April 2012 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Politics:

1Where do Texas Democrats Stand on Single-Payer Health Care?

2State Plans to Restore Services after Advocates in Wheelchairs Surprise Officials

3Trump Nominee to FEC Tried to Shred Texas’ Already-Weak Ethics Laws

4Religious Right Takes Bathroom Fight Back to Schools after Defeat at Capitol

5Supreme Court Decision Means 2018 Elections Could Use ‘Discriminatory’ Maps

6Trump Nominates Lawyers from Anti-LGBT ‘Religious Freedom’ Group to be Texas Federal Judges

Most Recent in Environment:

1Reports of Livestock Deaths, Other Ag Losses Trickle in After Harvey

2Flood Expert Jim Blackburn: Houston Must Plan or Perish

3Experts: Much of Harvey-Related Air Pollution was Preventable

4‘Look & See’ Is a Love Letter to Family Farming, Rural America and Wendell Berry

5The Impossible City

6Thanks to their State Rep, Friendswood Family Rushes to File Insurance Claim for their Flooded Home

Most Recent in Border:

1Civil Rights Group’s Budget Nearly Halved by Foundation with Ties to Texas Supreme Court

2ICE Detained This Trafficking Victim on Her 18th Birthday. Why?

3‘Los Zetas Inc.’ Author on Why Mexico’s Drug War Isn’t About Drugs

5Salvadoran Man Seeks ‘Sanctuary’ from Deportation in Austin Church

6Judge Eviscerates Much of Senate Bill 4, but Leaves Intact “Show Me Your Papers” Provision

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Civil Rights Group’s Budget Nearly Halved by Foundation with Ties to Texas Supreme Court

2ICE Detained This Trafficking Victim on Her 18th Birthday. Why?

3The Road to Huntsville

4In San Antonio, Cops Punch Down

5Deputies Go Unpunished for Invasive Cavity Search on Houston Roadside

6Meet the Expert Who Helps Texas Cops Justify Extreme Behavior

Most Recent in Education:

1Despite ‘Hardship’ Funding, Rural Texas Schools Face Difficult Financial Future

2Loon Star State: Texas Public Schools

3Dan Patrick Accuses Joe Straus of Ponzi Scheme Ahead of Special Session

4Critics Fear New Texas Law Giving SBOE Wide Discretion Over Textbooks

5After Freedom Caucus Kills Her Legislation, Lawmaker Announces Anti-‘Lunch Shaming’ Campaign

6Texas’ ‘Lunch Shaming’ Problem and the Fight to Fix It

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Where do Texas Democrats Stand on Single-Payer Health Care?

2State Plans to Restore Services after Advocates in Wheelchairs Surprise Officials

3Judge Temporarily Halts New Texas Abortion Ban

4Despite Self-Congratulation, Lawmakers Did Virtually Nothing about Maternal Mortality Crisis

5Introducing the Texas Observer’s Rural Reporting Project

6Red is the New Orange: Handmaids Bring More than Just Silence to the Abortion Fight

Most Recent in The Interview:

1The Interview: Joaquin Castro Says Texas Democrats are Poised for a Comeback

2The Interview: Beto O’Rourke on Trump, the Border and How to Revive the Democratic Party

3The Interview: Tom ‘Smitty’ Smith

4The Interview: Lupe Valdez

5The Interview: Paul Quinn College’s Michael Sorrell

6The Interview: Judge John Dietz on Texas’ School Finance Crisis

Most Recent in Books:

1Short Story Contest Finalist: ‘Malena’

2The King of Pulp

3‘Sip’ Seeks Dystopian Depth, and Fine Dining, in the Shadows

4The Rising Storm

5Stalking Horse

6Seven Texas Indie Booksellers on Their Favorite Books of the Year (So Far)

Most Recent in Postcards:

1The King of Pulp

2Ride Like a Girl

Most Recent in Essay:

1The Impossible City

2Dear Governor Abbott: The ‘Bathroom Bill’ Endangers Trans Texans Like My Son

3Stalking Horse

4Protecting Immigrant Families: A Call for an Economic Boycott of Texas

5Cut from the Same Cloth: Wearing Hijab in Houston, Post-Trump

6Going It Alone

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Fantastical Taxidermy

2Eye on Texas: Runners Take on 170-Mile Race in Big Bend

3Eye on Texas: Liberty Hill Hosts Texas Firearms Festival

4Eye on Texas: TX Open Swim

5Eye on Texas: Blessing of the Hands in San Antonio

6Eye on Texas: Austin’s Chapels

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Parallel Planes

3Poem: ‘Resistance’

4Poem: ‘Screenplay for a Homemade Movie’

5Poem: ‘To Be One with the All’

6Poem: ‘Whitewashing’

The Magazine: April 2012

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March 2015, Texas Observer cover

COVER STORY

‘We Have No Choice’: One Woman’s Ordeal with Texas’ New Sonogram Law

by Carolyn Jones

Thu, Mar 15, 2012 |

After learning a molecular flaw wouldn't allow her son's body to develop correctly, writer Carolyn Jones faced the personal politics of Texas' sonogram law.Read More

In this Issue

Political Intelligence

Jumping the Loan Sharks

by Christopher Hooks

News

The Waiting Game

Reckoning With Rosie

by Alexa Garcia-Ditta

The Things They Left Behind

CULTURE

Epitaph for an Alligator

by Asher Elbein

‘Kingdom of Shadows,’ Where Money, Corruption and Terror Join Forces

by Josh Rosenblatt

Columns

Texas Lawmakers Aren’t Actually Supposed to Try to Make Things Worse, Right?

by Andrea Grimes

State of Texas

Texas Abortion Clinics: Safe, Legal and Increasingly Rare

by Alexa Garcia-Ditta

Loon Star State

Eye on Texas

Eye on Texas: Unyielding Texas

by Guillermo Hernandez Martinez

The Fight For Sugar Hill, Collin County

by Melanie Burford