Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Tuesday, January 19, 2021.
Laredo ICU Overcapacity
COVID-19 hospitalizations are up in Texas, greatly impacting smaller cities in the Lone Star State like Bryan-College Station and Laredo. María Méndez, a border and business reporter based in Laredo for our sister station, Texas Public Radio, talks to the Standard.
Texas Lawsuits During the Biden Administration
When Gov. Greg Abbott was Texas’s attorney general during the Obama administration, he used to tout “I go into the office, I sue the federal government and I go home.” That sentiment did not dissipate among Texas’ top Republican leaders ahead of a new Democratic president-elect set to take the oath of office this week. Ben Wermund, a Washington-based correspondent for the Houston Chronicle, talks to the Standard about how the state is gearing up for a new crop of lawsuits against the Biden administration.
Vaccines and Disparities
COVID-19 vaccines are still in short supply. But ahead of any ramp-up in production, Dallas County is trying to avoid an unequal distribution of doses. That’s because southern Dallas County has fewer private health care providers to begin with. As KERA’s Bret Jaspers reports, that creates a risk that communities of color could be short-changed.
The NRA in Texas
The latest entity to announce a relocation to Texas is the National Rifle Association. The gun advocacy group is seeking to avoid stricter tax laws in New York. The move is more on paper, than one involving moving vans. Texas Tribune reporter Erin Douglas talks to the Standard about what the announcement really means.
This is American Fascism
Did the fall of Berlin in 1945 end fascism or is it evolving over time? Texas State University Professor Louie Dean Valencia-García talks to the Standard about how the storming of the U.S. Capitol building by pro-Trump extremists is an example of the colliding of fascist ideologies in existence in the United States and how it could be the beginning of years of street violence despite a new president.
Bug Bites: Carpenter Ants
Emma Faye Rudkin Profile
A Boerne woman and her dog are using television to teach kindness to area children…and she’s hoping that project will soon continue to grow nationwide. Texas Public Radio’s Jack Morgan has her story.
Three Legislative Buckets
When the 87th Legislature began last week, hundreds of bills had already been filed. Alexandra Suich Bass decided to look at those bills for The Economist and put them in three buckets: what the state should prioritize, what lawmakers haven’t considered, but what they should take up and what they shouldn’t take up, but will.
All this and Texas News Roundup, plus Social Media Editor Wells Dunbar with the talk of Texas.
