August 2015 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Politics:

1Activists Take Paid Sick Leave Fight to San Antonio with 144,000 Signatures

2What Could Happen if Trump Cuts Family Planning Funds from Planned Parenthood? Look at Texas.

3Taking Stock of Texas Democrats After the 2018 Runoff Election

5Here’s How ‘Berniecrat’ Candidates Did in the Texas Runoffs

617-Term State Rep Loses Runoff in Brownsville After DWI Charge

Most Recent in Environment:

1No Resolution in Sight For Ranchers and Farmers Fighting Over San Saba River

2Austin’s on the Wrong Side of the 100th Meridian

3Unpublished Federal Report Projects Bleak Future for Central Texas Mussels and Rivers

4In Washington, D.C., Republicans are Writing the Recipe for a Smoldering Panhandle

5Despite Trump, Water Agency Fosters Cross-Border Cooperation Between U.S. and Mexico

6Trump’s Border Wall Lands Rio Grande on List of Nation’s Most Endangered Rivers

Most Recent in Border:

2ICE Issues More Detainers in Texas, Withholds Crucial Data

3In Presidio, a New Public Art Project Crosses Borders

4Trump’s Border Wall Lands Rio Grande on List of Nation’s Most Endangered Rivers

5Militarization of Texas-Mexico Border a Sign of Complacency, but Not From Border Residents

6Elecciones presidenciales en México. ¿Finalmente puede ganar la izquierda?

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

2Something Has Changed in the Gun Debate in Texas

3Ahead of Mother’s Day, Activists Bail Out Young Black Moms Across Texas

4A Catch-22 in the Crimmigration System in Harris County

5Lawyers Seek to Reform ‘Ethical Minefield’ of Public Defender’s Office Controlled by Texas Prison System

6Women in Texas Prisons Denied Same Academic, Job Training Opportunities as Incarcerated Men

Most Recent in Education:

1SMU Just Lost Its Independent Student Newspaper. Is Your College Next?

2Lawsuit: Texas Art Teacher Suspended Because She Told Students About Her Wife

3Texas Teachers ‘Blow the Whistle’ After Conservatives Accuse Them of (Gasp!) Getting out the Vote

4Nazis Go To School

5‘I Would Have to Drop Out’: 200 Texas Grad Students Walk Out to Protest GOP Tax Bill

6Homelessness in Texas Public Schools is a Suburban and Rural Problem, Too

Most Recent in Health Care:

1What Could Happen if Trump Cuts Family Planning Funds from Planned Parenthood? Look at Texas.

2Texas Has the Most Cities More than 100 Miles from an Abortion Clinic, Study Finds

3Trump Administration Orders Refugee Shelters to Direct Pregnant Teens to Anti-Abortion Clinics

4Lawmaker: State Metric for Success of Women’s Health Program is ‘Totally Misleading’

5‘Heart-Wrenching, Gut-Wrenching’: How Child Therapy Providers Deal with State Budget Cuts

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Meet Nueces County’s New DA, a Self-Professed ‘Mexican Biker Lawyer Covered in Tattoos’

2The Interview: Joaquin Castro Says Texas Democrats are Poised for a Comeback

3The Interview: Beto O’Rourke on Trump, the Border and How to Revive the Democratic Party

4The Interview: Tom ‘Smitty’ Smith

5The Interview: Lupe Valdez

6The Interview: Paul Quinn College’s Michael Sorrell

Most Recent in Books:

1A Masterful New History Explores the Contradictions and Complexities of Ciudad Juárez

2The Ghosts of Abandoned Texas Buildings Rise Up in an Eerie New Photo Book

3Troubled Waters: New Book Plunges into Texas’ Convoluted Water Law

4How a Texas Author Learned to Love Cockroaches (and Other Tales of Off-Putting Creatures)

5Jorge Ramos’ New Book, ‘Stranger,’ is a Journalist’s Manifesto

6On Giant’s Shoulders: New Cinema History Dissects Texas Tropes

Most Recent in Postcards:

1The Time-Traveler’s Guide to the Lower Pecos

4Field Notes from Santa Ana

5The King of Pulp

6Ride Like a Girl

Most Recent in Essay:

1I Grew Up on the Texas-Mexico Border, but Now I Barely Recognize It

2Somewhere It Hides a Well

3Drinking the Kool-Aid at the Garden of Eden

4The Road to Huntsville

5The Impossible City

6Dear Governor Abbott: The ‘Bathroom Bill’ Endangers Trans Texans Like My Son

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Gentrification in East Austin

2Eye on Texas: Transgender Youth in Texas

3Eye On Texas: Hurricane Harvey

4Eye on Texas: Fantastical Taxidermy

5Eye on Texas: Runners Take on 170-Mile Race in Big Bend

6Eye on Texas: Liberty Hill Hosts Texas Firearms Festival

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

2Parallel Planes

4Poem: ‘Resistance’

5Poem: ‘Screenplay for a Homemade Movie’

6Poem: ‘To Be One with the All’

The Magazine: August 2015

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March 2015, Texas Observer cover

COVER STORY

The Fight for Fair Housing

by Gayle Reaves

Tue, Aug 4, 2015 |

Two lawsuits are dragging Texas—and maybe the whole country—closer to the goal of integrated neighborhoods.Read More

In this Issue

Political Intelligence

About Those Nondiscrimination Ordinances…

Ghosts of Truancy Laws Past

by Patrick Michels

State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione’s Support for Joe Straus Sparks Backlash

by Christopher Hooks

Immigration Agents Find Common Cause with Hate Groups

by Melissa del Bosque

News

The Truth About How Pregnant Women Are Treated in Texas County Jails

by Alexa Garcia-Ditta

State of Texas: The Future’s So Bright You Gotta Wear Shades

by Forrest Wilder

Strangest State: A Christian Burger Challenge and a Roadside Sign from Jesus

by Patrick Michels

CULTURE

Direct Quote:
Renaissance Woman

Unearthing a Lost World

by Asher Elbein

The Book Report: Loving Day Provides a Contemporary Look at Racial Identity

by Ashley Hope Perez

Poetry: Politics Aside

by Carie Juettner

The Great Mellowing

by Michael Agresta

In the Austin of Andrew Bujalski’s Results, Aimlessness is a Sin

by Josh Rosenblatt

Columns

State of the Media: Small-Town News

by Andrea Grimes

Greater State: The Racism of States’ Rights

by Bob Ray Sanders

Reintroducing Myself

by Forrest Wilder

State of Texas

State of Texas: The Future’s So Bright You Gotta Wear Shades

by Forrest Wilder

Loon Star State

Ben Sargent’s Loon Star State: Ken Paxton, Culture-Warrior-in-Chief

Eye on Texas

Eye on Texas: Bhutanese Refugees