http://www.texasobserver.org/lege.php The Texas Observer Archives en webmaster@texasobserver.org Copyright 2009 2009-11-20T16:12:18+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/features/heaven-and-hell-in-cameron-county-jail http://www.texasobserver.org/features/heaven-and-hell-in-cameron-county-jail/#When:15:25:28Z Gail Hanson’s soft, musical voice served her well for eight years as a volunteer chaplain at the Cameron County Jail in Brownsville. But as she witnessed and heard about the mistreatment of the mostly young and impoverished women she counseled—from unhealthy food to freezing-cold cells to lengthy detentions without convictions—Hanson’s voice grew louder. She began to complain on the women’s behalf, at first to the sheriff and then to the broader community. That didn’t sit well with the law in Cameron County. In March 2008, Sheriff Omar Lucio banned Hanson from ministering to the women. After inmates placed her name on their visitors’ lists, Lucio ultimately barred Hanson from entering the jail at all, even during public visitation hours. Features 2009-11-19T15:25:28+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/features/dr-strangevox http://www.texasobserver.org/features/dr-strangevox/#When:14:51:41Z In the back room of a studio in North Austin lit only by the glow of computer screens, a producer and singer who calls himself Madd Creole lets out a string of gospel-inflected vocal improvisations. As his voice wavers and slides from note to note, it’s shadowed by a ghostly shimmer from the speakers, giving his soulful crooning a shiny, robotic skin. “It keeps taking my voice to these strange minor notes,” he says afterward. “It’s killing me, almost like having two drummers play at once, but it’s also giving me some new ideas.” Features 2009-11-18T14:51:41+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/features/coal-star-state http://www.texasobserver.org/features/coal-star-state/#When:20:51:13Z One February night in 2007, a boisterous crowd from all around Texas—old-school ranchers and farmers, fresh-faced Baylor students, environmentalists new and old, big-city Democrats, and rural Republicans—packed a Waco auditorium to discuss the next round of an epic fight. The gathering would turn out to be the high-water mark of a campaign to halt a tsunami of new coal-fired power plants. A staggering 18 plants were on the table statewide, 11 proposed by one unpopular company, Dallas-based utility giant TXU Corp. Only China was doing more to expand the climate-choking reach of coal. Features 2009-11-11T20:51:13+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/features/boots-on-the-ground http://www.texasobserver.org/features/boots-on-the-ground/#When:17:21:00Z Sierra Blanca—“Y’all got here just in time. We’re going to look for a body. Are you up for it? It’s gonna get rough out there, but I can have you back by lunch.” It’s 7 a.m. I’ve already driven two hours from El Paso with my husband, whom I’ve convinced to shoot ­photographs for my story. If it hadn’t been for the Border Patrol checkpoint just outside of this dusty, half-abandoned town on Interstate 10, we might have missed it altogether. Smack in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert, two hours east of El Paso, we’ve arrived at the office of Arvin West, sheriff of Hudspeth County. Features 2009-10-28T17:21:00+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/dialogue/eulogy-of-judge-justice http://www.texasobserver.org/dialogue/eulogy-of-judge-justice/#When:16:06:01Z Letters to the Editors Departments, Dialogue 2009-10-23T16:06:01+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/editorial/texas-and-gommorah http://www.texasobserver.org/editorial/texas-and-gommorah/#When:14:31:21Z As this issue of the Observer went to press, Jehovah had not yet seen fit to rain fire and devastation on the wicked citizenry of Houston. Not since Hurricane Ike, anyway. But if you ask Eric Story, Republican candidate for Congress from Houston’s 29th District, the Good Lord was barely getting warmed up with that measly storm. Departments, Editorial 2009-11-13T14:31:21+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/pi/the-unhealthiest-among-us http://www.texasobserver.org/pi/the-unhealthiest-among-us/#When:13:36:42Z Departments, Political Intelligence 2009-11-16T13:36:42+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/pi/electric-debt http://www.texasobserver.org/pi/electric-debt/#When:13:34:39Z Departments, Political Intelligence 2009-11-16T13:34:39+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/pi/patches-of-terror