Travel

Texas Standard: February 28, 2019

A key provision of the Texas open meetings act struck down by the state’s highest criminal court. We’ll look at what it means for government transparency. Also, the state’s school librarians read the fine print of a bill to hike teacher salaries, and they’re pushing back. We’ll hear from the state’s top librarian. Plus the timeless voice of tejano superstar Selena. Was it one voice, or two? All those stores and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: January 24, 2019

After school shootings nationwide, a Texas county recruits its very youngest students in an effort to be prepared for the worst. We’ll have the latest. Also, a crisis beyond our borders that could become a crisis on our border in rapid order. Political turmoil in Venezuela reaches a boiling point. We’ll explore. And Texas lawmakers keep promising to focus on education; code for a renewed push for vouchers charter schools and other alternatives? We’ll take a closer look. Plus 19 places to visit in 2019: five of em are in Texas. You may want to take notes. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: January 16, 2019

Dallas and Houston both reporting slowdowns at airports as unpaid TSA workers call in sick. Now a call for airport screeners to go on strike. We’ll explore. Also, what’s worse than a partial government shutdown? Ask someone living in the UK right now. Why an impasse over Brexit could leave a mark here in Texas and what happens next. Also the discovery of three new species of salamanders in Texas, what it means for Texans of the human variety. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: December 6, 2018

Snow to the north, flooding to the south, storms close in on the Lone Star State, with dangerous implications. We’ll hear the latest on weather warnings statewide. Also a man in a jail cell in Odessa may be one of the most prolific serial killers in history. Why did it take so long for authorities to catch him? Plus, why Texas appears to have become ground zero for a cryptocurrency crackdown. And challenging assumptions: one of the most comprehensive profiles of Latinos: ever. Those stories and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:

Time-Traveling With Frederick Law Olmsted

If I could have any wish I would choose to be a time-traveler. Some say time travel will be possible one day, and some say it is the stuff of fairy tales. So, I guess until Elon Musk invents that mythical machine, books will have to do.

Books give us the next best thing. They can help us understand how people lived and thought and talked long ago, especially when the books were written by people who consciously sought to catalog such things in the time they lived. Frederick Law Olmsted left us such a book about his travels through Texas in the 1850s. It’s called “A Journey Through Texas: Or a Saddle-Trip on the Southwestern Frontier.” With his brother, he traveled several thousand miles around Texas, on horseback, chronicling his experiences for The New York Times – today, we’d call him a blogger. His book is a gem, an absolute treasure, a priceless time-sensitive ethnography. It is more than a snapshot; it is an intricate mural of Texas and Texans a decade after becoming a state, while the entire country headed toward civil war.

Before I share a few of his observations, let me tell you who he was. He was a farmer and eventually he became the most famous landscape architect in America. He designed Central Park in New York and Niagara Falls State Park, as well as the grounds of the U.S. Capitol and the White House. A contemporary said of Olmsted, “He paints with lakes and wooded slopes; with lawns and banks and forest-covered hills; with mountainsides and ocean views.” These achievements would come later but they give us an idea of his rare aesthetic sense and farmer practicality when he came to Texas.

He arrived in Nacogdoches in January of 1853 and then meandered on horseback all over Texas. He explored the Piney Woods, the Hill Country, the Coastal Plains, Southwest Texas and even rode a ways into Mexico.

Frederick Law Olmsted wrote often of the famous Texas northers because he was several times caught out in open country with sudden fierce winds and rapid drops in temperature. He wrote that a norther hit them on the prairie west of the Brazos. The wind kicked up mightily and the temperature dropped 12 degrees in 12 minutes, from 67 to 55. He wrote, “In five minutes, we had all got our overcoats on and were bending against [the wind] in our saddles.” By 6 p.m. that evening it was 40 degrees; the next morning it was 25. Olmsted said he couldn’t get his horse shoed that day because the blacksmith said he wouldn’t work as long as the “damned norther lasted.” The Bastrop paper wasn’t published that day either because, the editor explained, the “printing office was on the north side of the house.” Seems reasonable.

When he arrived in Austin, population 3,000, Olmsted stayed at what was supposed to be the best hotel, but found it dirty and the food inedible. He was also dismayed that there was not one bookstore in town. Nice to see that 170 years later those shortcomings have been impressively remedied.

