San Antonio Current - September 6, 2023

Broken collarbone, outpatient care $11,865

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Texas’ Uninsured Crisis

The state’s years-long refusal to accept the Medicaid expansion has dire consequences for the working poor

That Rocks/That Sucks

HSen. Ted Cruz last week embarrassed himself again on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. The Texas Republican shared a misleading tweet accusing the Biden White House of cutting door-shaped openings in a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. In reality, the photo Cruz shared didn’t show doors but gates required to be open for the duration of Arizona’s monsoon season so flash floods don’t topple the wall.

A district judge in Austin last week blocked Texas’ so-called “Death Star Bill,” designed to bar municipalities from enacting their own business regulations. State District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble called the bill, which was passed earlier this year by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature with the support of Gov. Greg Abbott, “unconstitutional, void, and unenforceable.” The state is expected to appeal.

HTexas inmates are soaking their bedsheets in toilet water to stay cool in the state’s unairconditioned prisons. At a Texas Department of Criminal Justice meeting last week in Huntsville, Janet Delk said her incarcerated husband “used to take [toilet] water and put it on the ground so they could lay in the water and cool down. But it’s been so hot lately that water evaporates right away.” Only 30% of Texas prisons are air conditioned.

A federal judge in Austin last week said he’s temporarily halting a new Texas law aimed at keeping objectionable material from school library shelves. Plaintiffs, including two Texas book retailers, argue the Republican-backed measure, which requires booksellers to rate every book they provide to schools, is vague, unconstitutional and operates on prior restraint. — Abe Asher

ASSCLOWN ALERT

David Barton

Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.

Texas-based pseudo-historian and Christian nationalist David Barton hasn’t lost his evangelical fervor for former President Donald Trump, a man he once called “God’s guy” and declared that Christians were obligated to support.

Barton — who founded WallBuilders LLC, a Lone Star State-based group that promotes the patently false notion that the United States’ separation of church and state is a myth — last week proclaimed that all the election tampering stuff people have been hearing about is being done by Democrats, not good ol’ God-fearing Trump. The site Right Wing Watch first reported on Barton’s comments.

“Generally, the Democrat Party is a very secular party,” Barton explained during an appearance on the Truth & Liberty Coalition’s call-in program. “They tend to be very secular, and the more secular you are, the less God-fearing you are, which means the less restraints you have

on your behavior. So, if there is no God, then everything is right now, and the end does justify the means — the Machiavellian thing that the end justifies the means.”

On the other hand, Barton continued, members of the GOP respect the Almighty, so they won’t cheat at an election to win.

“Democrats don’t have that moral restraint of [being] God-fearing. One day, I’m going to account to God and he’s gonna say, ‘Why did you cheat in that election?’” he added. “If you don’t believe that, then why not cheat in an election? So, you have less moral restraints which means the end does justify the means, which means you’re willing to do more things to make sure your side wins.”

Has anyone told this bloviating assclown that Trump and 18 of his cronies were indicted in Georgia on charges that they participated in a conspiracy to overturn the state’s 2020 election results? Or that one of the three federal cases for which the former president is under indictment includes charges of conspiracy to defraud the country and conspiracy to obstruct Congress with regard to the 2020 election?

Nah. Must have been some other Donald Trump. “God’s guy” would never do that.

— Sanford Nowlin

,

Civil Liberties Union of Texas Attorney after a federal judge temporarily blocked Texas’ HB 12, a new law critics say would criminalize public drag performances

A group of Texas attorneys that includes three former presidents of the State Bar of Texas has filed a complaint asking the bar to strip suspended state Attorney General Ken Paxton of his law license. The complaint, signed by 14 lawyers in total, argues Paxton “disgraced” the legal profession amid allegations of corruption that got him impeached in the spring. Paxton’s trial in the Texas Senate is set to begin on Sept. 5.

The Texas National Guard disbanded Operation Lone Star’s intelligence unit after whistleblowers revealed that some of its members were using WhatsApp to spy on migrants — a violation of rules prohibiting states from operating spy agencies. Even after this black eye, Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott’s $4.4 billion border crackdown, remains ongoing.

Here’s one that won’t help Texas’ national reputation. There were more attempts to ban books in Lone Star State libraries and schools last year than in those of any other state. According to the American Library Association (ALA), people and organizations in Texas last year called for 93 separate bans to remove a total of 2,349 individual books from circulation. The total number of book ban attempts in 2022 was the highest in at least 20 years. —

Abe Asher

YOU SAID IT!

“If allowed to take effect, SB 12 will make our state less free, less fair and less welcoming for every artist and performer.”

— Brian Klosterboer

American

Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore

A Sporting Chance?

San Antonio’s eyeing a sports district to revitalize downtown, but economists are skeptical

BY MICHAEL KARLIS

Beyond the San Antonio Spurs lassoing No. 1 draft pick Victor Wembanyama, the year’s biggest local sports story centers around the franchise — along with Minor League Baseball’s San Antonio Missions — exploring the concept of a downtown sports district.

Details are still vague and it could be years before such a plan comes to bear — if at all. The Silver and Black’s lease on the aging AT&T Center, soon to be the Frost Bank Center, doesn’t expire until 2032.

Some speculate that bringing professional sports downtown can revitalize a city center still struggling to rebound following the COVID-19 pandemic. Demand for luxury and upscale hotels downtown failed to exceed pre-pandemic levels in June and July, according to a new study by analytics group Co-Star. Even so, there’s reason to be dubious, experts warn.

Rarely do sports stadiums bring in the economic growth and revitalization promised by city officials, according to economists. Just look at the area surrounding the AT&T Center on San Antonio’s East Side for an indication on unfulfilled economic promises. And then there’s the cost. If past NBA arenas are any indication, the Spurs’ new facility alone would likely exceed $1 billion, excluding infrastructure improvements and costs other than constructing the facility itself.

Some sports districts have proven to be an economic booster shot for their communities, but economists say few pro-sports facilities deliver on the promises made by team owners and city leaders.

“I think there’s pretty clear evidence from economists that public subsidies for stadiums are like reverse Robin Hood,” Trinity University professor of economics David Macpherson said. “That is, they always claim there’s economic benefits from building stadiums and arenas, but that never happens.”

The rise of the sports district

Around the year 2000, the model of suburban sports arenas surrounded by massive parking lots gave way to a new concept — the Sports Entertainment District.

These districts, often located in city centers, tend to be built with a combination of public and private funds, according to Ricard Jensen, a senior sports marketing lecturer at the University of Texas San Antonio. The idea is to encourage the development of hotels, retail space and entertainment venues around the arena.

“These districts typically get lots of incentives from the city, county and state,” Jensen said. “Then we

allow these incentives to recruit different types of businesses to that district. The whole idea would be that you’re not just building a stadium — what you’re building is a great center of economic development where you’re going to make it as easy as possible for other businesses to want to be a part of this area.”

The most comparable example to what Spurs and Missions ownership is proposing is Sacramento, California’s Downtown Commons entertainment district, also known by its hip moniker DoCo.

As often precedes the development of a pro-sports arena, the NBA’s Sacramento Kings threatened to relocate if the city didn’t provide the team with a new facility. Ultimately, Sacramento agreed to spend more than $200 million in taxpayer funds to help the Kings build the new Golden 1 Center, replacing a mostly vacant two-story outdoor mall that had lost its luster since being developed in the early ’70s.

Not only would the city help subsidize the new stadium’s construction, but taxpayers would fork over another $250 million to help build DoCo, a sixblock sports entertainment district surrounding the

MWhile some businesses have sprouted up near the AT&T Center, the area around the basketball arena hasn’t experienced the development local leaders promised.

Golden 1 Arena, according to the Sacramento Bee.

It’s unclear what, if any, positive economic impact downtown Sacramento has experienced since the construction of DoCo, according to economists. However, that isn’t stopping San Antonio leaders from rooting for a similar project here in a bid to restore downtown to pre-pandemic occupancy rates.

Recipe for success

In DoCo’s case, developers appear to have guaranteed funding for the retail, hotel and entertainment venues around the arena before it was built, according to a joint press release from the City of Sacramento and developers there. In other words, public subsidies weren’t the key driver.

Michael Karlis

This type of agreement is rare, according Andrew Zimbalist, who teaches sports economics at Massachusetts’ Smith College. There’s no guarantee that private business investment will follow the public subsidies that go into a sports district, and developers often make big promises on which they fail to deliver.

“When the situation doesn’t work out well, what happens is that the private capital is small or at least modest, and very often it doesn’t reach the promised level,” Zimbalist said.

Zimbalist used Cincinnati’s 65,000-seat Paycor Field, home of the NFL’s Bengals, as a prime example of what happens when previously promised private development money doesn’t materialize.

