Gov. Abbott Addresses Severe Winter Weather In Texas

Jimmy Barrett takes you through the stories that matter the most on the morning of 01/09/25.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is huge Radio seven forty kt RH Houston.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Live everywhere with now the latest news, weather and traffic.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
It's more what matters to you. From the John Morris
Services Studios.

Speaker 4 (00:17):
Five AMS O time. Good morning, This is Houston's Morning News.
I'm Jimmy Barrett. Among our top stories. As we get
started this morning, Governor Abbott talking about the weather. Houston
City Council gives Center Point a unanimous no and coming
up at five. Oh wait, like your old neighbor state
farm is gone. Details in the minutes ahead here in
Houston's Morning News. First, let's check out that morning vibe

(00:39):
with skoy Mike.

Speaker 5 (00:40):
All right, Jimmy, put on your hard hat.

Speaker 6 (00:42):
We are going to the east side. Let's check over
by Jack's City. I've got it's road work. It's roadwork,
not an accident. This is outbound right after the bud Plant.
There is a stall right before. Why is that in red?
It's over on the right side. I wouldn't worry too
much about him. Just heads up and watch out for
people that are texting. Now on the outbound it's right
past six ten. It's about three minutes outbound. Skymike on
a generator Supercenter Dot com Traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
Rom R KTRH top tax defenders, twenty four hour weathers
in a couple of morning showers that becoming a SETI
afternoon rain today, high temperature of forty two. The problems
are to the north, and we'll talk about that when
we talk to the Weather Channel's Terry Smith.

Speaker 5 (01:16):
Will do that in nine minutes.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
Right now, it's forty one at your official severe weather station,
News Radio seven forty k TRH.

Speaker 5 (01:24):
It is time now for the news.

Speaker 7 (01:25):
Here's Cliff Sanders, Good morning, Jimmy, Good morning, every one
five oh one on KTRH our top story winter weather.
Texas Governor Greg Gabbett issues a warning about the winter
store moving into much of the state that will bring
snow to north and central Texas.

Speaker 8 (01:41):
Higher sofall and mounts are forecasts to occur around the
Dallas Fort Worth area and over much of northeast Texas.
In addition to the wintry precipitation, Central, southeast, and South
Texas may get some rain, which may lead to flash
flooding in certain coastal communities.

Speaker 7 (01:56):
The rain expected across Houston right around lunchtime. We'll have
more with Terry Smith. Asked Jimmy mentioned as for the
grid or Cut, expects it to hold up, but is
maintaining a weather watch through tomorrow because of increased demand.

Speaker 9 (02:08):
You haven't noticed any changes that are of significance in
production at this point, and I believe they are already.

Speaker 7 (02:17):
That is Todd Stables with the Texas Oil and Gas Association.
He says that energy companies have winter rized their operations
in our cont says there's more generating power now than
at any point in Texas history. This storm is already
causing issues at the airport. So if you're flying today,
check out of Bush. We've got twenty three cancelations and

(02:38):
four delays. Out of Hobby. We've got twenty eight cancelations
so far.

Speaker 5 (02:43):
Elsewhere.

Speaker 7 (02:44):
The Houston City Council rejects an attempt by Centerpoint to
raise their rates.

Speaker 10 (02:49):
Fourteen zero Yes, everyone votes against Center Points application for
an increase.

Speaker 7 (02:57):
Centerpoints request came after the energy provider walked one back
in August following the response to Hurricane Beryl. It's now
five h three. The devastating wildfires continued to burn in
Los Angeles this morning.

Speaker 11 (03:10):
At least seven out of control fires continue to threaten
thousands of homes and businesses. So far, five depths have
been reported in the Eton fire as it continued to spread.
As the fires jumped from house to house, many were
trying to save pets and their loved ones, many of
whom had lived in their homes for many decades.

Speaker 7 (03:27):
Marian Rafferty reporting thousands of structures have been destroyed. The
question is could this have been avoided. Former US House
Speaker Kevin McCarthy says yes.

Speaker 12 (03:37):
Gavin Newsom knew already being elected but not sworn in
well what he should focus on, and he did not.
He perpetuated this problem on.

Speaker 7 (03:45):
Truth social Donald Trump said Newsom refused to sign a
water restoration declaration that would have allowed millions of gallons
to flow into California, and Newsom denied that. Five oh four,
The President elect returned to Capitol Hill yesterday to meet
with senators about putting his agenda into place.

Speaker 13 (04:04):
We're going to get something done that's going to be
reducing taxes and creating a lot of jobs and all
of the other things that you know about. But this
was a really unified meeting.

Speaker 7 (04:14):
He also reiterated his desire for a one bill approach
to the budget, and he will attend the funeral of
former President Jimmy Carter later this morning at the Washington
National Cathedral. That service begins at nine o'clock our time.
More on this at five point thirty five h four
Here at home, State Attorney General Ken Paxton calls for

(04:35):
Republican unity against the self proclaimed Speaker elect, Dustin Burroughs.

Speaker 14 (04:40):
We want Republican representatives to vote with Republicans to elect
a Republican speaker so we can get Republican issues on now.

Speaker 7 (04:50):
Last month, the Republican Caucus voted last month to nominate
David Cook as Date Feeling's replacement. The House speaker vote
is next Tuesday. In Austin, makers are also threatening action
against cities and counties like Harris that use taxpayer money
to provide legal service for illegal aliens.

Speaker 15 (05:09):
It's not just counties. Both the City of Austin and
the City of Dallas do this too.

Speaker 16 (05:13):
These entities provide this legal defense as part of something
called the Safe Network. It's a national network of the
local government.

Speaker 15 (05:22):
Reporter Holly Hansen says, these legal services are available to
any illegal alien, regardless of their criminal history.

Speaker 16 (05:28):
We have one state lawmaker who wants to ban the practice.
They says it's not an appropriate use of our taxpayer dollars.

Speaker 15 (05:36):
Representative Giovanni Kapriglione filed House Built fifteen fifty four last month,
which would ban any local government from doing this. Ethan
Buginnen News Radio seven forty KTRH.

Speaker 7 (05:45):
And there's this. The main streety of mainstream media ignored it,
but four members of the Vellos Venezuelan gang trendy Arragua
were arrested at the border last week. Former deeh and
West Taber says, the gang is a big problem here.

Speaker 17 (06:00):
You might have two or three hundreds in Houston. You
might have another couple hundred or more in al Paso
because they're still coming through these borders. The borders are
not sealed yet. We're not stopping the flow through the
border right now.

Speaker 7 (06:12):
GDA is in at least fifteen other states. In Washington,
d C. Well, the Trump administration is going to have it,
and one Harris County commissioner is launching his own version
of it. Doge.

Speaker 18 (06:25):
Harris County Precinct three Commissioner Tom Ramsey says the county
is spending taxpayer money on things that just aren't necessary.

Speaker 19 (06:31):
We are wasting dollars on doing programs it's not needed,
or wasting dollars on bureaucratic offices such as the county administrator.

Speaker 18 (06:40):
Commissioner Ramsey, the Loan Republican, says the budget for the
county administrator's office is over twenty four million dollars.

Speaker 19 (06:46):
The county administrator, Mike's over four hundred thousand a year.
I don't think we need a county administrator.

Speaker 18 (06:53):
Ramsey says he'd rather see money spent on more patrol
officers and fixing roads. Charret Lewis News Radio seven forty Cherry.

Speaker 7 (07:00):
It's now five oh seven and the Rockets look for
their third straight win tonight visiting Memphis. Pregame at six
on Sports Talk seven ninety and I'm Cliff Saunders on
Houston's Newsweather in Traffic station KGRH.

Speaker 15 (07:15):
No.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Make your season more sir, with the latest news, traffic,
and weather the radiators KGRH.

Speaker 5 (07:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:26):
It is five five wildfires burning in southern California in
the Los Angeles area. And the list of problems to
talk about, I mean, if you want to talk about
any in all mistakes the government could make in providing
basic safety with citizens. This is a perfect example. But

(07:47):
let's start because I teach the insurance thing like like
like your old they were a state farmer is gone.
They're gone from California. They're not there. They're gone, for
the most part, completely gone. They start leaving in September.
They're not the only other They're not the only insurance
company is left. And they've all left for a variety
of reasons. But the one thing that put the nail

(08:10):
in the coffin for many of these insurance companies was
when the government of California started making demands about how
much these insurance companies could charge to ensure their residents.
That was kind of the final nail in the coffin
because this just in shocking. Insurance companies are out there

(08:31):
to make money. They certainly don't want to lose billions
of dollars. Ensuring California is a risky proposition. There are
wildfires in California. This is this is not new. A
Santa Ana wins induced wildfire is nothing new to southern California.
The Santa Anna winds come every year. Granted they're a

(08:53):
little windier than even normal, but it's dry, and they
don't they don't enough the brush they you know, they're
environmentalists there, won't touch the brush, they won't clean things up.
They don't have enough water to fight fires. In fact,
there are numerous areas of Pacific Palisades and other places

(09:14):
where the hydrants went dry. They have these emergency water
tanks in order to try to keep the water pressure up.
They don't have enough water because they well, they divert
water for a who variety of different reasons. They get
rained in California, but when they do, they just wash
us out to sea because they're worried about the smelt.
It's a fish. They're worried about the smelt. They're not

(09:36):
worried about fighting wildfires evidently. So you've got a bad
combination here. You've got government that is incompetent. You've got
a natural high risk of disaster because of the Santa
Hana winds and wildfires. You have insurance companies who can't

(09:56):
make money there. Therefore they are pulling out, leaving people
either without insurance or with very few insurance choices. And
that's a recipe for disaster. You've got all thousands and
thousands of people who have lost their homes. It's horrible
and will continue to lose their homes because last night
check they haven't got this thing contained at all. Who

(10:17):
knows how long this is going to burn. I would
feel sorry more sorry for them if not for the
fact that you voted for this and you chose to
live somewhere where this happens. The Santa Ana winds are
not new goose. Throughout recorded history, the sant Ana winds
have always been there. There have been wildfires in California.

(10:37):
It's nothing new. This is not a new climate induce phenomenon.
This is something that's been going on historically forever. But
people choose to live there. You choose to live where
there's earthquakes and wildfires and mud slides.

Speaker 5 (10:51):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
I know the weather's beautiful the rest of the time,
but man, when there's a disaster, there's a disaster. Five
eleven time for traffic and whether togetherness smelt. I have
actually gone smell fishing.

Speaker 5 (11:03):
Oh, how big do they get? They're little? They're little.
The legs they're a little bit bigger than Sarta.

Speaker 6 (11:07):
I was going to say, they look like baitfish. I mean,
if they're worried about it, they could just breed them.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
At bait shops and boom. If you've made everybody. I
thought the world would be okay without the smelt, we
could live.

Speaker 6 (11:16):
But I still think they make good bait. Let's go
to the east side here. You got this that road work.
I don't even know if Christina knows that's roadwork or wreck,
I'm not telling her. I'll let jump in Joe East
Freeway outbound after six ten, right after the bud plant
we're missing. This is gonna be in the left lane
this time. All kinds of flashy lights. It's some overnight leftovers.
You lose about two or three minutes heading eastbound. Coming in,

(11:39):
they'll look good. From Mont Bellevue in Chevron, Phillips to downtown,
it's an easy twenty six minute stroll. Let's flip over
the other side of the ship Channel. Check on two
twenty five and one forty six off the Heart Membridge.

Speaker 5 (11:50):
Well, at the Heart Membridge, it's pretty From two.

Speaker 6 (11:53):
Twenty five into six ten past the belt Way, we're
good to go. Right when you hit the loop at
Smell's kind of funny right there. Otherwise it's just a
nineteen minute drag. Rest of our freeways looking good until
the rain hits spring on that next plague.

Speaker 5 (12:05):
Terry.

Speaker 6 (12:05):
I'm skymiking Theegenerator Supercenter dot com traffic center.

Speaker 4 (12:08):
From our KTRH top tax Defenders twenty four hour weather Center.
Terry Smith. It's forty one degrees. My shorts are on.
I'm worn shorts. It's forty one degrees.

Speaker 20 (12:16):
You like trying to channel warmer weather.

Speaker 5 (12:20):
No, I'm not really wearing shorts.

Speaker 4 (12:22):
But it actually walked out this morning, get in the
card and come to work, it actually felt warmer because
the winds have died down, or at least they had
died down this morning. Ye it's like forty one degrees.
It feels warmer now than it did anytime yesterday.

Speaker 21 (12:34):
Okay, well, it is a little bit warmer, partly because
of the clouds and the increasing humidity, and there is
rain on the way, folks. There's not much in the
way of wet weather right now. You might run into
a few sprinkles, but the showers will be steadily increasing from.

Speaker 20 (12:50):
The south throughout the day, so rain off and on.

Speaker 21 (12:53):
I'm calling it a ninety percent chance that you'll get
wet today. Temperatures low forties to low fifties. The heavy rain,
the bulk of the rain is tonight and then tomorrow
you might see a brief shower, but mainly a cloudy,
dry day in the forties. The sunshine shows up over
the weekend and temperatures up in the fifties over the weekend.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
Right now, forty one at your official severe weather station.
News Radio seven forty k TRH.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
It's Houston's Morning News, brought to you by New South
Windows Solutions. Now back to Jimmy Barris and the Houston
Morning News team all the info you need to take
on the day.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
So, Donald Trump is making members of the Canadian government
very very nervous. And you know what, that's the idea.
I don't think deep down inside any of them really
think that Donald Trump is planning on trying to annex
Canada or make it the fifty first state. But they

(13:50):
do understand that they're going to have to cut a
deal with him, and that's making him. They're making them
very very nervous. Including the premiere of Ontario, one of
the largest Robinson's in Canada, home of Toronto, by the way,
the largest city born. That story coming up next first, though,
No they really think that they do.

Speaker 6 (14:08):
I'm gonna they get the Gulf of America oh, he's
a racist.

Speaker 5 (14:11):
All right, here's that, Mike. I'm sorry, it's ten outbound.
I got a stall reported at WESI. I don't see it,
do you see it?

Speaker 6 (14:18):
It's no big whoop either way, it's it's over on
the side, and look out.

Speaker 5 (14:22):
If it happens to be right on the eastbound lanes here.

Speaker 6 (14:25):
We also have that roadwork left over from last night
that goes from the Loop back out toward John Rosston.
Give it about twenty minutes and they should have that
business done. Rest of your freeways rock, I'm Skymichael, the
Generators Supercenter dot com traffic center.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
From r KTRH top tax Defenders twenty four. Our weather
center for today, a couple of morning showers becoming a
more steady afternoon rain today forty two, rain and wind
tonight low thirty seven, hotty and windy for tomorrow high
forty five, and then we straighten things out starting on
Saturday fifty four Sunday sixty temper you're right now currently
is forty one at your official severe weather station, News

(15:00):
Radio seven forty k TRH. It's time to check out
some of our top stories on a Thursday morning. Here's Cliff, Thank.

