Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Tuesday, May 28, 2024:
Communities begin cleanup following deadly North Texas tornado
Deadly storms ripped through North Texas on Saturday night, killing at least seven people, including two children, and injuring about 100 others.
Communities in the path are just beginning to assess the damage they left behind. The small town of Valley View, near the Oklahoma border, was hit especially hard.
KERA’s Elizabeth Myong reports on how residents there are dealing with the aftermath.
More predictions for a doozy of a hurricane season
Hurricane season hasn’t even arrived in Texas yet and already southern parts of the state are seeing high winds and damage from storms passing through the area. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week predicted that this year could see between 17 and 25 named tropical cyclones, the most it has ever forecast in May for the Atlantic Ocean.
Matthew Rosencrans, lead for the seasonal hurricane outlook at NOAA, joins the Standard to discuss:
Efforts to reduce feral hog population not making much headway
Feral hogs are pervasive in Texas. They cause millions of dollars in damage and reproduce at a rate that makes them almost unstoppable. Houston Public Media’s Rob Salinas reports the latest effort to reduce their population appears to be falling flat:
Corner pharmacies seeing a slide after pandemic boom times
At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, certain sectors of the economy, like health care, experienced a boom. Here in Texas, drugstores were essential places for getting masks, test kits and prescriptions, plus other offerings from pizza to cleaning supplies.
But according to recent reporting by the Wall Street Journal, CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid have closed hundreds of locations since the start of the pandemic. Kate King, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal who’s been following the story, joins us to discuss.
Drilling down on the federal probe of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton may have beaten his impeachment charges last fall, but that doesn’t mean his legal troubles are over. Federal agents were still actively investigating Paxton for alleged corruption after he was acquitted by the Texas Senate, according to multiple sources who spoke with The Texas Newsroom in recent weeks.
On this edition of the Drill Down, we’re joined by Lauren McGaughy, an investigative reporter and editor with The Texas Newsroom.
Carros y Cultura exhibit highlights lowrider culture in Texas
A new exhibit at the Bullock Texas State History Museum aims to bring one aspect of Hispanic culture officially into the fold of state history. The Standard’s Kristen Cabrera takes a look.
One unseen challenge of sea level rise: septic tanks
For all the obvious challenges as sea levels surge and the climate changes, one serious threat to public health and the environment remains largely out of sight: septic tanks. Millions of septic tanks dot the American South, a region grappling with some of the planet’s fastest-rising seas, according to the Washington Post.
Brady Dennis covers climate change for the Washington Post, and he joins us today.
All this, plus the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Raul Alonzo with the Talk of Texas.
