Democrats Vote Again To Keep The Government Shut Down

Hey everybody, Lady Luck here, and we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. Now, all summer long, I'm going to be celebrating by playing on SpinQuest.com, which is an American-owned social casino. It obviously features over a thousand slot games and live blackjack, live craps, live bubble craps. Head on over to SpinQuest.com. Get yourself a $30 coin pack for just 10 bucks. SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit SpenQuest.com for more details. This is News Radio 740, KTRH, Houston. Live everywhere with Lyra. Now, the latest news, weather, and traffic. It's more of what matters to you from the John Moore Services Studios. Good morning. 5 a.m. is our time on a Thursday here on Houston's Morning News. I'm Jimmy Amy Coney Barrett. Among our top stories as we get started this morning, Democrats vote again to keep the government shut down. This gives Trump the chance to make more cuts. And coming up at 508, since they installed AI at the drive-through, it's gotten slower. Details in the minutes ahead. You're in Houston's morning news. AI is dumber than people that work at McDonald's. That's you saying that, not me, Skymark. I didn't say that. I don't know who that was. It was my AI. All right, Nord Sam, JFK, for some reason, TransWell, is showing me this shot. There must have been something happening there. Whatever it is, it's out of there from the East Tech. So over to 45, we're in good shape so far. We're looking at Gulf Freeway Griggs on the outbound, not inbound. That's a stall truck right at the ramp. Over on the site, I think that when the supersized ninjas get there, they'll take a right lane. This is outbound. Coming up from Texas City, you're for now. I'm Skymic. It's your USARV Resorts.com Traffic Center. From our KTRH, top tax defenders, 24-hour weather center, Sunday to start, a couple of afternoon clouds. With high temperature today right about 94, no rain in the forecast. They even took it out for the weekend, so we'll have to check in with Terry and see when the next sign of rain around here is going to be. We will talk to her in about nine minutes. Right now at your official severe weather station, News Radio 740, KTRH. It's time now for the news. Here's Eric Sharp. Good morning, 501 on News Radio 740 KTRH, our top story this hour. Day two of the shutdown after Democrats in the Senate voted to not compromise on Wednesday and instead don't keep millions of Americans out of work for another day. The White House going all in on branding this, the Chuck Schumer shutdown. Blaming the Senate Minority Leader for shutting down the government in order to basically curry favor with the far left in his party. The sticking point for Democrats remains health care. They say they want an extension of Obamacare subsidies said to expire at the end of the year and a repeal of health care provisions in the one big beautiful bill. Meanwhile, the vice president says layoffs of federal workers are likely coming in the coming days, which would be a departure from the furloughs of federal workers.

during previous shutdowns and could get Democrats back to the bargaining table. That was Fox's Kevin Cork. Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett telling KTRH's Clay and Buck show that Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are playing to their far left base. And King, he's out there to me saying how the House Republicans are shutting government down. We voted to keep the dead game government open. Only one Democrat voted with us. As soon as his polling data flips on him, he'll be at the table with Trump. Democrats are still demanding things like Obamacare subsidies and PBS funding in order to lift the shutdown. Thanks to efforts from President Trump who pledged to cut waste, fraud, and abuse, the federal workforce could shrink by $275,000. Despite what the left says, don't expect the government to collapse. We saw this happen when Elon Musk bought Twitter and drastically cut the number of people working for Twitter. And Twitter worked out just fine without all that excess. The federal government can run more efficiently without all the extra bloat. That's Matt Margolis with PGA Media. He says that thanks to this massive drawdown in the federal workforce, you can expect the U.S. government to save around $28 billion. Every year. The Trump administration is delaying a 100% tariff that is threatened to impose on drug makers. Last week, the president took to Truth Social announcing that the administration would enforce the tariffs unless a drug maker is in the process of building a manufacturing plan to the U.S. Officials saying that the new tax is still being prepared as the administration engages in negotiations with pharmaceutical companies. Mexico reportedly ramping up their federal police force to combat cartels. It's a great idea from President Claudia Sheinbaum, but... That doesn't mean we shouldn't be aware that they still have a long way to go and many things that they're going to have to do to really fully earn our trust. Joshua Trevino of the TPPF says the big question is trusting the regime as a whole, not just Shinebomb, and we have to tread carefully, even if Shinebomb has good intentions. It is still a regime that is shot through with cartel men and their partners at every level, including the very highest. There's a real systemic problem here, independent of any... one political figure. He says whether or not Mexico follows through remains to be seen. Andre Parrard News Radio 740, KTRH. The U.S. is reducing its military mission in Iraq. A Pentagon spokesperson confirming the U.S. and coalition partners are pulling their forces from Iraq to reflect the combined success in fighting ISIS. Less than 2,000 troops are expected to be in Iraq once the transitions are finished. KTRH News Time, 505, Texas will no longer issue or renew commercial driver's licenses to non-U.S.S.PERS citizens. John Esparsa with the Texas Trucking Association says this addresses a massive surge in fraud and abuse. Those that are purchasing licenses online, obtaining them from Mexico, utilizing and abusing the reciprocity of those licenses. The rule change announced this week by Texas DPS. It follows the lead of President Trump, who last week moved to restrict non-citizens from getting CDLs. Governor Greg Abbott was here in Houston yesterday to announce a new public safety initiative. Violent crime in Houston is down about 22% compared to last year. Murders are also down. But citizens in this area remain concerned about crime, especially violent crime.

The governor also announced a new crime initiative coming to Houston to catch some of the most dangerous criminals in the city. We'll have more on that coming up at 5.30. After weeks of allowing threats against a conservative student, the University of North Texas has now agreed to protect that student. Robert Montoya reported the story for the Texas scorecard. She's a police of the UNT Police Department. She emailed and offered that the UNT police had agreed to provide police protection, but she's still concerned about the fact that UNT has not taken action in regards to those who have threatened her, those who have celebrated Charlie Kirk's assassination. Tony General Ken Paxton has gotten involved and the case has also been referred to the Department of Justice. Almost 70% of U.S. workers experiencing what they call ghost growth. According to a recent survey conducted by My Perfect Resumay, workplace expert Joshua Evans says that there are no clear paths for the employee. Trust is broken. There needs to be an honest conversation at all levels within an organization about these are our expectations, and our goal is to promote you and give you more pay. People want to know that they're working towards something. Evans recommends clear expectations on both sides so that the employer can retain their workforce and workers get what they deserve. I'm Eric Sharp on Houston's News Weather and Traffic Station. News Radio 740, KTRH. I take the beltway sometimes, and I also take the West Park toll road. KTRH, time-saving traffic. Next on the 10. Well, speaking of drive-ins, and I have to admit, I don't have a lot of experience lately with this. I don't, we don't eat a lot of fast food, very little fast food. And when we do eat fast food on that rare occasion, like Waterburg is the notable exception in our house, maybe an occasional Chick-fil-A, but that's about it. Can't remember the last time I've been to McDonald's or Burger King. Every now and again, I'll get this weird. I really would like some Taco Bell. You ever get that mood? You know, it's like, you know, like you're cheating on something. Like you're going to the dark side of town to go to Taco Bell. And I have ordered things through Taco Bell, through their AI, you know, when you get to the window. But the rest of the time, Elizabeth always orders things in advance on her app because she's getting points and that kind of stuff. The woman likes to collect points. What can I tell you? So we make the orders there and then it's ready for us. We just pick it up. But anyway, here's the latest on drive-throughs. Maybe you've noticed this. Maybe you haven't. In Touch Insight released its annual drive-through study. And despite AI's help, America's drive-throughs got a little slower this year. So it didn't help make it faster. I thought that was part of the idea was to make it faster. I think the other part of the idea was to make it easier to understand. because a lot of people working fast food restaurants have accents, and sometimes the communication is a little difficult. So the AI solves that part of it as long as you don't screw up the AI by making a weird order or a request that's not on the menu, then it freaks AI out. AI doesn't know what to do. So the average time you wait in the drive-thru now is five minutes, 35 seconds. It's up nine seconds from last year's 526.

The fast food places they looked at, Taco Bell was the fastest at four minutes and 16 seconds. KFC came in second at 421. Tim Horton's, we don't have any of those, but it's like an East Coast Canadian donut shop kind of thing. Tim Horton was like a hockey player, an NHL hockey player. 425 in Arby's at 432. Chick-fil-A had the slowest drive-through at 7 minutes and 6 seconds, but only because it's so popular and the lines are so much longer. They actually rank first, if you look at the total number of cars in line. They also rank first in friendliness and first in overall satisfaction. Not counting the coffee chains, Burger King and Wendy's ranked first in accuracy, getting 88% of the orders right. The overall average was 87%. Most common complaints were, I said no ice. I've never understood that. People, I understand, no, I understand why you'd say just a little bit of ice because they have a tendency to fill the whole cup up with ice and it means you don't get that much to drink, actually. You get a lot of ice. But no ice? Okay. People also had to repeat their orders about a third of the time. One third of the time, you had to repeat the order because it just didn't get it the first time. Five, ten, time for traffic and weather. I'm just kidding, McDonald's people. I actually got a fish, was a fish filet yesterday and chicken McNuggets, and they were actually really, I thought they did a great job. So I just want to make good with McDonald's people. Next, we'll work on the tollway. Do you go there often, by the way? About once a week. I love, you know, I have this weird thing about their fish filet, and I'll get those little nuggets. I don't care. I got you. I got a skymig. French fries for me. Oh. Big Dallas fries. I got a soapbox coming up at the end of this. I don't have a lot going on on the roads right now. It's Gulf Freeway outbound Griggs. That's a stall truck. When the super-sized ninjas get there, that's going to be a thing. I think they'll probably take a right lane. But it's outbound, not inbound. So if you're coming up from Dickinson, go Gators. You look good so far. If you're driving in, clear like 22 minutes. On 288. It's Highway 6 northbound. We're looking good. 21 minutes up in. the downtown Sugar Land. You're coming in on the Southwest Freeway. You look good. Or you could take Alt 90, the most city expressway. This is America. Either way, we're in good shape. We're going now. And here's my soapbox, Terry. You know, they're like, if you have a business, should I use AI. If your customers are robots, then you should use robots. You know, radio. If your listeners are robots, then you should talk to them with robots. The rest of it is bubble wrap. I'm Skymic. It's your generator, supercenter.com traffic center. Well, at least the Weather's not AI. From our KTRH, as far as I know, from us real. She is real, I think. Yes. She's not here for me to test whether she's real, but I think she's real. From our KTRH, top tax defenders, 24-hour weather senator, is here. The forecast is real, too. Yeah, the forecast is real, but it's not real different. Let's put it like that. No, I am. Still looking at that increase in some rain toward the end of the weekend, which will be kind of nice just because it's been so dry. Today's a dry day. And another warm day. We're in the load of mid-90s this afternoon. And there's that slight chance of a shower thunderstorm tomorrow and Saturday, 20% chance of rain, 30% chance of rain Sunday and Monday. We're seeing a little bit of an onshore breeze that's going to help to increase the humidity and kind of give a cease.

