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Ahead of the coming summer heat, a federal court is considering whether air conditioning should be provided in all Texas prisons. We’ve been following the case that’s been happening in Austin over the past couple of weeks.
There are new changes to SNAP, the benefits that help low-income Texans purchase food. That assistance can’t be used for candy or most sweetened drinks. We’ll take a look at what impact this is having.
The San Marcos Studio Tour continues this weekend. We’ll hear about one artist who is showcasing work.
And a bit of good news to start the weekend: Austin’s favorite owl is giving us a couple of reasons to celebrate.
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The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] Ahead of the coming summer heat, a federal court is considering whether air conditioning should be provided in all Texas prisons. We have been following this case that’s been happening in town over the past couple of weeks. We’re going to bring you the latest. And there are changes to SNAP, the benefits that help low-income Texans purchase food that assistance now cannot be used for candy or most sweetened drinks. More about those qualifications and those stories coming up on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:34] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Kehanel.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:39] Plus, the San Marco Studio tour continues this weekend. We’re gonna hear about one artist who’s showcasing work out there, and a bit of good news to start the weekend. Austin’s favorite owl is giving us a couple of reasons to celebrate a whole lot more about those stories. Coming up next, that is right here on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, thank you for tuning in to Austin Signal. It is Friday, April 10th. I’m your host, Jerry Kikano. We appreciate you tuning in to Community Powered Public Radio. This is KUT News. A trial that could have an impact on whether or not air conditioning is required for Texas prisons is about to conclude. Closing arguments have wrapped up, and now we’re waiting for a judge to decide that outcome. For more about the case, we’re speaking with KUT’s government accountability reporter, Andrew Weber. Andrew, thanks for being back on the show. Yeah, thanks for having me, Jerry. So can you remind us about this case and what is at stake here?
Andrew Weber [00:01:42] Yeah, the past is prolog here. And that’s like really, really important. There’s a big backdrop here. Last year, a federal judge, Robert Pittman, declared like in a ruling, rather in an order, not a ruling said basically the way that Texas has gone about providing AC in its state prisons was, and this is a quote, plainly unconstitutional. Like I said, he stopped short of ruling on that and requiring the state to air condition its prisons. But this trial over the last two weeks has been the sort of preamble to a ruling that will come down eventually from him. So folks have argued on behalf of prisoners that the conditions, and this is even by, we’ve reported this and the state has, by its temperature logs, it’s regularly over 90 degrees in most Texas prisons. Two thirds of Texas prisons are on air condition. And so plaintiffs are arguing the state needs to do this, but they’ve been sort of dragging their feet on this. And the state argues that, you know, this is something that we’re trying to do and we’re tying to get there, but we can’t do this overnight.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:48] This is the first day this week that you’re not in that federal court and closing arguments just wrapped up. What have been some of your takeaways from being in the room and from those arguments specifically?
Andrew Weber [00:02:58] Those arguments hinged a lot on specifically whether or not deaths are quote unquote heat related. The state previously has said over the last several years that there have been no heat related deaths. They sort of walked that back at the start of this trial, which was interesting and said, okay, three of these more recent deaths, heat was a contributing factor to those deaths. But plaintiff’s attorneys said, Okay, well, what about these other seven? Because They highlight a 10. Cases, 10 individuals who they say died because of heat-related illness. The state has argued basically there are a lot of factors that go into some of these deaths. Some of them were drug-related, some of them had folks had comorbidities. But the state leaned heavily on the fact that it is trying to get beds online. I believe it has just near 53,000 bets currently that are air conditioned. And they said they want to bring 9,000 more on by the end of the year. Uh, but you know, there’s still 140,000 ish inmates. So they’re, they’re not, you know. Not everybody’s getting air conditioned.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:09] Yes, okay, so you’re not allowed to record anything inside the federal court, but you did talk with some folks during this trial Who we’re going to hear from
Andrew Weber [00:04:16] Jeff Edwards. I talked with him, I believe it was on Tuesday after court let out. He’s an important person to talk to. He is a plaintiff’s attorney, yes, but he’s also successfully sued the state to get air conditioning in 2018. And he said this is kind of the case in Texas, that the state isn’t going to act on these plans unless there’s a federal court order.
