Latest news with #R-Canadian
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
As lawmakers tried to name an official steak, Texas students learned how to find the best beef
LUBBOCK — Steaks are serious business in Texas. If you need proof of that, just count the meat judging trophies at Texas Tech University. 'Texans love to compete, it doesn't matter what it is,' said Mark Miller, a professor of meat science at Texas Tech. 'It's no different when you get into the agricultural world and meat judging.' It's right up there with football, Miller said. Nearly 400 miles from Lubbock, there was a different sort of meat competition at the Texas Capitol this year. State Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, sought to designate the tomahawk ribeye as the official steak of Texas. He did this after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on the Senate to rename the New York strip steak to the Texas strip and designate it as the state's official steak. The success of the beef industry has energized meat judging in the state over the decades. Along with Texas Tech, Texas A&M, West Texas A&M, and Clarendon College are just a few Texas schools with accomplished meat judging teams and full trophy cases. While lawmakers didn't designate an official steak, teams around Texas are preparing for the next season of competition. And in Texas, where beef is considered king, meat judging has become just as big of a point of pride. Lawmakers had fun with the debate. Speaker Dustin Burrows, a Lubbock Republican, had a cookout at the Capitol. Patrick posted a photo of the 'first ever' Texas Strip with 'Gulf of America' shrimp, inspired by President Donald Trump's executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. On the House floor, King ribbed his colleagues in the upper chamber, saying they were trying to do 'Senate things' with an inferior cut of meat. Neither Mexico nor other international organizations recognize the Gulf name change. Similarly, New Yorkers did not take the rebrand attempt lightly. One 'power publicist' threatened to file a $1 million lawsuit. Some Texans left public comments voicing their annoyance with the legislation, but King contended there was a bigger meaning — to honor the generations of Texans who built up the cattle industry that adds $15.5 billion to the economy. Beef production has always been central to Texas life, he said. Part of the beef industry is the need for quality control, which has evolved into the highly competitive sport of college meat judging. Students who are trained to evaluate the best cuts of meat — lamb, pork, and of course, beef. The students rank the meat by several factors, including the fat thickness and how lean it is. They examine the marbling of the cut, its size and weight. 'The competition level between Texas universities is at the highest level,' Miller said. 'There's a lot of priority put on being highly successful in meat judging.' Since Texas Tech University won its first national championship for meat judging in 1989, teams from the school have won 15 national championships. The school's meat laboratory has several rooms dedicated to different purposes. This includes cooler rooms to store the meat, and one to hang meat while it ages. Students can use an X-ray machine in another room to examine the composition of muscles and other details. The meat doesn't go to waste. Raider Red Meats, which began in 2008, is a student-run store that sells all the meat that is prepared, cut, and packaged in-house. It sells a variety of products, including steaks, green chile and cheese sausage, thick-cut bacon, and chunks of fat for beef tallow. Blake Foraker, a coach for the meat judging team, said the storefront is used to provide scholarships to students involved in the Meat Science program. 'This helps to offset some of those costs so that students can be afforded these opportunities,' said Foraker, an assistant professor at Texas Tech. 'Whether it's on the judging team, working in the meat lab, or pursuing meat science education in general.' Raider Red Meats provided the steaks for Burrows' function in March, where members from both chambers were invited to taste the differences between the strip and the tomahawk ribeye. Zach Buckley, production manager at Raider Red Meats, said they cut the steaks fresh that day and sent them to the Capitol. According to Buckley, Raider Red Meats is one of the few stores in the area that cuts a full tomahawk. Buckley likes strips, but said he prefers the tomahawk. He admits it's partially because of the presentation. 'Part of it is pride: you have a full rib and then a thick steak,' Buckley said. 'Then, if you do it right, you can get that bone and go caveman-style, eat right off the bone.' The team is starting their slow season since classes are out, but is expecting steady business this summer. 'We went from having a little shop to a business that ships to all 50 states,' said Abigail Sleep, one of the students working at the shop. 'We're the only college that's inspected by the USDA. We want to do this to the best of our ability.' While Texas lawmakers did not settle their debate, meat judging at Texas Tech and other state universities is helping settle arguments about which cuts of steak are the best Texas has to offer. Texas Tech's team will host their annual BBQ and Ribeye Championship on Aug. 15 and 16. Disclosure: Texas Tech University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas Legislature OKs expansion of medical marijuana program as THC ban heads to Abbott
