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FRIDAY || 11/15/24
Good Friday afternoon.
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“If something of importance is known in Texas, Matt knows it. With a decline in the number of credible news organizations, the Must Read Texas morning email is indispensable for anyone that wants to continue to be informed.” – Former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX)
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TOP NEWS   
“Texas' top elected officials signal Texas could cut border spending after Trump takes office,” Texas Tribune's Alejandro Serrano — “Since President-elect Donald Trump’s victory last week, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — the state’s top two elected officials — have signaled a new willingness to potentially scale back the state’s historic spending on border security.
On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to crack down on illegal immigration by reimplementing policies from his first term while starting new ones, like mass deportations [ [link removed] ].
Abbott told reporters [ [link removed] ] last week that Texas will have to continue its border security measures as a “stopgap effort” during the time it takes Trump to implement his border and immigration policies. But once they are in place, Abbott said, Texas “will have the opportunity to consider” repurposing the state money it has plowed into Operation Lone Star [ [link removed] ], the multi-prong effort Abbott launched in 2021 shortly after President Joe Biden took office.
To date, OLS has cost $11 billion, and Abbott’s office had asked lawmakers to approve another $2.9 billion [ [link removed] ] in the upcoming legislative session. Abbott now says OLS money could be used for things like property tax cuts or education.
“President Trump will provide a more secure border than any president in the history of the United States of America,” Abbott said a day after the election. “I’ve had private talks with the president, and he’s going to be stronger and better at securing the border than he was in his first term, which was very strong and effective.”
Meanwhile, Patrick also said [ [link removed] ] that Trump’s victory could mean shifting spending priorities for the state.
“We had to do everything we could to protect our citizens,” Patrick said in an interview with WFAA-TV in Dallas published Sunday. “We’re going to be able to take a lot of that money now and put it back to our taxpayers, for roads, for water, for education, for health care, for all the things that we need that Joe Biden forced us to spend because he was letting millions of people cross the border.”
It is unclear exactly how the state’s border spending breaks down [ [link removed] ], but the money has been used to surge Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and Texas National Guard troops to the border; send busloads of migrants to cities run by Democrats [ [link removed] ]; and bolster local governments that have joined the OLS effort through grants — including sheriff’s offices that used the money to hire deputies.
Even as the state’s spending on border security has increased, polling has shown [ [link removed] ] that Republican Texans feel the state could spend even more to secure the state’s 1,254-mile border with Mexico.
Trump’s victory “provides an enormous amount” of political cover to reduce spending now, said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at UT Austin. And with an initiative so expensive, “it's hard not to feel like there's room for some reductions,” he said.
“When you spend government funds, constituencies develop among those funds, and that's one of the reasons it's hard to cut back on spending,” Henson added.
Other legislators have also indicated it might be time to cut back on border security spending at the state level." Texas Tribune [ [link removed] ]
“Texas Supreme Court removes temporary block to Robert Roberson's execution,” Texas Tribune's Pooja Salhotra — “The Supreme Court of Texas on Friday removed its temporary block on the execution of Robert Roberson, saying that Texas legislators’ subpoenas can’t be used to halt death row inmates’ scheduled executions. But the ruling came after Roberson’s execution, which was scheduled for Oct. 17, was delayed so the state’s highest civil court could settle a dispute over the separation of powers between the branches of state government. Friday’s ruling did not wade into Roberson’s guilt or innocence.
The court previously paused Roberson’s execution after the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee subpoenaed the death row inmate, calling on the 57-year-old East Texan convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter to testify about his criminal case at the Texas Capitol four days after his scheduled execution.
“We conclude that under these circumstances the committee’s authority to compel testimony does not include the power to override the scheduled legal process leading to an execution,” the Friday court ruling stated.
That House committee subpoena triggered an unprecedented question about the state constitution’s separation of powers — does the legislative members’ subpoena take precedence over the executive branch’s power to implement a death sentence, or is it the other way around?
“By requiring his testimony on a date after the scheduled execution, the subpoena created a conflict involving all three branches of government,” justices wrote Friday.
