Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Tuesday, May 30, 2023:
2023 legislative recap: education issues
Even as a special Texas Legislative session begins, public radio reporters across the state are double-checking what lawmakers accomplished before Sine Die. Today they catch us up on the status of education legislation.
What’s in store for this special session?
Monday marked the end of one legislative session and the start of a new one as Gov. Greg Abbott called the first of what could be several special sessions. Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, talks to the Texas Standard about what happens next.
North Texans face great hunger risk after SNAP cuts during ‘food price emergency’
In the early stages of the pandemic, Texas and other states boosted food assistance, giving everyone in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program the maximum allowable benefit. But those expanded SNAP benefits ended in March. And as KERA’s Christopher Connelly reports, that’s made life harder for some North Texans.
Property taxes skyrocket in Terlingua
We usually think about rising home values squeezing people out of their homes as an urban issue. But rural parts of Texas are also being hit hard by skyrocketing home values. This includes Terlingua, the small town right outside Big Bend National Park, where some residents had their property values triple in the last year. Sam Karas of the Big Bend Sentinel joins the Texas Standard to talk it over.
Refugee Services of Texas permanently closing after four decades
The nonprofit organization Refugee Services of Texas is shutting down, citing mounting financial pressures. As the largest resettlement agency in Texas, Refugee Services of Texas helped thousands of people integrate into communities across the state. Stella Chávez, reporter for KERA in North Texas, talks to the Texas Standard about the closure.
Uvalde documentary premieres on PBS today
Tonight, PBS’s Frontline will premiere a new documentary: “After Uvalde: Guns, Grief and Texas Politics” tells the story of the Robb Elementary School shooting, the families who lost children, the investigations that followed, and attempts at a legislative response during the 2023 session. Maria Hinojosa, founder of Futuro Media, and host of Latino USA, anchored the program. She spoke to Texas Standard about the documentary.
The Pentagon has begun implementing a law to reduce suicides, 18 months after Congress passed it
This month there’s a new law going into effect. “The Brandon Act,” named after a Navy sailor who died by suicide in 2018, allows service members to go outside their chain of command to seek confidential mental health treatment. Steve Walsh reports for the American Homefront Project.
All this, plus the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Michael Marks with the Talk of Texas.
