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The San Antonio Border Security Expo Is Decadent and Depraved
Robot dogs, cocktails, a shooting competition, and more taxpayer money than you can shake a drone at. In late March, hundreds of attendees assembled at San Antonio’s downtown convention center for the 15th annual Border Security Expo, a three-day gathering of the government agents who police immigration and the private-sector vendors who love to sell them expensive things.
Texas Supreme Court Throws Out Protections for Trans Youth
The Texas Supreme Court threw out protections for transgender children and their families today, making it more dangerous to receive gender-affirming care—which includes puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery—as state leaders push to have safe medical interventions deemed “child abuse”. The justices voted unanimously to allow...
Here Are the Latest Environmental Reasons You Must Stop Eating Meat
The Earth is on fire in biblical terms with raging storms, floods wiping out towns, drought, and COVID-19 bringing humanity to its knees. “Don’t mess with Mother Nature” is the clear message. The United Nations’ February 2022 report on climate change says we have reached, or possibly passed, the tipping point. The 2,000-page report finds that the catastrophic impacts of climate breakdown are mounting and could soon outpace humanity’s ability to adaptIt also highlights the inequities this breakdown will bring upon communities most vulnerable to climate impacts, who are the least to blame.
Texas’ White Guy History Project
As if we need more dumbed-down histories. After panicking Texans banned “critical race theory” and books by Black, Indigenous, people of color, and queer authors, Governor Greg Abbott signed the 1836 Project into law last September to create a “patriotic education” to assimilate would-be Texans. A nine-person committee chosen by the governor, lieutenant governor, and the house speaker—all Republicans—will create a pamphlet to be issued with every new driver’s license that “explains the significance of policy decisions by this state to promote liberty and freedom for businesses and families.”
How the War in Ukraine Could Slow Texas’ Energy Transition
Europe’s demand for non-Russian energy is supercharging exports of Texas natural gas. While oil and gas still rule Texas, the state has an increasingly diverse energy sector. As the effects of climate change reach a fever pitch, many in the industry are recognizing that a global transition to cleaner sources of energy is underway, whether the state’s business and political leaders like it or not. Texas already generates more wind power than any other state, and the second-most solar power. The state also has the most new renewable energy capacity commissioned or under construction.
Texas Republicans Crow about ‘Roe’ Reversal, Lament Supreme Court Leak
The state's GOP leaders have heralded the proposed opinion as the rightful return of abortion regulation to the realm of red-state rights. The counterattacks began almost immediately after Politico reported on Monday night that it had obtained a leaked copy of a draft opinion from the United States Supreme Court that would eviscerate the nearly 60-year precedent set by Roe v. Wade establishing abortion as a constitutionally protected right.
Greg Abbott’s Wasteful Border War Is Draining the State’s Coffers
The cost, scope, cruelty, and failure of the governor’s immigration dragnet far exceed that of any of his predecessors. When Governor Greg Abbott announced the launch of Operation Lone Star in March of last year, it seemed to be just the latest in a long string of state-sanctioned border security theatrics. First, in 2005, there was former Governor Rick Perry’s “Operation Linebacker,” which sought to stop Al Qaeda terrorists and other criminals from crossing into Texas. Linebacker was then followed, consecutively, by Rio Grande, Wrangler, Border Star, Drawbridge, Strong Safety, and Strong Safety II. In 2015 came Abbott’s first gubernatorial border operation, “Secure Texas.”
Texas’ Firestorm Future
Photo credit: U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Malcolm McClendon. 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...
Melissa Lucio Is Spared Execution, for Now
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of a possibly innocent woman’s execution on Monday. A lower court will review the evidence. On Monday,the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a stay of execution for Melissa Lucio, just two days before she was sentenced to die. The...
Why Was a Texas Woman Charged with Murder for a ‘Self-Induced’ Abortion? Officials Won’t Say.
Last week, Starr County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Lizelle Herrera on a charge of murder for self-inducing an abortion after a grand jury indictment. A judge set the 26-year-old’s bond at $500,000. Herrera spent two nights in jail before she was released on Saturday after advocates at If/When/How, a reproductive rights group, posted bail from its Repro Legal Defense Fund. As Herrera’s arrest became national headlines, Ramirez abruptly reversed course and filed a motion to drop the case against her.