When Paycor Field, located downtown on the banks of the Ohio River, was completed nearly a quarter century ago at the cost of $773 million in today’s money, city officials expected the stadium to drive development in the surrounding neighborhood. However, that development never came, and Paycor Field is now consistently ranked among the worst stadiums in the NFL, Zimbalist said.

Indeed, Rackspace Technology Inc. and local developer Graham Weston purchased a stake in the San Antonio Missions last year, meaning that development money could be guaranteed for the retail, condos and hotels that would hypothetically dot the San Antonio Entertainment and Sports District. But would it benefit downtown and the city at

large? That depends who you ask.

The Reality

When Bexar County approved funding for the construction of the AT&T Center, officials said the $186 million arena would stimulate growth on the economically stagnant East Side. However, it’s hard for fans attending a Spurs game to see much of that promised development — other than a few nearby residents charging $20 for parking.

After word got out that the Spurs might be looking to move downtown, District 2 City Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez quickly pointed out the AT&T Center’s failure to deliver an economic upswing for his district.

“Off the jump, this leaves the question of what happens to the AT&T Center that never fulfilled its promises to spur positive development on the [E] ast [S]ide,” McKee-Rodriguez wrote on X, the social media platform previously called Twitter. “A new stadium cannot and should not happen until there are steps to remedy this broken agreement.”

Even if a hypothetical Spurs-Missions sports district can emulate Sacramento’s DoCo success, Smith College’s Zimbalist is skeptical of the economic output it could deliver for San Antonio.

“Sometimes the investment that you get near this new facility is an investment that is already in town,” he said. “What happens is a restaurant or whatever

moves from location A to location B to try to take advantage of the activity around the sports stadium to get more business.”

Beyond that, in the era of ultra-luxury sports stadiums which offer bars, entertainment and array of dining options, it’s more likely that fans will spend most of their money inside the facility as opposed hitting local dining and drinking establishments before or after the game, critics also note.

Zimbalist and Jensen both agree that the notion of a sports arena bringing new money into a city is a myth. Fans who will attend games in the new arena are the same ones who attended games at the old stadium.

In the end, it would be a long shot for a downtown sports district to revitalize San Antonio’s struggling city center, according to Zimbalist.

What it could do, according to Jensen, is bring more elite sporting events, such as the NCAA Men’s Final Four Tournament, to San Antonio. NCAA officials recently passed over the aging Alamodome for the 2031 tournament.

But, in a city with one of the highest poverty rates in the country and other pressing needs, are taxpayers willing to cough up more money for a sports district that may not be able to deliver much else other than more NCAA tourneys?

After witnessing the AT&T Center’s failure to rejuvenate its neighborhood, that may be a hard sell, even to some-die hard Spurs fans.

By the Numbers: Texas’ Uninsured Crisis

5.2 Million No. 1 $5.4 Billion $600 Million 9 69%

Texas’ Uninsured Crisis

The state’s years-long refusal to accept the Medicaid expansion has dire consequences for the working poor

BY TRAVIS E. POLING

LOn a stifling August day, hundreds turned up to an event at the San Antonio Food Bank’s pavilion, a place usually associated with feeding the community. Instead, it was full of people hungry for information on getting health insurance coverage on paychecks that rarely even cover their basic needs.

For many, especially those with chronic conditions, insurance and access to regular medical care outside of the ER are a matter of life and death, rather than a political football that’s been punted away by Texas’ state leadership for decades.

Under the pavilion, Chelsea Martinez worked on an application with a state Health and Human Services representatives to see if she qualified for Medicaid coverage after struggling with online signup for the program. The South Side mother had coverage while pregnant with her third child but fell off the rolls when her short post-partum coverage ended. Around the same time, the pandemic-era automatic re-enrollment into the insurance program also came to a halt.

“I haven’t had Medicaid in a few months, so I just try to do everything at home,” said Martinez, 28. That

includes trying to cope with a diagnosis of anxiety while taking care of three children, including two with special health needs.

During the first few months of the year, she scheduled as many appointments as she could to take care of her health needs.

“I was scared they were going to cut me off so quick,” she said.

Texas’ process of “unwinding” Medicaid after three years of automatic re-enrollment during the pandemic left many dropped from the program and back in the Medicaid gap, even though they could still be eligible. Martinez said no one told her that a new state law that went into effect this spring would have extended her post-partum coverage up to a full year after the birth of her youngest, now 10 months old.

Even though Martinez is stretching a meager income that primarily consists of $800 in monthly child-support for her 8 year old, she still had an anxious wait ahead to see if she could enroll again.

Otherwise, she would fall into the so-called “Medicaid Gap” that accounts for more than 1.4 million of Texas’ 5.2 million uninsured. The makes Texas the

The number of Texans without health insurance (or 18% of the state’s population)

Where Texas is on the list for states with the largest numbers of uninsured residents

The amount in federal dollars Texas turns down annually to expand Medicaid

Texas’ annual share should it choose to expand Medicaid

most uninsured U.S. state, according to numerous rankings.

Texas Republicans, particularly those in leadership roles, continue to successfully run for reelection on red-meat issues that include saying no to additional publicly funded healthcare. Texas is one of 10 states, mostly in the South, which have turned down Medicaid expansion funds from the federal government. That’s not been an oversight by Lone Star State leaders but a deliberate choice by Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, and the GOP-dominated Texas Legislature.

As a result, the state is turning its back on $5.4 billion a year in federal dollars to fund an expansion that would offer medical coverage to far more residents. The state’s portion would run less than $600 million annually.

Attempts by Democratic lawmakers and even some House Republicans to get their colleagues, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to undertake an expansion have so far gone nowhere.

“We have so many working adults who have no insurance,” said Christine Yanas, vice president of policy and advocacy for San Antonio-base Methodist Healthcare Ministries. “It’s a philosophy of healthcare as a right or a privilege and that’s the sticking point.”

‘Dying in childbirth’

The stakes are high.

Advocates for better indigent healthcare and expanded coverage for the working poor say too many

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, Every Texan, Episcopal Health Foundation

The number of other U.S. states besides Texas who haven’t yet expanded Medicaid

The percentage of Texans surveyed in 2021 who put Medicaid expansion as a high priority

people without coverage, especially men, will put off getting care or not seek out services even as their untreated conditions become more perilous.

Also, some pregnant women who would normally qualify for Medicaid during their pregnancy lost coverage when the automatic re-enrollment offered during the past three years ended in April.

“Women of color are dying in childbirth,” Yanas said of those disproportionately affected by losses of coverage that can drag on for months.

Texas’ refusal to expand Medicaid and stave off unnecessary death and illness is infuriating to advocates because there’s no downside.

“This [resistance] is very much a product of first Gov. [Rick] Perry and then Gov. [Greg] Abbott presenting as conservative a face as they possibly can,” said Anne Dunkelberg, a senior fellow for health policy at Every Texan, formerly known as the Center for Public Policy Priorities.

Meanwhile, down-ballot candidates have adopted the same “ultra-conservative talking points that public [spending] for health care is bad,” she said. “We have a governor who doesn’t want to take billions and billions and billions in federal dollars.”

That refusal comes even though studies show that Medicaid expansion would reduce local and state government costs of caring for the indigent, incentivize work, create jobs in the health care sector and grow the economy.

Another benefit is that it would create a more productive workforce for the private sector, Dunkelberg said. Improved coverage would reduce complications from chronic conditions for aging workers too young to qualify for Medicare, allowing them to stay in the workforce longer.

Working without coverage

For parents to qualify for Medicaid, a family of three must earn less than $3,977 annually, or about $331 a month. Even at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, families would lose coverage starting at just 47 hours of work in a given month. Adults under 65 with no children in Texas are completely on their own even with no income.

Even a raise in a part-time job from an employer that doesn’t provide commercial health insurance can shove a working parent out of Medicaid eligibility and make their financial circumstances worse.

The coverage gap faced by 1.4 million Texans arose after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.

The ACA created a sliding scale of subsidies allowing Americans to purchase coverage through health insurance companies participating in exchanges. The subsidies are generous for those with incomes starting at 138% of the federal poverty level.

The law required states to expand Medicaid eligibility up to 138% of the poverty level. Above that, individuals can qualify for a subsidized health plan. However, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2012 shot down the expansion requirement, allowing Texas to maintain the status quo.

The resulting coverage gap in Texas starts at 16% of the federal poverty level, the lowest threshold in

the country for adult parents to qualify for Medicaid. Adults not raising children and parents over the Medicaid threshold can buy individual ACA insurance, but they have to pay full price because they make too little for federal subsidies.

Alamo City resident Jay Nanda has spent more than a year without coverage after falling into the gap.

Nanda is single and works three driving jobs, including a 40-hour-a-week position as an airport shuttle driver for the City of San Antonio. But because he is considered a temporary worker on the payroll, he doesn’t get any of the benefits that usually come with a full-time position — including health insurance.

The 52-year-old has been without benefits since May 2022 and the COBRA laws that would have let him pay to continue the group insurance from his previous employer would have set him back $700 a month. Even with three jobs, he remains firmly in the coverage gap and has no time to go insurance shopping.

“I’ve put off my eye exam twice now after seeing how much they wanted to charge [for the visit] with no insurance,” Nanda said. “Now it has increased and is a minimum of $179 without insurance.”

Rural hospitals struggling

Texas lawmakers justify their refusal to expand Medicaid by saying they’re being fiscally conservative and protecting taxpayer dollars. Even so, someone’s still picking up the bill to provide medical access for some of those who have fallen through the cracks. Right now, that’s happening through a combination of local taxes, other state-funded programs and nonprofits that receive federal grants.

“Indigent healthcare is not a state responsibility under the Texas Constitution. It is a county responsibility. So you have 254 ways to deal with the problem,” said George Hernandez, president and CEO of University Health in San Antonio.

He characterizes the Texas County Indigent Health Care Program as broken one, saying it doesn’t work equally well around the state.

Even though they have plenty of uninsured residents, rural counties are hamstrung on multiple fronts as they try to raise money to take care of that population. Typically, those counties are forced to have higher property tax rates — often as high as 61 cents per $100 of valuation — for health services. In part, that’s because much of the land has an agricultural exemption and doesn’t generate revenue for a rural hospital district.

In contrast, University Health, Bexar County’s hospital district, has a tax rate of 27 cents per $100 of valuation. That makes up about 18% of the revenue, while the rest comes from sources including state and federal insurance programs and commercial insurance, according to Hernandez.

Because Bexar is surrounded by rural communities, University Health racked up $30.5 million in uncompensated costs during 2021 by caring for patients who came in from contiguous counties and those closer to the border, such as Maverick, Val Verde and Webb.

On top of that, University Health also provided another $5.1 million in uncompensated care to residents

from other states.

Medicaid expansion would be as much a boon to rural counties as urban areas, and it also could make the difference in some rural hospitals staying open, said John Henderson, CEO of the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals (TORCH).

Rural health systems can’t access enough tax dollars to provide a wide variety of services closer to home or to take on a heavy load of uncompensated care, Henderson said. Since 2010, Texas has faced 26 temporary or permanent rural hospital closures, according to TORCH data. Another 76 facilities are considered to be in crisis and at risk of closing.

Some help available

Those who cannot pay for medical services, including many in the Medicaid gap, are considered indigent under Texas law.

Under the state standard, indigent care is available for people who make too much for Medicaid eligibility. For a family of three that means a household income of more than $3,977 and less than $5,220 a year.

University Health’s Hernandez said rural counties are allowed to bring eligibility up to 50% of the poverty level and not lose state assistance. Urban districts, however, can go up to 200% of poverty to provide health care services, even including access to a regular doctor.

That provides options to Bexar County residents making up to $49,720 in a three-person household.

The primary way of delivering medical services to the uninsured is a University Health program called CareLink. It isn’t insurance, but it makes getting medical services more affordable.

CareLink patients can access University Health providers, pharmacy services, health and wellness programs and discounts. Having a so-called “medical home” helps them manage chronic conditions, and it promotes preventative care.

It also keeps people out of hospital emergency rooms. Even though ERs should be a last resort, they remain the place where many uninsured end up receiving their health care.

Payments for CareLink services are based on income. Hernandez said CareLink members with incomes of less than 75% of the poverty level are asked to make some sort of payment and about half do, even though it isn’t a requirement.

Above that level, patients make payments on a sliding scale and can work out monthly installments. For those with incomes above 150% of the poverty level, CareLink takes payments electronically from their bank accounts.

“CareLink has personal responsibility built into it,” something even some conservative politicians say they like, Hernandez said.

University Health also contracts with community health organizations such as CommuniCare and CentroMed to provide indigent care through clinics they operate around the county.

Paul Nguyen, president and CEO of CommuniCare, said most uninsured patients who come to his organization aren’t looking for a handout. The sliding

scale of payments from patients lets CommuniCare stretch $10 million in federal, state and other grants into $13 million in care.

“We see patients who are uninsured and want to pay. It’s a point of pride,” Nguyen said.

Most CommuniCare patients are women between the ages of 25 and 54, he added.

“Men don’t go [if they are uninsured], and if they are truly sick, they end up in the ER,” Nguyen said. “If they do come to us, it’s because their wives or girlfriends made them go.”

About half of CommuniCare’s 114,000 patients are covered by Medicaid, and having access to the insurance benefits means most of them have managed their health care fairly well, he said.

However, obtaining medical care is not so easy for the uninsured. About one in five have challenges that keep them from obtaining care, such as a lack of transportation or not having enough money to afford medications that they’re prescribed.

Those barriers often culminate in worsening conditions and trips to the ER — the most expensive place in a health care system to seek help, according to Nguyen.

“It is 20% of the non-compliant patients that make up 60% of the cost,” he said. “They’re struggling already, then they get sick and have a medical

Texas children still in peril when it comes to getting health care

Texas’ recent “unwinding” of Medicaid enrollment after three years of automatically renewing individuals’ coverage during the pandemic has widened the cracks in the system into a chasm.

As a result, the state’s children have become especially vulnerable to losing health coverage.

About 600,000 Medicaid recipients under 65 in Texas have been unenrolled from the program since June, and 81% percent of those are children, according to state-by-state data tracking reported at the end of August by KFF, an independent health policy research group.

Texas’ culling of the Medicaid rolls started in June in an effort to drop people who became ineligible for Medicaid during the pandemic’s automatic renewal period.

other states staggered their decisions to drop individuals from the rolls based on their renewal dates, Texas targeted the people officials thought were most likely to be ineligible.

In a statement released in April as the state prepared to dump people from the Medicaid rolls, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission said it was adding staff, including temporary workers, and “leveraging all community partners to assist with outreach efforts.”

It’s still an open question as to whether Texas’ outreach was sufficient. And the implications are huge.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services report that as of May, 5.66 million Texas children were enrolled in Medicaid and 302,110 in CHIP.

bill. It’s a bad cycle.”

Expanding Medicaid in Texas would go a long way toward solving the problem and ultimately reducing overall health care costs, Nguyen said.

Texas still pays

In addition to state money going to counties for indigent care, Texas taxpayer dollars also fund partnerships with nonprofits find help for those who fall into the Medicaid gap.

One such initiative in partnership with Feeding Texas is the Referral Partner Program, which is doing needs assessments for thousands of Texans through 19 member food banks around the state, including the San Antonio Food Bank.

A referral specialist does a needs assessment with the individual client or family to include food, health care, energy bills, transportation and other basic necessities to get by, said Theresa Pennell, a program manager at Feeding Texas.

The specialist then does quarterly check ins for a year to see if needs have changed with the loss of a job or other life event and to find out if needed

It’s unclear how many of those hundreds of thousands of kids dropped from the rolls actually should be eligible for Medicaid. Critics say Texas’ data, some of which is compiled by outside parties, is riddled with errors.

Nonprofit children’s policy group Texans Care for Children questions the validity of Texas’ system for determining who to drop from rolls. It also questions the state’s effectiveness at turning its data into proper renewals instead of just booting people from their coverage.

“We’re deeply concerned that Texas kids who are still eligible for health insurance — either through Medicaid or another program — are losing their health coverage for bureaucratic reasons and are going to get turned away the next time they walk into a doctor’s appointment,” Diana Forester, Texans Care for Children’s health policy director, said in a statement.

Theoretically, if a child in Texas doesn’t meet Medicaid’s household income guidelines, they could be eligible for the broader Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). But, in reality, parents have been left scrambling to renew or find alternatives in a hard-to-navigate system.

KFF reports that the number of non-renewals in Texas could be far greater as a percentage of the total Medicaid rolls than other states. While

In 2019, the year before pandemic protocols froze the need to reenroll in Medicaid, Texas had nearly 1 million uninsured children. By 2021 the number of uninsured had shrunk by 65,000 to 930,000, according to an analysis of state data by the Georgetown University Center for Children & Families.

Even before Texas began jettisoning people from the Medicaid rolls in recent months, Texas had the nation’s highest rate of uninsured children: 11.8%.

“State leaders must make sure that kids and moms who are still eligible for health insurance will be able to stay enrolled so they can go to their doctor’s appointments, keep taking their medications and stay healthy,” Texans Care for Children’s Forester said. — Travis

E. Poling

Travis Poling

MChelsea Martinez is struggling to find coverage as she takes care of three kids, two of whom have special needs.

assistance was obtained.

The three-year-old program is a still largely unknown resource and navigators are finding more people to send their way.

“It’s been a great collaboration with the state, and we have the capacity for more,” Pennell said.

If Oklahoma can do it…

Like Texas’ state government, Oklahoma’s Republican-controlled legislature and state leadership dodged covering the working poor for years.

However, voters had other plans. In July 2020, a statewide referendum passed with a slim majority and extended health coverage to an additional 200,000 adults in the state.

Before its passage, Oklahoma had about 800,000 children, pregnant women, people with disabilities and elderly residents covered by Medicaid.

The referendum closed the gap and made a single adult eligible for insurance if they made less than about $17,800 a year. For a family of four, eligibility kicks in at less than $36,588 a year.

The measure passed with 50.49% of the vote, with those voting “yes” coming primarily from urban counties, including those where Oklahoma City and Tulsa are located. While the state’s rural hospitals said Medicaid expansion would help save them from going under or slashing services, voters in rural counties largely opposed the change, The Oklahoman reported.

Angered by the defeat, GOP legislators quickly passed two bills to hamstring future progressive ballot initiatives, including one that would force an automatic recount if the majority vote came in at less

than half a percent. The recount is also now automatic for a close vote within 1% percent if a constitutional amendment is involved. The second measure required future petitions for certain ballot initiatives to include a fiscal impact statement.

Oklahoma’s share of the expansion is an anticipated $164 million a year and the federal government kicks in the other 90%.

But Texas voters won’t get the chance that citizens of Oklahoma and four other states did to expand Medicaid by bypassing naysayers in Republican-controlled legislatures.

For propositions to make it to the statewide ballot in Texas, including constitutional amendments, they must start in the legislature with a joint resolution in the state House and Senate. If the resolution receives a vote of at least two-thirds in both chambers, then voters will get their say come election day.

There’s no provision in state law that allows initiatives that originate directly from citizens to get on the ballot.

Indeed, Republicans have controlled both Texas houses and the governor’s office for 21 years and aren’t likely to risk voters calling the shots on issues such as health care for the working poor, education funding or legalizing recreational marijuana.

State Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, sponsored a bill during this year’s legislative session that would give voters a path to generate ballot initiatives, but it never cleared committee.

Johnson also was behind recent bills that would allow Texas to narrow the Medicaid gap. His bill to create the “Texas Live Well” program would use a waiver from the federal government to expand Medicaid but do so in a way that would be more acceptable to

Republican lawmakers.

None of those proposals advanced during the most recent legislative session.

Any way forward?

One incremental step forward in expansion — and a step years in the making — is the state’s recent extension of post-partum Medicaid eligibility for mothers from 60 days after birth to a full year.

House Bill 12, introduced during the most recent legislative session by State Rep. Toni Rose, D-Dallas, had the support of House Speaker Dade Phelan and several other prominent Republicans in that legislative body. Phelan made HB 12 a priority, and “that was a turning point,” said Yanas of Methodist Healthcare Ministries.

A previous version of the bill passed in 2021, but it was a compromise to extend benefits for the mother to six months after birth. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services turned it down because the language of the new law wasn’t in compliance with federal guidelines.

“They were pushing 12 months at the federal level very hard, and it costs the state almost nothing,” Yanas said of the 2021 bill.

A fiscal note attached to the 2023 bill estimated that the extension would cost the state about $117

Travis Poling

MElysse Adkins speaks to a Texas Health and Human Services advisor about her health coverage options at a recent San Antonio Food Bank event.

Let’s catch up on routine vaccines

million in the first year and $80 million in subsequent years.

College student Elysse Adkins isn’t sure what her future holds when it comes to health insurance. At 24 she has two years of coverage left under her parents’ health plan. At 26, she expects she will still be a finance student at St. Mary’s University where she started this fall.

Having left her full-time job at an East Side nonprofit to go to school full time, she attended the Texas Health and Human Services Commission event at the San Antonio Food Bank. Her in tent was to apply for SNAP, the Supple mental Nutrition Assistance Program once known as “food stamps.”

“I’m working part time, and everything goes to rent,” Adkins said.

Adkins isn’t sure where the money will come from in two years to add a monthly health insurance premium to her living expenses. Having a part-time job and no dependent children both disqualify her for Medicaid.

“It’s been a major concern just like the economy and the job market,” she said.

Advocates for Medicaid expansion aren’t sure how to get lawmakers to provide Adkins or other Texans facing the gap with the same federally funded

“Now we’re trying to tell the human stories. It’s about civic engagement. You can’t just play defense like we’ve done for the last 20 years — because we’re losing.”

For Chelsea Martinez, the mother of three at the Food Bank event, the changes can’t come soon enough. She’s struggling to care for her children and herself without any firm hope of getting health insurance or work in a system that punishes the working poor.

“I miss my job as a pharmacy tech,” Martinez said. “I would like to go back to the job I trained for, but too much is keeping that from happening.”

THU | 09.07SUN | 07.28

ART

‘WATER WAYS’

Ruby City’s newest exhibition, “Water Ways,” unveils more than 50 paintings, drawings, photographs, prints and sculptures from regional, national and international artists. The featured artworks, almost entirely pulled from the Linda Pace Foundation/Ruby City Collection, focus on the theme of water, either literally or metaphorically. “Water Ways” invites viewers to wander depictions and recreations of lakes, rivers, oceans, pools and waterfalls. It also includes works that embody the unique and enamoring qualities of water — fluid motion, reflection and transformation. Artists featured in the exhibition include Ricky Armendariz, Joey Fauerso, Surasi Kusolwong and Jim Hodges. “Water Ways” also showcases Ruby City’s recent acquisition of the large-scale installation Mobile Home II (2006) by internationally renowned artist Mona Hatoum. Hatoum will be present for the opening ceremony at 2 p.m. Sept. 9, which will include an informal walk-through and Q&A. A reception featuring live music and free refreshments will follow from 3-5 p.m. Free, on view 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Thursday-Sunday Sept. 7-July 28, 2024, Ruby City, 150 Camp St., (210) 227-8400, rubycity.org. — Caroline Wolff

FRI | 09.08SAT | 10.07

ART

‘THIS IS HOW WE DO IT: ART AND FAMILY’

Raising children can be among the most satisfying and fulfilling experience of our lives. Clamp Light Artist Studios and Gallery is recognizing the monumental rewards and challenges of parenthood in the group exhibition “This is How We Do it: Art and Family,” curated by artist Raul Rene Gonzalez. Gonzalez first drew attention through his colorful text-based works and concrete pieces depicting construction workers. In more recent years, his art has centered on fatherhood and becoming a stay-at-home parent. “This is How We Do It” will feature pieces by Gonzalez as well as a variety of local artists showing alongside the work of their children. From intimate moments between mother and daughter doing each other’s hair to playful moments by the beach, Gonzalez’s most recent work reveals the intricacies of being a parent. The exhibition will allow viewers “into the artists’ personal spaces and give a sense of how family might

influence or affect their practice as artists.” Among the featured artists are Sarah Fox; Albert Gonzales and Caroline Gonzales; Jacqueline Saragoza McGilvray and Shea McGilvray; and Daniela Oliver de Portillo and Carmen Oliver. Free, opening reception 6-9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8, on view 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday Sept. 8-Oct. 7, Clamp Light Artist Studios and Gallery, 1704 Blanco Road, Suite 104, (210) 987-7276, clamplightstudios.com. — Marco Aquino

SAT | 09.09 -

SUN | 09.24

THEATER INTO THE WOODS

One of Stephen Sondheim’s most revered musical theater masterpieces, Into The Woods merges beloved bedtime stories with bloodshed. The

show uproots fairytale protagonists Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack — he of the beanstalk fame — from their peaceful homelands and thrusts them into a dark forest haunted by a vengeful witch’s curse. Despite its familiar cast, this triple Tony Award-winning story is all its own, showcasing a spellbinding score, atmospheric stage design and reimagined characters with misguided motives. Despite the presence of its fairy tale protagonists, the story at the core of Into The Woods is that of a baker and his wife who want nothing more than to have a child. When the couple discovers the witch’s curse as the cause of their infertility, they embark on a dangerous quest to break the spell. The fairy tale crew join the pair as they undertake the journey, and each brings along their own wish that can only be fulfilled by defeating the witch. After going to unthinkable lengths to break the witch’s curse, each of the characters gets what they set out for, but not without morbid and seemingly insurmountable consequences. $18-$32, 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, Wonder Theatre at Woodlawn Theatre, 1920 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 267-8388, wondertheatre.org. — Caroline Wolff

TUE | 09.12

SPECIAL EVENT

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE LIVE IN CONCERT

In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), viewers join Miles Morales, an Afro Latinx teen from Brooklyn, as a bite from a radioactive spider empowers him to explores the possibilities and mysteries of the Spi-

der-Verse. The animated film’s composer, Daniel Pemberton, received plenty of accolades prior to his work on the soundtrack for Into the Spider-Verse and its sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), and is known for his fusion of genres and incorporation of nontraditional sounds and instruments. Into the Spider-Verse features a score informed by hip-hop music and includes key moments in which the clicks of pens and clacks of computer keyboards become the primary musical instruments. Inspired by Pemberton’s work, the Live in Concert tour takes an innovative approach to orchestral accompaniment. The action of Into the Spider-Verse will unfurl alongside a live performance of the film score featuring musicians playing orchestral instruments as a scratch DJ performs with turntables live on stage. $25 and up, 7 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com.

— Macks Cook

Raul Rene Gonzalez

Surasi Kusolwong

Courtesy Photo / Wonder Theatre

Sony Pictures Entertainment

SAT | 09.16

FILM

VIVA DIECISÉIS AT PEARL

Under the cover of darkness one September night in 1810, a priest named Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in the small Mexican town of Dolores rang a church bell, gathered together his still-sleepy parishioners and delivered a fiery speech now known as the “Grito of Dolores.” That grito, or cry, is now celebrated as the spark that lit the fire of Mexican independence. More than two centuries later, people around the world celebrate “Dieciséis de Septiembre” as the day it all began. San Antonians will celebrate at the Pearl with live music, a grito contest and family-friendly activities including Lotería and guitar-painting. The bash kicks off with mariachi performers from Burbank High School, followed later by national anthems and El Grito presented by Consulado de México and the grito contest, during which participants will wave the tricolor high as they deliver stirring cries honoring the sacrifice of Mexicans who died for their country’s indepdence. Dieciséis de Septiembre is just the beginning, though. Additional events are scheduled over the next four weeks for Hispanic Heritage Month at the Pearl. Free, 5-9 p.m., Pearl, 303 Pearl Parkway, (210) 212-7260, atpearl.com. Dean Zach

FRI | 09.15

COMEDY

FORTUNE FEIMSTER: LIVE LAUGH LOVE!

A delightfully prolific figure in stand-up comedy, film and television, Fortune Feimster is bringing her Live Laugh Love! tour to the Alamo City. Feimster has spent the past 15 years jumping all over the world of entertainment, originally coming to mainstream attention as a writer and panelist on Chelsea Lately and more recently through roles on Hulu’s The Mindy Project and Sex Appeal, Disney’s Soul and Cartoon Network’s Summer Camp Island. The comedian’s boundless energy and magnetic personality have also netted her multiple one-hour Netflix stand-up specials and a popular weekly podcast with her partner Jax called Sincerely Fortune $29.50-$165, 7 p.m., H-E-B Performance Hall, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — Colin Houston

Reminder:

Although live events have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. Check with venues to make sure scheduled events are still happening, and please follow all health and safety guidelines.

Courtesy Photo / Fortune Feimster

Courtesy Photo / Pearl

EVENTS FROM SEPT. 8 - OCT. 15

Let's honor Hispanic Heritage Month and commemoration of Mexican Independence Day, September 16. It was on this day in 1810 that Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla initiated the fight for freedom as he made a grito (cry), which sparked the beginning of Mexico's battle of Independence from Spain.

For more information, visit SanAntonio.gov/Arts

Dream on Pause

The writers strike comes as Latines are finally making waves in Hollywood

BY LINDSEY VILLARREAL

Editor’s Note: The following is an opinion piece by a San Antonio native participating in the Writers Guild of America’s Hollywood writers strike.

This past April, I was deep in talks with a Texas based multimedia company about financing my very first feature, a horror film based on Texas folklore titled Woman Hollering

It felt like nothing short of a dream. For me, the path to become a screenwriter was a long one. It took even longer to make it from Southwest San Antonio where I was born to Los Angeles, California, where I currently reside. With barriers to entry in most Hollywood careers, the road to success for young Latines can be limited.

Only now we’re in week 18 of the Hollywood writers strike. Safe to say the dream is on pause.

If you don’t keep up with entertainment news, you should know that the writers and actors of your favorite films and TV shows are currently out on picket lines fighting for fair wages. Thousands of hard-working guild members, like myself, are out of work at the behest of our union: The Writers Guild of America. The WGA advocates minimum pay, pension, health plans and more for entertainment writers of all kinds.

It’s easy for my colleagues and I to get lost in the jargon of residuals, AI and min-rooms —  words I doubt mean much to you if you’re not adjacent to Hollywood. So, it’s important to me to explain to you why a strike like this, right now, is going to directly affect your experience as media consumer from San Antonio and how a lot of up-and-coming Latine writers from San Antonio might never get their chance to grace your screens.

I had the absolute privilege of writing for a show called Vida, a program about two Mexican American sisters from East LA fighting to understand each other and the hidden life of their recently deceased mother. I also wrote for The Purge on USA Networks. My episode had Mexican characters speaking Spanish alongside Brazilian characters speaking Portuguese, and now the show is syndicated globally.

My one and only goal as a writer is to represent Latine folks in ways not yet seen. Have you seen the show Primo on Freevee yet? If you haven’t you should. It’s about San Antonians who love their family no matter how inconvenient and difficult family can

be. I went to Southwest High School with the show’s creator, famed TV and culture writer Shea Serrano.

That two Latines from the same high school on the South Side of San Antonio can bring our varied opinions and experience to a global audience is huge. It’s unheard of, in fact. Consult any inclusion study or opinion piece of the past five years. I spoke with Southwest High School alum and now district and community relations specialist Brandon Medina who feels what happens in current media directly affects his students.

“I can see how something like the strike in Hollywood would negatively push them at a young age from exploring a creative path,” he said. “Most Latino families would be quick to judge that [a career in entertainment] is not a way to make real money.”

I have to agree. My own path took four years of undergrad film school at UT Austin, two years of aimlessness then three more years of graduate film school at USC followed by a combined eight years of assistant jobs. I took out a fortune in loans, I’m constantly trying to cobble together a living wage and I still haven’t even seen all of The Sopranos. The path of a filmmaker is not an easy one.

When I first started out, I thought writing for film and television meant my stories would be instantly delivered direct to Texican eyeballs, but God was I wrong. Television writers are trained to adapt their writing to a showrunner’s vision.

Too often Latine writers are asked to prove themselves repeatedly until they’re given the chance to be a showrunner at all (if ever). There are very few of us in positions of power because it takes access, time and money to confront all the obstacles that currently exist in Hollywood for Latines. And there are many.

The University of Texas at Austin holds a program for Radio, TV, and Film majors in Los Angeles, where students can try their hand at breaking into a career in Hollywood. My former mentee from the program, Jenny Alvarado, now a corporate employee of vacation rental site VRBO, feels the pressure of trying to break into an unstable industry as a Latina.

“You have to be able to say yes to everything and that means taking lower wages and

being ok with being underpaid,” Alvarado lamented. “It’s this systemic feedback loop of having a story to tell but not having the privilege to fail.”

I hate that for us.

This strike comes at a time when Latines are making waves. When our stories are just starting to break new ground. “It’s awesome to see someone from Southwest High School create a series that’s focused on San Antonio and seeing the Spurs jerseys that you had on your wall as a kid,” Medina said of Serrano’s new show.

That to me is enough to fear the new barriers to entry being created by this strike. That is, the longer this strike goes on, the more young Latines are leaving Hollywood. That’s just not acceptable to me. I want Spurs jerseys as far as the eye can see on the walls of Latine characters on television, and if you’re from the 210 for real, I know you do too.

We cannot let this industrywide setback create new obstacles or push us away from our stories. It’s not fair to you, me, Shea or the Latine kids from high schools across this entire city hungry for a shot at turning their own unique experiences into stories for the world to see.

Make no mistake. I’m in deep support of the WGA. This strike is necessary for our future as writers. But those most affected are those of us from underrepresented communities without so much as a nudge into the entertainment industry. We can blame greed-driven corporate Hollywood for that.

I know many young writers like Alvarado desperate to showcase their narratives, but they can’t do that if the access keeps getting smaller and smaller. When this strike is over, there will be fewer shows and fewer jobs. It’s a future that looks slightly dimmer for our stories. A future I’ll keep fighting to change.

Until then you can find me on the picket lines. Much like my script, I’ll be the Woman Hollering.

COurtesy Photo / Lindsey Villarreal

MVillarreal (right) joins the picket line with other Latines participaing in the Writers Guild of America strike.

Not Just Another Teen Movie

Zany and fearless, Bottoms takes on high school from a raunchy lesbian point of view

BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY

Sennott fearlessly goes into asshole mode at every turn, as her character is so steadfast in her mission to get into a girl’s pants, she doesn’t mind alienating her fellow teenage queer brethren.