I'd almost call them summertime thunder showers because they're mainly in the afternoon. We'll be in the upper 80s to low 90s starting tomorrow through the weekend. Temperature right now is 71 at your official severe weather station, News Radio 740, KTRH. It's Houston's Morning News. Brought to you by New South Window Solutions. Now, back to Jimmy Amy Coney Barrett and the Houston Morning News team. All the info you need to take on the day. You know what? It sucks to be bored. But when I get on my phone and play real casino games on SpinQuest.com, the time flies by. That two-hour wait at the DMV seems like 10 minutes. Play your favorite slots. Live blackjack, live craps with a live dealer. New players, $30 coin packs are on sale for $10.00. Play SpinQuest.com and you'll never be bored again. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spendquest.com for more details. It is 520 now here on Houston's morning news. So is President Trump already outfoxing Chuck Schumer? I don't think it would take much. Chuck Schumer has really painted himself into a corner here, trying to appease Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the far left wing of the party. And what's the way out for them at this point? How do you get out from underneath this, this government shutdown? I mean, I don't think Trump's going to throw them any sort of a lifeline here as far as making it some sort of a compromise or give them something. in order to get them to vote in favor of opening the government back up again. We'll talk more about that next. First, though, let's do traffic and weathered together, which begins, of course, with you, Sky Mike. It's not a lot going on, Mr. Jimmy Amy Coney Barrett. We've got, you know what, let's take a look at Grand Parkway. Grand Parkway West is flowing smoothly from 290 down to KD of I-10, if you're passing the West Park, no problems. Sometimes when we do get a problem with Grand Parkway West, it's a doozy because you're flying along now at some of you, a lot of you, above posted. speeds. Pekong Grove, you look good now. Coming up the Southwest Freeway from the Brazos River, Sugarland, where 19 minutes in rest of your freeways rock. Let's check your ship channel bridges up the 30 break. I'm Skymike. It's your USA RV Resorts.com traffic center. From our KTRH, top tax defenders 24 hour weather center. Sunday to start our day. A couple of afternoon clouds will roll in with a high temperature right about 94. Mainly sunny 90 tomorrow. Sunny and 90 on Saturday. Mostly sunny about 90 again on Sunday. Currently, it is 71 at your official. Severe Weather Station, News Radio 740KTRH. Time to check out some of our top Thursday morning stories. In for clip this morning, here's Eric. Good morning, 522 on News Radio 740 KTRH. President Trump says his administration is nearing an agreement with Harvard University in which the school will pay around $500 million to settle allegations of anti-Semitism and discrimination. A flight attendant being treated for injuries after two Delta jets collide at New York's LaGuardia Airport. Air traffic control says the regional jets were taxing on the runway last night.

when the right wing of one plane collided with the nose of the other. And fame primatologist Jane Goodall is dead at the age of 91. She, uh, Gene Goodall Institute announcing her death on social media. She passed away in California. She was actually on a speaking tour at the time. Get the latest news anytime at KTRH.com. Our next update comes your way at 5.30. What's started in your car now works on your phone with the new iHeartRadio app. The new presets are fantastic. Get Houston's news, weather and traffic. That's how I listen to KTRH. Instantly. Okay, I wonder if there's a realization yet, if it's really sunk in yet, that at this point, they're getting outsmarted. Chuck Schumer is getting outsmarted. Hakeem Jeffries is getting outsmarted. They have painted themselves into a corner with, this is the bad part of it. You know, you've got them painted into a corner, which in some ways is an opportunity to do exactly what you want to do. And I think that probably one of the things that President Trump would like to do, at least the Trump administration would like to do, would be to make further cutbacks. And my guess is there probably have sent a message. to shimmer and Hakeem Jeffries that the longer this goes on, the more cuts there will be. So if you want to keep the government out for the next 30 days or so, you'll be amazed how many things we can cut in the next 30 days that you're not going to get back again. So this has the potential to be a really bad thing if you're a Democrat. Here's Larry Kudlow and Newt Gingrich discussing all this. Well, I can't think of anything better for economic growth than deregulation, lower tax rates, and lower spending. And I think that Chuck Schumer, they have made a massive mistake here. Donald Trump and Russ Vought have completely outfox Chuck Schumer and all the lefties behind them, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, you name it. It's not personal to any of them. I don't really hardly know them. I'm just saying they've been out Fox. They've made a monumental mistake because as we're talking with Ted Cruz a few moments ago, Russ Vought is just the guy. He knows the score and he will take this opportunity to get budget cuts. and lower federal employees and rifts and so forth. It is part of the executive branch. They have the authority to do it, Newt. And that's what makes this shutdown different than other shutdowns. Well, remember, they understand what Democrat Rahm Emanuel said when he said, you know, should never waste a crisis. They're not going to waste this crisis. Russ has been thinking about this all through the four years in the wilderness. We worked with him at America First Policy Institute. He's brilliant. He understands exactly what he's doing. And this is why, this is one of those moments where their radical base will not allow them to be rational.

They will punish them if they're rational. They want to see a magic moment of self-sacrifice. And so they want their leaders to stand there. Even if it cripples the Democratic Party, they feel better fighting. And I think that if Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries had tried to cave early, that they would have been thrown out because the base out there... wants a fight. They don't care if they win or not. They just have to emotionally be involved in fighting Donald Trump. And the result's going to be the country's watching. The country is against closing the government. The country is against raising spending. So the Democrats adopted a two-nose strategy. They want to close the government in order to get more spending. That's a double negative. It's not easy to design a strategy where you're wrong on both sides. Hey guys, Lady Luck here. Are you going on any road trips this summer? I know I'm going to be going on a bunch of road trips. And being that I'm going to be passenger princess, I love playing on SpinQuest.com. SpinQuest has all of my favorite slot games, live blackjack, live craps. Head on over to SpinQuest right now and get yourself a $30 coin pack for just 10 bucks. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Boydware prohibited, visit SpinQuest.com for more details. Yeah, well, we'll see if this, again, I don't know what kind of strategy at this point works. I really don't. The only question is, at what point does, at any point, do people just kind of wake up and go, you know, we're not going to get anywhere with this, and people do seem to understand this is our fault that this is going on. 526. Time to take a look at your money. Good morning to you, Jeff Bellinger. Good morning, Jimmy. OpenAI is the world's largest startup after completing a deal to help employees sell company shares at a $500 valuation that surpasses Elon Musk's SpaceX. Investors bought $6.6 billion worth of stocks from current and former Open AI employees to drive the price well past its previous $300 billion level. Apple deciding to pause its planned overhaul of its Vision Pro headset to focus on developing two types of smart glasses to rival meta products. One of the smart glasses will pair with an iPhone, but it's going to lack its... own display, while the other will feature a display that can challenge META's ray-bang glasses. Smart glasses have become a critical component for tech companies who are developing AI-centric devices. Apple, though, is far behind META who released its first smart glass back in 2021. Futures are mixed, Dow's down a 10th of 1%. Nasdaq is up a third of 1%. S&P's up 2 tenths of 1%. The price of oil currently sitting at $61.51,000,000 a barrel. I'm Dan Schwartzman, Bloomberg Business on News Radio 740, KT. The R.H.

Houston's news, weather, traffic, plus breaking news 24-7. This is News Radio 740, KTRH. Live everywhere with the IRAF. More of what's happening now from the John Moore Services Studios. 5.30 is our time. Here on Houston's morning news, I'm Jimmy Amy Coney Barrett, among our top stories this F hour. Judges are considering the Texas redistricting plan. Governor Greg Abbott's Task Force. on repeat offenders. And coming up at 538, what smell puts you in a happy place? Details in the minutes ahead. You're in Houston's morning news. Your scotch. Easy, buddy. First, let's check out the morning drive. Here's Sky Mike. We're going to put on our hard hats to check out your ship channel bridges, and we'll start with the Hartman Bridge. Thank you, Mr. Vince. He zoomed that in. It's 1307 if you're playing the home game with me. And here's a shot from the Baytown side. Look at everybody behaving nicely. Hard hats having an easy ride into work on the Laporte side. Either way. Toll bridge, rocking along. I wish we had more lanes. I wish I was 5'8. Both ways were good. North Shore to 225. Ship Channel 610, the Sherman Bridge, from the Bud Plant to 225. Andrew from Spring, go fast. Hey, Scott, Mike. Southbound, there was a stalled pickup truck in the H-OV lane between Richie and Airtex. He's not causing any kerfuffle or shenanigans yet. Stop. Well said. Our first banana sticker of the morning, it's your USARV Resorts.com traffic center. From our KTRH, Generator Supercenter 24-hour weather center sunshine to start. A couple of afternoon clouds. A high temperature today right about 94. Terry Smith joins us in about nine minutes with the complete forecast. Current temperature still 71 and your officials, severe weather station, News Radio 740KTRH. It's time now for the news. And for clip today, here's Eric Sharp. Good morning, 532 on News Radio 740KTRH, our top story this hour. The new Texas congressional maps have made it through the legislature, and now they're fighting their way through the courts. Hearings began yesterday and could continue for at least another eight full days. So how can we expect these lawsuits to proceed over the next few weeks? They're going to either make us use the previous maps or allow us to move forward. Then it's going to be appealed to the Federal Fifth Circuit either way. That's Galveston County Commissioner Dr. Robin Armstrong. He says the courts do have a strict deadline here. Filing for our offices begin in November, which is about a little over a month away. They have to have a decision by November the 8th. Armstrong says the GOP knew these maps would face lawsuits and expects a possibility. positive ruling from at least the Fifth Circuit Court. Ethan Buchanan, News Radio 740, KTRH. In an effort to crack down on violent repeat offenders, Governor Greg Abbott announced a new public safety initiative that will do just that. Andy Kahn with Houston Crime Stoppers said it is much needed. Like it or not, the bond system has become a revolving door for violent criminals, and it costs hundreds of people their lives. This is why we appreciate the governor stepping in, organizing a task force, and targeting repeat violent offenders who are wrecking havoc on our communities. The task force will combine DPS troopers, special agents, Texas Rangers, and local law enforcement. President Trump creating the...

Memphis Safe Task Force last month in his latest crime crackdown, which would deploy federal agents to the city along with the National Guard. Attorney General Pam Bondi addressing the Department of Homeland Security Joint Operations Center promises that law enforcement that the Department of Justice will support all law enforcement officers. If you touch a police officer, you will be arrested. If you touch a federal police officer, it will be assaulting a federal officer. We're going to do everything we can to protect you so you can protect the citizens and members. Train General claimed in a post on acts that 53 people were arrested. 20 illegal firearms taken off the streets in the first 48 hours. Memphis's mayor Paul Young said that he does not support the National Guard's presence in the city, but did work with the administration to bring in ATF agents. Nearly one full day into the government shutdown and no breakthroughs, although Vice President J.D. Van sensing cracks in the Democrats. Even to their credit, a few moderate Democrats voted to open the government. That's not a Republican shutdown when nearly every single Senate Democrat votes to shut it down and every Republican voted to open it up. The White House warning that the layoffs will be coming if the shutdown continues. Some congressional lawmakers asking for their pay to be withheld during the government shutdown among those lawmakers refusing pay. Republican Senator Ted Cruz, Democrat Senator Andy Kim, and Republican Representative Elise Stefanik. Cruz said that it's not right for lawmakers to be paid during a shutdown if service members are not. There are multiple reports that the U.S. will provide Ukraine with intelligence to conduct missile strikes deep inside Russia. The report cites U.S. officials saying that the long-range strikes will target Russia's energy infrastructure. The U.S. also considering sending missiles to Ukraine that could be used in the strikes. KTRH news time now 535. Texas Democrats can't see to find anybody notable to run for governor. Little known Houston businessman Andrew White, the best that they can come up with as of now. He doesn't stand much of a chance at all, but he does help the Democrats fill out their statewide tickets. SMU political analyst, Count Jilson, says the state Democratic Party ran out of the big names when the state rep James Talarico ran for Senate. Few people, he says, want to take on Greg Abbott and his $80 million war jest. White has run for governor before. He lost a former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez in the 2018 Democratic primary. Nearly two decades after the Hurricane Ike, the Ike Dike Project, remained stuck in the dirt.

