Show notes
Flyover Friday, December 1, 2023
Intro: On this episode of The Heartland POD for Friday, December 1st, 2023
A flyover from this weeks top heartland stories including:
Welcome to The Heartland POD for a Flyover Friday, this is Sean Diller in Denver, Colorado. With me as co-host today is Adam Sommer, how you doing Adam?
We’re glad to have you with us. If you’re new to our shows make sure you subscribe and leave a 5 star rating wherever you listen. You can also find Heartland POD content on Youtube and on social media with @ THE heartland pod, and learn more at thehearltandcollective.com
Alright! Let’s get into the stories
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/28/new-article-greg-abbott-school-vouchers-hugh-shine-endorse/
Gov. Greg Abbott is starting to make good on his threat to politically target fellow Republicans who oppose school vouchers, issuing his first endorsement of a primary challenger to a House member who has helped thwart his top legislative priority of the year.
Abbott on Tuesday backed Hillary Hickland, an activist mother who is running against Rep. Hugh Shine, R-Temple. Shine was one of 21 Republicans who voted earlier this month to strip a voucher provision out of an education bill, delivering the most decisive blow yet to the governor’s agenda.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/16/texas-house-school-vouchers/
The Texas House on Friday voted to strip school vouchers from the chamber’s massive education funding bill, taking an ax to Gov. Greg Abbott’s top legislative priority of the year.
The House voted 84-63 in favor of an amendment offered by Rep. John Raney, R-College Station, which removed the provision of the bill allowing some parents to use tax dollars to send their children to private and religious schools. Twenty-one Republicans, most of whom represent rural districts, joined all Democrats in support.
https://missouriindependent.com/2023/11/29/missouri-attorney-general-opposes-proposed-federal-rule-supporting-lgbtq-foster-kids/
“Because of family rejection and abuse,” the Biden administration said in a September press release, LGBTQ children are “overrepresented in foster care where they face poor outcomes, including mistreatment and discrimination because of who they are.”
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey this week joined with 18 other states to oppose a proposed federal rule that aims to protect LGBTQ youth in foster care and provide them with necessary services.
The attorneys general argue in a letter to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services that the proposed rule — which requires states to provide safe and appropriate placements with providers who are appropriately trained about the child’s sexual orientation or gender identity — amounts to religion-based discrimination and violates freedom of speech.
“As a foster parent myself,” Bailey said in a news release Tuesday, “I am deeply invested in protecting children and putting their best interests first.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/30/senate-clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-john-cornyn-ted-cruz/
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz were among several Republicans who bolted from a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Thursday to protest subpoenaing Dallas-based conservative donor Harlan Crow.
The committee’s Democrats are seeking records over payments, gifts and travel Crow reportedly provided Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, some of which were not initially listed on financial disclosures. The committee’s GOP members cast the subpoena authorization as a partisan attack against one of the most conservative members of the court and a private citizen.
"This is an outrageous attempt to target private citizens without any legitimate legislative purpose," Cornyn told reporters after the meeting. "If you can go after a private citizen … for a non-legislative prupose, you essentially can target for political reasons any American citizen at any time in the future. And that is a dangerous, dangerous place to go."
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow
IN LATE JUNE 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.
If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000. Fortunately for him, that wasn’t necessary: He was on vacation with real estate magnate and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who owned the jet — and the yacht, too.
For more than two decades, Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman without disclosing them, documents and interviews show. A public servant who has a salary of $285,000, he has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. He flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas. And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.
The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court.
These trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures. His failure to report the flights appears to violate a law passed after Watergate that requires justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts, two ethics law experts said. He also should have disclosed his trips on the yacht, these experts said.
Thomas did not respond to a detailed list of questions.
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/11/30/over-342000-ohioans-have-lost-their-medicaid-coverage-since-april/
Ohioans may be contacted up to eight times — through the mail, text messages and phone calls — before being unenrolled from Medicaid, Lawless said.
But if someone has moved, changed their number or doesn’t have internet access they might not have been notified about potentially losing their coverage.
