Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Friday, Feb. 28, 2025:
A year after the Smokehouse Creek Fire
This week marks the one-year anniversary of the Smokehouse Creek Fire, which tore through over 1 million acres in the Panhandle – the largest wildfire in state history. While lawmakers in Austin promise bills to strengthen wildfire prevention and emergency response, communities are still rebuilding.
The Texas Newsroom’s senior editor, Rachel Osier Lindley, has been in the Panhandle this week and joins the show with more.
How federal firings impact Texas mission sites
As part of the DOGE program – Elon Musk’s government efficiency effort – about 1,000 park rangers were terminated nationwide. Texas Public Radio’s Jack Morgan tells us about park rangers at the San Antonio Missions National Park who are feeling the pain.
Austin transit agency’s secret fight to fix a broken fare system
In just a few days, transit riders in Austin are going to have to download an app and tap their phones to pay. This is happening because, around this time last year, Capital Metro – Austin’s transit agency – saw its payment system collapse for about a month. As of now, the amount of money lost during the collapse is unknown.
Nathan Bernier, the transportation reporter at KUT News, tells us what he’s learned for this month’s edition of The Drill Down, highlighting investigative reporting from The Texas Newsroom.
Could keeping backyard chickens offer a solution to high egg prices?
Egg prices jumped more than 15% in January from a year ago. A carton of eggs now costs Americans an average of $4.95. Producers blame it on the bird flu that has forced them to euthanize millions of chickens. Some egg consumers are now looking for alternatives, including going to the source itself: backyard chickens.
Todd Ballou is the cofounder of Austin-based the Chicken Rescue. He’ll join us with some pros and cons of raising chickens for their eggs in an urban environment.
Author talks ‘Texas: An American History’
The history of the state of Texas is as vast as its plains – and, on a closer look, equally as complex. A criticism of the more widely accepted histories of Texas is that they neglect, or even erase, the contributions and lived experiences of those who don’t fit the stereotyped narrative. As researchers and scholars continue to look back at the people who made Texas what it is today, a more robust and colorful tapestry of the state’s story emerges.
One historian working to restore that balance is Benjamin Heber Johnson, a professor of history at Loyola University in Chicago who grew up in Houston. He joins us to discuss his new book, “Texas: An American History.”
The gang delivers another custom poem. Reach out to Texas Standard with your topic suggestions!
The week in Texas politics
The Texas Tribune’s James Barragán joins the Standard with a recap of the week that was in Texas politics:
– Investigations into the Texas Lottery grow after courier controversy
– Texas A&M regents may soon decide the university system’s next leader
All this, plus the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Shelly Brisbin with the Talk of Texas.
