Job Description–Development Director, Marfa Public Radio
Marfa Public Radio (MPR) is seeking visionary, adventurous candidates for the position of Development Director to join a team of 8 staff and more than 30 volunteers who provide radio for a wide range. The position is based in Marfa, Texas.
Emergency Services Coordinator Gary Mitschke (Diana Nguyen / Marfa Public Radio)
Yesterday, officials from Austin-based company C3 Presents met with county and city officials to discuss their plans for a festival of more than 5,000 on a ranch outside of Marfa’s city limits.
The meeting was closed to the press and public, stirring up tensions among locals who want more information about the project.
Marfa Public Radio’s Diana Nguyen sat down with Presidio County Emergency Services Coordinator Gary Mitschke and County Judge Cinderela Guevara to talk takeaways from the meeting. They also discussed why action to approve and adopt permitting procedures for major events and music festivals were included on this week’s Presidio County Commissioner’s agenda.
The Presidio Rocket club, from left to right: Alejandrina Elms, Ramon Aguirre, Aaron Bustamente, Leonardo Uribe, Adrian Escontrias, Paola Flotta and their teacher Luzvminda Santo Domingo. (Carlos Morales / Marfa Public Radio)
By Carlos Morales
On a recent Spring afternoon at Presidio high school, six students on the rocketry team eagerly crowd around a desk. Some plop down on nearby chairs, others stand. They’re excited and a bit anxious to talk about the rocketry project they’ve been working on for the last few months.
The rocket’s not here — it’s already been shipped some 2,000 miles away to Virginia, where the Presidio rocketry club will compete with 100 other teams from across the country on Saturday.
Permian Basin oil producers continue to steadily pump West Texas Oil in the Delaware Basin. (Mitch Borden / Marfa Public Radio)
The United States has been in a trade war with China for almost a year now. Many thought a resolution was on its way until the Trump Administration announced last week it would be placing tariffs worth about $200 billion on Chinese goods. This action renewed the conflict, which may have broad impacts for the U.S. economy and the Permian Basin’s oil industry.
Two drivers, both dual U.S.-Guatemalan citizens, leave Texas for a week long trip through the Mexican states of Tamauplias, Veracruz and Chiapas. Both say their desire to provide for their families in Guatemala trumps security concerns about traveling through Mexico. (Lorne Matalon)
If you do much highway driving in Texas, it’s a familiar sight: old, rusted trucks packed to the gills with toys, motor oil, textiles, and building materials traveling down the interstate. Sometimes, they’re hauling an additional truck — “IN TOW” … Continue reading
By Mitch Borden
In the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert, at the base of the Davis Mountains, the San Solomon Springs fill a pool at Balmorhea State Park. It’s considered a crown jewel of West Texas and people from all over come there to swim. Just five miles down the road sits a small community that shares the name Balmorhea and for decades, the sleepy little town has relied heavily on the cash spent by visiting tourists. Well, at least it used to.
A construction worker works on a home in Odessa, Texas. The Midland-Odessa area is one of the fastest- growing areas in the country in terms of population, and has attracted a number of Millennial homebuyers. (Natalie Krebs / Texas Standard)
By Natalie Krebs, Texas Standard
Many Millennials, who are often saddled with student debt and face a sometimes shaky job market, have put off large purchases like homes. But that’s not the case in Midland.
Border wall in Mission, TX on Feb. 6, 2019. (Verónica G. Cárdenas / Texas Public Radio)
By Mitch Borden, Carlos Morales
A fourth migrant child has died this week, more than a month after his family was apprehended at the U.S. Mexico border.
The Guatemalan Consul in Del Rio, Texas told NPR, the two-and-a-half-year-old boy was taken to a hospital in El Paso just days later.
Early voting inside the Memorial Student Center at Prairie View A&M University. (Texas Tribune)
Texas’ botched search for noncitizens on the voter rolls, which ended in a legal settlement after state officials jeopardized the voting rights of thousands of legitimate voters, was paid for in part with dollars earmarked for bolstering election security amid concerns of interference in 2016.
The Presidio County Commissioners Court has now twice delayed adopting permitting procedures for large-scale events in the county. (Diana Nguyen / Marfa Public Radio)
By Sally Beauvais
The Presidio County Commissioners Court voted unanimously on Wednesday to postpone adopting permitting procedures for major events and outdoor festivals, once again.
County officials first proposed an event application process last month — after Austin-based company C3 Presents announced their plans to hold a music festival of 5,000 outside of Marfa’s city limits.
(AP Photo / Elaine Thompson)
By Elizabeth Trovall, Houston Public Media
The Transportation Security Administration will be sending a few hundred employees to support federal agents at the U.S.-Mexico border, the agency confirmed in a statement to Houston Public Media.
Signs point the way to the Border Patrol's Big Bend Sector headquarters in Marfa, Texas. (Travis Bubenik / KRTS)
By Sally Beauvais
An unprecedented surge in the number of families crossing the U.S.-Mexico border is trickling into a remote area of West Texas, according to immigration authorities in Customs and Border Protection’s Big Bend Sector.
Gina Ortiz Jones is running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes. (Marjorie Kamys Cotera)
By Patrick Svitek, Texas Tribune
Gina Ortiz Jones, the Democrat who narrowly lost last year to U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, is running again.
Jones, a former Air Force intelligence officer, launched her long-anticipated 2020 bid Tuesday morning, setting the stage for a rematch in Texas’ most competitive congressional district.
After 9 months of being closed, the historic Balmorhea State Park pool opened in March. (Diana Nguyen / Marfa Public Radio)
By Carlos Morales
It’s been just over 2 months since the historic pool at Balmorhea State Park re-opened, after a period of extensive repair to a damaged pool wall. But now the spring-fed swimming hole has closed once again, and park officials aren’t sure for how long.
Job Description–Development Director, Marfa Public Radio
Marfa Public Radio (MPR) is seeking visionary, adventurous candidates for the position of Development Director to join a team of 8 staff and more than 30 volunteers who provide radio for a wide range. The position is based in Marfa, Texas.
Continue reading
Lonn may not have grown up in the theater, but he can certainly say he grew up with an awareness of it.
On this edition of The Reambling Boy, Lonn tells of his experiences with the theater; including how his parents were both enthusiastic amateur actors and active in their participants in community theater groups whever the family was living at the time.
West Texans can sample and learn about sotoles, at Marfa’s third annual Agave Festival, June 1-9. Distilled agave spirits have long been a mainstay of Mexico and the borderlands. But they’ve gone global. Tequila exports from Mexico have doubled since … Continue reading
On this episode, we wanted to celebrate former co-host of “Una Hora Con Primo,” Wile Quintana, who died earlier this month at 78. We’re featuring a conversation he had with former Marfa Public Radio intern Mia Warren in 2015. They talk about what it was like to grow up in Marfa in the forties and fifties, and how Quintana became an amateur historian.
By Mitch Borden
A new bill that would hold companies and truck drivers responsible for bridge strikes is headed to the Texas Governor’s desk to be signed.
By Diana Nguyen
Late last week, Marfa city manager Terry Brechtel submitted a letter of resignation to outgoing Mayor Ann Marie Nafziger and to the city council. Brechtel started the job under Ann Marie Nafziger, and her announcement comes at a time of transition in city government, with newly elected Manny Baeza’s mayoral term beginning in the coming weeks.
