News Roundup: San Antonio Expects 300,000 Attendees At Annual MLK Day March

Our daily look at Texas headlines.

By Becky FogelJanuary 21, 2019 12:54 pm

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

Texas cities are holding marches today to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day. That includes San Antonio, which is home to one of the largest gatherings in the country. City officials expect approximately 300,000 people to participate. The procession includes a vintage bus that civil rights activist Rosa Parks rode in when she appeared in the city’s inaugural MLK Day march in 1987.

VIA Metropolitan Transit spokeswoman Lorraine Pulido told San Antonio’s Texas Public Radio that people can view the bus ahead of the festivities.

“We do invite people to tour the inside of the bus before the march begins every year, so they’re welcome to stop by the VIA area,” Pulido said.

Texas political officials will also participate in the San Antonio march.

That includes Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Democratic presidential candidate, and former San Antonio Mayor, Julián Castro.


A new government report shows how moves by the Trump administration are limiting the country’s ability to address migration caused by climate change. Houston Public Media’s Elizabeth Trovall has more on the recommendations from the Government Accountability Office.

Obama-era initiatives instructed the State Department to look at how climate change impacts migration. U.S. agencies also aided countries impacted by drought, sea-level rise and deforestation.

This new report says the State Department should go back to addressing those issues.

Congress asked for the report because the Trump administration has since reversed policies like the Global Climate Change Initiative. Here’s David Gootnick with the Government Accountability Office:

“This was a multilateral and bilateral effort that provided resources towards countries’ adaptation, resilience and response to climate change.”

The report also highlighted Central America as one of the regions vulnerable to climate-change-related migration. Scientists predict the climate there will become warmer and dryer, which could increase poverty and migration to the U.S.


Former President George W. Bush is calling for an end to the federal government shutdown in its 31st day as of Monday. Bush made the comments in an Instagram post from Friday that shows him delivering pizzas to Secret Service personnel working without payment.

 

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Bush wrote, “It’s time for leaders on both sides to put politics aside, come together, and end this shutdown.”

 


President Donald Trump name-checked San Antonio over the weekend in his continued call for border wall funding. He touted the Alamo City as an example of how well walls work, even though the city has no wall and doesn’t sit on the border.

“You look at San Antonio, you look at so many different places that go from one of the most unsafe cities in the country to one of the safest cities immediately, immediately,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

The ongoing, partial government shutdown began after Trump announced he would not sign any spending bill that did not include billions for a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border.