Speaker 7 (15:07):
You, Jimmy. Northeast Texas is prepared for snow as part
of a winter storm. Today, the DOJ says it'll release
part of former Special Counsel Jack Smith's report on the
Trump Class classified Documents case. And there were no grand
prize winners last night in Powerball, So the Saturday jackpot
is two hundred and sixty three million dollars. At the

(15:28):
latest news anytime at KTRH dot com. Our next update
is at five thirty.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
A new year is always a news year on Houston's
information station.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
New Journey is something new each two days in the
new year. US Radio seven forty KZRH.

Speaker 4 (15:46):
By twenty three. Now if you're on Houston's morning news.
So President Trump on his way back to Washington, DC.
He's going to be attending the service for Jimmy Carter. Also,
he'll be meeting with Republicans, and I'm guessing he might
talking about what they might want to consider doing to
acquire Greenland, to to to get control again to the

(16:07):
Panama Canal. You know these are strategic, especially Panama Canal.
We built the damn thing. We built that thing with
American money and American American labor. We built it. We
built it, and now China is, you know, kind of
nose it around, trying to take it over.

Speaker 5 (16:23):
No no, no, no, no, no no.

Speaker 4 (16:24):
We do not want to let that happen, all right,
Greg Guttfeld and Jesse Waters on the five responding to
the other thing is Canada, of course, responding to Ontario
Premier Doug Ford, who is clearly a little bit nervous
about Donald Trump wanting to make Canada the fifty first state.

Speaker 22 (16:46):
I love the US, I love Americans, and I get it.
You know President elect Trump as a real estate tycoon,
he's made billions, but.

Speaker 7 (16:56):
That property is not for sale.

Speaker 22 (16:58):
We're proud Canadians, just like there's proud Americans. And if
we joined together and take on the world with a
great trade deal between US, I think that'd be fabulous.

Speaker 5 (17:09):
No one could stop us.

Speaker 23 (17:10):
It is Trump redefining the pre presidency, do you I
don't remember anything quite like this where it's like he's
like a CEO who just got.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
The job and he's coming in with.

Speaker 24 (17:24):
A splash because he used to be president, so he
already has that pop and he was already pretty uh,
I would say.

Speaker 5 (17:33):
Powerful as president.

Speaker 24 (17:34):
Yeah, and then you have the lamest stuck of all
time on the other end of this, So those two
converge into President elects who's really the president and this
Canadian thing. He seems like scared when I talk to him. Yeah,
that's not how people act. People act if you're about

(17:55):
to take them over, don't you dare, don't even don't
even think about it.

Speaker 20 (17:58):
He's like, oh, listen, come by, guys, you want.

Speaker 7 (18:01):
To be here, We said, dalla, let's just talk.

Speaker 20 (18:03):
We're all friends here.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
He looks pretty vulnerable.

Speaker 24 (18:07):
Trump, though, this is just child's play. Trump has this
megabill that he has to pass within a couple months
and there's really no room for era, and the Senate
wants to do it this way, and the House wants
to do it this way, and there's only one vote
in the House that they can lose. And they have
this massive coalition with all these different types of people,
and the Democrats this whole time are just poking them

(18:30):
and saying must hates you.

Speaker 5 (18:32):
You Musk is.

Speaker 24 (18:33):
Really the president, and Foon hates Johnson. So they just
they just have to walk this tightrope and get this
thing done and make America great again.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
Yeah, well, good luck. Sounds familiar, though, with the Congress right,
walk into the type rope. Get things done. They haven't
got much done in recent memory in the last decade
five twenty six. It is time to take a look
at your money. Jeff Fellingers here and good morning, Jimmy.

Speaker 25 (18:58):
Stocks were mixed at the the what was a volatile
midweek session on Wall Street. The Dow closed a quarter
percent higher, the S and P five hundred gain two
tenths percent. The Nasdaq closed a tenth of a percent lower.
Now the markets will be closed today in remembrance of
Jimmy Carter. The government moved up the release of its
economic indicators because of today's national day of Morning Challenger,

(19:21):
Gray and Christmas, though still plans to release its report
on December layoffs later this morning. I'm Jeff Bellinger, Bloomberg
Business on News Radio seven forty KTRH.

Speaker 5 (19:34):
You are Houston's News.

Speaker 26 (19:36):
Why there are traffic plus breaking news twenty four to seven.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
This is News Radio seven forty KTRH.

Speaker 5 (19:43):
Rive Everywhere with the IRP.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
More of what's happening now from the Shahn Morris Services Studios.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
It's five thirty now here on Houston's Morning News. I'm
Jimmy Barrett bung Our top stories this have hour is
North Texas ready for the snow and ice. Thousands of
Texans are suing their energy provider and coming up at
five thirty eight. Gen Z losing a skill that humans
have had for more than five thousand years. Details in
the Minute to Head. You're in Houston's Morning News arm

(20:11):
parting for her. Here's an update from Skymike.

Speaker 5 (20:15):
Hey, they are going to do some roadwork.

Speaker 6 (20:17):
We've got this new elevation project that was supposed to
start this week.

Speaker 5 (20:20):
The deal is, I don't know if they can do
it when the.

Speaker 6 (20:22):
Weather's like this, but we'll keep an eye on this
it they're supposed to shut down the Taylor Street entrance
and exit, and also they're supposed to do some kind
of demolition either over or under Studamont, So that's going
to be a big who either way. And also starting
it was supposed to start today. They were supposed to
close those entrance and exits for Studamon. We'll keep an

(20:43):
eye on this business for now. Your main lane's of
Katie rocking along from Pinoak. Mall are from Pinoak thirty
one minutes into the President's Heads. I'm Skymike at your
Generator Supercenter dot Com traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (20:53):
From all KTRH Generator super Center, twenty four hour weather center.
A couple of morning showers becoming a city afternoon rain
fifty four today. We'll be around forty tonight with rain
and wind, lots of rain and win. We'll get Terry
Smith in here with an update on the forecast in
nine minutes right now, forty one at your official severe
weather station use radio seven forty KTRH. It's time now

(21:16):
for the news. Here's Cliff Sanders.

Speaker 7 (21:18):
Thank you, Jimmy. Good morning everyone. Five point thirty two.
And even though Houston is only getting rain out of
this winter storm, other parts of Texas are going to
get smacked with a ton of snow.

Speaker 27 (21:27):
Dallas Fort Worth only averages one point six inches of
snow a season, so the fact that they're looking at
as much as three inches by Friday morning is a
big deal. In fact, many schools have already thrown in
the towel on Thursday. Out of DFW, international airlines are
already canceled at least nine hundred and fifty flights more
to come.

Speaker 5 (21:45):
That's about half of all departures.

Speaker 27 (21:47):
One thing we don't have to worry about is coldy
are coming in behind the system, no art to care like.

Speaker 5 (21:52):
Four years ago.

Speaker 7 (21:52):
Mike Sidell reporting there, if you're flying today, check before
you go to the airport between Bush and Homby. We
have sixty flights either delayed or canceled. And as Urkont
claims that the grid will hold up. The Texas Supreme
Court will hear arguments on whether or not more than
fifteen thousand plaintiffs can move ahead with lawsuits against utility companies.

Speaker 28 (22:14):
Lawsuits filed after the deadly winter Storm Mury in twenty
twenty one.

Speaker 29 (22:19):
Obviously, there was a lot of damage and there were
deaths resulting from the lack of electricity during winter Storm Murray.

Speaker 28 (22:26):
Fifty seven deaths, that's Texas based attorney Michael Jewell.

Speaker 29 (22:31):
The question that really is being raised, if the utilities
were doing what they could, should they be held responsible
for negligence?

Speaker 28 (22:41):
Oral arguments are set for February nineteenth. Jeff Biggs new
three DIO seven forty k T eight.

Speaker 7 (22:48):
Thank you, Jeff. It's now five point thirty three. As
for the situation in Los Angeles this morning, there are
at least five wildfires still burning, some at zero percent containment.
The death toll at least five thousands of homes and
businesses completely destroyed. President Joe Biden was in California during
all of this, and instead of talking about the devastation,

(23:10):
he talked about his first great grandchild. This did not
sit well with Texas Governor Greg Abbotts.

Speaker 30 (23:15):
He always tries to inject himself into the disaster that
somebody else is dealing with, and to raise his great
grandchildren at a time when you see these homes burning
down and lives being lost is just outrageous.

Speaker 7 (23:27):
Abbot with ktrh's Sean Hannity five point thirty four. Now,
and as Biden prepares to leave the White House, critics
are already blasting his legacy and the American thinkers. Andrea
Wigburg calls Biden quote the most spectacularly disastrous president.

Speaker 5 (23:43):
Ever.

Speaker 31 (23:44):
However, he may also be the best thing that's happened
to us in the twenty first century.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Having Joe Biden come into.

Speaker 32 (23:50):
Office and allowing leftists to explode across every aspect of
American domestic and foreign policy, forest reality on people, and
now we have Trump again.

Speaker 7 (24:01):
New polling from Gallup finds that a majority of Americans
rate Biden's presidency is either poor or below average, with
only six percent calling it quote outstanding. And as Biden
moves out, Trump is ready to hit the ground running,
meeting with senators last night about his America First agenda.

Speaker 33 (24:21):
What the top priorities are, tax breaks, border security, deportations
aren't in dispute. How wellmakers get there still is. President
elect Trump doesn't seem concerned whether.

Speaker 34 (24:32):
It's one bill or two bill. It's going to get
done one way or the other.

Speaker 33 (24:35):
Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated the houses where this
bill or bills will start to take.

Speaker 7 (24:42):
Shape Grnald Scott. There. Trump will be among those attending
funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter today.

Speaker 34 (24:50):
I met the Carter family. They were lovely.

Speaker 13 (24:52):
They weren't really verse ann but also they were celebrating
because he was a very fine man.

Speaker 34 (24:59):
I know him a little bit, but I know I'm
only as a fine man.

Speaker 7 (25:03):
The service begins at nine o'clock hour time, five point
thirty five. Now, the Biden agenda in DEI soundly rejected
by voters in November, so McDonald's joined other companies like
Toyota in rolling back their dei initiatives.

Speaker 35 (25:18):
You are the.

Speaker 36 (25:19):
Ultimate determiner of how this goes. Vote with your wallet
and if they don't support your values, if they can't
provide the product, and let it go.

Speaker 7 (25:28):
Political analyst Raven Harrison says these companies should leave the
activism to the activists. According to new research, almost half
of credit cardholders carry debt month to month bank rates.
Ted Rossman says high interest rates at inflation have put
people into more debt, and the fedce interest rate cuts
have not helped.

Speaker 37 (25:48):
And these are really two sides of the same coin.
Inflation was a big reason why bounces went up so much.
It's not usually a vacation, it's not usually a shopping spree.
It's usually practical stuff. But it's a tough to break,
and it all sort of feeds off itself. The higher prices,
it's the higher rates and the minimum payments just hurt
you even more. Another sign that Americans are ready for Trump.

(26:10):
Two point zero new car sails are up. Ford and
GM led the charge in the fourth quarter with strong
demand for pickups and SUVs.

Speaker 38 (26:17):
Joining twenty five really does shape up to be a
very good year. We just topped over sixteen million cars.
In America in twenty twenty four, I think we may
see sixteen point four, sixteen point five.

Speaker 7 (26:29):
And you can listen to the Car Pro Show with
Jerry Reynolds Saturdays on KTRH five point thirty seven. The
use of AI in the gambling industry is rising, both
by the companies and by the gamblers.

Speaker 39 (26:41):
We're seeing this behavior in numerous cultures around the world
where people who are lonely are using AI to solve loneliness,
but also for therapy. If the gambling world wants to
use it to increase engagement in addiction, they certainly have
that ability.

Speaker 7 (26:56):
Jeremiah oh Yang with Blitz calling Venture says this can
work for both the best in the house and The
first college football playoff semi final is tonight with Notre
Dame taking on Penn State at the Orange Bowl. I'm
Cliff Saunders on Houston's News Weather in traffic station KTRH.

Speaker 5 (27:13):
You like free stuff.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
We all like free stuff.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
Guess what Our iHeartRadio app is free and free never
sounded so good.

Speaker 4 (27:25):
Must not be written by gen Z because that's illegible.
Five thirty eight is their time, Houston's Moorning News All
right for over fifty five hundred years human beings have
used writing to communicate with one another, but the skill
is on its way out.

Speaker 5 (27:40):
It's disappearing.

Speaker 4 (27:42):
Gen Z is sort of the leading edge of the
end of handwriting as we know it. They just don't generally,
not that I want to talk. My handwriting is horrible,
but they generally do not have legible handwriting because they
just don't do it. They text, they communicate on keyboards.

(28:05):
They don't. We don't write letters anymore, don't. We don't
take notes usually anymore. We record things and then we
transcribe them on our computer keyboard. We just don't use handwriting. Well, hey,
look here, here's the other thing. Why would gen Z
think that hands writing important? Nobody bothered to teach them

(28:26):
how to write cursive. We deemed that that was no
longer appropriate. And then you expect them to have a signature.
You can you can read good luck, you're lucky if
they can make an X. So I guess the question
is is this important? Is handwriting a skill we don't
want to lose? Do we need to go back to

(28:49):
teaching handwriting in school? Do they spend any any time
in elementary school? Do you remember in elementary school first
learning how to make letters, cursive letters, in particular, how
they know they teach you how to write cursive I mean,
does anybody even teach block lettering anymore? How to make
Here's how you make an A, Here's how you make
a B, Here's how you put a word together. Yeah,

(29:09):
I'm guessing. I wonder too, because with spell check and
all the other things we have, how many gen zers
are good spellers where they really know how to spell
a word, how to sound it out, how to write
it out. Because they don't, they don't write it. And
if they start to type it out and it's and
it's they didn't spell it right, it auto corrects. That'd

(29:29):
be interesting to know. Five forty time for traffic and
whether together they speak John.

Speaker 6 (29:33):
And they make little cartoon faces whenever they put something
on the internet. Which way you want to go? Somebody
pick a direction. I don't care, Jimmy, which way you
want to go?

Speaker 5 (29:40):
North? North?

Speaker 6 (29:41):
Okay, let's do it nine to forty five Nord Free way.
It's been a little lonely this morning, which is just
fine with me. Really, I don't want to go crazy
from Conra. Let's bring it in three thirty six down
over the river and through the Hardingte Road inc. We
look good on the southbound side. Twenty nine minutes now
if you're going from Connor Row into downtown, that's easy.

(30:01):
Two ninety Those of you who had a grand march
at your wedding from Hockley all the way into the
west Loop, nothing doing here. Look at the Katie Freeway
so far dry too, Thank you very much, Terry, Katie
Mills in twenty seven minutes into the President's heads.

Speaker 5 (30:14):
Freeways are rocking right now.

