A one page letter signed by seven of the attorney general’s top aides ask for an investigation of the Texas attorney general. We’ll hear more about the complain, and how Paxton and other top Texas officials are responding. Also, the president and other top republicans urging supporters to be poll watchers. Just who can become a poll watcher, what does that involve, and what are the limits to their activities? And the hispanic republican from Nixon to Trump plus a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:
Real Estate
Texas Standard: April 30, 2019
To be or not to be a Senate candidate. Democrats puzzled why an expected challenge to John Cornyn is slow to materialize, we’ll have the latest. Plus, amid what appears to be growing support for gun control efforts in other parts of the U.S., the nation’s biggest gun rights group takes aim against itself? A leadership struggle at the NRA poses one of the most serious threats to the organization in years. And a Texas senator moves to stop publishing the final words of prisoners facing the death sentence. All that and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: November 27, 2018
As visions of gift shopping danced in our heads, a report on climate released by the Feds. What does it tell us about how Texas may have to adjust? Political recriminations over the timing of the mandatory report on the economic impact of climate change. After having had a chance to review it, what’s it telling Texas? We’ll take a closer look. Also, should the U.S. be worried about a collapse in the housing market? The Wall Street journal singles out a Texas city as a worrisome canary in the coalmine. And who were the first Texans? Why Researchers are rethinking their answers with a discovery near Salado. Those stories and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: November 16, 2018
More than just a me too moment: the Texas House holds hearing on how to crack down on sexual harassment at the capitol, we’ll have the story. Also, the face of Texas politics is changing, and both political parties would like to win over the fastest growing ethnic demographic in Texas. Why California might be able to Texas a thing or two about how to get them. And as the Fed considers another interest rate hike, should you buy or rent your next home? Why hurricane Harvey’s made the calculation more complicated for some. Plus the week in politics and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: November 8, 2018
Lost in large part in the immediate aftermath of the midterms: do you really know what’s changed in the Texas legislature? We’ll get you up to speed. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick may have held on to his partisan supermajority, but he may have a tougher fight over issues of social conservatism. Two state lawmakers, a Democrat and a Republican offer a reality check. Also, a gut check when it comes to probiotics. They’re all the rage, promising better digestion and better health, but a Texas researcher raises serious new questions. And did Texas shut down the world biggest marketplace for human trafficking? A politifact check and more today on the Texas Standard:
Why Are There So Few Homes With Basements Around Austin?
Basements are common in other parts of the country. So why not here? Is it the rock? The flooding? Nope.
Texas Standard: September 4, 2018
Chaos as the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings kick off on capitol hill. But as the focus falls on the high court, another judicial transformation underway? We’ll take a look. Also, it’s long been called the sleeping giant in Texas politics: the latino vote. Texas Democrats are trying wake that giant and do something that’s been difficult in the past: get them to the polls in bigger numbers. We’ll explore. And labor groups scoring victories in a push for paid leave, but are they wasting time and money? Plus chasing Lightin’ in Houston: a 1959 recording of bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins back in print. We’ll explore his hold on Texas and American music, plus a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:
Why Do So Many Self-Storage Places Keep Popping Up In Austin?
It seems like they’re everywhere: Self-storage facilities. Why are there so many being built in Austin?
Texas Standard: December 13, 2017
A democratic victory in ruby red Alabama: was it just Roy Moore, or is it something bigger shaking the southern political landscape? We’ll explore. Also, a new war on drugs? This time it’s the most populous county in Texas suing big pharma over the opioid epidemic. And a new white house directive: another manned mission to the moon and then to mars. Should Houston get ready for relaunch? Plus attention holiday shoppers: commentator WF Strong has been making a list of gifts that made Texas what it is today, and you won’t find em at the mall. Those stories and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: August 17, 2017
The debate over confederate monuments is now inside the Texas capitol with a state lawmaker asking for a confederate symbol to removed. We’ll explore and tell you what the governor is saying about confederate monument. Also: people living on the gulf coast take on one of the nation’s largest plastics plants, saying it’s been polluting the area for years. Plus: the number of Texas homes sold to people outside the United States skyrocketing, up almost 60 percent in on year. And can you imagine the state firing your entire school board? we’ll hear why that might happen in some communities. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Land Rush
The most expensive property currently on the market in Texas is a 2300 acre estate in Lago Vista. It is near Austin, on Lake Travis, going for a mere 68 million. Only 30 thousand an acre. Get out your checkbooks.
