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- Heaven and Hell in Cameron County Jail
- by Diana Claitor
- 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 …
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- Features
- Features »
- Heaven and Hell in Cameron County Jail
- by Diana Claitor
- 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 …
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- Features »
- Dr. Strangevox
- by Michael May
- 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 …
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- Departments
- EDITORIAL »
- Texas and Gommorah
- by Bob Moser
- 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 …
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- POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE »
- Choose Your Poison
- These days Mexicans fleeing drug-cartel violence are faced with two lousy options: the threat of death in Juarez or detention in El Paso. With more than 1,900 people having been killed this year in the ongoing battle over Juarez’ lucrative drug corridor, there is no shortage of folks in that unenviable …
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- COMMENTARY »
- Urban Cowgirl
- by Ruth Pennebaker
- Most of my life, I’ve lived in a car. That’s because I grew up in West Texas and got my driver’s license in 1964, when I was 14. What else are you going to do when you’re that age and your face is blossoming in pimples and your smile glints silver …
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- JIM HIGHTOWER »
- The Price of Privatization
- 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 …
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- Books & the Culture
- DATELINE »
- Where the Wild Things Are
- by Stayton Bonner
- 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 …
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- Reviews »
- Views of the Frontier
- by David Cleaves
- 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 …
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- Reviews »
- Don’t Fence Me In
- by Kirk Forrester
- 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 …
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- Reviews »
- The Oyster Is His World
- by Richard Holland
- For almost 20 years, Houstonians have learned to depend on Robb Walsh's articulate enthusiasm for food, particularly Texas food. We’re not talking fancy—Walsh writes about roadside barbecue, venerable Tex-Mex, sandwiches wrapped in greasy paper, the beautiful varieties of hot sauce and chile peppers. As the food writer for the Houston Press, …
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