- Today on "Austin InSight", a more conservative Texas legislature will convene next week.

What's on the agenda?

- Plus, what are your New Year's resolutions?

We'll chat with a life coach on how to make sure they last past January.

- "Austin InSight" starts right now.

- [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally and James Gavin, and also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in Central Texas.

(mellow upbeat music) (mellow upbeat music continues) (mellow upbeat music continues) - Hi, there, and thank you so much for joining us.

I'm Danielle Banda.

- And I'm Laura Laughead.

Next week, the 89th regular session of the Texas Legislature convenes.

There's almost no aspect of life in Texas that isn't impacted by decisions made under the state capitol dome.

Are schools funded sufficiently?

Will we have clean air and water?

Are children safe?

Is healthcare available?

And what about highways, parks, public safety?

- All of that and much more will be on the agenda when lawmakers convene next week.

We'll get a rundown on the top agenda items.

But first, some facts about the legislature.

The Texas House of Representatives has 150 members, 63 Democrats and 87 Republicans.

And there are 31 state senators.

12 of them are Democrats and 19 are Republicans.

Now, the legislature convenes every two years, with this year's session starting next Tuesday, January the 14th.

- [Laura] Now let's look at the state budget.

The most recent budget totaled $321 billion, with nearly 2/3 of funds coming from state taxes and nearly 1/3 coming from the federal government.

Here's how that money is spent.

38.2%, the largest portion funds education, including elementary and secondary schools, community colleges, and state universities.

31.8% goes to health and human services.

That's stuff like Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and more.

- [Danielle] 14.3% goes to business and economic development, 6% is spent on public safety and criminal justice, 4.5% on general government, 2.7% for natural resources, and smaller amounts pay for government activities like courts, regulatory agencies, and the legislature.

- Here to explain the upcoming session is James Barragan, politics reporter for "The Texas Tribune."

James, welcome back to "Austin InSight."

- Hey, good to be with you.

Happy New Year.

- Happy New Year.

Well, firstly, let's get to the top and maybe the most controversial item on the agenda for this session, school vouchers.

The school voucher proposal would essentially allow state tax dollars to be used to pay for private school tuition.

Governor Abbott has been adamant that he can make this happen.

So I wanna ask, how will this program work, and how do you see this proposal playing out in this session after previous failed attempts?

- Yeah, I think that's the million dollar question.

I mean, it's very, very clear that school choice is the number one priority for Governor Abbott.

He was very involved in Republican primaries, trying to replace Republicans who opposed that legislation last session and ultimately tanked it.

It's also the top issue for Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick.

He said, "School choice is my number-one priority."

So we've got two of the big three lawmakers really invested in it.

The question is, what are the details?

And that was really the rub last time around.

They couldn't come to an agreement on what the details were gonna be.

I think that's gonna be the big question going forward.

But with the replacements that Governor Abbott has brought in, I think it's very likely that he's got a coalition that's going to pass school voucher legislation.

It's just a question of what it's going to look like, and we're gonna see a lot of negotiations as the session goes on.

- And another thing we're watching is healthcare.

So, Texas has the highest rate of people without health insurance in the nation.

That's according to the Texas Medical Association and other outlets.

Almost 19%.

So, do you think there is a chance Medicaid expansion will be passed under the Affordable Care Act?

- Well, this has been an ongoing issue for many, many years.

We've talked about how we have a high uninsured rate here in the state of Texas, particularly in pockets of the state that are low income.

But with the makeup of the legislature being Republican, and increasingly more Republican, there was Republican pickups in the House and in the Senate, and the types of Republicans that won, more fiscally conservative, more socially conservative people, I just don't see a way that Medicaid expansion is something that's going to happen this session.

They've tried in the past, it hasn't really moved, and with the new makeup, it's looking even less likely that that will happen.

- And you bring up a very, very topical point, that the legislature is indeed more conservative now, historically so for some regions in Texas.

So, what do you foresee the impact of that on things like religious and social policy, like a 10 Commandments bill that's been discussed, or more restrictions on people who are transgender?

- Yeah, I mean, I think we'll see more of the same.

We saw some of that last session, and I think we will see a refiling of things like the 10 Commandments bill.

I think we'll also see legislation to sort of restrict or mandate what transgender Texans can do in the state.

That's because there are these socially conservative lawmakers who were elected, who were sent by their constituents, and they believe that they have a mandate to do that type of legislation now that they're here in the capitol.

