Here’s what’s coming up on Texas Standard for Tuesday, December 15, 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.
Evictions in Texas
Eviction protections are set to expire by year’s end and a large percentage of Texas renters, especially people of color, are not confident they can pay for next month’s rent. That means Texans are bracing for a wave of evictions. The Texas Tribune’s Juan Pablo Garnham, who has been writing about housing, talks to the Standard.
Vaccine Distribution Efforts
Houston’s Memorial Hermann and other Texas hospitals are getting shipments of the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine this week – some 225,000 doses. Doctors, nurses and other hospital staff are at the very front of the line to be immunized. But, as Houston Public Media’s Sara Willa Ernst explains, in some parts of the state, health care workers are nervous they might be left behind, with such limited supply.
Shingle Mountain, part 3
People have been living alongside a mound of roof shingles in southeast Dallas stacked so high it’s been given the notorious nickname ‘Shingle Mountain.’ City officials hired a company to haul it away, but in this final installment of KERA’s One Crisis Away series, Alejandra Martinez explains why residents worry about the damage the mountain has done and the zoning that allowed it to pile up.
Commentary: The 13th Amendment
155 years ago last week, the United States ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which outlawed slavery. Commentator Peniel Joseph says 2020 finds us at another crossroads in America’s racial history.
COVID Questions
Texas Standard takes listener questions about COVID-19 to Dr. Fred Campbell. He’s a doctor of internal medicine and an associate professor of medicine at the Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio.
Next Generation of Female Tejano Artists
“Selena: The Series” on Netflix has sparked various conversations durig the last week. And one element which seems to be timeless is her music. For more on the next generation of female Tejano artists, Veronique Medrano, a Tejano history archivist studying at the University of North Texas, joins the Standard.
Relief Aid for Immigrant Essential Workers
Foreign-born workers in the United States are more likely than native-born workers to be working essential and critical jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. That includes positions in the health care industry as well as ones that sustain America’s food supply chain. Yet, an estimated 6 million immigrants in the United States who have been working in these critical fields and others weren’t eligible for federal relief during this national health emergency. Ruth Wasem, a professor of policy practice at the University of Texas’ Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs talks to the Standard.
All this and Texas News Roundup, plus Social Media Editor Wells Dunbar with the talk of Texas.
