Latest / Austin Signal / Arrest in Capitol attack plot, Man shot by ICE stays in custody, Lammes Candies is back

Transcript

Arrest in Capitol attack plot, Man shot by ICE stays in custody, Lammes Candies is back · Austin Signal

0:08
The Texas Department of Public
0:09
Safety found a credible threat to
0:11
attack the Capitol this week, what
0:13
we know about that risk so far.
0:15
And the man shot by an ICE agent
0:17
last month in Austin was in federal
0:19
court this week.
0:20
The charges against him, his
0:21
physical well-being, and what comes
0:23
next.
0:24
Plus, Monday is the deadline to get
0:25
registered to vote in the midterm
0:26
elections.
0:27
Texas is working to address a
0:29
backlog of registration
0:30
applications.
0:31
We're gonna hear more from one
0:32
reporter who is on that list.
0:34
Coming up on today's show.
0:36
The Austin Signal is a production
0:38
of KUT News, hosted by
0:40
Jerry Quijano.
0:41
KUT News is launching a new
0:43
initiative focused on aging in
0:45
Austin. Jennifer Satin is going to
0:46
stop by to talk about the Longview
0:48
Project, and we got some sweet news.
0:51
Lamb's Candies is back with
0:53
new ownership.
0:54
We'll tell you about those new
0:55
owners. That's coming up next,
0:57
right here on Austin Signal.
1:07
Howdy out there.
1:08
This is Austin Signal.
1:10
I'm your host, Jerry Keconnell.
1:11
It is Thursday.
1:12
It's the first day of October.
1:14
Thank you for tuning in and making
1:15
us part of your day.
1:18
The Texas Department of Public
1:19
Safety said they found a credible
1:21
plot to attack the Texas Capitol
1:23
building yesterday.
1:24
They've since arrested the main
1:26
suspect, but they believe several
1:27
co-conspirators were also involved.
1:30
KUT's Katie McAfee has more.
1:32
40-Year-old Benny Caldera Jr.
1:35
Was arrested by DPS in the early
1:37
morning hours on Wednesday at his
1:38
home outside San Antonio.
1:40
He was sent to Bear County Jail and
1:42
charged with a felony terroristic
1:44
threat against a public servant for
1:46
what officials call a credible
1:47
threat to attack the Texas Capitol.
1:50
Calderas has been transferred to
1:51
federal custody and faces additional
1:53
felony charges.
1:55
The FBI has not indicated what those
1:57
charges are.
1:58
Or if they have more information on
1:59
what Caldera's plan or motive was.
2:02
The investigation is still ongoing.
2:04
Officials believe several
2:05
co-conspirators were also involved
2:07
in the plan, but they say there's
2:09
no ongoing threat to the Capitol at
2:10
this time.
2:11
I'm Katie McAfee in Austin.
2:14
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F.
2:15
Kennedy Jr.
2:16
Was in Austin yesterday to announce
2:18
an initiative to modernize clinical
2:20
trials here in the United States.
2:23
KeyUT's Olivia Aldridge reports that
2:25
UT's Dell Medical School will be
2:27
the lead academic partner on two
2:29
new projects through the initiative.
2:31
DelMed will contribute to a project
2:33
that aims to equip more research
2:35
sites to take on clinical trials
2:37
so that patients can access them
2:39
closer to home.
2:40
DelMed also will be the first
2:42
contributor to what's known as
2:44
Commons, a shared clinical
2:46
trial data resource for institutions
2:48
across the states.
2:50
Secretary Kennedy says it's a
2:51
priority to modernize the U.S.
2:53
Clinical trial system to keep up
2:55
with China as the country ramps
2:57
up medical innovation.
2:59
It's not just economic
3:02
benefits that we're losing,
3:04
it's the control
3:06
of our healthcare, of
3:08
our health,
3:10
our international leadership in
3:12
biomedical research.
3:14
The projects are funded by the
3:15
Advanced Research Projects Agency
3:17
for Health, an agency within
3:19
the Health and Human Services
3:20
department that invests in
3:22
innovative research and breakthrough
3:24
technologies.
3:25
I'm Olivia Aldridge in Austin.
3:37
Wilbur Garces Perez, the man shot
3:39
last month by an ICE agent in
3:40
Austin, was in a federal court
3:42
hearing in Austin on Wednesday.
3:44
Garces Peres will stay in custody,
3:46
but he's not returning to a South
3:47
Texas detention center.
