The State of Texas: Could Rick Perry lead the Department of Homeland Security?

What Texas is talking about today No Images? [Click here]( [Destination Panama City]( [Texas Monthly]( August 3, 2017 QUOTE OF THE DAY “There’s always a little bit of fear, but you always put it in the back of your mind. In bull riding, it’s not if you get hurt, it’s when and how bad.” —Odessa College bull rider Bradie Gray to [KWES](. Gray recently suffered life-threatening injuries when he was thrown off of a bull at the National College Rodeo Finals in Wyoming in July, with broken ribs, collapsed lungs, and a bruised heart. But Gray, 20, miraculously made a full recovery, and he plans to rejoin the rodeo team at Odessa College in September. BIG NEWS Moving on Up? Rick Perry is reportedly on President Donald Trump’s shortlist to replace John Kelly as the head of the Department of Homeland Security. The job opened up on Monday, after Trump ousted chief of staff Reince Preibus and replaced him with Kelly, who was leading DHS. Ex-Texas Governor Perry currently serves as the energy secretary, a leadership role that he has reportedly struggled with so far, according to a [recent story in Vanity Fair](. Now, according to [Bloomberg](, Perry is a candidate for the DHS gig. He’d presumably be a better fit as head of Homeland Security than as Energy Secretary, given his experience with border security and immigration policy from his time as governor of Texas. But, as the [Dallas Morning News]( notes, Trump has previously trashed Perry for his security policies in Texas, often tweeting harsh criticism. “Rick Perry did an absolutely horrible job of securing the border,” Trump [tweeted in July 2015](. “He should be ashamed of himself.” Of course, the two of them clearly made amends after Trump earned the GOP nomination last year, so maybe all this stuff is behind them. “Secretary Perry is focused on the important mission of the Department of Energy,” Robert Haus, director of public affairs at the department, told Bloomberg. “He’s honored to be mentioned, but he loves what he’s doing.” Also among possible candidates is U.S. Representative Michael McCaul. McCaul was on Trump’s shortlist for the same job before Kelly was nominated. [Destination Panama City]( MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS... Meddling Kids A bunch of school-age children gathered at the Capitol on Wednesday to protest proposed legislation that would overturn local ordinances that preserve trees, according to the [San Antonio Express-News](. The youngins were joined by two members of the House—Republican Representative Wayne Faircloth, of Galveston, and Democratic Representative Carol Alvarado, of Houston, who read Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax on the Capitol lawn. Governor Greg Abbott has long been pushing a bill that overturns local tree preservation ordinances, and similar legislation has passed the House and is currently in the Senate. It would prevent cities from enforcing rules that bar homeowners and small developers from cutting down trees on their private property. Abbott made the legislation a priority when he set the special session agenda, calling these ordinances “socialistic.” Environmentalists disagree, including ten-year-old Selis Tufekci, who attended the protest and carried a blue-and-pink sign that read, “We speak for the Texas trees.” The Houston resident came to the protest with her teacher and some classmates. “Trees hold the ecosystem, birds, so much life,” she told the Express-News. “If you cut them all down, like in The Lorax, all those animals have to leave.” Memorial Madness Former Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss has found another coaching gig. According to the [Las Vegas Review-Journal](, Bliss is the new athletic director and head boy’s basketball coach at Calvary Chapel Christian School, a high school in Nevada. Bliss resigned from Baylor in 2003 after an NCAA investigation into circumstances surrounding the murder of Baylor player Patrick Dennehy by teammate Carlton Dotson. “There’s a great documentary he’s put out there on his testimony, and that is the one thing everybody needs to see right now. That he’s a man of Christ,” September Wilson, a coach and teacher at Calvary Chapel, told the Review-Journal after confirming Bliss’s hiring. In the documentary, [Disgraced](, which premiered on Showtime in March, Bliss admitted to paying Dennehy, despite having claimed for years that the player had been earning his money by dealing drugs. Bliss resigned from his coaching gig at an NAIA school in Oklahoma almost immediately after the documentary premiered. Fourth Chance Governor Greg Abbott weighed in Wednesday on a 9/11 memorial controversy that has Southern Methodist University in an uproar. SMU recently adopted a new policy prohibiting all displays on the Dallas Hall lawn, where an annual display of American flags honoring the victims of 9/11 had stood since 2010. All displays on the lawn are to be moved to a nearby park, centrally located on campus. Part of the [new policy]( said the university “respects the right of all members of the community to avoid messages that are triggering, harmful, or harassing.” Although SMU said the 9/11 display was moved because of its location and not because it was “triggering,” the buzzword among conservatives landed SMU in hot water in the [national media](, and the university eventually changed the language of the policy to remove the part about “triggering” messages, according to the [Dallas Morning News](. In a letter sent to SMU President R. Gerald Turner on Wednesday, Abbott urged the university to keep the memorial on the lawn. “This display is not political,” Abbott wrote, according to the [Morning News](. “It is not partisan. It is not controversial. This is about our nation united.” WHAT WE'RE READING Some links are paywalled or subscription-only. Trump’s tough immigration policies are causing labor shortages in Texas’s home construction industry [Fox News]( Some art critics are hating on Houston’s cool street art [Houston Chronicle]( Former Baylor football player Sam Ukwuachu was investigated for sending threatening messages to the Dallas Morning News [Waco Tribune-Herald]( U.S. Representative Will Hurd has a Democratic challenger [Texas Tribune]( An academic philosophy conference is leaving Texas over the bathroom bill and sanctuary city ban [Inside Higher Ed]( THROWBACK THURSDAY FROM [@TMTROVE]( [96 Minutes]( by Pamela Colloff On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the University of Texas Tower and started firing—and the rest, literally, is history. Here’s what happened on that fateful day, in the words of more than three dozen people who got shot, fired back, lost loved ones, saved lives by risking their own, and otherwise witnessed the nation’s first mass murder in a public place. [Direct Energy]( [How To Tame Your Home’s Energy Vampires]( No, we’re not talking about that micro-managing boss or your reason-resistant teenager – although they certainly are experts at draining your energy. Here, we’re going to identify those household appliances that – if left plugged in while turned off — can make paying your electric bill more painful than a bite in the neck. [Learn More >]( [Destination Panama City]( MORE FROM TEXAS MONTHLY [The Wonderful World of Bluth]( by Michael Agresta Animator Don Bluth returns to his birthplace of El Paso. [The Monument Men]( by John Nova Lomax After activists threatened a statue of Sam Houston, protesters showed up to defend it. But against whom, exactly, wasn’t clear. [Babes Fest: Better The Second Time Around]( by Doyin Oyeniyi Acting on the lessons they learned from Babes Fest in 2016, the creators of BossBabes ATX have a better handle on producing a multidisciplinary festival for women. Enjoy getting your daily fix of Texas Monthly? Spread the word and share it. [FORWARD]( Texas Monthly PO Box 1569 Austin, TX 78767 Texas Monthly has sent you this alert because you signed up to receive it either online at texasmonthly.com, at the website of one of our business partners, or when you filled out a reader response card. You may cancel your subscription to this and other Texas Monthly newsletters at any time. Please see our Privacy Policy. [Like]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](