Tag Archives: Houston
Strangest State: October 2017
Weird news from far-flung Texas.
FORT WORTH // When he caught a thief in his walk-in freezer, a restaurant owner slammed the door and locked him in while waiting for cops to arrive. Francisco I...Read More
ICE Detained a Pregnant Rape Survivor for Six Months, Records Show
ICE has detained 525 pregnant women since last October, which advocates call part of a troubling trend under Trump.
Carolina Ramirez had spent three weeks locked up in a prison-like detention center north of Houston when she discovered she was pregnant. It had taken the 23-ye...Read More
The Case to End Assembly Line Justice for Poor People in Harris County
A case heard by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals this week could change the landscape of American bail practices.
On October 1, 2016, police arrested Andrew Goodson for carrying a knife just short of 6 inches long, a Class A misdemeanor in Texas. The next day, guards brough...Read More
Loon Star State: ‘Harvey Who?’
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ben Sargent takes on the Texas Legislature's response to Hurricane Harvey....Read More
Even Hurricane Harvey Can’t Temper GOP Hostility Toward Texas’ Big Cities
Governor Greg Abbott scoffed at Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s request for emergency funds, saying he "has all the money that he needs."
On August 4, less than a month before Hurricane Harvey made landfall, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick appeared on the Fox Business Network with a diagnosis for ...Read More
Costs for Rural Towns Surge after Hurricane Harvey Hits Water Systems
In Patton Village, some residents went weeks without access to clean drinking water, and now their sewer system is running on a “Band-aid.”
Patton Village had just started using its new $10 million wastewater treatment system when Hurricane Harvey wrecked it last month. Floodwaters fried the pumps...Read More
Bound to Pay
Does a company that puts ankle monitors on undocumented immigrants provide a helpful service, or a debt trap for desperate people?
The first person Rosy Valdez met when she left the immigrant detention center in Houston was a middle-aged man, who waited for her in the parking lot holding a ...Read More
Body Cam Policies in Texas Exacerbate a System Designed to Protect Police, Critics Say
Civil rights advocates worry interpretation of a 2015 body camera law could help cops avoid prosecution as much as it ensures police accountability.
The senator who drafted the sweeping-but-little-noticed body camera law that the Texas Legislature passed in 2015 called his bill a blueprint for other states w...Read More
ICE Detained This Trafficking Victim on Her 18th Birthday. Why?
Under Trump, advocates say agents increasingly show up at government-run youth shelters to detain 18-year-old immigrants who used to go free.
Around 4 a.m. on August 22, the immigration agents came for Ana. It was her 18th birthday. For the past seven months, she had been living in a shelter for immig...Read More