December 2016 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Texas Politics:

1The Next Census Could Determine the Future of Port Arthur

2Texas Had a State Office That Could Have Investigated Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Cases. Lawmakers Defunded it Three Years Ago.

3The COVID-19 Disaster Has Made a Mess of Texas’ Open Government Rules

4‘I’m in Limbo Here’: Texans Are Met with an Overwhelmed and Antiquated State Unemployment System

5A ‘Stay-at-Home’ Order by Any Other Name

6The New U.S. Food Safety Czar is a Texas Researcher with Close Ties to the Meat Industry

Most Recent in Environment:

1Editorial: Air Pollution Was Already Killing Us. Then Came the Coronavirus. Why Won’t the EPA Act?

2City Nature Challenge Can Help Us Find Resilience and Mindfulness at Home

3Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

4COVID-19 is Buying Time for Gulf Coast Towns Fighting Oil and Gas Projects

5COVID-19 Could Be a ‘Double Whammy’ for Those in Pollution Hotspots

6Coronavirus is Exposing the Faulty Foundations of the Texas Fracking Industry

Most Recent in Border:

2Along the Border, Witnesses of Smuggling Crimes Are Being Held in Detention, Despite Coronavirus Concerns

3In Migrants Camps Along the Texas-Mexico Border, Close Quarters and Closing Borders Raise Concerns

4U.S. Supreme Court Sides with Trump Administration on ‘Remain in Mexico’

5Following a Protest, ICE Moves Asylum-Seekers For the Second Time in Two Weeks

6Trump’s Wall May Have to Avoid Multiple Historic Cemeteries

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

2How COVID-19 Upended Texas Prisons

3Texas Health Officials Undercount COVID-19 Cases by Excluding Some Prisoners Who Tested Positive

4The Disappeared

5Greg Abbott’s Power Grab on Bail Reform

6Families of Sick Prisoners Plead for Compassionate Release as Coronavirus Spreads Behind Bars in Texas

Most Recent in Education:

1Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

2Tough Decisions Ahead for School Leaders in Rural Texas

3‘Almost Akin to a Political Coup’: Houston Teachers Fight Back Against State Takeover of HISD

4The Creature of Martin Creek Lake Won’t Die

5The Cost of Carve-Outs

6Texas Legislature Improves Suicide Prevention in Schools, but Makes Little Progress for Adults

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins on Battling COVID-19, and the Governor, as Texas Reopens

2With Storage Space Evaporating, the Oil and Gas Industry Will Get to Put Its Products Back Underground

3Home Wasn’t Safe. Then COVID-19 Made It Seem Like the Only Option.

4Is Texas Inflating Its COVID-19 Testing Numbers by Including Antibody Tests?

5Texas Has Stopped Kicking Thousands of Kids Off Medicaid Each Month During the Pandemic, but Advocates Point to Delays for New Enrollees

6Texas Health Officials Undercount COVID-19 Cases by Excluding Some Prisoners Who Tested Positive

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Texas Observer Founding Editor Ronnie Dugger Reflects on 65 Years of Publication

2How Katharine Hayhoe Stays Hopeful as the Planet Warms

3Author William Lopez on How Immigration Raids Inflict Long-Lasting Trauma

4Why a Texas Gun Control Activist is Optimistic About the Chances for Reform

5American Health Care is Broken, Especially in Texas. What Can We Do About It?

6Thousands of Rape Kits in Texas Went Untested For Years. Lavinia Masters Is Ending That.

Most Recent in Books:

1Lawrence Wright Embraces Pandemic Panic in ‘The End of October’

2Is it Time to Rethink Texas Suburbia?

3What’s a Bookstore for?

4In ‘All I Ever Wanted,’ Kathy Valentine Reclaims Her Narrative

5A New Book on the Sutherland Springs Shooting Explores Resilience, Forgiveness, and Grace

6‘Trust Me’ Tackles Politics, Power, and Perception

Most Recent in Features:

2San Antonio Embraces Mandaean Refugees

3The Ghosts of Jefferson

4Little Arthouse on the Prairie

5The Clothes that Make the Man

6Washington Crossing the Rio Grande

Most Recent in Essay:

1Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

2What’s a Bookstore for?

3Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

4In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives

5Loneliness in the Age of Coronavirus

6‘Cheer’ Takes an Overlooked Sport Off the Sidelines

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Border Tuner

2Eye on Texas: The Broken Wheel Ranch Project

3Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

4Eye on Texas: Loren Elliott

5Eye on Texas: Charlotte Moore

6Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Author Saeed Jones on Empathy, the Power of Memoir, and Growing up Gay in North Texas

2Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

3Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

4Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

5Parallel Planes

The Magazine: December 2016

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March 2015, Texas Observer cover

COVER STORY

Don Willett’s Quiet Revolution

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

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

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’

Eye on Texas

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

by Michael Cirlos