As for Edebiri, who often acts like a female Donald Glover, she serves as the sheepish straight (pardon the pun) man.

Directed

by Emma

Seligman

and written by

Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott, Bottoms Opened Sept. 1.

If this was 20 years ago, Bottoms would kill on the gay and lesbian film festival circuit.

As someone who has written about LGBTQ+ film fests in the past, I found this uber-zany, proudly queer, teen burlesque just the kind of fun, frivolous nonsense programmers would look for to balance out the slew of well-meaning dramas and documentaries that would nevertheless bum everyone — gay, straight, whatever — the fuck out.

But this is 2023, and queer culture is all over movies, television and streaming services. My good friend and fellow film-reviewing colleague Jason Shawhan recently wrote an essay in Nashville Scene breaking down the queerness that’s been infiltrating the multiplexes these days. From Barbie’s homoerotic humor — weren’t those Kens more into each other than the Barbies? — to Jason Momoa being the Fast and Furious franchise’s first sexually ambiguous villain to the alpha-bro in the latest A24 scarefest Talk to Me being played by a trans actor to Disney’s The Haunted Mansion, directed by gay director Justin Simien, quietly hinting that Tiffany Haddish and Jamie Lee Curtis’s psychics could have a wonderful life together, it’s been a, shall we say, fabulous time at the movies this summer. Bottoms belongs in the more low-budget, indie section of the multiplex — aka the ones that are bold enough to have screens for queer flicks like Passages and Theater Camp.

After giving us the claustrophobic comedy Shiva Baby, director Emma Seligman, who is herself gay, and actress Rachel Sennott once again team up to drop their own take on the raunchy teen-sex farce. This time, the desperate, virginal protagonists looking to land some tantalizing teenage girls are teenage girls themselves.

Sennott reunites with the ubiquitous Ayo Edebiri — they starred in the very short-lived Comedy Central web series Ayo and Rachel Are Single — to play PJ and Rosie, two high-school seniors and nerdy lesbians who have crushes on the resident popular cheerleaders, played by models Havana Rose Liu and Kaia Gerber. When word gets out that their school’s rival football team is attacking students, PJ and Josie set up a self-defense club for the female students. Of course, they don’t know a damn thing about defending themselves.

But since the student body thinks PJ and Rosie have been in juvie (a long story) — and their crushes join the club — they run with the lie and basically oversee a fight club for gals.

Bottoms is an hour and 32 minutes of Seligman and Sennott, who both wrote the script, indulging in the same adolescent, horndog fantasies male filmmakers have been slapping on the big screen for generations.

Sennott and Edebiri basically play the queer female versions of Jonah Hill’s and Michael Cera’s lustful teen losers from Superbad.

Since this is a comedy written and directed by women, the shenanigans are more satirical — and more feminist. The football-playing boys — who are constantly in full uniform, all looking like ditzy-ass versions of Kevin from Daria — act more queer than the movie’s actual queer people. In fact, the majority of the male characters are gotdamn fools.

Leading the charge is former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch, scoring laughs left and right as a false fact-spewing, goingthrough-a-divorce teacher who becomes the girls’ club sponsor.

The film’s reckless, absurdist abandon almost brings to mind the blatantly ludicrous, hyper-satirical style gay screenwriter-playwright-wicked wit Paul Rudnick brought to such major-studio farces as In and Out, The First Wives Club (for which he did a bitchy, uncredited rewrite) and that much-maligned, batshit culture crash Marci X

As enjoyable as it is watching teen girls be just as horny as the guys, I often felt like the lunacy would get away from Seligman and Sennott. The movie’s such a Mad Magazine-style parody of high school, much of it felt like farce for the sake of farce.

Then again, maybe that’s the point. I’m sure many people will tell you that high school was the most absurd, insane time of their lives. Bottoms makes it known that it was also just as absurd and insane for the queer folk. As far as R-rated teen comedies for the ladies go, Bottoms is certainly a more exuberant — and exuberantly gay (in every sense of the word) — film than Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart.

Courtesy Image / Orion Pictures Inc © 2023 Orion Releasing Llc

Patrolling the Platforms

Online food influencers face heightened scrutiny over their relationships with restaurants

BY NINA RANGEL

In a city with as rich a culinary scene as San Antonio, someone need not spend long scrolling on their phone, tablet or computer before landing on a feed full of beautiful food photos.

What’s not so prevalent is any kind of disclosure whether the online influencer posting the images got a free meal in exchange for sharing them — or even whether they received cash for creating the content.

San Antonio’s foodie influencer community spans all kinds of people, cuisines and backgrounds, from beer lovers to pastry pros to folks that simply love dining out. What connects them all is growing expectation that they be truthful and transparent, especially when they’re being compensated for sharing their experiences.

The Federal Trade Commission this summer released new regulations to clarify expectations for individuals who make money — or snag other perks such as free food, products or experiences — using their social media platforms. The FTC describes the term “influencer” as any individual who works with

brands to recommend or endorse products to an audience.

“Telling your followers about these kinds of relationships is important because it helps keep your recommendations honest and truthful, and it allows people to weigh the value of your endorsements,” the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection told the Current via email.

Those relationships aren’t just limited to money, according to the FTC. According to the agency’s online guide, “Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers,” a social media user should reveal any relationships with a business or product in which they received anything of value in exchange for an online mention.

The FTC calls that stipulation a “common-sense premise,” but many well-known San Antonio influencers don’t comply.

“Pretty much none of us do … across the board, in any city that I’ve watched,” said Amanda Spencer, known online as S.A. Foodie. “So, I think what it comes down to is [that the majority of] people who follow us, I think

they know most of us are getting compensated for each post that we make locally.”

S.A. Foodie — a repeat winner in the Best Influencer category of the Current’s Best of San Antonio reader polls — began 10 years ago as a food photography-focused Facebook account. It’s since grown into a community of followers that numbers nearly 400,000 on Instagram and more than 500,000 on TikTok.

Despite S.A. Foodie’s decision to ignore the FTC guidelines, Spencer’s account remains an attractive way for San Antonio-area businesses looking to grow their own following, marketing experts said.

“For somebody … who wants to see the bang for the buck, you hire S.A. Foodie because you’re going to see an immediate return on investment within the first week,” marketing guru and founder of food and beverage-focused firm Embark Marketing Kim Beechner said. “There are some influencers that maybe are just starting out and are trying to break into that influencer market. Those people are more hungry, and I tell my clients, ‘Those are the people to give the chance … because they need content to grow their account.’ It’s a win-win.”

Wild, wild West

The issue with newcomers to the influencer scene — as well as new bar and restaurant owners looking to leverage social media — is that many of them are unaware of the fed-

Shutterstock / Okan Sumer

eral regulations. These rules apply to everyone who arranges an exchange of money, time or goods for social posts, including the influencer, the business and any ad agencies or public relations teams involved.

Amanda Hill, who chairs St. Mary’s University’s Communication Studies program, said a lack of education around online ethics, including the FTC guidelines, isn’t an excuse.

“I don’t know at what point you get the Instagram checkmark, but if you had to go through short modules that outline the ethical guidelines of how to post, a system of checks and balances, that would definitely educate people, and make them aware of how [these regulations] work,” said Hill, the author of a forthcoming book on the ethics of online storytelling. “I do think there’s got to be something, because we will just kind of run into the wild, wild West if we don’t create that means.”

Drew Henry, founder of San Antonio’s Eat It Up Marketing and a former interior-design influencer, agrees.

He pointed to loop giveaways, a marketing phenomenon made popular by online celebs including Keeping up with the Kardashians star Kylie Jenner, as another way influencers and brands muddy the ethical waters. In a loop giveaway, a brand encourages people to follow it and its associates by teasing giveaways, whether of cash or its own products.

In 2019, Jenner promoted a $20,000 giveaway that including nine luxury bags. The campaign was a huge hit, and the associated brands gained thousands of new followers and a dramatic increase in traffic. That well-publicized marketing win paved the way for loop giveaways on a much smaller scale.

Henry says the technique remains effective, and even though it’s wellknown among social media marketers, that’s not the case among most consumers. The result is that some followers may think an influencer wields more online clout than they actually do.

“Accounts don’t even have to publicly say that they’re in the loop giveaway,” Henry said. “[Influencers] can create giveaway posts and craft captions telling followers to go to the associated accounts and follow everyone listed. Those secondary accounts could be on that follow list without ever disclosing details about their involvement publicly on their own feeds.”

In other words, loop giveaways and

other similar practices make for a boost in followers and engagement — likes, comments and reshares, for example — that looks organic even though they got what amounts to a financial push. Meanwhile, followers have no way of knowing what kind of deals have been cut behind closed doors.

