Here’s what’s coming up on Texas Standard for Wednesday, November 18, 2020. 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.
Texas Black Legislative Caucus Priorities
A group of Texas lawmakers has resurrected the Texas Black Caucus Foundation, a nonprofit group that will provide research and policy analysis on issues ranging from curbing police brutality to providing health care for the uninsured. It will partner with universities, businesses, religious institutions and other non-profits to share information about public policy solutions for the crucial issues facing Black Texans. State Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, who chairs the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, talks to the standard about the foundation and priorities this next session.
Loving County COVID-19
Loving County in West Texas is hardly a stranger to national press coverage. As the county with the fewest people living in it in the entire contiguous United States, Loving has been the subject of many a feature story. One curious trend this year though has been how Loving County, with a population under 200, has remained coronavirus-free all year. But as New York Times reporter J. David Goodman reported this week, that’s not exactly true. Goodman talks to the Standard.
American Legion Business Model
For decades, American Legion posts across the country have served as a community hub for veterans and their families. But the pandemic has forced many posts to shut their doors to retired military vets who gather there. Robert Garrova reports for the American Homefront Project and finds out how the pandemic is upending posts finances and culture.
Oil Land Prices
It wasn’t too long ago that some of the state’s hottest real estate was in the Permian oil fields. Now those once-pricey land parcels have seen a huge dip, thanks to the pandemic oil bust. It’s a trend that Houston Chronicle business reporter Paul Takahashi has written about. Paul, welcome to the Texas Standard.
Latin America Coups Compared to the Current U.S. White House Situation
The Ponce Family and COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic’s effects are far-reaching. It has hurt everyone in some way, whether it’s the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job or the isolation we’re all facing. KERA’s Miranda Suarez talked to one Fort Worth couple about their future after a year of struggle.
Missing Whataburger
Say you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring one photograph, one song, one something that you couldn’t do without. What would it be? Well, Texas Standard commentator W. F. Strong once found himself in a somewhat limiting circumstance that forced him to focus on an existential question.
PolitiFact Texas
All this and Texas News Roundup, plus Social Media Editor Wells Dunbar with the talk of Texas.
