Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023:
Texas power plants have no responsibility to provide electricity in emergencies, panel rules
An appellate panel has ruled that Texas power plants have no responsibility to provide electricity in emergencies. If you’re scratching your head at this one, you’re not the only one.
To help sort through what this means, the Standard spoke with KUT reporter Mose Buchele.
Pope says priests can bless same-sex couples – but stop short of marriage
Pope Francis said priests can now bless same-sex couples, marking his most definitive step yet in making the Roman Catholic Church more welcoming to LGBTQ Catholics. Still, the church has made clear that a blessing of a same-sex couple is not the same as a marriage sacrament.
Ruth Graham, a Dallas-based religion reporter for The New York Times, joins the Standard with the story.
Now that abortion’s outlawed, could Texans be compensated for unwanted pregnancies?
An El Paso mother sued her doctor because she got pregnant after believing he had tied her tubes; her case is now in the hands of the Texas Supreme Court.
KERA’s Toluwani Osibamowo reports the court’s ruling could change freedoms for pregnant people, in a state where birth is prioritized at almost all costs.
Fort Worth-based Agridime sold meat directly to consumers, but it also offered investment opportunities in the form of “cattle contracts.” What they were really doing was running a Ponzi scheme, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last week, the Commission announced that it had brought a suit against Agridime for fraud and seized the company’s assets.
DTN/Progressive Farmer editor Chris Clayton joins the Standard with more.
Does drone medical help offer hope for rural Texans?
Emergency medical drones? They’ve been tested in parts of Africa and Australia – and now far-flung West Texas, too.
Big Bend Sentinel reporter Sam Karas joins the show with the story.
‘Narcas’ traffics in the depiction of powerful cartel women
Mexican drug cartels can be an equal opportunity employer. VICE journalist Deborah Bonello unearths some surprising stories in “Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America’s Cartel.” We’ll hear more from her today.
A Pflugerville teacher is using a grant to make the arts more accessible to her students
This year, eight first-time teachers from across Texas are getting a financial boost to help promote the arts in their schools.
KUT’s Becky Fogel introduces us to one of the grant recipients: a new dance teacher for the Pflugerville Independent School District.
Medicaid unwinding exposed a ‘crisis’ in the system as 1.7 million Texans lost coverage
About 1.7 million Texans have lost Medicaid coverage this year. They’re among the 12 million people nationally who received benefits during the pandemic but lost them in the Medicaid unwinding.
KERA health reporter Elena Rivera joins the Standard with more.
All this, plus the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Wells Dunbar with the Talk of Texas.