Speaker 6 (30:16):
I'm Skymick and your Generator Supercenter dot Com Traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (30:19):
From our katrh Generator Supercenter twenty four hour weather Center.
Terry Smith is here. We've got warmer temperature. It's just
as warm right now as it was early yesterday afternoon, Terry,
and we're finally going to get back to something a
little bit more realistic as far as the temperatures.

Speaker 20 (30:34):
Yes, we will, and thank goodness for that.

Speaker 21 (30:38):
But we've got to get through this wet weather first
today and tonight, and then we'll dry out. And it
looks dry into early next week. Ninety percent chance of
showers today. The bulk of the rain will be later
this morning and then into the afternoon in overnight hours.
The overnight hours actually is when we will likely get
the heaviest rate and quite a bit of rain's possible well,

(31:00):
but in ninety percent chance of showers today and temperatures
low forties to low fifties, it's still a cool day.
Overall heavy rain tonight one to two inches possible. You
might see a brief shower tomorrow morning. Whatever leftover rain
is still there, it dries out. We're cloudy though, and
still in the forties tomorrow, but once the sunshine appears, Saturday,

(31:22):
load of mid fifties, and Sunday in the upper fifties
to low sixties, and Mondays still dry with temperatures mid
fifties to low sixties.

Speaker 20 (31:31):
Monday.

Speaker 4 (31:31):
Right now, forty one aide your official severe weather station,
News Radio seven forty KTRH what you.

Speaker 5 (31:37):
Need to know for the day ahead.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
This is Houston's Morning News, brought to you by New
South Windows Solutions.

Speaker 4 (31:44):
So I have forty nine is the time here in
Houston's Morning News. We got more coming up here on
the California wildfires. You know, maybe one of the saddest
aspects of this other than you know, the inept California
government that you know helped contribute to this is the
laws of history. Will Rogers Historic Ranch House, if you
know who Will Rogers was, was a famous social commentator,

(32:08):
actor and performer. Died in Alaska in a plane crash.
I want to say in the mid nineteen about nineteen
thirty five nineteen thirty six, somewhere around there. His widow
had donated the ranch to the state for the park
system in nineteen forty four. Had been around for a
long long time, very very well known. Burned to the

(32:30):
ground and gone. The Dapanga Branch Motel, which was built
by newspaper baron William Randolph Hurst, also burned to the ground.
A lot of other historic structures and homes and public
buildings and schools have been burned to the ground in
this wildfire, which remains essentially out of control. More coming
up in the moment. First though, at five fifty of

(32:51):
USTe a little traffic and weather together as we check
in again a skyline.

Speaker 6 (32:54):
Let's take you around the horn as we come in
from the Cadie Freeway this time Brookshure all the way in.

Speaker 5 (32:58):
Looks good.

Speaker 6 (32:59):
I'm glad they finished that roadwork at fourteen eighty nine
from a degree from a Grand Parkway to the President's
an easy twenty six minute stroll. It's just a skip
on the Southwest Freeway. Bras this River twenty five minutes
to downtown two eighty eight rocks from Manble twenty two
minutes up northbound into the canyon and east text bring
it down from the stick Splendor.

Speaker 5 (33:18):
How you doing at Splendora?

Speaker 6 (33:19):
We look good from New Canny thirty one minutes into downtown.
And test out my tip line. Somebody to see if
it works? Is this thing on seven one three, two
one two tips. I'm Skymike on the Generator Supercenter dot
com traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
From our KTRH Generator super Center twenty four our weather center.
A couple of morning showers becoming a city afternoon rain
near fifty today rain and wind and a low around
forty tonight Tomorrow claude and windey forty five Sunday and
fifty four Saturday, mostly Sunday sixty rye temperature on Sunday
right now. Temperature currently is forty one At your official

(33:54):
severe weather station, News Radio seven forty KTRH. Let's get
you caught up on some of our top store where
he's on this Thursday morning.

Speaker 5 (34:01):
Here's Cliff. Thank you, Jimmy.

Speaker 7 (34:02):
We're brought to you by Morrow Mechanical. At least five
people have died in the LA wildfires. Texas Attorney General
Ken Paxton gets a court order blocking the Biden administration
from auctioning off parts of the border wall. And if
you're an AT and T customer, you're going to start
seeing some credits on your bills for network outages. Get

(34:22):
the latest news anytime at KTRH dot com. Our next
update is at six o'clock.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
I live in clear Lake, Humble, reliable KTRH traffic and weather.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
Next on the ten.

Speaker 4 (34:37):
Yeah, it's burning all right, and they're having a hard
time with this. They don't they don't have enough water,
they don't have enough firefighters, They they don't have enough
of anything. As it turns out, the only thing they
got enough of is fire. You've got thousands of people,
tens of thousands of people at this point that have
been removed from their homes, have been and you know,

(35:01):
have been evacuated from the areas. There's five different areas
where the fire is raging. And how did it start? Well,
I don't think we know yet exactly how it started.
We know how it's being spread by the Santa Anna wins,
but again that's a yearly occurrence. So you know, in
the midst of a fire, a lot of people don't
have insurance any more, fire insurance anymore because the state

(35:24):
wanted to put caps on how much insurance companies could charge.
So a lot of these insurance companies were pulling out,
and not just because of the money, but because of
the of the risk. They can see that what government
is and he is not doing it. It's a risky
place to write an insurance policy. You know, can't hardly
blame them for that. So who are the people blaming actors?

(35:47):
Zachary Levy, I forget what he was in anyway, here
he is talking about the La wildfires. I think he's
putting at least a part of the blame, a good
deal of the blame on the governor of California in.

Speaker 24 (35:58):
Criminal negligence, because California can build anything.

Speaker 5 (36:02):
I mean, look at.

Speaker 24 (36:02):
Silicon Valley, look at Hollywood. If they want to do something,
California can do it. But you haven't built a single
reservoir in ten years. You're just letting water run into
the Pacific because of what a fish that no one's
heard of. Does anybody care about the smelt fish?

Speaker 5 (36:19):
I think that both can be true.

Speaker 40 (36:20):
I think we can care about the smelt fish, and
we can care about our environment and also be able
to value human life and the wonderful cities and civilizations
that we have built and find some kind of a
balance in all of that. Even still with the smelts,
there's no reason why we couldn't have safeguards to prevent
what is going on right now.

Speaker 5 (36:38):
This is just it's absurd.

Speaker 40 (36:41):
But I would say at the end of the day,
you know, like I said, I don't know if there's
criminal intent. I have no idea why they are doing
or not doing the things that they are doing, but
they must be held responsible.

Speaker 5 (36:52):
This is not good leadership.

Speaker 40 (36:54):
I mean, listen, you know, this is the man who,
in the middle of the pandemic, when people were being
locked up for going and gathering together, he was at
French laundry having dinner with his friends. What does that
say about the character of this man who is doing
nothing to help the people of California. I don't believe
that he is. I don't believe that he is, and
so I think that there needs to be some kind
of you know, accountability that's held to the leadership not

(37:16):
just of California, but also of our nation.

Speaker 34 (37:18):
You know.

Speaker 40 (37:19):
I mean, listen, there are people still in eastern North
Carolina that are still climbing out of the rubble of
the hurricane that totally ravaged all of them in Florida
and North Carolina, South Atlanta. That's still happening, and FEMA
completely dropping the ball there. What's going to happen now
with Southern California is FEMA going to be there? By
the way, one of the things that it's almost most

(37:40):
criminal in all of this. I don't know if you
know this, but seventy percent or so of the insured
in southern California that used to have fire insurance in
their home. Months ago, this insurance was taken away. The
insurance company said, no, we're not going to offer fire
insurance anymore.

Speaker 5 (37:56):
What else do they need? They don't even flood insurance.

Speaker 40 (37:58):
They need fire insurance, a fire hazard. Of course, that's
the insurance that they need and that they want. And
just months ago this was stripped from people like this,
This is not okay, It is not okay.

Speaker 5 (38:09):
In any way, shape or form. All right.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
By the way, President Trump said this about Governor Gavin
Newsom in this whole smelt thing. Smelt, it's a little fish,
and this particular smelt. I mean there's smell all over
the country. As a kid in Michigan, you know, we
went my dad and I went smelt fishing numerous times.
But these are the California Delta smelt. And Governor Gavin
Newsom refused to sign a water restoration declaration that this

(38:35):
is President Trump speaking put before them that would have
allowed millions of gallons of water from excess rain and
snow melt from the north to float daily into many
parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning.
He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a
smelt it and by the way, it hasn't worked. Now
the ultimate price is being paid. Five point fifty six.
You're in Houston's Moorning. News is Huge.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Radio seven forty kt RH Houston Live Everywhere with Avenue Now.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
The latest news, weather and trapping.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
It's more of what matters to you from the John
Morris Services Studios.

Speaker 4 (39:14):
Six am is our time here in Houston's Borning. News
I'm Jimmy Barrett. Among our top stories this half hour,
Governor Abbott talking about the weather. Houston City Council will
gives Center Point a unanimous no and coming up at
six o eight dumbing it down for teachers. Details in
the minutes ahead. You're in Houston's boring news. First, we're
checking out that morning drive again with sky Mine.

Speaker 5 (39:35):
Check it out. I've got Mark from Spring on your
tip line. Off forty five forty.

Speaker 41 (39:40):
Five southbound, just at the Highway ten interchange.

Speaker 42 (39:44):
It's just starting to range, so watch out for crazy people.

Speaker 6 (39:48):
Watch the crazy people there, Mark Southwest Freeway.

Speaker 21 (39:51):
I'm clear.

Speaker 43 (39:53):
Pete from sugar Lands moves Salem to the canyon.

Speaker 5 (39:55):
All right, Banana stickers all around.

Speaker 6 (39:57):
I'm Skymichael, a generator supercenter dot com tract from our
KTRH top tax Defenders twenty four hour weather center.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
For today, we are looking at a couple of morning showers,
but it's going to be a steady rain starting this
afternoon and into tonight. I near fifty four today, low
overnight around forty and then Claudie and windy. We don't
move much on the thermometer tomorrow, maybe forty five to
forty eight degrees for the high temperature right now. Currently
it's forty one at your official severe weather station, News

(40:24):
Radio seven forty k t rh S. Time Now for
the news. Here's Cliff Sanders.

Speaker 7 (40:29):
Thank you, Jimmy six zero one on KTRH. We're sponsored
by Plants for All Seasons and our top story this
hour the weather.

Speaker 34 (40:36):
I've deployed of maes.

Speaker 8 (40:37):
Say response raceources from more than a dozen agencies across.

Speaker 5 (40:41):
The state of Texas.

Speaker 7 (40:42):
Governor Greg Abbott ahead of today's storm. Now, while Houston
is going to see rain, Dallas is expected to see
multiple inches of snow. Ercott is expecting the great to
hold up during all of this, but we're under a
weather watch through tomorrow.

Speaker 44 (40:56):
Do you expect to have more than adequate supply of
power to serve the state throughout this winter event?

Speaker 7 (41:02):
Or Pablo Vegas as There is more generating power now
than at any point in this state's history. But the
system is already causing problems at the airports. At Bush,
we have twenty three cancelations and four delays. Make that, yes,
that is Bush. At Hobby, we've got twenty eight cancelations
and six delays. Those numbers coming to us from Flight Aware. Meantime,

(41:24):
the Houston City Council rejects an attempt by Center Point
to jack your bills up.

Speaker 5 (41:30):
Comes from a Flickinger. Yes, comes from with Thomas. Yes,
come from Huffman.

Speaker 20 (41:34):
Yes, it comes from a Castillo.

Speaker 5 (41:36):
Yes, come from Martinez. Yes, comes from Power. Yes.

Speaker 7 (41:40):
The rate increase would have added an extra dollar eighty
three to your bill. The vote was unanimous, six oh three. Now,
multiple wildfires continue to burn in Los Angeles this morning.
Officials are hopeful the situation will improve today, even with
some of these fires at zero percent containment, with.

Speaker 45 (41:59):
The winds and the helicopters up, and also more firefighters
here from around the state, Nevada and Arizona that is
making a big difference those three factors. Big picture is
we're not out of the woods yet, but with wins
closer to twenty five than seventy five, things are going
to improve today.

Speaker 7 (42:15):
William Laugeness reporting the death TOLLIC now is at five.
Governor Gavin Newsom's words come back to haunt him. Remember
in twenty twenty one he said California was more prepared
for this with Joe Biden in the White House as
opposed to Donald Trump.

Speaker 40 (42:31):
Partnership with the legislature and other state agencies, including now
the federal government, no longer a sparring partner, but a
working partner.

Speaker 7 (42:41):
Trump said that Newsom refused to sign a declaration that
could have mitigated the fires. Newsom denies that. And where
was Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass when all of this started?
On a trip to Ghana?

Speaker 30 (42:54):
Do you know citizen's an apology for being absent while
their homes were burning?

Speaker 4 (42:59):
Do you regret coming the fire department budget by millions
of dovers, not a mayor?

Speaker 7 (43:04):
The mayor never answered those questions. It's now six zh four.
President ELEC. Donald Trump was on Capitol Hill yesterday to
meet with Senators about his Make America Great Again agenda.

Speaker 46 (43:15):
Our conference is united on his agenda, which is securing
the border, of rebuilding the military, creating energy dominance for
this country, strengthening the economy.

Speaker 7 (43:28):
That is Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Trump will a
TRND will attend this morning state funeral of former President
Jimmy Carter at the Washington National Cathedral. The service will
start at nine o'clock hour time, and we'll have more
at six thirty six oh five. Now here at home.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants Republicans to come together

(43:48):
for next week's House speaker vote against Dustin Burrows.

Speaker 14 (43:52):
We're going to see a Republican speaker elected by Republicans,
and we're going to see a United Republican Party.

Speaker 7 (43:59):
The Texas republic and Caucus chose David Cook as the nominee,
but Burrows entered the race late in the game and
has been calling himself the speaker elect. Texas lawmakers also
want to ban counties like Harris for using tax dollars
on illegal aliens. Unfortunately, Harris County isn't alone in doing this.

Speaker 16 (44:19):
There are several cities and counties that provide these defense
funds for illegal immigrants who are facing deportation.

Speaker 7 (44:28):
Ollie Hanson with The Texan says that not only does
Harris give legal service to these people, they also tried
to include illegal aliens in the Uplift Harris County handout program.
And while there's concern from the mainstream media, and while
when where's the concern rather from the mainstream media? While
you were celebrating on New Year's Eve, four members of

(44:48):
trend Dear Ragua were arrested at Eagle Pass.

Speaker 28 (44:50):
Which raises the question of it how big of a
problem is TDA in Texas.

Speaker 17 (44:56):
My sources, what I know, you're looking at multiple hundreds
of brenda Agua gang members that are in these cities.
And that's a Snaveson.

Speaker 28 (45:04):
That's Wesley Tabor, a former DEA official who worked in Venezuela.

Speaker 5 (45:10):
It's going to.

