February 2016 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Politics:

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

2In Their Rush to Appear Pro-Israel, Texas Lawmakers May Have Stepped on Free Speech

3How Anti-Abortion Activists are Training Their ‘Next Generation of Pro-Life Leaders’

4In New ‘Spray Box’ Decision, Sid Miller Dances Himself Right Back to Where He Started

5The Christian Right’s Politics of Cruelty

6Texas Congressman Demands Answers from ICE about Van Crash, Misinformation

Most Recent in Environment:

1Will Hurricane Harvey Recovery Sink or Save a Texas City Already Fighting for Survival?

2Border Patrol’s Efforts to Inform the Public About Trump’s Wall Are ‘Careless’ and ‘Inadequate,’ Advocates Say

3The Day the Windows Shook

4As Development Transforms the Hill Country, a Sand Mining Operation Worries Residents

5Report: Oil and Gas Production Is Making People Sick in Rural Texas

6After Decades of Living with Pollution, Relocation Program Offers Corpus Christi Residents a Way Out

Most Recent in Border:

1100 Ways to Draw a Line

2Texas Congressman Demands Answers from ICE about Van Crash, Misinformation

3ICE Estrelló una Camioneta Llena de Madres Separadas, Después Negó que Haya Sucedido

4ICE Crashed a Van Full of Separated Mothers, Then Denied It Ever Happened

5A Time for Radical Thinking

6Trump Administration Sets Up Potential Deportation Factory for Reunified Families in South Texas

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: February 2016

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March 2015, Texas Observer cover

COVER STORY

The House Always Wins

by Gayle Reaves

Mon, Feb 1, 2016 |

Some legislators want to keep affordable housing out of their districts — and they've given themselves the power to do it.Read More

In this Issue

Political Intelligence

Bad Credit: Are College Classes Working for High Schoolers?

by Patrick Michels

News

No Place for Old Men

by Dick J. Reavis

State of Texas: Cops in the Classroom

by Patrick Michels

CULTURE

How the 1% Gardens

by James E. McWilliams

Poem: ‘While I Was Trying to Avoid Falling in Love’

by Allyson Whipple

by Victor Espinoza and Nancy Nusser

Peter LaSalle Seizes the Day

by Ashley Hope Perez

Columns

Y’all, Hillary Could Lose

by Christopher Hooks

Trust Me, Trust Women

by Andrea Grimes

State of Texas

State of Texas: Cops in the Classroom

by Patrick Michels

Loon Star State

Loon Star State: Christian-Warrior-in-Chief

Eye on Texas

Eye on Texas: Portico Tejas

by Steve Masker