Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022:
The politics of the FBI raid on Trump
The FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence has been met with ample speculation – and indignation on the part of Texas Republicans. For more, we’re joined by Richard Pineda, director of the Sam Donaldson Center for Communication Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Abbott and O’Rourke to debate this fall
Gov. Greg Abbott has agreed to a single debate against Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke, on Sept. 30 in the Rio Grande Valley. Natasha Altema McNeely, associate professor of political science at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, joins with more.
How student debt decisions affect Texas
President Joe Biden will have a decision on federal student loans by the end of August, deciding whether to extend a pause on payments again or cancel $10,000 in debt per person for people earning less than $125,000 a year. KUT’s Alexa Haverlah reports Texas has the second-largest amount of federal student loan borrowers in the country:
Rural Texas maternity care deserts
Proper maternity care is vital to any healthy pregnancy, but that’s becoming harder to find in Texas. The lone star state leads the nation in the number of maternity ward closures. Over the past 10 years, more than 20 rural hospitals in Texas stopped delivering babies. In parts of far West Texas, several hospitals have either suspended their maternity services or shut down altogether, leaving expectant mothers without a safe place to give birth. Claire Suddath, a Businessweek columnist for Bloomberg, joins us to discuss more.
Building wealth has been harder through the pandemic
At the height of the pandemic, Americans were saving a lot of money – but rates have dropped dramatically in 2022. Wealthier households were often able to turn that increase in savings into increased wealth. In the next installment of KERA’s One Crisis Away project, Christopher Connelly reports that for lower-income people, building wealth through the pandemic has been much harder.
Smithsonian exhibit on Dolores Huerta debuts in the Rio Grande Valley
The Smithsonian has brought its Dolores Huerta exhibit to Brownsville’s fine arts museum. The Chicana activist’s legacy is felt deeply in the Rio Grande Valley. Texas Public Radio’s Gaige Davila gives us an inside glimpse of “Dolores Huerta: Revolution in the Fields.”
Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry’s story
He was known as “the man in the hat:” the stoic leader on the Dallas Cowboys sidelines, always impeccably dressed, in that signature fedora. Coach Tom Landry left the gridiron decades ago, succumbing to leukemia in February 2000, and yet his shadow still looms over the approaching start of football season – and as commentator W.F. Strong argues, maybe far beyond.
Texas led the nation in 2020 rape cases; what about now?
Gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke says Texas leads the nation in rape offenses while the rate of arrests for rape has fallen by nearly half. Is that a fact? Nusaiba Mizan investigated the claim for PolitiFact Texas, based at the Austin American-Statesman.
All this, plus the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Wells Dunbar with the Talk of Texas.