Speaker 17 (45:11):
Take still years to overcome the searchs that we're seeing,
but we're never going to get rid of it. It's
sure to stay now.

Speaker 28 (45:17):
As we found out here in Houston after the tragic
murder of Joscelyn Ungaree Juff Biggs News Radio seven forty
k t E H.

Speaker 7 (45:26):
And in Washington, Trump's going to have ewon in Doge
the Loan Republican on Harris County Commissioner's Court, Well, he
wants his own version of it to shed light on
how your money is being used on unnecessary programs.

Speaker 19 (45:39):
The tax players who exist paid their taxes have seen
their taxes go up, in many cases more than fifteen
percent or higher. They're owed an explanation on what we're
spending that money for.

Speaker 7 (45:51):
Precinct three Commissioner Tom Ramsey calls the program the wasted
potential campaign six seven, the Astros agreed to a one
year deal with starting pitcher Luis Garcia to avoid arbitration.
And the Rockets are in Memphis today. We've got pregame
at six on Sports Talk seven ninety. I'm Cliff Saunders
on Houston's News, weather and Traffic station KTRH.

Speaker 5 (46:13):
I take the Beltway sometimes, and I also take the
West Park Toll.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
Road KTRH, time saving traffic. Next on the ten, Oh boy,
here's some more dumbing down. Thank goodness, it's not here.

Speaker 4 (46:27):
New Jersey has dropped a basic reading and writing test
for teachers. What It's no longer requirement for teachers in
New Jersey to read or rite perfect perfect. It's a
basic skills test actually does reading, writing, and math. That's
probably the math part that scared him. Way. That used

(46:49):
to be required to get a license in New Jersey
to be a teacher. But Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat,
signed a new law that says that you don't have
to take that test anymore. It went into effect on
January the first. So why would you do something like that?
Why would you eliminate a basic skills test requirement for teachers?

(47:11):
They did it because there's a teacher shortage, and we
need to stop discouraging dumb people from wanting to teach. Listen,
the teacher shortage in this country is like the police
shortage in this country. It's not because it's too hard

(47:35):
of work. It's not because people are being scared away
from having to take a basic skills test or meet
the basic requirements for the job. The problem is the job.
The problem is, in the case of teaching, a lack
of support from administrators in your system. The problem is

(47:55):
you're paying teachers thirty eight thousand dollars a year while
you're paying your administrators three and thirty eight thousand dollars
a year. That's that's the problem. The problem is is
that when you have out of control parents come in,
you don't back up your teachers. The problem is you
don't want to be in the news. You want everyone,
everybody just stay quiet. You know, we've got we've got

(48:16):
school to run here. The problem is teachers are not
satisfied with their work anymore. They're not backed up by
the school systems they work for. That's the basic problem. Yeah,
you're throwing a few more dollars in their direction. Would
also be helpful. But it's not because they can't take
a test and pass the basics to get accredited for

(48:38):
goodness sakes, So all you're going to do is have
more people coming into schools who don't know how to
do their job. That's gonna be great for education. Six
' ten.

Speaker 5 (48:48):
Time for traffic and weather together, Scot Mike's here.

Speaker 6 (48:51):
We got problems on the east side here, Jack City.
This is I ten east Allen from Baytown.

Speaker 21 (48:55):
Fix mush up.

Speaker 22 (48:57):
Lots of flash and lights and lots of break light.

Speaker 6 (49:00):
All right, that looks like around Holland, Mitchell, got Mike,
I ten outbound.

Speaker 19 (49:04):
It's sixteen right in front of a bud plan there's
a wreck with an eighteen wheeler.

Speaker 5 (49:08):
Only one lane getting through.

Speaker 6 (49:10):
All right, let me double check that direction there, Mitchell,
just to make sure. Hey, yesterday imsed up in front
of the world that's inbound. That's inbound. But I know
what you mean. I see the backups now from Federal Road,
and all we have is this one little puny lane.
Let's skip over to two twenty five if you can,
or ninety nineties another way around.

Speaker 5 (49:27):
Hey, tip lane.

Speaker 19 (49:27):
Hey, it's got Mike.

Speaker 47 (49:28):
Long time note talk highway nine nine from CYBERSPW Richmond,
Triland area threw flowing light rain drops.

Speaker 6 (49:34):
All right, Graham Parkway looks good on the west side, Terry.
We'll have to check the golf ball at the twenty
break and southside.

Speaker 5 (49:40):
Larry seven one three two one two t ips.

Speaker 48 (49:43):
Hey morning, sky Mike coming up from and that's the
bipop with a lot mattering of rain.

Speaker 5 (49:48):
Certainly ate the humdidity this morning. See he speaks his
own jive, Terry.

Speaker 6 (49:52):
I'm Skymike on the Generator Supercenter, dot Com Traffic Center,
Bromo r ktr Age Top tax Defenders, twenty four hour
Weather Center.

Speaker 4 (49:59):
Terry Smith is here now. If I were to get
on an I forty five and head north to Dallas,
what time would I do that?

Speaker 5 (50:05):
I know?

Speaker 4 (50:05):
But what time would I need to be there this
morning to make sure I avoided what's coming now?

Speaker 5 (50:10):
Right now? Okay, too late to head in that direction.

Speaker 20 (50:13):
Huh. You know what, I haven't been watching Dallas.

Speaker 21 (50:18):
There's so much going on across the south, but that's
not one area I've been watching. It looks like they're
dry right now, but I'm seeing some reflections on the radar.
I'll have to check I can look into that timing
for you in a little bit, but couldn't tell you
at the moment. What I can't tell you is we're
dealing with rain, and that's what I've got my eye on.

(50:38):
The rain that we have here and the possibility of
a winter storm for much of the South, but around here,
fortunately it will be all liquid and we do have
a few showers out there at the moment, but rain's
increasing as we go through the day. It's a ninety
percent chance of showers today and that is keeping our
temperatures mainly in the forties. Night is when we'll see

(51:01):
the heaviest of the rain, that area of low pressure
just offshore passing by, so widespread rain and heavy rain overnight,
a shower two maybe tomorrow morning, but we'll be cloudy
the rest of the day, still cool tomorrow, still in
the forties, and then the sun finally shows up for
the weekend and into early next week for that matter,
nice quiet, dry stretch and water temperatures load to mid

(51:23):
fifty Saturday, upper fifties to low sixties Sunday.

Speaker 4 (51:26):
Right now forty two at your official severe weather station,
News Radio seven forty ktrh.

Speaker 5 (51:32):
USE traffic and weather.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
You're starting your day right with Houston's Morning News, brought
to you by New South Windows Solutions.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
Six twenty is our time here in Houston's Morning News.
We've been talking about this during our news. Cliff has
been talking about this this morning, how we arrested four
trend Aragua TDA gang members from Venezuela crossing US border
from Mexico. That happened just recently. But we also know
we have a lot of these members gang members who
are operating in this country. There's been some well bubble

(52:00):
size stories, including what happened with those apartment complexes in Colorado.
We'll talk to Wesley Tabor about that former DEA agent
he served time by the way in Venezuela. We'll talk
to him about this coming up next. First though, traffic
and weather together short as we check out a very
short sky mina.

Speaker 6 (52:18):
All right on the hard work and he said, got
this problem with the eighteen wheeler accident. I have let
the rest of the media know now this is right
at Hallander John Ralston same crossing inbound. We've got three
lanes knocked out. Eighteen wheelers in this were backed up
from Greens Road. I've also put that in your in
car navigation. I'm Scott Michael the Generator Supercenter dot Com
Traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (52:37):
From r KTRH top tax Defenders, twenty four hour Weather Center.
A few morning showers becoming a steady afternoon rain near
fifty today, rain and wind tonight, little around forty could
get a couple of inches worth tomorrow, Claudie and Whinny
with a high read about forty five. Current temperature is
forty two at your official severe weather station, News Radio
seven forty k TRH. Time to check out some more

(52:59):
of our top stories. Here's Cliff, Thank you, Jimmy.

Speaker 7 (53:02):
We're brought to you by morrow. Mechanical Houston will get
rain today out of a storm that's gonna dump snow
in Dallas. Donald Trump asks the US Supreme Court to
intervene ahead of sentencing in the Manhattan business fraud case.
And there's a deal to avoid a strike that would
have shut down major East and Gulf Coast ports next week.
Get the latest news anytime at KTRH dot com. Our

(53:23):
next update is at six thirty.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
In form for today's world for tomorrows America and connected.

Speaker 5 (53:31):
To Houston and Now I can stay in the now
use radio seven k t r H.

Speaker 4 (53:38):
Pretty sure that's in Venezuela from long ago six twenty two,
so the time Ron Houston's boring news. Wesley Tabor joins
US as a former DEE agent in Venezuela to talk
about the TA TDA gang crossing at the US border
and you know what they're doing here at the United States. Wesley,
what what? What years did you serve in Venezuela.

Speaker 42 (53:58):
Hi, thanks for having me. I was in Venezuela from
twenty ten to nearly twenty thirteen.

Speaker 4 (54:05):
All right, I'm trying to remember, you know, Venezuela twenty
ten versus today. Is there a huge difference or were
you thereafter they? You know, they went to the whole
socialist route.

Speaker 42 (54:16):
Now we were in the almost in the middle of it, right,
So you had you had. The president was Hugo Chavez
and he was the big socialist pusher. He was the
one that wanted to create socialism for the whole country,
create equality. He had been in power for nearly a
decade when I got in. And it's very similar for

(54:37):
people that don't understand who Hugo Chavez was, very similar
to Fedel Castro and Cuba in fact, many of the
people that were running the country with him in Venezuela
were Cuban officials.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
Well, he has brought economic ruins, certainly, he brought economic
ruin to Venezuela. I mean, the only thing they have
going for them is the is the oil industry, which
of course Ley owned at this point in time. But
obviously there's been a vacuum that has been left. There
were gangs like TDA were they prevalent in Venezuela when
you were there.

Speaker 42 (55:10):
You know, the gang kind of came to being around
two thousand and nine twenty ten in a prison in
the state of Arragua. That's why they call it, meaning
the Train of Arragua. And it came in to be
in a prison called Tokron in the state of Ragua,
and it kind of grew from there and kind of

(55:32):
spread out over the last few years internationally. And it
started with people fleeing Venezuela and they would go to Colombia,
they went to Chile, they went to Peru, they went
to various other countries, and then they started coming into
the United States about a year and a half ago,
two years ago, and then recently the surge just became

(55:52):
out of control as they started acrossing into the voter
into the United States, because the open border created such
a vacuum for us that it is so lucrative for
them to come up. And not only lucrative for them,
but it was inviting, come on up to the border.
You'll come in. We'll give you a phone, we'll give
you a debit card with money on it, and we'll
apply anywhere you want in the country. Doesn't get much better.

Speaker 4 (56:12):
Than that, No, it doesn't. And since they've been here,
of course they've created havoc. The fact that this made
news that we arrested four TDA gang members trying to
cross into the US from Mexico, it, you know, I
hate to say, what almost makes me laugh because I'm
sure there are hundreds, if not thousands of TDA members
who are already in this country operating and causing havoc.

(56:33):
Getting you know, preventing four more from coming in isn't
going to do much.

Speaker 47 (56:36):
Is it.

Speaker 36 (56:38):
It's not.

Speaker 42 (56:39):
But I'll tell you this, when you start from macro
to micro level and you kind of look at it
broad spectrum and you kind of bring it down to
the guranular. The four people that you're going to get, say,
you know in southern Texas, you have to exploit them.
You have to exploit them for intelligence purposes. When you're
dealing with gangs like this, you have to know what
you're looking at. Who are these people? And we've heard

(57:01):
it on the news before recently a little bit more
and more as we get serious law enforcement players that
are getting involved in this and they say, hey, listen,
we need to know who these people are because when
they cross the border, they could have been any name
they want. And that's kind of one of the basic
fundamentals of identifying these gang members. What do they have
in their prior country. What does US law enforcement on

(57:24):
the federal level have as far as the database. And
I did this when I was in Central America two
thousand and three, two thousand and four with the MS
thirteen gangs. I started a database for bioidentification so that
we could reach back to these countries of origin and
figure out who they are when they show up in
the United States. And that's something that law enforcement definitely

(57:44):
has to get on the ball and start probing within
their realm of what they can do.

Speaker 4 (57:50):
Well, we know they've taken over apartment complexes, and we're
already out of time here, so I'll need a quick
one on this one, Wesley. But ultimately, what do you
think these gang members want here? What do they want
to create for themselves?

Speaker 42 (58:01):
They want to create what they have around the globe,
and that is power, money, and they're going to achieve
it if we don't interven. Governor have it has done
a wonderful job. He's designated them as terrorists. That's great,
but you have to have the tools on the ground.
You have to be able to actually make it happen.
And that's just not talk. You got to have people
on the ground, but you have to have intelligence behind
it that's going to produce something.

Speaker 4 (58:24):
Well, good news, his help is coming with the new administration.
I'm pretty sure about that, Wesley. Thank you for filling
us in. Appreciate it. Wesley Tabor, former DEA agent in Venezuela.
It is six twenty seven. Time to take a look
at your money. Here's Jeff Bellinger and Jimmy. There's a
new entity in the retail sector. Spark Group merged with
j C.

Speaker 25 (58:43):
Penney, creating a new company called Catalyst Brands. Besides Penny,
Catalyst is the parent of Lucky, Eddie Bauer Aeropostyle Forever
twenty one and Brooks Brothers. I'm Jeff Bellinger, Bloomberg Business.
I'm News Radio seven forty KTRH.

Speaker 5 (59:01):
You are no Houston's News.

Speaker 26 (59:03):
Why there were traffic plus breaking news twenty four to seven.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
This is News Radio seven forty KTRH.

Speaker 5 (59:10):
Five Everywhere with the IRF.

Speaker 3 (59:12):
More of what's happening now from the Sean Morris Services Studios.

Speaker 4 (59:16):
Six thirty our time. Here in Houston's Morning News. I'm
Jimmy Barrett. Among our top stories this hour is North
Texas ready for the snow and ice. Thousands of Texans
are suing their energy providers and coming up at six
thirty eight. It's good for you as long as you
stop doing it before twelve noon. Details in the minutes ahead.
You're in Houston's Morning News. First, we're checking out that

(59:38):
morning drive again, the skyline.

Speaker 6 (59:39):
I can't believe they cleared the East Freeway just like that,
all right right around John Rawston.

Speaker 5 (59:43):
The wreck is gone. The suckage is almost out of
the way too.

Speaker 6 (59:46):
We've got some breaks now still after Federal Roads to
be ready for that stay of the course.

Speaker 5 (59:50):
You've got your East text coming down from the frozen
tundra of a Tesco Seda. It's been Mike, will Clayton.
All the way through downtown.

Speaker 19 (59:59):
Is smoothshale until you get in an it west and
it is starting to rain on me on it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:05):
But about all it's it's here.

Speaker 6 (01:00:07):
I'm Skymike at your Generator Supercenter dot Com Traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
From our KTRH Generator super Center, twenty four hour Weather Center.
A couple of morning showers, yet we're seeing those becoming
a steady afternoon rain today with a high temperature near fifty.
We'll get you the complete forecast, including the copious amounts
of rain we're going to get tonight when we talk
to Terry Smith at the Weather Channel. We'll do that
in eight minutes. Right down forty two at your official
severe weather station, News Radio seven forty k t RH.

(01:00:33):
It's time now for the news. Here's Cliff Saunders.

Speaker 7 (01:00:35):
Thank you, Jimmy. Good morning everyone. It's six thirty two
on kt RH. Texas is bracing for winter weather. Our
top story this morning. Several inches of snow is expected
in the Dallas area. Fortunately, Houston's only getting rain out
of this.

Speaker 1 (01:00:50):
I don't anticipate any flooding with this.

Speaker 33 (01:00:52):
It's kind of spread out enough, maybe down like right
along the coast where that coastal log gets pretty close
to the coast, we could get a little bit of
pawn against some of the roadways.

Speaker 7 (01:01:01):
That is Harris County Meteorologist Jeff Lindner on the Weather
Insights podcast. Terry Smith has more details in seven Minutes
with Jimmy on Houston's Morning News. If you've got a
flight delay, check before you go to the airport, because
we've got sixty four flights either delayed or canceled out
of Bush and Hobby combined. As for the grid, we're

(01:01:22):
not expecting any issues connected to this storm. It's been
four years though, since Winter Storm Jury, and the Texas
Supreme Court will decide more than fifteen thousand plaintiffs can
move ahead with claims against utility companies. Texas attorney Michael
Jewell says this is significant.

Speaker 29 (01:01:39):
There's a lot of damage that occurred as a result
of the electric outagist.

Speaker 7 (01:01:43):
During Winter Storm Murray. There were a lot of debts.

Speaker 29 (01:01:46):
You know the fact that people are looking for compensation
as a result of that.

Speaker 7 (01:01:50):
It makes sense. Fifty seven people died during that storm.
The outcome of this case could set precedent for future
weather events. Six point thirty three on k t H.
Death toll at least at five in Los Angeles as
several wildfires continue to burn this morning. Thousands of homes
and businesses have been completely destroyed. Now, instead of being

(01:02:12):
the consoler in chief, President Joe Biden was on the
ground in California for a pat on the back for
becoming a great grandfather for the first time.

Speaker 30 (01:02:22):
Joe Biden has a habit of doing this at disaster sizes.
Remember when he was at the Maui fires in Hawaii
talking about some rinking think fire that he had on
his property.

Speaker 7 (01:02:31):
Texas Governor Greg Abbot talking to KTRHS Sean Hannity coming
up on six thirty four, It appears that history won't
be kind to Joe Biden's presidency.

Speaker 49 (01:02:41):
A new Gallup pole finds more than half of Americans
believe the Biden presidency will be judged as poor or
below average. American Thinker editor Andrea Wiberg says Biden's failures
were many, starting with foreign policy.

Speaker 50 (01:02:52):
He's made it much more dangerous with the Middle East
in flames. He's turned Ukraine into a sinkhole. He's involved
in Russia and China into a powerful alliance.

Speaker 49 (01:03:04):
Well on the domestic front, he surged inflation, opened the borders,
and launched woke policies into every part of government. We're
only positive about the Biden presidency at Woke America up
to the failures of leftism. Corey Jolson, News Radio seven
forty KTRH.

Speaker 7 (01:03:18):
It's twelve days before he takes office and President Elect
Donald Trump met with Republican senators to lay out his
agenda and doubled down on taking control of the Panama Canal.

Speaker 13 (01:03:29):
Panama Canal look they take an advantage of because they'd
charge more for our ships that do any other chips.

Speaker 34 (01:03:34):
They charge more for our navy to go through. We
built it. We gave it to him for one dollar.
In other words, we gave it to him for nothing.

Speaker 7 (01:03:41):
Meantime, South Dakota Republican Congressman Dustin Johnson found the bill
to set up the purchase of the canal, and as
Trump prepares to take over the country, will say goodbye
to former President Jimmy Carter. Today is funeral at nine
o'clock this morning at the Washington National Cathedral.

Speaker 51 (01:03:59):
President and elect Trump, President Biden, and a number of
former presidents and First Ladies are expected to attend. Carter
will then be taken to Planes, Georgia for a ceremony
at the Baptist church where he taught Sunday School before
he's buried alongside his wife and former First Lady Rosalind Carter.

Speaker 7 (01:04:16):
That is Ryan Schmell's reporting. It is now six thirty five.
McDonald's is the latest major company to begin rolling back DEI.

Speaker 15 (01:04:25):
Companies are finally realizing that their customers aren't interested in DEI.

Speaker 36 (01:04:29):
Consumers are doing what I always recommend they do, which.

Speaker 5 (01:04:32):
Is vote with your wallet.

Speaker 36 (01:04:33):
You have got to stop supporting these companies that are
pushing these agendas.

Speaker 15 (01:04:38):
Political analyst Raven Harrison said that companies should continue to
steer clear of costly DEI programs.

Speaker 20 (01:04:44):
Is this what's going to sustain you?

Speaker 31 (01:04:45):
Is this what the.

Speaker 20 (01:04:46):
Shareholders want to hear?

Speaker 36 (01:04:47):
That you're losing money perpetually to try to keep pushing
an ideology.

Speaker 15 (01:04:51):
McDonald's pointed to the recent Supreme Court ruling banning DEI
and college admissions as one of their reasons for making
the change. Ethan Buchanan News Radio seven forty the.

Speaker 7 (01:05:00):
US auto industry posting a two point two sales increase
last year. Ford and GM ending it with healthy fourth
quarter gains fueled by demands for pickups and SUVs. The
car pro Jerry Reynolds says December is normally a big
month for car sales.

Speaker 38 (01:05:16):
You know, it just depends on the manufacturer. But historically
March will be the next big round of incentives that
we'll see.

Speaker 7 (01:05:24):
He adds that as many as sixteen point five million
new vehicles could be sold in the US this year.
But this is not all good news. There's a new
bank rate survey that shows that half of credit card
holders carry debt month to month.

Speaker 5 (01:05:38):
It's significant, but not surprising, and it's better than last year.

Speaker 37 (01:05:42):
High inflation, high interest rates. These have added to the
issue the past few years. Americans in total oh about
one point two trillion dollars on their credit cards.

Speaker 43 (01:05:51):
Financial analysts Ed Rossman says high rates add to the issue,
and going the minimum payment path makes it worse.

Speaker 37 (01:05:57):
The average American has a credit card balance around sixty
four hundred dollars. Those minimum payments keep you in debt
for eighteen years and cost you about ninety three hundred
dollars in interest.

Speaker 43 (01:06:07):
He says zero percent balance transfer cards are a good
way to avoid debt. Andre Perard News Radio seven forty KRH.

Speaker 7 (01:06:14):
And finally, the college football playoffs semifinals start tonight with
Notre Dame taking on Penn State at the Orange Bowl.
Then tomorrow night it's the one we care about, the
Cotton Bold Texas takes on Ohio State. I'm Cliff Saunders
on Houston's News, weather and Traffic station KTRH.

Speaker 3 (01:06:31):
Info at this Speed of Houston right now. Houston's Morning
News continues with Jimmy Barrett and the Houston Morning News team.

Speaker 4 (01:06:41):
Man, look at another study on coffee. Wow, they really
should do more studies on coffee, because we haven't done
very many studies on coffee. Here's another one. I'm not
sure who did it. I can guess maybe the coffee
growers of whatever, or Maxwell House somebody like that. But

(01:07:02):
according to this study, drinking coffee can make you live longer,
but only if you stop drinking it by twelve noon,
twelve noon, twelve noon. So here's what they did. Scientists
tracked people's health for ten years, split them into three categories.
People who only drank coffee in the morning, people who

(01:07:22):
drank it all day, and people who didn't drink it
at all. The morning coffee drinkers had a sixteen percent
lower risk of dying for any reason and the thirty
one percent lower risk of dying from heart disease compared
to the non coffee group, but the benefits disappeared for
people who drank coffee all day, So having your last
cup before twelve noon could save your life. Moderate coffee

(01:07:46):
drinkers saw the biggest benefits. That's you know, two, three,
maybe four cups of coffee each morning. Benefits dropped by
half of people who drank more than that. They're not
sure why drinking it later in the day makes a difference. Well,
here's the thing. Are talking caffeine or decaf, That's what
I don't know. If it's if. If it's fully caffeinated coffee,

(01:08:07):
then drinking it later in the day obviously makes it
more difficult to go to sleep. So therefore I'm guessing
that people who drank coffee all day maybe don't get
as much sleep, But who knows, six forty time for
traffic and whether they go to be crazy? Coffee makes
you crazy?

Speaker 6 (01:08:22):
Well, maybe it's the red qull might the sugar big Yeah,
maybe maybe I'm just crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:08:28):
Let me let's go the hard work in east Side here.

Speaker 7 (01:08:30):
Jimmy E.

Speaker 6 (01:08:31):
C D all of the above. It's East Freeway. We've
cleared that wreck now, that was at John Ralston. That's
out of the way. The seconds has gone to stay
the course. Whoa dude to twenty five. I'm seeing this
spackle now, Alan Genoah, what are you doing here?

Speaker 5 (01:08:45):
Hardheads?

Speaker 6 (01:08:46):
It looks like we've got actually a problem on the
ramp going down from the bridge and this is going
to be outbound around Alan Genoah. Okay, let me get
you some laneage at the six fifty break. That's also
messing up your south loop. Let's go through downtown unless
you're hazardous. Which way would you do if you were hazardous? Oh,
you might want to take the Beltway instead? All right, Katie,
freeways looking good. I've got reports of rain downtown on

(01:09:08):
iten Mike from Magnolias on the northwest.

Speaker 42 (01:09:13):
To the west of wide open and right. No smudges,
not even a measurements mudge all right.

Speaker 5 (01:09:19):
No smudges or smidges. And who is that giving me?
East Side? Oh?

Speaker 6 (01:09:22):
Doug from Mott Bellevue says he's getting some rain now.
He popped up on my Facebook over on the east
side around Mont Bellevue.

Speaker 5 (01:09:29):
If you're coming, well, that's both ways, Mike, that makes sense.

Speaker 6 (01:09:32):
I'm in the Generator Supercenter dot Com traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (01:09:35):
Bail me out, Perry from our KDRH Generator super Center
twenty four our weather center. Terry Smith is here the rain.
We're getting some showers. I guess we're expecting a couple
of showers this morning, but the big rain doesn't start
till later, right, yes, right.

Speaker 21 (01:09:48):
Just a few sprinkles out there this morning, a little
bit of a break, and then Mother Nature reloads and
heads our direction, with the widespread showers picking up by
late morning into the afternoon, and then heavy rain likely
tonight before it tapers off tomorrow. Ninety percent chance, and
you'll get wet at some point today. Temperatures in the forties,

(01:10:09):
one hundred percent chance of rain tonight. We may pick
up an inch or two of rain tonight, and then
only a brief shower tomorrow, mainly just cloudy in the forties.

Speaker 20 (01:10:17):
The weekend, sunshine.

Speaker 21 (01:10:19):
And warming up in the fifties to low sixties Saturday
and Sunday.

Speaker 4 (01:10:23):
Right now forty two at your official severe weather station,
News Radio seven forty k TRH.

Speaker 3 (01:10:29):
You aren't commute, you are forecast, you are news. It's
Houston's Morning News, brought to you buying New south Way,
those solutions.

Speaker 4 (01:10:36):
So, after being ridiculed for saying, you know, hey, we
really should acquire Greenland and the pan we should get
the Panama Canal back and and all these other things,
it's amazing how many, how many conservatives are on board
with this whole idea, especially when it comes to reacquiring
the Panama Canal. And even more even Democrats John Fetterman

(01:11:00):
came out and said, yeah, we we should try to.
We should see if we can buy Greenland. It's it's strategic,
we should have it. It's catching. This stuff is catching
on now. Whether or not the whole Gulf of America
thing catches on, we'll have to wait and see. Oh,
by the way, Governor Abbott suggested the better name would
be the Golf of Texas. That'd be a good name too,

(01:11:21):
wouldn't it. Six fifty Right now, Diaper, traffic and weather together,
media timelines coming up Skyline.

Speaker 5 (01:11:26):
First, We've got you with traffic it's your.

Speaker 6 (01:11:28):
North sam westbound roadwork at all named Westfield.

Speaker 5 (01:11:31):
I got a clear like problem, dude. It's guy Mike.

Speaker 9 (01:11:33):
We got a problem down on the Highway three at
NAPTA one and Space City boulevards.

Speaker 7 (01:11:38):
The railroad tracks are blocking the crossroads.

Speaker 4 (01:11:42):
There's no train available.

Speaker 7 (01:11:43):
It's been like it's for the past five or ten minute.

Speaker 5 (01:11:45):
Right, that's easy to fix.

Speaker 6 (01:11:46):
S down that elevated part Skymike on the Generator Supercenter
dot com Traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (01:11:50):
From r KTRH Generator super Center, twenty four hour Weather Center.
A couple of morning showers becoming a city afternoon rain
near fifty four today, rain and wind could get an
entry to tonight low round forty tomorrow Claudie and Wendy
with a high of forty five. We start to warm
up on the weekend. Fifty four on Saturday, sixty on Sunday,
sunshine both days. Right now, the temperature forty two at

(01:12:11):
your official severe weather station, News Radio seven forty KTRH.
Let's get you caught up in some of our top
trending stories on this Thursday.

Speaker 5 (01:12:19):
Here's Cliff, Thank you, Jimmy.

Speaker 7 (01:12:21):
We're brought to you by DNM Auto Leasing. The LA
wildfire death toll remains at five for now, but we're
expecting an update shortly from officials out west. The Biden
administration approves yet another five hundred million dollars in military
aid for Ukraine today. And remember the mini moon that
we had last year for a couple of months. Well,
the asteroid is back tonight, coming within one point one

(01:12:44):
million miles of Earth. Get the latest news anytime at
KTRH dot com. Our next updates at seven o'clock.

Speaker 5 (01:12:51):
I live in Katie, I live in Ito.

Speaker 3 (01:12:53):
Your reliable forecast next on the ten on seven forty KTRH.

Speaker 5 (01:13:02):
That's just in.

Speaker 4 (01:13:03):
Representative Dusty Johnson, Republican from South Dakota, plans to introduce
a bill today to authorize the President to purchase the
Panama Canal and to put it under US control. The
idea is catching fire. China is messing in that part
of the world. We don't want China to have control
of the Panama Canal. By the way, Texas Representative and

(01:13:23):
former surgeon to Presidents Ronnie Jackson on the US needing
Greenland and the Panama Canal and concerns about terrorst switch.
That's all wrapped into one.