Roberson’s death sentence remains intact, but a new execution must be scheduled. The supreme court ruling noted there’s time for Roberson’s testimony to be heard by the committee.
“If the committee still wishes to obtain his testimony, we assume that the (Texas Department of Criminal Justice) department can reasonably accommodate a new subpoena,” the court ruling stated. “So long as a subpoena issues in a way that does not inevitably block a scheduled execution, nothing in our holding prevents the committee from pursuing judicial relief in the ordinary way to compel a witness’s testimony.”
State Reps. Joe Moody, an El Paso Democrat, and Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican, said in a joint statement that while it was never their committee’s intent to use the subpoena to delay an execution, they were pleased the court confirmed the subpoena and their lawsuit were valid.
“The Supreme Court strongly reinforced our belief that our Committee can indeed obtain Mr. Roberson's testimony and made clear that it expects the Executive Branch of government to accommodate us in doing so,” the two lawmakers stated. “That has been our position all along, and we look forward to working with the Executive Branch to do just that."" Texas Tribune [ [link removed] ]
“Actually innocent": Judge recommends overturning death row inmate Melissa Luci's conviction sending case to Texas high court,” Texas Tribune's Kayla Guo — “The trial judge who presided over death row inmate Melissa Lucio’s capital murder case found last month that she is innocent of her daughter’s death and recommended that her sentence and conviction be overturned, according to court documents [ [link removed] ] unsealed Thursday.
Judge Arturo Nelson of Cameron County found on Oct. 16 that there was clear and convincing evidence that the death of Lucio’s 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, was caused by an accidental fall on some stairs, and that prosecutors had relied on false testimony and flawed scientific evidence to convince a jury of her guilt.
Lucio, he found, “is actually innocent; she did not kill her daughter.”
The case now goes to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which must decide whether to accept Nelson’s recommendation to overturn Lucio’s conviction and death sentence.
“This is the best news we could get going into the holidays,” John and Michelle Lucio, Lucio’s son and daughter-in-law, said in a statement. “We pray our mother will be home soon.”
Lucio was convicted of capital murder in 2008. But doubts surrounding the cause of Mariah’s death and the fairness of Lucio’s conviction reached a fever pitch [ [link removed] ] in 2022, as Lucio’s supporters — including most of the Texas Legislature [ [link removed] ] — argued that there were too many questions about her trial to carry out her execution.
When paramedics arrived at the family’s Brownsville home in 2007, they found Mariah “turning purple and unresponsive,” with bruising throughout her body.
Lucio repeatedly denied hurting her daughter. She described how Mariah had fallen on the stairs two days before her death, and though she appeared fine at first, her condition quickly deteriorated, and she became congested and lethargic.
Then, after roughly five hours of police interrogation the night Mariah died, Lucio told officers that she had slapped, pinched and bitten Mariah, though she never admitted causing her daughter’s death.
The state’s case relied primarily on that “confession” at trial, while the judge barred testimony from experts that Lucio, a long-time victim of domestic and sexual abuse, had sought to explain why she would make a false confession while under pressure from male authority figures.
Prosecutors also centered a medical examiner’s testimony that Mariah’s injuries “could only have been caused by intentional physical abuse.”
The Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Lucio’s execution [ [link removed] ] in 2022, ordering the trial court to consider whether Lucio was actually innocent, and whether the state had presented false testimony at trial and hid evidence from the defense." Texas Tribune [ [link removed] ]
#TXLEGE   
“Texas businesses call on lawmakers to reform child care during 89th legislative session,” San Antonio Report's Tracy Idell Hamilton — “Momentum appears to be building for the Texas Legislature, which convenes in January, to address the state’s child care system, which experts estimate cost the state between $9 billion and $11 billion annually in productivity and revenue losses.
A group of Texas business leaders who have been studying the issue for the past year has now joined the chorus of early childhood development advocates and social service organizations begging state lawmakers to make child care a priority during the 89th session, which convenes on Jan. 14.
“This is a major challenge for our workforce, and we have business members representing every industry, every part of the state of Texas,” said Kelsey Erickson Streufert, chief public affairs officer of the Texas Restaurant Association (TRA) during a press briefing Wednesday.
“And it’s because they know that their ability to grow and thrive and really keep this Texas miracle alive is wholly dependent on finding and keeping great employees, and we cannot do that if people cannot afford to work, because they cannot find safe, quality, affordable childcare.”
Food service industry hit hard
The food industry alone has roughly 30,000 unfilled jobs, the TRA estimates. In surveys, 60% of nonworking parents say a lack of affordable child care is the top reason they’re not in the workforce.
The food service industry recently became Texas’ largest private employer, supporting $1.4 million workers and generating $106 billion in sales last year. That industry has been particularly hard hit by the state’s child care shortage, prompting the TRA to create the Employers for Childcare Taskforce last year along with the Texas Association of Business and two nonprofits, Texas 2036 and Early Matters Texas.
Kyle Citrano, owners of three restaurants in Waco, sits on the task force and spoke Wednesday. He said the number one reason his employees can’t make shifts is because of lack of child care.
“We employ lots of working moms,” Citrano said, which he called one of his favorite populations to hire, “because they’re working to feed a mouth.” But when they miss shifts because they can’t find affordable child care, “those repercussions go on and on. These are employees that live paycheck to paycheck.”
Developing child care for non traditional hours, he said, “would tremendously help mothers and hospitality, not to mention health care and other industries” with workers who work round the clock. Other “deskless” industries that are particularly hard hit are those where workers cannot work from home or remotely, like construction and retail.
The task force now includes [ [link removed] ] almost 70 businesses, chambers of commerce — including the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce — and other business-related associations. After months of listening and learning about the complex mix of issues facing the child care industry, the task force developed a set of policy proposals they believe could find bipartisan support in the legislature.
They learned that during the pandemic, roughly 5,000 day care centers and licensed home care businesses shuttered across the state, leaving Texas families with 27% fewer options for care. [ [link removed] ] Roughly $4 billion in federal relief aid that flowed to the industry to help keep it afloat has been depleted.
Many remaining locations cannot operate at full capacity, because they cannot hire enough workers. That’s largely because child care workers in Texas — as in other states — earn poverty-level wages of $12 to $16 an hour, meaning many of them cannot afford child care for their own children.
In San Antonio, where more than 27% of children under 5 live in poverty, the cost of child care is nearly always an issue for parents who want to work. Mark Larson, executive director of EarlyMatters San Antonio, said 60% of local children under 5 have working parents and need child care.
Child care policy proposals
The task force’s first set of policy recommendations [ [link removed] ] prioritizes “shoring up and strengthening” providers that already exist, and help employers find innovative ways to support their workers. That could include franchise tax credits for companies that provide child care benefits to employees and competitive grants to existing providers to expand.
It also calls for the Texas Workforce Commission and the state’s Health and Human Services Commission, each of which regulate different aspects of the industry, to collaborate on streamlining regulations that experts say can be inconsistent and drive up costs.
The task force recommended putting child care workers at the front of the line for subsidies to help pay for the cost of child care could help shore up that workforce, but stopped short of suggesting those subsidies be expanded. Today, roughly 78,000 children are on the waiting list for a child care subsidy.
There has been some movement toward relief for the industry. While a $2.3 billion bill [ [link removed] ] to help keep child care providers afloat during the last legislative session did not pass, voters did approve a measure last year that allows local governments to give property tax exemptions to qualifying child care centers.
San Antonio approved the exemption [ [link removed] ] in April, but only Texas Rising Star-certified child care centers [ [link removed] ] with at least 20% subsidized enrollment qualified for the cuts, meaning just 176 local centers were eligible to apply.
Lawmakers started filing bills Tuesday for the upcoming legislative session; several address aspects of the state’s child care system." SA Report [ [link removed] ]
2024   
“Kirk Watson declares victory in mayoral race while Carmen Llanes Pulido holds out hope,” Austin American-Statesman's Ella McCarthy — “Austin Mayor Kirk Watson declared victory in his re-election bid late Thursday following the release of a final batch of vote totals. But runner-up Carmen Llanes Pulido refused to concede the race, saying it is still too close to call.
The ballot counts released Thursday show Watson winning the five-way race outright by about a dozen votes.
The outcome of the mayoral race has been unclear since the Nov. 5 election when unofficial final vote totals showed Watson had garnered 50.01% of the vote. While that’s over the majority threshold candidates need to win races outright, Watson held off on declaring victory as elections administrators in Travis, Williamson and Hays counties still had to count some provisional and mail-in ballots.
The final tally, which still must be certified, shows that Watson’s vote share dropped to 50.0041%. Llanes Pulido, the next-highest vote-getter, is sitting at 20.1%..
While razor thin and unsettled, Watson on Thursday evening described the outright win as “extraordinary” given there were so many candidates in the race.
“I want to thank voters for their confidence in me,” he said in a victory post on X that noted he had received 104,000 more votes than Llanes Pulido.
Llanes Pulido told the Statesman it was “misleading for the mayor to declare that he won by a margin of 104,000 votes, when in reality, he is avoiding a runoff with a margin of only 14 votes.
“I am waiting to see an official tally from the three counties to declare a position,” she said. Those tallies are due by Nov. 19 but could come sooner.
“We owe it to Austinites who have made it clear that they want new and accountable leadership, to ensure that every single vote is accurately counted and every voice is heard,” she said.
Watson’s campaign manager, Joe Cascino, declined to comment on Llanes Pulido’s position.
Former Austin city council member Kathie Tovo came in third in the race with 16.64% of the vote. The other two candidates, Jeffery L. Bowen and Doug Greco, each received fewer than 10%." AAS [ [link removed] ] ($)
“Why Democrats' abortion messaging failed to resonate in Texas, despite unpopular bans,” Texas Tribune's Eleanor Klibanoff — “On a Friday night in late October, a vision in a black pantsuit walked onstage in downtown Houston and bestowed her support upon Vice President Kamala Harris. Beyoncé didn’t endorse Harris as a musician, an influencer, a Democrat or even Texas’ most famous daughter.
She endorsed as a mother — “a mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in,” she said. “A world where we have the freedom to control our bodies.”
This rally, in which Texas OB/GYNs and women denied medically necessary abortions shared the same stage as Beyoncé and Willie Nelson, was the climax of a national presidential campaign focused on abortion access, women’s health and reproductive choice after the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Texas, where abortion has been restricted longer than any other state, was “ground zero” for this issue, Harris said to a crowd of 20,000 screaming fans.
Ten days later, Republicans routed Democrats in Texas and across the nation. President Donald Trump easily won the state by 14 points, increasing his support across almost all demographic groups, including women, exit polls indicate. Sen. Ted Cruz defeated Colin Allred by 9 points. Down ballot, Republicans swept the Texas Supreme Court races that Democrats tried to frame as the state’s best shot at an abortion referendum.
It was a devastating loss for Democrats who’d believed this was the “Roevember” where they’d see a wave of voter registration, increased turnout and silent defections from women who previously supported Trump. More than 70% of Texans want more exceptions in the state’s abortion laws, including for rape, incest and birth defects, polls show [ [link removed] ].
But wishing the laws were different doesn’t mean people will automatically vote for the party they see as less responsible for creating them, said Jim Henson, the director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.
“There was just no indication that abortion was going to be the motivating issue that Democrats thought it was going to be,” he said. “I think that the big question to ask is why, based on the available data, did the campaigns assume something would happen that would make all that data wrong.”" Texas Tribune [ [link removed] ]
STATE GOVERNMENT   
“Texas names new higher education chief,” Texas Tribune's Katie McGee — “The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board named Wynn Rosser as the state’s next commissioner of higher education at a special board meeting Thursday.
The appointment was announced after a unanimous vote of the board. The vote was taken without discussion.
