KXWT 91.3 FM

Months after Texas beefed up its border security presence in the Rio Grande Valley and deployed the Texas National Guard there in response to a record increase in illegal crossings, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurstwants to know what it would cost to expand the projects through 2016.

In mid-June, Dewhurst, House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio and Gov. Rick Perry authorized a Department of Public Safety surge in the Rio Grande Valley that has an estimated cost of $1.3 million per week. In July, Perry ordered the deployment of up to 1,000 Texas National Guard members to the area, a mission that will cost $38 million through the end of the year.

Dewhurst, who leaves office in January, wrote the guard’s Maj. Gen. John F. Nichols and Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw on Wednesday asking for an estimate of the costs of expanding the operations from the Rio Grande Valley to Laredo; from the Rio Grande Valley to Del Rio; and from the Rio Grande Valley to El Paso.

Continue reading →

Texas regulators on Tuesday tightened rules for wells that dispose of oilfield waste, a response to the spate of earthquakes that have rattled North Texas.

The three-member Texas Railroad Commission voted unanimously to adopt the rules, which require companies to submit additional information – including historic records of earthquakes in a region– when applying to drill a disposal well. The proposal also clarifies that the commission can slow or halt injections of fracking waste into a problematic well and require companies to disclose the volume and pressure of their injections more frequently.

The commissioners – all Republicans – said the vote showed how well Texans can respond to issues without federal intervention.

Commissioner Barry Smitherman called the vote a “textbook example” of how the commission identifies an issue and “moves quickly and proactively to address it.”

“We don’t need Washington,” he said.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency last month said it supported the proposed rules.

Continue reading →

Oil prices have fallen in recent months, but that hasn’t dampened the spirits of exhibitors at the Permian Basin International Oil Show. The event occurs every two years.

KXWT reporter Lana Straub reports live from the Ector County Coliseum, talking about industry growth, new technology, international expansion, an emphasis on safety, and some very big rigs.

The Midland-Odessa Symphony & Chorale presents “For Michael, The Music of Michael Jackson” on Saturday, October 18th at 7:30 PM at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.

Conducted by Gary Lewis, the show chronicles the King of Pop’s musical legacy over the years. Hits from MJ’s days in the Jackson Five will be featured, as well as later chart-toppers like “Billie Jean” and “Thriller.”

For West Texas Talk, we sat down with Gavin Hope, the lead vocalist in the show, about the different vocal styles he accessed in his interpretation of Michael Jackson.

The Midland Lee Rebels and the Permian Panthers took to the football field Friday night for yet another matchup in the two teams’ historic rivalry that goes back decades.

Permian High and the Panthers were of course the inspiration for Friday Night Lights, and this classic high school rivalry has over the years come to represent all the emotion, passion, and traditions Texans love about football.

Permian topped the Rebels in a 45-28 upset Friday night in Midland.

Whenever these Odessa-Midland teams take the field it’s a heated game from the get go. This classic high school rivalry has over the years come to represent all the emotion, passion, and traditions Texans love about football.

Photographer Guillermo Hernandez-Martinez has been traveling across the state capturing those passions at games in the big cities and small towns alike for a project he’s calling When in Texas.

Lana Straub caught up with him on Friday before the big game.

Continue reading →

This is the first in a week-long series of coordinated reports from KERA, the Dallas Morning News, and KXAS-TV (NBC 5). Five Days in October looks at where the leading candidates for governor stand on certain issues. 

We begin with education, and answers to a question about student test scores that was tweeted during KERA’s televised gubernatorial debate last week.

I’m an instructional technology specialist out in Rosenberg, Texas. My question for the candidates is how do they feel about the new teacher evaluation system? While test scores are certainly important they’re not the end-all-be-all. 

Squires wants to know how Democrat Wendy Davis and Republican Greg Abbott would use standardized test scores to evaluate students and teachers. We asked the candidates and also got an earful from frustrated parents, teachers and students.

Continue reading →

State Climatologist Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon spoke to a room full of ranchers from across the southwest on Thursday, with this message: careful how you use that water.

Ranchers were gathered in Alpine for an annual meeting of the Society for Range Management’s Texas chapter, sharing ideas on how to best manage cattle and grasslands, among other tricks of the trade.

Nielsen-Gammon says with climate change, ranchers out west need to pay close attention to water and soil.

“The biggest effect out here is going to be be a side-effect of the rising temperatures,” he says, “which is increasingly dry soils and increasing lack of runoff.”

Continue reading →

Scientists are experimenting with seeds to reinvigorate lands damaged by drought and overgrazing.

Ranchers from the southwest and Mexico are gathering in the high desert of west Texas to review results of an experiment to raise hardy seeds that can flourish. Their biggest challenge is a harsh, demanding landscape.

“My world is a million little paper bags of seed,” says Colin Shackelford, a research associate at Texas Native Seeds, a restoration project founded at Texas A & M University.

Shackelford gives ranchers a tour of an experimental plot of grass seedlings, pointing out bird’s eye blue groma, a grass loaded with nutrition for cattle. But between drought and overgrazing, the plant is under stress in ranches across Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

Continue reading →

The Chinati Mountains State Natural Area in south Presidio County finally has public access, according to Corky Kulhmann, senior project manager for land conservation for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

For eight years, Kulhmann and his team have been working to gain public access to 39,000 acres donated to create a new state park.

“But that’s been blocked by either no funds or landowners changing their minds or just other priorities with state parks, as far as money could go when we had money,” Kulhmann explains. “It turned out a lot of the lands here are just a bowl of spaghetti.”

The four tracts of land needed to open a public road to the park were not straight-forward deals. There was the family that wouldn’t sell to the state and instead sold to a developer, who then sold back to the state; a landowner that had to be tracked down in Florida through Facebook; and a deal negotiated with Presidio County after a default on taxes gave them the land, says Kulhmann.

The last piece of the puzzle has Kulhmann’s surveyors working with the state of Texas General Land Office to purchase land from them.

Continue reading →

Mexico’s oil and gas industry is about to open up to the rest of the world — and American oil and gas companies are eager to get a foothold in a market closed to outsiders since 1938.

That’s the year Mexico nationalized its oil industry and ordered American and other foreign companies out.

But before major exploration can take place, Mexico has to create an infrastructure to support it — roads and especially pipelines. And that’s where the challenges begin.

In the last 12 months, there’s been a five-fold increase in pipeline capacity joining the U.S. and Mexico. The industry’s lobby group — America’s Natural Gas Alliance — says it’s all tied to Mexican energy reform. The pipelines are part of a nationwide infrastructure build-up in Mexico to support the new energy production that Americans want to be a part of.

U.S. energy producers are eyeing their potential in a greatly expanded market.

Continue reading →

CHALCHUAPA, El Salvador — The once-staggering number of Central American child migrants crossing the border has slowed dramatically in recent months. But to discourage future migration flows, many say the violence and poverty that helped trigger the exodus must be addressed.

Since 2008, the United States has spent $800 million on programs to combat drug trafficking, gangs, and crime in Central America through an aid package called the Central American Regional Security Initiative, or CARSI.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has used some of those funds to create 140 youth outreach centers in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in recent years. The agency hopes to add 100 more. New centers are being inaugurated each month in these countries.

Continue reading →