Speaker 52 (01:13:37):
We have to have those for national security purposes. It's
a big deal for us, right And you know, look,
President Trump is the master of going out and negotiating,
finding things possible consequences, some that the people he's negotiating
with don't really care for too much, and then driving
them to the negotiating table.

Speaker 5 (01:13:55):
And that's what he's doing here.

Speaker 52 (01:13:56):
You know, it's personally, it's absolutely reasonable to think that,
you know, that we should be treated fairly with regards
to the Panama Canal.

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
You have China coming in.

Speaker 52 (01:14:05):
They're infiltrating themselves all over Central and South America. They're
doing the same thing there that they do all over
the rest of the world where they come in and
they provide lots of money for resources for infrastructure in
the forms of loans, and then they call for these loans.
The countries can't pay these loans back. They expect preferential treatment,
and that's what they're doing here. And they're treating the

(01:14:25):
Chinese preferentially here, and they're penalizing the United States.

Speaker 5 (01:14:28):
And we built the canal, and we should.

Speaker 52 (01:14:31):
If anybody should have preferential treatment, it should be the
United States.

Speaker 5 (01:14:33):
But I think we're just asking to be treated fairly here.

Speaker 52 (01:14:35):
But it is a big national security issue for US
with the Chinese influence that's come into that part this
part of the world, and Greenland is also vitally important
for our national security. And if Denmark can't provide the money,
the resources, the military to utilize Greenland in the way
that it needs to be utilized, not only protect the
United States for to ppict all of Europe and all
of NATO and most of the free world, then they

(01:14:59):
need to step aside and allow us to do it,
especially if the people in Greenland want us there and
they want independence from Denmark right now. And maybe you know,
Denmark gives them five hundred million dollars a year in aid.
Maybe we rolling it off room a billion dollars a
year in aid and we come up with some kind
of security cooperation agreement with them, and that would be
fine too.

Speaker 53 (01:15:17):
Agents in Arizona recently seized a rocket launcher along with
a two rocket propelled grenades, got hold of them at
the border. Clearly the border was not secure, Congressman, is it?

Speaker 5 (01:15:28):
It hasn't been for years.

Speaker 52 (01:15:29):
And the reason the numbers dropped is because they stopped
counting people and because they started flying people in on
a US tax pair dollars in the United States and
not counting those as border cross as illegal boarder crossings.
So they manipulated the numbers, like to do everything else.
It's worse than it's ever been. Everybody knows that. The
American people see that. That's why he got voted out.
That's why you know, that's why he wasn't phenomenee, and
that's why the Democrats got voted.

Speaker 5 (01:15:50):
Out of the White House.

Speaker 52 (01:15:51):
But yes, it's an unbelievably dangerous environment down there, stew
We have countless numbers of Jahati terrafs that have crossed
our borders. They're set up sales here in the United States.
We're in for something big here coming up in the
near future. I can tell you that for sure, based
on some of the stuff that I see here in Congress.
He has allowed this to completely get away from the
United States. There will be consequences for his actions. Unfortunately,

(01:16:14):
they're going to be after he's long gone.

Speaker 4 (01:16:16):
Ronnie Jackson, Doctor Ronnie Jackson. All right, time for the timeline.
Let's give away some tickets here, by the way, sponsored
by Velocity Business Products, who have a four pack of
tickets with pit passes the Monster Jam Sunday, February second,
at NRG. Tickets on sale now at ticketmaster dot com.
But you can win affair from us. Just tell us
what year today's timeline's from.

Speaker 13 (01:16:36):
We worked for two centuries to climb this peak of prosperity.

Speaker 5 (01:16:40):
It was January. Lyndon Johnson gave his State of the
Union address.

Speaker 38 (01:16:44):
A great society asked, not how much, but how good?

Speaker 5 (01:16:48):
Teach me to dons? For here the movies or About
the Greek made its debut, Than's me our next season
Autumn by Friend on television, Chuck Connor starred Branded They
be Abandoned And you know, but they hit on the radio.

Speaker 7 (01:17:05):
When your lone and life is making you lonely, you
can't always cula.

Speaker 5 (01:17:10):
Clark was number one with Downtown. What year was it?

Speaker 4 (01:17:14):
If you know seven one three two and two fifty
eight seventy four, that's seven one three two on two
k t RH. Good luck, all right, we have ourselves
a winner. That would be Matt in Hampshire near the right.
Year was nineteen sixty five. Well done, Matt. Get that
four pack of tickets with pit passes to Monster Jam Sunday,
of February second at NRG. Enjoyed the show and thank
you for listening to Houston's Morning News.

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
This is huge Radio seven forty kt RH Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
Dive everywhere with now the latest news, weather and trapping.

Speaker 3 (01:17:48):
It's more what matters to you? From the John Morris Services.

Speaker 4 (01:17:52):
Studios, seven am our time. Now here on Houston's Morning News.
I'm Jimmy Barrett. Among our top stories this half hour,
Governor Abbott talking about out the weather, Houston City Council
giving Center Point a unanimous no, and coming up at
seven o eight. Remember that electric car trip that our
energy secretary took. Wait do you hear how much that
stunt costs? Details in the minutes ahead. You're in Houston's

(01:18:14):
Morning News. First, let's check out that morning drive again.

Speaker 6 (01:18:17):
Sky Mike's here, hard hats, We've cleared two twenty five outbound.
That allan Janoah, the rick's gone, a little bit of
suckage still there.

Speaker 5 (01:18:24):
I got Kyle from Friendswood.

Speaker 42 (01:18:25):
Hey, good morning, sky Mike.

Speaker 5 (01:18:26):
First call of twenty twenty five South Felt looks pretty
good from the Gold Freeway over to two eighty eight.

Speaker 9 (01:18:33):
Smooth sailing in both directions.

Speaker 6 (01:18:35):
All right, put a banana sticker on Kyle's briefcase. Philip
from Shiner is listening from iten. He says it's good
from Schulenberg and speaking of can we please get a
female caller here? Seven one three two one two tips
Skymike and the Generator Supercenter, dot Com traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (01:18:50):
From r KTRH top tax Defenders twenty four hour weather center.
For today, we're looking at Cloudie Sky's. We're also looking
at a couple of morning showers and more steady rain
for the afternoon and tonight. With the height today right
about fifty. We'll get you the complete forecast when we
talk to Terry Smith at the Weather Channel in nine minutes.
Right now, temperature forty one at your official severe weather station,

(01:19:10):
News Radio seven forty k t RH. It's time now
for the news. Here's Cliff Saunders.

Speaker 7 (01:19:15):
Thank you, Jimmy. We are sponsored by Isopharma and at
seven oh two our top story. Texas Governor Greg Abbott
issues a warning about the winter storm moving into much
of the state, bringing snow to north and central Texas.

Speaker 8 (01:19:28):
Higher SOFA amounts our forecast to occur around the Dallas
Fort Worth area and.

Speaker 1 (01:19:32):
Over much of northeast Texas.

Speaker 8 (01:19:34):
In addition to the wintery precipitation, Central Southeast, and South
Texas may get some rain, which may lead to flash
flooding in certain coastal communities.

Speaker 7 (01:19:42):
The rain expected across Houston beginning later on this morning.
We'll have more with Terry Smith, as Jimmy mentioned throughout
this hour. As for the grid, Urcott expects it to
hold up during the storm, but is maintaining a weather
watch through Friday because of increased demand.

Speaker 9 (01:19:58):
We haven't noticed any changes that are of significance in
production at this point, and I believe they are already.

Speaker 7 (01:20:06):
Todd Staples there with the Texas Oil and Gas Association
er cons says there's more generating power now than in
any point in Texas history. The system is already causing
headaches at the airport if you're flying into or out
of Hobby today. We've got eight delays and twenty eight cancelations.
The story out of Bush twenty three cancelations and five

(01:20:27):
delays so far. Elsewhere, the Houston City Council rejected in
a tempt by Centerpoint to raise their rates.

Speaker 5 (01:20:35):
Fourteen to zero.

Speaker 10 (01:20:38):
Everyone votes against Center Points application for an increase.

Speaker 7 (01:20:42):
Yeah, Center Point wanted it to help with infrastructure. The
request came after Centerpoint walked one back in August following
their response to Hurricane Beryl. Seven h three on KTRH.
Devastating wildfires continue to burn in Los Angeles.

Speaker 11 (01:20:57):
At least seven out of control fires contain I need
to threaten thousands of homes and businesses. So far, five
depths have been reported in the Eaton fire as it
continued to spread. As the fires jumped from house to house,
many were trying to save pets and their loved ones,
many of whom had lived in their homes for many decades.

Speaker 7 (01:21:14):
That's Mary and Rafferty reporting thousands of structures or no longer.
Could this all have been avoided? While former US House
Speaker Kevin McCarthy says the answer to that question is yes.

Speaker 12 (01:21:26):
Gavin Newsom knew already being elected but not sworn in
well what he should focus on, and he did not.
He perpetuated this problem.

Speaker 7 (01:21:34):
On truth Social Donald Trump said Newsom quote refused to
sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would
have allowed millions of gallons of water to flow into
parts of California. Newsom denies this. It's seven oh four
The President elect was back on Capitol Hill to meet
with senators about implementing his agenda.

Speaker 13 (01:21:55):
We're going to get something done that's going to be
reducing taxes and creating a lot of jobs and all
of the other things that you know about.

Speaker 34 (01:22:03):
But this was a really unified meeting.

Speaker 7 (01:22:05):
And he will be at the funeral of former President
Jimmy Carter later this morning at the Washington National Cathedral.
The service starts at nina clock. We'll have more at
seven thirty. It's now seven oh five here at home.
State Attorney General Ken Paxton wants Republican unity and is
calling forward against the self proclaimed Speaker elect, Dustin Burroughs.

Speaker 14 (01:22:27):
We want Republican representatives to vote with Republicans to elect
a Republican speaker so we can get Republican tissues on.

Speaker 7 (01:22:36):
The speaker vote is set for next Tuesday. The Republican
Caucus as back David Cook as Date Feelin's replacement. State
lawmakers are also threatening to take action against cities and
counties like Harris County they use taxpayer money to give
illegal aliens free services.

Speaker 15 (01:22:53):
It's not just counties. Both the City of Austin and
the City of Dallas do this too.

Speaker 16 (01:22:57):
These entities provide this legal defense. This is part of
something called the Safe Network. It's a national network of
the local government.

Speaker 15 (01:23:06):
Reporter Holly Hansen says, these legal services are available to
any illegal alien, regardless of their criminal history.

Speaker 16 (01:23:13):
We have one state lawmaker who wants to ban the practice.
They says it's not an appropriate use of our taxpayer dollars.

Speaker 15 (01:23:20):
Representative Giovanni Kpriglione filed House Built fifteen fifty four last
month which would ban any local government from doing this.

Speaker 7 (01:23:27):
Ethan Buginnon News Radio seven forty KTRH continuing on with
the border crisis. For members of trend Ragua. We're rested
last week in Eagle Pass, and former DEA agent Wes
Taber says, the gang is a big problem in Texas.

Speaker 17 (01:23:41):
You might have two or three hundred in Houston. You
might have another couple hundred or more in al Paso
because they're still coming through these borders. The borders are
not sealed yet. We're not stopping the flow through the border.

Speaker 7 (01:23:52):
Right now, TDA is in at least fifteen other states,
and the Trump administration is going to have it. One
Harris County commissioner is launching his version of the Department
of Government Efficiency.

Speaker 18 (01:24:04):
Harris County Precinct three Commissioner Tom Ramsey says the county
is spending taxpayer money on things that just aren't necessary.

Speaker 19 (01:24:10):
We are wasting dollars on doing programs it's not needed,
for wasting dollars on bureaucratic offices such as the county administrator.

Speaker 18 (01:24:19):
Commissioner Ramsey, the lone Republican, says the budget for the
County Administrator's office is over twenty four million dollars.

Speaker 19 (01:24:26):
The county administrator, Mike's over four hundred thousand a year.
I don't think we need a county administrator.

Speaker 18 (01:24:33):
Ramsey says he'd rather see money spent on more patrol
officers and fixing roads. Charret Lewis News Radio seven forty,
Key Chair eight and.

Speaker 7 (01:24:40):
Finally, the Rockets are on the road tonight in Memphis
looking for their third straight win. We'll have the pregame
at six on Sports Talk seven ninety. I'm Cliff Saunders
on Houston's News, weather and Traffic station k TRH.

Speaker 3 (01:24:53):
World Events, National Headlines, Houston's Morning News with Jimmy Barrett.

Speaker 4 (01:25:00):
Hey, you all remember that that stunt that Energy Secretary
Jennifer Granholme pulled where she and a group you know
of her employees were making a trip in electric vehicles.
So they trying to show how viable they are and
say you, yeah, there's no problem, you can charge you

(01:25:22):
can make a trip in these things. Not a problem
at all. Of course, of course she was in a
gas powered as luxury suv, but some of her minions
were driving electric vehicles. Well, it turns out, care to guests,
by the way, how much that little stunt costs trying
to convince us to buy electric by taking this little trip.
She spent nearly one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars

(01:25:45):
in taxpayer money on pricey hotels and other expenses during
the electric vehicle boosting Summer twenty twenty three road trip
her team. Her and her teams had been at forty
two travel about your worth one hundred twenty four eight
hundred and twenty four dollars for the taxpayer funded tour.

(01:26:06):
Thirty six of them had lodging costs valued over the
government's per diem rates to the tune of almost ten
thousand dollars. Some of the travelers also received higher reimbursement
amounts than they were supposed to and several of the
travel reports had inaccurate information on them, prompting houseover Site
Committee Chairman James Comer to seize on the report as

(01:26:27):
proof of serious waste, fraud and abuse. These are the
things that if they could be fixed effectively fixed, not
just at the federal level, but at the state level
and at the local level. I mean, as you just
heard from Tom Ramsey, you know, spending four hundred and

(01:26:48):
twenty five thousand dollars on an administrator we don't need.
These are the things that could be eliminated, that could
actually add up to, in the case of the federal government,
trillions of dollars with the savings one hundred and twenty
five thousand dollars at a time seven ten time for traffic.
And whether we give me that total again, Jimmy, what
was it? One hundred twenty four, eight hundred and twenty

(01:27:08):
four dollars?

Speaker 6 (01:27:09):
Good lord, you know, if you had that much money,
you could afford the toll lanes on two eighty eight.
Like Allison from League City, let's take a drive up
from Missouria County and if you come up from Lake Jackson.

Speaker 5 (01:27:19):
There Stephen F.

Speaker 6 (01:27:20):
Austin, he's standing out there waiting for the rain, and
we're looking now from Manville twenty two minutes up into
the canyon northbound. I got a bit of a smush
at I'll beat at Genoa. That's kind of normal to
twenty five. We cleared the wreck outbound at Alan Genoa
a few minutes ago.