3:49
Joining us now is KUT's Moe's
3:51
Bouchelle. He's been covering this
3:52
story for the KUT newsroom.
3:54
Moe, thanks for being here.
3:55
Thank you, Jared. Okay.
3:56
It's been a very busy week.
3:57
Been a lot of movement in Garces
3:59
Beres' case. Can you lay out for us
4:01
what's happened just this week?
4:02
Yeah, absolutely.
4:03
So at the beginning of the week, we
4:05
expected Garces Perez to appear
4:07
at a hearing in San Antonio,
4:10
a hearing that happened after his
4:12
lawyers filed to block his
4:13
deportation.
4:14
Their concern was that he may
4:16
just be deported back to Venezuela.
4:20
But, right as that hearing was,
4:22
the day before that hearing was
4:23
going to take place...
4:24
The federal government filed charges
4:26
against him on assaulting
4:29
and resisting a federal officer.
4:30
These are criminal charges,
4:32
completely separate from the
4:33
immigration question, right?
4:34
What they contended in their
4:36
criminal complaint, which was
4:37
written up by an ICE investigator,
4:39
is that he essentially
4:42
sideswiped an ICE agent with
4:44
the side mirror of his car
4:46
as he was fleeing an
4:49
immigration traffic stop.
4:51
And so they say that constitutes
4:53
assault of a federal officer.
4:55
So now we have this criminal
4:57
case.
4:58
That's what was happening Wednesday.
5:00
There was a preliminary hearing for
5:02
that case.
5:02
And Garces Perez, he has been
5:04
interviewed by ICE, is that right?
5:05
Yeah, that's right.
5:06
So as I said, there's a criminal
5:08
complaint that was put together by
5:09
an ICE investigator.
5:10
This is not an agent that was at the
5:12
scene of what happened on September
5:13
20th when he was shot, but an
5:15
investigator who looks into these
5:16
things after the fact.
5:17
That investigator interviewed Garces
5:19
Perez actually just hours after
5:21
he was shot that
5:23
same day.
5:24
He also interviewed one
5:26
of the two federal
5:28
agents, one of two ICE agents
5:30
that were involved in the lead
5:32
up to the shooting.
5:33
Uh... It notably he did not
5:35
interview the agent that that
5:37
that shot that suspect as he
5:39
interviewed and the other agent who
5:40
is involved in that initial traffic
5:41
stop
5:42
Well, Moze, you have been reporting
5:43
on this story since it happened
5:44
almost two weeks ago, but this was
5:46
the first chance that you got to see
5:47
Garces Betis in person, and he made
5:49
his appearance while still having
5:50
that bullet lodged in his body.
5:52
What did he look like?
5:53
Yeah, he was wheeled in by court
5:55
security on a wheelchair.
5:57
He has a
5:59
sling on his left arm.
6:02
He did not appear to be restrained.
6:04
Emotionally, he appeared to be, I
6:05
kind of describe it as forlorn.
6:08
He did through the
6:10
course of the hearing occasionally
6:12
wince as he adjusted
6:14
his arm that's in this sling.
6:16
So he appeared be in some
6:17
discomfort, but he also appeared to
6:19
You know very keyed in here.
6:21
They have a translation translation
6:22
you know your piece for him and he
6:24
was following the proceedings
6:25
closely uh...
6:27
Occasionally mention if there's a
6:28
problem with the translation
6:29
technology uh...
6:31
And uh...
6:31
Yeah it it was the other first time
6:33
that that that he made a kind of
6:35
public appearance since all this
6:36
happened
6:37
There's been some discussion about
6:38
whether the ICE agents were wearing
6:40
a body cam or whether it was turned
6:42
off. Did you learn anything more
6:43
about that yesterday?
6:43
Absolutely.
6:44
In fact, what happened to this
6:46
hearing was quite remarkable.
6:48
The prosecution showed body
6:50
cam footage from one of
6:52
the agents that did the initial
6:54
immigration stop.
6:56
They submitted this as evidence,
6:57
trying to say that it
7:00
proves that this other agent was
7:02
hit by the
7:04
side mirror.
7:06
To be very clear, the agent that
7:08
pursued Garces Perez and ended up
7:10
shooting him at 183
7:12
and Anderson Square.
7:13
Is not the agent who was wearing
7:15
a body camera, but his
7:16
partner on this day was
7:18
wearing a body cam and they showed
7:20
this evidence in the courtroom.