Despite authorization from Congress and the Army Corps of Engineers, there is still no federal funding allotted for the so-called Ike-Dike flood barrier along the Galveston Coast. Colter Baker with the Gulf Coast Protection District says they're doing what they can in the meantime. We will be chopping this up and trying to advance it in smaller pieces. We'll have levy and dune systems all up and down the coast. The most efficient manner right now is to use those state resources until we get some federal dollars. The state has allocated nearly a billion dollars for 27 miles of barriers. between the Sabine Pass and Galveston. Corey Olson, News Radio 740, KTRH. The Securities and Exchange Commission has officially approved the Texas Stock Exchange, meaning that we could see shares being traded as soon as next year. It's good for the state of Texas. They're going to get tax revenue out of the deal. It's going to be good for the companies that are doing business, and then it's also going to be good for investors. KTRH Moneyman Pat Shenz says trades will benefit because more diverse trading locations means less chance of any major trading disruptions due to outages in New York. Texas Renaissance Festival returns this month for its 51st season. It's one of the nation's largest Renaissance festivals drawing about half a million visitors every year. This year's festival will run for eight weeks, October 11th through November 30th. I'm Eric Sharp on Euston's News Weather and Traffic Station. News Radio 740, KTRH. The app that puts the app in happening. We have some breaking news. You ready? Make KTRH your number one preset on the new and improved free iHe hard radio app. Hey everybody, Lady Luck here, and we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. Now, all summer long, I'm going to be celebrating by playing on SpinQuest.com, which is an American-owned social casino. It obviously features over a thousand slot games and live blackjack, live craps, live bubble craps. Head on over to SpinQuest.com. Get yourself a $30 coin pack for just $10.00. SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit SpenQuest.com for more details. You like the smell of roses? I like the smell of roses. I mean, it's okay. Flowers in general, they're fine. Not my favorite smell, but certainly not an unpleasant smell. Here's the story. Holiday Inn Express is testing a scent-based alarm clock. Works like a diffuser. When the alarm goes off. It releases the scent of coffee or bacon or blueberry muffins when it's time to wake up. They're doing it in a test market, not in the U.S. yet. They're testing this to see if, you know, people like it. If it becomes popular, they're doing it in Australia and New Zealand. And again, you can make a pick which sense you want. In Japan, you can also choose Nashi Pair. And in Singapore and Thailand, mango is an option because they like those smells. But it got me thinking. I mean, I do love the smell of bacon. The smell of bacon and coffee together. I mean, that's just, oh, that's awesome for first thing in the morning. But it wouldn't be awesome if I couldn't eat.

the bacon and drink the coffee. So if I'm waking up to that smell, maybe the idea behind this is that, you know, they got bacon. Do they have bacon downstairs? At the Holiday Inn Express, do they have like the buffet line or whatever? Do they have coffee downstairs for you, waiting for you when you wake up because you're going to want that, right? But it did get me thinking about smells that make you happy. You know, there are some smells that will make you happy. To me, the food smell. that makes me happy is the smell of Thanksgiving dinner, cooking. You know, the turkey cooking, the dressing, all the other things that are being baked, the pies, that combination of smells, in particular that turkey cooking, it just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. You know, it makes me think of family and past Thanksgiving, and it just kind of makes me happy. So I was kind of wondering, what smell makes you happy? What smell when you smell is either brings back a great memory or just generally makes you happy, put you in a good mood. You go to the iHeart radio app, KTRH, you hit the talk back button. You get up to the 30 seconds, first name where you're calling from and the smell that makes you happy. 540, butterscots, skylight. Well, that's just what I was thinking candles, okay? Because I like all kinds of candles, like, I don't know, pumpkin, whatever. There's this pumpkin waffle thing that they sell at the dollar store, Terry. And then it doesn't have to be a food smell? No. There's two smells that remind me of home. First of all, like a burning wood like you'd have in the fall when somebody's burning some wood. And the other one is cow poop. Terry, cover your ears. fresh cow poop on the wind blows. Why? If you're from Damon or somewhere like DeZeta, Texas, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Just that, you know, that fresh. Does it smell like money? I guess so. I had farmer friends that would say it smells like money. Thank you for cleaning that up for me. Southwest Freeway. Hang on. Does the fresh cow poop, does it different than the stale cow poop? Yes. Yes. If you're from Whole, Texas, you would understand. Let's go to Southwest Freeway. Edlo, look out. That's a stall. Northbound, where are you at? Oh, Lord, he's in the center lane. All right, let's ski. I'm bumping my gums here. Northbound, Southwest Freeway, Edlo, Center Lane. Watch out from the loop here. I got a Gulf Freeway. Thank Frank from Pasadena, dude. Good morning, Mike. Right around even with the park place. There is a pile up in the left-hand side. No, it was already time for that. All right, here comes the smunch from Waffle House northbound. Let's hit Dennis from Cyprus. What you got, my man? Sky Mike. 290 all the way down to 288 from 290 and 99 in 33 minutes. Can you check my time, please? My head hurts, but I know your traffic courts at 6,800 Cyprus would. Oh, and tell Jimmy there is a Tim Horton's in Houston. It's off of 290 as well. Oh, okay. All right. That's cool. I'm in the generator supercenter.com traffic center. I stand corrected from our, which happens quite often. Jim Hortons. From our KTRH Generator Supercenter 24-hour weather senator is here, and she has the forecast for you. What's your favorite?

smell mode before you give me the forecast okay so um i like sky mike's idea of a fire no no that one i'm okay with i get that having lived in uh south georgia for a while and having a lot of farmer friends down there but you agree with the fire i do i do agree with the fire but the one thing that really just gets me is the smell of leather and it's because of saddles it reminds me of horseback riding and the smell of, you know, the saddle that you put on the horse. You don't have to smell any rain anywhere, do you? I wish I could. I don't smell much rain. That's another good one, actually. Nice little gentle rain. We don't have much of that in the forecast. Now, today is completely dry. and warm, low to mid-90s. There's a 20% chance you might see a shower storm tomorrow, Saturday, a 30% chance of rain Sunday and Monday. We're going to see the temperatures in the upper 80s to low 90s, starting tomorrow into Monday. Temperature right now, still 71. Here at your official, Severe Weather Station, News Radio 740, KTRH. What you need to know for the day ahead, this is Houston's Morning News. Brought to you by New South Window Solutions. 551 now here in Houston's morning news. Matt Margolis will join us in just a moment. He's a columnist to PJ Media. What is President Trump going to do as a result of this government shutdown? How much smaller will he make government? We'll talk about that coming up next. First, though, we've got traffic and weather together so we check it again, Ms. Sky Mike. Gulf Freeway northbound. There are moving cameras that tells me they're clearing park place. I've got a skunch from Waffle House. Southwest Freeway. On the sky, Mike. Dude. Right past the 610, right before the Edlo exit, there is a stalled vehicle in the center lane, and it'll sneak up on you quick. Everybody, be careful. Mike from Richmond, that's a huge banana sticker. Inbound. Look out, Edlo. I'm in the generator supercenter.com traffic center. From our KTRH, generator super center, 24-hour weather center, sunny to start, maybe a few afternoon clouds. With a high today of 94, mainly sunny tomorrow with a high of 90. Current temperature 71 at your official severe weather station, news radio 740, KTRH. We're checking out some more of our top stories on the Thursday morning. In for clip today, here's Eric. Good morning, 552 on News Radio 740, KTRH, your headlines brought to you by DNM Auto Leasing Houston. Ice plans to have agents at the Super Bowl, the same event where Bad Bunny will be taking the stage for the halftime show. The move follows his past criticism of U.S. immigration raids at his concerts. Records from the medical examiner show at least 22 bodies have been found in Harris County Bayous this year. Officials dismissed serial killers. rumors, but most causes of death remain under investigation. And Stephen King tops the list of most banned authors in the U.S. His books pulled more than 200 times last school year. Get the latest news anytime at KTRH.com. Our next update comes your way at 6 o'clock. I live in Katie. I live in Edo. Your reliable forecast next on the 10 on 740 KTRH.

I just wish the government was smaller than this. Let's talk about that with Matt Margolis. He's a columnist at PJ Media. It seems everybody's talking that President Trump is going to do it. I don't know when he's going to do it, how much time he's going to give Democrats to change their mind on a continuing resolution before he starts to do it. But it seems pretty clear that there's an opportunity here for President Trump to make some significant reductions in the federal workforce. Do you think that's going to happen? Hey guys, Lady Luck here. Are you going on any road trips this summer? I know I'm going to be going on a bunch of road trips. And being that I'm going to be passenger princess, I love playing on SpinQuest.com. SpinQuest has all of my favorite slot games, live blackjack, live craps. Head on over to SpinQuest right now and get yourself a $30 coin pack for just 10 bucks. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. I certainly hope so. You know, I mean, we've known for years that the government is way too bloated. And we've had people running for president for, you know, every year who are making promises about making government more efficient and never do. And I want to see this happen. And I hope it does. Where do you think he should start? Oh, everywhere. Everywhere. You know, I mean, you know, there's like, 2.4 million federal employees, you know, I mean, just, just started going through the whole place with an axe as far as I'm concerned, because, you know, I mean, there's just, there's just so much waste that's going on that people pretend isn't happening. But, but we know that it is. And, you know, we just. If the government just ran more like the private sector, things would be a lot better. And I think that's really what Trump is after here. He wants to see the government work more efficiently by the same rules that the private sector does. I think that the way, though, that you go about selling this to the American public is to explain. what you're cutting, why you're cutting it, how much it costs to run it, how little that particular department or these individuals do in reality, why we don't need this and what it means to reducing the deficit. I think Americans have to pretty clearly hear how this is going to benefit them before he does it, don't you think? Oh, for sure. I mean, I think people want to know what's going on and why. And, you know, but, you know, they're certainly not going to be happy if they're paying, you know, $100,000 a year for some anonymous paper pusher, you know. I mean, this is the kind of stuff that we have to get rid of. And it's the kind of waste and fraud that we see happen a lot. I mean, in federal, the federal government and state governments as well. And, you know, I think if we start with making the federal government more efficient. We can see that Trump has the opportunity to prove that we don't need this huge federal workforce. And it's happened before with Elon Musk. When he bought Twitter, he did massive cuts to the workforce there and found that the company can function just fine with even fewer employees. So that's the kind of thing we need to see here.

You know, I think I saw a figure here in Houston. We have something in the neighborhood of 36,000 federal employees working here in the greater Houston area. To me, that is granted NASA's here, but that's a, to me, that's a shocking number. I think a lot of people would be shocked by how many federal workers they have in their own town or their own state. Oh, yeah, for sure. People have no idea how bad it really is. And I think bringing attention to this issue is only going to help Trump in the long run. I think people have been blissfully ignorant about just how bad the problem really is. And it's just gotten worse and worse. You know, the thing goes that once you're hired by the government, it's really hard to lose your job. And it's about time that these people who have been kind of... floating around, doing nothing for years and years, I'll let go. And let the people who actually do the works stick around and do their job. That's all we need. All right, Matt, thanks for your time. Appreciate it. Columnist at PJ Media. That's Matt Margolis, 557 is our time.

This is News Radio 740, KTRH, Houston. Live everywhere with fire. Now, the latest news, weather, and traffic. It's more of what matters to you from the John Moore Services Studios. 601 now here in Houston's morning news. I'm Jimmy Amy Coney Barrett. Among our top stories this half hour, how many of the furloughed federal workers will end up being permanent cuts? Democrats vote again to keep the government shut down. And coming up at 608, the smells that make you happy. Details in the minutes ahead. You're in Houston's morning news. First. Got a nose like a blood out over there, Scott, Mike. It smells like home. All right, let's do Southwest Freeway. I'm going to check on Edlo again. We're still showing that stall. I'm looking from Newcastle, Wesleyan. Aha, there it is. All right, this is inbound. Now, they have it in the center lane, but now that the ninjas and everybody else is there, it doesn't sneak up on you. So Southwest Freeway, you'll get a scoge now from the West Loop 610. Oh, Gulf Freeway. I cleared it a moment ago. Usually when they clear, when they move the camera, that means it's clear. I was wrong this time. still there. In fact, there's a FedEx truck here, and it looks like we're just getting by on the right side. We'll check that in two in ten minutes. I'm in the USA RV Resorts.com Traffic Center. From our KTRH, top tax defenders, 24-hour weather center, sunny to start a couple of afternoon clouds with a high today right about 94. Terry Smith will join us from the Weather Channel with the complete forecast in eight minutes. Temperature right now is still 71 at your officials, severe weather station, News Radio 740 KTRH. It's time now for the news. In for Cliff today, here's Eric Sharp. Good morning, 602 on News Radio 740 KTRH. This news brought to you by Shampa's John Deere. Our top story this hour, Congress failed to pass a resolution to fund the government leading to day two of the shutdown with Democrats standing by their trillion-dollar proposal to increase Medicaid funding. Majority Leader John Thune says the Democrats should be familiar with the GOP's bill. It's clean. It's nonpartisan. It is short term. It has no gimmicks. We didn't put any partisan riders on it. I mean, this is something that should be a no-brainer around here. And it's something, by the way, that they did 13 times when Joe Biden was in the White House and the Democrats had the majority in the Senate. And also adds that this is another example of the Democrats' lack of sins. They can't see straight. They're blinded by it. And they're willing to do what used to be in their minds, I think, really pretty crazy and stupid things. But that's the world we're now living in. Democrats have held up the budget demanding things like Obamacare subsidies and PBS funding, among other items. One thing the federal government is doing right now is getting smaller thanks to efforts by President Trump. We could see around 275,000 fewer federal civilian employees by the end of this year.