Speaker 5 (01:27:34):
If you're playing the home game.

Speaker 6 (01:27:35):
Jump on camera seven to oh four with me and
I see that eighteen wheeler on the entrance ramp. He's
on the side mining his own business and flashy lights.
Don't need a super sized ninja to get that six
' ten north.

Speaker 5 (01:27:45):
We're loopy at the squeeze. It's the squeeze down where
you lose.

Speaker 6 (01:27:48):
You just have two lanes westbound at six ' ten
north going through forty five to the heights.

Speaker 5 (01:27:53):
Loose about six minutes that way.

Speaker 6 (01:27:55):
What look at downtown all tangled up east text the
breaks from Quipman slash Lion and your iten Freeway or
I ten forty five merge at the b someone bridge
awfully thick, trying to get down your pier salvated.

Speaker 5 (01:28:08):
Let's go to the west side at the seven to
twenty break.

Speaker 6 (01:28:10):
I'm Skymichael the Generator Supercenter, Dot com Traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (01:28:13):
From r KTRH Top Tax Defenders twenty four hour whether Center.
Terry Smith is here. We've got a few showers that
we've had this morning, Terry, but it looks like the
main event gets started around one or two this afternoon.

Speaker 21 (01:28:23):
Yeah, it does hold off until later on this afternoon.
That low pressure systems well to the south of us.
But once it starts moving in our direction, that's when
the rain will pick up. I think around the lunch
hour or later. What's the rains here, folks. We're stuck
on soggy for the rest of today and tonight. Heavy
rain of possibility tonight, but it does quickly dry out

(01:28:45):
tomorrow like as in, not much in the way of rain.
Still the clouds hanging around today. A ninety percent chance
of showers, temperatures low forties to low fifties, A one
hundred percent chance that you'll get wet tonight. In fact,
heavy rain one to two inches possible. Only a twenty
percent chance of a shower tomorrow morning. Mainly just a
lot of clouds and keeping on being cool.

Speaker 20 (01:29:06):
In the forties tomorrow. But sunshine.

Speaker 21 (01:29:09):
I cannot wait sunshine Saturday and Sunday and load the
mid fifties Saturday, and temperature Sunday in the upper fifties
to low sixties and more sunshine Monday and maybe even Tuesday.

Speaker 4 (01:29:21):
Double you right down forty one at your officials Severe
weather station News Radio seven forty KTRH.

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vacations that I've I've been to many places that I
really wanted to go to I wanted to go to England,
I went. I wanted to go to Hawaii, I went.

(01:33:32):
There's just a handful of places left that I would
really like to go to. We went to Italy a
few years ago, maybe the best vacation trip we ever took,
just amazing. But I think I've got one that's just
as good, if not better, And we are going to
be taking it in June, and you're invited to come
along to my big fat Greek vacation. It's going to
be great.

Speaker 5 (01:33:52):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:33:52):
I know we were telling about it in the fall.
I think some of you were saying, yeah, that'd be fun.
But you know, this election coming up, I'm a little worried.
What's gonna be going on the economy, what's what's who's
gonna be in charge of the of the country. You know,
is this a good time to talk about taking a vacation. Well,
the election turned out fine. I think the economy is
going to turn out fine. And you deserve a vacation,

(01:34:14):
especially if, like me, you haven't been really anywhere of
significance since the pandemic and all that other stuff. It's
time to get back out and enjoy the world again.
And it starts with this trip to Greece. We'll go
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be an amazing trip. You're going to love it. You'll
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Speaker 3 (01:36:59):
It's Houston's Morning News, brought to you biden U South
Windows Solutions. Now back to Jimmy Barretts and the Houston
Morning News team all the info you need to take
on the day. I know you will find this shocking,
but there are sanctuary cities here in Texas where they
will fund legal services for illegal immigrants illegals that are

(01:37:20):
in the process of deportation, where the taxpayers are paying
to defend these people from deportation. So where's this happening
and who's the lawmaker who wants to change Texas law
in order to be able to make this impossible to do.
We'll talk to Holly Hanson. She's a reporter at the
Texan they did the story. We'll talk to her next.
First though, traffic and weather together, starting with you, sky May,

(01:37:42):
I'm going to pitch.

Speaker 6 (01:37:43):
From the stretch so we get more Holly Hanson, I
do have this deal on the Golf Freeway, man, why
are they shutting down the whole ramp in bounds? Sure's
tough to tell what they're doing here. This is the
Golf Freeway northbound ramp to the Beltway. You can't go there.
It's a pretty easy skip around. Go up to Fuquay
to you turn, get around this way. I'm Skymark at
your Generator Supercenter dot com Traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (01:38:04):
From our KTRH top tax Defenders twenty four hour weather center.
A couple of morning showers. It's going to become a
steady afternoon rain today with high round fifty, some heavy
rain and windy conditions. Tonight, little round forty, claudy and
wendy as the rain moves out early tomorrow morning, Hi
tomorrow forty five. Temperature right now It's forty one at
your official severe weather station, news Radio seven forty KTRH.

(01:38:27):
Let's check out some more of our top stories this morning.
Here's Cliff, Thank you, Jimmy.

Speaker 7 (01:38:31):
We're brought to you by DNM Auto Leasing. Northeast Texas
is preparing for several inches of snow as part of
a winter storm. HFD announces that Captain Aaron Rios died
over the holidays because of a medical emergency. He was
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Apple launched iTunes. Get the latest news anytime at KTRH

(01:38:52):
dot com. Our next update is at seven thirty.

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iHeartRadio app. It's all your news, music, sports podcasts, and
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Speaker 5 (01:39:04):
Never sounded so good. Bush.

Speaker 4 (01:39:08):
Get yourself a good lawyer, but be prepared to pay
for it yourself.

Speaker 5 (01:39:11):
Holly Hansen joins us.

Speaker 4 (01:39:13):
She's a reporter at the Texan Sanctuary Cities Sanctuary Counties.
They're not legal in Texas, but evidently, Holly, there are
still some jurisdictions out there. They're spending taxpayer money on
defending illegals. We're going through the deportation process. Do I
really have to ask who they are? Is it the
usual suspects?

Speaker 16 (01:39:31):
I think you can probably guess, but Harris County, of course,
is one of those. They created a fund in twenty
twenty under the direction of County Judge len And Hidalgo.
The county has since spent about four million dollars to
defend these illegal immigrants who are facing deportation. County taxpayers

(01:39:51):
are providing that legal defense for them. Harris County is
part of something called the Safe Network. It's a national
network established through the Vera Institute for Justice, and Bear
County is also a part, as well as the cities
of Austin and Dallas. The interesting thing about that network
is to participate, these entities have to promise to provide

(01:40:15):
legal services to these illegal immigrants, regardless of their criminal history,
so that were not supposed to take that into consideration.
And you know, Harris County has been trying to provide
more services for illegal immigrants, although, as you noted, sanctuary
counties and sanctuary cities are not allowed in the state

(01:40:37):
of Texas. They did try to see if they could
make that guaranteed basic income program available to illegal immigrants
where the county was planning to give those stipends every month.
But we do have one state Rep. Who's taking a
look at this. He has filed legislation to ban that,
that is State Rep. Giovanni Capriglioni out of the Dallas

(01:41:00):
Sport Worth area, and he'd like to say that very
specifically to these entities. No, we're not going to give
taxpayer dollars to provide this legal defense, especially in light
of the fact that we've got a new president coming in.
President Trump has promised to start working on deportations of
some of these individuals, and apparently taxpayers are going to

(01:41:23):
be fighting those efforts from the get go, and some
of our own taxas jurisdictions.

Speaker 4 (01:41:28):
I'll tell you what. That gets to be expensive, doesn't it.
If you start deporting a bunch of people from Harris
County and Harris County is paying for their attorneys, We're
going to be spending a lot more than the four
million dollars we evidently have already spent. All Right, here's
what I wonder, Holly Hanson, and of course I say
this about every law we pass here the great State
of Texas, is can we pass something specifically that these

(01:41:50):
Democrat run jurisdictions, these sanctuary jurisdictions, can't get a work around.
In other words, can we be specific enough where we
can make sure that we stop the practice.

Speaker 16 (01:42:00):
That's a great question, and I think that's an ongoing question.
A lot of our laws get passed through in the
state of Texas without a lot of enforcement mechanisms. And
as you noted, they have legal teams in Harris County
and elsewhere where they look for loopholes and these laws.
They've found some loopholes in the law that says the

(01:42:21):
county can't defund the police. They have found loopholes. They
think in this apparent law that they can't provide that
guaranteed basic income program that is still winding its way
through the courts. We may have a decision as soon
as this month. But they're very strategic in trying to
find the ways around the laws that our lawmakers are

(01:42:43):
trying to pass and crack down on these uses of
taxpayer dollars.

Speaker 4 (01:42:47):
Yeah, and so far they've been very good at it. Holly,
thanks for john us. Appreciate it. Reporter at the Texan
Tolly Hanson, seven twenty six. You're our News Radio seven
forty ktrh. Time to take a look at your money.
Jeff Bellinger is here and.

Speaker 25 (01:43:00):
Jimmy good morning. The amount of outstanding consumer debt declined
by more than seven billion dollars in November. That was
a surprise. The drop was largely the result of people
reducing or paying off credit card balances. Employers announced plans
to cut nearly thirty nine thousand jobs last month. That
was up more than eleven percent from December of twenty

(01:43:21):
twenty three. More than seven hundred sixty thousand layoffs were
announced for all of last year. We'll get the Labor
Department's December employment report tomorrow morning. A lot of people
will sit through commercials if it saves the money on
their video entertainment. Walt Disney reports one hundred and fifty
seven million subscribers to its Disney Plus, Hulu Plus, and

(01:43:41):
ESPN streaming services signed up for the less expensive AD
supported tiers, and Target says it's doubling down on its
commitment to wellness. The chain will introduce more than two
thousand new products, including more than six hundred that will
be exclusive. There'll be new functional beverages, beauty and health
care products, and activewear I'm Jeff Belinger, Bloomberger Business. I

(01:44:03):
used Radio seven forty KTRH.

Speaker 26 (01:44:09):
Houston's News, Why they're traffic plus Breaking News twenty four
to seven. This is US Radio seven forty KTRH Child
Everywhere with.

Speaker 3 (01:44:20):
More of what's happening now from the John Morris Services Studios.

Speaker 4 (01:44:24):
Seven thirty our time. Now here in Houston's Morning News,
I'm Jimmy Barrett. Among our top stories this half hour,
North Texas. Are they ready for the snow and ice?
Thousands of Texans They're suing their energy provider. And coming
up at seven thirty eight, a federal bill being introduced
for permanent daylight saving time. Details and the minutes ahead.

(01:44:44):
You're in Houston's Morning News. First, let's check out that
drive again. Here's the guy, Mike.

Speaker 5 (01:44:48):
All right, I'm.

Speaker 6 (01:44:48):
Trying to figure out what we're doing here, Jimmy on
the Golf Freeway northbound that ramp at time looking from Scarsdale.
This is the Golf Freeway northbound inbound ramp to the
South Belt.

Speaker 5 (01:44:58):
You can't go either way now you have to gift
around this.

Speaker 6 (01:45:01):
Just trying to figure out what they're doing, what the
problem is with this fire response. We've got road debris
downtown East Tech southbound Lions. That's the same street equipment,
a same exit.

Speaker 5 (01:45:12):
What is that? That's something in a center lane?

Speaker 6 (01:45:14):
Will zoom it tell you what it is at seven
forty it is causing some suckage southbound. I'm Skymike at
your Generator Supercenter dot Com Traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (01:45:21):
From r KTRH Generator Supercenter twenty four our weather center.
Some clouds this morning, a couple of showers, but the
real rain event is starting probably around noon one this afternoon,
and it'll rain pretty steadily and pretty heavily, especially tonight.
I today fifty low tonight forty. Will get all the
details from Terry Smith at the Weather Channel in eight minutes.
Right now, current temperature is forty one at your official

(01:45:44):
severe weather station, News Radio seven forty k TRH. It's
time for the news. Here's Fliffs Onders.

Speaker 7 (01:45:50):
Seven thirty two on KTRH. Good morning, everybody in our
top story. Even though Euston is only getting rain out
of this winter storm, there are other parts of Texas
that will get hit with several inches of snow.

Speaker 27 (01:46:02):
Dallas Fort Worth only averages one point six inches of
snow a season, So the fact that they're looking at
as much as three inches by Friday morning is a
big deal. In fact, many schools have already thrown in
the towel on Thursday. Out of DFW International airlines are
already canceled at least nine hundred and fifty flights more
to come.

Speaker 5 (01:46:20):
That's about half of all departures.

Speaker 27 (01:46:22):
One thing we don't have to worry about is coldy
are coming in behind the system.

Speaker 5 (01:46:26):
No art to care like four years ago.

Speaker 7 (01:46:27):
That is Mike Sidell reporting if you're flying to date,
check before you go to the airport. We have sixty
five flights either delayed or canceled out of Bush and
Hobby Well. Our cots is conclaiming rather that the grid
is going to hold up and the State Supreme Court
is going to hear arguments on whether or not more
than fifteen thousand plaintiffs can move ahead with lawsuits against

(01:46:50):
utility companies.

Speaker 28 (01:46:51):
Whaw suits filed after the deadly winter storm URI in
twenty twenty one.

Speaker 29 (01:46:56):
Obviously there was a lot of damage and there were
death storsting from the lack of electricity during winterslom.

Speaker 28 (01:47:03):
Mury fifty seven deaths. That's Texas based attorney Michael Jewell.

Speaker 29 (01:47:08):
The question that really is being raised, if the utilities
were doing what they could, should they be held responsible
for negligence?

Speaker 28 (01:47:18):
Oral arguments are set for February nineteenth. Jeff Biggs new
three DYO seven forty k t e H.

Speaker 7 (01:47:25):
It is now seven point thirty three on KTRH. There
are now at least five wildfires burning in the Los
Angeles area. The death toll at five. Thousands of homes
and businesses have been destroyed. President Joe Biden was in
California yesterday. Instead of talking about the fires, he talked
about becoming a great grandfather for the first time. That

(01:47:47):
didn't sit well with Texas Governor Greg Abbitt.

Speaker 30 (01:47:49):
He always tries to inject himself into the disaster that
somebody else is dealing with and to raise his great
grandchildren at a time when you see these homes burning
down and lives being lost as outrageous.

Speaker 7 (01:48:01):
Abbit with kt rhes Sean Hannity seven point thirty four.
As Biden prepares to leave the White House, his critics
are blasting his legacy. The American thinkers. Andrea Widberg calls
him quote the most spectacularly disastrous president ever.

Speaker 31 (01:48:17):
But he may also be the best thing that's happened
to us in the twenty first century. Having Joe Biden
come into office and allowing leftists to explode across every
aspect of American domestic and foreign policy forced reality on people,
and now we have Trump again.