7:22
They said it's sealed evidence, so
7:23
it won't be shown publicly, at least
7:25
not anytime soon, but the
7:26
people in the court room were able
7:27
to see it, we're able to see it.
7:29
I was there.
7:30
And so we viewed this
7:32
body camera footage.
7:34
And then a lot of the hearing turned
7:36
into a kind of debate over what are
7:38
we really watching here.
7:40
The prosecution maintained that
7:41
there was something in this footage
7:43
that showed that the
7:45
contact, you know, between the car
7:46
and the agent, the defense said
7:48
there wasn't and the
7:50
defense actually at one point even
7:51
got the ICE investigator to
7:53
say under oath,
7:55
say in testimony,
7:57
no, this image that you're
7:59
showing me suggests the possibility
8:01
there was contact.
8:02
So, again, if this video
8:04
evidence is going to be a key part
8:05
of this case, there's a lot of
8:06
debate surrounding what it actually
8:07
showed.
8:08
Prosecutors argued that Garces Perez
8:10
was a flight risk and a danger to
8:12
the community, but the judge seemed
8:14
to not agree with all of that,
8:16
what was his difference there?
8:17
Yeah, so part of what the judge is
8:19
supposed to decide is whether he
8:20
could be released or kept in
8:22
detention.
8:22
The judge decided to keep him in
8:24
criminal detention, not immigration
8:26
detention, because
8:28
he said he did pose a flight risk.
8:30
He has family in another country and
8:32
he fled from law enforcement.
8:34
So he said, he should stay detained.
8:35
But the judge said he didn't agree
8:37
with the government's argument that
8:39
Garces Perez poses
8:41
a threat to the community.
8:42
He said that he was not compelled
8:44
by the evidence the government
8:45
presented at the hearing.
8:47
That he was dangerous to the
8:49
community. And so that was an
8:50
interesting thing for him to point
8:52
out, I thought.
8:52
What happens next most?
8:54
So when I talked to Garces
8:57
Perez's immigration lawyers
8:58
yesterday, they said they were gonna
8:59
continue their immigration case as
9:01
this criminal case unfolds.
9:03
He has his own defense lawyer for
9:04
that as well.
9:05
They said at that time, they weren't
9:06
even sure where he was gonna be held
9:07
now, because as I said, he's moving
9:09
to criminal detention on these
9:10
federal charges.
9:11
But both cases will proceed,
9:15
but one criminal, one
9:17
immigration oriented, and I'm
9:19
sure we'll be hearing a lot more on
9:21
it, you know, as they both
9:23
proceed.
9:24
Alright, that is Moe's Bouchel.
9:25
He has been covering the story for
9:26
the KUT newsroom, and we will
9:28
continue to bring you updates here
9:29
on Austin Signal.
9:30
Moe, thank you. Thank you, Jerry.
9:39
With the November election fast
9:40
approaching, tens of thousands of
9:42
Texas voter registration
9:43
applications have yet to be
9:45
processed.
9:45
They're caught in a backlog after
9:47
Texas DPS failed to send counties
9:49
updated information on time.
9:51
This came to light last week via
9:52
reporting from VoteBeat.
9:54
Then, counties started receiving old
9:56
applications in mass.
9:57
Travis County received about 32,000
10:00
from DPS overnight.
10:01
In Bexar County, the tally was
10:02
45,000.
10:03
In Harris, 75,000
10:06
Among those whose registration was
10:07
affected was Texas Standard's
10:09
Sarah Ash, so she set out to
10:11
fix that error and takes us along
10:13
for the journey.
10:14
I have a confession.
10:15
I don't always double check that my
10:17
voter registration is accurate
10:19
before an election.
10:21
But last week, when I read about the
10:22
backlog of voter records, I figured
10:24
I would take a look.
10:28
I was concerned because I moved to
10:30
a new address a few months ago.
10:31
When I applied to update my driver's
10:33
license, I clicked the box asking
10:35
DPS to update my voter registration
10:37
too.
10:38
Could it be that my request was
10:40
among those not yet processed?
10:43
VoteTexas.gov.
10:46
Oh, that, yeah, that's wrong.
10:49
I wasn't sure what my next step
10:50
should be, so I did what reporters
10:51
often do.
10:52
Made a phone call.
10:56
Welcome to the Travis County
10:58
tax office.
10:59
In Travis County, voter registration
11:01
is managed through the tax office, a
11:03
remnant of when there was a poll tax
11:04
in the pre-civil rights era.
11:06
To speak with a representative about
11:08
voter registration.
11:11
Press 4.
11:12
I call to ask what I should do.
11:14
So you just have to go online, and
11:16
you can update the address.
11:17
Okay.
11:18
Just go to votetexas.gov
11:20
and update the addresses, and
11:21
they'll update it for you.
11:23
Once I had the information I needed
11:24
for my driver's license and my voter
11:26
registration certificate, it was
11:28
pretty easy to submit that form at
11:30
votetexas.gov.
11:32
To use this service, the online
11:33
service, you need a current
11:35
driver's licensor ID card, your
11:37
social security number,
11:40
and your voter registration card
11:42
with your voter unique identifier.
11:45
But then I wondered, if the county's
11:47
still working through its backlog,
11:48
would it be a problem that my
11:49
request is in there twice?
11:50
Celia Israel
11:52
Travis County's voter registrar told
11:54
me it was fine.
11:55
If you're in doubt, if you're
11:57
concerned, there's no harm
11:58
in submitting another form, a second
12:00
form. We will check for duplicates
12:02
and all of the things that we're
12:03
doing. That's part of our job as the
12:04
voter registrar.
12:05
If you're not sure, it's important
12:07
that you check now.
12:09
October 5th is the deadline for
12:10
updating your voter registration.
12:12
That's Monday.
12:13
You can do it online.
12:14
But Israel says at this point, if
12:16
you plan to fill out a paper form,
12:18
don't send it by mail.
12:19
Drop it off at one of our offices
12:21
and make sure that we have your
12:22
correct information.
12:23
It's still not entirely clear how
12:25
we got here.
12:26
Natalia Contreras is a reporter for
12:28
VoteBeat.
12:29
We're still trying to figure out
12:30
what exactly happened,
12:33
what exactly went wrong,
12:35
and what exactly
12:37
is being done to fix it.
12:39
She says the Texas Department of
12:40
Public Safety noticed an error with
12:42
a vendor and reported it to the
12:44
Secretary of State in August.
12:46
So who should be checking their
12:47
voter registration to see if they,
12:49
like me, were affected by the
12:51
backlog?
12:52
DPS reported the issue started in
12:54
October of 2025.
12:56
So Contreras says, if you use the
12:58
driver's license portal between then
12:59
and now,
13:00
If you renew your driver's
13:02
license and you check the
13:04
box that you wanted to register to
13:05
vote, if you updated your address
13:07
and you checked the box that you
13:09
wanna register to go, you should
13:11
definitely check your voter
13:12
registration status and make sure
13:14
that you're good to go.
13:15
And if you run into any issues or
13:17
need additional information, Celia
13:19
Israel says the best move is to
13:20
call your local county voter
13:22
registrar for help.
13:24
She also says the DPS system is
13:26
back up and running normally, so
13:27
there shouldn't be a problem again.
13:29
In the meantime, Israel recommends
13:31
reminding your friends and family to
13:33
check their voter registrations.
13:35
The more that people have these
13:36
conversations with folks that
13:38
they interact with before next
13:40
Monday, the better.
13:41
And I don't want people to wake up
13:43
in the middle of early voting and
13:44
say, man, I didn't know that I could
13:46
have been registered to vote.
13:48
And if my journey didn't answer all
13:49
of your questions, you can probably
13:51
find the information you need at
13:52
VoteTexas.gov.
13:54
I'm Sarah Ash in Austin.
13:58
All right, we have been seeing some
14:00
of that rain that we've heard so
14:02
much about here at the KUT studios.
14:04
Pretty much if you're anywhere in
14:05
central Texas, I'm sure you're
14:06
seeing a little bit of it right now.
14:08
We are under a flood advisory
14:10
here in Travis County until three
14:12
o'clock today, and we're under a
14:14
Flood Watch until tomorrow night at
14:16
seven o' clock.
14:17
Please have multiple ways to stay
14:19
weather aware and keep it tuned in
14:21
to KUT News and KUT.org
14:23
for the latest.
14:25
We're gonna be back right after this
14:26
break.
14:30
This is Austin Signal, welcome back
14:32
to the show.
14:33
Some big news this week for those
14:34
with a sweet tooth, Lamb's Candies
14:36
lives to see another day.
14:38
The Austin confectioners shuttered
14:40
earlier this year after 141
14:42
years in business, but is reopening
14:44
after being acquired by a Fort Worth
14:46
based company.
14:47
Sahar Schmace is a senior reporter
14:49
at the Austin Business Journal, and
14:51
she's joining us now to tell us more
14:52
about the future of Lamb's candies.
14:54
Sahar, welcome to the Show.
14:55
Thanks for having me.
14:56
Okay, so I think it was a gut punch
14:58
to a lot of Austinites when we
14:59
learned this spring that Lambs was
15:01
closing after more than a century in
15:02
operation.
15:04
What did the company say was behind
15:06
the decision to close?
15:07
There are multiple factors.
15:09
I think they've just been dealt a
15:11
few blows since the pandemic that
15:12
were a little bit difficult to come
15:14
out of. I mean, even impacting their
15:17
facility in Round Rock.
15:19
But part of it is also the
15:21
cost of goods rising to the point
15:23
where it became
15:25
hard to charge what they were
15:26
charging for the candy and
15:28
stay in business.
15:30
And, you know, this is a common
15:31
theme for a lot of
15:34
food businesses in Austin right now.
15:36
So what do we know about the company
15:37
that has purchase lamps?
15:39
Yeah, so it's based in Fort Worth,
15:41
as you mentioned, and
15:43
the co-owners or co-founders
15:45
of the company definitely like
15:47
the historic
15:49
aspect of things.
15:52
So Delightful Development has
15:54
also acquired the
15:56
Fort Worth stockyards and even
15:58
another place here in the Austin
16:00
area. It was
16:01
a Williamson County jail and
16:03
they're going to be
16:05
renovating that and potentially
16:07
turning it into kind of like a
16:08
hospitality hub.
16:09
So the at
16:11
least, you know, Craig Cavalier, he
16:13
he's the one of the co-founders of
16:15
the company. He's really interested
16:16
in Texas history and has some sort
16:18
of connection to Lambs Candies
16:20
through his childhood as well.
16:22
Yeah, I think sometimes with these
16:23
acquisitions of beloved brands, fans
16:25
of the business itself are concerned
16:27
about quality going forward.
16:28
You mentioned a little bit about the
16:29
rising costs.
16:31
Another one, Waterberg comes to
16:32
mind. You know, it was sold recently
16:33
to, I believe, an Illinois company,
16:35
and people have feelings about that.
16:37
Will operations,
16:39
manufacturing, et cetera, be moved
16:41
out of state? Do you know anything
16:42
about that so far?
16:43
Yeah, so the plan is to keep
16:44
the lamb family on to kind of watch
16:46
over the quality and production of
16:48
the candy to make
16:50
sure that it is exactly in line with
16:52
what everyone knows lambs candies to
16:54
be at.
16:56
The other thing is the
16:58
production will stay in Texas, but
16:59
it will no longer be here.
17:01
At least I wasn't told it'll stay in
17:03
the Austin area.
17:04
I wasn't given an actual exact
17:06
location, but it will
17:08
stay in Texas.
17:09
It's just moving to another
17:11
place where labor
17:13
is a little bit cheaper and that's
17:15
also going to help mitigate the
17:17
costs of
17:19
production.
17:20
From your reporting, I understand
17:22
that Delightful Development plans to
17:23
keep a lot of the same old lambs,
17:25
but there are some changes that are
17:27
planned. What are some of those
17:28
changes?
17:29
Yeah, so first of all, that Airport
17:31
Boulevard location, that's not
17:33
going to be part of the
17:35
business anymore, unfortunately.
17:37
That's been acquired by another
17:39
Austin-based developer.
17:41
Other changes are going to,
17:43
one of the things is they're going
17:45
to adding, actually,
17:47
more candy to the lineup using old
17:49
recipes. And they're so old that
17:51
they're written on note cards from
17:53
the Lamb family.
17:55
They're also going to move the
17:57
headquarters of the company to Fort
17:59
Worth.
18:00
There isn't going to be a brick and
18:02
mortar location for the at least
18:04
foreseeable future.
18:05
It's going to more online sales
18:07
and they're
18:09
working on bringing it back to
18:11
retail like stores
18:13
where you can pick it up at like a
18:15
central market or something.
18:17
And the prices will be changing
18:19
and that is part of the cost of
18:21
goods conversation we were having
18:22
earlier.
18:23
Some prices are going to slightly
18:25
rise, some probably a little
18:27
bit more. I wasn't given exact
18:29
details on that.
18:30
But they're still going to be in
18:32
line with premium candy
18:34
products out there.
18:36
Was Delightful Development the
18:38
only company that was interested in
18:39
purchasing lamps?
18:40
No.
18:42
Whenever we publish the story
18:44
with talking to Lanishment,
18:46
who was one of the owners of the
18:47
business, I was asking
18:49
her, I said, do you plan on,
18:51
you know, potentially selling
18:53
the business to someone else to keep
18:55
the legacy going?
18:56
And At the time, she was like,
18:58
you know, maybe.
18:59
And then as soon as that story came
19:00
out, we had multiple people
19:02
inquiring with us about
19:04
buying the business.
19:06
And I'm not going to name names,
19:08
but there was a
19:10
good pool and some really strong
19:12
contenders, even here based
19:13
in Austin.
19:15
But I think the
19:17
delightful development company and
19:20
the Lamb family really hit it off.
19:21
And I think they really found that
19:23
that's the best people to
19:25
keep the brand going, moving
19:26
forward.
19:28
And even the delightful
19:30
development folks told me
19:32
that they wouldn't want to
19:34
do this business if the Lamb family
19:36
was not involved in it.
19:37
Okay well we've talked enough about
19:39
the business, let's just talk about
19:40
the actual candy, when will people
19:41
be able to get their hands on some
19:42
of this?
19:43
Yeah, so pre-orders started
19:45
September 29th, which was yesterday,
19:47
I believe.
19:49
And they start delivering
19:51
on November 1st in time for the
19:53
holidays, and that will
19:55
be going on for
19:57
moving forward.
19:59
And then in spring of
20:01
2027, the packaging is going to
20:02
change. So that's another
20:04
change they're adding.
20:06
All right, we have been speaking
20:07
with Sahar Schmace, senior reporter
20:09
at the Austin Business Journal.
20:11
We'll have a link to her reporting
20:12
in today's show. Note, Sahar, thank
20:13
you.
20:14
Thank you, Jerry.
20:22
Despite Austin's perception of being
20:24
a young city, Central Texas's
20:27
population of adults age 65
20:29
and up is growing faster than any
20:31
other age group.
20:32
Over the next year, KUT News is
20:34
embarking on a project to cover this
20:35
under-reported demographic.
20:37
It's called The Long View.
20:38
Here to tell us more is KUT's
20:40
Jennifer Staten, who is leading the
20:41
project. Hello, Jennifer.
20:43
Hey Jerry, thanks for having me
20:44
today. Of course!
20:45
Of course! Of course we want to know
20:46
more about the Longue, so tell us
20:47
where did this idea come from?
20:48
Well, Jerry, I mean, you mentioned a
20:50
lot in your intro already, we know
20:51
the population of seniors is growing
20:53
and growing fast.
20:55
We know it tends to be an undercover
20:58
demographic, but we also
20:59
know here in Austin, we kind of have
21:01
a reputation as a young hip
21:03
city ACL is about to start.
21:05
So there was sort of a kind of
21:07
a convergence of factors there that
21:09
made us want to take a look at aging
21:11
in Austin.
21:12
Earlier this year, we applied for
21:13
and received a grant from the St.
21:15
David's Foundation that will support
21:17
that coverage.
21:18
Well, listeners will surely be
21:20
familiar with your voices as a
21:21
morning host here at KUT,
21:23
but now you're making a pivot to
21:25
reporting. Why did you think it was
21:27
important to take on this project?
21:28
Oh, that's a great question, Jerry.
21:29
Thank you.
21:31
So, aging affects everybody, right?
21:33
So, if we're lucky, we get to
21:35
age.
21:36
If you are not a senior right now,
21:38
you hopefully will be someday, or
21:40
you have a senior in your life, a
21:42
parent, a grandparent, an aunt, an
21:43
uncle, a teacher, a neighbor.
21:45
So you've got a connection to
21:47
a senior whether you may immediately
21:49
recognize it or not.
21:50
So it's an age demographic,
21:52
it's a topic, a situation that
21:54
impacts everybody and as mentioned
21:56
before It's really not an
21:58
H group in a demographic that's
21:59
gotten a lot of attention.
22:02
Tell us a little bit about some of
22:03
the issues that are affecting
22:04
Austin's older adults that you plan
22:06
to look into.
22:06
Oh, Jerry, our plate is full
22:08
already.
22:09
That's good. That's a good problem.
