The State of Texas: June 7, 2016

Quote of the Day

“Mr. Trump, you’re a racist and you can take your border wall and shove it up your *ss,”

—U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, a Democrat from Brownsville, in an open letter to the Republican presidential candidate, according to the Texas Tribune.

Daily Roundup

Good Dog
Sixteen-year-old golden retriever Bretagne passed away on Monday in Houston. According to the Houston Chronicle, the dog was the last known survivor of the search-and-rescue canines who helped sort through the wreckage of the World Trade Center after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. She had been part of the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department since 2000, and the FEMA-certified Disaster Search Dog was the founding four-legged member of the fire department’s K-9 Search and Rescue team. Throughout her career, Bretagne responded to disasters like hurricanes Katrina and Rita, dutifully serving the department until her retirement six years ago. Even then, she reportedly remained a fixture at the firehouse, made public appearances, and paid regular visits to an elementary school in Waller County. From the department’s press release: “Each week, she would visit a first grade classroom and listen to young readers, providing a non-judgmental ear, and soft paw… Her calm demeanor and warm heart helped the young and old through their own difficult moments.” Bretagne was recently invited back to New York by a dog charity for her sixteenth birthday, where she was honored for her service during 9-11 and enjoyed a swanky hotel room, a gourmet cheeseburger, some toys and treats, and a personalized welcome message on a Times Square billboard, according to Us Weekly. Quite a full life.

Mr. Trump Goes to Texas
Brace yourselves—Donald Trump is coming. According to the Dallas Morning News, the likely Republican presidential nominee will visit Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio next week for some fundraising and possibly some rallies, but details about Trump’s Texas trip are unclear. The timing of the real estate mogul’s pop-in is interesting, to say the least. In the last week or so, Trump threw himself into hotter water than usual after he berated a Mexican judge, and news recently broke about shady Trump University’s brief and probably fraudulent existence in Texas. It’s unclear if Trump’s summer trip here has anything to do with Hillary Clinton’s recent comments promising she’ll put up a fight in Texas during the general election, but at least one well-known Texan indicated Trump might be hightailing it to the Lone Star State because he needs some cash. Mark Cuban told Fusion‘s Jorge Ramos in an interview on Monday that he believes Trump, who has so far run a pretty much self-financed campaign, is “blowing through” his money too fast. Cuban also took a few shots at Trump, claiming he is worth far less than the self-proclaimed $10 billion and is actually valued at somewhere around a tiny $165 million. In the same breath, Cuban slammed Trump for his comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel and reiterated his own desire to serve as vice president for either either of the presumptive nominees.

Tiny District
In the small Central Texas town of Doss last week, trustees serving the Doss Consolidated Common School District voted unanimously to stay open for the 133rd consecutive year, the San Antonio Express-News reported Monday. Fourteen people came to speak at a community meeting held to discuss whether or not to close the district for good. That’s ten more people than the number of students in the district. According to the Express-News, Doss is the smallest school district in the state. Proponents of the “micro-district” pointed to the advantages of having such a small system, like the teacher-student ratio (the district’s full-time staff includes two teachers, two aides, and one clerk, so that’s a one-to-one ratio). Two of the speakers pledged to enroll new students next fall, which will bump the enrollment to a whopping six. Still, the district’s budget is $450,000, so the fewer students it has, the more it will cost per-pupil to stay open. The school board’s president said before the meeting that the district has to make sure it doesn’t fall short of modern state education standards just so the community can cling it’s old-timey (tiny) feel.