Here are the headlines Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe read on-air this weekend:
Texas Supreme Court sides with city, overturns wrongful termination case
The Texas Supreme Court sided with the city on Friday, saying that city officials did not violate the Texas whistleblower law when they fired two employees in the electric department. The city had been on the ropes for several years, after a Dallas jury awarded the former employees about $4 million for wrongful termination in 2020.
More information at txcourts.gov.
Climate trends prove costly to Texans
A new, 30-page report from the Texas state climatologist says the state’s big weather will get bigger still over the next decade.
Rising temperatures are already making Texas summers hotter. According to the report, they are also making West Texas more drought-prone and East Texas more flood-prone. In addition, the state’s coastline is retreating and reducing natural protections against hurricanes.
Based at Texas A&M University, the state climatologist was asked to produce the peer-reviewed report from historic trends, rather than the historic weather records.
That shift lead to some eye-popping numbers. For example, Texans can expect to cope with four times as many dangerous heat days as they did in the 1970s.
The heat means the lakes that serve as the water supply to millions of Texans will evaporate faster; and the wildfire risk increases to the west.
According to the report, climate change is having a complicated effect on thunderstorms. It’s more difficult for them to develop, but once they do, they are more likely to become severe—and more likely to affect homes and businesses because of population growth.
The report cites the need for resilience, but it doesn’t tackle the issue head on. Instead, they write that, “It’s up to Texans, both individually and collectively, to decide what level of resilience is appropriate and at what cost, compared to the costs of damage and recovery on both an economic and societal level.”
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Texas is twice as vulnerable to economic slowdowns in the summer compared to the rest of the country. Last summer’s heat wave cost about $24 billion.
The Denton City Council voted to develop a local climate action plan, but shelved it last year after a few council members said it was too costly.
More information at texas2036.org.
Children’s advocates defending school libraries
The National Council of Jewish Women took on book-banning in Texas earlier this month at a symposium in San Antonio.
The Texas chapter is well-known for its advocacy work for children, going back to the start of Court Appointed Special Advocates and the Lighthouse for the Blind.
The symposium brought together writers, booksellers, educators, and community volunteers to respond to the tidal wave of book-banning in Texas since the pandemic.
Symposium panelist and school librarian Lucy Podmore was chair of the Texas Association of School Librarians when Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 900 into law last year.
The bill set some new standards for school libraries, but also contained a poison pill for booksellers. An appeals court has blocked the requirement that booksellers rate their books for explicit content before selling them to school libraries, citing the First Amendment.
Podmore told the crowd that librarians welcome the help in dealing with the issue.
Lucy Podmore: “I’m beyond thrilled that this discussion has moved outside of library-land and outside of author-publisher-land. Because it’s a nightmare that we’ve been dealing with for the last couple of years. And thank goodness that we have the support of so many voices. And your voices are definitely needed, because it’s a loud, small group that has created a lot of chaos. And when the majority of us stay quiet, then we get things like HB 900.”
The group videotaped the symposium to share with the public. More information on youtube.com.
Detours, and gratitude
Beginning Monday, all westbound lanes of Eagle Drive between Elm and Locust Streets will be closed for about a month as crews begin to rebuild the road. More information at cityofdenton.com.
And Tuesday is Teacher’s Day, a good time to thank a teacher or librarian for their service.
Local News currently airs each Wednesday at 10 a.m. on KUZU 92.9 FM-LP in Denton, Texas, with rebroadcasts airing at 3 p.m. Thursday, and 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Friday. The Weekend Edition of Local News airs each Saturday at 4 p.m., with rebroadcasts at 9 p.m. and midnight; and 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. Sunday.
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Local News and Weekend Edition scripts are published on Substack. Subscribe for free at peggyheinkelwolfe.substack.com and follow live microblogging of Local News on Mastodon @phwolfe940@denton.social. Peggy is an award-winning, veteran journalist and a Denton County resident since 1993.