Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024.
Struck valve causes massive pipeline explosion in Deer Park
A massive explosion rocked Deer Park yesterday, after a vehicle drove through a fence and struck a valve.
Patricia Ortiz has been covering the latest for Houston Public Media, and she joins us with the latest on the aftermath.
How have Houston’s new police chase policies played out?
Last year a Houston Chronicle investigation highlighted an uptick in police chases in the city. The Chronicle reporters looked at data from 2018 through 2022 and found chases surged by 47% during that period.
The pursuits resulted in 27 deaths and 700 injuries. That got the attention of the Houston police chief who, weeks after the report, announced new department policies concerning police chases. So how are the new rules impacting Houstonians?
For more on that we’re joined by Andrea Ball, investigative reporter for the Houston Chronicle.
Lawmakers expect better vetting from Public Utility Commission for power plant loans
Last year, Texas voters approved $5 billion for the Texas Energy Fund – a pot of state money to pay for new power plants or upgrades. The idea is to bolster the grid, after winter storms in 2021 and 2023 kept millions of Texans cold and in the dark for extended periods.
The Public Utility Commission is responsible for choosing projects to receive funding, but lawmakers are now concerned about the commission’s vetting process, after serious problems were discovered about a finalist’s application.
We’ll talk with Doug Lewin, author of the Texas Energy and Power newsletter and host of the Energy Capital podcast.
Investigation finds bodies of destitute North Texans were collected for research
What happens to our bodies after we die? Usually that’s something for our families and loved ones to decide. But in North Texas, that hasn’t always happened.
According to an investigation by NBC News, the bodies of destitute people in the Dallas-Fort Worth region have been routinely collected from hospital beds, nursing homes and homeless encampments and used for training or research.
Mike Hixenbaugh, who reported on this story for NBC News, joins us.
New book explores motherhood and the border
Life on the U.S.-Mexico border is nuanced, colorful and often misunderstood by people in other parts of the country. It’s a vibrant place that is home to close-knit families.
A new book examines the role and experience of motherhood on the border through research, lived experience and community work. It’s called “Frontera Madre(hood): Brown Mothers Challenging Oppression and Transborder Violence at the U.S.-Mexico Border.”
Joining us are the book’s editors, Cynthia Bejarano and Maria Cristina Morales.
Not a battleground, but Texas has an interesting political role
Every election cycle, prominent Texas Democrats claim the state is, or is about to become, a swing state. Last month, Beto O’Rourke may have coined a new term when he called Texas “a sleeper battleground state.”
But to be a battleground means either party has a legitimate chance at capturing a state’s electoral votes, or that the state has a history of electing leaders from both parties. Texas doesn’t check either of those boxes. But just because the blue wave won’t be crashing in Texas, doesn’t mean this year’s elections won’t have any surprises.
In his latest for The Dallas Morning News, Gromer Jeffers assessed the state of elections in Texas. We’ll talk with him today.
All this, plus Alexandra Hart with the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Wells Dunbar with the Talk of Texas.
