global

Railroad Commission approves South Texas coal mine expansion

In the first Republican debate of the new presidential election season, an issue top of mind for Texans – border policy – takes center stage.

The Texas Department of Transportation is giving a final green light to a highway expansion in downtown Austin that would add at least four lanes and get rid of the road’s existing upper decks.

There’s pushback on solar development in rural northeast Texas.

Energy regulators greenlit a 12,000-acre expansion of a South Texas coal mine on Tuesday, despite locals’ environmental concerns.

And with strays being turned away by many animal shelters, a first-time cat owner – the Standard’s Sean Saldaña – reflects on his first month with his new pet.

Texas Standard: February 11, 2021

The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump is underway. So what have we learned and will any of it affect the chances of a conviction? We’ll explore. Also, the COVID-19 vaccine could put an end to this pandemic in the way we’ve been living it so far, but only if people get the vaccine. We’ll explore some challenges. And Mexico doesn’t get the credit it deserves when it comes to the way it’s shaped the global economy. That’s the premise behind a new book. What we could stand to learn about our neighbor to the south. And the growing backlog of unsolved murders in Texas and what it tells us about policing in the state. Plus we’ll take a break and nerd out a bit about gaming graphics. All that and more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: July 31, 2018

The devastation was enormous: billions in damage, tens of thousands displaced. But will the anger over Hurricane Harvey impact the mid-terms? We’ll explore. Also, Texas families with children with special needs are finding it harder to access healthcare. It has to do with how and whether providers are getting paid. We’ll explain. And a state park in the Rio Grande Valley beloved by birdwatchers could close if a border wall goes up. What Texas Parks and Wildlife is doing about it. Plus those who tout ideas of racial purity often point back to a time when Europe was white, but a Texas researcher says that just wasn’t the case. And fossils aren’t just old bones. We’ll tell you all about ’em and where you can find ’em in the Lone Star State, today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: June 13, 2017

Spectacle versus substance, episode 2: the attorney general speaks. But after Comey, what are Texans expecting to hear? We’ll explore. Also the governor signs off on a budget, but not all of it. 120 million in cuts by veto pen…we’ll find out what’s left and what isn’t. Plus when a law enforcement officer gets suited up for work, a new report says in some big Texas cities, a major piece of police equipment is getting left behind. We’ll explain. Those stories and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:

One Texan In The Global Village

There is an unusual map of the world that was once a popular poster. You still see it around in many places because it is a map that makes you see the world in new ways. This map reduces the world’s 7.3 billion people to a village of just 100 people. It keeps all the ratios the same so we can get a look at the world in miniature.

So on this map you will see that there are 60 Asians in the world – that’s counting China, Japan, India and Eastern Russia. More than half of the world lives in Asia.

Europe has 11 people. Africa has a few more: 16. Africa has a lot more room. If you add all of the Americas together, from the North Pole all the way down to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, you get 14 people.

The United States is only five people. Texas is one whole person in that village. Imagine. Out of the entire population of this vast planet, only one gets the honor, the rare pleasure of being a Texan.

Reminds me of another map observation from Bob Wheeler, author of “Forged of a Hotter Fire.” I like to make sure I mention Wheeler’s book whenever I can because his work floats around the internet with his name divorced from it. He gets no credit.

Here is what Bob Wheeler has to say in his marvelous little Texas-centric book: “Look at Texas for me for just a second. That picture with the Panhandle and the Gulf Coast and the Red River and the Rio Grande is as much a part of you as anything ever will be. As soon as anyone anywhere in the world looks at it they know what it is. It’s Texas. Take any kid off the street in Japan and draw him a picture of Texas in the dirt and he’ll know what it is.”

Wheeler said that he thought “most everyone everywhere would like, just once, to be a real Texan – to ride a horse or drive a pickup,” perhaps they longed to drive off to the freedom of vast blue skies to horizons unknown. Wheeler believed that everyone, deep down, had a longing for something that might be called Texas. Might be so.

W.F Strong is a Fulbright Scholar and professor of Culture and Communication at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. At Public Radio 88 FM in Harlingen, Texas, he’s the resident expert on Texas literature, Texas legends, Blue Bell Ice Cream, Whataburger (with cheese) and mesquite smoked brisket.