Speaker 7 (01:48:34):
A new gallupol finding that a majority of Americans call
Biden's presidency poor or below average. As Biden moves out,
Trump moves in, ready to hit the ground running. Meeting
with senators last night.

Speaker 33 (01:48:47):
What's the top priorities? Are tax breaks? Border security? Deportations
aren't in dispute? How willmakers get there?

Speaker 47 (01:48:55):
Still is?

Speaker 33 (01:48:56):
President elect Trump doesn't seem concerned whether.

Speaker 13 (01:48:59):
It's one mail or two bill's going to get done one.

Speaker 34 (01:49:01):
Way or the other.

Speaker 33 (01:49:02):
Senate Majority Leader John Thoon indicated the houses where this
bill or bills will start to take.

Speaker 7 (01:49:08):
Shape, Gornald Scott there. Trump will be among those attending
funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter.

Speaker 34 (01:49:15):
I met the Carter family.

Speaker 13 (01:49:17):
They were lovely, They were really versa but also they
were celebrating because he was a very fine man.

Speaker 34 (01:49:24):
I knew him a little bit, but I know him
only as a fine man.

Speaker 7 (01:49:28):
Services begin at nine o'clock hour time seven thirty five.
Now the Biden Agenda DEI all rejected by voters in November.
So McDonald's joined Toyota, Lows and other major companies and
rolling back their initiatives.

Speaker 36 (01:49:41):
You are the ultimate determiner of how this goes. Vote
with your wallet, and if they don't support your values,
is they can't provide the product.

Speaker 5 (01:49:50):
And let it go.

Speaker 7 (01:49:51):
Political analyst Raven Harrison says that these companies should leave
the activism to the activists. New research shows almost half
of credit card holders carry over debt month to month.
Bank rates. Ted Rossman says high interest rates and inflation
have put more people into more debt. The Fed's interest
rate cuts not working.

Speaker 37 (01:50:09):
And these are really two sides of the same coin.
Inflation was a big reason why bounces.

Speaker 5 (01:50:14):
Went up so much.

Speaker 38 (01:50:15):
It's not usually a vacation.

Speaker 37 (01:50:17):
It's not usually a shopping spree. It's usually practical stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:50:20):
But it's a tough.

Speaker 37 (01:50:20):
Cycle to break, and it all sort of feeds off itself.
The higher prices, it's the higher rates.

Speaker 7 (01:50:25):
He says, minimum payments just puts you into more debt.
Another sign that Americans are ready for Trump. Two point
zero new car sales are up FOD and GM led
to charge with strong demands for pickups and SUVs.

Speaker 38 (01:50:37):
Twoin twenty five really does shape up to be a
very good year. We just topped over sixteen million cars
in America in twenty twenty four. I think we may
see sixteen point four sixteen point five.

Speaker 7 (01:50:49):
You can listen to the Car Pro Show with Jerry
Reynolds every Saturday on KTRH seven point thirty seven. The
use of AI is being felt in the gambling industry
as both companies and gamblers take advantage.

Speaker 39 (01:51:02):
We're seeing this behavior in numerous cultures around the world
where people who are lonely are using AI to solve loneliness,
but also for therapy. If the gambling world wants to
use it to increase engagement in addiction, they certainly have
that ability.

Speaker 7 (01:51:17):
Jeremiah O. Yang with Blitz Calling Ventures says this can
work for both the gambler and the house. And The
first college football playoff semi final is tonight with Notre
Dame facing Penn State at the Orange Bowl. I'm Cliff
Saunders on Houston's news, weather and traffic station KTRH.

Speaker 5 (01:51:35):
I live in their park.

Speaker 7 (01:51:36):
I live in the Woodlands.

Speaker 5 (01:51:37):
You're reliable forecast.

Speaker 3 (01:51:39):
Next on the ten on seven forty ktrh.

Speaker 4 (01:51:45):
Oh, Tom, it's seven thirty eight. That's Central Standard time.
But if Senator Rick Scott were to get his way,
it would be eight thirty eight right now, Central Daylight Standard?
Is that what they would what would they call it
daylight Standard time if they did this? Santa Rick Scott

(01:52:05):
is introduced reintroduced, I guess the Bipartisan Sunshine Protection Act.
What a great name bill named it, ending the twice
yearly clock changes and making daylight saving time the permanent
standard across the United States. Well, we have a little
something called the Uniform Time Act that was passed in

(01:52:28):
nineteen sixty six, and that's when daylight Saving Time was
created on a permanent basis. And it standardized the beginning
and the end dates for daylight saving time and put
out the time zone boundaries where where Eastern, Central Mountain

(01:52:51):
Pacific time zones are, and he laid all that out.
But it also gave every state the option of what
whether or not they were going to observe daylight saving Time.
Now most do, but if you want to d opt
out of it, you could, I mean Texas right now,
we just decided Arizona. Most of Arizona doesn't have daylight

(01:53:12):
saving time. They stay on standard time year round. Why
stays on standard time year round? I mean most observed
daylight saving time. But but if we are that annoyed
by making the switch every here, could we could do
something about it ourselves. I guess the reason why they
want to do it on a federal basis is so
that we're all on the same page here, right, so

(01:53:34):
we're not confused. So you're not going from state to
state and it's a different time in every state that
you go to. You have to have some sort of standardization.
I don't know if this has any better chance of
passing than it did last time around, but it seems
to me if we are going to go in this direction,
it's probably gonna have to be done at the federal level,
not at the state level. Seven forty time for traffic,

(01:53:55):
and whether it's the other time, this guy, it's hammer
standard times time.

Speaker 5 (01:53:59):
I say we call it a America time. All right,
let's get on the hard work in east side again.

Speaker 6 (01:54:03):
We're gonna check your ship channel bridges as take a
gander around the Hartman Bridge from the Baytown side.

Speaker 5 (01:54:08):
If you're playing the home game.

Speaker 6 (01:54:09):
Do thirteen oh seven with me, and we look good
both ways for now. Toll Bridge, a little bit of
southbound suckage at Jacento Port. That's just where it narrows down.
I think we'll double check that again. But so far
I don't see any kind of major incidents here. They
cleared the golf Freeway. That was the weirdest thing. They
blocked it with fire trucks. Usually when they shut something
down like that, nothing good's happening.

Speaker 5 (01:54:31):
But we don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:54:33):
Was it a zombie, was a debris weird two fire trucks.
It's out of the way now. You can now get
on the Golf Freeway South Belt ramp either way. Golf
Freeway also smudges up right after U of H northbound
west Loop.

Speaker 5 (01:54:45):
We're going down to uptown.

Speaker 6 (01:54:46):
That's a break now from two ninety and from two
ninety it slows down to Memorial up to uptown.

Speaker 5 (01:54:51):
We're dragging it from bel Air. Just do like Mark
from spring.

Speaker 42 (01:54:55):
Watch out for crazy people seven.

Speaker 6 (01:54:57):
One three, two one two Tips Terry, guess how many
shirts I wore today. I'm in the Generator Supercenter, dot
Com traffic Center.

Speaker 4 (01:55:04):
All these preparities layered up from our KTRH Generator Supercenter
twenty four hour where the center Terry is here. I
don't I can think I can get away with one
less layer than I wore yesterday, Terry. Okay, just a
little bit milder.

Speaker 21 (01:55:16):
Okay, yeah, well yeah, temperatures, let's see, forty two, you
were about four degrees warmer than we were yesterday. So
if you're lightly dressed.

Speaker 20 (01:55:27):
Today, so be it.

Speaker 21 (01:55:29):
So temperatures are going to be warming up, the bigger
warm up though into the weekend.

Speaker 39 (01:55:34):
One.

Speaker 21 (01:55:34):
We finally get some sunshine today, we got lots of clouds,
and we've got some rain. We've had a few sprinkles
this morning. The bulk of the rain later on this morning,
like late morning, and then into the afternoon and overnight hours.
Overnight hours some heavy rain of possibility, ninety percent chance
of getting wet though at some point today temperatures forties,
the low fifties. Heavy rain an inch or two possible tonight,

(01:55:56):
just a shower two briefly Tomorrow morning. The rest of
the day we're dry but out and still cool in
the forties. Tomorrow.

Speaker 20 (01:56:04):
Here comes Saturday, with the sunshine li to mid fifties
Sunday upper fifties to low sixties.

Speaker 4 (01:56:10):
As Sterry said forty two at your official severe weather station,
News Radio seven forty k TRH.

Speaker 5 (01:56:16):
What you need to know for the day ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:56:19):
This is Houston's Morning News, brought to you by New
South Windows Solutions.

Speaker 4 (01:56:24):
So, the wildfires continued to rage in California. There's five
separate fires. There's five people who have been killed so far.
There's thousands of buildings that have been in, homes that
have been destroyed, schools. It's a real mess. It's a
real shame. But so far, all the governor has to
really say about it is climate change, as if somehow

(01:56:46):
the Santa Ana winds have become super extreme because of
the climate change. The Santa Ana wins have always been there.
We can only track how vigors the winds have been
for like the last two hundred years maybe, I mean,
California's been there a lot longer than two hundred years.
How do we know that these Santa Ana winds are,

(01:57:07):
you know, something above and beyond what they were a
thousand years ago for example. Anyway, governmentness management has a
lot to do with this too. More than that coming
up next, First, though traffic and weather together.

Speaker 6 (01:57:19):
After Santa Anna, I mean he lived two hundred years ago, right,
are we talking about the same Santa Anna.

Speaker 4 (01:57:24):
I don't know if we're talking about the same Santa
and beyond Santa Anna. I'll look that up, sky Mike.
All right, let's go, Oh, Jimmy, we've.

Speaker 5 (01:57:30):
Got trouble in the canyon. That's right.

Speaker 6 (01:57:33):
Well, we just got a big smudge both ways. Here's
two eighty eight northbound. It's crammed up right before you
hit the merge with sixty nine and you're driving up
through downtown, you're all packed up.

Speaker 5 (01:57:43):
I helped you.

Speaker 6 (01:57:43):
If you're trying to get on the ramp to forty five,
just hang out Southwest Freeway that part of the canyon
to northbound, right before the merge really from the downtown split,
waiting eighteen extra minutes just to try to get up
that way east text the elevated going down back through
the canyon from the east text elevated to the southwest
eighteen extra minutes, trying to hit the Museum and Medical

(01:58:04):
Center exit at Fannin Skymike and the Generator Supercenter dot
Com traffic.

Speaker 4 (01:58:07):
Center evidently named after the Santa Ana Canyon.

Speaker 5 (01:58:11):
Not after but not after Bad Santa Ana.

Speaker 4 (01:58:13):
Not after Bad Santa Ana, as far as I know
from our KTRH Generator Supercenter twenty four hour weather cent
a couple of morning showers, steady rain starting this afternoon
with a high year and fifty rain, heavy rain of times,
windy tonight low forty, cloudy, windy forty five for the high.
Tomorrow temperature currently is forty two. At your official severe
weather station, News Radio seven forty KTRH. We're checking out

(01:58:36):
some of our top stories this morning.

Speaker 7 (01:58:38):
Here's Cliff, Thank you, Jimmy, brought to you by DNM
Auto Leasing. At least five people have died in the
La wildfires. Today is a National day of Mourning for
Jimmy Carter, and the Rodeo announces their concert lineup at seven.
Get the latest news anytime at KTRH dot com. Our
next update is at eight o'clock.

Speaker 5 (01:58:57):
Fifty nine. In Bound at the loop is always a problem.

Speaker 3 (01:58:59):
Kt H time saving traffic connect on the ten SEP
fifty three.

Speaker 5 (01:59:06):
Out of time.

Speaker 4 (01:59:06):
You're in Houston's morning news right Government bus management has
a whole lot to do with what they're going through
in California right now. Matt Welch. He is the editor
at large at Reason Magazine and I believe a native
Californian and talking about the problem.

Speaker 56 (01:59:22):
You're going to have this happen in southern California. I
mean the Santa Ana Wins blow. There was going to
be a fire yesterday, no matter what some people are like, Oh,
is it a gender revealed party that sparked it? Was
that this was at that was at a homeless encampment,
probably one of them was. But on a days when
there's one hundred mile per hour Santa Ana Wins coming
down from the canyons and there's no humidity, there's going

(01:59:45):
to be a fire, especially if there's some brush in
the hills.

Speaker 5 (01:59:47):
So the question is what do you do to prepare
for it.

Speaker 56 (01:59:49):
There's a couple of things that California has done very
very badly, not just in terms of fighting the fire,
but you're going to hear in the coming days people
talking about how, Oh, it's weird, I don't have insurance
for my home fire insurance companies. Home insurance companies have
been fleeing the state because of California's price controls on

(02:00:09):
the insurance industry for years. So California tells people who
live in fire prone areas like let's say Malibu, which
is going to be evacuated if it hasn't been already today,
very area, fire prone, steep canyons, drought conditions, wind comes through.
So your fire insurance, your homeowner's insurance, should be more expensive.

(02:00:30):
California says, Oh, we don't want that.

Speaker 5 (02:00:31):
We're going to put a price cap on it.

Speaker 56 (02:00:34):
And meanwhile, they're going to also raid from the money
of the home insurance companies to have their state managed
lender of last resort insurance the fair insurance fair access
to insurance requirements, so that it basically encourages people to
build in dangerous places with subsidized insurance that they steal
from insurance companies.

Speaker 5 (02:00:52):
So what do you do if your state farm you leave?

Speaker 56 (02:00:54):
So they've been leaving the state broadly speaking, because they
can't make insurance because we're not allowed in a price
control situation to let insurance markets tell us how dangerous
it is to leave in places. And so there's a
lot of people who are going to have their homes
burn down who are not going to be able to
rebuild at all, or maybe don't have insurance to begin with,

(02:01:14):
all that is a state managed problem. It shows that
people don't have a basic sense of economics of how
to deal with a predictable risk. And again, this risk
has been predictable since the time of the Tungva and
the Schumash sitting on the hills. We have a fire
ecology in southern California where I'm from, and we all

(02:01:35):
have dear friends who were worried right now and crossing
our fingers that their homes haven't been destroyed in the
Palisades and also in the foothills, and it breaks.

Speaker 5 (02:01:44):
My heart, and we need to do a better job.

Speaker 56 (02:01:46):
California needs to do a much better job of mitigating
and planning for these very, very predictable catastrophes that happened.

Speaker 4 (02:01:54):
Okay, I agree with all of that. The question is
how do you do that, California. Well, you stop voting
for the idiots that you've been electing, and you start
voting for people who understand the real world, who understand economics,
who understand that you can't put price controls on earthquakes
and wildfires and mudslides, which California gets virtually every year.

(02:02:16):
How can you tie in insurance company's hand behind the
back and expect them to stay. And with insurance companies fleeing,
that's not going to drive down the cost of insurance,
quite the opposite. All Right, y'all, have a great day.
See tomorrow morning, bright and early, five am. And I'll
see it this afternoon at four on AM nine point
fifty KPRC