Greg Abbott Is One Of The Most Popular Governors In The Country, Survey Says

Five stories that have North Texas talking: Blue Bell issued a voluntary recall over listeria concerns; Dallas residents received millions of robocalls last month; Ray LaMontagne isn’t playing in Austin tonight because of campus carry; and more.

Gov. Greg Abbott has a 63 percent approval rating among Texas respondents to a survey fromMorning Consult. The politics and polling site surveyed 71,900 registered voters in all 50 states from early May through early September. Respondents were asked whether they approved or disapproved of their governor’s job performance, and they could answer strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, strongly disapprove or don’t know /no opinion.

Abbott’s approval percentage is the sixth highest among all 50 state leaders.Twenty-three percent of respondents disapproved of Abbott’s performance and 14 percent didn’t know or didn’t have an opinion. South Dakota’s Gov. Dennis Daugaard had the highest rating at 74 percent, and Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas had the lowest approval at 23 percent. [Morning Consult]
 

• Blue Bell ice cream announced a voluntary recall of two ice cream flavors due to potential listeria concerns. The Brenham-based ice cream company is recalling half-gallons of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Cookie Two Step that contained contaminated cookie dough provided by a third party vendor, Aspen Hills, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. The recalled ice cream was shipped to stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Not Texas. No illnesses have been reported so far. [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]

• Dallas residents received a total of 97.5 million automated calls, or robocalls, in August. That puts Dallas third on the list from the YouMail National Robocall Index. Dallas’ 214 area code ranked No. 10 on the list of 40 most robocalled area codes per capita with residents receiving 17 robocalls per person in the month of August. American phones were hit with received record-breaking 2.64 billion robocalls last month, which amounts to 85 million robocalls made per day and a 9.3 percent increase from July. [YouMail National Robocall Index]

• Singer Ray LaMontagne isn’t playing his UT-Austin show tonight because of campus carry. LaMontagne announced he was canceling the show at UT’s Bass Concert Hall in a Facebook post on Tuesday. “I realize this is a controversial issue and there are strong feelings on both sides of it,” he writes. “But no matter how hard I try to understand the rationale for allowing guns on campus or more broadly, the ‘concealed carry’ law in general, I just cannot in any way support that ideology.” LaMontagne has shows scheduled for Friday in The Woodlands and Saturday in Dallas. [KVUE]

• Rangers pitcher Nick Martinez caught a hit from behind his back without looking. In the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels Tuesday night, Martinez was in a jam, SportsDay says, having just walked a batter. When Andrelton Simmons was up to bat, the Rangers were already warming up another pitcher in the bullpen. “But then Martinez got out of it, not with a strikeout, but with a ridiculous behind-the-back, no-look catch of a screamer off Simmons' bat.” [SportsDay]