- And lastly, what's the latest on the race for the Speaker of the House, and how will that impact what comes out this session?

- Well, that's the big question that we've been talking about for the last couple of months, who's gonna be the Speaker of the Texas House.

We know one thing for certain, it's not gonna be the incumbent speaker, Dade Phelan of Beaumont.

He has bowed out of the race.

So we have this struggle between two wings of the Republican Party, the more traditional establishment business-type Republicans, and the more socially conservative ones who kind of wanna top over the table and pass some of this more conservative legislation that we've been talking about.

There's been arguments between them for the last month, and it's highly unusual that we don't have a speaker decided before the beginning of the legislative session.

So we're going into this not knowing who's gonna be the speaker, I think there's gonna be some more surprises to come, and that's gonna really determine which way how conservative this session is going to be.

- You brought up the term highly unusual.

I think that's a great way to encapsulate this entire year in politics, both Texas and across the nation.

Certainly probably gonna keep you busy this session.

- It certainly will, yeah.

- Well, thank you so much.

It's James Barragan with "The Texas Tribune."

We're gonna probably have you back with some updates in the future.

Thanks again for joining us.

- Thank you.

(mellow upbeat music) (mellow upbeat music continues) - Women's health also will be a focus in the legislature, including a proposed bill that would provide exceptions to the strict abortion ban in place in Texas.

- The proposal is in part a response to reporting from nonprofit news outlet ProPublica about two Texas women who died after their miscarriages went untreated.

I recently sat down with the bill's author, State Representative Donna Howard, a Democrat from Austin.

(upbeat music) Thank you so much, Representative Howard, for joining us.

- Glad to be here.

Thank you.

- So, let's start with the current law, which you have said threatens the safety of pregnant women here in Texas.

Can you elaborate about what risks it generates for pregnant women?

- Well, unfortunately, the statute was written without medical advice, basically.

And so you have non-physicians who are crafting legislation not realizing what the unintended, I assume they were unintended consequences, are.

So, the vagueness of the language has required that doctors have to wait until imminent death before they feel like they can intervene.

And you say, well, why wouldn't they just intervene anyway if they know this is an appropriate thing to do?

Because the statute actually could risk the removal of their license, hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, and life in prison.

So you're asking a lot of a physician to make that determination, knowing that they risk all of that.

- And can you now tell us about your proposed bill hoping to rectify some of that?

How do you believe it can help make women safer, maybe save lives, and provide physicians greater clarity on what is allowed?

- Well, let me just say that when all of this legislation as well as some others were being drafted, we had physicians who tried to intervene and let us know that this language was not sufficient.

We had physicians saying, "You're asking us to wait till women start dying before we can intervene."

So we worked with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists with language that they thought would clarify what's going on here so that they can actually intervene and feel like they can actually maintain their own license and wellbeing in doing so, and practice to the extent of what they have been trained to do, maintain their ethics in the doctor-patient relationship.

So what we've done is put in language that indicates that this is not just a medical judgment, but it's also looking at the medical science that determines interventions.

These interventions have been done forever without anybody questioning them.

It's just since the legislation that this has happened.

To make sure that they are intervening if there is any possibility of a woman not only having a risk of death, but also any kind of physical or mental impairment, risking fertility, and certainly also looking at fetal abnormalities and whether or not the fetus would be viable upon delivery.

So, putting in things that the physicians say would allow them to practice medicine as they've been trained to do.

- And no matter how you feel about abortion, we can all agree these deaths are tragic, they're avoidable, they're concerning, not only for physicians, but also just for pregnant women.

You know, if you can imagine being pregnant, we've spoken to some women who are reconsidering their birthing plans or maybe holding off on having children, hearing that miscarriages, which in previous years would've been avoidable, are now resulting in women's death.

- Yes.

Not only that, but we have a physician shortage in our state.

Half of the counties in Texas are maternal healthcare deserts, and doctors are leaving our state.

Residents are not coming to our state.

We risk losing those physicians who can provide the obstetric care to those that want their pregnancies.

So it's not just about abortion, it's about regular obstetric care.

- And that being said, what do you think the chances are for passing this law in the increasingly conservative legislature?

- Well, as we're talking right now, we don't even know for sure who the Speaker of the House is going to be, and that is gonna dictate who committee chairs are gonna be, committee assignments.

