Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Monday, July 1, 2024:
For the last time this term: It’s Supreme Court decision day
The U.S. Supreme Court ends its term today and will release some major decisions court watchers have been waiting on for months. The court will rule both on Donald Trump’s claims to presidential immunity vis-à-vis fighting the results of the 2020 election, as well as a case with Texas ties weighing in on social media moderation and the First Amendment.
We’ll have the latest on these two cases today from Charles “Rocky” Rhodes, who teaches constitutional law at South Texas College of Law in Houston, and Tara Grove, the Vinson & Elkins chair in law at UT Austin:
‘We don’t know where we stand’: IVF in Texas is on shaky ground
The Texas Supreme Court stayed silent on a Denton couple’s divorce dispute over embryos created through in vitro fertilization. That leaves a lower court’s decision in place – which is that frozen embryos aren’t legally children.
KERA’s Toluwani Osibamowo reports it may now be up to Texas lawmakers to further clarify state rules around IVF.
How Hurricane Beryl will impact the energy market
Hurricane Beryl, the first of the season, has grown into a category 4 storm with potentially life-threatening winds. It’s making its way toward the Gulf of Mexico and is projected to hit the Yucatán Peninsula on Friday.
Kpler energy analyst Matt Smith is keeping an eye on the latest developments and how they’ll affect the energy market. He joins the Standard with more today.
Texas dispensaries are selling straight-up weed as legal hemp
Marijuana is illegal in Texas … or is it? A recent Texas Monthly investigation tested smokable hemp purchased from dispensaries across the state and found that all of the samples were marijuana exceeding the state’s THC limits.
Texas Monthly senior editor Russell Gold returns to the Texas Standard with more on the investigation.
Texas dance company brings a love story home to Shankleville
The Houston-based Nia’s Daughters Movement Collective, an African American dance group, uses music and movement to tell the historic love story of Jim and Winnie Shankle – one that began on a plantation and ended with emancipation.
The Texas Standard’s Kristen Cabrera reports from Shankleville in East Texas on the highly anticipated performance of The Fairytale Project.
Rural paramedics are making routine house calls to avoid costly emergency room visits
In some rural parts of the U.S., where hospitals and doctors’ offices are in short supply, people often turn to calling 911 just for basic medical care. Experts say that’s a problem for patients and hospitals, but a growing model called community paramedicine aims to address it by having paramedics regularly check in on people before a health issue turns into an emergency.
Marfa Public Radio’s Travis Bubenik reports on how one of those programs is playing out in the tiny desert town of Terlingua.
All this, plus Alexandra Hart with the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Wells Dunbar with the Talk of Texas.
