The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.
The pipeline company Kinder Morgan is suing the Central Texas city of Kyle. The company says a pipeline safety ordinance the city adopted is against the law.
As Mose Buchele reports for KUT News, the suit is the latest clash between Kinder Morgan and local opponents of a pipeline the company is planning through the Texas Hill Country.
Kyle passed the ordinance in June. It increases permitting and fee requirements, building setback around pipelines, and mandates that big natural gas pipelines be buried up to 13 feet underground in some places. In its lawsuit Kinder Morgan says federal and state law preempts those local pipeline regulations. Travis Mitchel is mayor of the City of Kyle. He says the city is formulating its response to the lawsuit.
“We didn’t conjure it up out of thin air there are many communities throughout the state and region that have similar ordinances and we consulted those ordinances in the crafting of our own,” Mitchel says.
This is just the latest lawsuit filed over the 430-mile Permian highway pipeline. Kyle, Hays County and private landowners sued Kinder Morgan earlier this year, saying the way the company routed the line was unconstitutional. The company won that challenge and it’s currently on appeal. Kinder Morgan also faces a lawsuit over how the pipeline addresses endangered species in its path.
A shelter for migrant children in Carrizo Springs, Texas is shutting down less than a month after opening.
Vice News was the first outlet to report on the facility’s impending closure.
The 1,300-bed shelter was opened on June 30 to help address overcrowding at some Border Patrol sites. It’s unclear what the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services plans to do with the facility.
We’re less than one week away from the next round of Democratic primary debates. But on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Tuesday night, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro still faced questions about his breakout performance in the first debate last month.
Specifically, Colbert wanted to know if Castro had planned to go after fellow Texan and former El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke over immigration issues.
“No it was to stand up on that policy, on immigration, because I’ve been very vocal about immigration because it’s very personal to me,” Castro said.
“[But you specifically, said you, Congressman, voted against this thing that I want, so you had to have had a little bit of a plan who might be the target of your attack,” Colbert said.
“Well, I had done my homework, I had done my homework, as I pointed out that night,” Castro said.
O’Rourke, himself, appeared on the Late Night Show with Seth Meyers on Tuesday as well.
The two Texans will not go toe-to-toe in the next round of debates.
O’Rourke will be on stage July 30, and Castro is set to debate on July 31. CNN is hosting the debates, which will be held in Detroit.
The third round of Democratic primary debates is slated for Houston. They’ll be held at Texas Southern University on September 12 and 13.
