Texas
Fed up and fired up: Texas Republicans meet in a climate of mistrust, conspiracy and victimhood
![Fed up and fired up: Texas Republicans meet in a climate of mistrust, conspiracy and victimhood](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/XQ6JuaPxYUrOAr9_Nkhy7IpgFgc=/1200x630/filters:quality(95)/static.texastribune.org/media/files/5d3f4cc178bc156575408f119e413f41/RPT%20Saturday%20BV%20TT%2001.jpg)
Join The Transient, our day by day e-newsletter that retains readers up to the mark on probably the most important Texas information.
HOUSTON — The Republican Social gathering of Texas has managed each lever of state authorities since 2003, and notched main victories final yr on voting, redistricting, abortion, college curriculums and different long-held priorities. Delegates on the get together’s conference this week expressed confidence that their get together will retake no less than the U.S. Home this November, and stated the top of abortion in Texas is all however settled.
However the temper was not celebratory. The Texas Tribune spoke to greater than 25 attendees who described feeling besieged by a tradition that’s more and more anti-family and anti-Christian.
Above all, attendees stated they have been fed up. Fed up with elections they consider are rife with fraud. Fed up with their very own politicians — together with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, whom they rebuked for collaborating in bipartisan talks on gun laws — for being open to compromise with Democrats. Fed up with the persecution of Christians with conventional values. Fed up with a credulous mainstream media that spouts liberal speaking factors and disdains anybody who disagrees as racists or bigots. Fed up with undocumented immigrants, even these fleeing struggle and poverty, for making the most of public advantages. Fed up with the training of their kids, particularly on issues of historical past and race. Fed up with specialists, beginning with Dr. Alfred Kinsey, who they stated are “sexualizing” college students earlier than they’ve hit puberty.
“The enemy is coming in and making an attempt to vary our society, change the very cloth of what made America nice they usually’re doing it by going to the youngsters,” stated Conny Moore, a 75-year-old retired pharmacist and pastor.
Amongst elected officers talking on the conference, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz stole the present, receiving standing ovations on Friday as he thundered towards “radical leftists” driving a cultural assault.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz spoke on the Texas State Republican Conference in Houston on Friday.
Credit score:
Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune
“They need to tear down the church,” he stated. “They need to tear down our colleges. They need to tear down our households. They need to tear down our religion. They need to tear down our values.”
Sid Miller, the state agricultural commissioner, stated the wrestle for America wasn’t even partisan anymore.
“The battlefield was between Republicans and Democrats,” he instructed the conference on Saturday. “Then it was between conservatives and liberals. Now the battlefield has as soon as once more modified. We should improvise, adapt and overcome to defeat our enemy. This new battlefield, this new battlefield is between patriots and traitors.”
This was a crowd acquainted with The Nice Alternative, the idea that immigrants are getting used to switch white, native-born People, and The Nice Reset, supposedly a plan by international capitalists assembly in Davos, Switzerland, to impose their environmental and social targets on the world financial system and limit what individuals can eat and personal. Fox Information didn’t come up a lot; One America Community and NewsMax appeared way more influential.
Conspiracy theories abounded. Anne Meng, a middle-aged nurse-practitioner in The Woodlands, stated she believed the Could 24 bloodbath at Robb Elementary College in Uvalde was “a ploy by the federal government,” and that “cops have been instructed to face down.” (The police delay in confronting the gunman, who killed 21 individuals, has been extensively criticized.)
Tammy Lake, 52, who lives in one other Houston suburb, Magnolia, and is a senior gross sales engineer for a software program firm, stated she believed that Donald Trump can be rightfully restored to the presidency “by the top of the yr.” She didn’t specify how.
The decision declaring that Biden “was not legitimately elected” because of “substantial election fraud in key metropolitan areas” in 5 states — presumably, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — handed with none actual debate, an indication of how highly effective Trump’s unfounded declare of a stolen election continues to resonate with the get together devoted.
Chris Corbett, 66, a member of the get together’s legislative priorities committee, was attending his sixth get together conference. He stated the state get together as soon as revolved round restricted authorities and free markets however has turn out to be extra culturally oriented, he stated, as voters awaken to the threats to their values.
“We’re seeing much more cultural conservatism occurring, it is a little bit extra populist,” stated Corbett, who lives in Flower Mound and is a author and researcher for public coverage and nonprofit teams.
A lot of the cultural points attendees and audio system railed towards handled the LGBTQ neighborhood, specifically transgender people.