This will mean that the president has fulfilled yet another major campaign promise. Trump ran on. We need to cut waste and fraud in the government. Everybody knows the government is full of people who have just been there for years who aren't doing anything. Matt Margolis with PJ Media says this will lead to huge savings for the American taxpayers. 275,000 employees are going to be leaving. That should save the government about $28 billion a year. That's a big amount of money that we'll be saving. He added that because so many federal workers are leaving, it will be hard for the next Democrat to just reverse all this. Ethan Buchanan, News Radio 740, KTRH. President Trump says he had no choice but to send 200 National Guard troops to Portland. Blasting the city is a never-ending disaster. Local officials strongly objecting, and both the state and city have sued to stop the move. The troops are authorized to protect Portland and an ice facility there. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reportedly wants to up their federal police force to combat the cartels. Joshua Trevino of the TPPF says Shinebom's words are a good idea, but Mexico has a whole mountain of trust to rebuild before believing them. We have to understand that that regime is controlled by a political party that is itself a narco state project. The man who created that regime, Andres Mendo Lopez Obrador, was almost... certainly on the payroll of the Sinaloa cartel for about 20 years. Oh, I've had no luck lately. Wait, lady luck? Brett Stee, I got you. I've had so much luck on SpinQuest.com. They have all of my favorite games, slot games, live blackjack craps, and bubble craps. You can even get a $30 coin pack for just $10 bucks. $10 for 30. I'm headed over to SpinQuest.com right now. SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spendquest.com for more details. He says it's a systemic problem for Mexico, so trusting this should come with caution. KTRH news time is 605. At a press conference in Houston to announce a new public safety initiative yesterday, Governor Greg Abbott was joined by several law enforcement officials, but there were no Democrats, including Mayor John Whitmire. I talked to him about this a couple of days ago, and he said that he was not going to be able to be. Here's my understanding that he's out of town today. And yes, the mayor is pleased with the fact that crime is going down, but none of us are happening unless crime is zero. And so we all know we have a long way to go. The new initiative is going to focus on repeat violent offenders. It was another hot Texas summer, but there were no problems with the states embattled power grid. Pablo Vegas, who heads the Electric Reliability Council, warns that there were not out of the woods just yet. It's important to not ever be lulled into complacency around the issues regarding reliability risks. He says demand is skyrocketing thanks to population growth and a boom in those data centers. The fallout from the Charlie Kirk assassination continues even here in Texas at the University of North Texas.

That is where the UNT campus police have agreed to protect a conservative student. She has said that she's been getting harassment and threats calling for physical violence against her. And so she's been feeling quite scared. That's Robert Montoya, who reported the story for Texas scorecard. There's still more yet to happen than the Attorney General Kent Paxons jumped in on this. The University and its president Harrison Keller. He's called for them to expel radicalized students making these threats and ensure they're punished. We reached out to UNT, but they did not respond to our request. Jeff Andy Biggs News Radio 740. KTRH. And Walmart is making changes to its food ingredients. The nation's largest retailer is removing synthetic dyes and over 30 other ingredients from its private label brands. I'm Eric Sharp on Houston's News, Weather and Traffic Station. News Radio 740, KTRH. World events, national headlines. Houston's Morning News with Jimmy Amy Coney Barrett. I have a question. What does teen spirit smell like? I've never smelled teen spirit. I have no idea what Nirvana is talking about. 607 is their time here in Houston's morning news. We're talking about favorite smells because Holiday Inn is testing alarm clocks in their Australia, in New Zealand hotels that when you set the alarm and the alarm goes off, you get the smell of bacon and coffee and blueberry muffins. I guess you get the pick, which smell you'll want. Or maybe you can combine all three. I don't know. I don't know if they're doing that because they think it's just a pleasant way for people to wake up or if these Holiday Inn expresses have a buffet downstairs and they're trying to make you hungry. When you wake up in the morning, go down and get something to eat so they can sell more breakfast. I have no idea. But it did get me thinking of favorite smells. The one I've contributed so far is Thanksgiving dinner. Cooking in the oven. The smell that makes you happy because it makes me think of family. It makes me think of... You know, a day of watching football and eating good food and spending time with friends and family. It just, it puts me in a happy place. So that's our question of the day. You go to the iHeart radio app, KTRH, you hit the talkback button, first name where you're calling from, and the smell or smells that make you happy. Hey, Jimmy, this is Wyatt from Katie Porter. Man, you hit two of mine with coffee and bacon, among other things. I mean, fresh-baked cookies, cinnamon rolls. But years ago, there was a Wonder Bread bakery in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And every time I drove by that place and caught the smell of the fresh-baked bread, it would just put a smile on my face, man. Anyway, that's all I got. Y'all have a good day. This is Bob from Katie. And the smell that makes me happy is when a fresh rain is coming your way as a front is moving in and you smell that freshness of the rain coming. My favorite smell? None. But the warmth of my wife's wonderful. That always gets me going in the morning. Good morning. This is Teresa and Snook. Some of my favorite smells are puppy breath and fresh cut grass.

Of course, the leather and the bacon go along with that too. Y'all are doing a great job. Morning, Miss Terry. Love you, Sky Mike. We'll talk to you all soon. Bye. Bye. Yeah, cut grass. Yeah, I'll put cut grass way up there. You know what else I like for a smell? And this is, I admit this, this is not everybody's taste. I love the smell of gasoline. I really do. I like the smell of gasoline. And you put the combination of fresh cut grass and gasoline together? Oh, yeah, that's good stuff. 6-10, time for traffic and weathered together. Yes, Skymine. Jet fuel. When I fly for Channel 13, that jet fuel, you can smell it when you're in the cockpit sometimes. Or when I'm in the back, you know, with the cameras and everything. I wonder if gasoline and jet fuel is a guy thing. Yeah, it's definitely dude stuff. And by the way, Terry, my mom is a rodeo writer, you know, was a rodeo writer for 30 years. Guess what smell her candles smell like in the bathroom? I have no idea. It's one of your favorites you just mentioned. Leather? Yes, she has leather candles. Wet horse. And the farm, yeah. So here we go. By the way, Teresa from Snook knows what cow poop smells like, too. Let's hit Gulf Freeway. Something crazy has happened here. They've shut down all your lanes here. Golf Freeway at Broadway right before the loop. Now, here's the smunch. You're about to hit breaks when you're coming up on Fukuay Lookout. I think they've just shut it down temporary to make it safe for the ninjas to do their thing. thinking that. I'm hoping that, although they are standing around like something weird's happening here. So we're going to have to stay tuned. That's why you get traffic every 10 minutes, AM radio. Nord Freeway 45. Ah, 45 Southbound between Parker and Tedwell. That's a big backorder slip. I think we've got a wreck here. I'm almost sure. Cross timbers. Give me the 20 break and I'll get you some laneage. I'm Skymike and the USARV Resorts.com traffic center. From our KTRH, top tax defenders 24 hour weather center for today, Sunday to start. And then after that, what do you got for us? Maybe can we see a cloud or two maybe today just to break up the bonotony? Yeah. Let's throw a cloud or two out there and see what happens. See if it does anything. We might get a few afternoon clouds. I'm not overly excited about the potential for clouds. But I'm watching, actually, we got some clouds moving through right now and some back to the east of us. That'll be heading in our direction. So yeah, let's throw a cloud or two in there. It is going to be a warm day, though. and a dry day, load of mid-90s today. We will start to get a little bit of rain, 20% chance of a shower thunderstorm tomorrow and Saturday, and then a 30% chance of thunder showers Sunday and Monday. Temperatures will ease up just slightly in the upper 80s to low 90s. And just so you know, I was checking this out to make sure our average high right now is supposed to be around 86, 87 degrees. So let's try to see. steer the weather in that direction. If it's going to be dry, just come on, a little less heat. Just a little less. It would be good. Yeah. Right now, 71 at your officials, severe weather station. News Radio 740 KTRH.

News, traffic, and weather. You're starting your day, right? With Houston's Morning News, brought to you by New South Window Solutions. So, you know who Emma Watson is, right? The actress, who's in all the Harry Potter movies. J.K. Rowling, of course, wrote the Harry Potter series. She is very much a conservative. She was very poorly treated, not just by... the media and by Hollywood in general, but also the actors and actresses that were in her movies spoke out against her in her position on men and women's bathrooms and all that kind of stuff. Well, evidently, Emma Watson is looking to rebuild the relationship. I don't think J.K. Rawlings is that interested in that. More on that story coming up next. First, though, traffic and weathered together. We check out the drive once again, this Skymite. I'm so glad Gulf freeway is clear. I thought maybe something really stankery was going on there, but they got it out of the way, but backed up from Edgebrook still. Roger, RC trucking is on the North Freeway. Now, I've got this southbound wreck at Cross Timber, standby for laneage. We've got a backup now from West Mountain Houston. Outbound, Roger. Hey, Skymike, 45 northbound at the Shepardt, Northbound. Pile up, smells fresh to me. Look out, outbound. I'm Skymike on the generator super. Center.com traffic center. From our KTRH, top tax defenders, 24-hour weather center, Sunday to start, a couple of afternoon clouds 94 for today, mainly sunny 90 tomorrow, sunny on Saturday and on Sunday, right about 90 both days. Temperature's still 71 at your official severe weather station, News Radio 740, KTRH. Time to check out some more top trending stories from our newsroom. In today for Cliff, here's Eric. Good morning, 622 on News Radio 740, KTRH. Your headlines brought to you by D&M Auto Leasing Houston. Top Trump officials say that they want to turn Memphis from the most violent crime city into one with no crime at all. National Guard troops hit the streets this week, despite the mayor saying he never asked for them. Governor Greg Abbott been rolling out a Texas-sized effort here in Houston yesterday, putting DPS troopers on the streets with local police to tackle violent crime, and a man who is the naked baby on the Nirvana's Nevermind album cover, just lost his long-running lawsuit. A judge throughout Spencer Eldon's case this week rejecting his claim that the photo was child sexual exploitation. Get the latest news anytime at KTRH.com. Our next update comes your way at 630. The preset that sets the record straight. This just made my whole day more efficient. On News Radio 740, KTRH. I can honestly say that I've never seen one minute of a Harry Potter movie. No, I take that back. I take it back. I've seen bits and pieces of trailers, so I probably have seen more than a minute of a Harry Potter movie, but I've never watched the Harry Potter movie. Then again, you know. I don't think I was the intended audience anyway. I don't think they were going for me. But it's been interesting to watch the politics involving the Harry Potter movie. The actors in the movie, Emma Watson among them, who were just outraged by J.K. Rawlings' position on issues because she is a conservative. And that just drove them insane. But for some reason now, all of a sudden, Emma Watson wants to get back into J.K. Rawlings' good graces.

J.K. Rowling isn't that interested. They talked about that last night on Gutfeld. I can love her. I can know she loved me. I can be grateful to her. I can know the things that she said are true. And that can be this whole other thing. It's my deepest wish that I hope people who don't agree with my opinion will love me and I hope I can keep loving people who I don't necessarily share the same opinion with. That's how you know, radical trans nonsense is going the way of Joy Reid's career. When Hollywood Big Mouth suddenly want to be reasonable. No wonder the ancient Greeks considered their profession even lower than telemarketers. But Rowling took that olive branch and used it to smack Emma upside her head. To her, Emma is only coming out because it isn't fashionable anymore. So she's changing her tune like a schizophrenic at karaoke. Remember, Rowling was smeared as anti-trans back when that was as unsafe as having unprotected sex with Hunter Biden. But JK stood her ground, while the cast of the franchise she created trashed her. Watson, Daniel John Ratcliffe, Ron Weasley. They all rode her coattails, making unimaginable wealth at a young age. And when Rowling could have used their support, they chose the mob instead. They had a chance to show the courage of the characters they played, but instead they sided with the bad guys. Rowling faced death threats, cancellation, endless outrage. But now the culture's changed. DEI is dead. Rosie's gone. Even the dumbest Democrats agree women's sports are for women. What are they going to tell us next? That jock straps are for men? So Emma wants back in, but Rowling is telling her to take her broomstick and shove it. Claiming Watson has so little experience of real life that she's ignorant of how ignorant she is. Nice, huh? And it's true. Yes.

Emma's a pampered white liberal actress who never had to experience any of the things that normal women go through. You know, like failing a driving and math test all on the same day. You know, I'm a firm believer in forgiveness. I really am. I believe it's important to forgive. It's important for us all to forgive. But this forgive and forget stuff? Oh, I've had no luck lately. Wait, lady luck? Brett Ski, I got you. I've had so much luck on SpinQuest.com. They have all of my favorite games, slot games, live blackjack craps, and bubble craps. You can even get a $30 coin pack for just $10 bucks. $10 for $30. I'm headed over to SpinQuest.com right now. SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spendquest.com for more details. No, no, no, no, no. Forgive, but don't ever forget. 626. Time to take a look at your money. Dan Schwartzman is in this morning. Good morning. Good morning, Jimmy. McDonald's is looking at aggressively expanded store count. The fast food giant wants to have 50,000 locations around the globe by adding almost 10,000 stores to its count over the next four years. McDonald's is zeroing in on areas where it has fallen behind population growth, such as Texas. Despite offering meal deals and tweaking its menu, McDonald's has struggled to get more people through its stores. Goldman Sachs predicting that gold prices could rally even higher than its own forecast of nearly $5,000 an ounce due to interest from private investors. Gold is currently up 12% from just August 29th and was trading at $3,865 an ounce today. Futures continue to be mixed. The Dow is down to 10th of 1%. NASDA continues to rise. That's now closing in on being up a half a percent, and the S&P is up two-tenths of 1%. The price of oil currently sitting at $61 and 54 cents a barrel. I'm Dan Schwarzman, Bloomberg Business on News Radio 740, KTRH.

Houston's news weather traffic plus breaking news 24 7 this is News 740 KTRH live everywhere with the IRF more of what's happening now from the John Moore Services Studios 630 now here in Houston's morning news I'm Jimmy Amy Coney Barrett munger top stores this FR judges considering Texas redistricting it's in their hands now Governor Greg Abbott has a task force on repeat offenders. And coming up at 638, speaking of that, I'll tell you what I think is wrong with Governor Greg Abbott's repeat offender task force. Details in the minutes ahead first. We're checking out the drive again. Here's Sky Mike. Clear North Freeway inbound cross timbers. We're squished up from West Road down. That one, if Shepard's going to be there a while. It's five vehicles outbound. And let's tell the free I-Heart radio app. It's Bob from SFA. Sky Mike, Texas Highway 73, eastbound and westbound, wide open and clear. I can't wait for the weekend so I can enjoy my favorite smell. Oak Fire in a fire pit burning up the night. All right. We're looking good in the Golden Triangle. Speaking of Golden Triangle, I'm changing. changing my answer on favorite smell at the 10 at the 40 break. I'm in the generator supercenter.com traffic center. Well, you can have more than one. Oh, you have golden, think golden triangle and Louisiana. That's your clue. I got you. Okay, from our KTRH, generator super center 24 hour weather center, sunny to start, a couple of afternoon clouds, but don't rain today. 94 for the high temperature. We'll get you the complete forecast from Terry Smith at the Weather Channel in 8 minutes. Still 71 and your official, Severe Weather Station, News Radio 740KTRH. It's time now for the news. Here's Eric Sharp. Good morning, 632 on News Radio 740 KTRH. Our top story this hour, Texas new congressional maps are working their way through a federal court in El Paso. You can expect whichever side loses the initial case to appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. It's hard to determine how these court cases make their way through, but I think that it's going to turn out favorable for us. But I certainly think that our chances of getting a favorable ruling at the federal fifth circuit are high. That's Calveston County Commissioner and RNC committeeman, Dr. Robin Armstrong. He says that the courts are under a deadline here. We have to have a final ruling by November 8th when campaign filing starts. Governor Greg Gabon was in Houston yesterday to announce a new public safety initiative. It's an all-in effort to stop violent repeat offenders.

Most violent crimes in the Houston area are committed by repeat offenders. Today we're putting those criminals on notice. We are coming for you. We're going to target you. Andy KCon with Houston crime stoppers tells KTRH. I am not just cautiously optimistic. I am highly optimistic. With this new initiative, I expect crime to continue to decrease. The multi-agency effort will be backed by the Texas DPS. Jeff Andy Biggs News Radio 740, KTRage. President Trump created a task force last month as part of his latest move to crack down on crime. Tennessee, state, and federal agents will be deployed to the city along with the National Guard. White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller addressing law enforcement at the Memphis Safe Task Force area vowing gang violence will be stomped out. They think they're tough. They have no idea how tough we are. They think that they're hardcore. We are so much more hardcore than they are. And we have the entire weight of the United States government behind us. What do they have? Memphis's mayor, Paul Young, said he doesn't support the National Guard's presence in the city, but did request ATF agents. Attorney General Pam Bondi posting on acts that 53 people were arrested and 20 illegal firearms taken off the street so far. Nearly one full day into the government shutdown two days now and no breakthroughs, although Vice President JD Vance, he senses cracks in the Democrats. Even to their credit, a few moderate Democrats voted to open the government. That's not a Republican shutdown when nearly every single Senate Democrat votes to shut it down and every Republican voted to open it up. White House warning that the layoffs will be coming if the shutdowns continue. Some congressional lawmakers asking for their pay to be withheld during the government shutdown. Among the lawmakers refusing pay are Republican Senator Ted Cruz, Democrat Senator Andy Kim, and Republican Representative Elise Stefanik. Cruz said that it's not right for lawmakers to be paid during a shutdown if service members are not. There's multiple reports that the U.S. will provide Ukraine with intelligence to conduct missile strikes deep inside Russia. The report cites U.S. officials saying that the long-range strikes will target Russia's energy infrastructure. The U.S. is also considering sending missiles to Ukraine that could be used in the strikes. KTRH News time now 635. Texas Democrats can't see to find anyone notable to run for governor. Little known Houston businessman Andrew White is the best they can come up with. He doesn't stand much of a chance at all, but he does help the Democrats fill out their statewide tickets.

SMU political analyst, Cal Gilson, says that the state Democratic Party ran out of big names when the state rep James Talarico ran for Senate. A few people, he says, will take on Greg Abbott in his $80 million war chest, why it has run for governor before. He lost a former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez in the 2018 Democratic primary. After more than a decade of planning, there's still no shovels in the ground on the so-called Ike Dike to protect the Texas coastline. Coulter Baker with the Texas Gulf Coast Protection District says that they still need billions in federal funding. We're enthusiastic. President Trump's in there. The guy who built a large tower, he built a wall, and now we're hoping he builds the Dike Dike. But we're not waiting. We're using state resources to help further along the design so that when those federal funds come, we can start turning dirt. The state is allocated nearly a billion dollars for smaller barriers and levies between the Sabine Pass and Galveston. Texas Stock Exchange has officially been approved by the Federal Trade Commission. It's a massive win for both Texas, which is said to collect tax revenue from the trade and also for investors for one key reason. Just from the standpoint of diversification of trading locations and helping prevent any trading disruptions. KTRH Moneyman Pat Shin says that this will be an all-digital exchange based out of Dallas, so don't expect to see any traders in bright jackets running around town. I'm Eric Sharp on Houston's News, Weather and Traffic Station. News Radio 740, KTRH. Just like your car, the new IHeart Radio app now has presets. Everything I listen to in one place. It's the easiest way to listen to KTRA. Download or update our free Iheart radio app today. I bet he's a repeat offender. 637 is our time here in Houston's morning news. Right, Governor Greg Abbott has this new task force to crack down on repeat offenders. And I'm just wondering here if the emphasis is on the right thing. Here's what the governor said. Today we are putting violent repeat offenders on notice. We're coming for you. We're going to target you, arrest you, and put you behind bars where you belong. Okay. We're going to target you. That's fine. We're going to arrest you. That's fine. But how are you going to guarantee you're going to put them behind bars? Now, I know we've had bail reform and a couple of other bills that got through the Texas Senate and the Texas House. But at the end of the day, the problem we have more than a repeat offender problem is repeat offender judges. And it's not just the no cash bail. It's any bail for a violent offender. There shouldn't be bail for somebody who is facing a murder charge so they can get out and kill again. To me, the repeat offenders we need to target are the judges. The judges who continually let these people loose, who refuse to send them to jail. who, when they get to make the decision on the sentence, sentence them more likely than they should. You know, how can we include judges in this? It's fine to put an emphasis on finding, rounding up, arresting, and putting in jail repeat offenders, the people who have repeated their crimes multiple times. But without the cooperation of the judicial system, it's only going to go so far.

So I hope there's somewhere in there. I hope there's an emphasis on the judges as well. Keep the pressure going on these judges. Do not relent. Send your task force to the courtroom when they're handing down these sentences. So these people can be called out and they get even more publicity than they already get. So hopefully at some point people wake up, the people who keep electing these people, wake up and start electing other people who will be more tough on crime. 640, time for traffic and weather together as we check it again with Skymike. Dude, 249, it's nothing pretty here. They had this wreck at BAML, and I had a bad feeling about that since inside the belt. If you're just trying to get to the beltway, it won't affect you, but you have 249 BAML, I think they'll clear it in a minute. It's been there for a while. Also, the road work, that's making things scoochy. I can't wait to hear from Lance from Magnolia. Ease Tex, outbound by the graveyards at Lauder. That's an accident. I've got a backup coming up. from about east mount houston on the northbound side southbound we're okay till you hit whitman north freeway we're dealing with two wrecks inbound clear cross timbers a lot of breaks from parker it's a bit of a back order slip but a much bigger problem outbound at shepherd five vehicles here roger with r c trekking holding the banana sticker this morning and if you're going outbound let's be a big shot jump on the hardy toll road or the east ex gulf freeway we're still recovering from the wreck at the loop brakes at edgebroory from winnie on on I-10 East. Good morning, Sky Mike. There's a lot of smoke. I'm going to be burning. It looks like fog, but it's smoke covering I-10 head in westbound. It's westbound smoke. There's also a far, looks like it wrecked in the left, in the center of the road. Oh, I need a cross street. All right. We'll have to zoom on I-10 East. Jose's driving for flying Jay. Morning, Sky, Mike. Hey, tell Jimmy he hit the, hit the nail on the head with there's nothing like the smell of gasoline early in the morning. morning loading up at the Phillips plant outstanding lumberjack bob from port arthur's on the free iheart radio app oak fire in a firebed burning up the night and speaking of the golden triangle laurie terry i gotta change my answer i'm gonna change my answer since i have all these louisiana friends we used to have a big party at my house every year my favorite smell no longer cow poop fresh cow poop Crawfish! Crofish boil, yeah. Generatorsupercenter.com traffic center. That's a good smell right there. Who did? From our KDRH Generator Super Center. 24-hour weather center, Terry Smith, is here, and she is looking for rain. We're all looking for rain, and we aren't finding anything anywhere, are we? Isn't that like a song looking for rain in all the wrong places? Something like that. It never rains in California, but it pours. That person didn't study meteorology. No. It doesn't rain often in California. Yeah. And it hasn't been raining that much around here either, but we are gradually getting a little more moisture to head our way and just a little bit of rain starting tomorrow through the weekend. So if you do have outdoor plans, I don't think it's going to be a major problem. And the afternoon hours are more prone to seeing the rain than earlier in the day. And today, no rain. In fact, it'll be a dry day, low humidity, and very warm temperatures, low to mid-90s this afternoon. And it's supposed to be.

