Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Tuesday, May 13, 2025:
Potentially historic heatwave settling in over much of Texas
Texas is bracing for a relentless and potentially historic heatwave this week, with dangerously high temperatures expected statewide. In Central and South Texas, highs will surpass 100 degrees.
John Nielson Gammon, the Texas state climatologist, joins us with the details.
Legislator profile: Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons
Texas is one of just a handful of states where lawmakers only meet every other year. That means each of the state’s legislators – all 150 state representatives and 31 Texas senators – have a whole life, and often, a whole career, outside of the statehouse.
So who are these people representing us in Austin? Well, today we continue our ongoing profile series where we get to know our state lawmakers – in their own words.
The Texas Newsroom’s Blaise Gainey spoke to Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons who represents Texas House District 146 in Houston.
Houston City Council weighs steep budget cuts
Houston City Council kicks off budget hearings for the next fiscal year this week. Councilmembers will weigh in on a $7 billion budget proposed by Houston Mayor John Whitmire.
As Houston Public Media’s Dominic Anthony Walsh reports, it includes steep spending cuts.
Growing concern over pest prompts suspension of cattle imports from Mexico
On Sunday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture suspended imports of cattle from Mexico. The decision also affects horses and bison. The move may have come as a surprise, given that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins made the opposite decision a week prior. But her department received new information about the movement of a destructive pest that changed the situation.
Texas Standard producer and reporter Michael Marks joins us with the story:
Behind Buc-ee’s bathroom galleries
First founded in 1982, the gas station chain Buc-ee’s has, for better or worse, become part of the Lone Star State’s identity. It’s a company with more than 50 locations across Texas – and at some of them, you’ll find pieces of art for sale on the way to the bathroom.
Lauren Larson is a senior writer at Texas Monthly who has a new story about these bathroom art galleries. She joins us to discuss.
New book looks at the turbulent year of 1963
1963 was a pivotal year in American history. It marked 100 years since Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation but teemed with persistent evidence of racial terror and violence.
It’s an era that’s long captured the attention of author and UT-Austin professor Peniel Joseph. He joined the Standard to discuss his latest book is “Freedom Season: How 1963 Transformed America’s Civil Rights Revolution.”
Bill details return-to-work rules for state employees
Policies around remote work are ever-changing since companies sent employees home as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded. Increasingly, people are expected back in their offices – and that includes those employed by the State of Texas after Gov. Greg Abbott in March ordered state agencies to bring workers back in-person.
This order inspired a piece of legislation that would create rules for how state agencies can allow employees to work remotely. Karen Brooks Harper, a senior politics reporter at the Dallas Morning News, she joins us with the details.
All this, plus Alexandra Hart with the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Raul Alonzo with the Talk of Texas.