Rosser did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rosser is the president and CEO of the T.L.L. Temple Foundation, a family foundation focused on issues facing rural East Texas. He previously spent a decade running the Greater Texas Foundation. Before that, he worked at Texas A&M University in various teaching and administrative roles.
Rosser succeeds Harrison Keller who became commissioner in 2019. Keller oversaw an overhaul of the state’s 60x30 plan, which set a goal that by 2030, 60% of Texans ages 25-34 should have a degree or credential. The plan, now called Building a Talent Strong Texas, expanded the goal to include Texans ages 25-64.
Keller also helped shepherd an overhaul of the state’s community college finance system through the Texas Legislature last year. He left the position in July to become president of the University of North Texas.
The higher ed commissioner serves as the chief executive officer of the Coordinating Board, the state agency that oversees Texas’ financial aid programs and helps enact the state’s strategic vision for public higher education. The board, made up of 10 members who are appointed by the governor, helps the commissioner implement the state’s vision for higher education.
Sarah Keyton has served as interim higher education commissioner during the transition." Texas Tribune [ [link removed] ]
LOCAL GOVERNMENT   
“New $68M facility could keep more trash out of San Antonio's landfills,” San Antonio Express-News' Megan Rodriguez — “San Antonians' discarded milk jugs, water bottles and newspapers are all heading to a brand-new recycling facility on the Southwest Side.
The 145,000-square-foot Balcones Recycling plant will cost the city less money and sort through materials faster than what was possible under San Antonio’s old recycling contract with Republic Waste, which expired this summer.
“This was just a better deal for the city,” Solid Waste Management Deputy Director Josephine Valencia said of the switch.
City Council OK'd a $113.6 million contract with Austin-based Balcones Recycling in 2022 to build and operate a local plant. The 15-year contract took effect Aug. 1.
When the contract was approved, the city estimated [ [link removed] ] that it would spend $3 per ton at Balcones Recycling compared to the nearly $7 they would have spent with Republic Waste, according to a city cost projection.
Since opening its doors, Balcones Recycling has been sifting through about 6,000 tons of materials each month in its $68 million facility.
Valencia said the plant can process 50 tons of materials per hour, compared to the approximately 30 tons per hour that Republic Waste could handle.
That faster service could mean more material gets recycled in the long run.
Valencia said she expects that the city’s recycling rate — the amount the city recycles instead of tossing in a landfill — to be around 45% at the end of fiscal year 2025, which began Oct. 1. That would be a boost from last year's 33% recycling rate.
“I’m really excited about what Balcones will do to help the city improve our recycling rate,” Valencia told reporters and city officials touring the facility this week.
The recycling rate measures more than what the city sends to Balcones' local processing facility. Brush, for example, is sent to a company called Atlas Organics.
San Antonio’s recycling rate had been on the rise for years, going from about 15% in 2009 to a high point of 40% in 2021." SAEN [ [link removed] ] ($)
BUSINESS NEWS   
“SpaceX backed out of a state land swap in South Texas: report,” San Antonio Express-News' Andrea Leinfelder — “SpaceX has reportedly backed out of a controversial land swap that would have given the rocket company 43 acres [ [link removed] ] of state parkland in South Texas.
The company told the state in a September letter that it was "no longer interested in pursuing the specific arrangement," according to an article Bloomberg published Thursday [ [link removed] ]. The letter did not offer an explanation but noted the company apparently first notified Texas Parks and Wildlife of its decision in July.
The deal, approved by the state department earlier this year, would have given SpaceX room to expand in Boca Chica State Park, which surrounds the facility where it's building and launching the world's most powerful rocket. In exchange, SpaceX agreed to buy 477 acres near the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge and give the land to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to create a new state park.
The Cameron County Appraisal District shows that SpaceX did buy the 477 acres.
SpaceX and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This land swap elicited thousands of public comments when it was announced in January. Environmental organizations raised concerns about giving a rocket company sensitive state parkland. Officials with SpaceX and the state argued the 43 acres were unconnected parcels, and many of them were inaccessible to the public.
