Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Monday, Feb. 12, 2024:
What we know about the shooting at Joel Osteen’s megachurch
A woman walked into a Houston megachurch with a child and a rifle and started shooting yesterday. Two off-duty officers working security shot and killed the shooter. The young child and a bystander were shot, though police are not saying by whom, and were taken to the hospital.
Houston Public Media’s Jack Williams shares the latest with the Standard.
Lawsuits target Bonham ISD for discriminating against Black and disabled students
A coalition of civil rights groups say Bonham ISD, in Northeast Texas, discriminates against Black and disabled students: unfairly penalizing them on disciplinary grounds and pushing them out of school and even into jails.
Neelam Bohra, disability and accessibility reporter for The Texas Tribune, joins the Standard with more.
State Republican party censures House speaker
The Texas GOP has censured Texas House Speaker Republican Dade Phelan.
Texas Public Radio’s Jerry Clayton has more on why and what that means for Phelan and the party:
Listeria contaminated this company’s foods in supermarkets for a decade before it was caught
More than two dozen people have been sickened in an outbreak of listeria monocytogenes. The outbreak has actually carried on for the past 10 years, but authorities only recently linked it to several dairy products produced by Rizo-López Foods.
Consumer Reports’ Lisa Gill joins the Standard with the story.
How Mexico supplanted China as the nation’s top trade partner
For most of the past few decades, the title of “top trading partner to the U.S.” has belonged to China – but no longer. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that last year, the United States’ biggest trading partner was Mexico.
Raymond Robertson, Texas A&M and Southern Methodist University trade expert, joins the Standard with more.
Recognizing soul singer-songwriter Lavelle White
The live music capital of the world wasn’t built overnight — and many Black artists, events and venues helped shape it. This Black History Month, our home stations KUT and KUTX in Austin are celebrating those contributions.
Miles Bloxson has this profile of soul singer and songwriter Lavelle White.
Texas State University is swearing in two new officers: horses Duke and Lyndon
At Texas State University in the Central Texas city of San Marcos, police have started using horse-mounted patrols to better navigate campus and connect with students.
KUT’s Maya Fawaz reports the move has also drawn some concern.
Russia’s disinfo machine fans the flames of Texas secession
At this point, there are lots of examples Russia using online disinformation to sow discord in the United States. The ongoing conflict between the State of Texas and the Biden administration over operations at the border has given the Russian propagandists another opening.
A new report in Wired shows how Russian bots, influencers and even state officials used the border dispute to push the idea of an imminent civil war in the United States. Reporter David Gilbert joins with more.
All this, plus the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Wells Dunbar with the Talk of Texas.