Gov. Greg Abbott, who’s looking for re-election in November, referred to as on child-welfare investigators to look into households which have allowed their kids to hunt gender-affirming care, together with using puberty blockers, towards the consensus of main medical associations.
However this was not a conference smitten by established information. The group cheered Robin Armstrong, a Texas Metropolis physician who has given sufferers unapproved COVID-19 remedies, together with hydroxychloroquine. Its platform describes homosexuality as an “irregular way of life alternative,” a view that has light in a lot of America. The platform described gender dysphoria as a uncommon psychological sickness, a place not backed by mainstream psychiatrists or pediatricians.
Merchandise on the market on the Texas State Republican Conference in Houston on Friday.
Credit score:
Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune
Vincent Gallo, 60, the proprietor of a small building firm in Denton, stated Democrats and a few Republicans are engaged in a “redefinition of actuality” by accepting transgender people and calling on others to do the identical.
“That’s being pushed on to different individuals by the guise of variety and inclusion,” Gallo stated.
The educating of important race principle, a tutorial method to the research of racial inequality, was additionally a principal concern amongst attendees.
“The entire precept of what you are educating is a plot to place our individuals towards one another, and to position the emphasis on the unsuitable issues,” stated Moore, the retiree from Borger.
All through the week, attendees gathered in periods targeted on these cultural points. One was titled “Threats to Households — Institutional Insurance policies Adversely Impacting Youngsters and Households — What’s Subsequent.” One other was referred to as “Defeat Essential Concept, Marxism and the Sexualization of Our Youngsters.”
Attendees have been additionally in lockstep of their views on election integrity. A number of stated that in-person, watermarked, hand-counted, sequentially numbered paper ballots have been the one reliable technique to conduct an election (regardless that delegates themselves used Scantron ballots to vote on the platform planks, and the outcomes received’t be recognized for days till the ballots are tallied in Austin).
The conference included three screenings of “2000 Mules,” a film that depends on discredited proof to say there was widespread fraud within the 2020 election. A number of attendees floated conspiracies about poll harvesting, election machines and mail-in ballots. On Friday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick stated his precedence when the Legislature returns subsequent yr is to “restore voting illegally from a Class A misdemeanor to a felony.”
Legal professional Basic Ken Paxton additionally defended his lawsuit difficult the election ends in 4 states that voted for Biden. The U.S. Supreme Court docket rejected the lawsuit for lack of standing.
“We didn’t win,” Paxton acknowledged on Friday. “To at the present time individuals hate us for what we did. However I can let you know what. If I needed to do it once more, I’d do it simply the best way we did it.”
Paxton’s feedback drew cheers from the gang — a mirrored image of how a lot the get together loyalists worth their leaders preventing for them, even when the outcomes don’t go their means.
“Candidates, you might want to fulfill your job and your pledge is to serve the individuals, not your individual agenda,” stated Gary Hulsey, 68, an engineer from Haslet.
Not everybody supported the acute partisanship on show.
“Looking for bipartisan commonality throughout the get together, that’s his proper,” Patricia Almond, 57, a retiree from Porter, stated of Cornyn. “As Republican voters, we have now freedom of speech as effectively, however it does not do something to convey the get together collectively.”
One delegate, David Gebhart, urged towards a plank calling homosexuality a deviant way of life alternative. “We’re the Republican Social gathering of Texas, not the Westboro Baptist Church,” he stated. His movement was rejected.
One other delegate, Robert Bartlemay, balked on the decision declaring Biden’s win illegitimate, saying the G.O.P. ought to look ahead and concentrate on electing a Republican president in 2024. Folks round him booed and hissed.
There have been stirrings of dissent over a call to once more exclude the Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBT political group, from the exhibit corridor, a call that Donald Trump Jr. criticized on-line. (The Log Cabin Republicans did host a three-hour reception on Friday on the conference’s sidelines.)
The prediction that maybe most united the delegates was that this November’s midterm elections can be a massacre for Democrats.
“It isn’t simply going to be a purple wave, it’ll be a tsunami,” Cruz stated.
Sewell Chan contributed reporting.
Be part of us Sept. 22-24 in particular person in downtown Austin for The Texas Tribune Competition and expertise 100+ dialog occasions that includes huge names and others you need to from the worlds of politics, public coverage, the media and tech — all curated by The Texas Tribune’s award-winning journalists. Purchase tickets.
