December 2015 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Politics:

1The Interview: Veronica Escobar is Poised to Make History

2Four Takeaways from the Texas Democratic Convention

3‘There’s More of Us’: Texas Democrats Once Again Counting on Hispanic Turnout

4Growing Secular Movement Could Indicate Change in Political Tide — Even in Texas

5In a Blow to Local Government, Texas Supreme Court Strikes Down Plastic Bag Ordinances

6Texas Democrats Want to Turn Out Rural Voters, but What’s Their Plan?

Most Recent in Environment:

1Sinking Land and Climate Change Are Worsening Tidal Floods on the Texas Coast

2How Disaster Recovery Overlooks the Poor

3Industrial Wood Processor Accused of Making East Texans Sick May Get to Pollute Even More

4Despite Public Health Risks, Trump’s EPA to Roll Back Regulation to Prevent Methane Leaks

5No Resolution in Sight For Ranchers and Farmers Fighting Over San Saba River

6Austin’s on the Wrong Side of the 100th Meridian

Most Recent in Border:

1The Interview: Veronica Escobar is Poised to Make History

2As a Pediatrician, I Know There’s No Way to Jail Migrant Families Without Hurting Kids

3Despite Trump’s Executive Order, This Mom Still Doesn’t Know if She’ll See Her 3 Kids Again

4Agentes de E.U. Impidieron Asilo a esta Familia. Después, Fueron Detenidos en México.

5U.S. Agents Blocked This Family from Seeking Asylum. Then Mexico Detained Them.

6It’s Time to Decriminalize Immigration

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Texas Officials Allow 15 Immigrant Shelters to Hold More Kids than Licenses Permit

2Waco Immigrant Mom Locked Up for 2 ½ Years, Alleges Sexual Assault by Guard

3In Austin, ‘Discretionary’ Arrests for Petty Crimes Skew Blacker, Browner Than City Population

5Something Has Changed in the Gun Debate in Texas

6Ahead of Mother’s Day, Activists Bail Out Young Black Moms Across Texas

Most Recent in Education:

1What’s in a Name? Texas SBOE Tentatively Approves ‘Ethnic Studies: Mexican American Studies’

2SMU Just Lost Its Independent Student Newspaper. Is Your College Next?

3Lawsuit: Texas Art Teacher Suspended Because She Told Students About Her Wife

4Texas Teachers ‘Blow the Whistle’ After Conservatives Accuse Them of (Gasp!) Getting out the Vote

5Nazis Go To School

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

Most Recent in Health Care:

1As a Pediatrician, I Know There’s No Way to Jail Migrant Families Without Hurting Kids

2New Lawsuit Challenges Dozens of Texas Anti-Abortion Restrictions

3Trump Sides with Ken Paxton to Argue Pre-Existing Conditions Protections are Unconstitutional

4‘We Love Our Neighbors, but It’s a Sin’: A Dispatch from a ‘Sex Ed Sitout’

5What Could Happen if Trump Cuts Family Planning Funds from Planned Parenthood? Look at Texas.

6Texas Has the Most Cities More than 100 Miles from an Abortion Clinic, Study Finds

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:

1A Strange and Wonderful New Book Celebrates the Often-Ignored Work of Outsider Artists

2‘Driven’ is an Edgy Memoir of Cars, Crises and Coming of Age

3A Feminist Literary Classic Gets a Timely Reissue, and it’s Still Maddeningly Relevant

4‘The Last Cowboys’ is a Wild Ride All the Way Home

5‘A Shout in the Ruins’ Contends with the South’s Violent History

6Chasing Tornadoes and Drama in ‘The Man Who Caught the Storm’

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:

1Women’s Work

2I Grew Up on the Texas-Mexico Border, but Now I Barely Recognize It

3Somewhere It Hides a Well

4Drinking the Kool-Aid at the Garden of Eden

5The Road to Huntsville

6The Impossible City

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