Here’s what’s coming up on Texas Standard for Friday, December 11, 2020. Listen on your Texas public radio station, or ask your smart speaker to play Texas Standard. We’ll have full posts for each story, including audio, a little later today.
Trump Ramping up Border Wall Construction
Texas Monthly reports the Trump administration is spending its last days ramping up border wall construction. And questions remain over what a Biden administration will do with already federally-approved border wall construction. Texas Monthly Senior Editor Peter Holley talks to the Standard.
Gambling and the Legislature
Historically, casino gambling has been a non-starter in Texas, despite the number of casinos positioned in states that border the Lone Star State. That doesn’t mean there’s not money behind a push to make it a reality during the upcoming legislative session. Clyde Barrow, a professor of political science and gambling policy expert at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley talks to the Standard.
Vaccines
Yesterday, a Food and Drug Administration panel recommended the agency authorize Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Texas Public Radio’s Bonnie Petrie tells us more about the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines with the help of one of Texas’s top vaccine scientists.
Energy Transition Series, part 2
The days of fossil fuels may be numbered. And Houston’s energy industry is already shifting to cleaner alternatives. But while the transition is expected to take decades, the industry can look to the past for help – like when the world moved from wood to coal to natural gas. Houston Public Media’s Kyra Buckley reports, has found some lessons from the past, as she continues to explore what this new energy transition means for Houston.
Crime Rates among U.S Citizens Versus Undocumented Immigrants
Crime rates are lower for undocumented immigrants in the United States compared to U.S. citizens, according to a new study of Texas arrest and conviction records by the University of Wisconsin-Madison which shows U.S. citizens were twice as likely to be arrested for violent felonies and four times as likely to be arrested for felony property crimes. UW sociology professor Mike Light, who conducted the research, talks to the Standard.
Taekwondo Olympian
Turtle Creek Chorale
The Turtle Creek Chorale’s holiday show is always one of the most anticipated of the season in Dallas. But the men’s choir thought it best not to pack hundreds of vocalists on a stage this year. Instead, they’re presenting a show tailor-made for the screen. KERA’s Miguel Perez has the story.
Typewriter Radio
The Week in Texas Politics
All this and Texas News Roundup, plus Social Media Editor Wells Dunbar with the talk of Texas.
