March 2016 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Politics:

1Joe Barton Resurfaces with a Blueprint for How to Bail Out the Oil Industry and Worsen Climate Change

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

3On Rodney Reed Case, Greg Abbott Gets a Political Reprieve

4John Cornyn’s Weaselly Immigration Record

5Texas Congressional Candidate Shannon Hutcheson Defended Corporations Against the Vulnerable. EMILY’s List Endorsed Her Anyway.

6‘You Can Only Take So Much’: Low-Income Hurricane Harvey Survivors Sue Over ‘Discriminatory’ Recovery Process

Most Recent in Environment:

1As Port Neches Plant Smolders, Trump Rolls Back Safety Rules for Chemical Plants

2Joe Barton Resurfaces with a Blueprint for How to Bail Out the Oil Industry and Worsen Climate Change

3East Texas Rivers Could Become a Boiling Pot for Mussels

4The Long Battle to Stop the Kinder Morgan Pipeline

5Landowners Got One Hill Country Oil Pipeline Moved. But Can They Do It Again?

6Beautiful Ruins: ‘Anthropocene’ Is a Sobering Ecological Prophecy

Most Recent in Border:

1A World Without Immigrant Prisons

2‘We Build the Wall’ Lands in South Texas, Vilifies Priest and Butterfly Refuge

3John Cornyn’s Weaselly Immigration Record

4Activists Rally for the Closure of Hutto Detention Center as Private Contract Rumors Swirl

5When ICE Emptied Out an All-Women Detention Center in Texas, Chaos Ensued

6The Fear—and Hope—of Living in Sanctuary

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Why I Started a Book Club in the Harris County Jail

2Texas’ Method for Funding Courts is a Colossal Waste of Time and Money

3On Rodney Reed Case, Greg Abbott Gets a Political Reprieve

4Having My Period in Prison Was Awful. In Texas, That May Finally Change.

5The Movement to Free Rodney Reed Illustrates the Growing Unease Over Texas’ Use of the Death Penalty

6Potter County Criminal Defense System is Lambasted in a New Report

Most Recent in Education:

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

2The Creature of Martin Creek Lake Won’t Die

3The Cost of Carve-Outs

4Texas Legislature Improves Suicide Prevention in Schools, but Makes Little Progress for Adults

5Texas House Considers Free College For Students Experiencing Homelessness

6‘The Wolf is in the Henhouse’

Most Recent in Health Care:

1The Last Nurse in Memphis, Texas

2The Rural Health Care Crisis, Mapped

3Driving My Life Away

4Scenes from a Rural Hospital’s Final Day

5State Investigators Identify ‘Serious Contractual Violations’ by the Heidi Group

6Critical Condition

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Author William Lopez on How Immigration Raids Inflict Long-Lasting Trauma

2Why a Texas Gun Control Activist is Optimistic About the Chances for Reform

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.

5Floodplain Maps Are Outdated. This Scientist Wants to Change That.

6If a Glacier Melts in the Arctic, the Texas Coast Feels It

Most Recent in Books:

1A World Without Immigrant Prisons

2Two New Books Explore the Limits of the #MeToo Movement in Texas and Beyond

3I’ve Lived in East Austin for 60 Years, and I Don’t Recognize it Anymore

4American Cities Weren’t Revitalized by the White ‘Creative Class.’ Immigrants Made Them Great.

5Short Story Contest Winner: ‘Dear Mr. Gottlieb’

6Author William Lopez on How Immigration Raids Inflict Long-Lasting Trauma

Most Recent in Features:

1The Ghosts of Jefferson

2Little Arthouse on the Prairie

3The Clothes that Make the Man

4Washington Crossing the Rio Grande

5Ghosts of the Baker Hotel

6At Home in the World

Most Recent in Essay:

1Why I Started a Book Club in the Harris County Jail

2A Chain Reaction

3Having My Period in Prison Was Awful. In Texas, That May Finally Change.

4Up From the Desert

5To Understand the El Paso Massacre, Look to the Long Legacy of Anti-Mexican Violence at the Border

6Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: The Broken Wheel Ranch Project

2Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

3Eye on Texas: Loren Elliott

4Eye on Texas: Charlotte Moore

5Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

6Eye on Texas: Ghosts of the City

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

6Options

The Magazine: March 2016

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March 2015, Texas Observer cover

COVER STORY

Free Lunch

by Patrick Michels

Mon, Mar 14, 2016 |

Texas' largest corporate welfare program lets school districts give away unlimited tax breaks — more than $7 billion so far — with only loose state oversight. What could go wrong?Read More

In this Issue

Political Intelligence

by Alexa Garcia-Ditta

Winds of Change

by Naveena Sadasivam

News

Strangest State: A Ghostly Cat, Recumbent Rudeness and a Turtle on the Lam

by Patrick Michels

Winds of Change

by Naveena Sadasivam

CULTURE

Turning Hard Right

by Christopher Hooks

Poem: ‘Poets And Antidepressants’

by Sally McGreevey Hannay

Photos of Dystopia

by Michael Agresta

The New Migrants

by Sarah Smarsh

Columns

by Andrea Grimes

State of Texas

State of Texas: The Hills Have Allies

by Naveena Sadasivam

Loon Star State

Loon Star State: D.C. Forbids Travelers From Texas

by Ben Sargent

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