The University of Michigan has discovered that the best way to prepare students for adulthood is to protect them from anything that might make them uncomfortable. Beginning in fall 2027, the university’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts plans to shield first-year students from the consequences of their first-semester grades. Students’ letter grades will...
Recent trends of local government spending in Texas are worrisome for taxpayers. The city of Austin paid the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond more than $877,000 from 2017-2025 to provide workshops “undoing racism” (City of Austin, 2025). And from 2020 to 2026, Austin gave $4.8 million to the Workers Defense Fund, an organization that fights against securing the border and ensuring that immigration is legal...
Housing affordability is one of the Lone Star State’s – and greater Houston’s – most pressing challenges. Recent estimates suggest Texas’ statewide housing shortage exceeds 300,000 homes, applying upward pressure on rents and prices in ways that squeeze working households, young families, and seniors looking to downsize. The gap is especially severe for first-time homebuyers,...
A recent Dallas Morning News editorial board article desperately wants Texas to pump the brakes on the Classic Learning Test (CLT). Why? It’s worried about politics creeping into college admissions and about the CLT’s thinner track record compared with the SAT and ACT. But let’s be honest: the politics and the diluted standards arrived a...
In Mission, Texas, a south Texas border town, local residents noticed a new billboard advertising “Birth Packages in South Texas,” with maternity tourism services listed at more than $5,000. The advertisement directed customers to the website HaveMyBabyInTexas.com, which has since been taken down. It wasn’t just an advertisement for medical services, but rather an advertisement...
AI Boyfriends What to know: Millions in China have been forced to break up with their AI boyfriends and girlfriends, as the Chinese government bans AI companion apps. The TPPF take: China has this much right, at least — AI boyfriends aren’t real boyfriends. “Over the past decade, much of the public square has migrated online,” says TPPF’s Hannah Bruck....
ETJ Win What to know: A federal court recently granted a preliminary injunction “stop[ping] the City of Austin from regaining extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) over a swath of land west of the city, representing a temporary win for the group of landowners who sued.” The court’s decision preserves the Texas Legislature’s intent of creating a pathway out of city...
Baby Boom What to know: President Donald Trump has issued new executive orders to deter “birth tourism,” in which foreigners arrange to give birth in the U.S., thereby ensuring the baby has American citizenship. The TPPF take: Texas is already taking aim at birth tourism. “Time and time again, Texas has had to act where...
The EPA’s 2025 decision to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding is being called one of the largest deregulatory actions in US history. But what exactly is the Endangerment Finding, and why do supporters say this change matters for American families and businesses? In this Fast Facts breakdown, we explain the 16-year history of greenhouse gas...
Since it has been unable to pass new gun restrictions through the legislative process, President Biden’s Administration is intentionally ignoring and misinterpreting well-established law to shut down lawfully operating gun dealers. TPPF Senior Attorney Matt Miller breaks down how this backdoor scheme works and explains TPPF’s lawsuit to restore Americans’ legal right to purchase firearms.
Illegal activity that harms the U.S. is coming from Mexico in much the same way as it does from other corrupt individuals in other countries the U.S. currently sanctions. Texas should compile a list of corrupt Mexican elites and request the federal government to deny them entry to the U.S. or revoke their visas. Read...
On July 4, I stood at the site of the Boston Massacre, in front of the Old Massachusetts State House, and heard the Declaration of Independence read from the same balcony where it was first read 250 years ago. Standing on the streets where it all started, I pondered the miracle of those first patriots...
Even though I’ve taken off from my Winners & Losers newsletter this summer, I still join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk 1370 Radio in Austin Friday mornings at 8:30 a.m. to announce the week’s list. You can listen live here every week or download the broadcast anytime by clicking here. This week I...
June is here and Pride Month is back—but it’s not all rainbows and parades like it used to be. For years, Americans were told that so-called Pride events were all about tolerance and equal treatment, something we should celebrate like the Fourth of July. Ultimately it didn’t sell. Pride celebrations have become inextricably linked to...
Democrats and the progressive left continue to lambast the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais to strike down the Bayou State’s second majority-Black congressional district as a racial gerrymander. Democrat leaders have used vicious and ugly attacks to pronounce the decision as racist and insist that it guts the Voting Rights Act (VRA). In...