But certainly, the primary election resulted in a huge turnover at the legislature, with it veering, as you say, more to the right.

A lot of those coming in who feel like they have some mandates with some conservative ideology.

I'm not sure what we're gonna be able to do.

I would hope that it's bipartisan, that we want to protect the lives of Texas moms and Texas babies.

There are things that we can do to ensure that that happens.

To preserve the doctor-patient relationship, which I think we all would want to have as well.

So I'm hopeful that we can do something, but I am only cautiously optimistic at this point.

- And I know Texans are going to be watching the journey that this proposal takes as the legislature convenes, and we wanna thank you again, Representative Howard, for joining us and speaking to us today.

- Thanks for having me.

(mellow music) (mellow music continues) (mellow music continues) - All right, well, as we step into a brand-new year, many of us are setting goals, making resolutions, and thinking about ways that we can feel that new year, new-me energy, internally and externally.

Here today with us to show us some tips on what we can do and how we can achieve that is professional life coach Grecia Karlsson.

So, thank you so much for being here.

We appreciate you.

- Of course.

It's an honor, absolute honor to be here.

- Thank you.

Well, you know, that new year, new-me vibe, everyone's feeling it, but achieving our personal goals, it takes work.

So what kind of mindset do we need to be in if we wanna achieve success this year?

- For sure.

So, something about me is I'm a little bit more unconventional when it comes to life coaching advice.

And something I want us to keep in mind is that there's been a study done, I don't know if you've heard about it yet, but by the Baylor College of Medicine, that says that 88% of people who make resolutions end up quitting by the end of January, which I'm like, "Ah, that's hard," right?

But at the same time, it feels good to know, because maybe it's not an us thing.

I feel like a lot of people take it personal.

And so I just wanted to bring it to our awareness that it might be the way that we're doing resolutions that is the problem.

And it's this go big, and new me starts today, right?

And that's a big jump for the nervous system.

The way that our body works in order to get it on board with these big visions is it needs to be small changes in the beginning and gradual progressions throughout the year.

You can still meet these goals, I'm not saying throw them away, but do it in a way that your body can be on board with it, you know?

- Yeah, that honestly makes sense.

It's all about the baby steps, right?

- Totally, totally.

It's the baby steps, the tiny steps, and I have a few examples whenever- - Yes.

- Yeah.

- Okay, well, you know what?

That sounds good, because we need examples so we can really absorb this information.

How do you think we can keep up with our New Year's resolutions and achieve that actual lasting change in our lives?

What examples can you give us?

- Totally.

So, the first thing I would say is, like, if you have a physical body goal, right?

Going to the gym three times a week is a common one that I've seen online, right?

What I would recommend is first knowing that the longest relationship you'll ever have is the relationship with your body.

So, keep in mind, be kind to yourself just like you would in any healthy relationship, and at the same time, the tiny step you can take instead of going directly to the gym is include in the schedule you're doing every single day, 30 squats after dinner.

Just a tiny little thing, right?

And maybe 30 squats is a lot.

So maybe you start with 10, right?

But it's more about building confidence in yourself that you can meet these goals versus going hard and then disappointing yourself and then feeling that I'm waiting till the next year.

Instead, I want it to be a long-term relationship with our body.

There's no pressure.

There's no rush to get it all done this year.

Gradual progression, 30 squats a day, meet that goal, and prepare for failure, 'cause some days you'll forget.

- Oh, yeah, I've definitely been there.

And you know, a lot of times we have goals in the physical aspect, the mental aspect, the spiritual aspect.

It can be so hard to balance all of them.

How in the world are we supposed to do that?

- Yeah, totally.

So, having compassion for ourselves is a big thing.

And it starts there to even have compassion for our neighbors, right?

It's gonna be this relationship with ourselves again.

And some emotional tips I can give is let this be the year where we give everything, like, we show all parts of ourselves, right?

Those intrusive thoughts, give 'em a safe place to land with a trauma-informed therapist, maybe, or even your journal, as long as you're validating your emotions afterwards.

"I'm so sorry you feel that way."

It feels like it's a lot, right?

It makes sense to feel how you're feeling, right?

Validating those emotions can go a long way in helping us be more emotionally mature this year, and regulated as well.

- Yeah, I love that, because it's something we can all resonate with.

You know, life is hard sometimes, and even though we do start out the year with that new energy and we wanna achieve our goals, sometimes we get, you know, just that motivation drawn out of us.

So, what do you think we can do, whenever we are facing those really tough times, how can we make sure we persevere through those really hard moments?

- Yeah, my greatest advice for this is set a timer for 15 minutes.

Lay on the ground in cradle position.

Be human.

Let yourself cry.

Let yourself feel the feelings.

Feel it to heal it, right?

So, in those 15 minutes, imagine you gave up on everything, right?

And just really feel that, move through that.

After the 15 minutes, come back to the conversation with yourself.

What do you need?

What is it that you need from me, right?

And this is one part talking to the other part, the mature part talking to an inner child, let's say, right?

Be there compassionately, witnessing it.

Maybe they don't let you know right away what they need 'cause they have no idea.

But just even offering that is like having a friend within yourself, right?

And that's gonna go a long way in meeting our goals and just starting that self-compassion and all the good things that this year has to bring.

It's gonna be beautiful.

It's a privilege to be here every day, right?

So, little steps, tiny steps to feel that gratitude, right?

Not right away.

(both laughing) - It takes time, and we're getting to know ourselves every single day at every single age.

- Totally, yeah.

- Beautiful.

Well, I love that so much.

One final word of advice for anyone out there really hoping that 2025 is the year for just inner peace and everything that feels good?

- Yeah, I'll leave you with a quote that one of my mentors would say, and it's, "We overestimate what we can do in one year.

We underestimate what we can do in five and 10 years."

So there is no rush, right?

There really is no rush.

Give yourself time just like you would give a friend time to heal or to change.

Give yourself some time.

It doesn't have to all be done this year.

- I love that.

- But it can start this year.

You can start now.

- And we hopefully are gonna start now.

- Yeah.

- You have so much knowledge.

Thank you so much for taking the time to be here and help inspire our viewers, because you're so good at doing that, so we appreciate you.

- Thank you so much, Danielle.

I appreciate you too.

- Absolutely, always.

Well, you guys, if you'd like more tips and tricks to implement into your lives to be your best self this 2025 and really create that lasting change that we're talking about, you can feel free to follow Grecia on Instagram @greciakarlsson.lifecoach.

(upbeat music) - Austin's famous music community has a rich legacy of connection and coming together to support musicians and creators in need.

But for one local artist and entrepreneur, addressing the unique challenges Black musicians face is a special focus.

Jonathan Chaka Mahone is part of the husband-wife hip hop duo Riders Against the Storm, a fixture on the local hip hop scene here since 2009.

Riders Against the Storm won Band of the Year in The Austin Chronicle's Austin Music Awards in 2014, 2015, and 2016, the first and only hip hop group to win that honor.

Check out this performance on KUTX.

♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Even the sky any limit ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Truth so they know they're different ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Change the city in a minute ♪ ♪ 'Cause it's better with a flame ♪ ♪ That'll never be extinguished ♪ ♪ You need my lovin' in your life, baby ♪ ♪ Come and get it, come and get it, come on ♪ ♪ You need my love come get your life ♪ ♪ Come and get it, come and get it, come on ♪ ♪ You need my lovin' in your life, baby ♪ ♪ Come and get it, come and get it, come on ♪ ♪ You need mine, come and get yours ♪ ♪ Come and get it, come and get it, come on ♪ - Mahone's musical creativity is just part of his story.

He's also the founder of an organization called Diversity Awareness and Wellness in Action, or DAWA, a nonprofit that provides grants to what they call worthy community givers who are BIPOC, Black, indigenous, and people of color.

We recently sat down with Mahone to learn more about DAWA.

(mellow music) We are so glad to have Chaka with us right now in our studio to tell us more about DAWA.

Chaka, thank you so much for joining us.

- Hey, it's great to be here.

- Well, the first question I wanna ask you is, can you tell us about your organization's mission and how it all got started?

What was your inspiration?

- I came to Austin, like, right at the end of 2009 with my wife.

And, you know, there wasn't a lot of opportunity here specifically for hip hop artists.

There wasn't really an infrastructure here.

The infrastructure was more based in blues and rock.

So there was a bias that we experienced.

So, you know, there was a struggle.

There were barriers there for us to just even be seen, for us to even be heard.

So we moved into non-traditional venues, we would just play wherever we could, because the venues were not even necessarily open to hip hop artists.

And this is 2010.

Like, people may be surprised by that, but that was what we ran into.

So, you know, in about six or eight years after, you know, doing our thing, you know, we got to a place of sustainability.

And when we got to that point, we were looking around, and there were still a lot of our friends that were struggling.

And me being in a place of sustainability, I thought it was an opportunity for me to just give back a little something.

So I started on my own, on a personal level, just giving $200 to friends like once a month.

And then after I gave that away, I would come across somebody else that needed some support, and I would do little fundraisers behind the scenes.

And in a week, we would raise sometimes 300, sometimes $600.

And I would get it to that person.

And that was the beginning of DAWA.

So in 2019, I had my first party.

We raised $3,000 at that party.

And my plan was to get to $10,000 and give it out.

But the pandemic happened and George Floyd happened.

So in that time between 2019 and early 2020, I set up a fund with the Austin Community Foundation, I created a little website, I created an Instagram page, and that was DAWA in its initial phase.

In the early part of 2020, people started sending in money, and within a few months, we had $50,000.

And since then, we've given out over $300,000.

We became a nonprofit in 2022.

But all of it started from my experience of encountering barriers, encountering obstacles, and just knowing what that struggle is like, what that experience is like, and wanting people to know that they're supported, know that they're seen, know that someone believes in them.

So that's DAWA in a nutshell.

It's like a safety net.

It's, we see you, we value you, your life is important, you're essential, the work you're doing.

So, the helpers that we support are social workers, teachers, healthcare providers, service entry workers, and creatives.

- And truly more than ever, the community needs that kind of support.

So for the people at home that hear this and they wanna get involved and they wanna maybe, they're inspired and they wanna do something similar in their own communities, what's the best way for them to do that?

- I mean, just like I did, you know, start from the basics.

You know, just start doing what you can.

At first, I just wanted to support my community, and that's what I did.

So I would just encourage people, if they see a gap, they see a challenge in their particular neighborhood or wherever they are, to just start addressing that.

There's a lot you can do, just even with a few extra dollars, just make some sandwiches and go out and feed some unhoused people.

You know, you don't have to try to change the world all at once.

I would not have started this, I would not have done this if I felt like my community was being addressed in the way that I needed it.

So, hey, I see the problem.

I can be a part of the change.

- It's such an important message, especially around the holidays, a season traditionally of giving, and I hope this resonates with a lot of people and inspires them to do the good work like you've done.

Well, Chaka, thanks again so much for your time and for coming here, and of course all the good work you're doing in our community.

- Thanks for having me.

- If you would like to find out more information on their organization, DAWA, feel free to visit dawaheals.org.

(mellow music) - All right, well, before we go, Laura and I wanted to share some of our New Year's resolutions, okay?

So, this year, I'm gonna try to remember this.

I saw it online.

It says, "When you say yes to something, it means that you're saying no to something else."

So, in 2025, I really wanna try to make sure that anything I'm saying yes to is gonna be a worthwhile use of my time.

And hopefully it benefits my mental, physical, or spiritual health in some way.

'Cause you know, life is short, and I really want every second to count, and just hopefully I can have a little bit more of a meaningful next 365 days, you know?

- I love that resolution.

I love how intentional it is.

- Yeah.

- And you know, my resolution is kind of on brand with that.

Also intentional.

Seems very simple, but just to read more.

- Aw.

- And you know, life easily gets so busy with work, you know, stuff outside of work, your family, and I looked back last year and I was like, "I did not read as much as I like to," and I love to read.

- You read a lot.

- I do.

And so this year, I'm making a promise to you, to y'all, to my dad, who has a special book project I promised to read, and to my best friend, Catherine.

We kind of have this in tandem New Year's resolution to read more.

Maybe even start a book club.

So we're all gonna hold each other accountable and we're gonna make the most, like you so eloquently said, of the next 365 days, because it is our year.

- Yeah, I'll join that club.

- Excellent, yes.

It's gonna be the next big book club.

I cannot wait.

- That's amazing.

Well, thank you again so much for joining us.

We appreciate you, and we look forward to seeing you next week.

- And in the meantime, don't forget, you can stream each episode in the free PBS app.

- Until then.

(upbeat mellow music) (upbeat mellow music continues) (upbeat mellow music continues) (upbeat mellow music continues) (upbeat mellow music continues) - [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally and James Gavin, and also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in Central Texas.

(whimsical music)