December 2016 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Politics:

1Where do Texas Democrats Stand on Single-Payer Health Care?

2State Plans to Restore Services after Advocates in Wheelchairs Surprise Officials

3Trump Nominee to FEC Tried to Shred Texas’ Already-Weak Ethics Laws

4Religious Right Takes Bathroom Fight Back to Schools after Defeat at Capitol

5Supreme Court Decision Means 2018 Elections Could Use ‘Discriminatory’ Maps

6Trump Nominates Lawyers from Anti-LGBT ‘Religious Freedom’ Group to be Texas Federal Judges

Most Recent in Environment:

1Reports of Livestock Deaths, Other Ag Losses Trickle in After Harvey

2Flood Expert Jim Blackburn: Houston Must Plan or Perish

3Experts: Much of Harvey-Related Air Pollution was Preventable

4‘Look & See’ Is a Love Letter to Family Farming, Rural America and Wendell Berry

5The Impossible City

6Thanks to their State Rep, Friendswood Family Rushes to File Insurance Claim for their Flooded Home

Most Recent in Border:

1Civil Rights Group’s Budget Nearly Halved by Foundation with Ties to Texas Supreme Court

2ICE Detained This Trafficking Victim on Her 18th Birthday. Why?

3‘Los Zetas Inc.’ Author on Why Mexico’s Drug War Isn’t About Drugs

5Salvadoran Man Seeks ‘Sanctuary’ from Deportation in Austin Church

6Judge Eviscerates Much of Senate Bill 4, but Leaves Intact “Show Me Your Papers” Provision

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Body Cam Policies in Texas Exacerbate a System Designed to Protect Police, Critics Say

2Civil Rights Group’s Budget Nearly Halved by Foundation with Ties to Texas Supreme Court

3ICE Detained This Trafficking Victim on Her 18th Birthday. Why?

4The Road to Huntsville

5In San Antonio, Cops Punch Down

6Deputies Go Unpunished for Invasive Cavity Search on Houston Roadside

Most Recent in Education:

1Despite ‘Hardship’ Funding, Rural Texas Schools Face Difficult Financial Future

2Loon Star State: Texas Public Schools

3Dan Patrick Accuses Joe Straus of Ponzi Scheme Ahead of Special Session

4Critics Fear New Texas Law Giving SBOE Wide Discretion Over Textbooks

5After Freedom Caucus Kills Her Legislation, Lawmaker Announces Anti-‘Lunch Shaming’ Campaign

6Texas’ ‘Lunch Shaming’ Problem and the Fight to Fix It

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Where do Texas Democrats Stand on Single-Payer Health Care?

2State Plans to Restore Services after Advocates in Wheelchairs Surprise Officials

3Judge Temporarily Halts New Texas Abortion Ban

4Despite Self-Congratulation, Lawmakers Did Virtually Nothing about Maternal Mortality Crisis

5Introducing the Texas Observer’s Rural Reporting Project

6Red is the New Orange: Handmaids Bring More than Just Silence to the Abortion Fight

Most Recent in The Interview:

1The Interview: Joaquin Castro Says Texas Democrats are Poised for a Comeback

2The Interview: Beto O’Rourke on Trump, the Border and How to Revive the Democratic Party

3The Interview: Tom ‘Smitty’ Smith

4The Interview: Lupe Valdez

5The Interview: Paul Quinn College’s Michael Sorrell

6The Interview: Judge John Dietz on Texas’ School Finance Crisis

Most Recent in Books:

1Short Story Contest Finalist: ‘Malena’

2The King of Pulp

3‘Sip’ Seeks Dystopian Depth, and Fine Dining, in the Shadows

4The Rising Storm

5Stalking Horse

6Seven Texas Indie Booksellers on Their Favorite Books of the Year (So Far)

Most Recent in Postcards:

1The King of Pulp

2Ride Like a Girl

Most Recent in Essay:

1The Impossible City

2Dear Governor Abbott: The ‘Bathroom Bill’ Endangers Trans Texans Like My Son

3Stalking Horse

4Protecting Immigrant Families: A Call for an Economic Boycott of Texas

5Cut from the Same Cloth: Wearing Hijab in Houston, Post-Trump

6Going It Alone

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Fantastical Taxidermy

2Eye on Texas: Runners Take on 170-Mile Race in Big Bend

3Eye on Texas: Liberty Hill Hosts Texas Firearms Festival

4Eye on Texas: TX Open Swim

5Eye on Texas: Blessing of the Hands in San Antonio

6Eye on Texas: Austin’s Chapels

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Parallel Planes

3Poem: ‘Resistance’

4Poem: ‘Screenplay for a Homemade Movie’

5Poem: ‘To Be One with the All’

6Poem: ‘Whitewashing’

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