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The government shutdown may be over, but its impacts are still being felt across the country – including at Austin’s airport, which was already dealing with an air traffic controller shortage prior to the 43-day shutdown.
Foreign exchange students in Texas schools could be prohibited from participating in varsity athletics in the near future after a UIL rule change that still requires approval from the state’s education commissioner. Why, and what it would mean for students.
Plus: A popular Asian market in North Austin is shutting its doors at the end of the year. We chat with the owner of Hana World Market.
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] The government shutdown may be over, but its impacts are still being felt here in Austin and across the country. That includes out at Austin’s airport, which was already dealing with an air traffic controller shortage prior to the 43-day shutdown. We’re gonna take a visit out to the airport. And foreign exchange students in Texas schools could be prohibited from participating in varsity athletics in the near future. The move still requires approval from the state’s education commissioner. We’re going to talk more about why the change is being made and what it’ll mean for students.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:39] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:44] Plus, a popular Asian market in North Austin is shutting their doors for good at the end of the year. We’ll chat with the owner of Hana World Market. That’s coming up next, and it’s here on Austin Signal. Howdy out there. It is November 14th. It is a Friday. We are glad you’re here with us on Austin Signal. This is listener powered public radio coming to you from Austin, Texas. I’m your host, Jerry Keconnell. Thank you for being here. A quick headline ahead of today’s show. Texas was front and center in the efforts to ban hemp products containing THC before Congress passed a national ban as part of the legislation to end the federal shutdown. Now, Texas could bear one of the highest costs of almost any state. Bo Whitney is a consultant to the hemp industry who says the move could displace some 40,000 workers here in the state, and he says the law is worded in such a way as to discourage farmers from planting any hemp whatsoever. Texas is currently one of the largest agricultural producers of hemp in the country. That’s according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To read more about how Whitney expects the hemp ban to affect Texas and Texans. Head on over to KUT.org. Well, today was supposed to be the day the Federal Aviation Administration required the nation’s largest airports to cut a full 10% of scheduled flights. But as you might have heard by now, the federal government shutdown ended Wednesday night. So those flight reductions are being held at 6% for now as more air traffic controllers return to work. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport was not among the 40 airports required to cancel flights and, as KUT’s Nathan Bernier reports, the risk of flight delays to Austin remains.
Nathan Bernier [00:02:43] If you walked up to random travelers near baggage claim at ABIA on the last day of the government shutdown, you might be hard-pressed to find someone with much to complain about.
Lily Molina [00:02:51] Everything went fairly well, very smooth. I had no delays.
Joe Potter [00:02:56] So we were fine coming down and our flight was good so all good.
Breonna Maland [00:03:00] Nothing went wrong with the flight. They took off on time, landed early. Baggage claim was a breeze, so I have no complaints.
Nathan Bernier [00:03:06] That was Lily Molina, Joe Potter, and Breonna Maland. Now, it wasn’t always this smooth at Austin’s airport during the government shutdown. At least four times since it started, the FAA issued a ground delay for Austin. That’s when they limit the number of flights that can land per hour, because the air traffic control tower is too short-staffed. And this is a control tower that is always short- staffed. They have about 30 fully certified controllers, and they’re supposed to have 60 under staffing target set by the FAA and the Union.
John Bratcher [00:03:36] You’re seeing a fragile, stressed-out system, and it’s just highlighted because of a government shutdown, but this is a struggle we’ve been facing for many years.
Nathan Bernier [00:03:44] John Bratcher is with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, that’s the controllers union, and he represents the southwestern U.S., including Austin. Bratcher says controllers received nothing on their last two paychecks. Now they’re waiting on weeks of back pay and trying to stabilize their finances without really having a chance to catch a breath.
John Bratcher [00:04:02] You have people at Austin that are working six days a week that if a controller is not fully filling well, nobody wants somebody that’s got a cold or a flu to come in and plug in and work airplanes like that at that high volume. And so you have somebody, if you lose one or two bodies, then you find yourself in a staffing trigger, you find yourself in a critical staffing situation. And that’s what you’re seeing.
Nathan Bernier [00:04:22] And that’s when the FAA can issue a ground delay. He said controllers had to call in sick for a bunch of different reasons, like having a child sick at home and a spouse whose income was paying the rent. So now that federal employees will eventually get paid again, it relieves some of the pressure on Austin’s control tower. But those with experience in the aviation industry say the shutdown will leave scars that will last for years. Chad Kendall is an FAA instructor at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He says the shutdown drove some controllers out of the profession and will make recruiting their replacements all the more difficult.
Chad Kendall [00:04:56] This is going to have a ripple effect for a very long time. And I can’t put a pulse on anything as far as getting back to normal. That’s gonna take some time to see, but it certainly has played a major effect on many areas of the industry. Things that the passengers can see, things that passengers cannot see.
Nathan Bernier [00:05:16] Meanwhile, Austin-Berksham International Airport keeps expanding. The number of average daily non-stop departures this month is up to 257. Compared to last November, that’s an increase of 8%. But it won’t matter how many non- stop flights Austin has, if the tower doesn’t have enough controllers to land them all safely. I’m Nathan Bernier in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:50] This is Austin Signal, thank you for joining us. As soon as next school year, foreign exchange students could no longer be allowed to participate in varsity sports at Texas public schools. School administrators have voiced concerns that some schools are getting a competitive advantage with those foreign exchange student. Now the change still needs the approval of State Education Commissioner Mike Morath to go into effect. And here to tell us more about this new rule and about this story in general is KUT’s Williamson County reporter, Kailey Hunt. Howdy Kailey, how are you?
Kailey Hunt [00:06:21] Hey Jerry, I’m good, how are you?
Jerry Quijano [00:06:23] I’m doing okay. I think we both said we’re glad it’s Friday and we’re glad you’re here with us on Austin Signal. So, you know, start with a personal anecdote. I participated in UIL activities, both, you know, sports and academics and creative writing. I don’t mean to brag, but, and I tend to keep a track of the bigger events that are going on, you know, like we talked earlier, high school football playoffs here on the UT campus, Texas relays, always a big thing. But this story was off of my radar, what made the UIL take such an action in the first place?
Kailey Hunt [00:06:54] Yeah, so basically this decision was made when the UIL’s legislative body, that’s their rule-making body that’s made up of public school administrators from all over the state of Texas. When they met up a few weeks ago, they brought forth a proposal that essentially bans foreign exchange students from participating in varsity sports. And they said that this comes after years of expressed by their coaches and administrators on campuses, they argue that foreign exchange students get that competitive advantage, right? When they’re able to just show up, get a waiver and immediately play varsity. They say that’s not fair to the Texas kids who have been going through the whole school system, you know, all the athletic programs working their way up to varsity
Jerry Quijano [00:07:45] This is something that we talk about a lot. I feel more so like in college athletics, it used to be that if you transferred to school you had to wait out a year, but there is a lot going on with college athletics when it comes to the portal and transferring. I’m wondering if that’s more of a prevalent problem in high school athletics. Are there Texas high schools that are recruiting Australian punters or Romanian gymnasts? Is this an epidemic in Texas public schools?
Kailey Hunt [00:08:11] I mean, you know, it’s hard to say whether or whether or not that’s true. But I will say Aaron Hood, who’s the superintendent of Robert Lee ISD that’s just north of San Angelo, you he brought forth this proposal to the UIL and he said that he had personally seen some foreign exchange students use social media to promote themselves to Texas coaches, you know including things like height, weight, their position and stuff on their profiles, which you know. He says is not fair.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:42] That’s interesting. Yeah, I mean, because a lot of high school students tend to brag about, you know, their stats and showing off for the availability of a future college program. Again, you can read more about what some of these administrators had to say at KUT.org in Kailey’s story. I wanted to ask you about something else. This change would affect foreign exchange students playing varsity sports. So it wouldn’t really matter when it comes to JV or freshman teams, as I understand it. This is just about varsity sport. And it doesn’t affect either other programs at the UIO overseas, like music and academics. But I got to imagine that some of the draw for these exchange students is like the pageantry, right? The Friday night lights, so the big the big, the big table, the big screen getting to participate in some of those things. It has to be a draw, correct?
Kailey Hunt [00:09:31] Yeah, that’s right. You know, I talked to a lady named Tracy. She is a representative or organizer for one of these organizations that helps, you know, coordinate these exchange programs. And she told me about one of the students that she’s hosting right now. He was able to play varsity football. He had never played football in his life before, but the big draw was he’d always heard about Texas Friday Night Lights, right? So yeah, he went out and got to have that experience this past semester. That might not be the case starting next year.
Jerry Quijano [00:10:03] OK, as you mentioned, this was a UIL legislative council. It’s a 32-member council that voted on this rule change. So they have initiated that part. But as I mentioned, the rule still needs approval from State Education Commissioner Mike Morath to go into effect. What are the next steps? What happens next?
Kailey Hunt [00:10:25] Yeah. So, I mean, like you said, the real next step is just seeing if the state education commissioner will approve the change and then yeah, starting next school year, this new rule would go into effect.
Jerry Quijano [00:10:38] Is there any timetable about when we might expect to hear from the Commissioner, or is that still in the early stages?
Kailey Hunt [00:10:44] Still in the early stages to my knowledge.
Jerry Quijano [00:10:46] Okay. Well, like I said, you can read more about this story over at K U T dot org. As I mentioned, a high school football playoffs are getting underway this week. A lot of local teams being featured in that. And I mentioned collegiate sports as well. There’s a big game going on this week and Kailey happening tomorrow. A big top 10 matchup between number 10 Texas. They’ll be on the road to face the Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia currently fifth in the country. As I said. Texas is number 10. From everything that’s been going around the team this season, it’s felt like kind of a bad year, but are they still in a good spot to possibly make like the college football playoff?
Kailey Hunt [00:11:24] Yeah, I mean, actually, if you, you know, go to the college, the latest college football rankings, playoff rankings, they actually released the updated version two days ago. They have Texas currently within their bracket. So, you, know, as long as Texas takes care of business, granted, they do have probably two of the toughest games.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:46] That’s right. Tomorrow, they’re gonna be going up against Georgia. Who’s the other opponent that’s still.
Kailey Hunt [00:11:50] You got Texas A&M, you got the Aggies next week, right, who look fantastic this year. So that’s going to be a real challenge, but no, even though they’ve had so many ups and downs, yeah, they’re in a really good position.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:04] They’re still controlling their destiny. As we said, they’re on the road tomorrow to face a number five, Georgia. Then they’ll be at home next week to play Arkansas. And then after Thanksgiving, they’ll be taking on Texas A&M in a big game. And we have been speaking with KUT’s Williamson County reporter, Kailey Hunt, covering a little bit of everything as usual. Kailey, we appreciate your reporting and thank you for coming on Austin Signal.
Kailey Hunt [00:12:27] Thanks, Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:28] And thank you out there for spending part of your Friday here with listener powered public radio. This is KUT News, we got more coming up after one minute. Thank you for tuning in. This is Austin Signal. I’m Jerry Quijano. Hana World Market announced this month that they’re closing their doors for good come the end of 2025 after many years of business at their location in far North Austin. And amid the news of the closing, the store announced on their Facebook page that their refrigeration system was vandalized and that forced an emergency sale. The news of closure prompted a feeling of sadness and nostalgia among the many Austinites who’ve been visiting the store for years. YunHui Lee is owner of Hana World Market. She’s with us today on Austin Signal. YunHui, thank you for joining us.
YunHui Lee [00:13:18] Thank you for having me.
Jerry Quijano [00:13:19] So I wanna ask first, how long has Hano World Market been a part of Austin and how long has your family been a a part of Austin business?
YunHui Lee [00:13:28] Hana World Market opened in 2012, but my parents owned New Orleans Market, which started in early 2000.
Jerry Quijano [00:13:36] And what made you want to run a grocery store, open your own store? Was it like part of the family business? Where did that come from?
YunHui Lee [00:13:42] No, it kind of fell in my lap. My parents were closing their store and they were going out of business and then this opportunity presented itself. And then, so my parents needed something to do. I was kind of not really looking to do it, but like I said, it just kind of fell in lap and we were able to put it together. Yeah.
Jerry Quijano [00:14:01] For anybody out there who might be unfamiliar with Hana World Market, what do you do?
YunHui Lee [00:14:06] We’re an Asian grocery store, predominantly we have Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese.
Jerry Quijano [00:14:13] I’m sure you had this preconceived notion of what I’m running a business might be like here in Austin How is it different in your year since 2012? How has it played out different from what you expected? It might be
YunHui Lee [00:14:25] Well, when we first started, we were one of the biggest markets. But then when I think it was in 2018, Ranch 99 came in and H Mart came in. And after that, the smaller markets were kind of struggling because we don’t have the buying power like the national markets do. And so in the beginning, it was very small and we had very loyal customers. But then, when the bigger markets came in, it just became harder and harder. For, you know, the smaller businesses to survive and be competitive.
Jerry Quijano [00:14:56] What’s been the reaction from the customers who’ve heard the news and have been visiting the store?
YunHui Lee [00:15:00] It’s been overwhelming. And I, we, as a company, we were just felt so blessed because the community came out when we had the sale. We had so many people come out and then we had several people that came out and were like, I don’t need the discount. Just charge me. Um, gave, you know, wanted to give donations, asked if we had a go fund me page. And you know they wanted to do the donations, but we don’t have anything set up. And so just the amount of people that come out, we were. So overwhelmed because, an example, one person put on their Facebook or Snapchat or something, and they had said, oh, they’re closing, go out, and if you can’t, just buy one of their shopping bags. That day, we sold out of the shopping bags, and that’s how awesome that all the customers have been, and customers that moved away, like to South Austin or way out to Round Rock, and were customers when they lived closer, they came in and was like, We shopped with you when we were at you know, when you first opened, we just wanted to come back and give you some support. Very sad that you’re closing. And so we feel very, very blessed that we, that the customers have been coming back and, you know providing the support.
Jerry Quijano [00:16:13] As I was scrolling through your Facebook page, it was a nice nostalgic trip back into Austin, and did you think you were going to create these kind of lasting relationships with people when you, you know, kind of were forced into this job in 2012?
YunHui Lee [00:16:26] Not really, I think one thing that I remember is like a customer, one of our customers had come in and she had taken her card out and she left her purse in the parking lot in the shopping cart, but she had over $3,000 worth of cash. As one does. Yes, one does carry a lot of cash, our customers are such good grounded people, we had the customer come back, bring in the purse, the money was intact and stuff like that. I just feel that just the community itself, Austin has grown so much, but when we first started, it just felt that all of our customers were like family members too. Like we’re like one of those neighborhood things like, you know, cheers when the customer comes in. My uncle actually has this memory where he could remember everybody’s name, but it’s kind of bittersweet because the business aspect of it has been very, very difficult. You know, not only, you know, the bigger companies coming in, but with raising, you know, the price increases, the rent and electricity utilities, all that. And then this year with all the increases in tariffs, because we import all of all the stuff that we get is imported. So that has had a crucial impact in us.
Jerry Quijano [00:17:48] How big of an impact was it, maybe financially, but also the not knowing as to when things were going to be enforced? How did that impact your year particularly?
YunHui Lee [00:17:57] Well, what, you know, not only the price increases, but because the price increases impacted our vendors that provided us the materials, they were not stocking up as much products because they didn’t want to be strapped because they didn’t t know if the end user, us, the buyers were going to buy as much as they had. So, you, know, we were not only faced with the price increases, that we were facing. Not being able to get the products in store. So that, I think, made it even more complicated.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:33] To try and plan ahead, right? Yeah, we’re always talking here at KUT about planning for the future and that really hamstrings you when you don’t know what to expect next.
YunHui Lee [00:18:43] Yes, because prime example, we would order and say, for example, we would have three pages of orders that we placed. Well, when they would deliver one and a half pages would be out of stock because, you know, the suppliers were not able to get the products in as well. And then it impacts us and then it’s like the prices are going up, but we don’t have the products to sell. So then that both has an impact on our bottom line. So it’s been pretty difficult.
Jerry Quijano [00:19:10] The announcement was made that you’re gonna be closing by the end of 2025. Not really a firm date to just kind of going off of vibes a little bit. Now that you’ve had some time to reflect on the news that the store is actually going to close and you’ve heard some reaction from the community. And I’m sure that there’s a lot of stress that’s gonna be gone as well, right? But I’m there was a lot a joy that the story brought to you every day, the interactions brought. What are you gonna miss about that?
YunHui Lee [00:19:33] I think the people, the customers, that aspect is what I’m gonna miss about the most. Everything else I can do without, but the people that come in. Thankful and you know, there’s customers that have been coming for like 12 years, you know So I will miss them the most I think
Jerry Quijano [00:19:57] Yeah, as I said, there was a lot of sadness, a lot people noting that they had been going to your store since they were in their youth or when they were middle school. It’s a nice neighborhood walk over. So lots to miss. Again, Hana World Market announced they’re gonna be closing at the end of the year. For an Austinite who’s still here right now, maybe has never been to Hana world market, what can they expect when they make the trip up north to visit y’all?
YunHui Lee [00:20:21] Well, it’ll be a little bit different because our shelves are kind of empty, but we are having one last shipment. Like I said, we’re going to try to stay open as long as we can. But I think what, what I hope people feel when they come in, it is more like a family atmosphere. We’re more like neighborhood family market more than anything.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:41] Do you think you’re going to be getting any more tote bags and of these tote bags?
YunHui Lee [00:20:46] We would get them we would yeah, it takes long to produce. So no, no
Jerry Quijano [00:20:51] So if you’re listening right now and you have one of those tote bags you’ve got a classic item right there Hold on to it tight. We have been speaking with YunHui Lee the owner of Hana world market They plan to close their doors at the end of 2025 uni. Thank you for your time today and congratulations on all your hard work Thank you, and that is it for today’s episode of Austin signal. Thank for being with us today And just as a reminder, we are live every weekday afternoon, starting at 1 o’clock here on KUT News 90.5 and over on the KUT app. And you can catch up on past episodes at kut.org slash signal. Among the many things that we covered this week, four months on from historic flooding in central Texas, families of victims of the July 4th flooding in the Hill Country are suing Camp Mystic. Alleging that they failed to take the proper precautions to protect their campers and counselors. Also, the city of Austin is making hard budget cuts after this month’s failure of Proposition Q at the ballot box. Those stories and all of our past stories can be heard on the Austin Signal podcast. Subscribe wherever you listen to your shows. A big thank you to everyone who contributed to today’s show, YunHui Li from Hana Market. As well as KUT’s Nathan Bernier, Kailey Hunt, and Trey Schar out there. Kristin Cabrera is our managing producer. Rayna Sevilla keeps us sounding good on the board. And a special thank you to Jimmy Moss for his help with today’s show. I’m Jerry Quijano, your host of Austin Signal. And we’re glad that you made time for us today. We hope you have a fantastic Friday and a wonderful weekend out there! Oh, and by the way, thank you Casey Cheek for his fantastic work. Keeping us all together, we appreciate you tuning in. This is Austin Signal.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
