After a career spanning an impressive 25 years with the department, Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon announced earlier today he is set to retire on August 31st. As he steps down, Chacon's Chief of Staff Robin Henderson has been chosen to serve as Interim Chief until a nationwide search for a replacement is concluded. Chief Chacon's tenure was marked by both challenges and achievements, and Henderson brings a wealth of experience.

Since the mood of the nation's consumers runs on gas prices – when they're high, pocket-book concerns worsen – rising prices at the pump are stoking fears of continued high inflation as well. Earlier this year, after rebuffing President Biden’s calls for increased production, Saudi Arabia starting reducing how much oil it sends into the global economy – but that’s not all. In the past week they've threatened to deepen the reductions further.

From water heaters to pick-up trucks, from gas stoves to light bulbs, there seems to be a strange similarity in how all these “money-saving” changes that leftists and liberal Democrats are forcing on the rest of us always cost more. As the left will tell you, choices are only acceptable when it comes to sexual preferences, abortion, and gender. In everything else, the government knows what’s best for you. It is, after all, a free country.

There's a lot of hysteria over the recent declarations of worldwide, record-breaking heat – which are based on woefully limited climate data. Perspective is badly needed. Cherry-picking data, truncating timelines for temperature trends, citing opinions of “experts” as facts, and relying on anecdotal evidence shouldn't be used to incite dramatic or dubious public reaction. Scientists have a long way to go to before sufficiently comprehending the air surrounding the globe.

“The Bidens were in the actual business of influence peddling. We have Devon Archer coming out and telling the truth that Hunter Biden & Joe Biden spoke over 20 times about his business deals – not about the weather, not about what was for lunch – but about his business deals,” said one Congressman present at today's closed-door testimony by Hunter Biden’s former business partner before the House Oversight & Accountability Committee.

Hunter Biden walked into a Delaware Federal Court Wednesday morning expecting that in a few short hours he'd be a free man, with full immunity from future prosecution for an exceedingly wide range of alleged criminal conduct ranging from Gun & Drug Charges, to Foreign Influence Peddling. His expectation was that his legal ordeals were coming to a close. Instead, U.S. Dist. Court Judge Maryellen Noreika picked his plea deal apart with surgical precision.

Since launching his campaign for Texas House District 80 less than two weeks ago, now-former Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin has raised over $100,000 to help fund his campaign. As the first candidate in the race to raise over $100,000 the former mayor’s impressive fundraising capabilities demonstrate an ability to win, and may define him as the frontrunner in one of the most competitive 2024 primary & general elections in Texas.

As two IRS whistleblowers working on the Biden's Family Business Investigations testified before Congress Wednesday, American Voters are not holding their breaths. While 58% of Likely U.S. Voters "think its likely the president was involved" – including 44% who say it’s "Very Likely" – prosecutors “didn't follow ordinary process, slow-walked the investigation, and put unnecessary roadblocks in the case.”

While President Biden has begun to try and change the narrative – saying that “Bidenomics is about the future – Bidenomics is just another way of saying ‘restore the American Dream,’” that message is sure to be a hard sell. "Bidenomics" shifts haven’t led to improvements in most Americans’ day-to-day lives, they've become worse. And, lots of his own Democrat Voters don’t believe him.

Disposable vape products are preferred by 55% of the youths who currently use E-Cigarettes. And, according to the Houston Health Department, in 2019 almost 11% of Houston High Schoolers – and even close to 10% of Houston Middle Schoolers – were using Electronic Smoking Devices. This is a significant increase for Houston High School & Middle Schoolers since 2017 – and that's a problem.

"TAXPAYERS WIN! All residential and commercial real property taxpayers WIN! 5.72 million Texas homesteaders WIN – with an eye-popping 41.5% average savings of $1,373 year after year!” exclaimed State Sen. Paul Bettencourt earlier today, filing the largest property tax cut bill in Texas history after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan cleared the way for agreement following months of negotiations.

As House Republicans said they would file Contempt of Congress charges against FBI Chief Christopher Wray this week, a majority of “Likely U.S. Voters” from across the nation say they believe FBI leaders have tried, and are trying to cover up the growing scandal that involves President Joe Biden and his family's possible business dealings with foreign adversaries of the United States.

At a time when U.S. power consumption is expected to increase by around 20% before 2030, Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a new rule to eliminate nearly all the country’s natural gas & coal-fired power plant’s carbon emissions over the next 20 years. This bureaucratic, unlawful overreach will be catastrophic to Texas, to the nation – and if it's allowed to go into effect I intend to take Mr. Biden to court.

​​​​​​​“Texas is again No. 1 for job creation, adding more jobs over the last 12 months than any other state. That means more paychecks and more possibilities for Texas families," said Gov. Greg Abbott earlier today, celebrating the strength of Texas' economy after April's jobs data showed Texas again surpassed all previous records for Total Jobs, Total Texans Employed, and Total Texans in the Labor Force.

The 16 new terrorism suspects apprehended by U.S. Customs & Border Agents at the Southern Border in April follows 11 being apprehended in March, 16 being apprehended in February, after 15 were apprehended in January. The alarming numbers obliterate all previous records – and Border Patrol believes that as more are caught, even more are getting away – such as FBI terrorism suspects.

This week, our Capitol Report covers the critical priorities passed since last week’s deadline. House Republican members proved they are ready to invest in Texas water development and infrastructure, deliver sustainable property tax relief, protect Texas children from irreversible gender modification, and save women’s sports in the Lone Star State. Texans can be assured relief is on the way!

"While Americans suffer the consequences of chaos at the border caused by the Biden White House, (non-profit) NGOs receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars through Federal Grants to provide transportation for illegal aliens to anywhere in the U.S. they want," said House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, along with Cong. Lance Gooden & Tom McClintock after money was found to have been misspent by non-profits.

At a time when "connectivity" of all kinds is necessary & critical for day-to-day life, two leading corporations with strong Texas ties announced this week they will be making major investments to create the country's largest commercial wholesale fiber network and help bring high-speed connectivity to more Americans. For large, medium or smaller-sized metro areas, Texans need powerful infrastructure systems.

"I want our processing facilities to be run like Chick-fil-A," said Joe Biden’s U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz Wednesday, as illegal immigrants flooded across the Texas-Mexico Border just days prior to Title 42 being lifted on Thursday, May 11th. "I do not want another Del Rio Haitian crisis on my watch," Ortiz said, noting that future illegal immigrant intake processing should be run as smoothly as the service provided by the famous fast-food restaurant.

As with many things in politics these days, the courts and Attorney Generals are often asked to step in and determine the effects of various constitutional provisions. And, while the 2023 Texas Legislature is thought to be poised to reinstitute the same State Legislative Maps used in 2022, some in Austin are worried an unintended consequence of 2021's delayed redistricting process may require all 31 State Senators to run again in 2024.