Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I discuss the week’s Winners & Losers on the Cardle & Woolley show on Austin’s 1370 Talk Radio. It’s a lightning round with Jim Cardle, Lynn Woolley and me that runs the gambit from public policy and political trends to sports and culture in Texas, America and the world. You can listen to the segment with everybody’s comments by clicking the 8:30 a.m. segment here.
Here’s the highlights from my Winners & Losers list for the week of March 30 to April 5:
Big Winner of the Week: The University of Texas at Austin for firing an estimated 60 employees who worked in so-called “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) programs and projects at UT. Following up on a letter from State Senator Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, the Longhorns took the most visible action of any college or university in the state so far to follow the state’s anti-DEI law, Senate Bill 17 which requires that DEI be ended at taxpayer-funded universities.
Big Loser of the Week: The $20 an hour minimum wage requirement that kicked in in California. This job-killing (and likely small business-killing) proposal will hit young workers particularly hard and is another demonstration that the big blue state on the West Coast hasn’t a clue how the economy actually works.
Other Big Winners:
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak backed Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s pushing back on Scotland’s new expanded hate speech laws. The laws make it a crime to “misgender” a man who insists he is a woman but has no protections for actual women. Rowling has shined a spotlight on transgender criminals who have raped and assaulted women when they insist on being detained in women’s prisons. Sunak said it was not a crime to state the “actual facts of biology” and that his Conservative Party supports free speech.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott gets a big thumbs up for his trip to the Big Apple to speak to the New York GOP Gala. Abbott continues to get accolades for busing illegal migrants to sanctuary cities—exposing them as simply “sanctimonious cities” —and showing the rest of the country what it is like to be overrun at our southern border.
Fort Worth is now the home of Texas’ newest TV station, Merit Street, a national outlet that is anchored by Dr. Phil. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and State Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, were on hand for the ribbon cutting.
More DEI Losers:
The NAACP is a big loser for urging black athletes to boycott the state of Florida because of Florida’s laws banning DEI. Florida also bans teaching gender and sexuality studies to young children. Early reports indicate most black athletes are ignoring the boycott. More than 35 African-American football stars have recently announced they are committed to Florida teams. If you recall, when the NAACP first issued its “travel warning” to African Americans for Florida last year, it was revealed that several of its executives actually lived in the Sunshine State. Here’s part of the NAACP’s statement:
“Please be advised that Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the State of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of and the challenges faced by African Americans and other minorities.”
Another DEI loser is Harvard’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging which announced more segregated graduation ceremonies this week including a “Disability Celebration,” a “Global Indigenous Celebration,” an “Asian American, Pacific Islander, Desi-American (APIDA) Celebration,” a “First Generation-Low Income Celebration,” a “Jewish Celebration,” a “Latinx Celebration,” a “Lavender Celebration”—which refers to LGBT students—a “Black Celebration,” a “Veterans Celebration,” and an “Arab Celebration.” If diversity is the goal, why is everybody being segregated into homogeneous groups?
NCAA Final Four is the Final Big Winner of the Week – Both the men’s and women’s bracket have been full of really great games. There have been lots of busted brackets and no Texas teams made it to the final round, but this weekend’s lineup of men and women from both NC State and UConn, along with Alabama and South Carolina, will be big fun!
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
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