Author: Sherry Sylvester

Every Friday morning I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Today is Dolly Parton Day, 9.25 (get it?), as love for the legendary artist continues to unite the country. Nashville is renaming their airport. Here’s who made this week’s list:

WINNER: Trump Bans CNN, MS NOW & Politico from White House Press Briefings

Trump is a winner for taking away the White House press passes of CNN, MS NOW and Politico last weekend even though the three news outlets took him to court and got their press passes restored for 14 days while the issue moves through the courts. I understand Trump will probably lose this fight. Everyone, even conservatives, thinks it’s unconstitutional for the president to throw some reporters out of the White House just because he doesn’t like what they report.

Maybe, but Trump is also right because what he is protesting in the left-wing news is not simply reports from a different perspective, it is the daily onslaught of lies, distortions and half-truths that fuel so many American beliefs in things that just aren’t true.

Just take one example from this week – a group of Jewish shareholders sued the New York Times for persistent lies in their coverage of Israel, which has bolstered a pro-Hamas narrative and anti-Jewish bias, likely contributing to the rise of anti-Semitism throughout the country.

Before they were forced to delete it last week, the New York Times inexplicably noted that “Israelis still view themselves largely as the victims of October 7.” Huh?

They also ran a horrifying photo of an emaciated child who they portrayed as starving in Gaza as a result of Israeli tactics, but after several days of pressure the paper was forced to admit that the unfortunate child actually suffered from muscle atrophy and several other diseases which accounted for his appearance. The fact that Israel has sent over 2 million metric tons of food into Gaza since October 7 is rarely reported.

All these stories were echoed by CNN, MS NOW and Politico. The conservative half of the country doesn’t pay attention to those outlets so we tend to think it doesn’t matter. But their phony presentation of what is going on in the world so heavily pollutes the news stream that everyone ends up hearing it.

We see the same thing in the Texas press which pushes false narratives on virtually every issue. One of last week’s losers was a story that university professors were leaving Texas because they didn’t like the new higher education reforms. Not true. Since the incredible new Bluebonnet Curriculum has been given the green light, there have been dozens of stories that Texas public schools do not teach about slavery and that they force students to embrace Christianity. Neither is true.

In Washington, every press outlet has rallied around the banned reporters waving the First Amendment flag. We are all big fans of the First Amendment, but it is important to remember that when Thomas Jefferson famously said he’d prefer to have “newspapers without a government rather than government without newspapers,” it was 1787. George Washington hadn’t been elected president yet and there actually wasn’t a government. After Jefferson became president, he said that Americans would be better informed if they read nothing at all – because newspapers were filled with “falsehoods and errors.”

What Jefferson said then is not all that different from what Trump is saying now. The President is not attacking Freedom of the Press, he is simply pointing out that nothing in the Constitution guarantees a daily briefing in the White House.

Of course, conservatives argue that if Trump throws out lefty media, the next time a Democrat is in the White House, he will ban Fox News and other conservative outlets, to which I say, “so what?”

Years ago, I was honored to work for the legendary H.L. “Sandy” Schwartz, who had reported the Watergate story for the Associated Press. I was covering New Jersey politics and one of the most important things Schwartz taught me was to never waste my time going to press conferences. “There is never any news made at a press conference,” he said, and he was right.

White House daily briefings are livestreamed. Anybody can watch them. The reporters who have been kicked out of the White House press room should go and search out some real news stories – maybe look at something no other reporter is writing about. Then, they should thank Trump for doing them a favor.

LOSER: Nikole Hannah-Jones’ Bad School Confession

So much has been said this week about the New York Times story in which Nikole Hannah-Jones confesses what a bad parent she is, under the arrogant and obnoxious title — In Fighting for Every Black Child Did I Betray my Own?

