Here’s what’s coming up on Texas Standard for Friday, January 8, 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.
Ted Cruz and the Capitol Riot
Critics say the objection to election results led by Sen. Ted Cruz wasn’t just a harmless piece of political theater – not when it may have motivated pro-Trump protestors to break into the Capitol and disrupt the proceedings of Congress. Some are calling on Cruz to resign. For more on the fallout, Texas Standard turns to Ben Wermund. He’s a Washington correspondent for the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News.
Was Storming the Capitol a Coup?
Do experts agree whether this week’s violent storming of the United States Capitol building was a coup? Does what happened combined with President Trump’s refusal to accept the election results up until Thursday evening constitute an attempted coup? Kenneth Greene is a professor of government at the University of Texas’ College of Liberal Arts. He talks with the Standard.
COVID Vaccine Clinic in Lubbock
Harris County yesterday confirmed Texas’ first case of a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus first discovered in the U.K. The variant is believed to be up to 70% more transmissible, though not more severe. Health officials have said the currently approved vaccines should be effective against it. Local health departments are figuring out how to administer doses of the vaccine as quickly and as safely as possible. Texas Tech Public Media’s Sarah Self-Walbrick reports about trial and error in one of the hardest-hit areas of the pandemic: Lubbock.
Battery Recycling Options
If you’re someone who’s grown used to recycling, you may have wondered what to do with the batteries that power so many of your devices. How and where can you recycle dead batteries, and which ones will recyclers actually take off your hands? Texas Standard’s tech expert Omar Gallaga did some research and recently wrote about what he learned for Medium.
Rural Health Clinics, COVID & The Vaccine
Natalie Bachynsky runs a health clinic in rural Crockett, Texas. She always knew her work would be important but she never imagined that on her first day, even before she turned on the lights of the clinic for the first time, she would have a line of about a dozen people waiting for her.
House Public Education Committee Priorities
No doubt, one issue lawmakers will have to face in the upcoming Texas legislative session is COVID-19’s impact – including on Texas’ public schools. Much of that impact includes potential lost learning but school funding will likely also become a flash-point again. State Rep. Diego Bernal (D) will be dealing with these issues as the vice-chair of the House Public Education Committee.
Typewriter Rodeo
The Week in Texas Politics with The Texas Tribune
All this and Texas News Roundup, plus Social Media Editor Wells Dunbar with the talk of Texas.
