KRTS 93.5 FM Marfa Public Radio

By Marfa Public Radio

Marfa Public Radio has won three National Edward R. Murrow awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) for its reporting in 2018. This is the first time the station has received this number of National Murrow awards.

The station’s only other National Murrow was awarded in 2016 for Lorne Matalon’s investigative reporting in the Juarez Valley in Mexico.

The awards are considered among the most prestigious and recognize “news stories that uphold the RTDNA Code of Ethics, demonstrate technical expertise and exemplify the importance and impact of journalism as a service to the community.”

Marfa Public Radio was awarded in the small market radio category for its use of social media, its website and use of multimedia and for feature reporting.

By Carlos Morales

It’s approaching midday, and Border Patrol agent Derek Boyle is driving along the snaking Rio Grande. On either side of the river: The seemingly-endless Chihuahuan desert. No houses. No buildings. 

“And so when you’re talking about vast lands, if you look out as far as you can see, we patrol out that way,” says Doyle as he motions toward craggy mountains rising from the West Texas horizon.

At its regular meeting last night, the Midland Independent School District’s Board of Trustees approved two large property acquisitions that are intended to help the Permian District handle growth.

By Carlos Morales

The Chisos Basin Visitor Center at Big Bend National Park will be closed for up to four months beginning June 24, while the facility receives repairs staff say are the first renovations to the center since it opened more than 30 years ago.

The closure means the sweeping West Texas National Park, which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, will have just one of its five full-service visitor centers open for the entire 801,163-acre park. Two of the visitor centers — Persimmon Gap and Rio Grande Village — are seasonal and only open from Nov. to April. And the Castolon facility, which is also seasonal, was destroyed during a recent wildfire.

By Cassandra Pollock, Texas Tribune

Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday that the state will deploy 1,000 troops from the Texas National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to aid the federal government with border security efforts.

“There is an escalating crisis at the border — a crisis Congress is refusing to fix,” said Abbott, who was flanked by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, along with Brig. Gen. Tracy Norris, the adjutant general of the Texas National Guard, during a news conference at the Texas Capitol.

Nick Hurt, host of Marfa Public Radio’s In Tune, brought his listeners along on a journey across the state to Weatherford, Texas recently. The occasion? To find out how his friend makes classical guitars. And to play them.

By Alexa Ura and Connie Hanzhang Jin, Texas Tribune

Texas gained almost nine Hispanic residents for every additional white resident last year” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

The gap between Texas’ Hispanic and white populations continued to narrow last year when the state gained almost nine Hispanic residents for every additional white resident.

By Mitch Borden

Summer vacation is in full swing across Texas. Families going on long trips. On hot days, kids heading to the pool with friends or are running down ice cream trucks to get a cool treat. But for school officials in Odessa’s Ector County Independent School District, or ECISD, it’s crunch time.

By Mia Warren and Nicolas Cadena, Story Corps

Today, we’re going to eavesdrop on a conversation between two people in Marfa.

It’s part of a new StoryCorps initiative called One Small Step (OSS). Through facilitated conversations, the OSS Initiative seeks to remind people across political and cultural divides of our shared humanity.

By Mitch Borden

The oil field waste disposal industry in the Permian Basin is growing fast, as the oil and gas industry continues to see an upswing in production. As more and more oil wells are drilled more toxic by-products are being created.