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A Last Stand for Texas Oyster Fishers
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,...
Houston’s Hayan Charara Plumbs the Politics of the Personal
A version of this story ran in the March / April 2022 issue. When I first glanced at the title and the winsome botanical illustrations on the cover of a new book by Houston-based poet Hayan Charara, I expected a collection of nature poems. Charara does write lyrically and compellingly about the natural world. But that isn’t the focus of These Trees, Those Leaves, This Flower, That Fruit. Rather, this is poetry of the human condition, which Charara describes as “a composite / of violence, vengeance, and theft, / ingenuity, too, and forms of love unique / to men and women.” These Trees is also a potently political work.
Will the Next Texas Land Commissioner Forget the Alamo—and Focus on More Important Duties?
From coastal resilience to disaster recovery, candidates for land commissioner could transform the position from a political stepping-stone into a force for good. For the first time in eight years, the election for land commissioner is wide open, with the outgoing Commissioner George P. Bush running for attorney general against incumbent Ken Paxton. Bush has come under fire for not taking his post seriously, and treating it merely as an audition for more prestigious elected offices. In 2015, he infamously minimized the importance of the General Land Office (GLO) by comparing running for land commissioner to running for state “dog catcher.”
Guardian of the Guard
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.”
The Murderer’s Little Boy
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,...
‘What We Leave Behind’ Is a Beautifully Understated Migration Story
And an exciting feature debut for Texan director Iliana Sosa. What We Leave Behind, a documentary feature that premiered last week at South by Southwest, is arresting from the start. Julián Moreno, 89, reclines languidly on a living room couch, chewing something, his thin face riven with the thick lines left behind by time and labor. He’s come to see family in El Paso, but he’s eager to get home. His granddaughter, the filmmaker, asks him why. “Here, I plunk down on the couch and watch TV all day,” he says, in a rural Mexican Spanish that compresses and blurs. “I wonder what I’m doing here, so I go back.”
‘I Don’t Know Where It’s Safe’: Family of Trans Child Who Dined With Ken Paxton Is Facing Child Abuse Investigation
This story was originally published by The 19th. When the case worker asked to inspect the house, Amber and Adam Briggle first led her to the kitchen. They opened the cabinets to show they were full of food. They moved on to the dining room. Every Sunday the Briggles and...
The State of Paxton v. Bush
What’s worse for a Republican in 2022: To be an alleged felon, or to bear the same last name as Jeb and the Georges?. In 2014, under the pall of fraud allegations, then-state Senator Ken Paxton hauled in just under 45 percent of the GOP primary vote as he secured first place against a pair of establishment-aligned opponents in his bid for Texas Attorney General.
Texas Democratic Voter Participation Dipped in Primaries, GOP Voter Turnout Increased Slightly
Turnout was slightly down among Democrats from the 2018 gubernatorial primary, while Republican turnout increased by 1.44 percent. Midterm primaries usually don’t rally voters to the polls in the same measure as other elections. True to form, voter turnout for Texas’ “first-in-the-nation” primaries followed this already established trend.
Houston Is Hailed as a National Success for Fighting Homelessness. But the Reality Isn’t Quite as Rosy.
Before the sun was up one misty morning in mid-January, Joshlyn Caldwell, age 51, roused the five unhoused people she let sleep in her north Houston apartment—a man, a woman, and a young family of three. The men helped Joshlyn, who has been disabled since a 2010 car accident, limp down the stairs from the second story, and everyone piled into her dark gray SUV, arriving a little before 9 a.m. at the Beacon, a nonprofit downtown that connects people to homeless service providers across the city. The line in the courtyard outside the housing office was around nine people long, with one person receiving service inside. This made Joshlyn nervous. Next to the office door, a sign stated the housing department sees the first 20 to 30 people for assessment, depending on the number of available assessors each day. But sometimes it’s less, she told me. “It depends on how they feel.”
The King of Laredo Lives to Fight Another Day in May Runoff
In an extremely close contest, South Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar narrowly escaped loss, but missed outright victory. Back in 2004, Henry Cuellar was running for Congress after a failed bid two years before, waging a bitter primary battle against San Antonio incumbent Ciro Rodriguez. By election night, it looked like the incumbent had narrowly held on and that Cuellar’s political career might be over. But after a contested recount, Cuellar ultimately prevailed by the razor-thin margin of 58 votes.
