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The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted life as we’ve known it in West Texas.

Businesses across the region have dramatically changed their operations to adhere to new safety guidelines, while some have been forced to shutter altogether. School districts and teachers are scrambling to figure out how to educate students in the coming school year. And residents across the Big Bend are questioning how an economy largely based on tourism can continue to thrive during these uncertain times.

That’s why Marfa Public Radio wants to hear from you. 

By Mitch Borden

Midland school officials recently approved changing the name of the city’s famous Robert E. Lee High School, along with its freshman campus. This comes as school districts across the country reevaluate campuses named after Confederate leaders.

The decision sparked celebration and rage across Midland as locals wrestle with the future as well as the history of one of the community’s most beloved schools.

By Briana Vargas and Joel Angel Juárez, the Texas Tribune

A year after the mass shooting in El Paso, where 23 people were killed at a Walmart in what was the worst attack on Latinos in modern U.S. history, Texas Tribune photographers document a city still in mourning.

By Mitch Borden

A 91-year-old man from the City of Presidio has died from the coronavirus while receiving treatment at Medical Center Hospital in Odessa. 

Hospital officials announced the death Friday afternoon saying the Big Bend resident died this morning due to complications with the coronavirus. This is the first coronavirus related death of a Presidio County resident officially announced — which County Judge Cinderela Guevara confirmed — and the third person in the Big Bend to die as a result of the pandemic.

By Mitch Borden

For the first time as President, Donald Trump visited Midland and Odessa, the two cities at the center of America’s most productive oil field — the Permian Basin. He had two goals in mind for the trip, to drum up funds for his reelection bid and reinforce his image as a champion of the oil industry.

Which he did as he outlined the stakes of the upcoming November elections to a crowd of supporters in front of an oil rig near Midland.

By Aliyya Swaby, The Texas Tribune

Texas schools employ almost as many support staff members as they do teachers, often in hourly or part-time jobs with low pay. The state has offered limited guidance on how to protect them on the job.

Custodian Daurice Browne went back to work June 1 at a Killeen middle school, cleaning and moving furniture to prepare for students returning this fall.

By Patrick Svitek and Mitchel Ferman, Texas Tribune

President Donald Trump sought to give a morale boost to the beleaguered Texas energy industry during a visit Wednesday to the Permian Basin, while also rallying oil and gas workers against Democrats ahead of the November election.

With the beginning of the academic year just around the corner, schools across Texas are preparing for a year like no other in recent memory.

Even as they contend with growing COVID-19 outbreaks in many regions, administrators and teachers have also had to navigate varying guidelines from the state. The latest directive from the Texas Education Agency says school districts can shift to four weeks of remote learning — before needing to provide in-person instruction for students whose families want it.

By Stacey Fernández, The Texas Tribune

The families of more than 20% of the 3.6 million eligible school children across the state have yet to apply for federal aid under the Pandemic EBT program.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday that he has extended the deadline to apply for the Pandemic EBT card, which pays $285 for each student who received free and reduced-price meals, to Aug. 21.

By Edgar Walters, The Texas Tribune

Hispanic Texans are overrepresented in the state’s updated fatality count, making up 47% of deaths, but only 40% of the state’s population.

After months of undercounting coronavirus deaths, Texas’ formal tally of COVID-19 fatalities grew by more than 600 on Monday after state health officials changed their method of reporting.

Another round of free COVID-19 testing will take place in Marfa on Monday, August 3rd.

Testing will run from 9am to 4pm — or until testing capacity is reached — at the Marfa Visitor Center, located at 302 South Highland Avenue.

By Mose Buchele, KUT

The amount of methane that fossil fuel companies burn off in Texas as a waste product could power every home in the state, according to some estimates. The industry practice known as “flaring” has been decried as wasteful and polluting by public health groups, environmentalists and even some in the industry.

Now, a survey of flares in West Texas suggests the problem could be even worse than previously thought.

By Meena Venkataramanan, Texas Tribune

Arthur Uhl III has been ranching for 30 years and routinely has the same lament: “It doesn’t rain enough.”

Uhl, who works on his family’s San Angelo-area ranches, needs the rain to grow the grass that feeds his livestock. But in a region that’s prone to megadroughts, he’s had to make changes for sustainability’s sake.

By Carlos Morales

A newly confirmed case of coronavirus at Big Bend National Park has halted plans to reopen, according to an official familiar with the decision. 

This is the second confirmed case of the virus within the park community since the beginning of the month. Park officials first closed the Far West Texas destination in April as a precautionary measure. It was reopened for nearly a month before closing again at the beginning of July when a park resident tested positive for COVID-19.

By Mitch Borden

Ector County ISD administrators are preparing to welcome students back in just a few short weeks. The district is giving students and parents options on how kids will be educated in the upcoming school year, but says it is ready to quickly transition to fully remote learning if it needs to.

By Aliyya Swaby, The Texas Tribune

With the safe reopening of schools this fall in doubt, parents with the resources are setting up “learning pods” or seeking other options. But the do-it-yourself approach to education threatens to leave behind students of color and poorer families.

By Paul Flahive, Texas Public Radio

With millions of people out of work because of the coronavirus, food banks have seen a major surge in demand since March. But August is set to be one of the busiest months yet and that worries food bank operators. 

That’s because not only is National Guard support set to end, but extra federal unemployment funds as well, which could push the demand for food banks even higher. 

Marfa Public Radio is pleased to introduce Ari Snider, our newest staff member.

He’s taking over for Carlos Morales as the host of Morning Edition beginning Thursday, July 23. But don’t worry, you’ll still hear Carlos reporting on the air for the station.

By Carlos Morales

With the start of the school year only weeks away, parents with children at Marfa Independent School District are eying the fall with trepidation as administrators struggle to navigate the latest guidance from the state.

By Mitch Borden

Midland healthcare workers are facing growing doubt from some members of the community, as more coronavirus patients flood the city’s only hospital and COVID-19 related deaths rise. 

Officials at Midland Memorial Hospital have said they’re concerned about the impact the public’s criticism is having on staff morale.

By Mitch Borden

The Permian Basin has been feeling the impact of low oil prices as the coronavirus pandemic persists. Recently, prices have stabilized around $40, compared to last year when the average price of a barrel was in the upper 50s.

The hit energy companies have taken has trickled down to smaller businesses that have relied on workers from the oil patch.

Marfa Public Radio’s Mitch Borden spoke to Israel Campos of Pody’s BBQ in Pecos to see how his business is doing.

By Ari Snider

Most of Far West Texas continues to lag well behind the rest of the state in responding to the US Census — the once-per-decade headcount that determines political representation and guides the flow of government funding.

In the tri-county area, response rates range from 20% to a little over 30%, compared to an average of 57% across the state.