Brenda

[Brenda @bwbernal]

@jamestalarico How about spending the tax dollars on paying the actual teachers for teaching math, science, reading. Teachers, staff have enough to do.

[TexAgs @TexAgs]

BACK ON TOP 👑🏆

FOR THE SECOND TIME IN THREE YEARS, YOUR FIGHTIN’ TEXAS AGGIES ARE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS ‼️🎾

[Richard Zane @RichardZane32]

Pinnacle of consistency for Mark Weaver & Co. 👍

A thrilling 4-3 win over UNC earns the Ags a rematch with UGA tomorrow in yet another national semifinal 🎾

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I am a senior coordinating producer for the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. I have worked eleven of these. I was backstage at the Washington Hilton when the shots were fired.

The first thing I heard was not the gunfire. It was glass.

A champagne flute hit the floor of the International Ballroom at approximately 9:47 PM. Then a second. Then the sound that I have since been told was a 12-gauge shotgun, which from inside the ballroom sounded like a heavy door slamming in a parking garage. Then the Secret Service moved. They moved the President, the Vice President, the First Lady through the east corridor in under ninety seconds, which is protocol, which is practiced, which is the one part of the evening that worked exactly as it was designed.

Everything else was improvised.

I know this because I ordered the wine. 94 tables. Two bottles per table. 188 bottles of a Willamette Valley pinot noir that the Association selected in February after a tasting committee spent three meetings debating between Oregon and Burgundy. Oregon won. The budget was $14,200. I signed the invoice. I can tell you the vintage. I can tell you the distributor. I can tell you the per-bottle cost because I negotiated it down from $89 to $76.

What I cannot tell you is how 147 of those bottles left the building during an active shooter evacuation.

I can tell you what I saw. A correspondent from a network I will not name picked up two bottles on her way to the east exit. Full bottles. One in each hand. She was wearing heels and she did not spill. A man in a tuxedo tucked one inside his jacket the way you'd shoplift a paperback at an airport bookstore. A woman picked up a bottle, looked at the label, put it back, and took a different one.

She checked the vintage. During an evacuation. That's editorial judgment under pressure.

The theme of the dinner was "A Free Press for a Free People." The banners were still hanging when the evacuation began. I know because I hung them. Twenty-three banners, navy blue, gold serif lettering, $11,400 for the set. They were still hanging when 2,600 guests were directed to the exits by Secret Service agents, one of whom had just taken a shotgun round in his ballistic vest and walked to the ambulance on his own feet.

The agent's vest costs approximately $800. The wine that left the building was worth $11,172 at Association cost. At restaurant markup, roughly $29,000. The guests saved more in wine than the vest that saved the agent.

That's priority.

The video went viral by 10:15 PM. Not the video of the evacuation. Not the Secret Service response. The wine. Three guests in formalwear grabbing bottles off white tablecloths while being told to move toward the exits, while a man with a shotgun stood in the same motor entrance where John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan 45 years ago.

A woman near the service entrance was crying. She said "I just wanna go home." She was not holding wine. She was holding her phone. She was the only person I saw that night who looked afraid rather than inconvenienced.

That's the distinction. The rest of the ballroom did not look afraid. They looked interrupted. An active shooter at the WHCD is a logistical problem. The dinner was disrupted. The timeline was off. The after-party at the French Ambassador's residence would need to be rescheduled. These are contingency matters. Contingency matters have solutions. Fear is for people who attend events without security details.

I have produced eleven of these dinners. I have managed seating charts that require diplomatic-grade negotiations. I have handled comedians, cabinet secretaries, network anchors, and the editor of a major newspaper who once threatened to leave because his table was behind a column.

I have never, in eleven years, seen a guest leave a $76 bottle on the table during an evacuation. I have also never seen a guest check the label first. Both observations are consistent. The bottle is worth taking. The evacuation is worth surviving. The instinct is to do both simultaneously.

188 bottles placed. 41 recovered. 147 unaccounted for. One agent shot. Zero guests injured. Zero bottles broken.

A free press for a free people. The press is free. The wine was $76 a bottle. They took it anyway.

[Brenda @bwbernal]

@billyliucci @NFLDraft Will Lee III!

[TexAgs @TexAgs]

THE AGGIES CLAIM THE LONE STAR SHOWDOWN TITLE AND THE SERIES VICTORY OVER THE NO. 2 TEXAS LONGHORNS 👍

[Brenda @bwbernal]

@TommyMoffitt @BrentZwerneman Oh she is in charge…

[Brenda @bwbernal]

@AggieWBB Whoop!

[Will Stone @WillStoneCFB]

This is so sick

[Brenda @bwbernal]

@mbpOn3 It comes in waves…

[Probably Austin’s Best Roofer @BalconesRoofing]

Alright!

Lake Travis is currently sitting at 671.90 feet — a whopping 40-foot rise from the level at the time of my original video in January of 2024. It is still on the rise! ⛵️

[Brenda @bwbernal]

@mbpRivals You have one job…

[Brenda @bwbernal]

@billyliucci I guess they just did…

[Brenda @bwbernal]

@ianbremmer Ad this to the list of why no one believes a politician of any party .

[John Patterson @johnpaulp]

Hey @tedcruz. Me again. Stay outta CS next weekend bud. You’ve got it locked down. If you show up at Kyle Field next Saturday I swear man just don’t do it. Don’t invite him either @TrevAlberts you messed up with this ND weekend don’t you dare do it again bro

Happy Sunday.

[David Pollack @davidpollack47]

Wow I have never seen that in my life. The fans threw bottles on the field and the refs literally changed their call. That is such horse crap man. That’s one of the worst ways of handling a situation I have seen. Can’t believe they ain’t talking about that in the booth.

[🏈 emily🌲 @emilyofeasttx]

presented without comment

[Audit Austin City Council @saveaustintx]

Atx drops from these best place to live 3 years in a row in 2019 to now #40 in 4 years. Who would have saw that electing progressives who defund the police, spending $100’s of millions on homeless and raising taxes would have a negative effect 🤦🏼https://t.co/UAepJVAq3Z

[Bud Elliott @BudElliott3]

My wife just put on a masterclass of parenting.

Almost 2YO bites the crap out of 4YO. Good bite. In his flank right below rib cage. Painful spot. Drew blood.

Spiderman bandaid applied.

Sentenced 2Y to a 2-hour timeout loud enough for 4yo to hear. This Appeases 4yo who wants revenge. (It’s really just nap time for 2yo and 4yo doesn’t know this, so a two-hour timeout does seem extreme).

4Y ain’t done. Says 2Y shouldn’t get any presents from Santa. Wife says how will Santa know if you don’t write him a letter? So tricks him into working on his ABCs while narcing on his brother to Santa. Very focused to get this letter right.

Then sends me and 4Y to run errands and get ice cream to make it feel better.

House cleared out and quiet, she grabs a nap.

Chess not checkers.