McKINNEY — Alexi Kavrazonis, the owner of Wash Guys Lube Auto Center in McKinney, has been doing state inspections for years, handling about 25 to 40 a day.

“The safety portion of your inspection checks your tires, your brakes, your lights, your mirrors to make sure that your car is safe for driving on the road,” said Kavrazonis.

But starting Jan. 1, it won’t be a requirement before registration for non-commercial vehicles.

“I didn’t like it… not for the seven dollars that it cost the consumer but for the safety concern,” said Kavrazonis.

Emissions tests will still be required in the state’s 17 largest counties, including Dallas, Collin, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, and Tarrant counties.

“You’re only checking for the pollution. They’re only caring if the car is polluting the air, but in the meantime, they’re forgoing the safety of every driver on the road,” said Kavrazonis.

He worries the lack of inspections will make Texas roads less safe.

“You could have a car next to you, the tires are bald, especially when it’s raining. He won’t be able to stop on time. There are a lot of concerns,” said Kavrazonis.

But supporters of the change disagree. State Senator Bob Hall sponsored the bill.

“It has no purpose and has no useful benefit,” said Hall. “Windshield wipers don’t cause accidents, and it’s a stretch to say a turn signal would cause an accident.”

Kavrazonis says you can always bring your car into your local car shop to make sure your car is road-ready and safe.

“The onus of responsibility is now on every single driver. If they have a broken tail light, their signal lights don’t work, or their tires are bald, they could literally get pulled over by the police,” said Kavrazonis.

State inspections are still required for commercial vehicles. The Insurance Council of Texas said it likely won’t affect insurance rates because companies don’t have any record of the inspection or inspection results, and it’s not a factor when determining individual rates.

Kinder’s Texas Bowl

LSU (8-4) vs. Baylor (8-4)

2:30 p.m. CST Tuesday (ESPN)

NRG Stadium in Houston

2 Previous appearances apiece for Baylor and LSU in the Texas Bowl. Baylor lost to Illinois 38-14 on Dec. 29, 2010, and defeated Vanderbilt 45-38 on Dec. 27, 2018. LSU defeated Texas Tech 56-17 on Dec. 29, 2015, and lost to Kansas State 42-20 on Jan. 4, 2022.

2 First-team All-Big 12 inside linebackers for Baylor in 2024 – Matt Jones and Keaton Thomas. Thomas has 107 tackles and Jones has 103 this season.

4 Players in the nation have at least 525 receiving yards and 240 punt-return yards this season, including Baylor WR Josh Cameron. Cameron’s average of 20.7 yards per punt return is the best in the nation for any player with at least 14 returns, and he has 44 receptions for 643 yards and nine TDs this season.

4 Seasons as LSU’s defensive coordinator for Dave Aranda before he became Baylor’s head coach in 2020.

6 Consecutive victories for Baylor. Since a 43-21 loss to Iowa State that dropped the Bears to 2-4, Baylor has beaten Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, TCU, West Virginia, Houston and Kansas. The Bears have never finished a season with seven consecutive wins.

6 Victories and eight losses for LSU in bowls against opponents from the Big 12 and its ancestral conferences. The meetings started with a 35-0 loss to Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 23, 1950, and continued most recently with a 42-20 loss to Kansas State in the Texas Bowl on Jan. 4, 2022. LSU has a 13-10-1 overall record against Big 12 opponents.

10 Consecutive Texas Bowls have matched SEC and Big 12 teams, including Tuesday’s game. Oklahoma State defeated Texas A&M 31-23 in last season’s game to boost the Big 12’s winning streak to three games and lift its record to 6-3 in the meetings with the SEC. The Big 12 has an 8-6 overall record in the Texas Bowl. The SEC is 3-6.

14 Victories and 13 losses for Baylor in bowls. The Bears lost to Air Force 30-15 in the Armed Forces Bowl on Dec. 22, 2022, in their most recent bowl appearance.

16 Victories, 18 losses and two ties for Baylor against SEC opponents. The Bears played an SEC opponent for the first time on Nov. 13, 1948, when Tulane defeated Baylor 35-13. The Bears’ most recent meeting with an SEC opponent came on Jan. 1, 2022, when Baylor beat Ole Miss 21-7 in the Sugar Bowl. Baylor has a 5-5 record against SEC teams in bowls. The Bears will open the 2025 season against Auburn, another SEC member.

17 Of Baylor QB Sawyer Robertson’s 2024 total of 26 TD passes have come during the Bears’ current six-game winning streak. Robertson has completed 199-of-317 passes for 2,626 yards with 26 TDs and seven interceptions this season, which he started at No. 2 on the depth chart.

