It’s being described as an act of cyber espionage so big it is hard to overstate its impact, and a Texas company is in the crosshairs. That story and more today on the Texas Standard.
Texas is distributing the COVID vaccine in tiers of priority. But what happens if someone tries to cut in line?
Also, the holiday shopping season’s not what it used to be and certainly not at the border right now, where Texas merchants are feeling the pressure from pandemic rules and a loss of customers from Mexico.
Also, the student debt crisis: is there a better alternative than loan forgiveness? We’ll hear about some of the options that could be on the table and much more.
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Texas Standard: December 16. 2020
Senate leader Mitch McConnell congratulates Joe Biden on his election win. So why are many fellow republicans, including from Texas, staying silent? Today on the Texas Standard
As a movement to declare so called sanctuary cities for the unborn takes hold statewide, the push gets a major boost in Lubbock, the biggest Texas city to consider such a measure so far. We’ll hear all about it.
Also, 1.7 trillion and rising: the total amount of student debt currently owed. The President-Elect’s under pressure to offer student debt forgiveness–the first of a two part look at what that might entail. Also, a Politifact check and more.
Texas Standard: December 8, 2020
He is set to become, if not a household name, a statewide presence in politics: just who is Dade Phelan and why should everyday Texans care? We’ll explain. Also, by court order, the Trump administration says it has restored the deferred deportation program called DACA. But recipients remain fearful of its future. Also the change in Texas law that left some Texas cities, hard hit by the pandemic with fewer hospitals than they used to have. And questions raised about why so many c-sections concentrated at certain Texas hospitals? Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: December 7, 2020
Front line workers in Texas get to get COVID-19 vaccines but educators and staff are demanding a better place in in the vaccination line. We’ll have details. Plus as Texas lawmakers get ready to start a new session, both republicans and democrats prepare to take on issues of voter fraud and voter access. Also, powering up: with a new administration in Washington, what’s set to change for the energy capitol of the U.S.? And billions of federal dollars for pandemic relief and time’s running out for Texas to spend it all. Where’s the money going? Plus listener questions about COVID-19 and more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: December 3, 2020
The countdown to the holidays: how the numbers add up in the battle against the pandemic in Texas. Another story we are tracking: a new study finds a strong correlation between cancer and living within 30 miles of an oil refinery. What this could mean for some 6 million Texans in the nation’s top oil producing state. And it was known as Mexico’s revolution, but the impact on Texas was nothing short of revolutionary, now the story of the women on the front lines. Plus it’s not just for arts and crafts anymore, many small Texas businesses find pandemic business booming online. Omar Gallaga on the Etsy effect. Those stories and much more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: December 1, 2020
A downturn in travel. Layoffs in the energy industry, struggling small businesses, what’s it all add up to? Comptroller Glenn Hegar delivers some grim news about the Texas budget to lawmakers. But there’s a bit of a surprise, too: the news is not as bad as some feared. We’ll talk with him. Also, the after effects of COVID-19: could they linger even after the pandemic has passed? What known and isn’t about longer term health effects. And decades after they took off from Texas bases during WWII, the women with silver wings get overdue recognition…their story and much more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: November 23, 2020
Cars line up for miles outside food banks in our big cities. On this Thanksgiving week, the state of food insecurity in the state of Texas. As many Texans prepare for a big Thanksgiving dinner, others struggle with the choice of whether to leave the lights on or put food on the table. We’ll explore. Meanwhile health officials worry that holiday gatherings could become super spreader events. We’ll hear about the push for safety precautions to combat COVID-19 as case numbers rise statewide. Plus as national media focuses on the Latino vote, the case that the Tejano vote could be a better indicator. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: November 20, 2020
Is the presidential contest still a real contest? Texas’ senior senator says it’s still too close to call, we’ll have the latest. Also, he pledged to heal the soul of the nation, but when it comes to immigration, some wonder why that topic doesn’t make it too Joe Biden’s top 5 list of policy priorities. We’ll hear about the concerns of advocates of immigration reform. And airlines may be hard hit by the pandemic, but some Texas towns with ties to the skies are taking off. We’ll hear why. Plus the week in Texas politics with the Texas Tribune and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: November 18, 2020
Amplifying the voices of Texas’s Black legislators. We’ll tell you about a revived effort. And remember that Texas County with no confirmed coronavirus cases? Yeah. That didn’t last. What’s going on in Loving County. Plus, how the oil bust has also led to a land value bust. How it’s playing out in the Permian Basin. And could we call what’s happening in the White House right now a coup? The answer from an expert in authoritarian regimes might surprise you. We’ll put it into context. And we’ll fact-check a claim about early voting and voter fraud. All of that and more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: November 17, 2020
As coronavirus numbers continue to surge in Texas – health care providers are desperate for resources and energy for the battle ahead. Today on the Texas Standard. We’ll check in with communities across the state about the specific challenges in their neck of Texas. Plus, how one Texas university has cracked down on compliance with COVID-19 prevention measures. It’s not without controversy. And, the Irving-based Boy Scouts of America facing an uncertain future after tens of thousands lobby sexual abuse allegations. Plus, some smart brains here in Texas have figured out we can investigate the very first stars. How? I’ll go ahead and say it — it’s pretty out of this world. Today on the Texas Standard.
Texas Standard: November 13, 2020
As COVID-19 continues to tear through El Paso, an appellate judge lifts shutdown orders and more Texans pin their hopes on news about a vaccine. With hopes building around word of a covid vaccine said to be 90 percent effective, what’s next? A closer look at next steps and a realistic timetable. Also, not Biden his time: concession or no, the president elect must move forward with assembling a new administration and cabinet. Any Lone Stars set to make the short list? And in a season like no other, can the homecoming mum, and the many businesses built up around the tradition survive 2020? Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: November 12, 2020
Texas crosses a critical 1 million mark in COVID-19 cases, and the governor sends help to Lubbock as hospitals reach capacity, we’ll have the latest. Other stories we are tracking: a post-election push to update voting machines in Texas’ biggest county. What’s wrong with the old ones? We’ll follow the paper trail, or lack thereof. Also the top vote getter in Texas history and what it says about the intersection of politics and how top judges get picked in Texas. Plus he was a Texas sharecroppers son in a Jim Crow Navy. Now a super carrier will bear his name. 8 decades after his heroics at Pearl Harbor, Dorie Miller gets his due. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: November 11, 2020
It is perhaps fittingly called the case of California versus Texas. At issue: whether the Affordable Care Act will survive. We’ll take a closer look at likely outcomes. At stake in a closely watched case heard yesterday by the U.S. Supreme Court: something much bigger than politics, namely health insurance for more than 20 million Americans, protections from denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions and more. How convincing was Texas’ legal case against it? And a woman in Houston set to make space history with the next moonshot. Plus are you ready for some football? Texas voters seem to be having second thoughts. Those stories and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: November 10, 2020
He is a major political figure who has yet to publicly recognize Joe Biden’s victory in the general election. But he’s not a republican hold out, either. Texas democrats upset that the president of Mexico, a country often seen as maligned by President Trump, is reluctant to accept the outcome of the U.S. general elections. We’ll explore why not. Also, this is the season for the Texas legislature: packages calling for voting reform and more land at the capitol in the run up to the next session. And NASA says to a company in Midland with big plans for space. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:
BONUS: The Big Flop
So Democrats in Texas didn’t get what they were hoping for in the 2020 election. Why not?
Texas Standard: November 9, 2020
And we have a winner. What changes for Texas in a Biden- Harris administration, and how quickly? With the presidential contest now called, attention turns to fixing what’s broken and moving forward. We’ll have some projections from a veteran politics watcher and professor. Also, the states top law enforcement official facing a mushrooming scandal and new questions about how much longer he can hang on as Attorney General. And digging a little deeper into the Latina turnout in so-called battleground states. Plus, not your parents biodiesel: as oil prices fall, attention, turns to renewable diesels. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: November 5, 2020
According to a survey of Texans interested in the news, a majority say they now have grave questions about the usefulness of polling. We’ll try to get some questions answered. Also, is there a speaker in the house? Very soon there’ll be a new one. Ross Ramsey of the Texas Tribune on the growing line of lawmakers seeking the top job in Texas’ lower chamber. And anti-social media? The role of Twitter, Facebook and the rest in the information wars leading up to the election. And as COVID cases spike again in parts of Texas, a would-be hero emerges from the Alamo city: a virus killing robot. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:
The Texas Connection To Colorado’s Royal Gorge Bridge
Bridges are measured in three ways, for those who like to keep world records and such: longest, tallest and highest. In Texas, the Fred Hartman Bridge is both the longest bridge at 2.6 miles, and the tallest, at 440 feet. But it is not the highest. That honor goes to the aptly named Pecos High Bridge, which is an astounding 322 feet above the Pecos River – a football field straight up.
