Monarchs Are Stopping By Lady Bird Wildflower Center to Refuel

Our daily roundup of Texas headlines.

By Becky FogelOctober 26, 2016 11:41 am

The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.

Director of Horticulture at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Andrea DeLong-Amaya says the monarch fall migration is in full swing.

“Yeah, we started seeing our first monarchs maybe three or four weeks ago. But they’re definitely coming in, in bigger clouds this week than they were earlier,” DeLong-Amaya says. 

The butterflies are expected to breeze through the area in big bursts over the next couple of weeks. And they basically treat the center with its flowers and fields as a refueling station –  they need high-energy nectar to get down to Mexico. 

“Pretty much anything in the sunflower family is going to be really good…and other things too…so that’s going to be the real critical thing is to have a diversity of nectar sources for the migration south,” she says.

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center adds that the monarchs, who have seen massive drops in their population in recent years, have stopped in Texas to feast on nectar for millennia




Early voting turnout has hit record highs across Texas this week – and in Houston, some voters are experiencing a slowdown at the polls. Eddie Robinson from Houston Public Media has this update on early voting efforts:

“Heavy turnout for early voting is leading to long waits to cast a ballot across greater Houston. Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart is the county’s chief election official. He says they’ve sent out more laptops to help process voters. Another issue is: ‘We have a large number of people who have moved and when they do that they have to fill out additional paperwork showing their new address.’ Stanart expects record turnout in Harris County with some 1.4 million people casting their ballots.” 

Early voting in Texas ends on November 4. You can read and listen to more about early voting in Houston here.




Strike a pose San Antonio! Fashion magazine Vogue has named Pearl one of America’s Best Food Halls.

The San Antonio Express-News described it as quote – “not so much a food hall as a sprawling culinary compound.”

The Vogue write-up gave shoutouts to gourmet pop tarts and handcrafted cured meats. It also dubbed San Antonio a “trendy Texas town.” Other spots like Revival Food Hall in Chicago, Pine Street Market in Portland, and the Bowery Market in New York City made the list.