Crossword
We are now up to 15 screwworm cases in Texas. MAGA in D.C. and Austin need to own this. See this from the Chron:
It wasn’t until late 2024, when the first case of New World screwworm was reported in Mexico, that the Biden administration announced $165 million in emergency funding. U.S. officials also signed an agreement with Mexico to work together on controlling the screwworm fly’s spread, including the development of sterile fly production facilities in southern Mexico.
But, amid a presidential transition and a push by President Donald Trump to radically shrink the federal budget through layoffs conducted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the new administration didn’t announce funding for the facility until May 2025.
Kevin Shea, who served as administrator of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service under the Obama administration and retired from the agency in January 2025, said when the Trump administration took over, efforts to contain the screwworm outbreak were largely put on hold.
“This administration came in so skeptical of the career people, they didn’t really want to listen,” he said. “The hold up in the money going to Mexico for the sterile fly facility was most likely caught up in the whole DOGE thing. It probably looked like some sort of foreign aid.”
A senior official with the USDA said when Rollins was confirmed as agriculture secretary in February 2025, she ordered an assessment of the outbreak and the department’s sterile fly production capacity before approving funding.
At the Senate hearing last week, Rollins sought to portray the screwworm outbreak as the fault of the Biden administration, as she deflected questions from U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and other Democrats about USDA staff cuts.
Here is the entire Chron read: As screwworm spreads, USDA faces potential sterile fly shortage.
Secretary Rollins has been running USDA for 16 months now. It is her screwworm problem. She owns the worm. Do your job. It is not a Biden issue. Nope.
_____
H-Town has been a great host after 3 World Cup games. We rolled out the orange carpet for the Netherlands fans this past Saturday morning as 10,000 of them marched from Rice University to Reliant, err Houston Stadium. Fans have raved about our stadium. (Take that, Texans brass.)
We have Portugal and Uzbekistan tomorrow at noon and Cabo Verde versus Saudi Arabia Friday evening at 7 pm.
Since you asked, Uzbekistan is in central Asia, is landlocked, and has around 38 million folks.
_____
I went by my lonesome to Daikin Park this past Saturday. I got there early and sat in the Saint Arnold Bar area at one of the picnic tables. I took along my Chron crossword puzzle and worked on it. Some lady sitting next to me said she had not seen anyone working on a hard copy crossword puzzle in years. She said that most of her friends that work crossword puzzles do them online. A little while later another lady sitting across from me said she didn’t know newspapers were still being printed. She thought newspapers were all online. When I got to my seat when the game started, I continued to fiddle with the crossword, a fan behind me asked if I was keeping score. 41 Across, Feudal lord, five spaces.
_____
Yordan Alvarez is having a great season with 25 dingers to lead the AL. He was asked yesterday if he would participate in the Dinger Derby at the All Star game next month. Nope, he said. I don’t have a problem with that.
We won yesterday and are still 3-games behind. We are in Toronto for a 3-game series.
I dropped by the Team Store this past weekend to get the featured photo. They didn’t have my size. I will try again.