A Bipartisan Win for Texas: Electric School Buses
Traditional diesel-fueled engines harm kids’ health and pollute the atmosphere. Upcoming state and federal funds aim to help school districts switch to cleaner alternatives. When Congress passed the bipartisan infrastructure law in November, environmental justice advocates—including many parents with school-age kids—breathed a sigh of relief at the inclusion of one provision. The bill provides $2.5 billion to roll out zero-emissions school buses across the country, and another $2.5 billion for school buses that still emit some pollutants but are cleaner than older models. This money will be administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, which is expected to release guidance soon on how school districts can apply for funding to make the switch.
Will Governor Greg Abbott Stop Melissa Lucio’s Execution?
Supporters of the 53-year-old Latina mother hope for a last-minute reprieve. Fourteen years ago, Melissa Lucio was sentenced to death for killing the youngest of her 12 children, Mariah, in Harlingen. She is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on April 27. Unless the courts or the governor intervene before then, she will become the first Latina woman to be put to death in Texas.
A Grandmother Is Fighting for Custody of Her Murdered Daughter’s Child. Will She Be Silenced?
For more than five years, Stephanie Johnson has been battling her daughter’s murderer and his father for custody of her grandson. Soon, she may be barred from speaking out about her plight. On March 23, Barry Hardy, whose son, Shaun, is in prison for killing Anne-Christine Johnson in late...
A Lexicon of the Border Wars
The “Bard of Juárez” and a Tucson artist co-created a glossary of the violence so many have endured. Julián Cardona fearlessly roamed the streets with his camera in tow, photographing corpses and listening to wailing survivors as one of the great chroniclers of an undeclared war between cartels and the Mexican military that has cost thousands of lives in Ciudad Juárez, a sprawling, smoggy city that rises up from the Chihuahua Desert just south of El Paso. Some called him the “Bard of Juárez.” He was a fearless sage—a man to whom many confided secrets—and a bold illustrator of butchery and tragedy. To the very end of his life, he watched and he listened, both as a photojournalist and as an author, filling his head and his notebook with astute observations about the methods Juarenses and others along the border used to cope with the violence unfolding around them.
Filemon Vela Is Just the Latest Texas Congressman to Swing Through the Revolving Door
The Brownsville Democrat is resigning his seat early to take a job with a prominent Washington lobbying firm. Of the 15 members who’ve left the U.S. House since 2018, at least half have gotten into the business of political influence-peddling. Brownsville Congressman Filemon Vela was already on his way...
A Hollow Victory for Texas Oyster Fishers
At a meeting besieged by protest, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission postponed a decision on closing oyster reefs. On Thursday before dawn, about 50 people from oyster fishing families piled into charter buses in Galveston, Port Lavaca, and Seadrift, then drove to the headquarters of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in Austin to protest at a meeting of the agency’s commissioners. There, they held signs and chanted in English and Spanish: “Open the bays!,” “Justicia!,” and “We want to work!”
Take Back the Vote
A version of this story ran in the March / April 2022 issue. Nina Perales has been a civil rights attorney in Texas for 26 years, during which she has litigated two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases against the state’s efforts to disenfranchise Latino voters through redistricting. She currently oversees several voting-rights lawsuits across the nation, challenging voter suppression as vice president of litigation at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), a nonprofit founded in San Antonio in 1968.
The Battle of Beaumont
A version of this story ran in the March / April 2022 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.”
Neither Here, Nor There
A version of this story ran in the March / April 2022 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.”
Kelcy Warren’s Defamation Suit Has Beto O’Rourke Spoiling for a Fight
Texas has strong protections against frivolous defamation suits. Will the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful use them?. At a campaign rally in San Antonio in early February, Beto O’Rourke inveighed against Governor Greg Abbott, directly blaming him for last winter’s deadly grid collapse and his coziness with Texas’ biggest energy players.
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