A coalition of Texas groups filed a lawsuit [ [link removed] ] after Parks and Wildlife authorized the deal. They alleged the agency violated its obligations to minimize harm and to consider alternatives to giving away state parkland." SAEN [ [link removed] ] ($)
“Exxon laying off almost 400 workers at Irving's Pioneer Natural Resources,” Dallas Morning News' Kyle Arnold -- “Oil giant and formerly Dallas-based ExxonMobil [ [link removed] ] company is cutting 397 workers from recently acquired Pioneer Natural Resources, another blow to North Texas’ shrinking oil and gas sector.
The layoffs come after ExxonMobil, which is based in the Houston suburb of Spring, completed its $59.5 billion purchase of Irving-based Pioneer in May [ [link removed] ].
Exxon offered jobs to more than 1,900 workers at Pioneer. Exxon spokeswoman Michelle Gray said all the workers being laid off were offered other positions or declined to transfer to Exxon.
“The WARN notice was triggered due to the number of employees who have either been offered transition roles or who have declined offers to join ExxonMobil, and, in both cases, will be separated under the Pioneer Severance Plan,” Gray said in an email. “Our employment strategy has not changed — the success of this merger depends heavily on the retention of Pioneer’s talented workforce, and more than 1,900 Pioneer employees were offered jobs as part of the merger.”
Exxon cut another 39 jobs from the Las Colinas offices in July, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.
Most of the cuts will come at Pioneer’s Las Colinas office in Irving but a handful will come at other locations, including a site in Big Lake and others in Midland.
The separations will start on Dec. 31 of this year and continue until May 3, 2026, when the last 32 workers are set to leave.
Exxon did not comment on whether it was closing the Las Colinas office that once headquartered Pioneer Natural Resources or whether those employees will have to relocate to the Houston area.
Exxon’s deal to buy Pioneer makes the oil and gas conglomerate the biggest player in Texas’ Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico [ [link removed] ] with daily production of nearly 4.5 million barrels of oil equivalent a day." DMN [ [link removed] ] ($)
“Tilman Fertitta increases his stake in Wynn Resorts,” Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Diamond -- “Tilman Fertitta, who according to Forbes magazine has vaulted to the top spot among Houston's billionaires [ [link removed] ], has disclosed an increased stake in Wynn Resorts, the $10 billion Las Vegas gaming enterprise.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission [ [link removed] ], Fertitta said he controlled 10.9 million shares, about 9.9% of the company. News of the stake sent shares in the casino operator soaring, climbing 9.5% in midday trading Thursday to almost $94.
Wynn shares opened Thursday at $86.83, valuing Fertitta's stake at $946 million. The price spike, at one point greater than $8 a share, boosted the value of Fertitta's investment by more than $80 million and past $1 billion. The price paid for the shares was not disclosed.
Fertitta's stake in Wynn in March, when the company's proxy statement was issued [ [link removed] ], was 6.9 million shares, or 6.22%.
