Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023:
What happened the first day of Ken Paxton’s senate impeachment trial
Tuesday morning, the Texas Senate gaveled in for a historic event: the impeachment trial of suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton. The trial kicked off with swearing in the senators as jurors, voting on the pretrial motions and opening statements from both sides. The proceedings will continue today.
Here to tell us more about where things stand is Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, who covers state politics for the Texas Newsroom.
Now you need a peace officer’s license to become a sheriff in Texas
Over 700 new Texas laws took effect last Friday. One of them now requires candidates for county sheriff to have a peace officers license; until now there was no law enforcement certification required.
Texas Public Radio’s Joey Palacios reports.
Afghans, weeks from losing their jobs, wait to hear if they can stay in the U.S.
The two-year anniversary of the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan occurred last week. Some Afghans who assisted troops were able to flee to the U.S. and given temporary immigration status allowing them to live and work here. The Biden administration announced in May it would extend the program for the 77,000 Afghans that are part of it – but some are still waiting for an update on their status.
Texas Public Radio’s Paul Flahive reports they are weeks away from losing their jobs.
In West Texas, a budding pipeline fight highlights activists’ changing tactics
In far West Texas, a fight is brewing over plans for a major new natural gas pipeline. Oil and gas-rich Texas already has hundreds of thousands of miles of pipelines. But the industry’s expansion into new, rural parts of the state has prompted some pushback, at a time when pipeline opponents across the country are shifting tactics with some success.
Marfa Public Radio’s Travis Bubenik reports.
Game Preserve fire contained, but wildfire risk stays strong across Texas
Firefighters near Huntsville spent Labor Day weekend battling the Game Preserve Fire in Walker County in East Texas. That fire is now mostly contained, but it’s scorched thousands of acres; meanwhile, wildfire risk remains high in much of the rest of the state, with 213 of the state’s 254 counties under a burn ban.
Texas A&M Forest Service Public Information Officer Erin O’Connor joins the Standard with the latest.
New memoir tells Botham Jean’s story
On this day five years ago, Botham Jean, 26, died on his couch, eating ice cream, when an off-duty police officer entered his Dallas home and took his life. The officer told investigators she thought she was entering her own apartment and mistook Jean as an intruder – while it was the officer who had entered the wrong apartment. Jean was Black; the officer who shot him was white. She was later convicted of murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Alissa Charles-Findley, Botham Jean’s sister, is the author – with Jeremiah Cobra – of a memoir, “After Botham: Healing from my Brother’s Murder by a Police Officer.” She joins Texas Standard with more today.
Could more school districts move to a four-day week – and should they?
More than 70 Texas public school districts have made the switch to a four-day school week. They say it’s a strategic move to address teacher retention rates. But what does this change mean for Texas students and guardians?
In Waco, Autumn Jones reports.
All this, plus the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Wells Dunbar with the Talk of Texas.