in the mid-80s, so it's running warm. Tomorrow and Saturday, 20% chance of a shower, maybe a thunder shower, a 30% chance of rain Sunday and Monday, again, mainly in the afternoon. And our temperatures will be in the upper 80s to low 90s, starting tomorrow through early next week. Temperature right now, 71 at your official severe weather station, news radio 740KTRH. Your commute, your forecast, your news. It's Houston's Morning News, brought to you by New South Window Solutions. So, I think I told you verbally yesterday about what the Des Moines Iowa School Board said about their illegal alien superintendent, but in case you didn't hear it, I'll let you hear it from the horse's mouth. What's going on, everyone? It's Bluff here, and we're driving through the States in the BluffMobile, and the best thing that we can do is play our favorite casino-style games on SpinQuest. They have over 1,000 games, including Live Dealer, Blackjack, and craps, with tons of slots and unlimited. You can get a $30 coin pack for just $10 for new users. Sign up today. Go to SpinQuest.com right now. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spendquest.com for more details. You know, they're trying to make excuses for why this guy was on the job, why this guy got hired and is pretty pitiful. More on that story, plus the timeline coming right up at first. We've got traffic and weather together. Let's check out that drive again. Here is Skymike. North Freeway, we cleared cross timbers. That's inbound. We're not bad inbound. Outbound. That's the big squish. It's a wreck at Shepard. I hope everybody's okay. It's five vehicles involved in this mess. Tollbridge suckage has started southbound. I know that's a wreck and a backup from I-10. Lori from Winnie, who sounds like Pecan Pie, has given me a cross street. She gave me the stall on I-10, but I wasn't sure. That car that broke down. Police behind it is about a mile, mile and a half west east of the Stuckies. I'm going to learn to talk faster so your phone doesn't help me on. Ah, Stuckies. Say no more. That's halfway between Winnie and Anahuac. Makes perfect sense if you're from Rice Country. I'm Skymike and the Generator Supercenter.com traffic center. From our KTRH, Generator Supercenter, 24-hour weather center. Today we're looking at sunshine to start, maybe a couple of afternoon clouds, but it's going to be dried today with a hive 94. Mainly sunny with a high right about 90. That's good for tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. Temperature right now, 71 at your official, Severe Weather Station, News Radio 740 KTRH. Let's check out some more of our top stories this morning. Here's Eric Sharp. Good morning, 652 on News Radio 740 KTRH. The federal government shutdown is now in its second day with no evidence of any movement from either side. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that around 750,000 federal employees. could be furloughed if the shutdown goes much longer. A Texas judge kept alive a lawsuit aiming to sharply restrict the abortion pill for Pristone, sending the case to Missouri instead of throwing it out, and Maxwell House is changing its name to Maxwell apartment. It's a nod to the growing rental population in the country, the coffee maker issuing the limited edition cans this week. 3999, the bundle will include a lease agreement and a year supply.

Of coffee, not a bad deal. Get the latest news anytime at KTRH.com. Our next update comes your way at 7. Our 59 inbound at the loop is always a problem. KTRH time-saving traffic. Next on the 10. Yeah, I wonder if the school board's feeling the chill. 653 is our time here in Houston's morning news. All right. The school board president will begin this little video or audio clip for you with... Her rationale, why it's complicated. It's not cut dry about hiring an illegal alien school superintendent. Reaction from Laura Ingram on the other side. I think there's no doubt he brought Spark and... enthusiasm to education and learning, and you saw that in the kids. And that's why I think we really have to stay focused on how we're communicating with our young people, because citizenship is a very complex issue. Somebody can have a citizenship status that may not be legal, and at the same time, a person could be a good human being. This really exemplifies the Democrats. problems on simple issues. And it shows you why they're not connecting on the issue of immigration and crime, why Republicans are really leading on these issues. Jackie Norris, remember, was Michelle Obama's chief of staff. She's been around. You know, she knows politics. She knows that these issues are resonating with the American people. Yet the party itself is so committed to open borders. That you can see almost internally, she's kind of going, oh, no, this is not going to sound good, but she says it anyway with the complex issue comment. And I think the proper messaging to kids is, of course, we love all human beings. That's not the point here. We love everybody, but actions have consequences. And this individual, it looks like, you know, lied on his employment forms. And in fact, is probably guilty of several federal crimes. And for that reason, he's a deportable alien. Like, that's just common sense. And that's a logical, if you even want to get into that many details for the kids. But actions have consequences. Move on to reading, writing, and arithmetic. Amen. It's not. And citizenship, it's not that complex at all. It's pretty simple. If you're not a citizen and you're not supposed to be here, you're here illegally. You have broken the law and you will be deported. All right, 655, time for the timeline. Being brought to you by Velocity Business Products. We have a pair of tickets to see Megyn Kelly. She's coming to Smart Financial Center at Sugarland with special guests Donald Trump Jr. and Jesse Kelly on October 23rd. Tickets on sale now at smartfinancial center.net, but you can win a pair from us. Tells what your today's timeline's from. Jerry Quarry. It was October, and in Atlanta, return of the champion, Mohammed Ali. It was a TKO for Muhammad Ali against Jerry Quarry in the third round. Watching the end of the third round and an affecting end of the fuck. On television. Are you ready for some football?

The NFL Monday Night Football makes its debut, and at the movies, Air raid Pearl Harbor, this is no drill. The film Tora, Tora, Tora, opens in theaters, on the radio. Just look all you shout is hurt. The X and 5 of the big group with the song. I'll be there. What year was it? If you know, 713-212-58-74, that's 713-212 KTRH. Good luck. Aye, we have a winner. That'd be Joel in Richmond. Do the right year was 1970. Well done, Joel. You get a pair of tickets for Megyn Kelly. October 23rd, Smart Financial Center at Sugarland. Enjoy the show. And thank you for listening to Houston's Morning News. This is News Radio 740, KTRH, Houston. Live everywhere with cyber. Now, the latest news, weather, and traffic. It's more of what matters to you from the John Moore Services Studios. 7 a.m. now here on Houston's morning news. I'm Jimmy Amy Coney Barrett. Among our top stories this half hour, no progress yet on ending the government shutdown. Will Trump take this as an opportunity to make more cuts? And coming up at 708, more of your favorite smells. Details in the minutes ahead here in Houston's morning news. Turns out, Sky Mike, likes a lot of smells. Besides the cow poop and the crawfish, we'll get to the leather. But we've got the West Sam Meek from Kima's on location. Morning, Mikey. It ignores at the 59-69 interchange. All of a sudden, the complete smush begins. So well said, northbound. We've actually got a wreck now. That's going to be right at 69. Hold my beer, the Southwest Freeway northbound at Chimney Rock. You've got a stall inside the loop. They just cleared this thing at Mike Dunleavy before all those pretty bridges. That's a complete squish now. Connect the dots from Hillcroft and a 22-minute drag. I'm Skymike in the generator supercenter.com traffic center. From our KTRH, top tax defenders, 24-hour weather center for today's Sunday to start. A couple of afternoon clouds with a high of... Plenty of sunshine all the way through the weekend. We'll check it all out with Terry Smith at the Weather Channel. We'll talk to her in eight minutes. Temperature right now is still 71 at your official severe weather station, News Radio 740 KTRH. It's time now for the news. Here's Eric Sharp. Good morning, 702 on News Radio 740 KTRH, our top story this hour. Day two of the shutdown after Democrats in the Senate voted to not compromise, and instead we'll keep millions of Americans out of work for another day. The White House going all in on branding this, the Chuck Schumer shutdown. Blaming the Senate Minority Leader for shutting down the government in order to basically curry favor with the far left in his party. The sticking point for Democrats remains health care. They say they want an extension of Obamacare subsidies said to expire at the end of the year and a repeal of health care provisions in the one big beautiful bill. Meanwhile, the vice president says layoffs of federal workers are likely coming in the coming days, which would be a departure from the furloughs of federal workers.

during previous shutdowns and could get Democrats back to the bargaining table. That was Fox's Kevin Cork. Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett telling KTRH's Clay and Buck show that Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are playing to their far left base. And Kane, he's out there to me saying how the House Republicans are shutting government down. We voted to keep the dead game government open. Only one Democrat voted with us. As soon as his polling data flips on him, he'll be at the table with Trump. Democrats are still demanding things like Obamacare subsidies and PBS funding in order to lift the shutdown. Thanks to efforts from the president who pledged to cut waste, fraud, and abuse. The federal workforce could shrink by $275,000, despite what the left says, don't expect the government to collapse. We saw this happen when Elon Musk bought Twitter and drastically cut the number of people working for Twitter. And Twitter worked out just fine without all that excess. The federal government can run more efficiently without all the extra bloat. Matt Margolis with PJ Media says that thanks to this massive drawdown in the federal workforce, you can expect the U.S. government to save around $28 billion every year. The Trump administration delaying a 100% tariff that is threatened to impose on drug makers. Last week, the president took to truth social and announced that the administration would be enforcing the tariff unless a drug maker is in the process of building a manufacturing plant in the U.S. officials say that the new tax is still being prepared as the administration engages in negotiations with the pharmaceutical companies. Mexico, reportedly ramping up their federal police force to combat cartels. It's a great idea from President Claudia Sheinbaum, but... That doesn't mean we shouldn't be aware that they still have a long way to go and many things that they're going to have to do to really fully earn our trust. Joshua Trevino of the TPPF says the big question is trusting the regime as a whole, not just Shinebomb, and we have to tread carefully, even if Shinebomb has good intentions. It is still a regime that is shot through with cartel men and their partners at every level, including the very highest. There's a real systemic problem here, independent of any... one political figure. He says whether or not Mexico follows through remains to be seen. Andre Pouard News Radio 740, KTRH. The U.S. is reducing its military mission in Iraq. A Pentagon spokesman confirming the U.S. and coalition partners are pulling its forces from Iraq to reflect the combined success in fighting ISIS. Less than 2,000 troops are expected to be in Iraq once the transitions are finished. KTRH News time now 705. Texas will no longer issue or renew commercial driver's licenses to non-U.S. Citizens. John Esparsa with the Texas Trucking Association says this addresses a massive surge in fraud and abuse. Those that are purchasing licenses online, obtaining them from Mexico, utilizing and abusing the reciprocity of those licenses. Hey, everybody, Lady Luck here, and we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. Now, all summer long, I'm going to be celebrating by playing on SpinQuest.com, which is an American-owned social casino. It obviously features over a thousand slot games and live blackjack, live craps, live bubble craps. Head on over to SpinQuest.com. Get yourself a $30 coin pack for just 10 bucks.

SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit SpenQuest.com for more details. The rule change announced this week by Texas DPS. It follows the lead of President Trump, who last week moved to restrict non-citizens from getting CDLs. Governor Greg Abbott was here in Houston yesterday to announce a new public safety initiative. Violent crime in Houston is down about... 22% compared to last year. Murders are also down. But citizens in this area remain concerned about crime, especially violent crime. The governor also announced a new crime initiative coming to Houston to catch some of the most dangerous criminals in the city. After weeks of allowing threats against a conservative student, the University of North Texas has now agreed to protect that student. Robert Montoya reported the story for the Texas scorecard. She's a police of the UNT Police Department. She emailed and offered that the UNT police had agreed to provide police protection, but she's still concerned about the fact that UNT has not taken action in regards to those who have threatened her, those who have celebrated Charlie Kirk's assassination. Attorney General Ken Paxton has gotten involved and the case has also been referred to the Department of Justice. Almost 70% of U.S. workers experiencing what they call ghost growth. According to a recent survey conducted by My Perfect Resumay, workplace expert Joshua Evans says that's where there's no clear path for the employee. Trust is broken. There needs to be an honest conversation at all levels within an organization about these are our expectations, and our goal is to promote you and give you more pay. People want to know that they're working towards something. Evans recommends clear expectations on both sides so that employers can retain their workforce and workers can get what they deserve. I'm Eric Sharp on Houston's News, Weather and Traffic Station, News Radio 740, KTRH. I live in heights. I live in spring. Kingwood. Next on the 10. Your faster commute. On 740 KTRH. Yeah, that smells kind of distinct. By the way, he mentioned whiskey bottles. That's a good smell. How about the new car? New car. Is there a better smell than a new car smell? When I go to the car wash, you know, they do fragrances now. And I always say new car. Give me new car. And it'll smell like a new car for about, no, no, no, 15, 20 minutes before the smell goes away. But that's the topic today. With that question today, go to the I Heart Radio app, KTRH, hit the talkback button. First name where you're calling from and your favorite smell. The smell, smell that makes you happy. And there's a lot of smells that make me happy. Freshly cut grass. I love that smell. Gasoline. You put those two together, man, I'm in heaven. That's good stuff right there. The smell of Thanksgiving dinner, that's my favorite smell, because that just makes me think of Thanksgiving past and mom and dad and aunts and uncles and all that good stuff. So, you know, it's pretty easy to come up with smells that make you happy.

