Most Recent in Texas Politics:

1The Lege This Week: Abbott Lets His Mask Slip

2The Lege This Week: Adventures in Circular Finger Pointing

3The Lege This Week: Out Cold

4The Lege This Week: Senators Poke, Prod and Punch Paxton

5The Lege This Week: Amid Pandemic, Abbott Prioritizes Red Meat

6The Lege This Week: Texas Redistricting Will Be A Summer Showdown

Most Recent in Environment:

1Biden Plans to Ban All New Fracking Leases on Public Land. Will He Actually Do It?

2The Sunniest City in Texas is Expanding … Natural Gas Production

3What to do With a “Tidal Wave” of Texas Wind Turbine Blades

4Teens for a Green New Deal

5Why the South Is Organizing Its Own Green New Deal

6Solar Energy is Hitting a Growth Spurt. So Is The Disinformation Around It.

Most Recent in Border:

1How Texas Courts Went Virtual

2In ‘At the Ready,’ Latinx High Schoolers Train to Be Border Patrol Agents

3Forgotten for Over a Century, Border Hero Jovita Idár Is Rediscovered by Her Hometown of Laredo

4Deaths in ICE Custody Skyrocketed During the COVID-19 Pandemic

5Local Organizers Explain the Republican Surge in South Texas

65,000 People Contract COVID-19 While In ICE Custody, Including This Father Of 5

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Clogged Toilets, Snow Inside: How the Winter Storm Exacerbated Problems in Texas Lock-Ups

3Exploring the Rise, Fall, and Lingering Trauma of the Death Penalty in Texas

4Anatomy of a Crime

5Fort Bend County Will Soon Have Its First Black Sheriff Since Reconstruction

6How Texas Jails Avoid Investigations of Inmate Deaths

Most Recent in Education:

1The Long, Winding Road that Led to the SBOE’s Decision for Texas Schools to Teach Abstinence-Plus Sex Education

2Efforts to Save What’s Left of Mary Allen Seminary Reveal The Challenges of Preserving Black Placemaking in Texas

3Texas Has the Widest Digital Divide in the Nation. What Does that Mean for the School Year?

4The New Ensemble

5Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

6Tough Decisions Ahead for School Leaders in Rural Texas

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Portraits of the Pandemic: Part Two

2Editorial: Texas Wasn’t Prepared for the Statewide Vaccine Rush

3COVID-19’s Deadly Toll on Texas Workers

4COVID-19 Response has Been Starkly Different for Indigenous Communities in Texas

5After Sarah Davis’ Election Defeat, Texas Reproductive Health Advocates Worry About Losing a Powerful Republican Ally

6For Families That Lost Loved Ones or Jobs to the Pandemic, Thanksgiving Carries an Extra Weight This Year

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:

1“Wings of Ebony” Brings Black Girl Magic to Life

2A New Book Celebrates the Work of Architect John S. Chase

3The Flâneur of Downtown Dallas

4Remembering a Jewish Upbringing in Meyerland, Texas

5How Texas Women Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment

6A New Short-Story Collection Imagines a Texas Town’s Secession

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:

1Editorial: Look Down Ballot for Democratic Wins in Texas

2What the Black Lives Matter Protests Mean for East Texas

3Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

4What’s a Bookstore for?

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

6In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives

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:

1Poet Claudia Delfina Cardona on Her Debut Poetry Chapbook

2Author Saeed Jones on Empathy, the Power of Memoir, and Growing up Gay in North Texas

3Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

4Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

5Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

6Parallel Planes

Articles tagged: Mike Villarreal

by Christopher Hooks

Leticia Van de Putte, Ivy Taylor Advance to Runoff in San Antonio Mayor’s Race

Sat, May 9, 2015 |

San Antonio voters narrowed their field of mayoral contestants on Saturday. It's a contest that has big consequences for the Democratic Party....Read More

by Christopher Hooks

Alamo City Mayoral Race Heats Up

Tue, Apr 28, 2015 |

Following local scrutiny of San Antonio’s strict campaign finance laws, San Antonio mayoral hopeful Leticia Van de Putte has decided to cut her campaign funds...Read More

Leticia Van de Putte

by Christopher Hooks

Why Leticia Van de Putte Wants to be San Antonio Mayor

Tue, Jan 20, 2015 |

Can Democrats turn the cities into a launchpad for their statewide aspirations?...Read More

by Forrest Wilder

A Last-Ditch Effort to Rein in Payday Loans

Wed, May 8, 2013 |

In a last-ditch effort to salvage payday loan reform, Rep. Mike Villarreal called on a recalcitrant Texas House committee to send legislation to the House....Read More

by Forrest Wilder

Payday Loan Reform Faces Uphill Battle in House

Tue, Apr 30, 2013 |

Late into the night, the payday loan industry strutted its stuff before a very friendly House committee. The hearing came just a week after the Senate passed a ...Read More

by Emily Mathis

‘Only One Life’: Confronting LGBTQ Discrimination in the Workplace

Wed, Apr 24, 2013 |

Reps. Johnson and Villarreal authored duplicate bills, HB 238 and HB 1146, that would propose to prohibit workplace discrimination against LGBTQ employees....Read More

House Approves Major Bill Cutting Testing, Adding Career Focus to Degree Plans

Wed, Mar 27, 2013 |

After hearing more than 100 amendments, only Rep. Mark Strama (Austin-D) and Rep. Naomi Gonzalez (El Paso-D) voted against HB 5. ...Read More

Villarreal Wants State to Study Quality of Federally Funded Tutors

Tue, Mar 5, 2013

State Rep. Mike Villarreal (D-San Antonio) wants the state to give parents to get more information about federally funded tutors. He tried to sell his idea to t...Read More

On School Finance, Texas Republicans Still Say Less is More

by Patrick Michels

Mon, Nov 12, 2012

Despite all evidence to the contrary, some conservative lawmakers argue that they actually increased school funding. It’s a dishonest myth with incredible sta...Read More

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