KUT Radio

3 days ago | kut.org | Mike Lee

“It's like an old radio play, but a little bit more intense,” says Andee Kinzy, the creator of the new fiction podcast Kicking the Bucket. “So we've said radio play, immersive fiction, audio drama... And I knew that this medium created a really new, interesting opportunity that connected to the audience in a way that live theater and film cannot.

4 days ago | kut.org | Katy McAfee |Maya Fawaz

Todd Harris was mentally preparing to move out of the state and spend the next few years buried in debt as he waited for Gov. Greg Abbott to take action on Senate Bill 3. If signed into law, SB 3 would have banned all consumable hemp products containing THC in Texas, shutting down thousands of cannabis shops, including Harris’ own business, Happy Cactus. In the final hour before his deadline, Abbott vetoed the bill.

4 days ago | kut.org | Becky Fogel

Anti-hunger advocates in Texas thought they had scored a win this year when state lawmakers included $60 million in the budget to launch a program to reduce food insecurity for children. But on Sunday, Gov. Greg Abbott line-item vetoed the funding out of the state's $338 billion budget. The Republican leader cited concerns about federal funding for the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program.

4 days ago | kut.org | Becky Fogel

The Austin Community College District Board of Trustees said it will join a lawsuit challenging the end of a Texas law that allowed certain undocumented students to get in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities. The 2001 law is known as the Texas Dream Act. “As the publicly elected arm of the College, the Trustees are asking for the opportunity to engage in a legal conversation that will examine whether the Texas Dream Act is constitutional,” trustees said in a news release.

5 days ago | kut.org | Katy McAfee |Stephanie Federico

Gov. Greg Abbott has vetoed a bill that would have banned the sale in Texas of most products containing THC, the compound in cannabis that gets people high. In announcing the veto just before a midnight deadline, the governor said he would call a special session July 21 to debate the legislation further. Senate Bill 3 would have unraveled Texas’ $8 billion hemp industry and cost an estimated 50,000 people their jobs.