The highest bridge in America, in case you’re wondering, is the Royal Gorge Bridge, which comes in just shy of 1000 feet. It’s in Colorado, and would be in Texas today had we kept our original northern lands. Nonetheless, without Texas, it might not exist at all, as you will see in the history I’m fixin’ to tell you about.
The Royal Gorge Bridge was the dream of Lon P. Piper of San Antonio. They say he stood on the edge of the Gorge in 1928 and imagined laying a bridge across it, a suspension bridge. He had already built a bridge across the Rio Grande into Mexico.
This Royal Gorge Bridge would be different though. It would be a bridge to nowhere, one that would exist purely to give tourists the kind of heart-stopping views they couldn’t get anywhere else in the world. He knew it would be a challenge, but he was certain it could be done. Within two years he made his dream come true. It cost him $350,000, or $5 million in today’s dollars. But when it was finished, he owned the highest bridge in the world – and it would remain so for 72 years.
Lon was quite the entrepreneur in those times. He also developed the Richland Springs Treasure Cave in San Saba as a Carlsbad Caverns-like tourist attraction in the 1920s and ’30s. He was also an early investor in a new concept of motor hotels – or “motels.”
Lon hired bridge engineer George Cole of Houston to design the Royal Gorge Bridge and to serve as the general contractor. With 70 men they completed the project in six months without a fatality or any serious injuries. As I learned about the bridge’s history, I couldn’t help but notice its national character. It was a bridge built by Texans, in Colorado, that spanned the Arkansas River, using Oregon timber for the deck. That’s some interstate diversity in one bridge. Mr. Cole went on to design and build the narrow-gauge railroad that would take brave riders to the bottom of the gorge at a 45-degree angle. Now there are gondolas far above the gorge for those who want to go higher still, and zip lines for those who can’t get enough tachycardia in their lives.
In 1947, Lon sold the bridge to another Texan, Clint Murchison, Sr. Murchison bought it sight unseen, as an investment, and strangely never traveled there to walk across his magnificent possession. He never stood at the precipice of the gorge to admire the highest bridge in the world that he just happened to own. Makes me think of Fitzgerald who said, “The rich are different from you and me.” No, Muchison just set up the Royal Gorge Bridge Company and based it in Dallas to manage the Colorado property from there. When he died the bridge was passed on to his sons, Clint Murchison, Jr. (you remember him – he founded and owned the Dallas Cowboys for 25 years), and his brother John. When John Murchison died his wife Lucille inherited the bridge and they say, “she just loved it;” she traveled up there to see it several times a year.
For the past 20 years the Royal Gorge Bridge’s general manager of operations has been Mike Bandera, a Texan who got his start in the amusement park business at Six Flags Over Texas where he worked for 16 years.
Today, the Royal Gorge Bridge, after nearly 100 years, has Colorado ownership. Lucille passed it on to her grandchildren, and they sold it a few years ago to Canyon City.
So I’d like to say this to Colorado, about the world-class bridge we envisioned, financed, built and managed for you all these years: “You’re welcome.”
Texas Standard: November 3, 2020 Election Night Coverage
From the capital city of Texas and with reporters across the Lone Star State, it’s special coverage of election night in Texas. Polls are just now closing across Texas, and in just a few minutes we’ll be hearing from reporting partners in El Paso, Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and beyond on a night that may well set election records and make history in many ways. Democrats hoping to flip control of the Texas house, congressional seats once reliably republican are battlegrounds, and the race for Texas 38 electoral votes is reported to be tigter than at any time in decades. It’s a special election night coverage of the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: October 29, 2020
Early voting numbers in Texas have been high. Texas still leading in the raw numbers of youth turnout. But what’ll that mean come ballot counting time? We’ll explore. Plus, what’s going on at Texas Juvenile detention centers? A new complaint indicates some big concerns. We’ll have the details. And 5G is coming. You’ve probably heard it means faster speeds, but will it, really? And staying at home to watch your favorite scary movie is a pandemic-friendly option this Halloween. We’ll examine why The Texas Chainsaw Massacre might be the top choice in many homes across the state. All of that and more today on the Texas Standard: