Their Laws. Our Bodies.
Two years after the constitutional right to abortion was eliminated, what’s left of Texans’ reproductive rights is ambiguous.
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News ⋆
Greg Abbott Compares Hamas Attacks to Texas Border Crossings at Sheriffs’ Conference
The governor’s comments followed a screening of raw October 7 footage for Texas lawmen.
Books ⋆
The Banality of Border Evil
What a long-dead, cartoonishly corrupt Texas bureaucrat can tell us about the nature of immigration enforcement and the U.S.-Mexico divide
Loon Star State: ‘Demolition Man’
The governor and his wrecking crew are coming for public schools.
The Wages of Inequality—Behind Bars
Because the state refuses to pay us for our labor, incarcerated women rely on money from the outside to get by.
Hunger Was Already Bad Enough. Then Beryl Hit.
Food spoils when the power goes out, exposing more people to hunger and food insecurity. But the crisis goes deeper than that.
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Politics
Mike Miles Moved Texas School Funds to Colorado Through a Possible Shell Corporation Without a Paper Trail
An Observer investigation has found irregularities in how the Houston ISD superintendent’s Colorado charter school nonprofit did business in Texas.
New Texas Appellate Court Alarms Environmentalists
The all-GOP 15th Court of Appeals soon will hear disputes involving the state’s environmental regulators. “It’s BYOC—bring your own court—for polluters and powerful interests.”
Litigating the Republican Civil War
The crusade against Texans for Lawsuit Reform and the rise of conservative lawfare reveal a new side of Texas’ ruling party.
Border and Immigration
‘Tech Doesn’t Just Stay at the Border’: Petra Molnar on Surveillance’s Long Reach
“The border is like a free-for-all, this frontier zone that is a perfect laboratory for tech experimentation.”
Kinney County Sheriff to Buy Pepper Ball Guns for Deterring Migrants Who ‘Try To Storm The Point of Entry’
Following the Texas National Guard’s example, the border county approved the purchase of “less lethal” weapons using state funds.
‘We Are People Too’: Scenes of Migration in Matamoros and Reynosa
Even before Biden’s recent executive order, asylum-seekers were waiting for months in dangerous Mexican border towns for an appointment to cross into Texas.
Culture
A Small-Town Texas Librarian’s Big Stand Against Book Bans
In Llano County, a local librarian fought back against censorship, prompting a federal court fight and national recognition but losing the job of her dreams.
The Struggle to Fulfill Juneteenth’s Promise and Reckon with Its History
Sam Collins, better known as Professor Juneteenth, says his work to educate Americans about the holiday’s legacy is unfinished.
‘Ride’ Paints Cowboy Life in Shades of Gray
A new movie set in Stephenville complicates, without vilifying, one of our state’s central mythic figures.
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