Here’s what’s coming up on Texas Standard for Wednesday, January 13, 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.
The Start of Texas Lege 2021
Tuesday marked the start of the 2021 Texas legislative session. KUT Austin managing editor Ben Philpott has covered the Legislature for almost two decades. He talks with the Texas Standard about how the kickoff was not entirely business as usual with the pandemic and a massive police presence.
Trump at the Border
Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar is a Democrat who represents the upper Rio Grande Valley, where a heavy portion of border fencing is being built. He talks to the Standard about President Trump’s visit to the area Tuesday.
2018 Gas Explosion Update
The National Transportation Safety Board met Tuesday to determine the cause of a 2018 natural gas explosion that killed a 12-year-old girl in northwest Dallas. KERA’s Alejandra Martinez reports the deadly incident occurred within weeks of two other home explosions in the same neighborhood.
Big Tech and Free Speech
When Twitter and Facebook suspended President Trump’s accounts in the wake of the attack on the Capitol last week, many who believe Trump incited the violence cheered. And when Amazon, Google and Apple all cut off Parler, the social platform where many Trump supporters had connected before the riot, the company’s CEO and others claimed their free speech rights had been compromised. Daphne Keller, director of the Program on Platform Regulation at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center talks to the Standard.
Galveston Sculpture, 116 Years in the Making
A new statue will soon go up in Galveston. In some ways, it’s been 116 years in the making. Sculptor Doug McLean talks with the Texas Standard about his project honoring the victims of the 1900 Galveston hurricane and flood.
Jeremiah Onifadé Profile
Jeremiah Onifade’s paintings look like scenes from an alien world — but they’re rooted in reality. The 33-year-old painter lives in south Dallas. He was raised in Nigeria, and his work walks the line between both worlds. As he tells KERA’s Miguel Perez, sometimes that means tapping into some difficult memories.
Stories from Texas: W. F. Strong on Vultures
PolitiFact
All this and Texas News Roundup, plus Social Media Editor Wells Dunbar with the talk of Texas.
