Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Tuesday, September 7, 2021.
U.S Attorney General Merrick Garland says the Justice Department will protect people trying to obtain or provide abortions in Texas, in the wake of the state’s near total ban. Texas Public Radio’s Jerry Clayton has more.
Merriam-Webster defines “endemic” as restricted or peculiar to a locality or region. As swaths of the country are more resistant to COVID vaccination and mitigation measures – Texas included – is the pandemic morphing into an endemic outbreak? We’re poaching that question to Dr. Ben Neuman, chief virologist at Texas A&M’s Global Health Research Complex.
Houston energy companies say there is a major skill gap between their current workforce and the type of skillset needed to work in a low-carbon future. The biggest thing lacking: advanced digital and technical expertise, according to a recent industry survey. Houston Public Media’s Kyra Buckley tells us the Bayou City has the resources to train workers – but company culture could get in the way.
Worker Heat Death Series, part 1
Each Texas summer comes with a broiling sun – and as a result, workers across the state are exposed to extreme heat, some of them dying. Columbia Journalism Investigations, NPR and The Texas Newsroom obtained and analyzed thousands of pages of public and court records, and found that dozens of workers have died in Texas over the past decade, and many of those deaths were preventable. In the first of this seven-part series, KERA’s Stella Chavez introduces us to a North Texas construction worker. Warning: this story contains sensitive audio that may be upsetting for some listeners.
Legal Strategist and Abortion Bill
Texas’ near total ban on abortion relies on a new kind of enforcement: lawsuits from private citizens, not the state, levied against anyone involved in the procedure – from the patient, to the doctor, on down to the person that drove to the clinic. The Supreme Court, in opting not to halt the new law, cited what it called the “complex and novel” procedural questions it posed. All of this is by design, Mimi Swartz writes for Texas Monthly. She’ll introduce us to the legal strategist behind the bill today.
Wizzie Brown is a program specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. She’s also our go-to insect expert. Something bugging you? Let us know and we’ll pass it along.
When it comes to sports in Texas, football is king, but the state is also home to athletes who participate in an increasingly popular contact sport: mixed martial arts. KERA’s Galilee Abdullah has more on a coach of MMA fighters in Dallas.
How Voting Measure Could Backfire on Republicans
24-hour voting. Drive-through voting. Mailouts of unsolicited absentee ballots. All of those measures were methods Harris County used in last year’s election. All three are now banned under the new voting bill set to be signed into law by the Governor today. But did Republicans overplay their hand against the Houston region, and might this backfire against the Texas GOP? Jeremy Wallace has been writing about this for the Houston Chronicle, where he covers Texas politics.
All this and Texas News Roundup, plus Social Media Editor Wells Dunbar with the talk of Texas.