He loved Neu-Branfels – loved with a capital L. The German communities and natural magnificence of the lands along the Guadalupe River were so impressive to him that he almost stayed in Texas. He was enchanted by the springtime wildflowers in the Hill Country and he fully embraced the German saying that “the sky is nearer in Texas.”

Riding out west to Eagle Pass, he killed an enormous six-foot rattlesnake. A man came by and told him he had just killed an even bigger one up the road a ways. Olmsted worried in the daytime that his horse would get bit, and at night he worried that a rattler would snuggle up with him in his bedroll. On this part of his journey he saw his first horny toads and so loved the little creatures that he shipped some back home to New York where he kept them as exotic pets for a couple of years.

In San Antonio, it was the river he fell in love with. “We are so struck by its beauty,” he wrote. “It is of a rich blue and pure as crystal, flowing rapidly but noiselessly over pebbles and between reedy banks.” But it was still the Wild West. He wrote of the near weekly gunfights in the plaza. “As the actors are under … excitement, their aim is not apt to be of the most careful and sure; consequently, it is, not seldom, the passers-by who suffer.”

Though Olmsted didn’t arrive in the south as a staunch abolitionist, he saw the contrast between slave-based economies and those that relied on paid labor, and found the latter far more successful. He said that a monopoly on cotton and devotion to a one-crop economy left no room for the progress that only economic diversity could bring. He objected to slavery on moral grounds as well, but found that pro-slavery advocates responded best to arguments based on pragmatics rather than righteousness.

Take a horseback ride through Texas with Olmsted. It’s the best option in time-traveling now available.

Texas Standard: August 30, 2018

The state department denying US passports to American citizens born near the border. The accusation: fraudulent birth certificates. We’ll talk to the Washington post reporter who found that the citizenship of hundreds, possibly thousands of hispanics with American birth certificates are being stripped of their passports, and their legal status in the US thrown into question. We’ll hear the how and why. Also, Harvey trapped hundreds of thousands of Texans when major freeways flooded across Houston. Now the effort to fix what’s causing clogged arteries during storms. And smart enough to set up a smart home? A new industry emerges to help. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: August 23, 2018

Treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors: how does hush money fit in to the formula for impeachment? We’ll take a look. Also, fears of an upswing of violence on the border. We’ll hear what’s happening and why. And since 2016, law enforcement officials and social media companies have taken steps to curtail fake news and foreign hackers. With the midterms fast approaching, how well is the fight faring? Our Digital Savant Omar Gallaga takes a look. Also, the deer industry up in arms over state efforts to limit where the animals roam. Plus our weekly trip tip takes us to South Padre Island and we’re just getting started. Turn it up! It’s Texas Standard Time!

Texas Standard: August 9, 2018

Two very different rulings on two very similar cases. What it means when the 5th and the 9th circuit court’s disagree? We’ll explore. Plus Mexico’s president elect receives his certificate of ratification: The electoral commission says yes, you are the winner. We’ll explore the implications. And fever ticks can kill cattle but regulations on treating fever ticks? Those cause headaches and other complications. We’ll tell you more. And are you dreaming about space and looking for ways to get there? We’ll take a look at a summer camp helping kids get closer to their dreams. And another one of those too good to be true stories, are we talking about Movie Pass? Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard.

Texas Standard: July 19, 2018

They may call it the reddest state in the nation, but when it comes to bagging the green, the party of the blues is going gangbusters in Texas. We’ll break down what that means. Plus San Antonio’s long been the site of the Air Force cyber command, but now we’re hearing of a shift to combat status? We’ll find out what’s up. And what to do about the feral hog problem. One Texas county says you figure it out: offering bounties to help cut down the wild pig population. Will it work? And you’re just about ready for the family’s summer road trip, did you remember to bring along tech support? Never fear, our very own digital savant is here and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Music

Texas Standard put together a special program on Texas music in collaboration with Texas Monthly. That was the inspiration for this Typewriter Rodeo poem.

Texas Standard: September 13, 2017

Those Texas political maps ruled as drafted with discriminatory intent? The supreme court says they’re staying for now, we’ll have the latest. Plus, something weird happening in Waco? A certain disorder in the court as the first trials get underway in the so-called twin peaks biker shootout story, we’ll explore. And in El Paso the demolition of historic buildings despite a court order. We’ll hear about why, and the protests over the changing character of a downtown. And if the business is fighting deadly pathogens, in Texas business is very good. We’ll hear why. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: August 15, 2017

Did someone just blink? What a North Korean announcement may or may not tell us about how to deal with a dictator. Also, submarined in the fury over Charlottesville, two major protests in South Texas: the biggest yet against the border wall. But a reporter who was there says it wasn’t just about a wall, we’ll hear more. Plus the Texas Central rail teams up with two big companies to get on with building the bullet train. So is it full speed ahead? We’ll check the brakes. And in what some are calling a post-factual world, can we talk? How to have a meaningful political conversation when you’re not on the same page. Those stories and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: July 31, 2017

Rewriting a constitution. That’s now a possibility in Venezuela. We’ll explore how the US may respond. Plus, there’s been a full reversal at The Texas Department of Public Safety: Local law enforcement won’t have to pay to send evidence to be tested at the crime lab. And we’re traveling back in Texas time to when typewriters were tech breakthroughs, and Austin landed IBM. Also what’s behind a surge in new HIV cases in San Antonio. And, advice from one mom on how to raise a Texan, in California. All that and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Tollways

Many Texans likely find themselves traveling on Texas Tollways this summer vacation season. These roads are the subject of this week’s Typewriter Rodeo poem.

Texas Standard: June 29, 2017

As the president’s travel ban takes effect at airports today who’s in and who’s out, and who’s watching the gatekeepers. We’ll talk to one of em today. Also a dramatic helicopter attack on Venezuela’s supreme court, caught on video. The images so surrealistic some wonder: did this really happen? We’ll explore. And you thought space was the final frontier? Nasa relaunches a program that got stalled in the 60’s: an all american supersonic airplane. And the rockets red glare: the view from the other side of the roadside fireworks stand. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: June 21, 2017

Who are the best and who are the worst legislators in the 2017 session? It’s the list that’s got Texans talking on this Wednesday, we’ll hear why. Also the new bill outlawing so-called sanctuary cities doesn’t take effect until the fall, which leaves cities and counties exactly where when it comes to who do detain and for how long? We’ll hear about some hard lessons being learned by detainees and those doing the detaining. Also, if more and more nanny’s are watching out for Texas kids, who’s watching over the nannies? Those stories and a lot more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: March 27, 2017

Who’s in charge here? With the president giving more latitude to the military, rising civilian casualty counts in Syria trigger growing concerns. Plus reading, writing and reboot. Texas public school students hunker down for assessment tests statewide, but the score that may wind up mattering most: the one for the test makers. We’ll hear why. Also, fancy a trip to the moon? As commercial space tourism becomes big business concerns about who’s in charge of safety and who’s writing the rules for the future of private space travel. And the would-be laws you haven’t heard about. We’ll check out the so called sleeper bills. Those stories and lots more today on the Texas Standard:

Statewide Ban

The Texas legislature is considering a statewide ban on texting while driving. That was the inspiration for this week’s Typewriter Rodeo poem for the Texas Standard.

Texas Standard: February 10, 2017

A proposal to fix the state’s broken foster care system that could get more adults involved in the temporary care for kids in need. We’ll hear why the idea is personal for one Texas lawmaker. Plus gas prices could go up a lot under a proposal from a Texan in Washington. Not so good for drivers but how about the oil and gas industry? We’ll explore. And love thy neighbor. How a fire at an Islamic Community Center in Central Texas actually sparked new friendships. Plus how a song about a little boy in South Texas connects two generations of a legendary music family. And a reminder to never to read the comments from the Typewriter Rodeo. That and more on this Friday edition of the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: December 16, 2016

A federal warning for pregnant women: do not travel to Brownsville. But what if you live there? What the new Zika warning means for a mother to be..today on the Standard.

Repeal and replace Obamacare. What’s that gonna mean for coverage? We’ll take it up today with the powerful Texas lawmaker who’s setting the stage right now with a rare recess conference on Capitol Hill.

Also, as holiday fliers prepare to deal with screaming babies on board, the one thing worse–and ways to cope.

Plus, could it happen this Christmas? A legendary honkytonk awaits the return of Gary Floater. But don’t hold your breath. Or maybe you should. All that and more…today on the Texas Standard.