As a reminder, Hannah-Jones wrote the 1619 Project, a lie that “reframed” American history exclusively around race and slavery. The 1619 Project did not propose broader inclusion of black people in our history. Instead, it insisted on the complete exclusion of white people, pronouncing everything from the revolutionary war to the Constitution as rooted in racism and white supremacy. Until now, the 1619 Project has been Hannah-Jones’ only claim to fame and she has been blasted because it has been shown to be wildly inaccurate by historians across the spectrum – right and left.

In this new “personal” report, Hannah-Jones tell us, with huge doses of self-righteousness, that although she could send her daughter to a good school, she chose to enroll her in a low-performing, predominantly low-income and black school, because she believed that is what affluent black people should do.

Finally, after 9 years – 9 years! – her daughter, who couldn’t do math or anything else, begged her parents to take her out of the school, which she did, concluding that poor performing schools like her daughter’s will not succeed until they receive the same funding as white schools.

So now Hannah-Jones is pushing a new lie: that black public schools fail because they are underfunded – it’s the teachers’ union lie. In fact, the school that Hannah-Jones’ daughter attended, PS 307 in Brooklyn, receives $52,000 per student, three times the national average of $16,226. Teachers earn more than $100,000 annually.

WINNER: Cuellar Challenges Hasan Piker on Anti-Semitism

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, repeated his concern this week that Hasan Piker is scheduled to speak in Austin next week, saying his statements that America deserved 9/11, his praise of Hamas and his denial of the rapes that occurred during the October 7 massacre reek of anti-Semitism. Cuellar said there is no place in Texas for Piker’s “rhetoric excusing terrorism” if Jewish students are made to feel threatened or unsafe.

The San Antonio Express-News quickly came to Piker’s defense, reporting that Piker says he isn’t anti-Semitic, so he must not be.

Piker will not be appearing on the University of Texas campus as originally planned, causing local Democratic Socialists to scream that they have been “soft-cancelled.” No word yet on where he’ll be dishing out his anti-American, pro-terrorist stand-up routine.

LOSER: Abdul El-Sayed Goes After College Football

We know that Democratic Socialists hate America and want to destroy our way of life but nowhere was that more evident than last week when Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed blamed college football for the housing shortage in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

El- Sayed was speaking at a “Students versus Billionaires” Town Hall and claimed one of the factors that contributes to a lack of affordable housing in that college town was “Football Saturdays.” El-Sayed lamented that Ann Arbor had become a tourist destination because of University of Michigan games and too many people were buying houses there to use as rentals, depleting the housing supply.

El-Sayed apparently is unaware that college football is the lifeblood of towns and cities like Ann Arbor. Let’s ask business owners there what happens to them if there are no “Football Saturdays.” Finally, not being judgey here, but El-Sayed got his undergraduate degree at Michigan and owns a rental property in Ann Arbor.

WINNER: San Antonio is Smarter than Dallas and Houston

Some outfit called Maxwell Studios put out one of those reports this week ranking the Top 50 Most Intellectual Cities in the Country. Their methodology is unclear but one red flag is that all the top cities are Blue – Boston, San Francisco, Providence, Portland – Austin is No. 13, wedged in between Seattle and Philadelphia. Other Texas cities don’t make an appearance until the bottom of the list but I did want to note that these lefties ranked San Antonio as more intellectual than Dallas or Houston – both of which are included in the top 5 dumbest cities list. If we were taking this seriously, we might ask why so many people are moving out of those “smart” cities, but why bother?

WINNER: Texas is Still No. 1, Texas A&M is Not

The University of Texas at Austin must face down its road curse this week and travel to Tennessee to play that other school that calls itself UT. President Trump is reportedly scheduled to be in the stands. Texas A&M, which has fallen to No. 23, must go into Death Valley to play No. 10 LSU tomorrow. Texas Tech is playing Sam Houston State. Going into Week 4, it is still very hot in Texas, but some weather reports indicate we might be getting some football weather soon.

Have a great weekend!

Listen to Winners & Losers on Talk 1370, the Cardle & Woolley show, every Friday morning at 8:30 AM. Here’s the listen live link.

Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

Every Friday morning I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Yesterday was the 239^th Anniversary of the Miracle in Philadelphia when America’s Founders signed off on the Constitution – a document that is still looking pretty good today, despite being constantly under assault. With 48 days to go until the midterm elections, here’s who made the list:

WINNER: America is Beating Poverty

You didn’t see this on most mainstream media reports, but the Census Bureau just released some bright news in these inflation-fueled economic times: the percentage of Americans who are living in poverty is lower than it has been since they started keeping records. A little over 10% of the country is living below the poverty line, which the Census Bureau set at $32,649 for a family of four. Adjusted for inflation, the real median household income jumped 2.6% to $87,460, an all-time high.

Despite criticism from the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility at the University of Chicago, the new data includes all cash and noncash benefits, including transfer payments, received by American families – a move long advocated by former U.S. Senator and Texas economist Phil Gramm.

Even the folks at the University of Chicago begrudgingly admit the rise in median household income is positive.

WINNER: UT Eliminates “Grievance Studies” Classes

University of Texas at Austin students will no longer be able to major in African-American Diaspora studies, Mexican-American Latino/a Studies, women and gender studies and race, indigeneity and migration studies.

The Texas media found a Social and Cultural Analysis professor at UT who charged that ending these majors is “censorship” that “curtails students’ career prospects.”

First, nobody at the 40 Acres has said students can’t study these issues. But reviews reveal that if so-called “grievance studies” courses are not required, few people take them. The classes aren’t actually history or cultural analysis but instead are loaded with race and gender theory ideology and calls for activism.

Second, you have to wonder how even one professor believes that not being able to major in one of these “grievance study” programs hampers anyone’s career prospects. The only future with such a degree is teaching the same classes somewhere or working as a barista.

This is another win for UT leadership as they continue to implement Senate Bill 37.

WINNER: Lt. Gov. Patrick Slaps Down ERCOT

With Texas ratepayers paying 32% more for electricity since 2020, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick stood up for every fed-up Texan when he slapped down the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) this week after they tried to give their CEO, Pablo Vegas, a new $6.4 million annual salary contract while increasing the salary of every board member by $50,000. Board members currently draw about $160,000 annually for serving on the ERCOT Board, which meets 4 times a year.

The ERCOT Board is busy backtracking on these lavish salary enhancements as Lt. Governor Patrick proclaimed that he had lost total confidence in them to look out for Texas ratepayers. Us too. Watch this space for what comes next.

WINNER: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz Breaks the Spell

After the University of Texas’ epic win over Ohio State on Saturday, it is clear the “Cruz Curse” is no longer being enforced by the football gods. Cruz was on College GameDay, in Austin this week to talk about the Protect College Sports Act, which cleared its first hurdle in Congress by moving forward in the Senate on a 76-24 vote. Throughout his interview Cruz was loudly booed by UT student fans, who were celebrating their free speech rights before the game.

There is no way to know why the Longhorn fans were chanting “Ted, you suck.“ It could have been about the “Curse,” which had held that when Cruz shows up for a game, Texas teams lose. Or it could have been about opposition to the Protect College Sports Act, which some Longhorns oppose because their football program isn’t threatened. Everyone knows that whatever happens, University of Texas football will survive even if the rest of the FBS schools are weakened or destroyed by the current madness in college sports.

Or, the heckling Longhorns could have just been protesting Sen. Cruz because he’s a principled conservative and they don’t like conservatives. The latest survey from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) found that the ratio of liberal students to conservatives at UT has increased to almost 7 to 1 over the last year. The survey also found that 76% of UT students believe it is acceptable to shout down a speaker they disagree with to prevent him from speaking on campus.

LOSER: Hasan Piker Coming to Austin

The Democratic Socialist guy who said America deserved 911, and has nothing but praise for Hamas, must have missed the news about declining poverty rates yesterday. In his latest podcast rant, he repeatedly proclaimed America to be “the absolute worst country on the face of the planet, straight up, bar none, a capitalist s***hole.”

Piker is scheduled to be in Austin in the next week or so. It will be interesting to see if a Longhorn crowd heckles him.

LOSER: Gavin Newson Will Step Aside for Kamala

California Gov. Gavin Newsom told CNN this week that if former Vice President Kamala Harris decides to run for president again, he will bow out.

This may seem like a gallant move, but it is more likely that Newsom is simply directing big Democrat donors to push her out of the race by refusing to fund her – as many have already done.

Understanding how Democrats think, we know this saves Newsom from being attacked as a big white guy trying to keep a minority woman from succeeding. Still, there is no way to understand why any Democrat thinks nominating Harris to run again is a good idea.

Polls this week show Harris is the leading Democrat contender in the presidential race by a couple points with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Newsom and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, all close behind within the margin of error.

LOSER: Dallas Morning News False Report on Professors Leaving

A headline in the Dallas Morning News this week screamed that “More Professors Want to Leave Texas This Year Citing Political Climate, censorship survey says.” The story was picked up by several radio and TV stations and other newspapers around the state even though it is almost certainly not even close to true.

The survey, which came from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), was conducted in 13 southern states. It was not a random sample designed to accurately measure the sentiment of Texas higher education faculty. Instead, the AAUP emailed the survey to their members in Texas, who represent less than 5% of Texas professors. 1,126 people answered the questions about whether they had considered leaving Texas because of the political climate, loss of academic freedom or shared governance, DEI policy, salary or other workplace conditions.

According to the Dallas Morning News story, about a third of the respondents – a little over 300 people from a self-selected group – said they had applied for a job out of state in the last two years. That’s 300 professors out of an estimated 100,000 people who teach in Texas public universities.

Even the Editorial writers at the Dallas Morning News was skeptical, saying the AAUP pushes for the “politicization of campuses” and “uniformly takes popular leftist positions with a special focus on Israel and Zionism.” Was their reporter not aware of that?

WINNER: Gov. Abbott Pushes for a 3-Year College Degree Path

Speaking of the AAUP, this week, Gov. Greg Abbott appointed a number of higher education thinkers to develop a 3-year college degree program. A 3-year degree would save Texans anywhere from $15,000 to $40,000, not to mention getting back an extra year in your life. Everybody thinks it’s a good idea except the AAUP, which opposes 3-year degrees.

LOSER: Houston Congressman Al Green’s Last Stand

Rep. Al Green, D-TX, wanted to take one last stab at impeaching President Donald Trump before he leaves Congress so he introduced an impeachment resolution this week. 232 House members voted to table it while only 147 voted to move it forward, so that’s a wrap.

This is the 8th time Green has tried to impeach Trump. Beyond that effort, he has passed no significant legislation for at least a decade. Houston Democrats voted him out in the March primaries.

WINNER: Texas Longhorns on Top of the Leader Board

Nothing can tarnish the glorious 24-23 Longhorn victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday — although there were several efforts to change the conversation. But when the smoke cleared, the University of Texas at Austin was sitting at No. 1.

Tomorrow, the Longhorns will take on the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). A good factoid to take to the tailgate is that, like Longhorn star Arch Manning, the Roadrunner QB, Owen McCown, also has an impressive football pedigree as both his father and uncle played in the NFL. McCown attended the Manning Passing Camp with Arch this summer and was singled out as one of the stars.

UTSA Coach Jeff Traylor has some sobering thoughts about his matchup with UT tomorrow and the future of fielding $5 million teams against $50 million teams, which is not to say the Roadrunners aren’t going to drive up to Austin and give it all they’ve got.

No. 9 ranked Texas A&M demolished Arizona State last weekend and will play Kentucky tomorrow. Meanwhile, in an another all Texas match-up, No. 13 ranked Texas Tech is playing No. 22 ranked University of Houston tonight at 7PM – which means Saturday football is starting early!

Have a great weekend!

Listen to Winners & Losers on Talk 1370, the Cardle & Woolley show, every Friday morning at 8:30 AM. Here’s the listen live link.

Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

LOSER: Houston Congressman Al Green’s Last Stand

Rep. Al Green, D-TX, wanted to take one last stab at impeaching President Donald Trump before he leaves Congress so he introduced an impeachment resolution this week. 232 House members voted to table it while only 147 voted to move it forward, so that’s a wrap.

This is the 8th time Green has tried to impeach Trump. Beyond that effort, he has passed no significant legislation for at least a decade. Houston Democrats voted him out in the March primaries.

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle and Woolley show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to discuss the week’s Winners & Losers. While the Texas Big 3—Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows—get a big thumbs up for telling state agencies to trim their budgets by 3%, here’s who made the list:

WINNER: Dolly Parton, The One Thing Americans Agree On

It has been a while since America has had such a sad loss as the great Dolly Parton—an artist, philanthropist and philosopher who rose up from poverty and represented the best of America—the spirit of our story. In these divisive times, Dolly Parton has been called the only thing most Americans agree on. We all miss her already.

WINNER: U of H Cleans Up Core Curriculum

Gov. Abbott’s directive to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board this week to develop a three year degree option is a Winner move, coming alongside the announcement by University of Houston that the Board of Regents has cut 40% of its core curriculum classes, which few could argue were integral to a college education.

U of H Professor David Mazella, a member of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), loudly disagreed, charging that U of H is following the path of former Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban. Mazella called the curriculum changes an “Orbanization of Higher Ed in Texas.”

Of course, nobody has any idea what he means (and fewer than 5% of Texas professors belong to the AAUP), and there are a couple holes in the media reporting of this story.

First, almost all the media reported that classes that were cut included Introduction to Global Climate Change, Introduction to LGBT Studies and Black Liberation Theology in order to push the narrative that there has been some kind of Republican purge of U of H’s sacred body of knowledge. No media outlet mentioned that the cuts also included Homer to Hollywood, the Bible and Modern Pop Culture and a History of Jewish Food. Keep in mind that these are courses anyone could take and get credit toward a degree.

The media also did not look at the courses that remain in the Core Curriculum. Sure, Intro to Climate Change is gone, but the Core Curriculum includes Environmental Science, Earth Systems and Natural Disasters. A student can still take LGBTQ studies as an elective, but that was no comfort to the AAUP as Professor Mazella told Inside Higher Ed, “We are under enrollment pressures…if these courses do not satisfy core requirements, they go away.”

What the professor means is if there’s no credit for these classes, no one will take them and professors will have to teach something substantive—or lose their jobs.

LOSER: Texas A&M Victoria Professors Working 9-to-5

Meanwhile, professors at Texas A&M-Victoria are outraged by an “abrupt policy change” that requires all full-time faculty to spend 40 hours a week on campus, as dictated by Senate Bill 2615, passed last legislative session.

Truth is, it wasn’t that abrupt. Senate Bill 2615 passed the Texas Legislature on May 30, 2025. Texas A&M-Victoria faculty were reminded in June that law had changed and they would be expected to comply. On July 15, faculty were required to sign a form clarifying that they understood the new requirement. Still, this week, Teresa Klein, head of the Texas Chapter of the AAUP, said “the timing of the impromptu mandate has left many faculty scrambling to rearrange their schedules to accommodate, negatively affecting their professional and personal lives.”

Of course, she also said it was probably sexist (“having a possible disproportional, discriminatory and disparate negative effect on female faculty”).

Klein told the Houston Chronicle that many faculty are resigning as a result of the rule, but so far it is not clear what she means by “many.”

When the Higher Education Reform Bill (SB 37) was passed in 2023, the AAUP predicted it would cause a giant “brain drain” in state universities, because professors would leave. They didn’t. In 2021, the AAUP predicted nobody would teach in Texas after the anti-DEI Bill (SB 17) passed. They also said students wouldn’t want to come to Texas—but college enrollment is up across the state, and university leaders told the Senate Higher Education Committee earlier this summer that there has been no exodus of faculty. The University of Texas just welcomed 150 new faculty members this year and student applications broke 100,000—the highest number ever.

LOSER: CBC Won’t Call 9/11 a ‘Terrorist’ Event

The Senior Director of Journalistic Standards and Public Trust at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) directed news reporters not to describe the attack on the U.S. on September 11, 2001 as a “terrorist attack.” With the 25^th anniversary of the attacks coming up next week, the CBC official wanted to make sure she got her message out early, emphasizing her directive: “Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks,” by making the sentence both bold and in italics. Instead, she said news stories should report that: “The hijackings led to passenger jet crashes.”

This inexplicable idiocy undoubtedly will be a boost in popularity for Trump’s decision to rename Lake Ontario. I am looking for a place to buy a LAKE AMERICA tee shirt.

WINNER: Buc-ee’s Says No to Blue States

The legendary Texas gas station chain Buc-ee’s announced this week that it will no longer bother expanding its business into blue states. Announcing the Texas firm’s new outreach into Arkansas, Buc-cees CEO Arch Alpin made it clear that operating in “conservative, business-friendly” states makes a difference. We learned during the World Cup that people around the world love Buc-ee’s—not just Texans. Bad policies are why blue states can’t have nice things.

LOSER: Federal Judge Rules in Support of Drag Shows for Kids

Federal Judge David Hittner, from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, ruled this week that Senate Bill 12, which bans drag shows for children, is unconstitutional. I wrote about this earlier this summer—Why Can’t We Get Rid of Drag Queen Story Hour? The only update is Judge Hittner’s ruling is one more reason why we can’t get rid of Drag Queen story hours.

LOSER: Good Good Golf Makes Awful Awful Ad

While we wait for college football to begin next week, we want to make sure readers don’t miss this very weird story in the golf world that involves the now former title sponsor of the PGA Tournament at Barton Creek in November, Good Good Golf.

This week, Good Good put out this ad for Calloway’s new driver which depicts a male golfer pushing a woman down on a golf course. You can watch the ad here but the plot is simple—four or five young male golfers are standing around a putting green when a young woman walks up from the other side and reaches to pull a club out of a golf bag. Immediately, one of the young men runs up and forces her to the ground, then leans over her and bellows, “Do NOT TOUCH my new driver.”

Every golfer knows that if anything like that actually happened in real life—and it virtually never does—a half dozen other golfers would have punched the guy out before the golf cops arrived and escorted him off the course.

Callaway apologized immediately, explaining the ad had been made by Good Good—but they admitted they’d signed off on it. Blowback was swift and deserved. The Golf Channel has just postponed a new show Good Good was sponsoring because other companies started pulling out. We’ll see what happens with Austin’s upcoming tournament.

Have a great weekend!

Listen to Winners & Losers on Talk 1370, the Cardle & Woolley show, every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. Here’s the listen live link.

Follow Sherry on X @sylvester1630 and find her on Substack at sherrysylvester.substack.com.

Winners & Losers is calling an end to our summer break. The Almanac says the last 8 p.m. sunsets in the central region of Texas will occur next week, so the days are getting shorter, and we can no longer stand by and let so many winners and losers go by unacknowledged. Here’s who is on my list:

LOSER: The First Day of School in August

Public schools are launching their 2026-27 school years all around us, and the question for parents should be: “Why are kids being dragged back to school when it is still, quite obviously, summer?”

State Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, promised this week to file a bill that will require Texas public schools to not begin the fall semester before Labor Day. In the past, that debate has always come down to a legislative battle between Texas tourism and Texas schools—so we’ll see how that goes when the session starts.

Currently, Texas law says that public schools can’t officially begin classes until the fourth Monday in August, unless they are “Districts of Innovation,” which includes 80% of Texas school districts—so most schools can start whenever they want.