Jeff Edwards [00:04:39] Absent an order from the court, TDCJ is simply not going to move at a speed that reflects any semblance of the notion that it is violating the Constitution.
Andrew Weber [00:04:52] And I also spoke with Amit Dominic. She is an advocate. She works with Texas prison communities. She’s been working at this since 2015, very heavily involved at the legislature. And she said, whatever happens from this case, there still needs to be some legislative action. If it’s a funding issue, then the state needs to give more to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to make sure that the conditions are humane.
Amit Dominic [00:05:19] People behind those walls and their family members are their constituents. And they’re responsible for allowing this to happen. They’re accountable for allowing to happen along with TDCJ and its administration. There’s plenty of accountability to spread around for this.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:39] So we do, do we know when this judge is going to be making his decision?
Andrew Weber [00:05:42] We don’t in the last, the last ruling took about eight months. So it, but it could, you know, it’s variable. Obviously as court was sort of letting out yesterday, judge Pittman sort of thanked all the attorneys and everybody and said, you know, I would love to have y’all on my court again, but not in this case. Uh, so he’ll have a ruling at some point then, you know, depending on how it goes, it could get appealed to the fifth circuit court of appeals, federal appeals court. That’s going to take years and years to play out.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:09] All right, we have been speaking with KUT’s government accountability reporter, Andrew Weber. We’re gonna have a link to his latest reporting and today’s show notes. Andrew, thanks for your time. New changes have come to the Texas Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Those benefits, which help low-income Texans purchase food, now cannot be used for candy or most sweetened drinks. That’s thanks to a law that was passed last year, part of a slate of legislation dubbed the Make Texas Healthy Again agenda. But what actually qualifies as candy or as a sugary drink? KUT’s Olivia Aldridge reports some Austin area residents are figuring that out at the checkout counter. I’ll see you next time.
Olivia Aldridge [00:06:55] On a recent trip to H-E-B, I couldn’t resist a stroll down the picked-over Easter Candy aisle, hoping for a marked-down bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs. Not seeing as many discounts as I’d like, but a lot of these signs that say, no longer SNAP eligible, with lots of details about the change to the SNAP program. I also saw signs in the juice aisle, the soda aisle. And local SNAP recipient Sandra Allen told me that signage has been really helpful. But she says not every grocery store has it and not all the grocery staff seem to know much about the new rules. During her first visit to Target after the law went into place April 1st, she was surprised to discover the apple juice she often buys for her nine-year-old daughter isn’t SNAP eligible anymore. She says having a conversation with a confused store clerk about whether or not you can buy something can feel embarrassing. Them saying, well, you can’t get this.
Sandra Allen [00:07:53] Can’t get this and you’re left with half your basket. You can’t afford and that’s it’s embarrassing enough to have to pull out of a snap card. So everybody behind, you know, really knows why.
Olivia Aldridge [00:08:04] She really can’t afford any game. She had to put half her basket back. Leading up to April, Texas Health and Human Services released guidelines on what should be excluded from SNAP. That includes the obvious stuff, candy bars, taffy, gum, but also yogurt-covered raisins and nuts. Also off the table, drinks with more than five grams of added sugar or any amount of artificial sweetener. There are exceptions for milk-based drinks and medical-grade electrolyte products like Pedialyte. Individual retailers have to interpret this guidance, and they face penalties if they allow SNAP benefits where they shouldn’t, including fines and even prison time. At Austin’s locally owned Fresh Plus grocery stores, the task fell to John Robertson.
John Robertson [00:08:46] You use Google a lot to get the internet’s interpretation. You look at the law and how it’s written.
