Texas Standard For January 20, 2021

The beginning of a new chapter and a new era. With change coming to Washington, what are the implications closer to home? On this presidential inauguration day, what are the priorities for the 46th chief executive of the United States and what do they add up to for Texas? Coming up, we’ll hear from Texas experts, scholars and reporters on subjects ranging from what to expect when it comes to changes to environmental policy, immigration and asylum, the economy, including the trillion-dollar student loan debt crisis, dealing with the ongoing pandemic and much more on a special edition of the Texas Standard:

By Texas StandardJanuary 20, 2021 9:30 am

Here’s what’s coming up on Texas Standard for Wednesday, January 20, 2021. Listen on your Texas public radio station, or ask your smart speaker to play Texas Standard. We’ll have full posts for each story, including audio, a little later today.

Inauguration Day 

To say this Inauguration Day is unusual is an understatement. For the first time we’ve got outgoing business, namely the impeachment proceedings against the outgoing president as well as the new business brought in by the incoming administration. Here to discuss the Biden priorities is Richard Pineda. director of the Sam Donaldson Center for Communication at the University of Texas-El Paso and Todd Gillman, from The Dallas Morning News’ Washington bureau.

Student Loan Debt Under Biden

On Day 1 of the new Biden administration, changes are already in the works to address multiple crises affecting the country. The Texas Standard zeroes in on once of those crises: student debt. In December, as many called on the incoming president to forgive $50,000 of student loans per borrower we talk with Laura Beamer. She is lead researcher in higher education finance at the Jain Family Institute based in New York. She said student-loan forgiveness and it’s ripple effects will do good for the economy.

Biden and Texas Energy 

On the campaign trail, the former vice president suggested he’d ban fracking – the controversial drilling technique that’s made Texas oil fields among the most prolific in the world. Since then, Joe Biden has reversed himself. He has said that fracking would not be banned, rather he’d forbid new oil and gas permits on federal land and waters. Last month, the Standard spoke with David Spence, the Baker Botts chair at the University of Texas School of Law, where he specializes in energy law. Spence talks about how Biden’s new stance would work.

My Mask: Charlotte Martin

Asylum Seekers Hope for Change in 2021

It’s Inauguration Day in America, But perhaps no one outside of the United States is watching today’s events more closely than those along our southern border. Asylum seekers now stuck in shelters and camps across Mexico hope a new U.S. president will bring an end to their ordeal. KERA’s Mallory Falk has been following one family in Ciudad Juarez — just across the border from El Paso.

PolitiFact

All this and Texas News Roundup, plus Michael Marks with the talk of Texas.

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