And here's some of your favorite smells. Hey, Jimmy. This is Jason from San Antonio. Man, I love the smell of a feed store. It takes me back to time on the farm with my papa and my daddy. So feed stores take me back. Feed stores make me happy. Have a great day, guys. Playing baseball for many years, the one smell I love is put your face into a glove and smell that leather. It's awesome. This is Robert from League City. Hey, the favorite smell, especially in the mornings, if you're waking up with an alarm for me, it's got to be that Mexican chorizo with flour tortillas, baby. Smell that brings back memories for me would be a campfire. And I'm with sky my cow poop is another smell that brings like memories because I grew up in Manville back when I was a country town. Have a great day, guys. Yeah, we will. Thank you. Yeah, I just more and more coming to mind here. It's a ways off yet. It's a ways off. But when it gets to be, you know, right after Thanksgiving, I'll change the smell from that Thanksgiving dinner to the smell of fresh pine, like a Christmas tree. Yeah, that makes it feel like Christmas. 7-10 time for traffic and weathered together. I want a crawfish flavored candle or crawfish scented candle. Wouldn't that be awesome? Would you eat a crawfish flavored candle? Hmm. I get hungry enough. He might be a little confused. Yeah, he might try it. I eat gas station food sometimes, and we know how that works out. Golf Freeway, there's no privacy in this business. Golf freeway, northbound. We had another wreck at Belford. Come on, people. This is going to mess us up right after Edgebrook, lose about three or four minutes this way. Clear the Southwest Freeway. That was a wreck right at Mike Dunleavy, those pretty bridges, in the Montrose Canyon. Now I've got an outbound wreck in front of Greenway. So if you're outbound leaving downtown, you lose about six minutes this way. We're getting a little too-90-depth now, right around Huffmeister. If you had a Grand March at your wedding, you're losing about three or four minutes here. Katie Freeway, Visers, you're slow from Grand Parkway. West Sam, hello. Good morning, Michael. Terry, from beautiful Richmond, Briar Park exit. In the left. I got everything all pushed up. Oh, that's so well said. Extra points for verbiage, Terry from Richmond. And Rusty from League Cities listening on the free Iheart radio app. Guy Mike, I think you sent the chicken parts up here to the Tennessee, Kentucky border. We had chicken parts yesterday downtown, if you remember Terry, on I-10. Yeah. We have an overturned big rig. dust all over the road. No, we don't, at least we don't have that going on this morning. 288. I got breaks from the Beltway. I'm Skymike. Having a root can out today, Terry, in the Generator Supercenter. Dot com traffic center. Man, you know how to have a good time. Eat gas station food, have root canals. It never stops. From our KTRH, top tax defenders 24-hour weather center. Terry is here. If you want to have a good time outside, I guess you can because there's nothing to keep you from doing it. There is nothing to slow you down. And even when we start to get a little bit of rain. It shouldn't be too much of a problem. Tomorrow through the weekend, yeah, we've got some rain, but I'm not overly excited, I just have to say. Now, today is going to be almost a repeat of yesterday, still warm, low to mid-90s today. We are getting a little bit more humidity to make its way into southeast Texas. So.

We could get some rain. 20% chance of shower a thunderstorm tomorrow. Saturday as well. 30% chance you might get wet Sunday and Monday. Temperatures, upper 80s to low 90s. We're still running warm for this time of year. But eventually fall will show up some point. I'm going to have to go see when we might get a real dose of fall. Yeah. What would you consider a real dose? High temperature or what? Well, okay, we have to do it by Houston standards. Yes. Okay. I would say low to mid-80s. If we could be like low to mid-80s in the afternoon and solidly in the 60s. Or maybe even upper 50s at night? Oh, I'd love that. Yeah, that'd be great. Okay. Well, you'd let us know. We'll get ready to celebrate. Right now, 71 at your official severe weather station, News Radio 740, KTRH. It's Houston's Morning News, brought to you by New South Window Solutions. Now, back to Jimmy Amy Coney Barrett and the Houston Morning News team. All the info you need to take on the day. So the legal showdown over Texas's new congressional map began yesterday in an El Paso Federal Court. We'll talk to Dr. Robin Armstrong about this coming up next. But first, let's do traffic and weather together. Hey, Sky Mike. All right. We're still in with a new problem on the Southwest Freeway. Nope, that's been there. Outbound. Ed Lowe, look out. This is outbound. We'll squish up from the Montrose Canyons. Lance from Magnolia is on 249. Guy Mark. Dude. Lance from Magnolia. I know. At your request, the forgotten freeway. Bamble, North Houston, cleared to the parking lot. Boom. Super Ninja. Baby ninja. Bam. Lots of popos. Pau. Lots of blinky lot. Zap. Great job, Lance. I'm in the generator, supercenter.com traffic center. Robar KTRH. Top tax defenders. 24 hour weather center. Sunny to start. A couple of afternoon clouds, but dry. 94. Mainly sunny tomorrow, 90. And then Saturday and Sunday, mainly sunny skies both days with a high right about 90. Current temperature is 71 at your official's severe weather station, News Radio 740 KTRH. Let's head back to our newsroom now and get you an update on some of our top stories. Here's Eric. Good morning, 722 on News Radio 740 KTRH. Your headlines brought to you by D&M Auto Leasing Houston. Two people killed several others injured in an attack at a Manchester England synagogue on Yom Kippur. Police did shoot the suspect, but it's still unclear whether he's dead or not. A flight attendant being treated for injuries after two Delta jets collided in New York's LaGuardia Airport. It happened last night. Air traffic controls says that they were taxing on a runway when the right wing of one plane collided with the nose of the other. And Walmart's rolling out some big changes to its food ingredients, the nation's largest retailer removing synthetic dyes and over 30 other ingredients from its private label brands. Get the latest news anytime at KTRH.com. Our next update comes your way at 730. The countries are going to have Trump shutdown. Antifa would be Trump assassin Ryan Ruth guilty on all. It's always something. I forgive him. On News Radio 740, KTRH. Yeah, well, the line's been drug. Now what we have to do is we have to have a federal court weigh in on whether or not it is constitutional. I don't think there's a lot of Republicans who are worried about that aspect of it.

But, you know, I should ask a few, like Dr. Robin Armstrong, Galveston County Commissioner, he's a Republican. He's a Texas GOP big wig. What do you think? Are you the least big concern of what the federal court's going to do? No, I'm not concerned about it, Jimmy. I think we're going to be in good shape. And the reason is because we had a recent case in August of 2024 deciding this at the Federal Fifth Circuit level. And so it has reached constitutional muster. We've had some skirmishes up at the Supreme Court level, and we've won them all. That's Galveston County in fighting this case. And so I think we're going to be in good shape. I think we have good standing. The problem is that for 40, 50 years, the Democrats have been using Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to racially gerrymandered districts. And they found that unconstitutional in August of 2024. We have politically re-jerrymandered them now. And so that is perfectly constitutional and legal. And so I think we're going to be in good shape. Didn't we get a letter from the DOJ, though, in July? warning us. Absolutely. Yeah. And in the letter, if you correct me if I wrong, we didn't letter, didn't it warn that four congressional districts were drawn at least in 20, that's the 2021 case. That's kind of what I would assume that we're kind of basing this on, is back in 2021, we were told that they were drawn on racial grounds and that that couldn't be done. So now these are being done, as you said, politically, and that, without regard to race. That is absolutely the case. In fact, the Justice Department actually threatened the lawsuit against Texas if we did not redraw the lines because those lines are now, those lines that were drawn in 2021 are impermissible because they were racially gerrymandered. And so, and basically what that means is that at the time, under the Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, we were forced to actually draw districts that were coalition. And so the recent Supreme, I mean, the recent Fifth Circuit court case said that we no longer have to do that. And so that really the law changed. And so that allowed us to do redistricting. And so we are on solid legal footing, solid constitutional footing. And I think that's going to play out. We're going to see that over the next few weeks. What do we know about these federal judges in El Paso? When I think of El Paso, I think of a blue city. That doesn't necessarily mean that the makeup of this federal court is blue. What do we know about these judges and their political leanings? Well, for these federally, they have federal statute, which requires you to have three court judges. One of these judges is actually from the Federal Fifth Circuit that gave us the favorable ruling. One of the judges is the El Paso judge, which was an Obama appointee. And then the other judge is Jeff Brown, who is the judge that heard the case initially, that ruled against us when the precedent was the other way.

And so I believe now, Jeff Brown is a Trump appointee. The other judge is a Reagan appointee and then one Obama appointee. And so I think that the judges should be very fair in this. And so we just have to see where they line up. I mean, I believe that since they have a judge that was on the Federal Fifth Circuit that's on this panel, this three-judge panel, I think that he's going to be able to bring some insight into this case because he's seen it at the Federal Fifth Circuit level and ruled in our favor. All right. Any bets on how long we're going to have to wait for a ruling on this? Oh, I've had no luck lately. Wait, lady luck? Brett Ski, I got you. I've had so much luck on SpinQuest.com. They have all of my favorite games, slot games, live blackjack craps, and bubble craps. You can even get a $30 coin pack for just $10 bucks. $10 for $30. I'm headed over to SpinQuest.com right now. SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spendquest.com for more details. You know, they're going to meet all day, every day, even on Saturdays because it's an expedited ruling. So they're going to meet all day every day. And we should have a decision probably in the next two to three weeks, hopefully. All right. Thank you, sir. As always, good to talk to you. Hope you're well. Dr. Robin Armstrong, Galveston County Commissioner 727. It is time to take a look at your money as we check in once again with the folks at Bloomberg. Good morning, Jimmy. Data centers fueling soaring power costs. The independent monitor for the nation's largest grid PJM interconnection says PJM's power supply costs have surged by more than $7 billion because of the data center boom. Those soaring costs have raised energy bills from more than 67 million Americans from the Midwest of the Mid-Atlantic regions. Futures are right now mixed. The Dow currently is essentially flat. NASACs up 6 tenths of one percent. S&Ps up 3 tenths of one percent. Price of oil currently at $61.5 a barrel. I'm Dan Schwarson, Bloomberg Business on News Radio 740, KTRH.

Houston's news. Weather traffic. Plus breaking news 24-7. This is News Radio 740 KTRH. Live everywhere with the IRS. More of what's happening now from the John Moore Services Studios. 7.30 are time. Houston's morning news. I'm Jimmy Amy Coney Barrett. Mung our top stories this hour. We have three federal judges will soon rule on Texas redistricting. What will Governor Greg Abbott's repeat offender task force be doing? And coming up at 738, more smells that just make you happy. Details in the minutes ahead. You're in Houston's morning news. First, here's our resident bloodhound, Sky Mike. It smells like a wreck on the Southwest Freeway outbound at Edlo. It's two right lanes blocked here, and it stinks all the way from the canyon outbound 20 minutes here. Golf Freeway, new wreck at Belford. Big Rig Randy's on the tip line. Guy Mike 99 at 90 East. South of Highway 90, there's a head-on collision between a truck and an 18-wheeler. It's going to get very, very ugly. All right, Randy, that is a banana sticker. My only question is which 99 and which 90? Are we talking new territory or Dayton? Somebody will roll up that in 10 minutes in the USARV Resorts.com Traffic Center. From our KTRH. Generator Super Center, 24-hour weather center, sunny to start. A couple of afternoon clouds with a hive 94 today. We'll get Terry Smith in here one more look at the rest of the work weekend of the weekend. We'll talk to her in eight minutes. We're up one, 72, and your official severe weather station, News Radio 740 KTRH. It's time now for the news. Here's Eric Sharp. Good morning, 732 on News Radio 740 KTRH. Our top story this hour, Texas new congressional maps are working their way through a federal court in El Paso. You can expect whichever side loses the initial case to appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. It's hard to determine how these court cases make their way through, but I think that it's going to turn out favorable for us. I certainly think that our chances of getting a favorable ruling at the Federal Fifth Circuit are high. That's Calveston County Commissioner and RNC committeeman, Dr. Robin Armstrong. He says the courts are under a deadline here. We have to have a final ruling by November 8th. That's when campaign filing starts. Governor Greg Abbott was in Houston yesterday to announce a new public safety initiative. It's an all-in effort to stop violent repeat offenders. Most violent crimes in the Houston area are committed by repeat offenders. Today we're putting those criminals on notice. We are coming for you. We're going to target you. Andy KCon with Houston crime stoppers tells KT or H. I am not just cautiously optimistic. I am highly optimistic. With this new initiative, I expect crime to continue to decrease. The multi-agency effort will be backed by the Texas DPS. Jeff Andy Biggs News Radio 740, KTRH. President Trump created a task force last month as part of his latest move to crackdown on crime. Tennessee, state, and federal agents will be deployed to the city along with the National Guard. White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller addressing law enforcement at the Memphis Safe...

