KRTS 93.5 FM Marfa Public Radio

There’s a new weekday news, arts and culture program coming to the West Texas airwaves – Texas Standard.

Produced at KUT in Austin, with collaboration from public radio stations in big cities and small towns across the state, Texas Standard brings West Texas listeners a new source for expansive coverage of statewide, national and international news – from a distinctly Texan perspective.

Starting on Monday, March 2 – Texas Independence Day – you can catch the show live each weekday from 10 – 11 am.

In addition to carrying the program, we’ll also be regularly contributing to it – bringing the sounds, stories and unique personalities of West Texas to listeners across the state.

So, you’re probably wondering: “What does that mean for Talk at Ten?“

Long-form interviews with community members, local organizations and interesting people from far and wide have been a staple of Marfa Public Radio since we launched – so that’s not going away.

Talk at Ten will be re-branded as West Texas Talk – and will continue at its 6:30 PM slot every weekday.

In the meantime, you can check out some of the of innovative radio journalism we’re bringing to West Texas next week. Our reporters have already been featured on the program in recent weeks.

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For the past 29 years, cowboy poets have gathered in Alpine on the campus of Sul Ross State University. It’s called the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering and it kicks off today.

Doris Daley has been coming to this event in Alpine for 13 years. It’s smaller, and she thinks homier, than similar events across the country.

And here at Alpine, Texas, it’s a gathering-up of old friends and new friends, a Western hug and a Western howdy. There’s nothing razzle-dazzle about Alpine. None of it is for show. It’s more like a family gathering.

And it’s not a festival – as organizers will tell you – it’s a gathering. One of them, Bill Brooks, says it’s really about the performers doing their thing. The audience just happens to be there.

Because we have been true to our mission since Day One. And that is to make it kind of a reunion; thus, the gathering name – for them – then invite the public to come hear them.

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A 50-year-old Mexican man died earlier this month while in Border Patrol custody in Marfa, after suffering what Customs and Border Protection (CBP) described as an apparent seizure.

According to CBP the man, identified in Presidio County documents as Maros Baray-Magallanes, was taken into custody on February 17th around 5 p.m. after allegedly entering the U.S. illegally.

The incident began around 5:20 a.m. on February 18th, when according to witness testimony from on-duty Border Patrol Agent Gaberial Vega, Magallanes “became ill in his cell.” Agents performed CPR and called Marfa EMS, who arrived and also performed CPR, but were unable to revive the man.

He was pronounced dead about an hour later, at 6:13 a.m.

It’s not clear where Magallanes was taken into custody or how exactly he tried to enter the U.S. illegally.

The Presidio County Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating the death, along with CBP’s Office of Internal Affairs.

Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara has ordered an autopsy from South Plains Forensic Pathology in Lubbock. A preliminary autopsy is expected back within the next few weeks, but it could be months before the final autopsy results are available.

The peregrine falcons are returning to Big Bend National Park for their breeding season, and the Park, as they have done in previous years, has closed a small section of the South Rim trail of the Chisos Mountains to hikers, to give the birds a quiet and safe place to raise their young.

Every February, Raymond Skiles – the Park’s wildlife biologist – hikes up to the South Rim with trail closure signs, to keep hikers from getting too close to the peregrine falcon’s nesting area.

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The decline in the price of crude oil is translating into job losses in the oilfields of Texas and New Mexico.

And that means there’s renewed focus on an ongoing problem in the oilfields, and that’s the theft of oil, tools, piping and copper wire by laid off or disgruntled workers.

The FBI has a team working full-time to identify stolen oilfield equipment which in at least one case was smuggled to borderland Mexico.

“They live paycheck to paycheck,” said Midland County, Texas Sheriff Gary Painter driving past an oil well.

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A Dallas-based company looking to build two sizable natural gas pipelines from Far West Texas to Mexico says it plans to have both pipelines built and operating by early 2017.

Energy Transfer won a contract from Mexico’s electricity commission to build the manage the pipeline’s construction. It’s estimated the two 42″ lines could carry a combined 2.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

In an earnings call this week, the company’s CEO Kelcy Warren – also the owner of the Lajitas Golf Resort near Big Bend National Park – said the company’s making progress on meeting that timeline.

“We’re very excited about our business south to Mexico,” Warren said. “The next two projects that we were winners on, we’re looking at both of them to come on in the first quarter of 2017, and we are finalizing negotiations and everything is on track to that timeline.”

One of the pipelines would stretch from near the towns of Monahans and Pecos south through the Marfa area to Presidio. The other would travel from the same area west to the border near El Paso.

Some West Texans are worried about how the pipeline’s construction would impact roads and the environment, while some people across the border are wary of selling their land for development on the Mexican side.

The company’s also looking to expand its holdings in South Texas and other parts of the Permian Basin.

SIERRA BLANCA, Texas – A border county in Texas with two U.S. Border Patrol highway checkpoints is refusing to prosecute drug cases previously sent to it from those checkpoints.

The county—and all four states bordering Mexico—wants funding from Washington, D.C. to handle cases that federal prosecutors decide to send to state courts.

But federal money has run dry.

A program that reimbursed California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas for prosecuting federally initiated cases hasn’t been funded since 2013.

The largest of the two federal checkpoints in the county is sometimes dubbed “Checkpoint of the Stars” because people such as Willie Nelson, Snoop Dog (aka Snoop Lion) and Fiona Apple have been arrested here after dogs detected marijuana.

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Renovation of the badly damaged Prada Marfa art installation near Valentine, Texas has begun and will continue over the next few weeks.

The popular roadside art installation was vandalized by a Waco resident named Joe Magnano almost a year ago, an act Magnano claimed was meant to be its own kind of art and an act of protest.

Magnano pleaded guilty to criminal mischief charges in November, and was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine, plus $10,000 in restitution to Ballroom Marfa, the nonprofit art gallery that takes care of the installation.

Ballroom has estimated restoring the piece could cost anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000.

The gallery’s deputy director Katherine Shaughnessy says the restitution money likely won’t be enough to  cover the cost of completely restoring the piece.

That effort began this week with the careful removal of the installation’s awning, “Prada Marfa” emblem and glass.

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Never miss a city council meeting? Always finding interesting stories in the Big Bend? Go to a lot of community events or concerts? If you’re interested in sharing your knowledge and experience with Marfa Public Radio listeners, become one of our volunteer Community Correspondents.

We’re looking for engaged citizens from across the Big Bend. A Community Correspondent assists Marfa Public Radio with news gathering and producing stories from the community you live in.
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