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
Texas
Fort Worth's Sky Elements Will Be Droning North Texas with Fourth of July Celebrations
![Fort Worth's Sky Elements Will Be Droning North Texas with Fourth of July Celebrations](https://s24806.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Sky-Elements-record-setting-2023-July-4th-drone-show-Photo-Sky-Elements.jpg)
A moment from Sky Elements’ record-setting 2023 July 4th drone show [Photo: Sky Elements]
Last month, the Fort Worth-based drone light show company Sky Elements put their dazzling nighttime sky skills on national TV with an appearance on “America’s Got Talent,” earning a “golden buzzer” from Simon Cowell himself.
The 400-foot-tall, 300-foot wide display in the skies outside the the show’s studio featured a rocket liftoff and an image of Cowell in the sky as a waving, space-walking astronaut, capped by the AGT logo.
“It was really patriotic,” Cowell told the Sky Elements team after the demonstration. “And I think the way you told the story, the use of music, whether you’re 3 years old, whether you’re 100 years old, I think you’re absolutely going to love that audition.”
You can watch that AGT clip here for a cool, behind-the-scenes look at how the team’s drone show takes off.
See for yourself this coming week
Or you can watch Sky Elements in action yourself all over North Texas in the next week:
Tomorrow, Saturday June 29 at Toyota Stadium, Sky Elements will give a performance during FC Dallas’ 7:30 p.m. game against FC Cincinnati.
On Wednesday July 3, Sky Elements will perform Fourth of July shows in two local cities. The first will be the Denton Independence Day celebration at Quakertown Park, with “flight times” at 9:15 p.m. and 11 p.m.
The second will be held Wednesday during day 1 of a 2-day Sparks & Stripes celebration in Irving, with a drone and fireworks show at 9:20 p.m. at Levy Event Plaza over Lake Carolyn.
First drone light show to get FAA fireworks approval
![](https://s24806.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Pyro-drone-show-by-Sky-Elements-Video-still-Sky-Elements.png)
“Pyro drone show” with fireworks on drones by Sky Elements [Video still: Sky Elements]
In May, Sky Elements announced that it had become “the first U.S.-based drone light show company to receive FAA approval to attach fireworks to drones.”
The company had been working on obtaining the waiver for 26 months before the FAA finally granted its approval. The FAA green light allows Sky Elements to legally attach and launch fireworks from drones during their shows, creating what they call “pyro drone shows.”
It’s not the first time Sky Elements has made history. On Fourth of July 2023, the company snagged a Guinness World Records title for the largest aerial formation of words created by drones (by using 1,002 drones). Then last December, the company broke two more Guiness World Records with a 1,499-drone show in North Richland Hills.
And when Major League Cricket held its historic opening night last July in Grand Prairie, Sky Elements was there to mark the occasion with a drone light show.
Not just all over North Texas—all over the U.S., too
The DFW shows coming next week are just a glimmer of the stunning amount of events Sky Elements is booked for across the U.S. You can check out the company’s master list of performances by going here—including a patriotically astounding amount of shows it’s doing around this year’s July 4th.
Get on the list.
Dallas Innovates, every day.
Sign up to keep your eye on what’s new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth, every day.
Texas
Massive dust plume from Sahara Desert to bring hazy skies to Florida, Texas
![Massive dust plume from Sahara Desert to bring hazy skies to Florida, Texas](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1024/512/FOX-Model-Wide-with-Dust-Tracker.png?ve=1&tl=1)
A new tropical disturbance is now being monitored for development in the eastern Atlantic Ocean just in the wake of Invest 95L, which is on the cusp of becoming a tropical depression or Tropical Storm Beryl.
HOUSTON — A massive plume of dust from Africa’s Saharan Desert is blowing across the entire Atlantic Ocean this week, set to reach the shores of Florida and Texas in the coming days and casting a haze over typically blue skies.
The plume is currently forecast to skirt South Florida late Friday night into early Saturday morning, then push into the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend.
Eventually, the plume is forecast to move into Southeast Texas Sunday into Monday, with Corpus Christi and perhaps Houston likely to see some of the effects.
Coastal communities along the Florida Peninsula and the Gulf Coast are accustomed to seeing plumes of Saharan dust over the summer, which can impact air quality, produce colorful sunrises and sunsets, and reduce the chances of precipitation.
