CJ Stroud: born in California, but with a Houston soul

Thumbs up: Want to play catch with CJ Stroud, Texans quarterback and 2023 NFL Rookie of the Year? Do good deeds first. That’s the lesson a few Fifth Ward teenagers learned Sunday when they found Stroud helping remove trees toppled during last week’s wind storm. The Gridiron star volunteered his time after Houston radio personality DJ M. Rogers posted a call for volunteers on Instagram. Stroud could have just donated money or shown up for a photo shoot, but as he told the Chronicle, he was there to lend a hand, not to pose for the cameras. “He didn’t have any extra entourage,” Rogers said. “He came to get dirty.” Of course, recognizable as Stroud, the teenagers asked him for a photo. Sure, he told them, but only after they helped remove the debris. What they did. The subsequent video, showing Stroud throwing the pigskin into the Nickel, went viral. Our QB may be born in California, but he’s a Houstonian at heart. For all the other volunteers who made someone else’s cleanup a little quicker, who sawed down downed trees blocking streets, who shared a hot meal, who refrigerated neighbors’ medications, who packed boxes to the Houston Food Bank or who simply shared a kind word – and without a viral video – we applaud you all. Some of us on the editorial board had help this time, and that made all the difference.

Thumbs up: In an interview with “60 Minutes” broadcast this week, the journalist Norah O’Donnell asked Pope Francis about Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempts to close Annunciation House, a Catholic charity that helps migrants at the El Paso border. Pope Francis seemed unequivocal in his condemnation: “This is madness. Pure madness. Closing the border and leaving them there is madness. The migrant must be welcomed.” Then came the nuance. “Then you see how you are going to behave with him. It may be necessary to send him back, I don’t know, but each case must be considered humanely. Right?” Yes, that’s true. Disagreements over how many people should be allowed to stay permanently in the United States won’t go away anytime soon, but we should be able to agree on compassion for those who are going through times of great constraint.

Thumbs down: Speaking of Paxton, he appears to be in the running for United States Attorney General, should Donald Trump return to the presidency. Never mind Paxton’s indictments for securities fraud; that he was caught on camera, stealing another lawyer’s $1,000 pen; an FBI investigation into accusations that he used the attorney general’s office to protect a donor who renovated Paxton’s apartment house and hired his mistress; or that damn impeachment trial in the Texas Senate. When the Dallas Fox affiliate Asked Trump about the possibility at the NRA convention this week, Trump said Paxton was “a very talented guy.” We wonder what talents exactly Trump admires.

Thumbs down: Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller – the guy who flew on taxpayers’ dime to get vaccinated, the guy who put soda and fryers back in public schools during a health crisis childhood obesity – announced this week the launch of “Official Sid”. Miller Store.” On its website, Miller products are modeled by strange-looking people in a strange Texas landscape – presumably the products of a low-end AI. We wondered: the AI ​​has- Did it also generate ideas for merchandise? Among the offerings: a hoodie that proclaims “Trump’s Texas Man” – without an apostrophe. But doesn’t even the most basic AI have it? better language skills than that? Maybe the missing apostrophe is intentional? Is Miller saying something trumps humanity?

Thumbs twiddle: Remember Sarah Stogner, the oil and gas lawyer who defied a flight ban by using a drone to photograph an explosion of toxic water from a blown well in West Texas? Maybe not. But maybe you remember Stogner for stripping naked and putting on a pom pom for a campaign ad during her 2022 campaign to oust Wayne Christian from the Texas Railroad Commission. (This agency, by the way, has nothing to do with trains and everything to do with oil and gas. The confusing name helps keeping Texans in the dark about the Railroad Commission’s unwillingness to do enough to protect us from oil and gas dangers.) Even though Stogner lost the race to Christian, she didn’t back down. Intrepid and fully dressed, she now exposes the Railroad Commission, and her drone photos clearly showed the agency with its metaphorical pants down. The agency is now asking the Federal Aviation Administration to investigate Stogner, claiming she put crews in danger, which she denies. We are more grateful than ever for his boldness. We will take the naked truth and cover it up any day.