Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024:
What to watch for with the weather on another frigid morning
An arctic cold front is passing through Texas this week. The National Weather Service has issued hard freeze warnings and wind chill advisories for much of the state.
Melissa Huffman, meteorologist-in-charge at The National Weather Service’s Southern Region Headquarters, joins us with the latest.
Impasse between Texas, federal government over stretch of border persists
The Biden administration has given Texas until the end of Wednesday to give Border Patrol access to a stretch of the land along the Rio Grande, where Texas guard troops have blocked Border Patrol from entering since last week. If Texas doesn’t comply, the Biden administration could file a third lawsuit over Gov. Greg Abbott’s immigration policies.
David Martin Davies has been covering the impasse for Texas Public Radio and joins us to discuss.
Nonprofit gears up to save cold-stunned sea turtles
A nonprofit organization called Sea Turtle Inc. on South Padre Island is preparing to rescue hundreds of cold-stunned sea turtles. This group famously saved over 5,000 sea turtles stunned by the cold after the February 2021 winter storm.
Texas Public Radio’s Gaige Davila has more on this latest rescue mission:
State Sen. Judith Zaffirini talks new role
State Sen. Judith Zaffirini kicked off 2024 with a new position: dean of the Texas Senate. She is the first woman to hold that role – and she was the first Mexican American woman to serve in the state’s upper legislative chamber when she was elected to represent Laredo in 1986.
Zaffirini joins the show today to tell us more.
Supreme Court case pits Texas rancher against TxDOT’s highway renovations
Richie DeVillier says his cattle ranch outside Houston is now prone to serious floods because of renovations to Interstate 10 that were completed a few years ago, and that the state needs to compensate him for effectively taking his land. And after losing his case before the Fifth Circuit, arguments are set for today before the nation’s highest court.
Tara Grove, the Vinson & Elkins Chair in Law at UT-Austin, joins us to discuss.
New book collects stories, photos from NASA’s Space Shuttle era
Atlantis. Discovery. Enterprise. Endeavor. Challenger. Columbia.
For three decades, NASA was in the Space Shuttle age, with 135 missions. Most were filled with historic firsts. There were also tragedies.
Astronaut and spacewalker Tom Jones has collected stories from each mission in a big, photo-filled book titled “Space Shuttle Stories.” He joins the show today.
Report: Numerous troop suicides preceded by legal or administrative problems
A Pentagon report has found that more than 20% of military suicides involve troops who were being disciplined or experiencing other legal or administrative problems. Advocates are calling on the armed forces to better protect the mental health of service members accused of major and minor infractions.
From Norfolk, Steve Walsh reports for the American Homefront Project.
All this, plus the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Raul Alonzo with the Talk of Texas.