task force area vowing gang violence will be stomped out. They think they're tough. They have no idea how tough we are. They think that they're hardcore. We are so much more hardcore than they are. And we have the entire weight of the United States government behind us. What do they have? Memphis's mayor Paul Young said he does not support the National Guard's presence in the city, but did request ATF agents. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X that 53 people have been arrested, 20 illegal firearms taken off the streets so far. Nearly one full day or two days now to the government shutdown and no breakthroughs, although Vice President JD Vance since his cracks in the Democrats. Even to their credit, a few moderate Democrats voted to open the government. That's not a Republican shutdown when nearly every single Senate Democrat votes to shut it down and every Republican voted to open it up. The White House warning that layoffs will be coming if the shutdown continues. Some congressional lawmakers are asking for their pay to be withheld during the government shutdown. Among the lawmakers refusing pay are Republican Senator Ted Cruz, Democrat Senator Andy Kim, and Republican Representative Elise Stefanik. Crew said that it's not right for lawmakers to be paid during a shutdown if service members are not. There are multiple reports that the U.S. will provide Ukraine with intelligence to conduct missile strikes deep inside Russia. The report cite U.S. officials saying that the long-range strikes will target Russia's energy infrastructure. The U.S. also considering sending missiles to Ukraine that could be used in the strikes. KTRH News time now 735. Texas Democrats can't seem to find anybody notable to run for governor. Little known Houston businessman Andrew Wyde is the best that they can come up with. He doesn't stand much of a chance at all, but he does help the Democrats fill out their statewide ticket. SMU political analyst Cal Jilson says the state Democrat party ran out of big names when state rep James Talarico ran for Senate. A few people, he says, wanted to take on Greg Abbott in his $80 million war chest. The white has run for governor before. He lost a former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez in the 2018 Democratic primary. After more than a decade of planning, there are still no shovels in the ground on the so-called Eichdike to protect the Texas coastline. Coulter Baker with the Gulf Coast Protection District says that they still need billions in federal funding. Happy birthday, America. It's time to celebrate and play your favorite Las Vegas casino games by American-owned SpinQuest.com. What's better than fireworks than American Pie? Hitting a black check in the palm of your hand, and you won't lose your fingers. Over a thousand games, including slots and live dealers. And $30 point packs are on sale for 10. SpinQuest.com. Buy American players for American players.

SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit SpenQuest.com for more details. We're enthusiastic. President Trump's in there. The guy who built a large tower, he built a wall, and now we're hoping he builds the dike-dike. But we're not waiting. We're using state resources to help further along the design so that when those federal funds come, we can start turning dirt. The state's allocated nearly a billion dollars for smaller barriers and levies between the Sabine Pass and Galveston. Texas Stock Exchange has officially been approved by the Federal Trade Commission. It's a massive win for both Texas, which is said to collect tax revenue from the trades and also for investors for one key reason. Just from the standpoint of diversification of trading locations and helping prevent any trading disruptions. KTRH Moneyman Pat Schinn says this will be all digital exchange based out of Dallas, so you won't expect to see any traders in bright jackets running around town. I'm Eric Sharp on Houston's news weather and traffic station. News Radio 740, KTRH. Info at the speed of Houston. Right now, Houston's morning news continues with Jimmy Amy Coney Barrett and the Houston Morning News team. I'm not sure what trouble smells like. I guess I've never been in big enough trouble to have it have a smell. 7.38 is their time here in Houston's morning news. All right. We're talking about smells this morning. What prompted the question of the day about smells that make you happy, make smile, bring back memories. What your favorite smells are is that Holiday Inn Express is testing scent-based alarm clocks in their Australia and New Zealand hotels may end up here where you can set the alarm. to when your alarm goes off, it will release the scent of either coffee, bacon, or blueberry muffins when it's time to wake up. I mean, coffee and bacon, that's a pretty good morning smell, I got to say. Make you hungry for sure. Maybe that's part of their goal. Maybe they've got to deal with some restaurant chains or something. But it made me think of the question, what smells make you happy? I mean, what is it about that smell? What is that smell? And what is it about that smell that makes you happy? Jimmy, the greatest smell on the plant is burning firewood and the campfire. That oak firewood just burning in the campfire is so beautiful. I can live with that every day. Hey, y'all. This is D.K. from Montgomery. Fresh cut grass, a fresh rain and, of course, two-stroke gas. Brack? Yep, I agree with all that, too. And by the way, my favorite smell is going to be mesquite. I mean, when it comes to a fire, how about mesquite and a beef brisket that's cooking? How good with that smell? Hey, Jimmy, Dustin from the north side of Houston here. Got to love to smell of new leather, leather, and maybe cutting down some mahogany. Hey, Jimmy, good morning. Joe from Conroe. My most favorite smell is a Saturday night at the drag strip, nitro methane, and burnt rubber. Hey, Jimmy and Mike. This is Scott from Magnolia. I love the smell of a good fire when the air is real cold. Something about that just brings back a lot of memories. Have a good one. Skip from Webster. The smell of that brisket that I just smoked for 20 hours after it's rested and first open the foil. Oh, yeah, it's money. Oh, yes, it's very nice. Hey, Jimmy and Skymike. This is Jenny from Rocheon.

My favorite smell is the rain here in Houston. Now, let me tell you something, though. If you ever go to St. Louis, the rain doesn't smell good. It smells like fish. So give me the rain here in Texas any day. Huh. Do you know that? Did you know the rain in St. Louis smells like fish? I'll have to ask Terry about that from our KTRH Generator Supercenter 24-hour. Weather center. No, you're right. We'll do you first. I'm almost afraid because you keep adding these weird smells, Guy Mike. No, no, no, I'm going to go normal. I'm going to put aside the fresh cow poop and go to my crawfish. Yeah, I've never actually lived in Louisiana, but crawfish just kind of makes me homesick for over there. All right, so Big Rick Randy gave me wrecked that this not looking very nice. This is Grand Parkway at 90. Now, remember, guys, these roads cross each other. in two different places. Was it New Territory or was it Dayton? Donnie and Dayton. All right, 99 south of 90 in Dayton heading over to Mont Belvie. Okay, so nothing good is happening right there. Let's keep an eye on that. Katie Freeway, Vizers, you got breaks at Fry Road, Southwest Freeway. Your suckage starts at the fountains now northbound. West Loop going up to uptown. Got a wreck or something right there at Westheimer. Look at all those breaks from South Post Oak, 16 extra minutes here. 10 minutes away, I'll get you some lane. It's Southwest Freeway, Edlo. That's two right lanes. on the southbound stuff. And it's starting to mess up the canyon. It's messing up your East Tech's elevated and a 20-minute drag out on the Southwest. Do the Katie Outbound. And North Freeway, something new right at Patton. Look out. That's a right lane. It's a minor wreck, but we're backed up. It's a good back-order slip southbound from about Parker down. And Terry, you think I should live stream my root canal today. Dr. Kathy Gibson. Burr. It's okay. She'll put me in La La Land. It'll be fun. I'm at the generator supercenter.com traffic center. Yeah, you keep thinking those happy thoughts from our KTRH Generator Super Center, 24-hour weather center. Like me in the sky. Is there a meteorological explanation for why the rain in St. Louis smells like fish? I have, this is the first I have ever heard of that. Me too. Me too. Yeah, not that I can come up with. Now, I... My grandfather lived along the Chesapeake Bay. And when the wind blew a certain direction, you smelled the fish factory, you know, down the creek. So that's the only thing I can come up with right now. And I don't know that that helps. Yeah, it would be nice to get the smell of rain around here, wouldn't it? You know what? I went looking. It's been like since mid-September since we've had any reasonable rain. We didn't, what do we pick up? Maybe like that. Quarter of an inch of rain since mid-September, so it's been super dry. And it's still dry today. Loaded mid-90s, 20% chance of a shower thunderstorm tomorrow. Saturday, 30% chance of more rain. Sunday and Monday, hopefully we'll be enjoying the smell of rain sometime early next week. Right now, 72 at your officials, severe weather station, News Radio 740KTRH.

What you need to know for the day ahead. This is Houston's Morning News. Brought to you by New South Window Solutions. So you remember Joy Reed? Yeah, well, evidently she has a new definition of what a fascist is. We'll share that with you coming up next. First, though, we've got traffic and weather together as we check out the drive once again. Here is Skymike. Clear Southwest Freeway, Edload. The accident in front of Greenway Plaza is now gone. Hopefully everybody's okay. A lot of breaks now coming out of downtown. It's messing up your East Tech's from equipment. I'm Skymike on the Generator Supercenter.com Traffic Center. From our KTRH, Generator Supercenter, 24-Senter, Sunday to start. A couple of afternoon clouds. Just a few. 94 today. Then mainly sunny. Tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday highs all three days, right about 90. Currently, 72 at your official severe weather station, News Radio 740KTRH. Let's check in one more time with Eric. Good morning, 752 on News Radio 740 KTRH. Ice plans to have agents at the Super Bowl, the same event where Bad Bunny will be taking the stage for the halftime show. The move follows his past criticism of U.S. immigration raids at his concerts. Records from the medical examiner show at least 22 bodies have been found in Harris County Bayous this year. Officials dismissed serial killer rumors, but most causes of death remain under investigation, and Stephen King topping the list of most banned authors in the... the U.S., with his books pulled more than 200 times in the last school year. Get the latest news anytime at KTRH.com. Our next update comes your way at 8 o'clock. I live in Pasadena. Sharptown, Southwest. Next on the 10. Time-saving traffic on 740 KTRH. All right, well, Joy Reid, for some reason, as a different definition of what a fascist is than any other person I've heard. Although it does give you a little bit of a glimpse into the liberal mindset. So... Let's hear what Joy Reid has to say, what a fascist is. Oh, by the way, response from Jesse Waters on the Five. We are in a fascist moment. And what that means is a right-wing white nationalist, white supremacist moment that is centered around hierarchy. If you go back before the 20th century, there were no income taxes, there were no regulations on business. You could earn as much money as you want, leave 100% of it to your children with no taxes. That's the world they want back. Well, if fascism is wanting regulation, a state, and income tax cuts, then I am the biggest fascist of all time. And that would make the entire Republican Party fascists and a healthy slice of the Democrat Party fascist as well.

As you said, I haven't seen her tax returns, but I would bet she pays her tax people very well to reduce her income and reduce her estate taxes and is doing everything possible to accumulate as much wealth so she too can pass it on to her children. It's what every smart functioning person does in this country because you want your children to live a better life than you. And so basically, every conservative white male in her mind is a white nationalist racist and extreme capitalist who wants a world where they don't get penalized for making a bunch of money and they can leave that money to their kids without having to pay taxes on it. Yeah, other than the white nationalist part, I think, you know, she's... You know, she's redefined fascist. I would define myself as a fascist based on her definition other than the white nationalist part of the whole thing. Unbelievable. All right, let's leave on a great thought. Because I asked this question earlier today when we're doing our smells question, you know, favorite smells. And I played Nirvana smells like Teen Spirit. What does Teen Spirit smell like? Hey, Jimmy, it's Lewis from Houston, Texas. Teen Spirit was an old deodorant that was for teenage girls back in the day. And the story goes that the Kurt from Nirvana said that it was his girlfriend's smell. When he would go over to her house, she had teen spirit in her bathroom, and that's what she wore. So that's why it smells like teen spirit. I had no idea, did you? I didn't know that. Listen, y'all have a great day. We'll see tomorrow morning, bright early 5 a.m. Hope to see you this afternoon at 4 on AM-950, KPRC. You know what? It sucks to be bored. But when I get on my phone and play real casino games on SpinQuest.com, the time flies by. That two-hour wait at the DMV seems like 10 minutes. Play your favorite slots. Live blackjack, live craps with a live dealer. New players, $30 coin packs are on sale for $10.00. Play SpinQuest.com and you'll never be bored again. SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spendquest.com for more details.