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The Texas GOP Has Declared War on Books. I’ve Seen This Before.
A decade ago, in March 2012, a group of writers, artists, educators, and activists banded together to combat the deplorable actions of Arizona’s state legislature. The state’s lawmakers had recently passed a bill making the teaching of “Ethnic Studies” illegal, along with banning courses that “promote resentment toward a race or class of people” and “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.” The bill also created a list of banned books. Of the more than 80 books that were eventually added to the list, many of the authors were Black and Latinx.
Is Beto Just Another Doomed Texas Democrat?
Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”. Articles cannot be rewritten,...
Inside the U.S. Capitol Insurrection
Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”. Articles cannot be rewritten,...
Pandemic Without Borders
Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”. Articles cannot be rewritten,...
Are the poor subsidizing the University of Texas?
A new documentary alleges that $280 million reserved for indigent healthcare and hospitalization in Austin has been improperly diverted to Dell Medical School. In November 2012, Austin voters were asked to approve a proposition that promised to expand health care for the poor. They approved a ballot measure creating a pool of $35 million in tax money each year for the nonprofit Central Health, an agency charged by the state with funding indigent health care and hospitalization in Travis County. Voters were told that the money would go to a new medical school at the University of Texas, where the poor would be treated.
Why the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Needs Texan Johnny Nash
Years ago as music editor for the Houston Press, I compiled a list of the top 100 songs with strong associations to Houston—songs about the Bayou City or songs written or performed by Houstonians. I placed Johnny Nash’s 1972 megahit, “I Can See Clearly Now” near the top of that list, saying:
Political Retirements Will Paint Texas a Fresh Coat of Red in 2022
The state’s newly redrawn political maps set off an exodus among Democrats and moderate Republicans. If you thought 2021 was brutal, 2022 may be worse. The Texas Legislature’s prolonged reign of terror ended on an acrimonious note this year as Republicans rammed through new redistricting maps. Like a...
The Texas Observer’s Best Longform Stories of 2021
Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”. Articles cannot be rewritten,...
Love—and Casseroles—in the Time of COVID-19
During the pandemic, once-ordinary dinners with friends take on new meaning. I confess I felt suspicious when my neighbor, a native Texan and gourmet chef, asked to borrow two nine-by-thirteen inch baking pans. What was D’Arcy cooking up this time? She wouldn’t explain, though I knew that Sunday she would host one of our regular dinner and movie parties. Each month, we move to a different house where one member fixes food to accompany a film. The longtime gatherings, which we’ve moved to porches and backyards since March 2020, have become a kind of lifeline during the pandemic.
Follow the Money: Part III
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COLLAB Results
This engagement project was spearheaded by Black women with a generational legacy inextricably connected to Texas’s beginnings. We are not only witnesses to but share the historical brunt of a state predicated on white supremacy and the silencing of oppressed people. The purpose of this project was to take...
How Code Enforcement Fuels Displacement in San Antonio
Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”. Articles cannot be rewritten,...
The Observer Recommends 10 Texas Books of 2021
Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”. Articles cannot be rewritten,...
COVID-19 Robbed Me of the Joys of Teaching
Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”. Articles cannot be rewritten,...
The Supreme Court Lets SB 8 Stand, But Allows Abortion Providers Their Day in Court
In an 8-to-1 ruling, the Justices ruled that lawsuits against Texas’ anti-abortion law could proceed, but left women in the state to suffer its consequences in the meantime. In a highly anticipated 8-to-1 decision issued this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court failed to block Texas’ draconian abortion law, Senate Bill 8. However, in a very small victory for clinics, the Court did allow abortion providers to challenge the ban in lower courts.
Pauline Oliveros Emerges From The Underground
A version of this story ran in the December 2021 Special Double Issue issue. The mythos of Pauline Oliveros begins, in many tellings, underground. In the fall of 1988, the Houston-born composer and accordionist crawled with her friend, composer Stuart Dempster, into a 2-million-gallon cistern below a decommissioned U.S. Army base in Washington state. What was so special about this particular cistern? It had a 45-second reverb time, which meant that it took nearly a minute for sound to fade away. Oliveros and Dempster, along with two other musicians, carried their instruments 14 feet down a manhole to play. The result was the project that was, in many ways, the culmination of her life’s work: “Deep Listening.”
The EPA Placed a Texas Superfund Site on its National Priorities List in 2018. Why Is the Health Threat Still Unknown?
This story first appeared in KERA News and Inside Climate News. It is the first in a series produced with the support of Investigative Editing Corps as part of a pilot project with Report For America. The Beltrán family always stocks two to three cases of bottled water in the...
Fragile Evidence
A version of this story ran in the December 2021 Special Double Issue issue. Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for...
Justice Department Enters Fray, But Only Congress Can Fix Racist Gerrymandering in Texas
A new lawsuit adds federal weight and resources to an increasingly uphill battle for fair maps. On Monday, the Biden administration jumped into the scrum of lawsuits challenging Republican gerrymandering in Texas, asking a federal judge in El Paso to block new maps that dilute political power for the state’s fast-growing Black, Hispanic, and Asian communities.
The Export Boom
A version of this story ran in the December 2021 Special Double Issue issue. Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for...
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The Texas Observer is an Austin-based nonprofit news organization known for fearless investigative reporting, narrative storytelling and sophisticated cultural criticism about all things Texan.