The hospitality, sports and real estate investor's net worth was estimated by Forbes at $10.1 billion in October, making him the 99th wealthiest person in the country and 12th in Texas. Last year, he had a net worth of $8 billion." Houston Chronicle [ [link removed] ] ($)
NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE   
 > TX TRIB: "Texas’ uneven population boom is creating ghost towns in many rural counties" TX TRIB [ [link removed] ]
 > TX MONTHLY: "New Hope to Combat Climate Change—From an Oil Giant?" TX MONTHLY [ [link removed] ]
 > FWST: "Texas Senate committee hearing reveals clash between child care centers, state pre-K program" FWST [ [link removed] ]
 > THE TEXAN: "Ripples: Voters Pass Judgement on Criminal Justice" THE TEXAN [ [link removed] ]
 > EP TIMES: "Migrant crisis, binational cooperation topic of border mass" EP TIMES [ [link removed] ]
 > THE TEXAN: "Weekly Roundup: Trump Appoints Texans, Cornyn Loses Majority Leader Election, House Speaker Race Heats Up" THE TEXAN [ [link removed] ]
 > MY RGV: "Trial judge recommends overturning Melissa Lucio’s death sentence, conviction" MY RGV [ [link removed] ]
 > TPR: "Birth control sales soar; Abbott won't back tuition hike; Commission says Texas prison system threatens public safety" TPR [ [link removed] ]
 > EP TIMES: "Sen. Blanco eyes healthcare, faces GOP on vouchers, voting rights" EP TIMES [ [link removed] ]
 > THE TEXAN: "Fourth Reading: Speaking It Into Existence" THE TEXAN [ [link removed] ]
 > COMMUNITY IMPACT: "Gov. Abbott directs Texas universities to extend tuition freeze through 2027" COMMUNITY IMPACT [ [link removed] ]
 > TPR: "The Onion buys Infowars at Alex Jones' bankruptcy auction. No, seriously." TPR [ [link removed] ]
EXTRA POINTS   
Last night's Texas sports scores:
 > NHL: Dallas 7, Boston 2
 > NBA: Utah 115, Dallas 113
 > NCAAM: New Mexico State 83, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 82
This weekend's Texas sports schedule:
 Fri
 > 12pm: NCAAM: UT-RGV at Charleston Southern (PTB)
 > 5pm: NCAAM: TCU at Michigan (FS1)
 > 6pm: NCAAM: SMU at Butler (FS2)
 > 6:30pm: NBA: LA Lakers at San Antonio (ESPN)
 > 7pm: NBA: LA Clippers at Houston
 > 7pm: NCAAF: North Texas at UTSA (ESPN2)
 > 7pm: NCAAM: Texas College at UT-Arlington (ESPN+)
 > 8pm: NCAAM: #21 Ohio State at #23 Texas A&M (SEC Network)
 > 9:15pm: NCAAF: Houston at Arizona (FS1)
 Sat
 > 11am: NCAAF: #3 Texas at Arkansas (ABC)
 > 2pm: NCAAM: Stephen F. Austin at Arkansas State (ESPN+)
 > 2pm: NCAAM: Northwestern State at Rice (ESPN+)
 > 2:30pm: NCAAF: Houston at Arizona (FS1)
 > 2:30pm: NCAAM:Boston College at #14 SMU (ESPN)
 > 3pm: NCAAF: Baylor at West Virginia (ESPN2)
 > 3pm: NCAAM: Arkansas-Little Rock at UTSA (ESPN+)
 > 4pm: NCAAM: Mississippi Valley State at Texas (SEC)
 > 6pm: NCAAF: Southern Miss at Texas State (ESPN+)
 > 6:45pm: NCAAM: New Mexico State at #15 Texas A&M (SEC Network)
 > 7pm: NHL: Dallas at Minnesota (ESPN+)
 > 7:30pm: NBA: San Antonio at Dallas (NBA TV)
 Sun
 > 2pm: NCAAM: Texas Southern at Samford (ESPN+)
 > 4pm: NCAAM: Sam Houston State at Lamar (ESPN+)
> 6pm: NBA: Dallas at Oklahoma City
 > 7pm: NCAAM: Tarleton State at #12 Baylor (ESPN+)
DALLAS COWBOYS: "Amid offensive drought, can Cowboys' offense wake up vs. Texans" DMN [ [link removed] ] ($)
SMU FOOTBALL: "SMU seeking 'revenge' against Boston College after Fenway Bowl loss" DMN [ [link removed] ] ($)
HOUSTON MEN'S BASKETBALL: "Brennan point guard Kingston Flemings signs with Houston" SAEN [ [link removed] ] ($)
TYSON-PAUL FIGHT: "Jake Paul - Mike Tyson: What fans should know about Netflix fight" DMN [ [link removed] ] ($)
TYSON-PAUL FIGHT: "Mike Tyson - Jake Paul fight: Former champ hits cocky Paul at weigh-in" Houston Chronicle [ [link removed] ] ($)

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