Oil and gas production has soared in Texas since the introduction of the mining technique called hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.” But the boom in production has some complaining about an increase in air pollution, as well. For StateImpact Texas, Dave Fehling reports. Drilling companies have been sinking natural gas wells in North Texas by the hundreds, now making Tarrant County the state’s number-one producer of natural gas. But drilling is also producing air pollution, as toxic vapors escape from leaky valves and vents left open on storage tanks. “We absolutely recognize the huge impact that this is having – a negative impact – on our air quality,” says Democratic State Rep. Lon Burnham from Fort Worth. “It’s just adding to an existing problem.”...
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Six homeless people have been killed in Austin in the last 10 months. Those attacks and others led homeless advocates to hand out 1,000 whistles to people living on the streets downtown. “Thunder whistles” sound on a different decibel than those used by the Austin Police Department. The advocacy group House the Homeless says these special, shrill whistles should attract police officers or bystanders to call for help if someone is attacked. Twenty-eight-year-old Marcus Hardaway is currently without a place to call home. He says having a thunder whistle could have helped when he was attacked just a few weeks ago. “I could have been killed and it was all for money. I was stripped of the clothes I was wearing. When I got away, I had to run down the street in just my boxers and...
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