Political Intelligence
Compassionate (Ab)use: Family Battles Texas over Medical Marijuana
Trump’s New Immigration Lockup Draws Local Opposition in Conroe
A private prison company is building an immigrant detention center in the seat of Montgomery County—whether residents like it or not.
The people of Conroe are getting a new, 1,000-bed immigrant detention center whether they like it or not. The GEO Group Inc., one of the largest private prison ...Read More
Getting Wise to Bad Air: North Texans Take Smog Monitoring Into Own Hands
After TCEQ refused to place smog monitors in Wise County, a local environmental group decided to take action.
How bad is the smog problem in Wise County? Situated just west of the Dallas-Fort Worth sprawl, Wise County is in the heart of the Barnett Shale gas patch and s...Read More
Austin Abortion Clinic Reopens After Supreme Court Ruling. Will Any More Follow?
Whole Woman’s Health is accepting appointments in Austin this week while about two dozen other clinics remain closed in the wake of HB 2.
Nearly one year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck two major provisions from Texas’ sweeping anti-abortion law, the clinic at the center of the case is emerg...Read More
Texas Demographer Has Given the Same Speech for 25 Years. Is Anyone Listening?
'Unless we reverse the trends that we’re seeing now, we will be a poorer, less-educated state,' the former state demographer says.
“Unless we reverse the trends that we’re seeing now, we will be a poorer, less-educated state,” the former state demographer says....Read More
High on the Hog
Texas' Republican ag commissioner spent $55,000 outfitting his office with taxidermy and other bits of Wild West ephemera.
The Republican spent $55,000 outfitting his office with western-themed decor and various iterations of taxidermied wildlife....Read More
Bad Credit: Are College Classes Working for High Schoolers?
The problem isn’t that high schoolers “aren’t ready for college,” says UTEP graduate student Eddie Nevarez, but rather that they get credit for courses ...Read More
Denial of Service
Among its dozens of accountability measures for school districts — including test scores and other data points — the Texas Education Agency (TEA) includes a...Read More
Baby Steps on Trans Health Care
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has quietly made it easier for transgender prisoners to access hormone therapy and other medically necessary hea...Read More