WTAW - Interviews

This podcast is a visit with Brazos County 85th district court judge Kyle Hawthorne and WTAW's Bill Oliver.On the eve of the United States 250th anniversary, 75 people will gather at the Bush Library and Museum Thursday morning (June 25) to become naturalization citizens. Brazos County district judge Kyle Hawthorne will administer the oath of allegiance as he had done more than 40 times in 12 years.Hawthorne told WTAW News that naturalization ceremonies and adoptions are the two things where 50 percent of the people are not mad at him.The judge says the ceremony in the museum pavilion, where a Marine One helicopter and train engine are located, sends a tingle up his spine.Hawthorne encourages everyone to attend the ceremony, which starts Thursday morning at 10, where "these people (those who are becoming citizens) really get excited about it."And the judge is impressed with the four to five year effort that is made to become eligible to become American citizens.

College Station mayor John Nichols visits with WTAW's Tucker Young and Will Welch on The Infomaniacs June 24, 2026. Topics includes a review of the first public meeting of the city's future plans along and near Harvey Road between Texas and the freeway and a preview of the upcoming city council continuing discussion of the future development of the Northgate District.

The director of Texas A&M's veterinary emergency team, Dr. Deb Zoran, visits with WTAW's Will Welch and Tucker Young on The Infomaniacs June 24, 2026 to talk about the New World Screwworm.

This podcast contains comments from the June 11, 2026 College Station city council meeting.The city of College Station is in the middle of the public comment period about how more than $3.5 million dollars in federal community development grant money will be spent next year.Raney Whitwell of the city's community development office told the city council at their last meeting (June 11) that the most common recipients are those meeting income guidelines.Recipients can also qualify by what Whitwell describes as being part of a limited clientele.A third option is to live in a neighborhood that qualifies having enough low and moderate income residents.The public comment period continues through July 13.The College Station city council is scheduled to take final action on the 206 page draft plan on July 23rd.Click HERE to read and download the more than 200 page draft community development plan.Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the June 11, 2026 College Station city council meeting.

This podcast contains comments from the June 16, 2026 College Station ISD school board meeting.College Station ISD school board members adopt a budget for the 2026-27 school year which requires taking more than $6 six million dollars out of savings and decreases the property tax rate by almost one cent.CSISD chief financial officer Healther Wilson told board members the budget reflects adding $4.5 million for pay raises and adding employees at the expanded career and technical education center.Wilson is estimating fewer students in CSISD next year will result in a loss of $2 million in state funding.Wilson also said 60 percent of CSISD's net taxable value was in the appeal process. As of the June 17th board meeting, Wilson said successful appeals lowered CSISD's total valuation by $588 million dollars. That lowered Wilson's estimation of valuation growth from seven to 3.9 percent.Not impacted by property taxes is a separate fund controls CSISD's food service operations. The board approved Wilson's recommendation to increase student school lunch prices for the first time since 2019. Wilson said the 25 cent increase was due to the end of temporary federal grant money.Click HERE to read and download presentation materials shown at the June 16, 2026 College Station ISD school board meeting.

This podcast contains comments from the June 15, 2026 Bryan ISD school board meeting.Bryan ISD school board members approve the purchase of online monitoring of buses and express no opposition to the administration's plan to schedule the replacement of buses.The cost of a pilot program to track buses, more than $261,000 dollars, will be paid from surplus money in BISD's 2020 bond issue. BISD's transportation director Brian Washington says this will benefit students, their parents, and bus drivers who will no longer have to read paper bus routes while they are driving.Click HERE to read and download presentation materials about the online bus monitoring pilot program that were shown at the June 15, 2026 Bryan ISD school board meeting.Washington's proposed bus replacement program is to ensure BISD buses are driven for no more than 15 years.Washington's proposed use of new buses from year one to year five will be for out of district trips. Year six through ten, the bus will move to in-district routes. And after ten years buses will be used on a substitute basis.Washington also said BISD currently has 40 buses that do not have seat belts, which is a state requirement that starts in 2019.Click HERE to read and download presentation materials about the proposed bus replacement schedule that was presented at the June 15, 2026 Bryan ISD school board meeting.

This podcast contains comments from the June 9, 2026 Brazos County commission meeting.Last year, Brazos County commissioners approved $1 million dollars in this year's budget to hire an outside consultant to develop a 20 to 25 year master plan. At the commission's June 9th meeting, approval was given to recommendations to start accepting proposals and form the committee that will review the proposals.The county's project manager, Trevor Lansdown, responded to a public speakers question about the timing because there will be a new county judge and one or two new commissioners taking office January 1st. Lansdown said the timing wasn't great, but authority to spend the money didn't happen until last October and staff has been working since then to get to this point.The purpose of the Brazos County master plan, quoting a county document, "will serve as a twenty to twenty-five (20–25) year roadmap guiding growth, service delivery, infrastructure, and operational efficiency. The plan will align the County’s people, facilities, technology, and policies with projected demographic and economic trends to ensure effective, data-driven governance and resource stewardship. This comprehensive plan will provide both a long-term vision and short-term actionable strategies for elected officials, department heads, and staff."

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 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 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 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.

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.

Bryan city councilman Jared Salvato visits with WTAW’s Tucker Young to discuss updates on resuming construction at the Midtown Park entertainment venue and other features at the park, BTU’s new general manager, and more during his appearance on The Infomaniacs on Wednesday, June 17, 2026.