Stiff penalties

To help clarify, the FTC’s updated regulations outline language it expects influencers to use when posting paid content — as well as promotions of brands with which they have an employment, personal or family relationship.

And remember that the agency’s rules apply to any goods, experiences or services the influencer receives in exchange for the post, whether or not the agreement involved a traditional financial arrangement.

Further, the disclosures need to be clear and placed so that they’re nearly impossible to miss, according to the FTC. Captions that thank a brand for free product or experience will suffice, as well as those that include terms such as “advertisement,” “ad” and “sponsored.” The disclosures also must be visible without the viewer having to tap the “more” button in a caption.

If it’s as simple as including the words “paid partnership” or “sponsored” in a caption, why aren’t more local-level influencers sticking to the guidelines — whether to cover their own asses or to be ethical and transparent?

“It could be that, for some influencers, they’ve noticed posts with ‘#ad’ or ‘#sponsor,’ are not as likely to garner engagement,” marketing expert Henry explained. “Their followers are historically more likely to scroll past those posts. But there are other ways to disclose partnerships, especially if they’re gifted goods, or [an influencer is] collecting a fee directly. Something along the lines of, ‘my friends at XYZ business treated me’ or ‘hosted me.’ Language along those lines can also convey the relationship that’s happening.”

Whether San Antonio influencers decide to abide by the FTC’s new guidelines, they should know the repercussions can be stiff. In January, the agency raised the maximum civil penalty for each violation to more than $50,000.

The potential penalty applies whether the offender has millions of followers or just a few. “The number of

followers or the reach of an influencer campaign is not necessarily a deciding factor in whether we choose to investigate a matter or bring a case,” the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection said in its email to the Current However, bureau staff said they consider the “extent and reach” of any campaign they investigate.

“The Endorsement Guides do say that brand connections only need to be disclosed when the connection ‘is not reasonably expected by the audience,’” according to the FTC. “But we think influencers should err on the side of transparency — that’s the safest course of action for them and the best for their audience.”

NEWS

Near East Side drinking spot Espuelas — The Bar at The Bridge has closed.

Family-owned Fonda Nostra Bistró has shuttered its brick-and-mortar location.

Self-serve beer and wine taproom The Dooryard has closed.

Downtown San Antonio’s Broadway Delicatessen has permanently shut down.

OPENINGS

Beloved and Netflix-famous Carnitas Don Raúl is now slinging Michoacán-style eats from a second food truck at 16900 Blanco Road, outside Dead Solid Perfect Golf Multiple locations, instagram.com/carnitas_don_raul.usa.

Vista Brewing will relocate its tap room to the Dignowity Hill area this fall, adding a cafe focused on sustainably and locally sourced ingredients. 125 Lamar St., vistabrewingtx.com.

Chinese restaurant Bamboo has relocated but stayed in its just-south-of-downtown neighbor-

Gravves Coffee

hood. It’s now in the space formerly occupied by Jimmy’s Family Pizza and open exclusively for delivery and takeout. 226 E. Fest St., (210) 4814884, bambooeats.com.

Sukhothai Thai Restaurant will open its fourth area location, this one at 15082 FM 1957, Suite 112, in the West Side’s quick-growing Rio Medina area. Construction is slated to wrap in December. Multiple locations, sukhothaisa.com.

Downtown’s Blanco Cafe early next year will relocate to 201 W. Commerce St., a historic building near City Hall. The previous downtown Blanco Cafe closed this spring after being in operation for 40 years. Multiple locations, blancocafe. net.

Alamo Biscuit Co. has expanded its San Antonio footprint with outposts at Methodist Hospital and Trinity University. Multiple locations, alamobiscuitco.com

Gravves Coffee has opened a spooky shop in the retail center at the intersection of McCullough Avenue and East Ashby Place. 2106 McCullough Ave., gravves-coffee.business.site.

Instagram / @gravvescoffee

Irish Anthem

Celtic-punk act Flogging Molly hitting San Antonio to support new, back-to-basics album

BY ALAN SCULLEY

This year marks Celtic-punk heavyweights Flogging Molly’s 25th year as a band. At least that was when singer-guitarist Dave King and fiddle player Bridget Regan — also King’s future wife — began putting the pieces together.

Having survived the pandemic, the veteran rockers are back on tour supporting their new album Anthem. They’ll perform at San Antonio’s Aztec Theatre Sunday, Sept. 10 with The Bronx and Valdoliers opening.

The road has always been a second home to the seven members of Flogging Molly. Indeed, the group steadily built its large following and stable career the old-fashioned way — by touring and word-of-mouth raves about its raucous and entertaining live shows.

“I remember when we first started — I won’t mention the radio station — but they did a battle of the bands, and they’d play four songs by four bands. Whoever had the most requests at the end of the week would be immediately put on their playlist,” King recalled in a recent phone interview. “And we won hands down, and they refused to play the song on the radio. Their excuse was, ‘Well, it’s only your fans that are calling in.’ From then on, we knew we were never going to get any favors. There was nobody going to be going, ‘We’ll put you on the radio for this and that.’ That was never going to happen with Flogging Molly. Everything Flogging Molly had to do with the help of our fans. We were going to have to do it ourselves.”

He added: “I feel very proud, to be honest. I think we all do. I think we’re very proud that we have done it the old way.”

The talk of the early days is appropriate, not only because Flogging Molly reached a milestone this year, but because Anthem marks a return to the group’s roots in tangible ways. For one, it marks a reunion with producer Steve Albini, who recorded the first two Flogging Molly albums, Swagger (2000) and Drunken Lullabies (2002).

During the four studio albums that followed, King and the rest of Flogging Molly embraced a wider variety of tempos, instrumental settings and musical styles while retaining their foundation in punk and traditional Irish music.

But having been forced off the road and into isolation by the pandemic, King, Regan and the other band members — Dennis Casey (guitar), Matt Hensley (accordion, concerti-

music

na), Nathen Maxwell (bass), Spencer Swain (mandolin, banjo, guitar) and Mike Alonso (drums) — wanted to go back to how Flogging Molly started. That meant recording together live with no attempts to dress up the sound with studio finesse.

They wanted no outside input filtering into the project from a producer, record label or any other source. And that meant Albini, who’s famous for simply recording bands live with minimal overdubs, was the man for the job.

“We wanted to go back to our first couple of albums we did with Steve,” King said. “The band is always in control when you’re working with Albini. It’s not like you’re bringing in somebody [to produce] and they put in their little two cents, which is great sometimes. But we felt that we didn’t want that this time. We felt we wanted to put all of our energy into the album and not be — I don’t want to say hindered — but we have seven opinions in this band [already]. And for right now, those seven opinions were what we wanted for this album.”

By the time Flogging Molly arrived at Albini’s Electrical Audio Studio in Chicago, the band had composed and arranged nearly all the songs for Anthem. The sole exception

was the closer, “The Parting Wave,” which was written and arranged during the session.

In the end, it took just 14 days for Flogging Molly to record the 14 songs on Anthem. Mission accomplished.

“As a band, we’re really, really happy with it,” King said. “Working with Steve has always been a great experience, and then we got Atom Greenspan to mix it. He did an absolutely phenomenal job, absolutely above and beyond, a brilliant job.”

Chances are Flogging Molly fans will agree with that assessment. Plenty of Anthem’s songs — “A Song of Liberty,” “This Road of Mine” and “(Try) Keep The Man Down,” to name three — continue the band’s tradition of crafting rowdy Irish-accented punk songs with strong melodies and solid playing. Those tunes are balanced out by ballads including “No Last Goodbyes” and “The Parting Wave,” which share the Irish feel although with a sturdier grounding in folk.

Flogging Molly won’t be shy about showcasing songs from Anthem during the current tour.

“We’re going to be doing new material from the new album because we feel very strongly about it, and I think [other] people will as well,” King said.

Reminder:

Although live events have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. Check with venues to make sure scheduled events are still happening, and please follow all health and safety guidelines.

