Central Texas top stories for March 4, 2025. A Red Flag Warning is in effect today from 8AM until 9PM, Williamson and Travis County have a burn ban in effect. Capital Metro has rolled out a new system to pay your fare on the bus or train. Rent prices keep going down. An Austin-area space start-up has made history as the first private company to achieve a fully successful, soft-landing on the moon.
Train
Austin’s light-rail plans are closer than ever to becoming a reality, but the project would require dozens of businesses to be demolished.
KUT’s Nathan Bernier takes us on a tour around Austin to learn about some of the properties that could be bulldozed to make space for the city’s high-frequency urban rail.
KUT Morning Newscast for November 21, 2024
Central Texas top stories for November 21, 2024. Travis County leaders are set to vote today on expanding programs for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. Plans to build two tolled lanes in each direction on MoPac in South Austin are accelerating. A state lawmaker is hoping to kickstart a high-speed rail line North Texas to Austin and San Antonio. Austin Community College plans to start offering its advanced manufacturing classes nationwide.
KUT Morning Newscast for October 22, 2024
Central Texas top stories for October 22, 2024. Work is underway after seven train cars turned over early this morning following a freight train derailment in East Austin. Travis County saw more in-person voters Monday than on the first day of early voting in the last three November general elections. The Austin City Council is set to vote this week on a long-term labor contract with the city’s police union. Officials in Mexico are joining local leaders to push for expanding passenger rail from Texas into Mexico.
What are the most haunted places in Texas?
With the U.S. House of Representatives still without a leader, two Texans drop out of the race for the speakership. What happens next?
The White House is launching a new program for Ecuadorians who are trying to migrate to the U.S. We’ll have details on the change is and why it’s happening.
Miles and miles of Texas are usually traversed by car – but one writer says the train is the ultimate way to go.
Also, with Halloween on the horizon, we have the backstory on some of the spookiest places to visit in Texas.
The future of TikTok hinges on ‘Project Texas’
Another tragedy in Uvalde, this one involving human smuggling. We’ll have the details on events there and in Eagle Pass that left three dead over the weekend.
Crowds are expected at the state Capitol this week as lawmakers take up several bills involving the treatment of transgender Texans.
What does it mean for Texas to blacklist a bank, especially at a time when the industry is so volatile?
“Project Texas” could be central to preventing a U.S. TikTok ban. But what is it exactly?
And why is a Texas school district considering leaving a statewide organization of school boards that until now has had 100% participation from public districts in the state?
Texas Standard: September 14, 2022
Texas’ border security mission has cost more than four billion dollars and counting. Where’s all that money coming from? Operation Lone Star put 10,000 Texas National Guard troops along the state’s border with Mexico. Today we’ll help you make sense of how the state’s paying for it. Also a looming railroad strike could mean pain for people in the checkout line and Democrats at the polls. What’s the Biden administration doing to keep the trains running on time? And do people with low incomes get audited more than others? We’ll see how that claim holds up under scrutiny from Politifact. All that and more today on the Texas Standard:
How The Railroad Help Built Texas
Early Texas towns took hold alongside protected bays – think Galveston and Corpus Christi. Others developed along the banks of fine rivers, such as San Antonio, Goliad and El Paso. But later it was the steel tributaries called railroads that were planting the seeds that raised towns alongside them. Texas Standard commentator W.F. Strong says railroads, more than any other technology, ushered Texas into the industrial age and commercial wealth.
Running
The Typewriter Rodeo takes requests — and this one came from a Texas Standard listener training for a marathon.
Texas Standard: May 18, 2018
A shooter situation at a school in Galveston county. Santa Fe High School goes on lockdown, we’ll have the latest from our reporting partners. Also, what could be an important moment in U.S. Mexico relations: a televised debate in the contest for the presidency of Mexico. The front runner? One way to think of him is as a Trump of the left. And a wildfire in the panhandle spawns a rare phenomenon that creates more fires from above the story behind an unusual pyro cumulus cloud formation. Also, they called him the Tex Mex Elvis, now Freddy Fender’s daughter is fighting to preserve her father’s legacy. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: February 6, 2018
ISIS: mostly defeated. But is the Taliban gaining ground? Military engagements may be changing overseas but the message to troops here in the US: deploy or get out. We’ll take a closer look at the situation. And a new TV series is retelling the story of the FBI siege on the Branch Davidian compound outside of Waco. Why it wasn’t filmed in Texas. Plus… What’s the deal with that proposed Dallas to Houston bullet train? We’ll check in on that and on the state of the state’s private space industry. And pinning down the shakeup that is Texas High School UIL realignment. Those stories and much more today on the Texas Standard:
Texas Standard: July 12, 2016
The nation mourns for Dallas. President Obama in North Texas today to remember 5 police officers. And bending the President’s ear. A US Representative from Dallas tells us what she has to say to the President… and what she wants her colleagues in Washington to know. And a convention in Cleveland. Events begin to ramp up for the Grand Old Party’s party… but not everyone is celebrating. Plus tens of thousands of precious Texas artifacts have been removed from the Alamo… where they’re going and why. And bats just might be useful allies in the fight against Zika… but don’t count on them to eradicate it. We’ll explain… Those stories and lots more today on the Texas Standard: