December 2015 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Texas Politics:

1The Lege This Week: Stimmy for Schools?

2The Lege This Week: Elections and Abortions and Grid-Reforms, Oh My!

3The Lege This Week: “Another Watershed Moment”

4The Lege This Week: GOP Launches Election Crackdown

5The Lege This Week: Who Cancels the Cancellers?

6The Lege This Week: Abbott Lets His Mask Slip

Most Recent in Environment:

1One Researcher’s Quest to Quantify the Environmental Cost of Abandoned Oil Wells

2Waves of Abandonment

3‘No Teeth and No Funding’: How Regulators Failed to Police the Oil Industry

4Texas Activists Took Their Fight Against a Natural Gas Project Abroad—And They’re Winning

5Nobody Warned Texans About the Public Health Risks of the Winter Storm

6Industrial Facilities Released Millions of Pounds of Illegal Pollution During the Winter Storm

Most Recent in Border:

1Texas Activists Took Their Fight Against a Natural Gas Project Abroad—And They’re Winning

2‘Not Celebrating Yet’: South Texans Wait for Biden to Cancel Trump’s Wall

3How Texas Courts Went Virtual

4In ‘At the Ready,’ Latinx High Schoolers Train to Be Border Patrol Agents

5Forgotten for Over a Century, Border Hero Jovita Idár Is Rediscovered by Her Hometown of Laredo

6Deaths in ICE Custody Skyrocketed During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1How Flawed Death Investigations Can Leave Texas COVID-19 Deaths Uncounted

2Editorial: Defund the Constables

3Uninvestigated, Uncounted: How Justices of the Peace Miss Important Clues in Death Investigations

4Clogged Toilets, Snow Inside: How the Winter Storm Exacerbated Problems in Texas Lock-Ups

6Exploring the Rise, Fall, and Lingering Trauma of the Death Penalty in Texas

Most Recent in Education:

1The Long, Winding Road that Led to the SBOE’s Decision for Texas Schools to Teach Abstinence-Plus Sex Education

2Efforts to Save What’s Left of Mary Allen Seminary Reveal The Challenges of Preserving Black Placemaking in Texas

3Texas Has the Widest Digital Divide in the Nation. What Does that Mean for the School Year?

4The New Ensemble

5Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

6Tough Decisions Ahead for School Leaders in Rural Texas

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Portraits of the Pandemic: Part Two

2Editorial: Texas Wasn’t Prepared for the Statewide Vaccine Rush

3COVID-19’s Deadly Toll on Texas Workers

4COVID-19 Response has Been Starkly Different for Indigenous Communities in Texas

5After Sarah Davis’ Election Defeat, Texas Reproductive Health Advocates Worry About Losing a Powerful Republican Ally

6For Families That Lost Loved Ones or Jobs to the Pandemic, Thanksgiving Carries an Extra Weight This Year

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Researcher Howard Henderson on Reimagining Policing in the U.S.

2Texas Observer Founding Editor Ronnie Dugger Reflects on 65 Years of Publication

3How Katharine Hayhoe Stays Hopeful as the Planet Warms

4Author William Lopez on How Immigration Raids Inflict Long-Lasting Trauma

5Why a Texas Gun Control Activist is Optimistic About the Chances for Reform

6American Health Care is Broken, Especially in Texas. What Can We Do About It?

Most Recent in Books:

1Jung Young Moon’s Strange Novels Cross Continents

2Writer Rick Bass Fights for 20 Grizzly Bears

3‘Luz at Midnight’ Reimagines Blackouts, Polar Vortexes, and Environmental Justice in San Antonio

4Lady Bird Johnson Was About More Than Wildflowers

5“Wings of Ebony” Brings Black Girl Magic to Life

6A New Book Celebrates the Work of Architect John S. Chase

Most Recent in Features:

1How to Die in Texas

2Young Texans Keep Spelling Bees Going From Home

4San Antonio Embraces Mandaean Refugees

5The Ghosts of Jefferson

6Little Arthouse on the Prairie

Most Recent in Essay:

1Editorial: Look Down Ballot for Democratic Wins in Texas

2What the Black Lives Matter Protests Mean for East Texas

3Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

4What’s a Bookstore for?

5Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

6In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: The Essential Women of Austin

2Eye on Texas: A House Divided

3Eye on Texas: The Black Yearbook

4Eye on Texas: Border Tuner

5Eye on Texas: The Broken Wheel Ranch Project

6Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Poet Claudia Delfina Cardona on Her Debut Poetry Chapbook

2Author Saeed Jones on Empathy, the Power of Memoir, and Growing up Gay in North Texas

3Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

4Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

5Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

6Parallel Planes

The Magazine: December 2015

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March 2015, Texas Observer cover

COVER STORY

Homeland Insecurity

by Melissa del Bosque and Patrick Michels

Mon, Dec 7, 2015 |

What good are more boots on the ground if the men and women wearing them also work for the cartels? What benefit is an 18-foot wall when criminals can bribe their way through the gate?Read More

In this Issue

Political Intelligence

Dan Patrick Finds The One

by Christopher Hooks

WilCo Candidate Won’t Settle ‘Religious Test’ Lawsuit

Bonding Behind Bars

by Alexa Garcia-Ditta

News

State of Texas: What Obamacare Has Done for Texas

by Alexa Garcia-Ditta and Hannah McBride

Strangest State: Errant Emus, a Reading Dog and a Giant Chair

by Patrick Michels

CULTURE

Our Blue Period

Postcard from the Incredible Electric Oyster Reef

by Hannah McBride

Eye on Texas: Family Detention

by Ilana Panich-Linsman

Poem: Chris Yan’s ‘How I Love You In This House Today’

Dramas of Family and State Unfold in ‘All the Houses’

Columns

What California Can Teach Us About Texas

by Christopher Hooks

Greg Shames the Sheriff

by Andrea Grimes

State of Texas

State of Texas: What Obamacare Has Done for Texas

by Alexa Garcia-Ditta and Hannah McBride

Eye on Texas

Eye on Texas: Family Detention

by Ilana Panich-Linsman