The government shutdown may be over,
but its impacts are still being felt
here in Austin and across the
country.
That includes out at Austin's
airport, which was already dealing
with an air traffic controller
shortage prior to the 43-day
shutdown.
We're gonna take a visit out to the
airport. And foreign exchange
students in Texas schools could be
prohibited from participating in
varsity athletics in the near
future.
The move still requires approval
from the state's education
commissioner.
We're going to talk more about why
the change is being made and what
it'll mean for students.
The Austin Signal is a production
of KUT News, hosted by
Jerry Quijano.
Plus, a popular Asian market in
North Austin is shutting their doors
for good at the end of the year.
We'll chat with the owner of Hana
World Market.
That's coming up next, and it's here
on Austin Signal.
Howdy out there.
It is November 14th.
It is a Friday.
We are glad you're here with us on
Austin Signal.
This is listener powered public
radio coming to you from Austin,
Texas. I'm your host, Jerry
Keconnell. Thank you for being here.
A quick headline ahead of today's
show. Texas was front and center in
the efforts to ban hemp products
containing THC
before Congress passed a
national ban as part of the
legislation to end the federal
shutdown.
Now, Texas could bear one of the
highest costs of almost any state.
Bo Whitney is a consultant to the
hemp industry who says the move
could displace some 40,000
workers here in the state, and he
says the law is worded in such a
way as to discourage farmers from
planting any hemp whatsoever.
Texas is currently one of the
largest agricultural producers of
hemp in the country. That's
according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
To read more about how Whitney
expects the hemp ban to affect Texas
and Texans.
Head on over to KUT.org.
Well, today was supposed to be
the day the Federal Aviation
Administration required the nation's
largest airports to cut a full
10% of scheduled flights.
But as you might have heard by now,
the federal government shutdown
ended Wednesday night.
So those flight reductions are being
held at 6% for now
as more air traffic controllers
return to work.
Austin-Bergstrom International
Airport was not among the
40 airports required to cancel
flights and, as KUT's
Nathan Bernier reports, the risk of
flight delays to Austin remains.
If you walked up to random travelers
near baggage claim at ABIA on
the last day of the government
shutdown, you might be hard-pressed
to find someone with much to
complain about.
Everything went fairly well, very
smooth.
I had no delays.
So we were fine coming down
and our flight was good so
all good.
Nothing went wrong with the flight.
They took off on time, landed early.
Baggage claim was a breeze, so I
have no complaints.
That was Lily Molina, Joe Potter,
and Breonna Maland.
Now, it wasn't always this smooth at
Austin's airport during the
government shutdown.
At least four times since
it started, the FAA issued a
ground delay for Austin.
That's when they limit the number of
flights that can land per hour,
because the air traffic control
tower is too short-staffed.
And this is a control tower that is
always short- staffed.
They have about 30 fully certified
controllers, and they're supposed to
have 60 under staffing target
set by the FAA and the Union.
You're seeing a fragile,
stressed-out system, and it's just
highlighted because of a government
shutdown, but this is a struggle
we've been facing for many years.
John Bratcher is with the National
Air Traffic Controllers Association,
that's the controllers union, and he
represents the southwestern U.S.,
including Austin.
Bratcher says controllers received
nothing on their last two paychecks.
Now they're waiting on weeks of back
pay and trying to stabilize their
finances without really having a
chance to catch a breath.
You have people at Austin that are
working six days a week that if a
controller is not fully filling
well, nobody wants somebody that's
got a cold or a flu to come in and
plug in and work airplanes like that
at that high volume.
And so you have somebody, if you
lose one or two bodies, then
you find yourself in a staffing
trigger, you find yourself in a
critical staffing situation.
And that's what you're seeing.
And that's when the FAA can issue
a ground delay.
He said controllers had to call in
sick for a bunch of different
reasons, like having a child sick at
home and a spouse whose income was
paying the rent.
So now that federal employees will
eventually get paid again,
it relieves some of the pressure on
Austin's control tower.
But those with experience in the
aviation industry say the shutdown
will leave scars that will last for
years.
Chad Kendall is an FAA instructor
at Metropolitan State University of
Denver.
He says the shutdown drove some
controllers out of the profession
and will make recruiting their
replacements all the more difficult.
This is going to have a ripple
effect for a very long time.
And I can't put a pulse on anything
as far as getting back to normal.
That's gonna take some time to see,
but it certainly has played a major
effect on many areas of
the industry.
Things that the passengers can see,
things that passengers cannot see.
Meanwhile, Austin-Berksham
International Airport keeps
expanding.
The number of average daily non-stop
departures this month is up to
257.
Compared to last November, that's an
increase of 8%.
But it won't matter how many non-
stop flights Austin has, if the
tower doesn't have enough
controllers to land them all safely.
