December 2016 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Politics:

1Michael Quinn Sullivan’s Recorded Conversation with Speaker Bonnen Exposes the Texas GOP for What It’s Always Been

2How Pete Sessions Became ‘Congressman-1’

3As Pete Sessions Tries to Revive his Political Career, He May Get Sucked into Ukraine

4Mac Thornberry’s Retirement Leaves the Defense Industry With One Less Close Friend

5Who Is John Cornyn Serving?

6Why a Texas Gun Control Activist is Optimistic About the Chances for Reform

Most Recent in Environment:

1Beautiful Ruins: ‘Anthropocene’ Is a Sobering Ecological Prophecy

2Tropical Storm Imelda Will Likely Be Southeast Texas’ Fifth 500-Year Flood in Five Years

3The Green New Deal Can Exist in Texas

4How BP Oil Spill Fines Could Help Protect the Texas Coast

5Climate Change Will Make Harmful Algae Blooms in Texas Waterways More Common

6The Large Ask

Most Recent in Border:

1Federal Judges Temporarily Block Public Charge Rule, but Public Health Worries Persist

2Up From the Desert

3Attacked in Mexico, Returned to Mexico: Trump Policy Ignores Danger to Asylum-Seekers

4Immigration Judge Slams ‘Remain in Mexico’ Tent Courts

5A Joyful El Paso Art Exhibit Imagines a World Ruled by Latinx People

6Migrants at Laredo Tent Court Tell Stories of Kidnappings and Violence While Pleading Not to Be Returned to Mexico

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Dallas Is What Happens When People Can’t Trust Police

2Death in Solitary

3The Private Prison Industry (Finally) Faces an Uncertain Future

4Video: ‘Traumatic, Unnecessary’ Arrest of Austin Woman Shows How Cops Can Worsen Mental Health Crises

5‘A Watershed Moment’ for Bail Reform in Harris County

6Ken Paxton Wants ‘Ultimate Home Field Advantage’ in Felony Case

Most Recent in Education:

1The Creature of Martin Creek Lake Won’t Die

2The Cost of Carve-Outs

3Texas Legislature Improves Suicide Prevention in Schools, but Makes Little Progress for Adults

4Texas House Considers Free College For Students Experiencing Homelessness

5‘The Wolf is in the Henhouse’

6‘We’re Not Stupid’: Texas Teachers Take on Dan Patrick and the Legislature over Dismal Education Funding

Most Recent in Health Care:

1The Supreme Court Taking Up Louisiana’s Abortion Case ‘Flies in the Face of Precedent’

2Some Small Texas Towns Are Declaring Themselves ‘Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn’

3American Health Care is Broken, Especially in Texas. What Can We Do About It?

4Thousands of Rape Kits in Texas Went Untested For Years. Lavinia Masters Is Ending That.

5‘My Congregation Trusts Women’: Progressive Faith Groups Counter Anti-Abortion Narratives

6A Texas Anti-Abortion Group Dramatically Missed its Family Planning Targets. Now its Founder is Suing the Federal Government for More Money.

Most Recent in The Interview:

1If a Glacier Melts in the Arctic, the Texas Coast Feels It

2Without Transmission Lines, Renewable Energy Still has a Long Way to Go — Literally

3The Dissenter

4The Interview: Mass Resistance

5Meet Jim Allison, Texas’ Newest Nobel Laureate (and Three-Time Cancer Survivor)

6Dolores Huerta is Still Knocking on Doors and Registering Voters at 88

Most Recent in Books:

1Janis Joplin’s Inimitable Voice

2Sergio Troncoso’s New Book Is a Beautiful Meditation on the Borderlands

3Short Story Contest Finalist: ‘The Prize’

4‘How the Gringos Stole Tequila’ Tells the Complex Story of Mexico’s Favorite Spirit

5What Does Our Fascination with True Crime Say About Us?

6Short Story Finalist: ‘The After Party’

Most Recent in Features:

1Little Arthouse on the Prairie

2The Clothes that Make the Man

3Washington Crossing the Rio Grande

4Ghosts of the Baker Hotel

5At Home in the World

6Plight at the Museum

Most Recent in Essay:

1Up From the Desert

2To Understand the El Paso Massacre, Look to the Long Legacy of Anti-Mexican Violence at the Border

3Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

4The Trouble with Yoga

5Heads in the Mud

6The Day the Windows Shook

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

2Eye on Texas: Loren Elliott

3Eye on Texas: Charlotte Moore

4Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

5Eye on Texas: Ghosts of the City

6Eye on Texas: Fiesta Protesta

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

2Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

3Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

4Parallel Planes

5Options

6Poem: ‘Resistance’

The Magazine: December 2016

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March 2015, Texas Observer cover

COVER STORY

Don Willett’s Quiet Revolution

by Eric Benson

Thu, Nov 17, 2016 |

Social media’s most famous judge is at the forefront of a conservative legal movement that's redefining what it means to be a judicial activist. And he's on Donald Trump's Supreme Court short list. Read More

In this Issue

Political Intelligence

Legal Loophole May Have Helped Houston Attorney Allegedly Defraud Immigrants

by Patrick Michels

Huge Oil Discovery May Endanger Solace of Balmorhea

by Naveena Sadasivam

News

Don Willett’s Quiet Revolution

by Eric Benson

CULTURE

In ‘Without Getting Killed or Caught,’ Guy Clark Defies Categorization

by Michael Sandlin

Poem: ‘Screenplay for a Homemade Movie’

by Kathleen Winter

State of Texas: The Bigger the Roof, the Closer to God

by Patrick Michels

by Leah Caldwell

If These Walls Could Talk

by Brad Tyer

Columns

State Leaders on Atrocious Child Welfare System: Don’t Blame Us!

by Christopher Hooks

Love Will Trump Hate (Eventually)

by Andrea Grimes

State of Texas

State of Texas: The Bigger the Roof, the Closer to God

by Patrick Michels

Loon Star State

Loon Star State: Trump and the ‘Rigged Election’

by Ben Sargent

Eye on Texas

Eye on Texas: ‘Normal Life’ in a Border Colonia

by Michael Cirlos

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