March 2016 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Texas Politics:

1Life and Death in a Texas Homeless Camp

2For Greg Abbott, All the Border’s a Stage

3How Far Can Texas Democrats Take the Quorum Break?

4After Kelcy Warren’s Energy Transfer Partners Made Billions from the Deadly Texas Blackouts, He Gave $1 Million to Greg Abbott

5Texas House Republicans Vote to Track Down Absent Democrats and Arrest Them If Necessary

6Greg Abbott’s Summer Special Session Sideshow

Most Recent in Environment:

1Samantha Montano Has ‘Disaster Vision’

2Battleground Plant

3In West Texas, Astronomers Worry About Growing Oilfield Light Pollution

4After Kelcy Warren’s Energy Transfer Partners Made Billions from the Deadly Texas Blackouts, He Gave $1 Million to Greg Abbott

5Communities of Color in Houston Will Face Another Hurricane Season Without Adequate Flood Control

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

Most Recent in Border:

1Two Years After Walmart Mass Shooting, El Paso Leaders See Inaction and Betrayal by Texas Officials

2For Greg Abbott, All the Border’s a Stage

3Moments From the Reopening of Balmorhea Pool

4Undocumented Immigrants Continue to Be Expelled From the U.S. Under Title 42 COVID-19 Measures

5Follow the Money

6Siguiendo La Ruta Del Dinero

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:

1Texas Veterans Homes Overseen by George P. Bush Were Often the Deadliest Places to Be During COVID-19 Pandemic

2The People’s Scientist

3Profit Before Patient

4Texas Expands Access to Medical Cannabis—But Advocates Say It’s Not Enough

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

6Editorial: Even ‘Turning Texas Blue’ Won’t Fix Us If We Don’t Face Some Hard Truths

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:

1Battleground Plant

2An Irreversible Sentence

3Editorial: Look Down Ballot for Democratic Wins in Texas

4What the Black Lives Matter Protests Mean for East Texas

5Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

6What’s a Bookstore for?

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: March 2016

Subscribers to the bi-monthly print and digital editions of the Texas Observer get the first look at our in-depth, investigative reporting before it’s published online. Subscribe today so you don’t miss out! Visit our archives for more past issues.

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