I'm Nathan Bernier in Austin.
This is Austin Signal,
thank you for joining us.
As soon as next school year, foreign
exchange students could no longer
be allowed to participate in varsity
sports at Texas public schools.
School administrators have voiced
concerns that some schools are
getting a competitive advantage with
those foreign exchange student.
Now the change still needs the
approval of State Education
Commissioner Mike Morath to go into
effect. And here to tell us more
about this new rule and about this
story in general is KUT's Williamson
County reporter, Kailey Hunt.
Howdy Kailey, how are you?
Hey Jerry, I'm good, how are you?
I'm doing okay.
I think we both said we're glad it's
Friday and we're glad you're here
with us on Austin Signal.
So, you know, start with a personal
anecdote. I participated in UIL
activities, both, you
know, sports and academics and
creative writing.
I don't mean to brag, but, and I
tend to keep a track of the bigger
events that are going on, you know,
like we talked earlier, high school
football playoffs here on the UT
campus, Texas relays, always a
big thing. But this story was
off of my radar, what made
the UIL take such an action in the
first place?
Yeah, so basically
this decision was made when the
UIL's legislative body, that's
their rule-making body that's made
up of public school administrators
from all over the state of Texas.
When they met up a few weeks
ago, they brought
forth a proposal that essentially
bans foreign exchange students from
participating in varsity sports.
And they said that this comes after
years of expressed
by their coaches and
administrators on campuses,
they argue that
foreign exchange students get that
competitive advantage, right?
When they're able to just show up,
get a waiver and immediately play
varsity.
They say that's not fair to the
Texas kids who have been going
through the whole school system, you
know, all the athletic programs
working their way up to varsity
This is something that we talk about
a lot. I feel more so like in
college athletics, it used to be
that if you transferred to school
you had to wait out a year,
but there is a lot going on
with college athletics when it comes
to the portal and transferring.
I'm wondering if that's more of a
prevalent problem in high school
athletics.
Are there Texas high schools that
are recruiting Australian punters
or Romanian gymnasts?
Is this an epidemic in Texas
public schools?
I mean, you know, it's hard
to say whether or whether or not
that's true. But I will say
Aaron Hood, who's the superintendent
of Robert Lee ISD that's
just north of San Angelo, you
he brought forth this proposal to
the UIL and he said that
he had personally seen some foreign
exchange students use social media
to promote themselves to
Texas coaches, you know including
things like height, weight, their
position and stuff on their
profiles, which
you know. He says
is not fair.
That's interesting.
Yeah, I mean, because a lot of high
school students tend to brag about,
you know, their stats and showing
off for the availability of a future
college program.
Again, you can read more about what
some of these administrators had to
say at KUT.org
in Kailey's story.
I wanted to ask you about something
else. This change would affect
foreign exchange students playing
varsity sports.
So it wouldn't really matter when it
comes to JV or freshman teams,
as I understand it.
This is just about varsity sport.
And it doesn't affect either
other programs at
the UIO overseas, like music and
academics.
But I got to imagine that some of
the draw for these exchange students
is like the pageantry, right?
The Friday night lights, so the big
the big, the big table,
the big screen getting to
participate in some of those things.
It has to be a draw, correct?
Yeah, that's right.
You know, I talked to a lady
named Tracy.
She is a representative
or organizer for one of these
organizations that helps, you
know, coordinate these exchange
programs. And she told me
about one of the students that she's
hosting right now.
He was able to play varsity
football. He had never played
football in his life before, but the
big draw was he'd always heard about
Texas Friday Night Lights, right?
So yeah, he went out
and got to have that experience this
past semester.
That might not be the case starting
next year.
OK, as you mentioned, this was
a UIL legislative council.
It's a 32-member council
that voted on this rule change.
So they have initiated that part.
But as I mentioned, the rule still
needs approval from State
Education Commissioner Mike
Morath to go into effect.
What are the next steps?
What happens next?
Yeah. So, I mean, like you said,
the real next step is just seeing if
the state education commissioner
will approve the
change and then yeah,
starting next school year, this
new rule would go into effect.
Is there any timetable about when we
might expect to hear from the
Commissioner, or is that still in
the early stages?
Still in the early stages to my
knowledge.
Okay. Well, like I said, you can
read more about this story over at
K U T dot org.
As I mentioned, a high school
football playoffs are getting
underway this week.
A lot of local teams being featured
in that.
And I mentioned collegiate sports
as well. There's a big game going on
this week and Kailey happening
tomorrow. A big top 10 matchup
between number 10 Texas.
They'll be on the road to face the
Georgia Bulldogs.
Georgia currently fifth in the
country.
As I said. Texas is number 10.
From everything that's been going
around the team this season,
it's felt like kind of a bad
year, but are they still
in a good spot to possibly make like
the college football playoff?
