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Top Stories: Texas Senators Cruz And Cornyn To Visit Detention Centers On The Border

Official U.S. Senate portraits
U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.

The top local stories this morning from KERA news: 

Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz will join more than 25 members of Congress this weekend on another visit to the Rio Grande Valley.

The two will tour detention facilities for children separated from their families on Friday. Cornyn will later host a roundtable of federal and Valley region officials at the U.S. Border Patrol station in Weslaco.

Meanwhile, activists from across North Texas plan to protest in South Texas Saturday. 

Domingo Garcia heads the Dallas chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens. He said the North Texas activists will join others from across the state to visit three detention centers along the border.

Other stories this morning: 

  • A national group this morning announced finalists for a contest that boosts adult literacy by using smartphone apps. And a local team of researchers from Southern Methodist University and Literacy Instruction for Texas has made the cut. As KERA’s Bill Zeeble reports, that means the local team and four other international finalists remain in the running for a $3 million grand prize.

  • The drama on the U.S.-Mexico border the last few weeks has eerie echoes from a half-century ago when then-Senator Robert F. Kennedy went to Mississippi. What he saw -- brutal poverty, especially among children -- sparked what historian Ellen Meacham calls a "Delta Epiphany." That's the name of her new book. She was in town this week as part of an exhibit at the Sixth Floor Museum on RFK and Martin Luther King and spoke with KERA's Rick Holter

You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM. 

Samantha Guzman is the coordinating editor of Arts Access, a partnership between The Dallas Morning News and KERA expanding arts coverage in the Dallas-Fort Worth area through the lens of equity and access.