WTAW - Interviews

This podcast contains comments from the June 11, 2026 College Station city council meeting.

The College Station city council discussed, but took no additional action at its June 11th meeting, on how to reduce the number of crashes involving electric scooters, bicycles, and related vehicles.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the June 11, 2026 College Station city council meeting.

On College Station streets between 2021 and 2025 there have been 214 crashes involving bicycles and 71 involving scooters and related electric vehicles.

Councilman and bicycle enthusiast Scott Shafer, who is also a Texas A&M administrator, brought up educating each incoming class of Aggie freshmen about city ordinances and enforcement efforts.

Councilman Mark Smith wants to make sure whatever changes are made by the city are similar to regulations on the Texas A&M campus.

Staff suggestions included establishing "bicycle boxes" on streets with traffic signals were those riders would wait until they had the green light.

Other suggestions included prohibiting vehicles on sidewalks, prohibiting operators from using smartphones, additional signs, and modifying city streets.

This podcast contains comments from the June 16, 2026 College Station ISD school board meeting.

For the second time in three months, College Station ISD school board members and administrators discuss in private, safety and security issues. 

The only thing that was said at the June 16th meeting, came from board president Kim Ege.

She quoted the agenda, which said "The Board will meet in executive session to discuss safety and security updates. The session will be held pursuant to the "Discussion Regarding Intruder Detection Audit and Corrective Action Plan" exception in the Open Meetings Act as set forth in Section 551.076 of Texas Government Code."

After returning to open session, Ege adjourned the meeting.

There was no explanation if what was discussed Tuesday was a new security issue or if it was the continuation of a closed door discussion that began during the board's April 21st meeting.

This podcast contains comments from the June 9, 2026 Bryan city council meeting.

The Bryan city council supports removing metal benches at the Bryan and Oakwood city cemeteries.

Parks and recreation director Mike Riggens told councilmembers that staff brought issues to the city's cemetery advisory board. 

The board at its April 22nd meeting recommended to amend the ordinance to immediately not allow benches to be installed beginning in Block 27 and beyond unless the benches are constructed of natural stone.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the June 9, 2026 Bryan city council meeting.

The recommendation also sought amending the city ordinance to establish a “sunset” date on all existing benches not constructed of natural stone to be removed, effective six months after the council approved the ordinance change.

Formal council action was not taken at the June 9th meeting, but no councilmembers opposed the recommendations.

Riggens told councilmembers that the metal benches requires more time to mow and do other landscape maintenance, there are safety concerns caused by the wind blowing lightweight benches into neighboring gravestones and those visiting neighboring gravesites, and there have been benches that have been placed on or near adjacent gravesites.

Riggens also said benches that are removed will be placed in a storage building.

Riggens also said the changes do not apply at Grandview cemetery, which is not operated by the city.

Councilman Ray Arrington said this will affect his family because there has been a metal bench at his mother's gravesite since 1951. Arrington added "we'll do whatever the council says to do (and) we'll definitely follow the ordinance."

This podcast contains comments from Brazos County veteran services officer Kale Murray at the June 9, 2026 Brazos County commission meeting.

Brazos County's new veteran services officer updates county commissioners on activities.

Kale Murray, who was promoted in March 2026, was hired in 2024 to run the Brazos County VSO branch office at Texas A&M to work with 4,000 Aggie veterans.

Since his promotion, Murray hired an assistant VSO, Diana Mills.

And at the commission meeting, Murray presented longtime administrative assistant Ben Holmes with an award from the Texas Veterans Commission.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the June 9, 2026 Brazos County commission meeting.

This podcast is a visit with Brazos County veterans services officer Kale Murray and WTAW's Tucker Young on The Infomaniacs June 18, 2026.

This podcast is a visit with Chris Lamb of the Bryan fire department and WTAW's Tucker Young on The Infomaniacs June 18, 2026 about summer heat reminders.

This podcast is the June 17, 2026 news conference after Texas A&M track and field head coach Pat Henry announced his retirement after 22 years with the Aggies as part of a 54 year career. Henry is introduced by Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts.

This podcast contains comments from the June 16, 2026 Blinn College board of trustees meeting.

Blinn College's official enrollment for the 2026 spring semester was the highest spring headcount since the pandemic.

But most of the conversation at Tuesday's (June 16) board of trustees meeting was about the continued decline on the Bryan campus. This spring's headcount of 3,764 compares with more than 12,000 ten years ago.

Trustee Randy Wells asked administrators more than once if there should be a change in the focus of Blinn's Bryan campus. Wells also asked to have a workshop about the future of the Bryan campus.

A second Blinn location in Brazos County, the RELLIS campus, also had fewer this spring compared with a year ago.

The decreases in Bryan and RELLIS were more than offset by increases in three other areas.

The number of dual credit high school students jumped 22 percent or by almost 600 compared with last spring. There were also more students on Blinn's main campus in Brenham and those taking online classes.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the June 16, 2026 Blinn College board of trustees meeting.

Bryan ISD school board members on Monday night (June 15) unanimously approve a balanced budget for the next fiscal year that does not change their property tax rate and does not require spending money from reserves.

Board member David Stasny brought up the budget taking into account, their decision two weeks ago to sell land and a building for $375,000 dollars. That's an action Stasny considers to be important if the board decides to ask voters for a local property tax increase. 

A state law called a voter approved tax rate election (VATRE) allows school districts to ask BISD voters to increase the property tax rate by up to two cents without returning some of the money to the state.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the June 15, 2026 Bryan ISD school board meeting that were shown during the budget public hearing, where there were no public speakers.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the June 15, 2026 Bryan ISD school board meeting during the adoption of the budget for the 2026-27 school year.

U.S. Agriculture Department undersecretary Scott Hutchins, who is in Bryan/College Station speaking at a conference, visits with WTAW's Tucker Young on The Infomaniacs June 17, 2026 about the New World Screwworm.