By W.F. Strong On July 29, 1925 — a full 60 years after the American Civil War — Miss Decca Lamar West of Waco, Texas, wrote a strongly worded letter to Chief Thomas H. MacDonald, the head of what was then the Federal Bureau of Public Roads. Miss West was an influential member of the…
Texas Standard: May 11, 2020
Under Governor’s orders, restrictions on businesses lift bit by bit. But can Texas really be a little bit open for business? Reporters from across the state on how and whether the incremental reopening is taking hold. Also floating storage facilities start crowding parts of the Gulf Coast offshore, we’ll hear why. And the first graduates…
The Man Who Led The Battle Against Yellow Fever
By W. F. Strong I’m walking on the veranda of the Gorgas Building at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville. It’s named for the famous Army physician, William Gorgas, who was sent here to Fort Brown in 1882. This building was already here when he was. It was the hospital he ran. What he would learn here, and…
Texas Standard: July 15, 2019
Threatened immigration raids in Houston and elsewhere fizzle. Lots of political sound and fury, ultimately signifying what? We’ll take a closer look. Also, after outrage over conditions at border patrol detention centers, the Vice President comes to Texas. What did he see that democrats didn’t, or vice versa? And the Texas city that bet big…
Texas Standard: March 13, 2019
The biggest college admissions scandal ever? With a Texas coach one of 50 charged over corruption in college admissions, what’s fair versus what’s legal? Why the federal probe of wealthy parents securing spots at elite colleges and universities for their own kids may or may not bring reforms in higher ed. Also, were pilots warnings…
Texas Standard: May 4, 2017
Show me your papers: Governor abbott set to sign into law a measure requiring Texas police to enforce federal immigration law, we’ll explore. Also murder charges mulled for the North Texas police officer who fired the shots killing 15 year old Jordan Edwards. Some wonder why it seems so few officers suspected of such crime…
Texas Standard: December 16, 2016
A federal warning for pregnant women: do not travel to Brownsville. But what if you live there? What the new Zika warning means for a mother to be..today on the Standard. Repeal and replace Obamacare. What’s that gonna mean for coverage? We’ll take it up today with the powerful Texas lawmaker who’s setting the stage…
Texas Standard: June 6, 2016
May it please the court? When in Brownsville beware. A judge in the deferred deportation case orders Washington attorneys back to ethics school. That story today on the Texas Standard. Two police training academies shut down in south Texas–the allegations: brutality toward cadets. Details on the investigation. Also the skinny on a school district taking…