Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Thursday, November 4, 2021.
Children ages 5-to-11 are now able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine – and hospitals in major Texas cities have already started vaccinating children. Dr. Julie Boom is co-chair of the COVID-19 Task Force at Texas Children’s Hospital. She joins us today with more.
Many Texans call the Gulf Coast. For countless others, it’s synonymous with vacations and summer memories. And it’s a major generator of economic activity for both Texas and the U.S. as a whole. But things are changing down where the sand meets the seawater – and not for the better. David Schechter, an investigative reporter for ABC affiliate WFAA in Dallas, has been documenting some of those changes as world leaders meet in Scotland for an annual U.N. summit on climate change. He joins us today.
Tech Workers and Texas Politics
Oracle, Tesla, Apple: plenty of tech companies are moving to Texas, or expanding their footprint here. And it’s expected that lots of highly-valued workers will be given the chance to relocate here. But while some workers have leaped at the chance to call Texas home, others may skip the move, because their progressive views don’t align with the state’s conservative politics. Our tech expert Omar Gallaga wrote about this recently for Texas Monthly and joins us with more.
Dallas Bar Banning Mariah Carey Christmas Song
A Dallas restaurant and bar triggered online outrage when it became known that Mariah Carey’s holiday hit, “All I Want For Christmas is You,” is banned from the jukebox – for now, at least. KERA’s Jerome Weeks visited the bar and learned that while the online attention may be new, the ban itself isn’t.
Texas Adult Protective Services, part 1
CPS is one of those acronyms people know: you probably don’t need anyone to explain those letters stand for Child Protective Services. But that’s not really the case with APS, or Adult Protective Services. Housed under the same umbrella as CPS, both agencies are part of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. But what exactly does APS do? As part of her series on the prevention of elder abuse, the Texas Standard’s Joy Diaz reports.
American Homefront Veterans’ Day
American Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson was traveling in a convoy in Iraq in 2003, when her vehicle was attacked. Iraqi forces killed 11 soldiers in her company and captured six, including Johnson. She was held for 22 days, becoming the first Black female prisoner of war in American history. We’ll hear from her today. You can hear more on the PBS series “American Veteran” and the podcast “American Veteran: Unforgettable Stories.”
As long as folks keep moving to Texas, its cities will keep looking for water. Add in climate change, and you have a really stressed water system. So how can the people in charge of our water supply convince Texans to conserve? KERA’s Bret Jaspers reports.
Congenital Syphilis and Babies
Congenital syphilis is a condition that can kill or debilitate newborns, and it’s on the rise in some of Texas’s largest cities. Doctors in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio have been speaking out about the dangers of this preventable disease, but some feel like no one is listening. Kim Krisberg from Public Health Watch has been covering the issue and joins us for a Q&A.
All this and Texas News Roundup, plus Social Media Editor Wells Dunbar with the talk of Texas.
