Seniors are often more vulnerable to diseases than other people. And that’s especially true when it comes to COVID-19. So when the Renaissance Retirement Center in Austin went into lockdown over the weekend, Maxine Barkan, who is 100 years old, thought it was a good idea.
“I think they’re doing an excellent job trying to keep us safe and trying to minimize the person-to-person contact,” she says.
The future of the school year in Texas is uncertain, but what kids and parents are experiencing now isn't just one long spring break. For some little ones who are used to play dates and fun, uncertainty about the future, changes in routine and missing their friends can all take a toll. So how do you talk to your kids about coronavirus without alarming them?
With the possibility need for social distancing extending well beyond spring break, parents and educators are starting to plan for the possibility of schools being closed through the end of the academic year.
On Sunday, thousands of women protested in the streets of Mexico City, demanding a stop to the growing problem of femicide in Mexico. Femicide – the killing of a woman because of her gender – is also a hate crime. According to some estimates, the demonstration on Sunday, which coincided with International Women's Day, was one of the largest of its kind in Mexico's history.
On March 3, Texas and 13 other states will vote in primary elections. That includes choosing which Democrat will face President Donald Trump in November's general election.
In previous years, especially during the 2018 midterms, education was a particularly important issue for Texas voters. And Noel Candelaria, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, says it's an important topic this year, too, especially for members of his association.
As Super Tuesday approaches, Texas Standard is taking time to examine what issues might be on Texans' minds when they cast ballots this year. From employment, to business, we wondered how voters are thinking about the economy now compared to in 2016.
For some, Austin doesn’t feel like the relaxed, artsy city they knew a couple decades ago. The city’s population has exploded in recent years, and with that has come big-city problems.
Just as it was in 2016, health care is an important issue for voters as they prepare to cast ballots in primaries and in November's general election. And health care is an especially relevant topic in Texas, as the state continues to opt out of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act and faces rural hospital closures and high maternal mortality rates.
Almost 60 years since the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, the group continues to elevate the voices of young African Americans pushing for civil rights.
Now, a photography exhibit at the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin looks back at SNCC's early years. Maria Varela is one of the photographers featured in the exhibit, "This Light of Ours," and was the first Latina woman to document SNCC's activism in the Black Belt South.
Getting adequate health care in rural Texas can be a challenge. It might become even harder after the Trump administration's proposed changes to Medicaid rules. If implemented, some hospitals will likely have to cut services or even shut down.
The United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union could mean an opening for new business opportunities between Britain and Texas. For his first overseas trip since Brexit, UK Minister of International Trade, Conor Burns, visited the Lone Star State.
A new study from the University of Texas at Austin finds that a higher number of Texas women are choosing self-managed abortions compared to the national average. That includes using herbs, or drugs obtained without a prescription, in an effort to end a pregnancy.
The nonprofit news organization ProPublica released a database this week of Catholic clergy members "credibly accused of sexual abuse or misconduct." The database is a collection of lists provided by Catholic dioceses across the United States.
Although there’s no shortage of people in Texas planning to get into the hemp industry, many of them have serious concerns about how it will be regulated. There is no regulation right now because it’s been illegal to grow hemp in Texas for almost 100 years.
It's easy to find historical information about the Wichita Falls Spudders baseball club. All sorts of trivia can be found online about the minor league team that formed in 1920 and disbanded in 1957. But the Spudders had a black counterpart, the Black Spudders, and information about them is scarce.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services recently released new internal guidelines that cut the caseloads of foster care workers who have been overwhelmed for years by an unmanageable number of clients. But the department has faced many challenges lately, beyond a struggling workforce.
The Trump administration has agreed to give roughly $350 million over five years to Healthy Texas Women, a state family-planning program that excludes Planned Parenthood.
As the impeachment trial was getting underway in Washington, KXAN-TV in Austin reported that online searches within Texas for "impeachment" were high in some surprising, and not so surprising, places. They included Austin, Lubbock, Midland-Odessa, Corpus Christi and Victoria.
Over the years, Texas has tried to boost enrollment in college. After all, people with college degrees tend to earn higher wages. But for some first-generation students, many of whom also come from families with low incomes, the transition from high school to college can be daunting. And it's this transition that one education nonprofit says is a blind spot in the Texas education system.
Thanks to video streaming, gone are the days of going to the video store, strolling the aisles in search of the perfect title. Gone, too, are all the trappings of the VHS rental experience – the candy by the register, the posters and branded merchandise to promote the latest releases and, of course, the stickers on VHS tapes reminding you to rewind.
It’s a clear, cool morning in West Texas, and about 50 people are watching a helicopter wind its way around the south side of Elephant Mountain – a brown, flat-topped summit about 30 miles south of Alpine. The sun isn’t all the way up yet, but you can tell that the helicopter is hauling some unusual cargo.
Like few other Texans in recent years, one former El Paso congressman is known to many by his first name alone. But that extraordinary name recognition, and even an unexpectedly close Senate race against Ted Cruz in 2018, wasn't enough to propel Beto O'Rourke to the Democratic presidential nomination. Now, O'Rourke is focused on getting more Democrats elected in Texas.
This has been a busy year, politically speaking. And 2020 will likely top it, given that a presidential election is on the horizon. With that in mind, Texas Standard host David Brown spoke with the leaders of the Texas Republican and Democratic Parties to learn about their top takeaways from this year – and what they expect in the year to come.
In recent years, migrating to the United States has become harder. The Trump administration has added restrictions to all visa categories, whether they be F-1 student visas or H-1B visas that allow people to work temporarily in the United States.
On average, 1,000 people move to Texas each day. And traditionally, that means more roads and more lanes to accommodate new drivers. But when it comes to roads, is bigger always better?
In the entomology world, the discovery of a new species means scientists also have the opportunity to name that species. In one recent case, the naming was easy. University of Texas at Austin entomologists discovered two species and named them "rodeo ants" because they ride on the backs of ant queens in other colonies.
Polls show that the country is nearly evenly split about whether President Donald Trump should be impeached. That might put Texas politicians in a precarious position given that Texas isn't the reliably conservative state it once was. Lawmakers who support Trump will please their base of supporters, but they also risk alienating others.
