December 2015 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Politics:

1Texas Lawmaker Sponsors Far-Right Rally Against ‘Far-Left Violence’

2‘Stalwart Battler for Justice’: Remembering Babe Schwartz (1926-2018)

3In Their Rush to Appear Pro-Israel, Texas Lawmakers May Have Stepped on Free Speech

4How Anti-Abortion Activists are Training Their ‘Next Generation of Pro-Life Leaders’

5In New ‘Spray Box’ Decision, Sid Miller Dances Himself Right Back to Where He Started

6The Christian Right’s Politics of Cruelty

Most Recent in Environment:

1The Making of the ‘Magic Valley’

2Bordering on Empty

3Climate Change is Making Texas Summers Worse. Here’s Who That Hurts the Most.

4Out of Sight, Out of Water: The U.S. and Mexico Have Only Just Begun to Grapple with the Aquifers They Share

5Trump’s Border Wall Could Decimate These Rare Species

6The Texas-Mexico Border Wall Comes with a Dangerous, Costly Side Effect: Flooding

Most Recent in Border:

1The Making of the ‘Magic Valley’

2Bordering on Empty

3Out of Sight, Out of Water: The U.S. and Mexico Have Only Just Begun to Grapple with the Aquifers They Share

4The Texas-Mexico Border Wall Comes with a Dangerous, Costly Side Effect: Flooding

5In a Warming World, the Fight for Water Can Push Nations Apart — or Bring Them Together

6100 Ways to Draw a Line

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1In Texas, 3 Out of 4 County Jail Inmates Haven’t Been Convicted of a Crime

2Who Gets Mercy on Death Row? Chris Young’s Execution Raises Questions of Racial Bias

3Zero-Tolerance Policies Meant to Protect Against School Threats May Lead to Misguided Arrests

4Legislation to Abolish ICE Indicates Movement is Gaining Mainstream Traction

5College Degree Options Are Disappearing for Women in Texas Prisons

6After Years of Working with ‘Ritmo’ Detainees, I Know the Inhumane Facility Doesn’t Deserve a Second Chance

Most Recent in Education:

1In Violation of Texas Law, Most High Schools Aren’t Giving Students the Chance to Register to Vote

2Amid Record Youth Suicide Attempts, Texas Lags in Prevention Training for Teachers

3Cash-Strapped Rural Texas Schools Look to Universities for Help

4What’s in a Name? Texas SBOE Tentatively Approves ‘Ethnic Studies: Mexican American Studies’

5SMU Just Lost Its Independent Student Newspaper. Is Your College Next?

6Lawsuit: Texas Art Teacher Suspended Because She Told Students About Her Wife

Most Recent in Health Care:

1How Anti-Abortion Activists are Training Their ‘Next Generation of Pro-Life Leaders’

2Professor Trill

3Tinkering with the Human Heart in ‘Ticker’

4Amid Record Youth Suicide Attempts, Texas Lags in Prevention Training for Teachers

5Will Hurricane Harvey Recovery Sink or Save a Texas City Already Fighting for Survival?

6Documentary Follows a Family’s Fight to Change Texas Law that Turned Brain-Dead Pregnant Woman into an ‘Incubator’

Most Recent in The Interview:

1The Interview: Veronica Escobar is Poised to Make History

2Redistricting Guru Michael Li on Texas’ Gerrymandered Maps

3Senfronia Thompson Says #MeToo: Texas Lawmaker on 45 Years of Sexism, Racism at the Capitol

4Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo on Sanctuary Cities, Police Unions and Tommy Guns

5Meet Nueces County’s New DA, a Self-Professed ‘Mexican Biker Lawyer Covered in Tattoos’

6The Interview: Joaquin Castro Says Texas Democrats are Poised for a Comeback

Most Recent in Books:

1‘American Hate’ Author on Hate Crimes, Free Speech and Alex Jones

2‘I Can’t Date Jesus’ Chronicles Growing up Black, Queer and Catholic in Houston

3Tinkering with the Human Heart in ‘Ticker’

4In ‘Homelands,’ Alfredo Corchado Punctures the Myth of the American Dream

5Announcing the Eighth Annual Observer Short Story Contest

6A Vampire Book That Does Not Suck

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:

1The Day the Windows Shook

2Women’s Work

3I Grew Up on the Texas-Mexico Border, but Now I Barely Recognize It

4Somewhere It Hides a Well

5Drinking the Kool-Aid at the Garden of Eden

6The Road to Huntsville

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: 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