The Texas agricultural commissioner defended his practice of posting untrue stories on his Facebook page, where he has more than 320,000 followers, by saying he was “not a news organization.”

Responding to a Texas Tribune analysis published Saturday that found a pattern of plainly false stories on Miller’s public social media presence, Sid Miller called into the Austin-based KUT News on Wednesday to discuss the story.

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“I shouldn’t be held to that standard,” he said. “It’s like Fox News: I report, you decide if it’s true or not.”

After the interview was published online, Miller, who actively supported President-elect Donald Trump, posted a link to it on his Facebook page, writing: "I've got news for the Texas Tribune and their liberal elite media friends--I have never been politically correct and I am not about to start now, and I am glad that we will soon have a President in the White House who feels the same way!"

LANSING -- The Michigan House of Representatives passed a pair of anti-union bills Wednesday night that make it harder for workers and unions to picket and easier for employers to hire workers to replace striking employees.

One bill would increase fines against picketers to $1,000 per person per day of a picket and $10,000 per day for an organization or union involved in the picket that is deemed to be an illegal mass picket. That bill passed on a mostly party-line vote of 57-50.

The other would repeal a law that requires employers to include information about an ongoing strike when they advertise to hire employees who will replace existing, but striking employees at a company. That bill passed on a vote of 59-48 on a mostly party line vote.

Democrats said the bill was an affront to peaceful protests and would allow companies to file complaints about pickets without showing any actual harm was done to their business.

Move over, all you Elmos and Power Rangers — there’s a new Times Square character. Meet “Mike Hot-Pence,” a guy who looks an awful lot like the Vice President-elect, and dresses like him, too .?.?. at least from the waist up.

Below the conservative navy blazer and tie that could have been filched from the actual Mike Pence’s closet, Mike Hot-Pence sports some very un-vice-presidential skimpy short shorts.

Like so many of the other costumed creatures in the touristy Manhattan hub, he’s looking for donations. But unlike most of the competition, the change Mike Hot-Pence busks is going to nonprofit groups.

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According to his Twitter feed, he’s been collecting money for organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the Natural Resources Defense Council. His hashtag? #activismishot.

Asked if he had anything he’d like to share with the real, pants-wearing Mike Pence, Pannell quipped, “You have to represent all people, not just the ones that look like you. And me.”

A massive fire destroyed eight buildings in Cambridge, Massachusetts, including the home of one cat lover, who got an uplifting surprise after the blaze was knocked down Saturday.

Despite the tragic loss of her home, firefighters were able to save her two cats. The woman was overjoyed to see her pets again amid the chaos, and her friend, Justin Khoo, captured the reunion in a touching video.

"My friend's house was involved in a massive fire. She didn't think her cats survived. Here she is finding them alive!" he wrote on Reddit.

"Really puts things into perspective," he continued in a comment. "She didn't even care about her house being gone, she just was happy her kitties were ok."

The city council of Portland in Oregon will vote on Wednesday whether to impose a tax on companies whose CEO’s pay exceeds the median salary of their workers by a ratio of more than 100-to-one.

The measure, which was proposed by Portland city commissioner and former environmental lawyer Steve Novick, will take advantage of the fact that new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules will require companies to disclose their executive pay ratios for the first time beginning in 2017.

If it passes, experts said the tax would be the first of its kind.

Novick said that he was inspired by a similar measure proposed by the California state senate in 2014, which failed to reach the supermajority needed to make changes to the state tax code. He was also inspired by reading French economist Thomas Piketty’s book Capital.

“To me, after global warming, income inequality is the biggest challenge we face in our society,” Novick said. “It’s been absolutely frightful to see the divide between regular folks and the richest-of-the-rich. It’s economically destabilizing, it’s politically destabilizing, it’s unhealthy.”