May 2015 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Texas Politics:

1Amid a National Reckoning Over Racial Injustice, Royce West Seeks to Upset MJ Hegar—and the DSCC

2Doctors Reverse Course, Say Texas GOP Should Cancel In-Person Convention

3The Next Census Could Determine the Future of Port Arthur

4Texas Had a State Office That Could Have Investigated Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Cases. Lawmakers Defunded it Three Years Ago.

5The COVID-19 Disaster Has Made a Mess of Texas’ Open Government Rules

6‘I’m in Limbo Here’: Texans Are Met with an Overwhelmed and Antiquated State Unemployment System

Most Recent in Environment:

1How Texas Lawmakers and Industry Have Weakened Citizens’ Rights to Fight Pollution

2Texas Relaxed Environmental Enforcement During the Pandemic, State Data Show

3Editorial: Air Pollution Was Already Killing Us. Then Came the Coronavirus. Why Won’t the EPA Act?

4City Nature Challenge Can Help Us Find Resilience and Mindfulness at Home

5Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

6COVID-19 is Buying Time for Gulf Coast Towns Fighting Oil and Gas Projects

Most Recent in Border:

1Between Borders

3Along the Border, Witnesses of Smuggling Crimes Are Being Held in Detention, Despite Coronavirus Concerns

4In Migrants Camps Along the Texas-Mexico Border, Close Quarters and Closing Borders Raise Concerns

5U.S. Supreme Court Sides with Trump Administration on ‘Remain in Mexico’

6Following a Protest, ICE Moves Asylum-Seekers For the Second Time in Two Weeks

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Reform vs. Rebuild: Defunding Law Enforcement in Texas

2As COVID-19 Cases Surge, Some Incarcerated People Remain Behind Bars After Making Bail

3A Major Obstacle to Police Reform: The Whiteness of Their Union Bosses

4COVID-19 Has Delayed Programs That Texas Prisoners Need to Get Out

5Why Is APD Responding to Mental Health Crises like Violent Crimes?

Most Recent in Education:

1The New Ensemble

2Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

3Tough Decisions Ahead for School Leaders in Rural Texas

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

5The Creature of Martin Creek Lake Won’t Die

6The Cost of Carve-Outs

Most Recent in Health Care:

1COVID-19 is Surging in Rural Texas, Threatening to Overwhelm Local Hospitals

2He Removed Labels That Said ‘Medical Use Prohibited,’ Then Tried to Sell Thousands of Masks to Officials Who Distribute to Hospitals

3Promising Results Reported for COVID-19 Patients Treated with Plasma Therapy in Texas

4The Traveling Midwife

5In Rural Texas, COVID-19 Contact Tracing is Largely Up to Local Officials, If It Happens at All

6Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins on Battling COVID-19, and the Governor, as Texas Reopens

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Texas Observer Founding Editor Ronnie Dugger Reflects on 65 Years of Publication

2How Katharine Hayhoe Stays Hopeful as the Planet Warms

3Author William Lopez on How Immigration Raids Inflict Long-Lasting Trauma

4Why a Texas Gun Control Activist is Optimistic About the Chances for Reform

5American Health Care is Broken, Especially in Texas. What Can We Do About It?

6Thousands of Rape Kits in Texas Went Untested For Years. Lavinia Masters Is Ending That.

Most Recent in Books:

1In ‘Separated,’ One Journalist’s Close-up View of the Family Separation Crisis

2Lawrence Wright Embraces Pandemic Panic in ‘The End of October’

3Is it Time to Rethink Texas Suburbia?

4What’s a Bookstore for?

5In ‘All I Ever Wanted,’ Kathy Valentine Reclaims Her Narrative

6A New Book on the Sutherland Springs Shooting Explores Resilience, Forgiveness, and Grace

Most Recent in Features:

1Young Texans Keep Spelling Bees Going From Home

3San Antonio Embraces Mandaean Refugees

4The Ghosts of Jefferson

5Little Arthouse on the Prairie

6The Clothes that Make the Man

Most Recent in Essay:

1What the Black Lives Matter Protests Mean for East Texas

2Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

3What’s a Bookstore for?

4Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

5In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives

6Loneliness in the Age of Coronavirus

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Border Tuner

2Eye on Texas: The Broken Wheel Ranch Project

3Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

4Eye on Texas: Loren Elliott

5Eye on Texas: Charlotte Moore

6Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

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

The Magazine: May 2015

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

Navigating a New Reality

by Alexa Garcia-Ditta

Mon, May 11, 2015 |

While lawmakers have filed dozens of anti-abortion bills, a growing group of activists and volunteer-led organizations are providing resources for women seeking access to abortion in Texas. Read More

In this Issue

Political Intelligence

Texas Churches Make Infamous Anti-LGBT Hate Groups List

Too Young to Jail

by Patrick Michels

Can a Socialist Sway Texas Democrats?

by Christopher Hooks

Alamo City Mayoral Race Heats Up

by Christopher Hooks

News

Closing the Gap: Seeking Better Care for Foster Kids in Texas

by Beth Cortez-Neavel

Strangest State: A Twelve-Foot Chair and a Trunk-Load of Shrimp

by Patrick Michels

CULTURE

Direct Quote: An Inside View

by Daniel Blue Tyx

‘I’ve Been There’

by Grady Gaines

Book Review: Austin, Our Austin

Columns

To Save Lives, Close the Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint

by Forrest Wilder

Greater State: The Just-World Theory Paradox

by Michelle Garcia

State of the Media: Building a Better Punditocracy

by Andrea Grimes

Loon Star State

Loon Star State: The Legislature’s New Approach to Ethics

Eye on Texas

Eye on Texas: Cowboys & Cul-De-Sacs