WTAW - Interviews

The Destination Bryan tourism office update for March 2026 with Lina Adams and WTAW's Bill Oliver covers the March First Friday lineup in downtown Bryan, spring break reminders, and previews of this month's Troubadour Festival and next month's combined Downtown Art and Street Fair and Wine and Roses Festival at Messina Hof Winery.

Brazos County Commissioner Wanda Watson joined WTAW’s Scott DeLucia on The Infomaniacs on Thursday, March 5, 2026, to talk about adding more money to renovations at the administration building, paper ballots, citizen engagement, capital projects, and more.

This podcast contains comments from the February 26, 2026 College Station city council meeting.

College Station's police chief and the city council discusses activity in the Northgate district.That was part of chief Billy Couch's overall review of CSPD activity during 2025.

Couch told the council at its last meeting (February 26) that the scariest thing they face in the Northgate bar district is the rising number of seized guns and other weapons. 

Couch says 20 weapons were seized last year, compared with ten the year before and five two years ago.

The chief says all the seizures involved illegal possession in bars that get at least 51 percent of their revenue from alcohol sales.

Couch also reported more than 1,800 citations were issued in Northgate last year, which is a 44 percent increase from the year before.

And there were almost 860 arrests last year, which is up 58 percent from 2024.

Click HERE to read and download the 2025 CSPD activity in the Northgate district during 2025.

United Way of the Brazos Valley president Lizett Hawkins and Jonathan Mitchell of UWBV partner agency Adult and Teen Challenge of Brenham visits with WTAW's Bill Oliver on March 2, 2026.

This podcast contains comments from the February 24, 2026 Blinn College board of trustees meeting.

Preliminary spring enrollment at all Blinn College campuses is higher compared with 2025, 2024, 2023, and 2022.

Blinn trustees were told at their February meeting that the latest headcount is 16,264. And registration is still taking place for remaining four and eight week classes. The spring total for 2025 was 15,741.

By individual location, Blinn's campus in Bryan is no longer first in campus enrollment. The preliminary spring numbers shows 4,035 online students and Bryan with 3,748.

At the Bryan campus, that continues a slide where ten years ago the headcount was more than 12,000. The spring semester headcount in 2025 was 3,978, in 2024 it was 4,708, and in 2023 it was 5,409.

This spring is also the first time in five years that there are fewer Blinn students on the RELLIS campus. So far this spring, there are 3,409 students at RELLIS. That's compared with last spring's record high of 3,543.

The largest increase for the spring thus far is number of high school students taking dual credit with Blinn. The latest headcount of 3,201 is up from 2,629 in 2025.

Headcount is also up at the home campus in Brenham. The latest number, 1,672 compares with 1,505 a year ago.

Trustees were also told that Blinn's TEAM joint program with Texas A&M is returning to the Bryan campus next fall. 

And there was an explanation about the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board ending a pilot course reporting program involving Blinn and five other Texas community colleges.

The update also included enrollment during the winter minimester period between the fall 2025 and spring 2026 semesters.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the February 24, 2026 Blinn College trustees meeting.

College Station Mayor John Nichols visits with WTAW’s Scott DeLucia about the police chief's recent report to the city council, the proposed "sports tourism complex" on city owned land, the recent town hall College Station councilman David White hosted in the Pebble Creek neighborhood, the operation of the Brazos County health district, economic development issues, and more during his appearance on The Infomaniacs on Wednesday, March 4, 2026.

This podcast contains comments from the February 26, 2026 College Station city council meeting.

In October 2025, a College Station businessowner pitched the city council a public private partnership proposal to build a $55 to $60 million dollar "sports tourism complex".

The council at its February 26th meeting unanimously approved a non-binding letter of intent on what could lead to the city providing a $20 million dollar cash incentive and building infrastructure on city owned land behind the Costco store.

Click HERE to read and download what was approved at the February 26, 2026 College Station city council meeting.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials at the February 26, 2026 College Station city council meeting.

The private developer, local businessowner Thomas Rodgers, says this complex is designed to turn a profit. He told the council he signed a contract with a consultant who operates the city of Bryan's Legends Events Center to do feasibility and economic studies.

Plans call for a stadium and eight additional fields, with the possibility of a RV park and hospitality cabins that were also called casitas to provide lodging for those attending and participating in games. Rodgers said there would be no tournaments on Texas A&M home football weekends, which would allow Aggie fans to use those lodging options.

A map that is part of the letter of intent also shows a covered playground, an indoor training building and shop, covered batting cages, a place for wiffle ball, a restaurant and lodge, a place to rent golf carts, and an event center.

This podcast contains comments from the February 26, 2026 College Station city council meeting.

Trash talk opened the public comment period at the last College Station city council meeting (February 26).

Former councilwoman Linda Harvell, who lives south of the Texas A&M campus, asks the council to do something to remove trash containers from residential streets.

Harvell says some renters comply with city ordinances to return their trash containers in a timely manner. But others don't.

Harvell gave an example of renters in a $2 million dollar home asking her about the trash pickup schedule. One of the renters told her they were too lazy to take the trash can back to their home. And Harvell told the council "I'll give him (the renter) credit. He did not lie."

She asked the council to drive up Welsh and Fairview between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m. to see what they're dealing with.

And Harvell recommended the city create a marketing campaign to educate renters about the local ordinance regulating when trash containers can be set out and returned.

Because the subject was not on the agenda, by state law the council could not respond.

This podcast is a visit recorded February 27, 2026 with the retiring co-owners of Readfield Meats & Deli, Larry, Roland, and Richard Ruffino, their cousin J.J. Ruffino, and WTAW's Scott DeLucia.

The more than 60 year old family owned and operated Readfield Meats and Deli in Bryan may not be going away.

A cousin of the brothers who own the store, J.J. Ruffino, says in response to potential buyers, there is a drop dead date of March 10th to submit a letter of intent.

During an extended WTAW visit with co-owners Larry, Roland, and Richard Ruffino, J.J. said in the two days after his cousins announced they were retiring, he heard from 20 people and received three offers.

Since last week's announcement, the store temporarily ran out of Italian sausage. Roland Ruffino went into action to produce his father's recipe after the two men in charge of making the sausage were not available.

The photo that is attached to the podcast shows (L-R) Bryan Broadcasting president Bill Hicks, Larry Ruffino, Roland Ruffino, WTAW's Scott DeLucia, Richard Ruffino, J.J. Ruffino, and Bryan Broadcasting senior account consultant Mary Mike Hatcher.

This podcast is a visit on the next to last day of a 47 year career with Caroline Gleaton of Texas A&M's college of agriculture and WTAW's Bill Oliver.

A Texas A&M agriculture college employee in College Station wrapped up a 47 year career Friday (February 27).

Caroline Gleaton, for 40 years, is credited with starting and maintaining a database that is used by A&M extension's cotton specialist and other ag economists in their reports and presentations to farmers and ranchers.

A news release from AgriLife Extension says Gleaton's information was used by 15 A&M agriculture economists.

Speaking with WTAW News the day before her final day, Gleaton agreed there will be a whole lot of celebrating and reminiscing, then she added "and a lot of crying."

She said the information she collected allowed producers to learn "why cotton is at this price at this time, what the risks are, what the trends are" in the market.

Gleaton said when she started in 1979, cotton prices were around 62 cents per pound. Thursday's price (February 26) was 60 cents per pound.

She told WTAW News "Agriculture is so important. Your cotton and your grains are all so important. And so many people out there take it for granted. If only they knew the background and what these poor farmers and ranchers go through to have food in the grocery store and to have clothes on your back."

News release from Texas A&M AgriLife Extension:

People helping people. That mantra shared throughout the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service is one that has instilled Caroline Gleaton’s 47-year career as administrative coordinator in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Agricultural Economics.

Gleaton, who will retire Feb. 28, has worked with some of Texas’ most prominent agricultural economists, foremost Carl Anderson, Ph.D, who for decades was considered one of the nation’s leading cotton analysts until his passing in 2014.

