Forrest Wilder
By Forrest Wilder:
Joe Straus and the House Moderates Could’ve Stopped the ‘Show Me Your Papers’ Bill
Who's to blame for Senate Bill 4? For my money, there is no better place to start than Speaker Joe Straus and the so-called moderates in the Texas House.
Many believed it wouldn’t happen, but on Thursday, the Texas House passed legislation that in spirit and letter is awfully similar to SB 1070, the “show me your papers” law that properly branded Arizona an anti-Latino pariah. As Chris Hooks … Read More
Greg Abbott’s Plan to Drown Government (And Spend More Money!)
Texas Governor Greg Abbott laid out a vision of government that is basically a libertarian state with lots of cops in his State of the State address. Read More
Trump’s Wall Will Be a More Inept Version of George W. Bush’s
A border wall from the Pacific to the Gulf is unviable, but Trump and his people will settle for less.
A border wall from the Pacific to the Gulf is unviable, but Trump and his people will settle for less. Read More
The 10 Best Observer Stories of 2016: ‘Just Like Every Other Kid’
Under attack from Texas politicians, trans kids and their parents talk back.
Editor’s Note: If there was a collective “Person of the Year” for the Texas LGBT community in 2016, it was undoubtedly the parents of transgender children. Faced with a seemingly endless barrage of hateful, anti-trans “bathroom” rhetoric from Republican state … Read More
The 10 Best Observer Stories of 2016: ‘Above the Law’
Pamela Elliott was the new sheriff in town. But instead of law and order, she brought chaos.
Editor’s Note: Rural America is too often forgotten or ignored by the media. Journalists and major media outlets are in the big cities. Reporters usually come from urban backgrounds. Small-town newspapers are, I regret to inform, often reluctant to rock … Read More
The 10 Best Observer Stories of 2016: ‘Company Town’
How big business turned a Gulf Coast beach town into an industrial zone.
Editor’s Note: Many environmental stories rely on familiar tropes, the scrappy locals standing up to the big, bad polluter. The unlikely bedfellows of environmentalists and, say, ranchers. The technical, scientific debate about how harmful a pollutant is to human health. … Read More
The 10 Best Observer Stories of 2016: ‘I Have a Name/Yo Tengo Nombre’
‘I Have a Name’ is an online visual database to help identify migrants who died crossing the Texas-Mexico border.
Editor’s Note: This is not a story per se. It’s a labor of love that took Multimedia Editor Jen Reel a year to complete. It’s also a blend of journalism and activism that was both challenging and rewarding. I Have … Read More
The 10 Best Observer Stories of 2016: ‘The GOP is Gaslighting America’
Today's GOP leaders aren't playing politics as usual. They're using abusive tactics to manipulate the public.
Editor’s Note: Open a browser tab for this fiery analysis of one of President-elect Donald Trump’s most odious rhetorical habits — we’re going to need it over the next four years. Former Digital Editor Andrea Grimes shows how, no, we’re … Read More
The 10 Best Observer Stories of 2016: ‘No Place for Old Men’
Texas prisons are filling up with the old and the ill — at enormous expense.
No Place for Old Men By Dick J. Reavis Published February 15 The state of Texas operates 109 prisons holding about 148,000 inmates. Some 27,000 of them are, like Alonzo, over the age of 50. They account for about 18 percent of … Read More