Yeah, I mean, actually, if you,
you know, go to the college,
the latest college football
rankings, playoff rankings,
they actually released the
updated version two days ago.
They have Texas currently within
their bracket.
So, you, know, as long as Texas
takes care of business, granted,
they do have probably two
of the toughest games.
That's right.
Tomorrow, they're gonna be going up
against Georgia. Who's the other
opponent that's still.
You got Texas A&M, you got the
Aggies next week, right, who
look fantastic this year.
So that's going to be a real
challenge, but no,
even though they've had so many ups
and downs, yeah, they're in a really
good position.
They're still controlling their
destiny. As we said, they're on the
road tomorrow to face a
number five, Georgia.
Then they'll be at home next week to
play Arkansas.
And then after Thanksgiving, they'll
be taking on Texas A&M in a big
game. And we have been speaking with
KUT's Williamson County reporter,
Kailey Hunt, covering a little bit
of everything as usual.
Kailey, we appreciate your reporting
and thank you for coming on Austin
Signal.
Thanks, Jerry.
And thank you out there for spending
part of your Friday here with
listener powered public radio.
This is KUT News,
we got more coming up after
one minute.
Thank you for tuning in.
This is Austin Signal.
I'm Jerry Quijano.
Hana World Market announced this
month that they're closing their
doors for good come the end of 2025
after many years of business at
their location in far North Austin.
And amid the news of the closing,
the store announced on their
Facebook page that their
refrigeration system was vandalized
and that forced an emergency sale.
The news of closure prompted a
feeling of sadness and nostalgia
among the many Austinites who've
been visiting the store for years.
YunHui Lee is owner of Hana World
Market. She's with us today on
Austin Signal.
YunHui, thank you for joining us.
Thank you for having me.
So I wanna ask first, how long
has Hano World Market been a part of
Austin and how long has your family
been a a part of Austin business?
Hana World Market opened in 2012,
but my parents owned New Orleans
Market, which started in early
2000.
And what made you want to run
a grocery store, open your own
store? Was it like part of the
family business? Where did that come
from?
No, it kind of fell in my lap.
My parents were closing their store
and they were going out of business
and then this opportunity
presented itself.
And then, so my parents needed
something to do.
I was kind of not really
looking to do it, but like I said,
it just kind of fell in lap and we
were able to put it together.
Yeah.
For anybody out there who might be
unfamiliar with Hana World Market,
what do you do?
We're an Asian grocery store,
predominantly we have Vietnamese,
Chinese, Korean, Japanese.
I'm sure you had this preconceived
notion of what I'm running a
business might be like here in
Austin How is it different in your
year since 2012?
How has it played out different from
what you expected?
It might be
Well, when we first started, we were
one of the biggest markets.
But then when I think it
was in 2018,
Ranch 99 came in and H Mart
came in. And after that,
the smaller markets were kind of
struggling because we don't have the
buying power like the national
markets do.
And so in the beginning, it was
very small and
we had very loyal customers.
But then, when the bigger markets
came in, it just became harder and
harder.
For, you know, the smaller
businesses to survive and be
competitive.
What's been the reaction from the
customers who've heard the news and
have been visiting the store?
It's been overwhelming.
And I, we, as a company,
we were just felt so blessed because
the community came out when we
had the sale.
We had so many people come out and
then we had several people that came
out and were like, I don't need the
discount. Just charge me.
Um, gave, you know, wanted to give
donations, asked if we had
a go fund me page.
And you know they wanted to do the
donations, but we don't have
anything set up.
And so just the amount of people
that come out, we were.
So overwhelmed because,
an example, one person put
on their Facebook or Snapchat
or something, and they had said, oh,
they're closing, go out, and
if you can't, just buy one of their
shopping bags.
That day, we sold out
of the shopping bags, and that's how
awesome that all the customers have
been, and customers that
moved away, like to South Austin
or way out to Round Rock,
and were customers when they lived
closer, they came in and was like,
We shopped with you when we were
at you know, when you first opened,
we just wanted to come back and give
you some support.
Very sad that you're closing.
And so we feel very,
very blessed that we,
that the customers have been coming
back and, you know providing
the support.
As I was scrolling through your
Facebook page, it was a nice
nostalgic trip back into
Austin, and did you think
you were going to create these kind
of lasting relationships with people
when you, you know, kind of were
forced into this job in 2012?
Not really, I think one thing that
I remember is like a customer,
one of our customers had come
in and she had
taken her card out and she left her
purse in the parking lot in
the shopping cart, but she had over
$3,000 worth of cash.
As one does.
Yes, one does carry a lot of cash,
our customers are such good
grounded people, we had the customer
come back, bring in the purse,
the money was intact and stuff
like that.
