Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023:
Will the Texas Legislature do something about mental health care availability?
The state has been warning of a lack of mental health care providers for years, well before the COVID-19 pandemic further increased demand. The result is a perhaps unexpected bipartisan issue: the revitalization of our mental health care system. Texas Tribune mental health reporter Stephen Simpson shares more.
Why a brand-new mental health hospital is sitting empty
The Kerrville State Hospital is a new, $30 million state-owned inpatient mental health facility. With heightened demand for mental health treatment, you’d expect the facility to be full. Instead, it’s completely empty. Eric Dexheimer, an investigative reporter for Hearst newspapers based in Austin, has the story.
Starbucks workers in North Texas join national push for a union
Starbucks workers across North Texas have joined a national effort to unionize for better pay and working conditions. As KERA’s Pablo Arauz Peña reports, workers have filed thousands of complaints against the Seattle-based company for violating federal labor law.
The National Guard has patrolled the southwest border for years. Has the mission gone on too long?
When National Guard troops deploy within the U.S. it’s typically for short periods – like the aftermath of hurricane or other disaster. But the National Guard has patrolled the southern border for most of the last two decades. Some government watchdogs say that’s an inappropriate use of the Guard. Carson Frame reports for the American Homefront Project.
Instead of hurting education, could ChatGPT improve it?
In the few months the AI-powered app ChatGPT has been available to the public, it’s alarmed many observers, including educators who worry that students will use it to cheat. But Texas Woman’s University English professor Daniel Ernst says Chat GPT and other similar tools present an opportunity to teach and learn in new ways.
Telling the story of Texas’ first Black medical school graduate
Five years before Brown v. Board of Education ordered the desegregation of public schools in the U.S., the first African-American student was accepted into a Texas medical school. Herman Barnett’s story isn’t well known, but Dr. Vanessa Northington Gamble is working to change that. The George Washington University researcher joins us today.
Gun-related homicides hit Black and Latino communities in North Texas hardest. Can that change?
Gun violence disproportionately claims the lives of Black and Latino North Texans. They account for nearly 90% of gun-related homicides in Dallas, Tarrant and Collin Counties. And that’s motivated some community organizers to look for other ways to disrupt that pattern. KERA’s Kailey Broussard explored how they’re trying to change the narrative.
All this, plus the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Wells Dunbar with the Talk of Texas.
