Reclaiming ‘Friendship’ Across Borders
In reading U.S.-Mexico treaties, I trip over the word “friendship.” Ostensibly, it’s like saying, “We are friends, so I’m taking your land.”
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News ⋆
Texas Is Taking Back the State Highway 288 Tollway—at a Steep Price
The private firms who have operated the tollway will be paid $1.7 billion by TxDOT, adding to the profit they’ve already made in toll revenues, construction contracts, and sales of shares.
How Texas Diminished a Once-Rigorous Air Pollution Monitoring Team
Former employees say the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality weakened the unit in the years following the onset of the fracking boom. The operation never returned to what it was before.
Generous Guests: Undocumented Immigrants Subsidize Our Healthcare
While barred from most government healthcare programs, undocumented residents pay more in healthcare taxes than the entire cost of their own care.
Greg Abbott’s Border ‘Theatrics’ Now Include Acting Like the State Department
Abbott’s latest bid to expand the bounds of his authority might introduce confusion abroad, experts say.
Profile ⋆
A Houston Storyteller Finds the Humor in Hard Knocks
Bayou City comic Ali Siddiq turns street life and incarceration into laughs, while challenging stereotypes and provoking the occasional tear.
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Politics
The Company You Keep
Ken and Angela Paxton have ties to a jet-setting lobbyist-turned-CEO caught in a tangled web of alleged fraud involving a powerful business clan and a commercial shipping giant.
Trump Would Doom the U.S. Department of Education and Harm Texas Teachers
Educators are calling for more funding, support, and a system that protects them. Removing the DOE would only perpetuate the problems.
Criminal Justice
Solidarity from Solitary and Beyond
Texans are organizing inside and outside of prisons to empower incarcerated workers, who labor in dangerous conditions without pay.
Lawmen Above the Law
A new book takes aim at the seemingly unchecked power of America’s gun-toting sheriffs.
Junk Science, ‘Shaken Baby Syndrome,’ and the Fate of Robert Roberson
An East Texas man could soon become the nation’s first person killed by the state based on the controversial hypothesis.
Culture
The ‘Untranslatable Palestinian Flesh’
What do we owe to language in times of unimaginable violence? Poets linked to both Palestine and Texas help show us the way.
Return to Kíłááhíí
An elder is restored to the Lipan Apache people more than 750 years after her death.
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.
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