Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Tuesday, July 9, 2024:
Hurricane Beryl made landfall near Matagorda Bay as a Category 1 hurricane Monday before tracking northeast through Houston. Wind gusts over 80 mph knocked down trees and power lines, leaving over 2 million without power; authorities report at least seven deaths in Harris and Montgomery counties, and one in Louisiana.
Houston Chronicle meteorologist Justin Ballard joins the Standard with more:
What researchers are doing to fight fecal contamination along Texas’ coasts
For many Texans, summer means a trip to the beaches along Texas’ coast. However, murky water often ruins beach trips – and the culprit can be fecal bacteria contamination.
Researchers at The Meadows Center, based out of Texas State University in San Marcos, are trying to help. Jenna Walker, interim director of watershed services at the Meadows, joins the Standard with the story.
The Texas Music Museum is looking for help
The nonprofit Texas Music Museum in East Austin has about two dozen exhibits – and it’s looking for help with storage space and funding.
KUT’s Corinne Piorkowski has more:
Tariffs 101, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Trade War
If you’re a business selling goods internationally, you’ll likely pay a tariff – a tax charged for selling within another country. Until 1914, tariffs were the main revenue source for the U.S. government.
Nearly a century later in 2018, the Trump administration raised tariffs on Chinese products, sparking talk of a “trade war.” But under President Biden, little has changed. Brookings Institution senior fellow David Wessel joins the Standard with more.
How to avoid confusing sales tactics when buying a car
While online auto retailers and direct-to-consumer brands like Tesla have shaken up the car-buying industry in recent years, some car dealerships are still using confusing sales techniques to pressure folks into spending more than they planned.
Keith Barry, a senior writer and editor for Consumer Reports’ Auto Test Center, joins the Standard with tips on how consumers can avoid those sales gimmicks.
This week in Texas music history
On July 8, 1914, country artist Link Davis Sr., was born in Sunset, Texas. Jason Mellard with The Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University shares the tale.
Try not to poison your barbecue guests this summer
The secret to a successful barbecue? Not poisoning your guests.
Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn joins the Standard with tips for smoking safely this summer.
At this pace, Texas’ border wall with Mexico will take decades and billions more to build
At its current pace of half a mile per week, Gov. Greg Abbott’s border wall will take approximately 30 years and $20 billion to complete. To date, the state has erected about 34 miles of the wall, scattered across six counties along Texas’ 1,000-plus-mile border with Mexico.
Texas Tribune reporter Jasper Scherer joins the Standard with more.
All this, plus Alexandra Hart with the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Wells Dunbar with the Talk of Texas.
