YOUR ACCOUNT

Good morning, 

This is the Texas Minute for Thursday, October 10, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Texas Agriculture Organizations Oppose Federal EID Tags for Cattle

• Agriculture organizations from Texas and around the country are urging Congress to take action against the Biden-Harris administration's Electronic Identification (EID) tag mandate. Addie Hovland reports the U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to require some cattle and bison producers to use the tags.
       
• Under a 2013 rule, cattle producers have been allowed to choose between different identification systems to trace disease. The new rule, the ag industry claims, would "burden small- and medium-scale producers" to the benefit of the multinational meatpacking corporations and high-tech companies pushing it.
       
• Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told Texas Scorecard that the new rule is another example of bureaucratic overreach.
        
• "It’s a solution looking for a problem." – Sid Miller

Texas Senate Reviews Movie Industry Handouts

• Film incentives took center stage during yesterday's hearing of the Texas Senate Finance Committee. As Brandon Waltens reports, the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program received a significant boost in funding last year.
       
• State senators seem ready to hand out even more corporate subsidies for Hollywood when the Texas Legislature convenes in 2025.
         
• Since the program’s inception, companies creating movies, television shows, commercials, and even video games have received millions of dollars in tax-funded handouts. Corporate giants like Walmart, Nike, and AT&T have been among the recipients, alongside major Hollywood production studios. The fund has also been used to underwrite the production of commercials for entities like Grubhub, Taco Bell, and the United States Postal Service.
      
• While numerous entertainment industry representatives testified, Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan dominated the early hours of the hearing. He defended the industry's need for bigger taxpayer-financed incentives, noting that Georgia and New Mexico offer more subsidies than Texas.
      
• When was the last time someone in Texas looked at the government and economy of New Mexico and said, "We want to be like them"?

Efforts to Federalize Texas’ Grid Continue

• The U.S. Department of Energy approved $360 million for powerlines linking Texas’ grid to Mississippi. As Daniel Greer reports, the spending is part of the Biden-Harris administration’s "Investing in America" agenda.
     
• The chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission has said that while the transmission line would cross multiple states' borders, the independence of Texas’ grid would not be upset.
      
• This is the latest in a long line of overtures to integrate Texas into the national grid. Historically, Texas has shunned interconnection because it would subject the state to federal oversight.
       
• Democrats, including thrice-failed candidate Beto O’Rourke and U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, routinely support calls for Texas to lose its grid independence and federalize.

Texas DPS Recovers 25 Unaccompanied Minors

• Officers with the Texas Department of Public Safety apprehended a group of 101 individuals who illegally crossed the border from Mexico. As Will Biagini reports, 25 of them were unaccompanied children. 
   
• A DPS spokesman said the minors were from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Brazil.
      
• Children encountered by immigration authorities at the border without parents or legal guardians present are transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Unaccompanied minors are at a high risk of becoming victims of human trafficking.

Parents Say Spring ISD Preschool Teachers Drugged Kids With ‘Sleepy’ Sticker

• Parents in Spring Independent School District say that preschool teachers at an elementary school there have been giving their children melatonin patches without their consent. Valerie Muñoz has the story.
       
• A four-year-old student sparked the investigation when she returned home from Northgate Crossing Elementary School sporting what the mother thought was a suspicious sticker. She found the sticker was a sleep aid patch marketed for adults and containing melatonin. Melatonin is not recommended for children under five.
      
• A second student identified the patches by reportedly telling her mother, "Yes, that’s the sleepy sticker."
       
• Spring ISD has issued a statement acknowledging the allegations. The teachers have been "placed on administrative leave" while the district's police department conducts an investigation.

Retired Democrat Senator Endorses Republican in Key Texas Race

• A Democrat and former member of the Texas Senate is throwing his support behind a Republican candidate for the seat he once held.
       
• Former State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. of Brownsville has endorsed Adam Hinojosa in the race against freshman Democrat State Sen. Morgan LaMantia. This race marks a rematch between LaMantia and Hinojosa. She narrowly won the 2022 election by just 0.19 percent of the vote.
       
• "As a steadfast advocate for the sanctity of life, I was re-elected by the district’s voters over a span of 36 years as a state legislator. Now, it’s time to send another strong voice for life back to Austin, and Adam Hinojosa is that voice." – Eddie Lucio, Jr.

Quote-Unquote

"God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless."

– Chester W. Nimitz​

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