A taxpayer funded lobbyist for the Texas Classroom Teachers Association says the early start date is one of the most popular things about “Districts of Innovation,” but consider the source and then ask the question, “Popular with whom?” Teachers, who have been on vacation since May, apparently are big fans of getting started early in August, but can we really let teachers decide this?

These are the people who give us a school day for younger kids that begins as early as 7:45 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m.—times that are virtually impossible for any working parent to easily navigate, necessitating expensive childcare and ongoing logistical nightmares. This ridiculous schedule has been with us for so long that nobody even asks anymore why the school day is over in the middle of the afternoon. Whoever sets the hours for a public school day didn’t consider parents, but I am betting a 3 p.m. end time is also “popular” with teachers.

Also, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is a WINNER for directing Comptroller Don Huffines to do a spot review of several public school budgets to ensure the over $90 billion the state provides in school funding annually is going to the classroom—and not thrown away on administrative bloat.

LOSER: Bexar County Bet On Pandemic Funding Being Permanent

It is hard not to laugh at a story coming out of Bexar County this week as officials lament that they used $10 million they got during COVID-19 to create permanent programs—and now they don’t have the funding anymore. Who believed trillions in COVID-19 funding would go away? Now, as if it was just another random bad thing that has happened to them, Bexar County officials are wailing and gnashing their teeth because they must eliminate 28 staff positions, and such anti-COVID-19 programs as ending domestic violence and elder abuse are on the chopping block.

You have to hand it to former Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, a Democrat, who led the county during the pandemic, for being honest:

“I don’t know if they’ve done any good with it or not,” Wolff said at the time. “Maybe just another bureaucratic department, as far as I know, and if that’s true, then there’s no need to have it. But if they have done some good things and they can be transferred over to University Hospital, then that ought to be done.”

It is not clear where the funding will come from to evaluate the impact of the anti-COVID-19 programs that had nothing to do with COVID-19.

WINNER: Lt. Gov. Patrick Fights Dirty Books in Texas Schools

Lt. Governor Patrick doubled down on dirty books in public school libraries this week, threatening to dock a school’s rating, or even withhold funds if they don’t clean up their act.

Patrick distributed copies of “Let’s Talk About It” to reporters in a Capitol press conference this week. It’s a book that provides children with how-to directions on masturbation, sex toys, accessing pornography and all manner of sex. The book actually comes with a disclaimer from the publisher and author which reads: “The authors and publisher expressly disclaim any responsibility for any adverse effects which may result from the use or application of the information contained in this book.”

Huh? A safety disclaimer on a library book?

Senate Bill 13, a priority for the Lt. Gov., passed last year, but Bonnie Wallace, who has visited almost 200 school libraries in Texas, says very little action has been taken. In hundreds of public schools in Texas, children can still get a copy of sexually graphic and explicit books like “Gender Queer,” which contains gross and vulgar descriptions of masturbation and all kinds of homosexual and non-binary sex acts. I reviewed “Gender Queer” three years ago and can unequivocally report that it has no redeeming value, although it has won several lefty awards including one that seems blasphemous—the “Lincoln Award,” from the state of Illinois.

Wallace is on Patrick’s podcast, Lt. Dan, this week. You can find it here.

WINNER: DeSantis is Putting Statues Up

As part of Florida’s 250th Celebration, Gov. Ron DeSantis is putting up statues of America’s founders and other heroes all over the state—including a statue of Thomas Jefferson in Jefferson County, a statue of Ben Franklin in Franklin County, James Monroe in Monroe County, Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton County and George Washington in Washington County.

DeSantis drew his line in the sand on statues last year, calling the removal of “some Civil War general or whatever” a form of historical erasure, adding the idea of renaming Jacksonville was ridiculous. Last week, he unveiled a statue of Andrew Jackson in Jackson County.

