy says the effort has made downtown Dallas the envy of the nation and she shares a cold one with Jason and Chris in the middle of the all of the action and growth. And we learned Carpenter Park added a feature that’s never been downtown before. We think you’ll be as stunned as we were when you hear what it is.

Guest

Amy Meadows, CEO/Parks for Downtown Dallas 

Doesn’t it just seem worse this year? Many of us are still in sticker shock over our property appraisals, so this episode is all about how to reduce the amount of property taxes you pay. Turns out, your odds of winning that protest might be greater this year than ever before with half of the houses in Texas potentially overvalued. Wheeler is back for this one as the Jasons call up Chandler Crouch, a realtor and an expert on protesting your property tax value. Chandler explains how to not only play defense in this process with the Central Appraisal District, but also go on the offensive. But the Jasons also zoom out and talk about how to reform this system politically. Texas’ property taxes are among the highest in the nation and home values have easily jumped double digits in Texas’ major cities. So, what exactly are lawmakers going to do to help us? We recently extended an invitation to Gov. Abbott to join us and have not yet heard back from his campaign staff. But his Democratic challenger this November, Beto O’Rourke, took our call even after testing positive for COVID-19 and explained his plan to lower the state’s skyrocketing property taxes. After all these years, can that even be done?

Guests

Chandler Crouch, Chandler Crouch Realty

FreeTaxProtest.com

Beto O’Rourke, (D) Candidate for Texas Governor

Will Texas Governor Greg Abbott run for president in 2024? Will he win re-election this November? What drives the 64-year-old politician and expert fundraiser? Does he get along with Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick? In the May edition of Texas Monthly, executive editor Mimi Swartz carefully and comprehensively lays out the political rise of Greg Abbott and asks the question; how much do Texans really know about Greg Abbott? He is running for his third term as the state’s leader after serving three terms as attorney general. Mimi joins Jason and guest host Teresa Woodard to talk about how Abbott’s past is shaping his future.

GUEST:

Mimi Swartz, Executive Editor at Texas Monthly

READ: https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/who-is-greg-abbott/

Texas simply fails when it comes to taking care of foster children. Sure there are success stories that should make us all proud. But the state, admittedly, has too many major problems with it and no one has indeitified a workable solution. WFAA’s Cynthia Izaguirre has covered this issue for years. On this episode, Cynthia joins host Jason Whitely for a frank conversation. They called Heidi Brugel Cox, a family law attorney with firsthand knowledge of the state’s system. And Cynthia and Jason got state Representative James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, on the line, as well. Not only does he chair the Texas House Human Services Committee which oversees the state’s child welfare system in Texas, but Chairman Frank has also fostered and adopted two children. So, how does Texas finally fix this? Heidi said the most obvious starting place is something no one is doing.

Guests

State Rep. James Frank, (R) Wichita Falls

Heidi Cox, Family Law Attorney