Paul Flahive

This week a coalition met to address San Antonio's problem with low-income access to credit. 30 people representing organizations ranging from the San Antonio Area Foundation to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Antonio make up the The Anti-Predatory Lending Coalition which is looking at ways to increase alternatives to payday and auto-title lenders. 

They use "predatory" to describe the lenders who charge large transaction fees as well as exorbitant interest rates on their loans. 

The results are in and the November election is shaping up. District 4 County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, along with former Councilwoman Elisa Chan, are out in two of the larger races.

We talk with area journalists about those races and more. What did we see? What didn't we see? And whose primary seasons are not through yet?

Guests: 

• Gilbert Garcia, columnist for the San Antonio Express-News
• Callie Enlow, editor-in-chief of the San Antonio Current

An $825 million plan from the Texas Department of Transportation to improve Interstate 10 and Highways 1604 and US 281 is in the works.

The focus of the effort is to add lanes -- including toll lanes. San Antonio is the last major metropolitan city in Texas without tolls, and the effort to toll has spurred vocal opponents.

Update (3:38 p.m.): We apologize for the change in programming but we were unable to get Mark Potok, the guest for this segment, on the line and we have returned to "All Things Considered" for the second half of "The Source"

A study paid for by the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce details the impacts of water shortages on the city's future growth. Jobs, spending, migration are all affected drastically if the city continues to grow without making proper accommodations, argues the study.

Bitcoin, the digital currency, is still a little mysterious to most people. The peer-to-peer payment network can be earned by "mining," or maintaining critical infrastructure for the network, as well as through goods, services and traditional currencies. A federal judge in Texas recently ruled bitcoins are money.

The city's governance committee will soon be considering a ban on single-use plastic bags -- bags you would use at the grocery store, take-out bags and bags at several retailers. 

According to District 7 Councilman Cris Medina, the city spends $1.3 million cleaning up discarded bags. The threat to the environment from the bags, which you currently cannot recycle anywhere but at retail-based bins, was the main concern of city leaders and one community advisory board.

The combined vacancy rate downtown is 29 percent according to Centro San Antonio, a nonprofit dedicated to helping revitalize the urban center.

Around the city center large historic buildings stand empty. Large urban tracts of land around the city hold broken down buildings, like the abandoned Lone Star Brewery on the Mission Reach -- large empty lots are all that remain of bulldozed houses dotting San Antonio's East Side. 

Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, outlined his vision for the future of the Defense Department Monday in a speech to the press. A very different military is coming down the line. A different world requiring different objectives, and a different set of budget realities, have led to the proposal.

Cuts to troops, vehicles, and benefits for soldiers are all part of the outlined packaged. Several media outlets have talked about pre-1940 levels, but is there any truth to it?

Guests:

Last week the Texas Senate held a hearing on the progress being made in women’s health services. Touting an increase in funding for women’s health, the message was that we’re doing great.

But something was left off the agenda -- the impact of last year’s cumbersome regulations on abortion clinics.

Where is Texas in providing health services to women, and what extreme measures are some women taking to avoid the new Texas laws?