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Texas lawmakers begin special session focused on floods, maps

Lawmakers recently ended a regular session of the Texas Legislature, but on this Monday, they’re back. They call it a special session: 30 days to complete a long list of action items including a response to the Hill Country flooding, the regulation of THC consumables, and a rare mid-decade push for redistricting that has some Democrats complaining the fix is in for next year’s midterms.
A hold on billions of education dollars sends Texas public school administrators scrambling.
Also, European sanctions against Russia’s oil industry – will there be ripple effects in Texas?
And this week in Texas music history.

Texas Standard is a listener-supported production of KUT & KUTX Studios in Austin, Texas.

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Interview: What Trump’s executive order to end funding for NPR means for KUT and KUTX

Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would end the flow of federal money to PBS and NPR stations throughout the country.
KUT’s Jennifer Stayton talked with KUT and KUTX General Manager Debbie Hiott about what this means for the public media stations in Austin.

Interview: PBS CEO says “this time is different” with threatened federal funding cuts.

President Donald Trump tried to fire three members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting even though it’s not a government entity. Now, they are suing him. KUT’s Jennifer Stayton talked to PBS CEO Paula Kerger about how public television is funded and how federal funding might be in jeopardy. This is not the first time there has been talk of defunding public media, but Kerger says “this time is different.”

Texas Standard: July 2, 2019

Congresswoman Escobar talks with us a day after touring detention facilities and finding out she was the target of comments on a secret Facebook group. That secret Facebook group reportedly made up of at least some current and former Border Patrol agents. The content, at times disturbing. We’ll have more. Plus, it looks like a deadline to print the U.S. census was missed. Why it matters and what’s next. And have you been to a Texas State Park lately? Many are overcrowded and in disrepair. Why Texans will soon have a chance to fix that. And celebrating the anniversary of a woman’s right to vote with the recognition that the reality of that right was uneven. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard: