Headlines / Quote of the Week

O Miserable, for Spacious Border Wall: On a visit to the Texas-Mexico border on Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his immigration platform for his 2024 presidential campaign and implied that Donald Trump's plan under-delivered. DeSantis was introduced at the event by U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin.

God Shed His Lesson Plan on Thee: In a letter to Texas school districts and charter schools, the ACLU announced their opposition to a new Texas law that requires school boards to vote on whether they can hire chaplains. Also signed by two religious freedom groups, the letter warns that permitting chaplains to work in public schools endangers the separation of church and state and violates state and federal constitutions.

O Say Can You Pay? The parks board voted Monday night to approve a recommendation to Council that would require any contract between the city, the Parks and Recreation Department, and South by Southwest to stipulate fair pay for domestic artists performing on city property. Meanwhile, SXSW opened applications Tuesday for the 2024 festival and has raised its pay for domestic artists a little bit – $350 for group performers and $150 for solo artists, a $100 and $50 increase, respectively. The festival will still require artists to choose between compensation and a wristband and won't pay international artists.

Your Huddled Masses: At Council's Public Health Committee meeting this month, Ending Community Homelessness Coalition stressed that addressing homelessness in Austin will take significant investment in permanent supportive housing. From its Point in Time Count in January, ECHO noted that 53% of the homeless population is now seeking temporary shelter, up from 37% in 2020, and three times as many as in 2020 are sleeping outside in city parks.

Does That Star-Spangled Grid Yet Hold Up? The Texas Supreme Court decided in a 5-4 opinion to apply sovereign immunity to Electric Reliability Council of Texas, likely negating civil lawsuits against the nonprofit operator of the Texas electric grid related to damages from the 2021 winter storm. Sovereign immunity protects government agencies from civil lawsuits, but the court argues that ERCOT "provides an essential governmental service" and thus is similarly protected.

Land of the Silenced, Home of the Crooks: Many details of the upcoming Senate impeachment trial for suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will likely be kept confidential, despite promises of transparency from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Recent trial rules specify that processes including pretrial motions, witness lists, and deliberations will be kept from the public and require the issuing of a gag order following the adoption of the rules. It is unclear to what subjects and people the gag order applies.

"Garth Brooks Booed Off Stage at 123rd Annual Texas Jamboree. Go woke. Go broke."

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– Gov. Greg Abbott, tweeting a satire article from Dunning-Kruger Times about a nonexistent festival and booing incident