Texas Public Radio

New rules at hospitals around birthing aim to limit new moms’ exposure to COVID-19. Those rules combined with outright fear of the virus, have some pregnant moms looking for alternatives to the hospital.

We are all facing unprecedented challenges under the looming threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even a trip to the grocery store has become challenging.  There's a run on essentials which sometimes leaves our neighbors without the things they need. 

In her commentary, Texas Public Radio contributor Yvette Benavides describes her own recent trip to the supermarket. 

The daily lines surrounding local grocery stores have challenged San Antonians for more than a week. For Ryan Pflipsen who suffers from Spina Bifida —  it’s more than an annoyance, it’s an impossibility. He called the nerves along his back “ a frayed wire.” The birth defect prevented many of his spinal nerves from developing properly, necessitating crutches to walk. 

As the U.S. continues to deal with COVID-19, a migrant camp along the southern border in Matamoros, Mexico, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas,  is also bracing for what could be a deadly outbreak.

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath told school superintendents and lawmakers Sunday to be prepared for long-term school district closures, potentially through the end of the school year, especially in areas where the new coronavirus has spread.

Christina Brown is an immigration attorney in Denver, but also represents people on the southern border who are in the Trump administration’s Remain in Mexico program, which requires migrants to wait in Mexico while their court cases unfold in U.S. immigration court.

This story is part of Houston Public Media’s ongoing coronavirus coverage. For more stories and information about the coronavirus, visit the Houston Ready Hub.

The Houston Rodeo will shut down for the first time in more than 80 years as the city and Harris County prepared to declare a health emergency over community spread of the coronavirus, officials said Wednesday.

The Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio is a city within a city — with a movie theater, a bowling alley, and its own school district. In the last month, it also became Texas’ ground zero for the new coronavirus.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still considers COVID-19 to be a low threat to the general American public, the South Texas Veterans Health Care System has begun screening everyone -- patients, employees and contractors -- who enter three of its units.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz announced Sunday he would self-quarantine after coming in contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus.

More than 100 Diamond Princess cruise ship evacuees were released from federal quarantine at Lackland Air Force Base on Tuesday. The evacuees' completion of a 14-day quarantine came just as city and county officials declared public health emergencies to delay the evacuees' departure. An updated plan from federal health officials eased city concerns and cleared the way for the evacuees' departure.

Early voting for the upcoming primaries has started, but hundreds of thousands of young people who will be eligible to vote in the November general election can’t participate in Super Tuesday.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren made a campaign stop in San Antonio Thursday night along with her previous rival and now supporter Julian Castro.

Moderate and progressive candidates are mired in a nationwide struggle that may define the future of the Democratic Party.

A new report by Physicians for Human Rights documents evidence of lasting psychological harm for migrant children and parents subjected to the Trump Administration's family separation policy, which was intended to dissuade migration to the nation's southern border.

Editor’s Note: Insensitive language frequently used in the mid-20th Century is included in this story.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that racial desegregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Some school districts were not swayed by Brown v. Board of Education and found ways to discriminate. 

Mexican-American students in Driscoll, Texas, were purposely held back to avoid “retarding” the white students. Students with Spanish surnames were made to take first grade for three years. It didn’t matter how fluent they were in English, or if English was their primary language. As a result, Mexican-American students were graduating from high school in their early 20s.

Charlene D’Cruz pulled 30 cents out of her pocket and asked her clients if they’ll need it to get across a turnstile at the Gateway International Bridge that connects Brownsville to Matamoros.

New research shows low-income and immigrant communities are worried the 2020 Census could be used to target undocumented people, indicating a high likelihood of an undercount. 

Texas voters believe local governments should have voter approval to raise property tax revenues more than a set amount, and a majority said that will not prevent those governments from providing needed services or responding to growth, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

Construction on a hotly contested natural gas pipeline through the Texas Hill Country could proceed quickly after a federal judge on Friday declined opponents’ request to temporarily block the project.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that by 2060 the number of Latinos age 65 and older is expected to nearly quadruple, and Latinos will face the largest increase in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias cases of any racial/ethnic group in the United States.

A 15th case of the coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, has been confirmed in the U.S., and this time it's in San Antonio.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency stay late Monday night, blocking the deportation of a 5-year-old Guatemalan boy until the court can hear his case.

The move puts a hold on an earlier ruling, which would have allowed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport the boy and his family.

Attorneys for a Guatemalan woman detained at a detention center in Dilley, Texas, are in court Monday to ask a judge to order U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement to provide further medical care for her 5-year-old son.

There is a plane headed for Texas from China. Onboard are Americans who are evacuating the city of Wuhan, ground zero for the novel coronavirus that is circing the globe. They are at risk of infection, and will be quarantined on Lackland Air Force Base for two weeks. If, after two weeks, they show no symptoms of the virus, they will be allowed to leave.

As their counterparts in Iowa reel from a disastrously slow election returns process, Texas Democrats say they're worried that a change in the way Texas reports election results will delay the final tally of delegates won by presidential hopefuls in the upcoming March 3 primary past election night.

Bernie Sanders is one of the leading candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for president. However, the senator from Vermont has policies that traditionally could be a hard sell here in Texas. Last week Sanders filed a bill that, if passed, would ban fracking.

Backed by massive donations, the Republican super PAC Engage Texas is assembling a behemoth of an organization as it rushes to register new voters ahead of a crucial 2020 election.

A federal judge ordered Texas to allow three citizens to register to vote after they renewed their driver’s licenses online. This could open the door allowing more than 1 million new voter registrations in Texas.

Dozens of people gathered on Sunday in Matamoros, Mexico to protest the more than 2,500 asylum seekers living in their city in a tent encampment near the Gateway International Bridge.