Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Thursday, April 18, 2024.
SCOTUS clears way for flooded landowner to sue the state
Several landowners in southeast Texas suffered from flooding in 2017, when Hurricane Harvey drenched the Gulf Coast. Now a resident of Chambers County claims the damage on his property shouldn’t have been so bad – and that the state is to blame.
Now, the U.S. Supreme Court’s allowing his lawsuit to proceed. Texas Agriculture Law Blog author Tiffany Dowell Lashmet joins the Standard with more on the decision.
Meet Cinder, the porcupine that survived the Panhandle wildfires
In the wake of the devastating wildfires across the Panhandle, an unlikely story of resilience has captivated worldwide attention: that of Cinder, a porcupine who survived the blaze at Lake Meredith.
Stephanie Brady, founder of the Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Amarillo, joins the Standard with Cinder’s story of survival and recovery.
Federal appeals court upholds block on Texas law restricting ‘explicit’ books
House Bill 900 requires books sold in Texas to be rated for sexual content by the book seller, similar to how Hollywood rates movies.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a block on part of the controversial new law. KERA’s Bill Zeeble reports.
Consumer Reports goes beyond health food buzzwords in new fruit and veggie recommendations
At the grocery store when choosing between organic, domestically grown, imported, canned or frozen, it can be difficult to get the best value on healthy food and keep a healthy pocketbook.
Consumer Reports examined seven years of Department of Agriculture data to identify the best options. CR’s James Rogers joins the show with the findings.
The future of work and the challenges faced by Texas musicians
It’s never been easy to make a career as a musician, but with the shift to streaming and mounting costs of living, it feels harder than ever.
Joey La Neve DeFrancesco, co-founder of United Musicians and Allied Workers, joins the Standard with more.
Ocelot killed in Hidalgo County suggests species’ range has expanded
In 2021, a car killed an ocelot in rural Hidalgo County. But genetic testing completed this year confirmed that the cat was different from known populations.
Experts say this suggests some good news – that there are more ocelots in the Rio Grande Valley than previously known. Texas Public Radio’s Gaige Davila reports.
About 40,000 people traveled hours to attend the Texas Eclipse Festival in Burnet – only to have it shut down early over concerns about severe weather.
The cancellation, and rumors of mismanagement on social media, have spurred calls for refunds and even investigations. But for festival goers with disabilities, the problems were obvious from the start. The Texas Standard’s Sarah Asch reports.
Paxton investigation of progressive news group Media Matters on hold
A judge has temporarily blocked an attempt by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to learn more about a progressive news organization. He wanted to know how it made decisions about its coverage of the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The AG alleges the organization, Media Matters for America, manipulated data on X in order to ruin the platform’s advertising business. The Standard’s tech expert, Omar Gallaga, joins the show with more.
All this, plus the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Wells Dunbar with the Talk of Texas.