182 million tons of dust a year carried away from Africa
As daily triple-digit heat bakes the Saharan Desert, hot, dry air rises from the surface and carries fine particles of dust from the sands. That dust-laden air climbs to the highest reaches of the atmosphere, where winds called the Easterlies or Trade Winds (blowing from east to west) carry that dust about 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean into the Western Hemisphere in what’s known as the Saharan Air Layer (SAL).
5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE SAHARAN DUST PLUME
According to NASA, about 182 million tons of dust leave Africa every year, though that amount can vary depending on the amount of rainfall south of the Sahara region.
![FOX Model Wide with Dust Tracker](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/668/376/FOX-Model-Wide-with-Dust-Tracker.png?ve=1&tl=1)
Depending on the amount of dust being carried by the plume, air quality can be drastically affected. This means that people who have certain types of breathing problems can experience difficulty. People in the path of the plume can also experience eye, nose and throat irritation because of the fine dust particles in the air, according to WebMD.
The dry air from the hot, sandy desert also works to suppress tropical development and significant plumes of dust and dry air are common in the Atlantic during the first two and a half months of the hurricane season.
![Saharan Dust Trend](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/668/376/Saharan-Dust-Trend.png?ve=1&tl=1)
However, the current situation is a bit unusual in that there is quite a bit of tropical activity percolating in the Atlantic even with a significant dust layer.
Invest 95L and another tropical disturbance just to its east are holding positions just south of the dust layer, and are feeding off available moisture to their south to skirt the edges of the dust layer as they trek west.
However, the dust layer may become an important variable in the storms’ future development depending on their track.
Texas
The Growing Financial Strain of Charter School Expansion on Texas Public Schools
![The Growing Financial Strain of Charter School Expansion on Texas Public Schools](https://www.texasaft.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/image-13.png)
Every year, the State Board of Education (SBOE) approves new charter schools following a comprehensive application, review, and public hearing process that culminates in late June. The commissioner of education also approves dozens of new charter schools through the charter expansion amendment process each year, a process which lacks SBOE input and involves minimal accountability and transparency with no public notice or hearings.
To support SBOE members in making informed decisions about approving or vetoing new charter applications, Texas AFT collaborates with a broad coalition of public education advocates to analyze Texas Education Agency (TEA) data on school districts’ finances, enrollment, transfers, and cost of recapture. The rigorous analysis we provide to SBOE members aims to:
- Estimate the current revenue loss experienced by school districts within new charters’ proposed geographic boundaries due to students transferring from their home school districts to charter schools (“charter transfers out” or “charter transfers”).
- Project the additional estimated revenue loss these districts would face if new charters were approved based on their requested maximum enrollment.
- Connect charter expansion with other relevant fiscal impacts, such as districts’ costs of recapture. Every new charter student increases districts’ recapture payments to the state that fund charter schools.
This data-driven approach not only aids SBOE decision-making but also supports local advocacy efforts. School district officials, parents, educators, and community organizations use this information to voice their concerns to the SBOE, especially in districts facing rapid charter school expansion and its negative fiscal impacts. Across Texas, charter expansion is contributing to growing budget deficits, forcing many districts to consider closing neighborhood schools and holding Voter Approval Tax Rate Elections (VATREs) to balance their budgets.
In response to public education stakeholders from across the state voicing their concerns, the SBOE vetoed two of the five Generation 29 charter applications in its preliminary vote on Wednesday, June 26, including two of the three new charters that our union has been most concerned about. One of the proposed charters was to be located within Arlington ISD, the school district with the ninth highest total estimated loss of revenue to charter transfers from the 2019-2020 through the 2023-2024 school year. These results were upheld in the final vote on Friday, June 28.
Texas AFT extends the use of this district-level data to our legislative advocacy. During legislative sessions and the interims between them, we meet with current and prospective Texas Legislature members to discuss public education advocates’ concerns about charter school expansion and share data on how expansion affects the school districts they represent. This data-driven approach is effective to demonstrate the fiscal impact of charter schools even among legislators who were initially unconcerned about charter expansion. These hard facts help counter misleading claims made by charter school marketing campaigns and the many well-funded lobbyists employed by the charter industry.
Detailed analyses of charter expansion’s fiscal impact on affected school districts can be found on our website. The results of our updated analysis on estimated revenue loss due to charter transfers are alarming. School districts statewide are experiencing a large and growing drain on their resources due directly to charter expansion, as charters enrolled about 8 percent of Texas students (ADA) in FY 2023 but received about 20% of Foundation School Program state aid for public education.