Katie Hovland

critics’ picks

Friday, Sept. 8

Watchtower

Influential Texas prog metal group Watchtower has reunited. And it appears intent on blowing up a venue too small for a group of its stature — especially since this gig had landed national coverage in the metal music press. Formed in 1982, Watchtower featured both eventual Dangerous Toys frontman Jason McMaster and San Antonio guitar prodigy Ron Jarzombek (Blotted Science, Spastik Ink). Its legendary 1989 album Control and Resistance won an international audience thanks to its tricky time signatures and off-kilter-but-smart riffs. The reunion features all of Watchtower’s original members. Sold Out, 7 p.m., Fitzgerald’s Bar & Live Music Venue, 437 McCarty Road, Suite 101, (210) 6077007, fitzrockssa — Mike McMahan

Drugstore Cowboy

Carter Davis and Grant Thompson formed the Dallas-based “anti-pop” act Drugstore Cowboy in 2019. The group’s fusion of hip-hop, folk and pop is anchored by Davis’ storytelling and Post Malone-with-a-twang vibe. Thompson provides capable support as drummer and engineer with his skills at the mixing desk on full display for the 2022 release Maverick. Free, 9:30 p.m., The Rustic, 17619 La Cantera Parkway, Suite 204, (210) 245-7500, therustic.com/san-antonio. — Danny Cervantes

Saturday, Sept. 9

High Heavens, Yoshimoto

Guitarist Ernest Salaz may be best known as a guiding member of Austin post-hardcore outfit Glorium, but High Heavens has him toning down the angst while remaining compelling. Salaz’s cascading guitar lines contrast with the vocals of John Matthew Walker, whose style bears a certain resemblance to David Bowie. The band’s artsy, almost loungey sound has drawn comparisons to luminaries such as Leonard Cohen and Julee Cruise. $7, 10 p.m., Lighthouse Lounge, 1016 Cincinnati Ave., www.facebook.com/thelighthouselounge.

— MM

The Wizard, D.R.O., 777s

This eclectic local show is being billed as “Cacophony,” but if the three acts incorporate a little discord into their music, it’s far from a defect. Psychedelic rock trio The Wizard released its latest album, Window Seat, this summer — and it’s one nearly 20-minute piece broken into multiple tracks with names like “Turbulence,” “Over the Ocean” and “Cabin Pressure.” The overall experience is like a long plane flight — a mostly lyric-free, trancelike affair with samples of overhead announcements and other ambient sounds one might hear on a passenger plane. Producer D.R.O. makes explorative music in his own right, while

777s do the same. $10, 8 p.m., The Starlighter, 1910 Fredericksburg Road, thestarlighter.com.

— Dalia Gulca

Cold Cave, Riki

The solo project of musician and writer Wesley Eisold, Cold Cave draws from a lineage that goes from The Velvet Underground to Joy Division. While the act’s darkwave credentials have led to touring with luminaries such as Nine Inch Nails, Sonic Youth and Gary Numan, the music isn’t hopelessly one-note: slivers of hope emanate from the gloom. Meanwhile, Los Angeles-based Riki specializes in new wave-inspired sounds. $25, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — DC

Monday, Sept. 11

Coheed & Cambria, Deafheaven

Fronted by the copiously coiffed and helium-voiced Claudio Sanchez, Coheed & Cambria specializes in metallic hard rock with prog flourishes and enough sci-fi imagery to fuel a comic book series. We’re not just speaking metaphorically on the last point: Sanchez actually produced just such a series. On this tour, the band is revisiting 2007’s No World For Tomorrow for a full performance. Don’t sleep on this chance to hear “Feathers,” an underplayed gem that somehow takes a tip from ’80s glam-metal band Poison’s “Fallen Angel” and makes it the greatest thing you’ve ever heard. $55-$200, 8 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N.

St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre. com. — MM

Wednesday, Sept 13

Keep Flying, Stifler, Last Time, 40% Dolomite, Bay Street

New Jersey’s Keep Flying makes pop-punk music for the modern age — and its trombones and saxophones give a tinge of ska to the proceedings. The support from three San Antonio and Florida pop-punk bands is more varied than one might expect, incorporating elements of screamo to post-hardcore to alternative and back again. $10, 9:30 p.m., The Amp Room, 2407 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 320-2122, theamproom.com. — Dalia Gulca

Thursday, Sept. 14

Jawbreaker, Joyce Manor, Grumpster

It’s a familiar story. Band makes brilliant but under-appreciated album and throws in the towel. Such is the case with the reunited Jawbreaker. The band was an early influence on emo, courtesy of frontman Blake Schellenbach’s heart-on-sleeve lyrics and an ability to craft infectious melodies. After signing to a major label, Jawbreaker dropped Dear You, an achingly sincere bit of punk rock powered by a rhythm section that played with the aggressiveness of Iron Maiden. Apparently, we were too busy screaming “sell out” to bask in the album’s glory. $39.50-$79, 7 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N.

St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre. com. — MM

Saturday, Sept. 16

Vanilla Ice, Rob Base, 2 Live Crew, Color Me Badd, Young MC

Billed as the I Love the’90s package tour, this nostalgia-laden lineup seems like it could have actually come together on an Oyster Bake stage. In addition to doing the “Ninja Rap” with Vanilla Ice, you can “Bust A Move” with Young MC, “rock right now” with Rob Base, “get sexed up” with Color Me Badd and bask in the respectful dialogue of 2 Live Crew — all in one star-studded evening. Word to your mother. $49.50-$89.50, 8 p.m., The Espee, 1174 E. Commerce St., (210) 226-5700, theespee.com. — DC

Roselit Bone, Christine Roberts, Sheverb Portland, Oregon-based Roselit Bone delves into a unique brand of goth-country on its new album Ofrenda. Although the group’s countrified foundation draws from timeless sources such as ranchera and rockabilly music, the lyrics crooned by singer Charlotte McCaslin frequently touch on the turmoils of modern life. Think of Roselit Bone as an alternative honky-tonk soundtrack for the past few years’ wild ride of pandemics, wildfires and other calamities. $10, 9 p.m., Lonesome Rose, 2114 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 455-0233, thelonesomerosesa.com. — DC

Roselit Bone

Danny Dodge

EMPLOYMENT

Dental Health Associates of TX seeks Dentist in San Antonio, TX to treat patients & provide dental services. Resume: 1200 Network Centre Dr. Ste. 2 Effingham, IL 62401

Product Development Engineer, 3M, San Antonio, TX. Manage product design change projects to comply w/ int’l standards for med. devices or intro into new global markets. Use design controls to plan, dvlp, & implement med. device design changes per ISO 13485 & ISO 14971 as applicable. Lead root cause investigations to resolve product quality problems. Implement correction plans to prevent recurrence of quality issues. Coordinate resources to take the re-design of a product into production. Work w/ wound dressings, classified as Class II & III medical devices, used to treat acute & chronic wounds in patients. Materials used can incl. polyurethane films, acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive, hydrocolloids, polyester & polyether foams, different resins (PVC, Polyacrylates, Polypropylenes), woven & non-woven fabrics, or compressed composites. Redesign these dressings as needed to improve the performance of the device, reduce the cost of it, or replace obsolete components to meet all design controls per int’l standards. Establish equivalency of dressing materials through testing for product stability, biocompatibility, & characterization. Bach. in Eng’g or Eng’g Sciences req’d. Must also have 1 yr work or internship exp. in an eng’g role: (i) managing product design & dvlpmnt projects incl. New Product Dvlpmnt Processes, in med. device industry; (ii) using design controls in med. device dvlpmnt per ISO 13485 & ISO 14971; & (iii) gathering, analyzing, & cataloguing technical data req’d for product composition to meet int’l regs in use of harmful substances incl. REACH, RoHS, & Cal. Prop. 65. Exp. may be gained concurrently. May be eligible for telecommuting from home work location within commuting distance of San Antonio, TX office. Domestic & int’l travel req’d 10% of time. Apply at: 3m.com/3M/en_US/careers-us/.

Risk Analyst sought by Brundage Management Company, Inc., in San Antonio, TX. 40 hrs./wk. Duties include, but not limited to: Develop risk policy and exposure strategy for origination, existing account mgmt and collections for various channels (branch and internet). Develop risk criteria and pricing strategy for direct mail channel, including pre-approval, pre- screen and ITA. Conduct process auditing to support various ongoing campaigns. Perform tracking and reporting in regular basis. Develop and publish business reporting package for the life cycle of the lending business. Conduct various statistical analysis to evaluate the execution and results of business initiatives. Conduct model mgmt. Remote work/telecommuting benefits available. Hybrid schedule – can work from home up to 10 days per month. Must reside in same MSA of office worksite. MIN.REQ.: Master’s degree, or foreign equiv., in Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science or related field. 2 yrs. of exp. in job offered or in a statistical analysis position. SPECIAL REQ.: 2 yrs. exp. in statistical model technique. 3 yrs. exp. with data process programming - SAS, SQL, Python, VBA. 1 yr. exp. with Power Bl, Tableau. Email resumes to: valerie@brundagemgt.com

Data Engineer IV sought by Capital Group Companies Global in San Antonio, TX. Provide tech leadership & end-to-end solution ownership incl planning, research, & strategy. Hybrid work permitted - when not working from home, must report to San Antonio, TX office. Salary: $115,910- $185,456/yr, plus standard company benefits. Must have unrestricted right to work in U.S. To apply, send resume to: Global Mobility Team - cgapplications@capgroup.com. MUST REF. JOB CODE: SA0922BA.