God Save Texas

The latest on the Smokehouse Creek Fire in the Panhandle

The Smokehouse Creek Fire in the Panhandle, already the second biggest wildfire in Texas history, is so far 0% contained. We’ll talk with an evacuee and officials with the Texas A&M Forest Service to get the latest.
With increasingly unpredictable rainfall and extended droughts, you may be thinking about what to plant to survive our new weather reality. The Standard’s Alexandra Hart has ways you can cut water use without letting your lawn die.
Plus: Director Richard Linklater and filmmaker Alex Stapleton on the new HBO three-part series based on Lawrence Wright’s recent book “God Save Texas.”

Texas Standard: April 17, 2018

The Commander is Chief wields a lot of power over U-S military action, but where do those powers begin and end? We’ll explore. Also, it’s been almost 10 years since Hurricane Ike devastated Galveston. But the city still hasn’t rebuilt much of the housing many depend on. And it’s been exactly 5 years since a fire and explosion at a Central Texas fertilizer plant killed 15 people and destroyed a large part of a small city. What’s been done to prevent another catastrophe like West, Texas? Also, Pulitzer prize-winning author Lawrence Wright’s new book hits shelves today. “God Save Texas” is all about the state he calls home, including what he describes as AM and FM Texas. Plus we’ll hear the argument for why it seems Texas lawmakers could have been drunk when writing the liquor laws. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard: