Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Monday, Sept. 1, 2025:
Texas Republicans passed new maps. What’s left at the Legislature?
In the Texas Legislature’s second special session, the fight over redistricting has shifted from the Capitol to the courthouse – but plenty of serious work is still on the table when legislators return to their offices Tuesday.
What’s left on the agenda? The Texas Newsroom’s Blaise Gainey joins the show with more.
New law will give farmers a heads-up on pests and diseases
Being a farmer in Texas is tough work; just staying on top of rapidly changing weather conditions is a critical and time consuming task. A weather radio with a built-in alarm is no luxury – it’s a business tool.
But what about a crop killing fungus sweeping through the area? Or an insect invader that could wipe out a ranch? As the Standard’s Michael Marks reports, there’ll soon be a statewide alert for those kinds of agricultural threats, too.
The long paw of the law: Cat helps Port Lavaca Police Department build community
As you may have heard, the Standard is celebrating 10 years on the air throughout 2025 – and we’ve chosen a theme each month to highlight specific stories from our archives. For the month of September we’re focusing on some memorable animal stories.
First up is a 2018 profile of an unlikely hero in blue: Captain, the second-highest ranking member of the Port Lavaca police force.
Why is this bird drawing people from far and wide to downtown Corpus Christi?
Back in the fall of 2023, birders in the Coastal Bend spotted one special visitor who was thought to have trekked 2,600 miles from home, causing quite a stir in Corpus Christi.
Texas Standard digital producer Raul Alonzo was one of many who spent part of his Thanksgiving weekend that year hoping to catch a glimpse of the cattle tyrant.
Japanese snow monkeys have called South Texas home for 50 years. How?
Since the early ’70s, South Texas has been home to a troop of Japanese snow monkeys. Long ago, some of the primates were moved from their cold mountain home in Japan to Texas after their population grew to the point of being unsustainable, locally.
This is a lesser known footnote in the story of Texas that’s fascinated writer Sarah Bird for decades. We spoke to her in 2023 when her story was published in Texas Monthly.
Are Texans ready to live in bear country?
Hunters and ranchers effectively eradicated bears from Texas by about 1950. But there have been recent black bear sightings in East Texas. And they’ve begun re-colonizing parts of West Texas.
So will Texans co-exist with the bears any better this time around? The Standard’s Michael Marks reported this story in 2023.
Texas to ban sales of THC vapes starting today
State lawmakers are still debating whether to outlaw all THC products in Texas. But starting today, one of those products is now illegal to sell, under a lesser-known measure that passed earlier this year.
KUT’s Nathan Bernier reports on a new state law now in effect that bans the sale of vapes containing THC and other cannabinoid derived from hemp.
