September 2015 - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Politics:

1Texas Lawmaker Sponsors Far-Right Rally Against ‘Far-Left Violence’

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

3In Their Rush to Appear Pro-Israel, Texas Lawmakers May Have Stepped on Free Speech

4How Anti-Abortion Activists are Training Their ‘Next Generation of Pro-Life Leaders’

5In New ‘Spray Box’ Decision, Sid Miller Dances Himself Right Back to Where He Started

6The Christian Right’s Politics of Cruelty

Most Recent in Environment:

1Bordering on Empty

2Climate Change is Making Texas Summers Worse. Here’s Who That Hurts the Most.

3Out of Sight, Out of Water: The U.S. and Mexico Have Only Just Begun to Grapple with the Aquifers They Share

4Trump’s Border Wall Could Decimate These Rare Species

5The Texas-Mexico Border Wall Comes with a Dangerous, Costly Side Effect: Flooding

6In a Warming World, the Fight for Water Can Push Nations Apart — or Bring Them Together

Most Recent in Border:

1Bordering on Empty

2Out of Sight, Out of Water: The U.S. and Mexico Have Only Just Begun to Grapple with the Aquifers They Share

3The Texas-Mexico Border Wall Comes with a Dangerous, Costly Side Effect: Flooding

4In a Warming World, the Fight for Water Can Push Nations Apart — or Bring Them Together

5100 Ways to Draw a Line

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

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: September 2015

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March 2015, Texas Observer cover

COVER STORY

That Sinking Feeling

by Christopher Hooks

Mon, Aug 31, 2015 |

Ken Paxton’s rapid ascent from state representative to state senator and then to the attorney general’s office in the span of just three years has been an object lesson in the dysfunctions of contemporary Texas politics.Read More

In this Issue

Political Intelligence

McAllen Catholic Church Continues to Open Its Doors to Central American Migrants

by Melissa del Bosque

Progreso ISD Fights State Over Students’ Residency

by Patrick Michels

Dallas Ranks No. 3 in Nation for Rate of Fatal Police Shootings

News

King’s Gambit

by Patrick Michels

That Sinking Feeling

by Christopher Hooks

CULTURE

‘Deep Web’ Probes Mastermind Behind Online Black Market

by Josh Rosenblatt

Insurgent Medicine

by Daniel Blue Tyx

Columns

State of the Media: Joining the GOP Circus

by Andrea Grimes

The Borderlands, So Far from Austin

by Forrest Wilder

Greater State: Rick Perry Emerges as GOP’s Voice of Reason

by Jason Stanford

State of Texas

State of Texas: Behind Bars with a Mental Illness

by Alexa Garcia-Ditta and Teresa Mioli

Loon Star State

Loon Star State: Ken Paxton Wants a Piece of the Action

Eye on Texas

Eye on Texas: Bastrop Wildfires

by Spencer Selvidge