The top local stories this evening from KERA News:
Gov. Greg Abbott says Texas will commit at least 1,000 National Guard troops to the Mexico border in response to President Donald Trump's call. The Republican told San Antonio radio station KTSA on Monday that the state will add around 300 guard members a week.
The Texas National Guard said Friday that it would send an initial deployment of 250 members. Abbott says there's no fixed date on their deployment and that "we may be in this for the long haul."
The governor says some Guard members may be armed if they are posted to locations where they could face danger. But Abbott said he wanted to "downplay the notion" that the National Guard would be "trying to take on anybody that's coming across the border."
Other stories this evening:
- Over the weekend, Theaster Gates received the Nasher Sculpture Prize. As KERA's Jerome Weeks reports, he's the first American and first African-American to win the $100,000 prize.
- Twenty five years ago David Koresh brought an end to more than seven weeks of standoff between his Christian extremist sect and federal agents surrounding his compound near Waco. Koresh ordered followers to pour fuel around buildings and set it ablaze. A Smithsonian Channel documentary that airs Monday night revisits how it happened. Charles Poe is the executive producer of "Waco: The Longest Siege." Poe talked with KERA's Krys Boyd.
You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.
