June 2015 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Texas Politics:

1How Far Can Texas Democrats Take the Quorum Break?

2After Kelcy Warren’s Energy Transfer Partners Made Billions from the Deadly Texas Blackouts, He Gave $1 Million to Greg Abbott

3Texas House Republicans Vote to Track Down Absent Democrats and Arrest Them If Necessary

4Greg Abbott’s Summer Special Session Sideshow

5Texans With Disabilities Fear Voting Will Get Harder for Them as Special Session on GOP Restrictions Nears

Most Recent in Environment:

1In West Texas, Astronomers Worry About Growing Oilfield Light Pollution

2After Kelcy Warren’s Energy Transfer Partners Made Billions from the Deadly Texas Blackouts, He Gave $1 Million to Greg Abbott

3Communities of Color in Houston Will Face Another Hurricane Season Without Adequate Flood Control

4“People Are Wiped Out”: Costs Pile Up as Hurricane Season Begins

5In the Drill Zone, Children’s Health Is Looking Bleak

6The Unlikely Demise of Texas’ Biggest Corporate Tax Break

Most Recent in Border:

1Moments From the Reopening of Balmorhea Pool

2Undocumented Immigrants Continue to Be Expelled From the U.S. Under Title 42 COVID-19 Measures

3Follow the Money

4Siguiendo La Ruta Del Dinero

5Texas Activists Took Their Fight Against a Natural Gas Project Abroad—And They’re Winning

6‘Not Celebrating Yet’: South Texans Wait for Biden to Cancel Trump’s Wall

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1In Memory of Santos Rodriguez

2Home, But Not Free: NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner Adjusts to Her Release From Prison

3A Wrongful Execution in Texas Points to the Fallibility of the Death Penalty

4Mentally Ill and Sentenced to Death

5An Irreversible Sentence

6Yet Again, Texas Lawmakers Face Crisis Conditions in Texas Prisons

Most Recent in Education:

1Resignation Letter

2The Unlikely Demise of Texas’ Biggest Corporate Tax Break

3Texas Educators Worry Bill Limiting the Teaching of Current Events and Historic Racism Would “Whitewash History”

4‘I Felt Like They Were Demonizing My People’: Advocates and Families Point to Biases in Texas Curricula

5The Long, Winding Road that Led to the SBOE’s Decision for Texas Schools to Teach Abstinence-Plus Sex Education

6Efforts to Save What’s Left of Mary Allen Seminary Reveal The Challenges of Preserving Black Placemaking in Texas

Most Recent in Health Care:

1The People’s Scientist

2Profit Before Patient

3Texas Expands Access to Medical Cannabis—But Advocates Say It’s Not Enough

4In the Drill Zone, Children’s Health Is Looking Bleak

5Editorial: Even ‘Turning Texas Blue’ Won’t Fix Us If We Don’t Face Some Hard Truths

6Portraits of the Pandemic: Part Two

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Researcher Howard Henderson on Reimagining Policing in the U.S.

2Texas Observer Founding Editor Ronnie Dugger Reflects on 65 Years of Publication

3How Katharine Hayhoe Stays Hopeful as the Planet Warms

4Author William Lopez on How Immigration Raids Inflict Long-Lasting Trauma

5Why a Texas Gun Control Activist is Optimistic About the Chances for Reform

6American Health Care is Broken, Especially in Texas. What Can We Do About It?

Most Recent in Books:

1In ‘Al Norte,’ a Through Line of Transience That Is Still True Today

2A Feminist Rewrite of Lot

3‘Forget the Alamo’ Unravels a Texas History Made of Myths, or Rather, Lies

4‘On Juneteenth’ Refuses Easy Answers About the Importance of People of Color to Texas History

5‘Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing’ Tours Dark Places That Are Hard to Call Home

6Jung Young Moon’s Strange Novels Cross Continents

Most Recent in Features:

1How to Die in Texas

2Young Texans Keep Spelling Bees Going From Home

4San Antonio Embraces Mandaean Refugees

5The Ghosts of Jefferson

6Little Arthouse on the Prairie

Most Recent in Essay:

1An Irreversible Sentence

2Editorial: Look Down Ballot for Democratic Wins in Texas

3What the Black Lives Matter Protests Mean for East Texas

4Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

5What’s a Bookstore for?

6Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: The Essential Women of Austin

2Eye on Texas: A House Divided

3Eye on Texas: The Black Yearbook

4Eye on Texas: Border Tuner

5Eye on Texas: The Broken Wheel Ranch Project

6Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Poem: ‘Late Night at the Lege’

2‘My Cousin Dies, Like a Deer, On the Side of the Road’

3Poet Claudia Delfina Cardona on Her Debut Poetry Chapbook

4Author Saeed Jones on Empathy, the Power of Memoir, and Growing up Gay in North Texas

5Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

6Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

The Magazine: June 2015

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March 2015, Texas Observer cover

COVER STORY

Letters from Death Row: The Biology of Trauma

by Alex Hannaford

Mon, Jun 22, 2015 |

Texas executes more of its citizens—almost all of them men—than any other state. New studies show that trauma biologically alters the brains of young boys in ways that affect their adult behavior, raising the moral implications of the death penalty. Read More

In this Issue

Political Intelligence

Dragging the State Board into the Present

by Patrick Michels

Texas Public Policy Foundation as the Underdog?

by Christopher Hooks

Lawmaker Pushes for ‘Liberty Cities’

Detainees Fight for Freedom of Speech

by Melissa del Bosque

News

Strangest State: On the Lookout for Black Helicopters and Falling Prices

by Patrick Michels

A Neighborhood Apart

by Priscila Mosqueda

CULTURE

Zellner Brothers’ Latest Film Explores Fact as Fiction

by Josh Rosenblatt

Direct Quote: Celebrating Gender Diversity Through Art

At Rest in the Fields

by Sarah Wambold

Creatures Great and Small

by Alex Dropkin

The Book Report: Small Town Dreams

by Mónica Teresa Ortiz

Columns

State of the Media: The Scene of the Crimes

by Andrea Grimes

Resurrecting the Legacy of Selena

by Michelle García

State of Texas

State of Texas: Who We Kill

by Joe Cutbirth

Loon Star State

Ben Sargent’s Loon Star State: Greg, Are You Down There?

Eye on Texas

Eye on Texas: Hot Fun in the Summertime