30 Victories, 24 losses and one tie for LSU in bowls. The Tigers defeated Wisconsin 35-31 in last season’s ReliaQuest Bowl.

38 Consensus All-Americans in LSU history, including offensive left tackle Will Campbell in the 2024 season. Campbell has opted out of the Texas Bowl, as has Emery Jones, the Tigers’ starter at right tackle.

39 Years since the previous meeting between Baylor and LSU. The Bears beat the Tigers 21-7 in the Liberty Bowl on Dec. 27, 1985, for their third victory in 11 games against LSU. The teams have one other bowl meeting: Baylor beat LSU 14-7 in the Bluebonnet Bowl on Dec. 21, 1963.

261 Passing yards are needed by LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier to record the second 4,000-yard season in school history. Joe Burrow holds the Tigers’ single-season record with 5,671 passing yards for LSU’s undefeated CFP national-championship team in 2019. Nussmeier has completed 313-of-491 passes for 3,739 yards with 26 TDs and 11 interceptions.

395 Passing yards for LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier in his first start – a 35-31 victory over Wisconsin in last season’s ReliaQuest Bowl. Including that game, Nussmeier has thrown for 1,766 yards with 16 TDs in his five starts against non-conference opponents, who have included Southern Cal, Nicholls, UCLA and South Alabama in 2024.

1,004 Rushing yards for Baylor RB Bryson Washington in 2024, the most for a freshman in school history. Washington had 12 TDs among his 170 rushing attempts this season. LSU’s leading rusher also is a freshman. RB Caden Durham has 693 yards and six TDs on 127 carries this season for the Tigers.

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE SEC, GO TO OUR SEC PAGE

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.

WASHINGTON – Applying for jobs can be time-consuming, so it’s maddening when applicants hear about “ghost jobs” – listings for positions that don’t exist.

A survey earlier this year by the career site Resume Builder found 40% of hiring managers said their companies had posted fake jobs.

Fake openings can create the impression a company is growing, signal to overloaded employees that help is on the way, make workers feel replaceable or collect resumes to keep on file.

U.S. Rep. Keith Self, R-McKinney, has been investigating the issue after a constituent complained that companies are seeking more and more information from applicants they intend to ignore.

“It is frustrating that Americans spend considerable time and effort applying for positions, only to discover that the job does not exist,” Self said in a news release. “We must ensure that workers have access to genuine employment opportunities and are not left in limbo.”

Self raised the issue in a letter to the Department of Labor and asked how the practice could skew unemployment figures and labor demand projections – statistics that often drive policy decisions in Washington.

In a return letter, the Bureau of Labor Statistics told Self the data it collects about job openings is not based on online job postings and would be unaffected by ghost jobs.

The department did not respond to emailed questiond about whether it is considering steps to investigate fake job postings.

Ghost jobs skeptic

Not everyone believes talk of ghost jobs reflects reality.

Tim Sackett, chief executive of HRU Tech., a national technology staffing firm, described it as a “completely made-up phenomenon.”

Sackett said ghost jobs get attention because of eye-catching surveys some career service companies have released, combined with the too common experience of job candidates hearing nothing after applying.

Sometimes jobs have already been filled or eliminated, he said, or the company doesn’t have the bandwidth to respond to everyone who applies.

Applicants are being “ghosted,” but the jobs in question are real, Sackett said by email.

“It happens the majority of our time in our industry and it’s a problem,” Sackett said of applicants being ghosted. “Companies shouldn’t be treating candidates this way, but often there are capacity issues when you get hundreds and sometimes thousands of people applying for jobs.”

Continuing scrutiny

The Resume Builder survey and others, including one by MyPerfectResume, have spawned coverage by national news outlets and captured the attention of Capitol Hill lawmakers, even though posting openings without intending to fill them isn’t illegal.

The constituent who reached out to Self said some job posting services charge a subscription fee that incentivizes employers to leave postings up even if they have little interest in filling them.

If a company is paying a monthly fee to post up to 10 job openings, for example, they might as well post 10 jobs. If a position does open, the company will have a handy pile of resumes to sift through.

Self is looking to the House Committee on Small Business and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to learn more about the situation.

“The ghost jobs issue really boils down to honesty and transparency among these large online recruiting hubs. Many are more focused on data mining than actually recruiting,” Self said in a statement.

“We need to look at finding the right balance of consumer protection regulations and deregulations,” he said.