Like chapters of a book, each episode of the “San Antonio Storybook” will tell a different tale about the city we call home. The stories likely are ones you haven’t heard before – narratives about the lives of the people behind the headlines, the sounds you hear, and the places you see as you drive around San Antonio.   Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts

Just This.

Premiering March 4th: San Antonio Storybook

“Finding Medina” weaves together the events surrounding the Battle of Medina with the modern-day search for the battlefield itself. Despite being the largest, bloodiest battle in Texas history, the Medina battlefield has eluded archaeologists for more than a century. By the end of this podcast series, we hope to change that.   Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Premiering March 4th: Finding Medina

We may have been naive to be surprised that a San Antonio resort named La Cantera would be sued in 2018 for enforcing an "English-only" policy among Latino employees, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) this week filed just that lawsuit. Helping us understand the lawsuit and the procedures the EEOC goes through before filing such a lawsuit is veteran San Antonio employment attorney Chris Pittard, whose background includes four years as an EEOC lawyer. We also have a special announcement following our conversation.

El Problema Con La Cantera

What did you do on summer vacation? Some San Antonio high school students from the International School of the Americas magnet program spent it diving deep into the horrors of the Holocaust. Rick Casey talks to two of them, Sofia Fortuno and Claire Ferrell.  

A Summer of Somber Learning

The firefighters' union will have three controversial charter amendmentson the Nov. 6 ballot and each could have a significant effect on political decision making in San Antonio. This week, Iris Dimmick, who has been covering the firefighters' union contract negotiations for years, joins the podcast to discuss each of the three city charter changes, and Rick explains why he thinks if the amendments pass, the union will be the most powerful political force in San Antonio since the police union of the 1980s.

Charter Chit Chat

We talk with Gerry Schwabel, long-time head of international affairs for IBC Bank, which specializes in U.S. companies doing business in Mexico and Mexican companies doing business in the United States. Schwabel was present at the creation of NAFTA here in San Antonio and has closely monitored the current negotiations over updating the treaty. He just returned from Mexico City where he was one of the invited industry representatives who literally wait outside the doors behind which negotiations take place and offer instant responses to negotiators about proposed changes. 

A Deep Dive Into NAFTA 2.0

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked a federal court this week to void an Environmental Protection Agency finding that San Antonio has – like every other United States city of its size or larger – exceeded federal standards for ozone in its air. Paxton argued the finding would seriously hurt the city’s economy. Will it? And why hasn’t the City of San Antonio joined Paxton in the filing? Brendan Gibbons, the Rivard Report's environmental reporter, explains.

Paxton Takes Issue with EPA's Ozone Finding

San Antonio City Councilman Manny Pelaez (D8) this week called for Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood to investigate the North Texas developer whose crews recently clearcut most of 38 acres of dense, brushy forest near La Cantera Parkway on the city's far North Side. LaHood called the move grandstanding. Pelaez joins me to discuss the crimes he has in mind.

Pelaez Condemns Bulldozing Developer

This week the most comprehensive study of San Antonio’s housing needs produced a detailed proposal to address a severe and growing problem. The Housing Policy Task Force Calls for 10-Year, $3.9 Billion Plan One statistic is particularly powerful: Paying the median rent for an apartment requires a wage of $18 an hour, yet 60 percent of San Antonio workers make less than $15. Owning a house is even tougher: The median price of a home has soared 40 percent in the last six years, and the trend is likely to continue. Addressing the issue, the report says, will require considerable resources and a novel approach to affordable housing. A city’s housing stock is part of its infrastructure, just like water, streets, drainage. and sewage. If the free market can’t provide affordable housing, we need to address the problem collectively as a city – just as we do our other infrastructure needs. Lourdes Castro Ramírez, who chaired Mayor Ron Nirenberg's Housing Policy Task Force that produced the study, joins us to discuss its findings.

Taking Housing to Task

There is a growing consensus that Texas’ school funding system is broken – especially when well-run suburban districts such as San Antonio’s North East Independent School District are on the mat. San Antonio Democratic State Rep. Diego Bernal, who is vice chairman of the House Committee on Education, has recently expressed optimism that the Legislature is ready to address the problem. It turns out it is cautious and rather limited optimism, but optimism nonetheless. Give a listen.

State Rep. Diego Bernal Talks School Finance

Frost Tower, the first downtown office high-rise to join San Antonio's skyline in three decades, has reached its full height and will open for business next year. Weston Urban CEO Randy Smith played a central role in negotiating the deal and selecting the world-renowned architectural firm Pelli Clarke Pelli and is overseeing construction. In today's episode, he explains what went into the deal, what Frost wanted out of it, and how the architects – including one who was born a few blocks away at the Nix Hospital – approached it.

Frost Tower Takes Its Place on San Antonio Skyline

When prominent San Antonio restaurateur Viola Barrios of Los Barrios Restaurant was murdered a decade ago, her family’s passionate response was immediate and stunning. Literally listening to their mother, they obeyed the instructions she had given them over the years to forgive. Throughout her life, Barrios had not only preached compassion and forgiveness, she had practiced them herself within her community and in response to an earlier tragedy, the loss of her husband José. Today, Barrios' children contribute to and carry on Viola's legacy, honoring their mother with the enduring gift of generosity she instilled in them. Rivard Reporter Ken Rodriguez, who covered the murder from its beginning in 2008, tells the story.

A San Antonio Family's Remarkable Response to a Bizarre Murder

With the redevelopment the Alamo and its surrounding plaza at the center of recent public debate, I invited Lewis Fisher, one of the city’s leading historians, to share details about the iconic site’s past and ownership. Fisher is the author of Saving San Antonio: The Preservation of a Heritage, a book dedicated to tales of the city’s strength in preserving its past. When the State of Texas bought the Alamo church from the Catholic Church in 1883, it became the first landmark to be purchased with the purpose of historic preservation.

Alamo Plaza is History, Too

When Nico LaHood, less than a month into his tenure as Bexar County district attorney, announced he wouldn’t seek the death penalty for a 25-year-old man who had killed the Bexar County city of  Elmendorf ‘s popular police chief in 2014, it seemed like a radical move. But this week highly respected District Judge Sid Harle ruled the killer was not guilty by reason of insanity. In this week’s podcast, Harle discusses the case and talks about why the law left him said he had no choice but to acquit Joshua Manuel Lopez.

Judge Harle Explains Cop Killer Ruling

One year ago, just weeks after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord, San Antonio’s brand new City Council and its new mayor voted 9-1 to join a coalition of cities determined to meet the accord’s goals for reducing the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change. The first step of the ambitious commitment was for the City-owned CPS Energy to give the University of Texas at San Antonio a $500,000 grant to study the area’s sources of greenhouse gases and come up with a plan to reduce them. This week, the Rivard Report’s environmental reporter, Brendan Gibbons, broke the story that UTSA has been replaced by a private consulting firm. Listen to the background.

Private Firm Replaces UTSA in SA’s Climate Action Effort

A weekly conversation about the people and stories shaping San Antonio. Hosted by Rivard Report Editor in Chief Beth Frerking along with longtime columnist and newsman Rick Casey. Expect the show weekly every Friday and never over 20 minutes long.

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Just This.

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