Major urban districts like Houston ISD and Dallas ISD continue to experience significant fiscal impacts due to unlimited charter expansion, while smaller school districts have seen a comparatively small number of charter transfers translate into a large impact on their budgets. School districts in the Rio Grande Valley and the Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, El Paso, and Austin areas have seen the most charter expansion over the past several years. Charter schools are rapidly expanding into rural Texas as well.
These figures represent a significant financial burden, diverting resources that could otherwise enhance educational services and student experiences in public schools. The scope of this issue is expanding, as evidenced by the increasing number of affected districts and the rising total estimated revenue losses:
- 2019-2020: $2.82 billion (at least 297 districts affected)
- 2020-2021: $3.25 billion (at least 309 districts affected)
- 2021-2022: $3.32 billion (at least 312 districts affected)
- 2022-2023: $3.56 billion (at least 322 districts affected)
- 2023-2024: $3.60 billion (at least 325 districts affected)
When considering these figures, it is also important to realize that the number of charter transfers, total estimated revenue loss, and tally of affected districts are undercounts because the number of charter transfers out from a school district are sometimes not available (i.e. masked) to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Masked numbers are typically small although larger numbers may be masked to prevent imputation.
However, the available data reveals a growing financial strain on public education resources:
- The number of districts experiencing revenue loss due to charter transfers increased from at least 297 in 2019-2020 to at least 325 in 2023-2024.
- At least 377 districts have faced some level of revenue loss due to charter transfers over the five-year period.
The implications of these findings extend beyond district finances to the communities they serve. The growing financial pressure could lead to:
- Increased class sizes, layoffs, and cuts to pay and benefits as districts struggle to balance budgets without necessary funding.
- Reductions in extracurricular and academic programs, particularly those serving economically disadvantaged communities where charter expansion has been most prevalent.
- Potential school closures, which have devastating effects on local communities and economies, leading to longer commutes for students and job losses for educators and support staff.
The trends of increasing revenue losses and the broadening impact across more districts are unsustainable and demand immediate attention from policymakers. Action is needed to mitigate further adverse effects on public schools and ensure a more equitable approach to public and charter school funding. The data clearly shows that the financial viability of many districts is at risk, which has severe implications for educational quality and equity across the state.
These stark realities underscore the need for robust, data-driven discussions among policymakers, educators, and community stakeholders. As we advocate for a more equitable approach, we must consider:
- Implementing a more rigorous approval process for new charter schools and expansions, with greater emphasis on their potential impact on existing public schools and taxpayers.
- Developing funding mechanisms that do not disproportionately disadvantage public school districts when students transfer to charter schools or create a funding advantage for charters.
- Increasing transparency in charter school operations and finances to ensure they are held to the same standards of accountability as public schools.
- Investing in public schools to enhance their ability to meet diverse student needs, reducing the perceived need for inefficient, parallel systems such as charter schools or private school vouchers.
- Establishing a moratorium on new charter schools and on the expansion of existing charter school networks through charter expansion amendments.
- Conducting a comprehensive study of charter school impact on public education, including the fiscal impact on public school districts, the state budget, students, school employees, and taxpayers.
Texas AFT remains committed to using data-driven advocacy to protect and strengthen our public education system. We call on all stakeholders – legislators, educators, parents, and community members – to engage in this critical conversation about the future of public education in Texas. By working together and making informed decisions based on comprehensive data, we can ensure that all Texas students have access to high-quality education without compromising the financial stability of our public school districts.
The challenge before us is significant, but with continued advocacy and collaboration, we can work towards a more equitable and sustainable educational landscape for all Texas students to thrive.
-
News1 week ago
Read the Ruling by the Virginia Court of Appeals
-
News1 week ago
Tracking a Single Day at the National Domestic Violence Hotline
-
Fitness1 week ago
What's the Least Amount of Exercise I Can Get Away With?
-
News1 week ago
Supreme Court upholds law barring domestic abusers from owning guns in major Second Amendment ruling | CNN Politics
-
Politics1 week ago
Trump classified docs judge to weigh alleged 'unlawful' appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith
-
Politics1 week ago
Newsom seeks to restrict students' cellphone use in schools: 'Harming the mental health of our youth'
-
Politics1 week ago
Supreme Court upholds federal gun ban for those under domestic violence restraining orders
-
Politics1 week ago
Trump VP hopeful proves he can tap into billionaire GOP donors