Good morning, 

Should employers be allowed to require employees have a COVID shot as a condition of employment? Answer the One Click Survey and reply with your thoughts.

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Wednesday, April 28, 2021
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• The prospects for constitutional carry got a boost yesterday, with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott offering his support for the measure – and putting new pressure on the Texas Senate. Brandon Waltens has the details.
   
• The governor finally broke his silence about the Texas GOP priority, which passed by a bipartisan vote in the Texas House earlier this month but has met resistance in the Senate. “Constitutional carry” allows law abiding citizens to carry firearms without the need for a government-issued permit. The House measure would continue to prohibit the carrying of firearms in select locations – such as schools – or where property owners have posted signage barring them.
   
• “This is something that 20 other states have adopted and it’s time for Texas to adopt it, too.” – Gov. Abbott

• Members of the Texas Senate voted along partisan grounds yesterday to approve legislation classifying certain disfiguring and mutilating operations on minors as child abuse. Jacob Asmussen reports the issue has been in the spotlight because of the case of James Younger, a young Texas boy whose mother wanted to force him—against the father’s wishes—to take sterilizing drugs and eventually castrate him.
      
• The chamber’s 18 Republicans voted to protect children, while the 13 Democrats voted for the victimization of children.
       
• Senate Bill 1646, by Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) would apply to “puberty suppression prescription drug or cross-sex hormone to a child, other than an intersex child, for the purpose of gender transitioning or gender reassignment” or performing surgery on the child for a similar purpose.
       
• Following one procedural vote in the Senate, the proposed plan will next travel across the Capitol to the Texas House for consideration. If approved there, the bill would then end up on the governor’s desk to be signed into law.

• President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, a Democrat, to lead the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  As Joshua Pierce reminds us, Sheriff Gonzales has been a vocal opponent of ICE’s efforts in recent years .
   
• During President Donald Trump’s administration, Gonzalez ended his department’s cooperation and training with ICE, effectively making Harris County a “sanctuary county” for illegal aliens.
     
• The nomination must be approved by the U.S. Senate.

• Erin Anderson reports a Tarrant County poll worker was dismissed this week for handing out fliers promoting certain local candidates while processing voters at a polling place in Mansfield. Electioneering inside the polls is illegal.

• The House of Representatives took up and considered Democrat-authored legislation creating the Brain Institute of Texas. The new entity would be charged with researching brain-related health and diseases. Jeramy Kitchen has the story.
   
• State Rep. Jeff Cason (R-Bedford) offered an amendment that would have added addiction to pornography to the list of addictions the institute would be charged with studying. His effort failed by a vote of 63 in favor and 72 in opposition.
     
• The 13 Republican House members voting with the pro-porn Democrats include: State Reps. Ernest Bailes (Shepherd), Brad Buckley (Salado), Angie Chen Button (Garland), Giovanni Capriglione (Southlake), Travis Clardy (Nacogdoches), Jake Ellzey (Waxahachie), James Frank (Wichita Falls), Cody Harris (Palestine), Lyle Larson(San Antonio), Geanie Morrison (Victoria), Jim Murphy (Houston), Andrew Murr(Junction), and Gary VanDeaver (New Boston).

• Montana’s lawmakers passed legislation yesterday making it “unlawful for employers to refuse or bar employment or discriminate against a person based on whether they have been vaccinated.” Read about it at The Hill.

ONE CLICK SURVEY

Yesterday we reported that Houston Methodist, one of the largest hospitals in Texas, has mandated that all 26,000 of its employees receive one of the FDA-authorized COVID “vaccine” shots. 

Should private businesses be allowed to require employees get the COVID shot as a condition of employment?