Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Friday, June 27, 2025.
It’s decision day at SCOTUS
Several cases with huge implications for Texas and the nation are set to get decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court today: rulings on birthright citizenship, Texas’ law requiring ID for adult websites and more.
Tara Grove, Vinson & Elkins Chair in Law at the University of Texas at Austin, joins the show with the breaking developments.
Abbott vetoed this anti-trafficking bill – but it’s coming back in the special session
Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a bill that would have let victims of human trafficking claim duress as a defense against any crimes they’re charged with committing on behalf of their traffickers.
Houston Public Media’s Andrew Schneider says Abbott has directed lawmakers to revisit the issue in a special session.
Texas homeowners facing rising tide of negative equity
Home prices soared during the pandemic. Now, the market is cooling and some Texans are finding themselves underwater on their mortgages.
The Wall Street Journal’s Veronica Dagher explains why Texas cities are seeing some of the worst rates of negative equity nationwide.
A lithium rush could be coming to East Texas
Oil made East Texas boom in the 20th century. Now lithium could do the same in the 21st. A new partnership between GeoFrame Energy and Halliburton aims to extract lithium on thousands of acres in northeast Texas.
University of California, Riverside geochemist Michael McKibben joins us with more.
Joshua Ray Walker’s new album turns from honky tonks to ‘Tropicana’
Dallas country artist Joshua Ray Walker is back with “Tropicana,” a new album recorded after finishing cancer treatment. Known for his gritty songs about barroom life, Walker has turned to brighter sounds and settings.
He joins us to talk about the journey behind the music.
The gang delivers another custom poem.
The Texas Tribune politics reporter Jasper Scherer joins the Standard with a recap of the week that was in Texas politics.
All this, plus Alexandra Hart with the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Wells Dunbar with the Talk of Texas.