22:10
And we have barely gotten started,
22:11
but just a couple of kind of the big
22:13
ones that come to mind.
22:14
One is affordability.
22:16
How is the landscape for
22:18
seniors who are aging in Austin, how
22:19
does that look related to costs and
22:21
affordability?
22:23
Also access to services.
22:24
So there are a lot of services out
22:26
there for seniors, but do they or
22:28
their family members, their
22:29
caregivers know about them?
22:31
And if they do know about, them can
22:33
they access them?
22:34
And that may mean literally.
22:36
Via transportation?
22:37
Can they literally get there?
22:39
Or is there perhaps a
22:41
technological way to access them?
22:42
Can can they access them
22:44
technologically?
22:45
So we want to look at kind of that
22:47
access and availability to
22:49
services.
22:49
I also have to say, Jerry, a theme
22:51
that has emerged kind of across
22:53
the board and we've talked to
22:54
anybody that we've talk to so far
22:56
about this project is the theme of
22:58
isolation and loneliness.
22:59
So we definitely want to a look at
23:01
that and things that can potentially
23:03
mitigate that.
23:05
But we also wanna look at what I'm
23:06
sort of calling the joys of aging,
23:09
like it can be a time of
23:11
joy, of exploration, of
23:13
growth, expansion.
23:14
So we also want to look
23:16
at what some seniors are doing in
23:17
this phase of life that's fun,
23:19
exciting, new, new adventures.
23:21
So those are just a few of the
23:22
things, there's a lot longer list,
23:24
but a few the things that we wanna
23:26
cover.
23:26
Yeah, and you alluded to the young
23:28
people having the connection.
23:29
I am a youngish person, but I
23:31
hope to be an old person one day,
23:33
and experience lots of these things,
23:35
and I do have people in my life who
23:37
I connect with, but what do you hope
23:38
that younger listeners will take
23:40
away from some of this reporting?
23:41
Yeah, that's a great question,
23:42
Jerry. So I think we're simply
23:43
hoping that it will be a look at
23:45
the reality of being a senior
23:47
in Austin, the challenges of that,
23:49
the joys of that the beauty
23:51
of that so that hopefully younger
23:53
folks can just have a little bit
23:55
better understanding of what life
23:57
is like for seniors in Austin and
23:59
also just learn from the
24:02
wisdom of seniors aging in
24:04
Austin.
24:04
We're definitely gonna have some
24:05
stories on the radio and on the
24:07
website from the long view
24:08
But you just mentioned isolation
24:10
there, and I've heard that you're
24:11
planning some community events tell
24:13
us more about this
24:13
Yeah, we are, Jerry.
24:14
So, one of them is going to be an
24:16
hour-long Austin Signal special with
24:18
a live audience.
24:19
We're looking forward to that, not
24:20
till next year, but we're excited
24:22
about that.
24:23
You know, we've got a couple of
24:24
other events in the works that are
24:25
in collaboration with some community
24:27
groups. So those are in the early
24:28
planning stages.
24:29
We were looking at least two of
24:30
those, and yes- We hope
24:32
to not only create some really
24:34
fun, exciting, and educational
24:35
events, but also just bring folks
24:37
together for those, and we'll have
24:39
some more details on that as we get
24:40
a little closer, but those are in
24:41
the planning stages right now.
24:43
They both happen to be related to
24:44
the arts.
24:45
So that's another slice of aging in
24:47
Austin that we're excited to
24:48
explore.
24:48
Well, we're very excited to hear
24:50
what you come up with.
24:52
We've been speaking with Jennifer
24:53
Staten, and we're gonna be hearing
24:54
more from her over the coming year
24:55
as part of this special project
24:57
called The Long View Aging
24:59
and Young Hip Austin, supported
25:01
by a grant from the St. David's
25:03
Foundation. Jennifer, good luck and
25:04
thanks for being here today.
25:05
Thank you, Jerry.
25:07
And thank you out there for spending
25:08
the day with us.
25:09
Reminder, we are under a flood watch
25:12
until seven o'clock tomorrow.
25:13
And a flood advisory until three
25:15
o'clock today here in Travis County.
25:17
So have multiple ways to stay
25:18
weather aware and keep it tuned in
25:20
to KUT for the latest.
25:22
The Austin Signal team is Reina
25:23
Sevilla, Alexandra Hart, Kristen
25:25
Cabrera.
25:26
And I'm your host, Jerry Quijano.
25:28
We'll talk to you tomorrow.