“If they can’t get a hold of you after a few times you can just get kicked off,” Poe said. “People are just getting kicked off of their health care coverage, because Medicaid can’t find them. And that feels really rather unacceptable to me.”
More than 3 million Ohioans are enrolled in Medicaid and the Medicaid renewal process starts 60 days before their annual renewal date. Ohioans receive a final notice of disenrollment before losing their coverage, Lawless said.
Ohioans can renew their Medicaid coverage by returning a completed renewal packet to their county Jobs and Families Services office, by calling 1-844-640-6466 or online through the Ohio Benefits eligibility portal.
Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Twitter.
https://www.warrencountyrecord.com/stories/giving-parents-options-is-the-free-market-approach-to-education,90867
For many of our friends and neighbors, public schools are the right place for their children to be educated. In our small towns, the public school is the center of the community. Unfortunately, a one-size-fits-all approach to education doesn’t work well for the entire state or for every child.
In Missouri, we should provide options for school choice so families choose an education that fits their children’s needs. I believe so strongly in our public schools and their ability to serve students, that I know providing some families a choice will not hurt our public education system. Legislators, like me, can be pro-education and pro-education options.
School choice provides families with the flexibility to choose the best educational environment for their children. This could mean traditional public schools, charter schools, private schools, virtual schools, and homeschooling. The key is putting the power back into the hands of parents, allowing them to make decisions based on what they believe is best for their children.
I believe that we can, and should, agree that one-size-fits-all does not fit all when it comes to education. Each child is unique, with different learning styles, interests, and needs. School choice recognizes this and acknowledges that parents are in the best position to understand their child’s individual requirements. By allowing parents to choose the educational setting that aligns with their child’s needs, we can foster a community where every student can thrive.
Critics likely will argue that education freedom might divert resources away from public schools, but the reality is quite the opposite. When parents have the option to choose, schools are incentivized to improve and innovate to attract students. Moreover, school choice promotes economic empowerment by allowing parents to invest in their children’s education. Education is an investment in the future, and when parents can direct their education dollars to the school of their choice, they are more engaged and invested in their child’s success. This active involvement creates a positive ripple effect, strengthening the entire community.
In some of Missouri’s urban areas, the ultimate outcome of our public school system is prison or death. Many kids graduate without being able to read or write.
Here in Rural Missouri, we pride ourselves on our strong sense of community, and school choice aligns with our values of individual freedom and personal responsibility. Giving parents the freedom to make decisions that impact their children’s education falls in-line with that personal responsibility. The fears of schools using school choice as a tool for recruiting for athletics fails to account for the above mentioned sense of community.
This is why I believe that school choice programs that have seen success in Missouri’s urban areas should be expanded. The Missouri Scholars Program was started last year and allows for qualifying families based on need to receive a scholarship for $6,375 to use towards the educational needs of their children, like tuition. The reality is that many members of our community don’t qualify for this program or wouldn’t use it because they are satisfied with their public education.
However, for the few that need a different option for their children, this scholarship is essential to provide another option. Unfortunately, right now only residents of St. Louis City, St. Louis County, St. Charles County, Jefferson County, Clay County, Jackson County, Cape Girardeau, Columbia, Springfield, Jefferson City, St. Joseph, and Joplin. There’s no reason why our area of the state shouldn’t also be included in that list.
As your representative, I am committed to supporting policies that prioritize the well-being and success of our community. I am committed to making the public schools in our area the very best that they can be. To me, this is not a partisan issue. It’s about putting our children first and ensuring they have access to the best possible education. I urge you to consider the benefits of school choice.
Well that’s it for me. From Denver I’m Sean Diller. Stories featured in today’s show appeared first in the Missouri Independent, Ohio Capital Journal, Texas Tribune, Pro Publica, and the Warren County Record in the blessed land of Warrenton, MO.
Host: Adam Sommer
Find Adam on tik-tok (maybe) and bluesky as "midmapdadenergy" - follow The Process on instagram.
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