- State lawmakers advanced a controversial higher education bill in the Texas House today. The measure originally intended to ban tenure at public universities. However updates in the House have codified the practice into law. Houston Democratic Representative Penny Morales Shaw says the bill will harm Texas professors. “This bill jeopardizes academic freedom, the right to research without fear of influence or retribution.” The bill now goes back to the Texas Senate. Lawmakers in that chamber will need to give the revised legislation its seal of approval. It’s not clear if the Senate will okay such large changes…but if it does, the measure will head to the governor’s desk.
- KETR’s terrestrial broadcast signal at 88.9 FM has been off-air since Tuesday morning, as contract workers at KETR’s broadcast tower are completing the final phase of major work at the site. Both the transmitter itself and the transmission line are being replaced. Both have served for decades, so this week’s work concludes a massive project involving the replacement or repair of many of the station’s systems at the tower, located on the west side of Commerce, near Commerce High School. KETR’s full broadcast power of 100,000 watts is capable of reaching a greater portion of the region thatn KETR had been reaching with its radio signal in recent years, as degrading equipment reduced capacity. KETR has been broadcasting from its tower site in Commerce since the station’s first licensing to East Texas State University in 1975.
Bill banning tenure heads back to Texas Senate
Lindsey Wiley
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Texas A&M University-Commerce