Gleaton continued working with the current team of John Robinson, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension cotton marketing economist, and Mark Welch, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension small grains marketing economist.

And most notably, she maintains one of the most extensive cotton marketing databases in the country. Amid trade deficits and high production costs, Gleaton captures market information into the database each week in addition to sending out Robinson’s weekly cotton market update.

An ‘encyclopedia’ of knowledge

Both Gleaton’s institutional knowledge and database contributions have been used in the annual Texas Almanac section dedicated to agriculture’s contribution to the state economy. Another prior publication, Facts About Texas Agriculture, an in-house publication compiled by Gleaton, provided various insights into state agriculture production.

Her career began with AgriLife Extension in September 1979. Cotton prices were around 62 cents per pound. Some of the same market challenges encountered back then exist today.

“Caroline’s drive for excellence is motivated by her interest and concern for the clients we serve,” Welch said. “She does everything in her power to assure that any information we disseminate or program we conduct is as precise and impactful as possible.”Gleaton said she still gets a charge out of answering the phone when it’s a cotton farmer on a tractor in the field asking a question about the markets.

“We are here to help farmers and ranchers, we are helping people,” she said.

Database inception delivered market insights to producersThe cotton database started in 1986 with volumes of historical prices, charts and graphs curated manually – all on paper.“We first had a Dictaphone and typewriter,” she said. “The old agriculture building here on campus was lined with filing cabinets and all full of paper. When we first got computers, I just loved it. We had a Vector computer and worked off floppy disks and a pinwheel printer.”

The database was Gleaton’s idea, one that won over the team of economists who traveled the state giving producer presentations full of up-to-the-minute price risk data and strategies to improve net profits. Those farm meetings proved invaluable through the years. They provided farmers pricing forecasts and non-biased risk management strategies from AgriLife Extension experts.

“I thought it would be great to have numbers so that you could make charts and be able to answer specific questions,” she said. “Carl would ask for a historical outline of cotton prices. I just loved working with numbers and it became a passion.”Even AgriLife Extension economists across the state would call Gleaton.“They’d call and ask, ‘Can you find this for me?’” she said.

Cotton market data finds a homeIt’s staggering how deep the data log goes. Cotton price history dates back to 1790 and depicts supply-demand from the World Agricultural Supply Demand Estimate, WASDE. Daily, monthly and weekly cotton prices are logged as far back as 1986 – all captured by Gleaton’s astute attention to both what AgriLife Extension economists needed in their producer reporting as well as answers to current industry trends.“

(Caroline) has developed the biggest cotton market database on earth,” Robinson said.

Through the years, Gleaton has worked with many other former department economists including Bill Black, Ph.D.; Steven Griffith, Ph.D.; Tom Sporleader, Ph.D.; Wayne Hayenga, Ph.D.; Jose Pena; Jackie Smith, Ph.D.; Ernie Davis, Ph.D.; Danny Klinefelter, Ph.D.; and Jim McGrann, Ph.D.

Others who rose to leadership included former AgriLife Extension associate director Roland Smith, Ph.D., and director Ed Smith, Ph.D.; and Department of Agricultural Economics associate department head and AgriLife Extension economics program leader Mark Waller, Ph.D.

One industry economist wrote in an award support letter, “Caroline is an absolute data bank. Whatever you need, she has it.”The database will be turned over to Robinson to curate for the time being.

Brownwood native to return from Aggieland

The Brownwood native, Gleaton is from a family of eight. She plans to move back to Brownwood to be closer to family. “My mother was stay-at-home and my father drove a Baird’s bread truck,” she said.Gleaton made up for humble educational beginnings with intellectual curiosity and hustle. Her work ethic is widely respected up and down the hall of agricultural economics and outside of Texas A&M.Gleaton has won numerous awards throughout her career, including a Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence and AgriLife Extension Superior Service award.“I only planned to stay here three years, but when you love coming to work, the people who you work with, and get support, plus have the opportunity to learn each day … it’s just been a great place to work.”