After days of contentious back-and-forth between the two Texas legislative chambers, the Senate late Tuesday night approved an expansion to the state's medical marijuana program. House Bill 46, by Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, will expand the Texas Compassionate Use Program fourfold, upping the number of available dispensary licenses from the current three to 12 statewide. It passed the Senate unanimously after the House and Senate struck a deal to include chronic pain, terminal disease and hospice care as qualifying conditions for a cannabis prescription. The expanded medical program also adds aerosol cannabis products like vapes, along with patches and lotions. More: As Texas weighs banning consumable hemp containing THC, Austin shop sees 'stock buying' The deal marks a détente between the House and Senate on the subject as a sweeping ban on THC products is on its way to the governor's desk. The Senate had stripped House provisions for chronic pain as a qualifying condition for the Compassionate Use Program, drawing fierce blowback from House members who later pushed for the condition to be reinstated. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the Senate want to ban intoxicating hemp products — which have been legal in Texas since 2019 — through Senate Bill 3, which was passed by both chambers in recent weeks. The House's version of the proposal instead called for increased regulation of THC product sales, but the upper chamber's version of the bill won the day. It's not yet clear if Gov. Greg Abbott plans to sign the bill. In a news conference Wednesday, during which Patrick displayed an array of THC products and sharply criticized members of the media for coverage of the THC ban and resulting inter-chamber conflict, the bill's author praised the TCUP expansion, which he said will still serve those who use THC medicinally while curbing dangerous hemp products. 'We promised on the front end, when we get rid of the bad stuff, we'll find a way to thread the needle for those that have found benefit,' said Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock. 'I think it's the relief we promised. … We're expanding the things that we believe are legitimate needs that can be met through a responsible delivery system.' This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Legislature OKs expansion of medical marijuana program, THC ban
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas likely to expand medical marijuana program eligibility amid looming hemp ban
The Texas Senate advanced a bill Tuesday that will expand the conditions eligible for the state's medical marijuana program, including chronic pain and Crohn's disease, and allow for smokable products to be sold by prescription. House Bill 46 by Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, which had seven amendments, will allow patients in the state's medical marijuana program to use products like cannabis patches, lotions, and prescribed inhalers and vaping devices. The House already approved the bill 122-21 earlier this month, and the Senate gave it unanimous approval Tuesday. If it becomes law, the list of qualifying conditions would also expand to include chronic pain and terminal or hospice care. The next step for this bill is for Gov. Greg Abbott to sign it before it becomes law. Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, clarified that those who will be eligible under the chronic pain designation are most likely those who are already prescribed an opiate for it. 'When you get an opiate, that is the highest level of pain you can get in our bodies, right? The medical board threaded that needle and we are using that definition,' he said. 'There wasn't a legislative definition, but there was a medical one, and we tied it to that.' The bill would also allow licensed dispensers to open more satellite locations, which supporters say is necessary to prevent the industry from collapsing, and adds nine dispensers, pushing the total to 12. Perry said the first three dispensers will be picked from the previously submitted list, and then it will be opened up to the public. In Texas, licensed medical cannabis providers must house all operations — including cannabis cultivation, processing, extracting, manufacturing, testing, and dispensing — under one roof. State regulations also prohibit inventory storage of medical cannabis products in multiple locations, so products must be distributed from the central dispensary. Any prescriptions scheduled for pickup outside the central dispensary must be driven daily to and from the pickup location — sometimes thousands of miles round-trip. This has made their products more expensive and limited where the medical marijuana program can reach, hampering the small medical cannabis market in Texas. House Bill 46 is meant to correct some of this problem by allowing medical marijuana distributors to store their products in various satellite locations instead of having to drive across the state to return the product to the original dispensary every day. 'This should help alleviate some of the costs because they will be able to store it in those distribution centers,' said Perry. However, the most significant potential change would be allowing smokable marijuana products, such as vapes, into the program, helping to match the popularity of products found in the hemp industry. The Texas medical program can currently only sell gummies, lozenges, topicals, beverages, and tinctures, as smoking or vaping products have not been approved. Many hemp products, which are unregulated and sold more freely in smoke shops, also give the same high as medical marijuana, but are cheaper for consumers, and don't require a visit to a medical professional for pre-approval to purchase. This ease of access has pretty much made the medical marijuana program irrelevant, according to the medical marijuana industry. Texas lawmakers recently passed a bill that will essentially wipe out the hemp market, and the blowback has been noticed. 'What we have done this session, members, is eradicate bad actors who are poisoning our community, children and adults, and making a massive profit off people,' said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, during the hearing for HB 46. 'We have wiped them out and are now building one of the biggest Compassionate Use Programs in the country.' Some of the most vigorous opposition to the all-out ban on hemp products has come from those who use it for medical purposes. Veterans, parents of children with mental health or physical disabilities, and the elderly spoke to lawmakers this year about the importance of having easy access to hemp products, not the medical marijuana program. 'I want to reiterate since we got so many calls. This body has always made a commitment to our veterans. But we also have a commitment to our kids, and it's to keep them safe from narcotics that they shouldn't be doing until they are 25 and under a medical setting,' said Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, during the hearing Tuesday night. 'Never under any terms did we intend for a child to go to the convenience store and get a vape pen. We had to grab the reins of a pretty strong horse. We all had to do that, and we all got grief for it, but we never authorized it in the first place.' First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas House OKs bill to boost power grid protection, strengthen ERCOT's emergency authority
A proposal to grant regulators increased oversight of electric generation and transmission, along with equipping the state power grid's manager with tools to better forecast energy needs, passed the House on Tuesday. The legislation is now heading back to the Senate to review the lower chamber's changes to the bill. Senate Bill 6 is the Legislature's latest effort to reduce the risk of widespread outages during peak demand times by allowing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state power grid, to cut power to large-scale consumers during an emergency. That should encourage power-hungry operations like data centers to develop their own backup systems, said Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, who sponsored the bill in the House. "You certainly don't want large-load customers that sometimes are data-centered for military operations, or whatever, to just be without power when there's an emergency," King said during the floor debate. According to the bill analysis, SB 6 focuses on four main objectives: Ensuring that transmission costs are properly allocated. Establishing measures to protect grid reliability. Promoting transparency and credibility in load forecasting. Protecting residential customers from outages by requiring large loads to share the load-shed obligation during shortages. More: Renewables bailed out Texas' grid earlier this month. Now the GOP wants to restrict them In March, ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas told a congressional committee that Texas set an all-time peak demand record of 85,508 gigawatts in the summer of 2023 — a record he expects the state will break sooner than later because, in part, large-scale consumers are bringing their operations to the Lone Star State. "Texas has become a magnet for industries that require increasing amounts of electricity, from semiconductor plants to data centers, broad industrial growth and large-scale industrial electrification in the Permian Basin," Vegas told the House subcommittee on energy. Under the bill, ERCOT would be able to expedite connecting large consumers to the grid, provided they install on-site backup power sources. The House and Senate versions of SB 6 are different, so unless the Senate agrees with the House's changes, a conference committee will have to reconcile the two versions into a final bill. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas House OKs power grid-protection bill, boosts ERCOT's authority
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bill that would increase oversight of Texas' largest energy users gets initial approval in Texas House
The Texas House gave initial approval Monday to a bill that would give Texas more oversight over energy transactions between power generators and the state's largest consumers of electricity. Senate Bill 6 also proposes new ways to assess the amount of electricity that is available to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the main manager of the state's grid. The bill now returns to the Senate. Legislators in the upper chamber must agree to the changes made to the bill before it goes to Abbott. The bill would give ERCOT the power to oversee energy transactions between power generators and large consumers that don't involve the state's grid. ERCOT would also have the authority to cut their power and use it during an emergency. State Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, the bill's author, has said his bill will allow the state to better manage electric supply at times of high demand. Power generators and companies said the new oversight measures proposed by the bill would be excessive for a market accustomed to the free trade of energy without requirements imposed by the state. They have said the bill could discourage companies from doing business in Texas. King said the new rules are not meant to do so. 'I think what this bill is seeking to do is set out clear rules where large load customers that want to come to Texas know what they're getting when they get here,' said state Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, who sponsored the bill in the lower chamber. The bill would also require companies to disclose whether they have other projects in the state. Sen. Phil King said this would give ERCOT information to better predict and meet energy demands in the future more accurately. That's necessary to determine the state's electricity needs without overbuilding, which would result in higher rates for everyday consumers, he said. Texas will need almost double the electricity it consumes today to meet a demand driven mainly by data centers and the oil and gas industry, a demand that ERCOT President Pablo Vegas said the grid, in its current state, is capable of meeting when that demand arrives. Lawmakers added and removed some provisions from the bill during a debate in the House on Monday. One amendment got rid of a previously accepted proposal by state Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, which gave new large businesses in Texas the option to get electricity faster from the grid if they let ERCOT reduce their power consumption at will. Another amendment approved Monday, introduced by state Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, D-Laredo, would inject any excess electricity back into the grid and use any money from selling that energy to lower water bills for electricity ratepayers. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
