Proactive Transparency What to know: After hearing complaints about the city’s handling of the Public Information Act, one Dallas city councilmember is urging her colleagues to embrace transparency and proactively post “all travel records by staff and elected officials” online. Doing so, she says, would help promote public confidence. The TPPF take: The proactive disclosure of public information is...
Texas DOGE What to know: Acting Texas Comptroller Don Huffines is moving quickly to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse at the agency and save taxpayer money. In one of his first acts, the new Comptroller has asked department heads to identify possible staff reductions under the rationale that: “One of our largest objects of expense is salaries, so...
What to know: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is cracking down on “birth tourism,” the practice of foreigners giving birth in the U.S. in order to secure American citizenship for their child. The TPPF take: A whopping 26,000 babies are born to foreign nationals in the United States each year. “Texas is not deciding constitutional questions about citizenship,” says TPPF’s Selene...
A Stronger Core What to know: Lawmakers are increasingly involved in what colleges and universities teach — by deciding what their “core” classes should be. The TPPF take: Those core classes are important. “A genuine core is not a cafeteria of disconnected distribution requirements,” says TPPF’s Tom Lindsay. “It is a coherent course of study...
Weak Sauce What to know: The Financial Times says Spain’s response to its ongoing immigration crisis is “weak.” The TPPF take: Spain’s immigration crisis is a warning to America. “Not that long ago, our own nation endured a historic mass migration crisis that exposed the consequences of weak border policies,” says TPPF’s Selene Rodriguez. “The...
Flocks are for Sheep What to know: Across the country, Americans are pushing back on automated license plate readers such as the Flock Safety cameras that are appearing in communities. The TPPF take: This is a high-tech assault on privacy. “There is a stunning arsenal of these data-siphoning cameras across the nation, connecting all of those data...
It’s Your Data What to know: Open AI has launched Health in ChatGPT, which connects users’ health data to the AI assistant so that users can have “personalized health conversations” with the AI. The TPPF take: The federal healthcare data privacy act, HIPAA, doesn’t apply to apps and AI. “That failure has a name, though most people...
Whose Property is It? What to know: An Austin homeowner is being fined nearly $9,000 for having his own trees trimmed. The TPPF take: Attorneys with TPPF’s Center for the American Future are representing homeowner Michael Petrick in a lawsuit against the city. “This is exactly the sort of thing that makes housing too expensive in Austin,”...
High Lines What to know: The Texas Public Utilities Commission will meet today to deliberate the latest planned segment of a high-powered electric transmission line. Lawmakers have asked commissioners to pause until the Legislature can meet. The TPPF take: Those transmission lines will solve none of the problems with the Texas grid. “Other plans exist that can...
Mamdani and the Border What to know: NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is calling for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and for “sanctuary” policies throughout the U.S. The TPPF take: Mamdani acknowledged recently that he’s never been to the southern U.S. border. “The issue is not whether Mamdani has physically visited the border,” says...
Nonprofiteering What to know: The city of Austin pays questionable and controversial nonprofits tens of millions every year and “does not use competitive bidding when awarding contracts for ‘social services.’” Such a dynamic invites waste, grift, and corruption in a mighty way. The TPPF take: Austin doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a profiteering problem. “In Austin and...
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors What to know: Texas lawmakers are pushing back on a Mexican politician who is lecturing them on border policy, noting his attempt to “inject the political priorities of a foreign government into the domestic affairs of the State of Texas.” The TPPF take: Corrupt Mexican political figures have no business weighing in on Texas...