Political Intelligence
A Small County Bets Big on Locking Up Undocumented Immigrants
Will Dan Patrick’s Bare-Minimum Effort for Gun Control Go Anywhere?
By supporting expanded background checks for private sales between strangers, Patrick has quickly become a conservative non grata.
Days after a man drove through Midland and Odessa, shooting his AR-15-style rifle out his window at bystanders and killing seven people, Lieutenant Governor Dan...Read More
Dallas Is What Happens When People Can’t Trust Police
Botham Jean’s death led to greater community oversight of the Dallas Police Department. Amber Guyger’s murder trial last month shows why that’s necessary.
On Tuesday night, when activists tried to speak at the first gathering of Dallas’ newly revamped Community Police Oversight Board, police broke up the crowd, ...Read More
The Private Prison Industry (Finally) Faces an Uncertain Future
Traditionally, for-profit jailers have drawn bipartisan support. But Trump, the sector’s ostensible savior, has made the industry a lightning rod.
Donald Trump is a private prison kind of guy. America’s two for-profit titans of incarceration—GEO Group and CoreCivic—pitched in $500,000 for his inaugur...Read More
Trump’s USDA Lets Animal Abusers Off the Hook
A South Texas facility has been repeatedly penalized for violating animal treatment standards. Under newly loosened rules, will it and other offenders be held to account next time?
On June 6, an inspector with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s animal-welfare division made a macabre discovery. At a sprawling animal research facility in...Read More
‘My Congregation Trusts Women’: Progressive Faith Groups Counter Anti-Abortion Narratives
Conservative Texas groups and lawmakers have cited their faith to back abortion restrictions, but polling shows that majorities across many religions actually support abortion rights.
On a scorching afternoon in mid-July, clergy members gathered outside a small unmarked building tucked away in a business complex in North Austin. They filed in...Read More
Texas (Kinda, Sorta) Accidentally Decriminalized Weed. Now What?
How harshly you’re punished for pot possession depends on where you’re caught, even more so now that a new law legalizing hemp has sowed confusion.
Texas lawmakers like to declare themselves leaders on criminal justice reform, but this session they mostly did nothing about it. During the 86th Texas Legislat...Read More
Texas Workers Are Dying on the Job at Alarming Rates
“Literally, we’re not holding employers liable for the lives of their workers.”
In 2017, a worker in Texas died on the job every 16 hours. They died from electrocution, asphyxiation, falls from roofs, exposure to toxins, equipment malfuncti...Read More
A Poor Defense
A countywide public defender's office would've saved Victoria County $1.3 million in its first two years alone. So why did the new DA kill the proposal?
Earlier this year, it seemed as if poor people charged with crimes in a handful of Gulf Coast communities would finally have a fighting chance in court. In Apri...Read More
‘A Mockery of Public Trust’: Bexar Sheriff Cleans House, Angers Deputies’ Union
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar is feuding with his deputies' union in the midst of a bout of scandals.
Javier Salazar has bounced between scandals since he took over the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in 2017. During his first year, the department drew national ...Read More