Olivia Aldridge [00:08:54] Going through individual items in the store took Robertson around three days. He said he erred on the side of marking items as ineligible when there wasn’t a clear-cut answer. And sometimes he really had to scrutinize nutrition labels. For traditional sodas, it’s straightforward. But what about those new-fangled prebiotic sodas that use natural sweeteners?
John Robertson [00:09:14] I found myself going out and having to look at basically every single can to see how much added sugar was in that particular line.
Olivia Aldridge [00:09:23] Some drinks that many folks might think of as healthy don’t pass a close label check. For instance, not all kinds of Welch’s grape juice are the same. The brand has a 100% grape juice that doesn’t include added sugar, but a 10 ounce bottle of Welches grape juice cocktail has 20 grams. And as for sports drinks, a 12 fluid ounce serving of Mountain Berry Blast Powerade has 21 grams, four times the limit of added sugar. That’s the kind of thing that surprised Sandra Allen. She said she doesn’t often buy candy or soda or energy drinks, but scrutinizing the exact grams of sugar in a juice box feels a little different.
Sandra Allen [00:10:00] Having to have someone quickly tell you that you need to change the way you eat. Cause basically that’s what it is.
Olivia Aldridge [00:10:07] You need to change the way you feed your family.” She also points out that many of the juices still covered by SNAP are more expensive and would eat up more of her balance. She gets around $400 per month loaded onto her Lone Star card since she lost her job as a project manager around a year ago. She says she’s been looking for a new role ever since, doing some odd jobs to make ends meet. What’s the economy?
Sandra Allen [00:10:31] Professional and it’s just been really hard to to land a job so I’m using that.
Olivia Aldridge [00:10:37] Feed my child and myself. But the restrictions on candy and sweetened drinks may ultimately be a small change compared to what could be coming for the SNAP program. A provision of U.S. House Resolution 1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, requires states to pay more to run their SNAP programs. And if states have a high error rate for SNAP spending, mistakes in how the program’s money is issued, they could be required to take on some of the cost of benefits to. Texas has a roughly 9% error rate for SNAP payments. That largely comes from administrative mistakes or income reporting issues resulting in overpayments or underpayments through SNAP. And it means the state would have to budget an additional $708 million to fund the program moving forward. Celia Cole is the CEO of Feeding Texas, a state association of food banks.
Celia Cole [00:11:31] That’s not a decision that’ll be made until next legislative session in 2027, but any reduction in access to benefits or eligibility or simply walking away from the program would be, you know, obviously really devastating for the three and a half million or so Texans that participate. In order to…
Olivia Aldridge [00:11:48] To avoid that steep price tag, Texas would need to shrink its error rate to 6% by September, the end of the current fiscal year. I’m Olivia Aldridge in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:00] And thank you for spending part of your Friday here with Austin Signal. We are made possible by KUT News. We are community-powered public radio. We have more coming up after this break. Stay with us. This is Austin Signal. Welcome back. A basketball court in Austin seems pretty ordinary, but for many in the Montopolis area, the court is more than just a place to shoot some hoops. It’s a place for community to congregate, come together, and become stronger. The grand opening of courts at the Roy G. Guerrero Park is being celebrated tomorrow afternoon, hosted by the Land Justice Community School’s Youth Fellows. Joining us now is Executive Director Alexia Laclaff. And youth fellow Genesis Pedraza. Thanks for speaking with us.
Alexia Laclaff [00:12:59] Thanks for having us.
Jerry Quijano [00:13:01] So tell us a little bit first off for a listener who might not be familiar. What is land justice community school?
Alexia Laclaff [00:13:07] Yeah, this is Alexia and I’m the Executive Director of Land Justice Community School. We are a collective of organizers, educators, artists, and we work specifically with youth from East Austin to ensure that their voices are centered and their lived experiences are centered in shaping media narratives and shaping education work and also shaping the futures of their communities.
Jerry Quijano [00:13:29] So as a fellow Genesis, do you feel like you have a lot of third spaces here in Austin?
Genesis Pedraza [00:13:33] No, not at all. Because I remember when I was younger, there was more third spaces, but not like with all the gentrification and stuff. There’s rarely third spaces that people can be at.
Jerry Quijano [00:13:46] What are some of the third spaces that you remember from your youth?
Genesis Pedraza [00:13:50] I used to live in an apartment when I was younger, so like the office area was kind of like a third space to me because they would allow anybody to be there, they would like give us ice cream, like stuff like that. And so like that really made me feel like, oh like I have a community there that like supports me, like enjoys me being there.
Jerry Quijano [00:14:06] Yeah, that’s really, that that’s funny, because I remember when I first moved into Apartment Complex, it was like the computer room back then. You know, I’m a little bit older than you. So like, it was, like, oh, we can go there and use the internet and hang out and just be ourselves away from hanging out at home. So you all have an event happening tomorrow. Tell us more about what’s going on.
Alexia Laclaff [00:14:24] Yeah so one of our colleagues, Noe, built a basketball court for Metopolis because over the years a lot of the, all the public basketball courts were closed down for different reasons and so we thought it would be really important to have that space for the community. And so Genesis, do you want to speak a little bit more about like what you have planned for the event we have organized.
Genesis Pedraza [00:14:43] So what we have planned is a potluck style gathering and we’re going to have roller skating, basketball, tamales, just so everybody can be there.
Jerry Quijano [00:14:52] Alexio, what do you enjoy about working with these fellows and working with the community at the same time?
Alexia Laclaff [00:14:57] Yeah, I think I learned so much from working with the community. It’s really a reciprocal relationship and it’s about young people connecting their own lived experiences with the systemic analysis of the world around them and realizing that they have the voices, the stories, the tools necessary to determine what their futures and what their communities are going to be shaped.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:17] Yeah, what have you learned during your time as a fellow?
Genesis Pedraza [00:15:20] I learned more that there’s people there that need a community and that like they can have somebody to rely on which is like what really matters to me because when I was younger like there was people but now that I’m older I could help out more people with like them because like they’re like helping me and we’re also helping other people while we’re doing that.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:41] Alexia, how can other Austinites get involved?
Alexia Laclaff [00:15:44] Yeah, so one of our biggest program is our Southern Land Justice Fellowship. And we’re going to be paying 10 Black and brown youth to organize on different environmental justice issues. And it’s going to across Austin, Corpus, Brownsville, and St. John’s in Louisiana. And the applications are currently live on our social media and website. They’re going be due May 1st. And we would love to have you join us in working together to make Austin a better place for everyone.
Jerry Quijano [00:16:09] You know, Genesis, one last question. You mentioned that there aren’t a ton of third spaces here in Austin. So it seems as though there’s this creation of this new one with the Montopolis courts. In your ideal world, what kind of other third spaces would you like to see created in Austin?
Genesis Pedraza [00:16:23] What I would want to see is something where you don’t have to pay for it, where you don’t feel like, oh, if I go somewhere, I have to pay for because then I feel bad because I’m just in their space. What I want is more spaces where people can feel like they belong there, they can talk with other people, share ideas, feel belong.
Jerry Quijano [00:16:43] All right, well, you’re going to have roller skating, a DJ, and tamales. What more do I have to say? That’s tomorrow at the Montopolis Courts in Roy Guerrero Park. We’re going have a link to that in the show notes for today’s podcast. We have been speaking with Genesis Pedraza and Alexia LeCla. They are with the Land Justice Community School. Thank you for your time.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:17:04] Thank you.
Jerry Quijano [00:17:12] In its fourth year the San Marcos studio tour is showcasing almost every kind of artists you can imagine. Painters and sculptors, graphic designers and ceramicists, tattoo artists and metal workers. There are over 80 creators featured along the tour. KUT’s Hayes County reporter Lee Walden spent some time with one of them.
Leigh Walden [00:17:32] Ducking in from the rain last Saturday, about a half dozen people welcome you when you enter Carly Schlievert’s studio. Tucked into a bright yellow building, the room is about the size of the self-checkout area in an HEB. In a semicircle, five tables are set up with artists showcasing and selling their work. Schliebert has perched on a counter with her art. She makes life-size ceramic busts and masks. They all share the same discerning eyes and deadpan expressions. They’re all painted in bright colors and have perfectly pursed rosebud lips.
Carly Schlievert [00:18:04] Fed up fems. It’s about like wanting to look and feel fabulous as a feminine presenting person in this world while being like constantly consciously aware of the consumption of the male gaze and having to make decisions about how you present or what you wear how you go out in public. Her creations watch us as we tour the space. Got all the tools, anything cookie cutters, hole punchers, wood carving tools.
Leigh Walden [00:18:31] Cubbies and boxes help organize an entire wall of tools. Shelves are cluttered with projects in every stage of creation. Some are easily recognizable. Plates or vases. Some are beyond description, spanning whole shelves and creeping up the walls.
Carly Schlievert [00:18:48] I’m gonna be doing this big Marie Antoinette beehive situation and then coming out of it like our hair will be a castle.
Leigh Walden [00:18:55] When Schlievert was five years old and just getting started with art, her teacher told her something that stuck.
Carly Schlievert [00:19:00] Or you make a cup or a bowl, because everyone wants to make something like that. You have to make a something that’s alive.
Leigh Walden [00:19:05] First. The art breathes life into the whole space. It’s owned by the city of San Marcos, but Schlievert makes a lot of her art here, and dozens of students come here every week for ceramics classes, some of which Schliever teaches.
Carly Schlievert [00:19:18] I saw it as a really great opportunity, not only for myself, to use this as my studio, but to share it with others too, and ceramics is such an inaccessible medium.
Leigh Walden [00:19:28] Can be expensive. There’s the clay itself but also the tools, a kiln, glazes, maybe a wheel. It’s not as easy as just like getting some paint and a canvas from Michael’s you know. Four times a week in this studio, Schliebert helps teach artists of all levels how to work with clay. She teaches another two classes every week at a different studio in Austin. Needless to say, she is really busy.
Carly Schlievert [00:19:51] Do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. No, do something you’ll love and never know a moment of peace, but in the best way.
Leigh Walden [00:19:57] When she can, Sleevert finds time to make her own pieces. The bus she’s working on cuts off around the forehead right now, but Schlievert says it’ll probably be done by the end of the month. It takes a lot of work. Rolling, slipping, scoring, adding the coil. All told, one of her bus takes anywhere from 12 to 40 hours to complete. The crowd of fed-up fems staring at us from across the room represents years and years of work It’s Wednesday night. Schlievert’s advanced clay class is packed into the studio. The chaos of creation is littered on tables crowded throughout the room. Seated around them, about 20 people work on every imaginable project. Some are concrete. So yeah, I’m making these napkin holders for my wedding. Some are vague. Just trying to build something. For myself and something big.
Leigh Walden [00:20:51] Some are straight up deadly. One of those spiky balls on a chain that’s attached to a stick. I’m making this single-use weapon, but it’s like a flail with a ceramic chain. This one’s really cute, though. It’s got little stars on it, the kind of flail that you could imagine a fairy using. Almost all of the creators in this space are women. And these classes are about more than just getting to make art. Like got a ton of friends in this class now that I’ve met over the years of being in this class. Casey Baker is working on ceramic labels for the plants in their garden. It’s just nice to be able to give myself some time to actually create something and not doom scroll and like just do something healthy with my life. For some of the artists in the room, there’s equal parts catharsis from the process of making as there is from just being in the room. Schlievert is a big part of that. To her, there’s no wrong way to start playing with clay.
Carly Schlievert [00:21:48] It’s just mud and we’re just making stuff that will outlive us and our children and our children’s children. We’re making future artifacts and I think that’s really beautiful too.
Leigh Walden [00:21:57] One of Schlievert’s dreams is to do her own show, one where her fed-up femmes crowd the space and where they all get to be unapologetically fabulous. They’re not here to please you or to win you over.
Carly Schlievert [00:22:08] Yeah, they’re just hanging. This is girls hanging, you know, that’s just kind of my whole thing.
Leigh Walden [00:22:12] If you want to hang out with some of Schlieber’s girls, you can catch them during the second half of the San Marcus Studio Tour this weekend. I’m Leigh Walden in San Marcus.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:25] All right now let’s go into our weekend on an even better note here to help us do that is KUT’s Luce Moreno Lozano. Luce, thanks for being on the show.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:22:32] Always a pleasure.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:33] So loose you have been following for the last few weeks the story of Athena so tell us who is Athena and why you’ve been following so closely.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:22:40] Yeah, she’s the owl that has taken up residence at the Wildflower Center. She comes and has come to the Wildflow Center and nested there since at least 2012. She’s laid several eggs and hatched and fledged several owls out of it, but I’m obsessed with her.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:59] You’re even up to date on the specific, you know, definition, the fledged, what is fledged that is just…
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:23:05] It means that they’re able to fly. Like they can leave the nest, literally leave the nest.
Jerry Quijano [00:23:12] Okay, so tell us about these these how many how I mean how many eggs were there this go-around?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:23:17] Yeah, so she laid two eggs. I believe she laid the first one in like early March, like March 4th, and then she laid a second egg just a few days later. So the first egg actually hatched earlier this week on April 8th, and then the second one actually fully hatched this morning, just before 8 a.m.
Jerry Quijano [00:23:38] Now how are you aware of this? Are you going to the Wildflower Center every day and are you calling, texting Athena? How is this working?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:23:44] Yeah, they actually, the Wildflower Center has a live camera on her at all times and you can even go back in the stream and see what she’s been doing in the middle of the night, which is how I spend my mornings sometimes.
Jerry Quijano [00:23:56] Catching up on what Athena was up to overnight.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:23:58] Yeah, yeah, so I’ve been watching her on the out cam that that they’re monitoring her from and they’ve got a lot of fun stuff on there I mean, they’re watching her
Jerry Quijano [00:24:06] Not just the stream they have more stuff than that
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:24:09] Well, no, it’s just a stream, but they’re watching her every move. Gotcha. She’s got her own Facebook page and Twitter page, and they’re just updating as much as they can, because, oh man, she’s so cute. I’m watching her as we speak.
Jerry Quijano [00:24:21] Well, how long is this new family gonna stick around here in Austin?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:24:24] Yeah, so she’ll care for them for up to like six weeks, which is about the time it takes them to learn to fly. So for the next couple of weeks, we’ll see her like feed them. I saw her feed breakfast this morning and lunch earlier today. And yeah, and they’ll like slowly grow and they’re kind of fluffy and cute and eventually they learn to flight. And so that takes about six weeks sometimes a little longer, but give or take about six week.
Jerry Quijano [00:24:48] Okay, so we’ll be able to watch them for a good amount of time. Oh, yeah Oh, yeah.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:24:51] If you go to the Wildflower Center, they usually have someone there pointing them out. You don’t want to disturb them, but sometimes there’s a ranger or someone up there that’s like, there’s an owl up there if you want to check it.
Jerry Quijano [00:25:01] Definitely don’t want to disturb. That’s why we can watch on the stream. We’re gonna have a link to that in today’s show notes loose Thanks for the rush of dopamine this afternoon. That is loose more than a lasano KUT City Hall reporter and Athena expert. We appreciate you
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:25:14] Thanks, Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:25:15] And thank you for spending the week here with us. Rayna Sevilla is our technical director. Kristen Cabrera is our managing producer. Special shout out to Rene Chavez. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. Have a great weekend.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
