Harmony Public Schools campuses across Texas began the 2024-25 school year last week, and in doing so set a new record for enrollment for the free, statewide public charter school. Roughly 45,000 students enrolled at Harmony for the first day of school, an increase from roughly 42,000 one year ago. The record-breaking increase is attributed to a number of factors, including the opening of new campuses in Fort Worth, Midland, Katy and Beaumont; as well as an enhanced focus on family engagement and retention; and continued academic success.

A near decade ago, we witnessed the 2015-2016 Hillary Clinton/Democratic National Committee/FBI-assisted effort to plant the false accusation of Trump-Russian collusion to warp the 2016 election. That gambit centered around the fraudulent Steele dossier and nearly fatally crippled the Trump 2016 campaign. That hoax would later sidetrack 22 months of his presidency before being proven a fantasy. On the eve of the 2020 election, the left next birthed the Russian laptop disinformation campaign.

It was a rank pander to the economically illiterate, and I wish we had a word to describe the type of thinking that's this divorced from reality. Kamala Harris’s proposal "to lower grocery prices and everyday costs” is invaluable insofar as it, in effect, attacks high prices for being high – as though they increased in a vacuum. The real problem is, she's failing to address the source of three-plus years of inflation and escalating prices – the policies of Kamala Harris & Joe Biden 

In the global competition for power, China is our greatest adversary. That's why combating the Chinese Communist Party's malign agenda is one of my top priorities in Congress. And as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I recently wrapped up a bipartisan trip I led to the Philippines and Australia — two of our most important allies in the fight against Communist China.

The investigation has already confirmed that various nonprofit organizations have been located outside Texas Department of Public Safety Driver License offices, operating booths offering to assist in voter registration for persons doing business at the driver’s license offices. But all citizens have already been presented an opportunity to register to vote as part of the process of renewing or being issued an identification card or driver’s license.

Either the U.S. Labor Dept. has been manipulating the numbers – which we think is unlikely – or the agency under Joe Biden is incompetent. New re-estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics just revealed the agency overcounted how many Americans were working during the past 18 months by some 800,000 jobs. That means employment was nearly 30% lower nationwide, and we've had 1.1 million fewer Americans working than we were originally told. But it gets worse.

At the direction of Governor Abbott, the Texas State Emergency Operations Center continues statewide wildfire coordination calls to provide local and state partners with situational awareness and ensure coordination between responders. Additionally, based on current conditions and the fire weather forecast, the Texas A&M Forest Service continues to operate the Abilene Air Tanker Base at Abilene Regional Airport to assist state and local responders in wildfire suppression efforts across Texas.

The convention in Chicago, hometown of former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. They spoke at the DNC about "hope" and about the importance of everyone living up to his or her potential. For many Chicagoans, that's a tall order. In 2022, according to the Illinois State Board of Education, there were 53 Illinois public K-12 schools, mostly in Chicago, where 0% of the students could do math at grade level and 30 public schools,0% of the students could read at grade level.

Was the process by which Kamala Harris became the Democrat Party’s presidential nominee fair – or unfair? And after questions about how she ascended to the nomination, is Kamala Harris the best possible Presidential Candidate for the Democrat Party this year? Probably most concerning for Democrats, however – a 52% majority of 1,142 "Likely U.S. Voters" say they "disagree" Kamala Harris is the best candidate the Democrat Party could have picked this year.

The STOP TRANQ Act would require the Department of State to include reporting on xylazine, or “tranq,” to its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), a country-by-country report that tracks efforts to counter all aspects of the international drug trade. Requiring the Department of State to actively report on this emerging threat would enable the United to counter and respond to trends in the international drug trade contributing to America’s drug crisis.

U.S. Representatives Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) and Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) introduced the Border Weather Resiliency Act. This legislation would require Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to assess and submit a strategy to mitigate the impacts of extreme weather on CBP personnel, infrastructure, technology, vehicles, and other assets. U.S. Senators Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) introduced companion legislation in the U.S. Senate.

RRC Commissioners voted to publish for public comment proposed amendments that are critical to updating the agency’s rules regulating waste management facilities. This is the first overhaul of RRC’s waste management rules in four decades. Groundwater protection is a major factor in the rule amendments, and they also take into consideration the need for historical rules to adapt to technological advancements in the energy industry’s resource development in Texas.

On August 20, 2024, Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Election Integrity Unit executed multiple search warrants in Frio, Atascosa, and Bexar Counties as part of an ongoing election integrity investigation. In 2022, the Election Integrity Unit received a referral from the 81st Judicial District Attorney Audrey Louis regarding allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting that occurred during the 2022 elections.

Antisemitism on college campuses is intense. Incidents shot up 700% after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Last year, Jewish students were blocked from classes, told to "go back to Europe," and even forced to navigate a Jewish "exclusion zone" at one university. Don't expect much improvement this fall. Aside from the resignations of three Ivy League presidents, colleges have done little to deter more incidents.

She says she'll initiate the “first-ever federal ban on price-gouging on food & groceries.” But how would Kamala Harris actually impose price controls on food? Are we talking about prices at the wholesale – or retail level? Can she force Grocery Stores to not raise their prices, while ignoring price increases they're charged by their suppliers? Would she just target wholesale companies that buy and process food from Farmers & Ranchers to sell to Grocery Stores? Hmm...

What are often referred to as "unaccompanied children" show up at the U.S. Southern Border without parents, are placed with "sponsors," and wait to find out whether or not they can stay. While the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services is responsible for placing the children with "sponsors," the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Inspector General, Joseph V. Cuffari, said Tuesday it has "lost track of" 32,000 Illegal Immigrant Children. They've just fallen through the cracks.

According to RealClear Politics, 65% of Americans say "our country is on the wrong track." Only 25% say we are "moving in the right direction." So this week's Democrat Convention will be worth watching – if for no other reason, simply as an exercise in detecting American hypocrisy. You will learn how much more radical they are than anyone else you know. You'll see just how much they're willing to lie to get your vote. But why should we believe them?

Three years after the Biden-Harris White House’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, the country continues to suffer under the iron fist of the terrorist Taliban. This administration must take accountability for those it abandoned in Afghanistan, and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice getting Americans and our allies to safety. This includes the 13 heroic U.S. Servicemembers who were killed, and is why I am pursuing an investigation into the botched withdrawal.