Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Thursday, May 22, 2025:
As the clock winds down, Texas lawmakers scramble to pass key bills
Texas’ 2025 legislative session is coming down to the finish line. Lawmakers have less than two weeks until they gavel out on Monday, June 2. And with little time left, there are still some big, priority bills that haven’t made their way to the governor’s desk yet.
That ticking clock means the pressure increases as the days slip away. And as The Texas Newsroom’s Blaise Gainey explains, that leads to some creative wheeling and dealing at the Capitol.
High-speed chases added to Uvalde shooting chaos. Chases are down 3 years later – but trauma remains
Saturday marks the third anniversary of a gunman killing 19 students and two teachers at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School. Among the often-reported but seldom-explored facts of the tragedy is one key finding of a special Texas House committee investigation: they found that procedures known as “bailouts” – when drivers in a high-speed chase with law enforcement stop the car or crash to try and escape – contributed to school officials’ delayed response.
Those types of pursuits aren’t as frequent anymore – but as KERA’s Toluwani Osibamowo reports, residents in the Uvalde area are still dealing with the fallout.
‘Unprecedented cuts’ to SNAP would impact low-income Texans who need it most
Congressional Republicans continue to push for spending cuts to the nation’s social safety net, including unprecedented ones to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The reconciliation bill will cut more than $290 billion from the program formerly known as food stamps, push billions of costs down to the states, and push people off the low-income feeding program with work requirements.
Texas Public Radio’s Paul Flahive reports.
Apple’s new accessibility tools include live captions and mind control (sort of)
Recently, the tech giant Apple announced that this year it’s planning to roll out a host of new accessibility features, like live captions for the Apple Watch, which will allow you to transcribe audio in real time.
Another is brain control accessibility, a feature so futuristic that we need tech expert Omar Gallaga to help us understand it. He’s been following this story for CNET and joins us today.
With free tuition, Austin Community College sees jump in students enrolling right after high school
When Austin Community College launched its free tuition pilot program last fall, administrators hoped it would make higher education more accessible to local high school graduates – especially with the college-going rate dropping in Central Texas.
As KUT News’ Becky Fogel reports, participation in the inaugural year of the program has far exceeded ACC’s expectations.
A new coach, a new star, and a bumpy takeoff for the Dallas Wings
The Dallas Wings dropped a close game last night to the Minnesota Lynx, opening their season 0 and 3. The Wings had a lot of buzz around their team after securing the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft with Paige Bueckers and hiring a new coach. So is this slow start to be expected – allowing the new point guard to adjust to playing in the pros – or could it be something else?
Rosalina Lee, a journalist and WNBA basketball analyst, YouTuber and contributor to Women’s FastBreak for Sports Illustrated, joins with more.
He arrived in Houston legally. Then he vanished into a Salvadoran prison
Widmer Josneyder Agelviz Sanguino was 24 when he arrived in Houston from Venezuela as a refugee last fall. His family had already gone through a rigorous process to prove their refugee status. But Agelviz Sanguino was detained at the airport after immigration enforcement decided his tattoos were gang-related.
He was in custody for months, but his family and attorneys stopped hearing from him on March 15. Then, his name appeared on a list of those who were sent to an El Salvador prison. Sam Gonzalez Kelly has been looking into this for the Houston Chronicle and joins with the story:
All this, plus Alexandra Hart with the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Wells Dunbar with the Talk of Texas.