Rio Grande Valley Voters Face Stark Choices in May Runoffs
From Henry Cuellar’s reelection to the fight to succeed Eddie Lucio, multiple progressive women advance to runoffs as the RGV ponders its political status quo. The Rio Grande Valley, the four-county region at Texas’ southern tip, tends to elect a certain kind of Democrat: generally men, often conservative on issues from abortion to fossil fuels. This year, a new class of contenders including strong women candidates and progressives—along with an invigorated GOP—are threatening that status quo. Tuesday’s primary results have only sharpened these political contrasts, offering Valley voters a number of stark choices in the May 24 runoffs.
Who killed Dean and Tina Clouse—and where is their baby?
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,...
Democratic Statewide Primaries Show the Party is Indecisive–Except For When It Comes to Beto
In most statewide races, Texas Democrats split their votes in crowded fields and most races will go into runoffs. But O'Rourke will be the Democratic gubernatorial candidate with 91 percent of the vote. On Tuesday, Beto O’Rourke swept the vote as the Democratic gubernatorial primary winner, while other statewide Democratic...
In GOP Primaries, Abbott Crushes Opponents While Paxton Forced into Runoff
Abbott’s shameless lurch to the right pays off, while Paxton may finally pay a price for clownish corruption in a runoff battle. In the first real primary challenge of his roughly 30-year political career, Governor Greg Abbott rushed to the right on nearly every political matter possible in order to outflank a stable of conservative primary challengers.
Progressive Greg Casar Trounces Competition in Central Texas Congressional Primary
Longtime State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, meanwhile, flops. With about 60 percent of the vote, ex-Austin City Council Member Greg Casar—a staunch progressive and former labor organizer endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—trounced his competition Tuesday evening in the Democratic primary for Texas’ Congressional District 35. “Our campaign has built...
My Abortion Experience Inspired Me to Fight for Underage Youth
In Texas and 37 other states, minors seeking confidential reproductive health care must get a court order. They should be entrusted to make their own medical decisions. Sitting in my car, I went through the mental checklist before my appointment: fill up my gas tank to get to Kansas City, Kansas, from my apartment in Lawrence, ask my co-worker Tim to cover my shift at the bar that afternoon, and reschedule my morning meetings at my second job. I also needed to find my driver’s license, confirm there was still enough money in my checking account to cover the required three appointments, and pack Goldfish crackers that my sister told me would help with the constant nausea.
Jill Biden’s San Antonio Visit Highlights Childcare Challenges for Military Families
The First Lady visited an Air Force daycare to discuss the concerns of service members whose children have disabilities. On Wednesday, First Lady Jill Biden stood in a colorful preschool classroom at the Gateway Child Development Center inside San Antonio’s Lackland Air Force Base, as the young children of service members showed off their counting skills. Afterward, military staff and families joined Biden in a discussion about service members’ access to childcare, particularly for children with disabilities.
Brownsville Cops Arrest Activist for Anti-SpaceX Graffiti, Mayor Posts Her Info on Facebook
Why did police show up in force to apprehend a local activist, and why is the city’s top elected posting her mugshot and job details on social media?. Bekah Hinojosa was still in her pajamas Wednesday morning when she heard a knock on the door. Probably just FedEx, she thought, though the knock did seem a bit loud. When she peeked through her peephole, she saw a swarm of men. “Who is it?” she inquired. They were Brownsville police officers, she soon realized, there to initiate what would become a traumatic 24 hours for Hinojosa that would end in her border city’s mayor posting her mugshot and employment status on social media—all for the alleged crime of a little protest graffiti.
A Superthreat to the Gulf Coast’s Lavaca Bay
Lavaca Bay, a steel, gray waterway along the Central Texas Coast, is home to one of the most notorious Superfund sites in Texas—a huge, abandoned industrial plant complex (and island full of dredge materials) that leaches toxic mercury into surrounding waters, creating a zone where, for decades, the fish has been too dangerous for humans to eat.
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