http://www.texasobserver.org/pi/patches-of-terror/#When:13:30:31Z Departments, Political Intelligence 2009-11-16T13:30:31+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/the-price-of-privatization http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/the-price-of-privatization/#When:14:38:35Z Gather ‘round, and a true tale I’ll tell about how privatization does not go so well.In the past decade or so, public officials have rushed to privatize government functions. Corporations, they cried, can do any public job better and cheaper. So on that theoretical assumption, everything from water systems to social services has been turned over to corporations for their fun and profit. In case after case, the profits came at the expense of the public. The corporations achieved their so-called “efficiencies” by replacing experienced government employees with low-wage workers and cutting service to the people. Departments, Jim Hightower 2009-11-18T14:38:35+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/botb/cultivating-creativity http://www.texasobserver.org/botb/cultivating-creativity/#When:13:58:31Z Our environment has always shaped our artistic undertakings. In Africa, elaborate wooden masks and sculptures come from the west, where rainforests dominate. On East Africa’s savanna, wood is a precious commodity, so the arts focus on jewelry, clothing and body modification. In Texas, folks frequently lament a cultural landscape as desolate as the scrublands of Amarillo. But two exhibits in Houston address how location and settings influence creativity, and one in particular tries to turn lemons into lemonade. Books & The Culture, Back of the Book 2009-10-06T13:58:31+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/reviews/views-of-the-frontier http://www.texasobserver.org/reviews/views-of-the-frontier/#When:15:17:42Z El Paso is as far from Texas as you can get while still being in it, a fact that holds a certain appeal to anyone with a love-hate relationship with the Lone Star State. In Literary El Paso, the newest anthology in the Literary Cities series from TCU Press, there’s plenty to love and linger over, and some to skim on the long drive west. Books & The Culture, Reviews 2009-11-10T15:17:42+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/reviews/dont-fence-me-in http://www.texasobserver.org/reviews/dont-fence-me-in/#When:20:04:08Z The invention of barbed wire in 1874 marked the end of the open range in America's West, and the 20th century ushered in settlers who sought security rather than adventure. The Wild West became tamer, more homogenized. Still, pockets of insurrection, physical and philosophical, remain in the West, defying conventionality and containment. Two recent books—one about an iconoclast, another about an icon—celebrate the value and tenacity of the free-range way of life. Books & The Culture, Reviews 2009-11-09T20:04:08+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/critics-notebook/los-lonely-boys-take-us-back-to-1969 http://www.texasobserver.org/critics-notebook/los-lonely-boys-take-us-back-to-1969/#When:19:00:02Z Rock trio Los Lonely Boys were a strange fit for the Billboard charts in 2004, a year dominated by hip-hop experimentalists Outkast, R&B heartthrob Usher, ardent piano diva Alicia Keys, introverted piano diva Norah Jones and Josh Groban, whom one could only describe as a tenor Celine Dion. Yet there were the Garza brothers—Henry (guitar), Jojo (bass), and Ringo (drums)—with their long hair, their San Angelo pedigree, their slick “Texican” riffs and their ubiquitous hit single “Heaven—”­ soulful enough to attract the attention of Willie Nelson and Carlos Santana but innocuous enough to rise to the top of the Adult Contemporary charts. Books & The Culture, Critic's Notebook 2009-10-12T19:00:02+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/dateline/where-the-wild-things-are http://www.texasobserver.org/dateline/where-the-wild-things-are/#When:15:12:18Z The rubber Sasquatch head stared with glassy eyes from atop its pedestal. Beneath its gaze, Bigfoot Conference attendees milled about Tyler’s Caldwell Auditorium. Children peeked at the hairy visage from around parents’ legs. A pale man wearing black cowboy boots crossed his arms as a friend snapped a picture with his cell phone. Three teenage boys gave mocking thumbs-ups. Like the elusive or mythical creature that inspired it, the rubber Bigfoot was indifferent to the awe, curiosity and ridicule it provoked. Books & The Culture, Dateline 2009-11-20T15:12:18+00:00