Meanwhile, up in the deep blue Pacific Northwest, wokeism persists as officials in Portland, Oregon have announced they will return the statue of Abraham Lincoln, which was toppled by Black Lives Matters rioters in the city’s Central Park during 100 days of mob control in 2020. However, the Great Emancipator’s statue will not be returned to its previous pedestal. Instead, the statue will be standing on the ground, so no one will be looking up to him.

LOSER: AOC & the End of Woke 1

National polls continue to show Kamala Harris with a strong lead for the Democrat nomination for president in 2028, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom coming in second. But the prediction markets give the edge to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, which is undoubtedly why she is trying to re-brand herself as normal person, laughing on ABC News last week that “Woke 1 was crazy,” implying that nobody thinks that opening the borders or defunding the police is a good idea anymore.

AOC is hoping we will forget she has used terms like “menstruating person,” to describe a woman and “two spirits,” to describe men who think they are women. She also hopes we’ll forget that she said that “marginalized Americans have no choice but to riot.

As for Woke 2.0, the Democratic Socialists of America have given us a close-up of what it looks like. The focus shifts to institutional change, where they want to abolish not only police, but jails and redesign the government to eliminate the executive branch and the Supreme Court, and let something like the House of Representatives run everything. It is not clear how all this will be built by people who organize themselves around their identity rather than their skills, who believe the country is built on racism, disdain achievement on merit and support men who believe they are women. If they get any traction, Woke 1 will look like “the good old days,” and nobody will be laughing.

LOSER: Texas Blue City Blues

Texas largest cities began to make threats this week that they will have no choice but to try to increase property taxes because they are spending way more money than they have.

The budget in Dallas has a $51 million shortfall and in Fort Worth, it’s $94 million. My home town of San Antonio is looking at a $158 million deficit over the next two years and reports are predicting Austin’s is on track to be $100 million in the hole in the next few years. The cities blame all this on the state – for restricting local property tax increases – and threaten to trim costs by closing libraries and laying off employees. It does not appear that they are looking at their own spending culture, which may reveal something they are missing. City managers in all those cities have base salaries of over $400K– and by base, it means that add-ons like a $600 a month car allowance in Ft. Worth are not included. That seems like that’s a lot to pay people who can’t put together a balanced budget.

LOSER: Democrats Like Socialism

Watching the victories and defeats of Democratic Socialists of America in the Democrat primaries across the country over the past few weeks, it appears so-called “normal Democrats,” are prevailing since DSA candidates lose more often than they win. But new polling makes it clear that among all Democrats, the majority, almost 60%, view socialism positively while only a third feel good about capitalism. These numbers are driven by young, white, affluent and college educated Democrats, the same folks who commemorated 100 years of Fidel Castro’s regime this week.

WINNER: Texas Dominates AP Coaches Poll

We are 15 days from the start of college football season, but the AP Top 25 Poll came out this week and the Lone Star State dominates with five teams on the list. No other state is even close. Starting off, the University of Texas at Austin is rated No. 4, Texas A&M is No. 8 and Texas Tech is No. 12. Southern Methodist comes in at No. 19 and the University of Houston is at No. 23. The ESPN Poll has Texas at No. 5, but its pre-season rankings, like the Coaches Poll are about the same. On Sept. 5, Texas will play their season opener against Texas State, Texas A&M is playing Missouri and Tech will play Abilene Christian.

That said, only the University of Texas made it to list of “Most Arrests by College Football Teams Since 2000” which ranks the Longhorns at No. 11, with 291 arrests in the last 25 years. Florida ranks at the top with 539 arrests in the same period. This “Most Arrests” list made the rounds this week, posted on many college team websites, but it’s not clear who compiled it or what their criteria was. If one of the teams you really hate is on the list, it probably makes you happy. Oklahoma is ranked No. 12, just under Texas…just saying.

Have a great weekend!

Listen to Winners & Losers on Talk 1370, the Cardle & Woolley show, every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. Here’s the listen live link.

Follow Sherry on X @sylvester1630 and find her on Substack at sherrysylvester.substack.com

Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.