Texas Matters

At the 2024 Republican National Convention Texans, including Governor Greg Abbott, took to the stage to spin a fact-free story about the state of the Texas-Mexico border and illegal immigration that excited the crowd but paints a grim picture if Trump is elected president again.

Hurricane Beryl slammed into Texas and delivered a punch to Houston and its energy provider. Millions of people were left in the dark and without air-conditioning as temperatures climbed over 100 degrees. The disaster recovery has many wondering why Governor Greg Abbott left the state and why FEMA assistance wasn’t requested earlier. It’s the Beryl blame game.

Today on Texas Matters: The extra warm waters of the Caribbean and the Gulf are serving up an assembly line of hurricanes. We'll examine how this is all tied to climate change. Also, a divorce case out of Denton has revived the contentious debate over whether frozen embryos are people. And if necessity is the mother of invention, then they are getting extra inventive with Texas rural health.

In 1973, Willie Nelson held his first 4th of July picnic. There were some problems. The locals said it was "moral pollution" and Nelson was fined $1,000 for violating the Texas Mass Gatherings Act. But that didn’t stop Willie from doing it again and again. Dave Dalton Thomas is the picnic historian and has written a book about this Texas tradition.

Today on Texas Matters: The illusion of exceptions in the Texas Abortion law. Can the Texas Medical Board clear up the confusion? South Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar says he’s being targeted with his indictments. And a Central American teen tells the story of his journey coming to the U.S.

A discussion about Juneteenth and Texas with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annette Gordon-Reed

How "2000 Mules" is a fake documentary about voter fraud. But will Texas GOP leaders admit that? Juneteenth Rodeo, why 1970s photos of Black Rodeos were ignored for so long. And SA Mayor Maury Maverick on 1939 radio.

Can Texas lawmakers rein in sales of THC hemp products like Delta-8 and 9? The products are largely unregulated and widely sold, even to children. And in the time of growing drought, Mexico’s water debt is becoming a bigger issue along the border.

A century ago, a one-man wrecking crew on the Texas-Mexico border who inspired hate, violence, corruption and mass murder. The story of William Hanson—a chaos agent in South Texas.

Texas Senate holds a hearing to draft new anti-squatter laws. The harmful effects of LED lights for some people and the music boxes of Villa Finale.

He was a witness to the U.S.-Mexico War. Not the 1846-to-1848 invasion, but the 1914 U.S. invasion and occupation of Mexico. It was documented by an American postcard photographer. He left behind a compelling visual record of a U.S. atrocity. Susan Toomey Frost joins us to tell the story.

During the American Civil War there were Texans who faced persecution and violence for their beliefs, but their courage helped preserve the United States. These Texans defied the Confederacy and fought for the Union.

Today on Texas Matters, could the West Texas Chihuahuan desert be greened? One Texan is trying to restore his 320 acres of West Texas hard scrabble into a desert forest.

The Smokehouse Creek fire was the largest wildfire in Texas History burning over a million acres in the Panhandle. The fire has been out for over a month, but the disaster continues. We are going to get an update on the recovery and what needs to happen to prevent other massive wildfires.

In Loose of Earth, a story of a tight-knit evangelical family in West Texas, the oldest daughter tries to make sense of the contradictions of the world she is warned about and the world she has to occupy. When her father contracts cancer from "forever chemicals" her world come crashing down. The memoir is Loose of Earth, and we hear from the author Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn.

This week on Texas Matters.How HEB is too woke for the GOP. Electric vehicles need places to charge. And covering state news just got a big boost.

This week on Texas Matters: The forecast for the coming summer is record breaking heat. It could be a deadly weather disaster that will challenge emergency services and put Texans at risk. And why a Texas plastics company is failing to accurately monitor its toxic discharge into the Gulf.

Hillcrest in Corpus Christi is a historic African American neighborhood that has long faced environmental racism but is now confronting displacement from a massive desalination project. Environmentalists point out that the desal, hyper-salty brine discharge will be very harmful to the bay and shouldn’t be built.

The last time a total solar eclipse crossed Central Texas was in 1878 – the heyday of the Wild West. That eclipse was crucially important to America’s rise as a scientific power and saw many of the era’s great scientists (including Thomas Edison) trek out to unsettled lands to witness the event firsthand. On April 8, Texas gets another gander at a solar eclipse—but this time without the train robberies and frontier backdrop.

Today on Texas Matters: The largest wildfire in Texas history torches over a million acres. How you can help in the recovery. And how the electric co-op movement energized rural Texas.