I just feel that
just the community itself,
Austin has grown so
much, but when we
first started, it just felt that
all of our customers were like
family members too.
Like we're like one of those
neighborhood things like, you know,
cheers when the customer comes in.
My uncle actually has
this memory where he could remember
everybody's name, but
it's kind of bittersweet because
the business aspect of it
has been very, very difficult.
You know, not only, you know,
the bigger companies coming in, but
with raising, you
know, the price increases,
the rent and electricity utilities,
all that.
And then this year with all the
increases in tariffs, because we
import all of all the stuff that we
get is imported.
So that has had a crucial
impact in us.
How big of an impact was it,
maybe financially, but also
the not knowing as to
when things were going to be
enforced? How did that impact your
year particularly?
Well, what,
you know, not only the price
increases, but because the price
increases impacted our
vendors that provided us the
materials, they
were not stocking
up as much products
because they didn't want to be
strapped because they didn't t know
if the end user, us, the buyers were
going to buy as much as they had.
So, you, know, we were not only
faced with the price increases, that
we were facing.
Not being able to get the products
in store.
So that, I think,
made it even more complicated.
To try and plan ahead, right?
Yeah, we're always talking here at
KUT about planning for the
future and that really hamstrings
you when you don't know what
to expect next.
Yes, because prime example,
we would order and say, for example,
we would have three pages of orders
that we placed.
Well, when they would deliver one
and a half pages would be out of
stock because, you know, the
suppliers were not able to get the
products in as well.
And then it impacts us and
then it's like the prices are going
up, but we don't have the products
to sell. So then that
both has an impact on our bottom
line. So it's been pretty difficult.
The announcement was made that
you're gonna be closing by the end
of 2025.
Not really a firm date to just kind
of going off of vibes a little bit.
Now that you've had some time to
reflect on the news that the store
is actually going to close and
you've heard some reaction from the
community. And I'm sure that there's
a lot of stress that's gonna be gone
as well, right?
But I'm there was a lot a joy that
the story brought to you every day,
the interactions brought.
What are you gonna miss about that?
I think the people, the customers,
that aspect is what I'm
gonna miss about the most.
Everything else I can do without,
but the people that come in.
Thankful and you know,
there's customers that have been
coming for like 12 years,
you know So I will miss
them the most I think
Yeah, as I said, there was a lot of
sadness, a lot people noting that
they had been going to your store
since they were in their youth or
when they were middle school.
It's a nice neighborhood walk over.
So lots to miss.
Again, Hana World Market announced
they're gonna be closing at the end
of the year.
For an Austinite who's still here
right now, maybe has never been to
Hana world market, what can they
expect when they make the trip up
north to visit y'all?
Well, it'll be a little bit
different because our shelves are
kind of empty, but we
are having one last shipment.
Like I said, we're going to try to
stay open as long as we can.
But I think what, what I
hope people feel when they come
in, it is more like a
family atmosphere.
We're more like neighborhood family
market more than anything.
Do you think you're going to be
getting any more tote bags and of
these tote bags?
We would get them we would
yeah, it takes long to produce.
So no, no
So if you're listening right now and
you have one of those tote bags
you've got a classic item right
there Hold on to it tight.
We have been speaking with YunHui
Lee the owner of Hana world market
They plan to close their doors at
the end of 2025 uni.
Thank you for your time today and
congratulations on all your hard
work Thank you, and
that is it for today's
episode of Austin signal.
Thank for being with us today
And just as a reminder, we are live
every weekday afternoon, starting
at 1 o'clock here on KUT
News 90.5 and
over on the KUT app.
And you can catch up on past
episodes at kut.org
slash signal.
Among the many things that we
covered this week, four months
on from historic flooding in central
Texas, families of victims
of the July 4th flooding in the Hill
Country are suing Camp Mystic.
Alleging that they failed to take
the proper precautions to protect
their campers and counselors.
Also, the city of Austin is
making hard budget cuts after
this month's failure of Proposition
Q at the ballot box.
Those stories and all of our
past stories can be heard on the
Austin Signal podcast.
Subscribe wherever you listen to
your shows.
A big thank you to everyone who
contributed to today's show,
YunHui Li from Hana Market.
As well as KUT's Nathan Bernier,
Kailey Hunt, and Trey Schar out
there.
Kristin Cabrera is our managing
producer.
Rayna Sevilla keeps us
sounding good on the board.
And a special thank you to Jimmy
Moss for his help with today's
show.
I'm Jerry Quijano, your host of
Austin Signal.
And we're glad that you made time
for us today. We hope you have a
fantastic Friday and a wonderful
weekend out there!
Oh, and by the way, thank you Casey
Cheek for his fantastic work.
Keeping us all together,
we appreciate you tuning in.
This is Austin Signal.