That’s quite a contrast compared to the deals the first Texans were getting on real estate. Stephen F. Austin charged 12 and a half cents an acre for a league of land, which was 4428 acres.
He offered two deals, 4428 acres if you were a rancher and 177 acres if you were a farmer. So you can imagine that many farmers became ranchers right quick. And that’s not all. Married men got far more land than single ones. So there was a stampede up the church aisles as single farmers rushed to become married ranchers. Imagine, you walk down the aisle with nothing and come out with almost 4500 acres. Compare that to today where you walk in with thirty thousand dollars and walk out broke.
That was quite a deal Austin offered. 12 and a half cents an acre (and mostly on credit) at a time when land in the rest of the U.S. was ten times more than that. Someone later pointed out, “Land in Texas was what gold was to the gold rush.”
A league of land for $550. Even adjusted for today’s dollars it would be only $12,000. 4428 acres is a lot of land. It would require a long hard day of walking to make your way around it by sunset. But you still wouldn’t have a King Ranch. Even with all those acres you would still own less than half a percent of the King Ranch. By comparison, you wouldn’t even have a ranchito. You would have a ranchititito. Essentially a postage stamp.
In deep South Texas, the original land grants of 4500 acres sold for even less. Sometimes as little as the filing fee of $50 and other times for ten cents an acre, with payments not starting until the fourth year of the seven-year term, to give you the chance to work the land and have it help pay for itself.
And even considering that $30,000 an acre today is shocking – it may well seem like a bargain 20 years from now. How many times have you sat at someone’s kitchen table and heard them say, “See that house over there? 30 years ago I could have bought it for $100,000. Today it’s worth $300,000.” Or more. As the old saying goes, “Buy land, they’re not making anymore of it.” Certainly been a wise adage to live by in Texas for about 200 years now.
What I need is a good time machine. I wish I could go back to see my great grandfather when he lived in East Texas. I could say to him, “Great gramps, here’s $1,000. I want you to go over to Beaumont and find a little hill known round there as Spindletop. Buy that hill and the 4,000 acres that surrounds it. Here’s another thousand for mineral rights. Leave it all in a trust to be shared by your descendants who are 6’ 5” or more, blue-eyed, and work in radio.
If only rebooting your life were that easy.
What’s Up With Those Handmade ‘We Buy Houses’ Signs Around Austin?
You’ve probably seen them while driving around town –- those handwritten signs next to the road with messages like: “We buy houses for cash! Call now!” What are they about, and why?
Texas Standard: January 10, 2016
As lawmakers return to the Texas capitol today, a loud warning from a top state official: money’s tight. What that means for everyday Texans. Plus, yesterday we were at the border. Today we’re looking at another aspect of potential change to Texas in a new political era: a fight over so-called sanctuary cities. Also lights, camera, and cash? Why plans are in the works to shut off incentives for Texas filmmakers. And he’s been called the first social media president. Now some Texas researchers have been given the white house ok to explore what that really means for modern politics. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: August 14, 2015
Three months after shootout that made world headlines what do new autopsies tell us about what really happened in Waco? Also, Not San Francisco, not Miami, not Houston- across the entire US, few places are as red hot for residential real estate as Plano, Texas. And this time, it doesn’t look like a bubble. We’ll hear why. Plus, A new warning from the FAA-just droning or serious cause for concern? Exit polls…who needs em? Despite rising costs and complaints about reliability, many political experts want to save em. That and much more on todays Texas Standard: