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Poem: At the Lindale, Texas Post Office I Ask for a Book of Stamps
A version of this story ran in the March / April 2023 issue. It’s been the greatest pleasure to select poems for the Texas Observer for approximately the past 28 years. Thanks to many editors—Ronnie Duggar, Lou DuBose, Geoffrey Rips, and more—who welcomed the voices of poets in these esteemed pages. I’m making room for a new poetry editor now, with thanks for your readership. And don’t forget, poetry is often a palate-cleanser!
Abbott Aims to Pardon Racist Murderer Who Sent Explicit Texts to Apparent Minor
The governor didn't even wait a single day before calling for the potential pardon of racist murderer Daniel Perry. In the days following Abbott’s public pledge to pardon Perry, unsealed documents from the case, including Perry’s web searches and text messages, would reveal that he had made racist comments, previously considered killing people involved with racial justice protests, and most inconveniently for Republicans who have jumped on the “anti-groomer” bandwagon, had inappropriate text exchanges with an apparent 16-year-old girl after searching for “good chats to meet young girls.”
Turning Anti-Asian Hate into Law
My dad, an immigrant from Iran, bought our childhood home before he was a citizen of the United States. My parents still own this home where their four kids grew up, and where their grandkids now splash in the pool and ride their bikes around the driveway. When I read the text of SB 147, a xenophobic bill seeking to prohibit the right to own property based on national origin, I immediately thought of that house and everything it took to get there.
The Path to a Safe Abortion Gets Narrower—Again
Large numbers of Texans are turning to out-of-state help to end their pregnancies safely. But now that option is under siege. Prine said most callers are looking for help on how to properly take the medication or reassurance that their symptoms are normal. Other times, callers reach out when they’ve had a miscarriage but are fearful they’ll be interrogated and possibly criminalized for their pregnancy loss if they go to a doctor.
Mexican Cotton Farmers Struggle Over Genetically Modified Seed Rules
For almost a decade, Cornelius Letkeman Banman has produced cotton in El Oasis, a desert-like town in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, where the climate is perfect for growing one of the country’s most economically significant crops—in fact conditions are so ideal, the state has become the country’s leading producer.
Austin PD’s Bad DNA Analysis Nearly Cost This Man His Life
Billy Faircloth was sentenced to 60 years in prison, but an appeals court overturned his conviction. On March 29, the Court of Criminal Appeals—the state’s highest criminal court—overturned the conviction of Billy Faircloth, who was sentenced to 60 years in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2012. The state’s case against him relied on bad DNA analysis—a rampant problem in Austin under the regime of the defunct APD DNA lab.
The Who Behind ‘Where Wolf’
In Robert Saucedo’s horror-comedy graphic novel Where Wolf, a lycanthrope is racking up quite the body count in College Station, prompting journalist Larry Chaney to track it down. The hunt also provides Chaney relief from the occupational “ennui” he’s experiencing. His search soon puts him in touch with the local furry community, where the part-man, part-canis lupus assailant has gone to blend in—and to feast.
Tallahassee My Texas
DeSantis, boy wonder of the Sunshine State, availed himself of a GOP power vacuum that opened after Trump’s 2020 presidential loss, becoming the front-runner among 2024 Republican presidential contenders whose names don’t end in rump. That status was further solidified by his nearly 20-point blowout reelection in 2022, making Abbott’s own 11-point drubbing of Beto O’Rourke look downright quaint.
‘School Choice’ Is Just a Ploy to Defund Public Ed
The latest front in Christian nationalists’ battle to undermine separation of church and state. Vouchers and voucher-like schemes have been floated repeatedly by Republican legislators over the years, and just as repeatedly have been shot down by the combined opposition of Democrats, rural Republicans, and public school advocates. This time, however, GOP leaders are going all out to make vouchers—in the form of education savings accounts (ESAs)—a reality here in Texas under the sunny mantra “school choice.” As Rev. Charles Foster Johnson, founder and executive director of Pastors for Texas Children, told the Texas Observer, “‘School choice’ is a deceptive misnomer” because the choice lies not so much with parents as with the private schools, which “are highly selective about who they enroll and who they do not enroll. They will not take the economically disadvantaged, at-risk, special needs, socially and emotionally challenged child because it is too expensive to teach that child.”
Mireille Enos Found ‘Hope’ in Lucky Hank
The Sugar Land born actress talks about her training at Houston’s prestigious Kinder High School for the Performing And Visual Arts. She earned a Tony nomination in 2005 for her portrayal of Honey in the dark comedy drama Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf. Then, in 2011, Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her performance as homicide detective Sarah Linden in the acclaimed crime thriller series The Killing. At the same time she’s also drawn acclaim for her work on Big Love, Hanna, Good Omens, and The Catch, while also appearing in the films If I Stay, Never Here, Gangster Squad, and World War Z.
‘We Are in a Crisis’: Texas Public Schools on the Edge
Vouchers and property tax cuts strike at a public school system already hemorrhaging hard-working employees. In early March, the old sewage pipes of a Houston public middle school broke. By noon, there were only two bathroom stalls for 1,200 students. At 2 p.m., sewage water started leaking out into the hallways. Teacher Traci Laston tried to push ahead instructing her class, but the students couldn’t focus.
More Than Just a Number
A version of this story ran in the March / April 2023 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 their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”
Dallas’ Evidence Fiasco: An Exoneree’s Lawyer Speaks
Cheryl Wattley helped free Richard Miles, who spent more than a decade in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Marano’s trial had been set for January, but it was postponed when it was discovered a DPD detective had failed to turn over hundreds of pieces of video evidence before trial. The detective had improperly saved the pieces of evidence, causing nearly 20 files to be permanently deleted and many more to be lost in the ether. Now, the case is once again stalled after a visiting judge last week removed Judge Amber Givens, who presides over the court, after she criticized prosecutors for failing to notice the evidence was not turned over to defense attorneys.
Dragging Democracy into the Future
As the Texas Observer survives to muckrake another day, Steven Monacelli highlights the battle for fundamental rights happening in the Lone Star State. South By Southwest (SXSW) has been described by the scandal-ridden consulting firm McKinsey as a “contradiction” for remaining forward-looking and innovative into its third decade. As a first-time attendee of the massive annual conference, I can’t speak much to how SXSW 2023 compares to the past or whether it’s truly maintained its youthful spirit in spite of its age. But even to my fresh eyes, contradictions presented themselves time and time again during my five-day stint in and around the Austin Convention Center.
The Texas Observer Lives!
After a terrifying near-death experience, we live to muckrake another day. On Sunday, I was playing hide-and-seek with our 95-proud Golden Retriever when I got a call from Sewell Chan, editor-in-chief of the Texas Tribune. He sounded harried, urgent: “Gabe, I hate to mix business and friendship, but we have a 2,300-word story coming out. It’s sensitive. We’re being respectful and going into the full history. You’re in the story.”
Olive Klug’s Melancholy Mood: A Visit with TikTok’s Nonbinary Folk Music Star
“They're trying to sell us and sell to us, but they're also trying to kill us.”. The rich draperies and fancy fixtures of the Victorian Room at Austin’s historic Driskill Hotel feel more suited to high tea than a folk music set from a rising young social media star, but that’s where we found Olive Klug playing on a Saturday night at the tail end of the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival earlier this month.
Confronting Queer Oppression in Moscow … And America
Queendom, a documentary that recently premiered at the SXSW film festival, should leave viewers—especially LGBTQ+ viewers—shaken. It’s difficult to view a documentary like Queendom as a member of the queer community, much less write about it, without noticing certain feelings arising. Most notable of those feelings is alarm. It is as much a profile of Gena, a queer artist and activist in Russia, as it is a cautionary tale and call to action for queers in America. Events in the film unfold like omens, and director Agniia Galdanova lets them stand for themselves without embellishment.
The Voting Vendor in Reality Winner’s Leak Is Coming to Texas
News of South Texas native Reality Winner is on the rise. Last month, it was the stage-to-film adaptation Reality receiving high praise at its Berlinale world premiere, leading HBO Films to acquire rights for a release expected no later than May. By year’s end, it’s the arrival of the Codebreaker Films documentary, United States vs. Reality Winner. Meanwhile, production has already wrapped on the dark comedy Winner. Headlines keep coming.
To our Texas Observer Community
This afternoon, the Texas Democracy Foundation has unanimously voted to rescind previous votes for layoffs. We have secured near-term pledges to bridge our immediate budget shortfall and feel confident that there is time for the Texas Observer to determine its future, thanks to the extraordinary success of the staff’s fundraising this week.
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