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.
Julián Castro speaks at the She the People forum for 2020 Democratic presidential candidates at Texas Southern University last month. (Gabriel C. Pérez / KUT)
Immigration is likely to be a key issue in the 2020 presidential election, but so far Democratic candidates have largely shied away from the issue in their campaigns.
Julián Castro hasn’t.
The former HUD secretary and mayor of San Antonio is currently the only major Democratic candidate with an actual plan on how to tackle immigration.
A pump jack works quietly in the Permian Basin. (Mitch Borden/ Marfa Public Radio)
For weeks, two American oil companies fought over who would buy Anadarko Petroleum. At first, Chevron’s deal to acquire Anadarko seemed to be set until Occidental Petroleum made a past higher bid public. Then, after some back and fourth Occidental won the bidding war after it made a deal estimated to be worth over $55 billion dollars.
This large purchase is an indication to some analysts and industry insiders that the Permian Basin may see more companies consolidate their operations in the coming days.
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.
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.
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.
By Sally Beauvais and Diana Nguyen
The Presidio County Commissioners Court will revisit potential permitting procedures for large-scale events in the county at a meeting in Marfa on Wednesday.
The commissioners first discussed the idea of creating an application process for mass gatherings and outdoor festivals on the heels of an announcement by Austin-based C3 Presents. The company had initially proposed a festival of 5,000 attendees on a stretch of ranch land outside of Marfa in 2020. Recently, the group announced that the event would be delayed, but that they will still move forward with their plans.
By Diana Nguyen
On Saturday, hundreds gathered to swim, dance, and enjoy music on the Rio Grande at the seventh annual Voices From Both Sides event in Lajitas. The event began in 2013 and takes place every year on the weekend of Mother’s Day.
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By Marfa Public Radio Staff
William “Wile” Quintana — a former co-host of Marfa Public Radio’s “Una Hora Con Primo” — has died.
A Marfa resident and amateur historian, Quintana grew up in far West Texas in the 1940s and 50s. He recounted his childhood memories in a 2015 interview, remembering Marfa as a town “bustling” from the commerce that sprung up around the military base, Fort D.A. Russell.
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By Mitch Borden
The U.S. census is still a year away, but city officials and industry leaders in the Permian Basin are trying to plan how they’ll count all the people who have flocked to the region in the last decade because of the shale revolution.
By Arya Sundaram, Texas Tribune
Emboldened by a newly conservative U.S. Supreme Court, abortion opponents across the country are pushing some of the most restrictive anti-abortion legislation in recent years — like “heartbeat bills” that would ban the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy. With new legislative restrictions, they hope to incite a legal battle to overturn, or at least gut, the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that was spurred by a Texas abortion law.
