Innehållsförteckning för August 2016 från The Texas Observer

Guns in Dangerous Hands I have been an adjunct instructor at a Texas university for about 10 years (“Campus Carry Concerns Drive Another Texas Prof to Resign,” July 1, texasobserver.org). Over the years, I’ve had at least five students whom I considered to be mentally ill, angry and potentially dangerous. I have had two students who were banned from the campus because of risky, threatening behavior. I would not want these students, or any college students, to be in my class with guns. Mary Weisgerber May POSTED ON FACEBOOK I MOVED TO TEXAS FROM NEW YORK CITY, AND I thought I’d slow down and [teach as an] adjunct. Then this bit of crazy happened. I don’t plan on teaching here now. Robin Kaskey POSTED ON FACEBOOK I ALSO HAVE DECIDED…

“The American people are fed up with the dysfunction in Washington, and Senate Democrats’ decision to block critical Zika funding is yet another example of why. This Democrat filibuster is about blatant politics.” —U.S. Representative Kay Granger, R-Texas, in a press release on June 30. “This bill takes away money that is needed for fighting Ebola and for ensuring access to affordable health care. Plus, it puts on restrictions concerning Planned Parenthood, which is one of our key providers of women’s healthcare in this state.” —U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, to KVUE on June 29. “We are disappointed. It would be a lot better if we had those resources. I have to be honest, our team is stretched quite a bit.” —Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public…

LUBBOCK COUNTY // In June, Mark Lee, owner of the Slide Plant Market on Farm to Market Road 41, posted a message for passing motorists that some said is inappropriate in any season. “Crooked Hillary would be a fucking disaster,” the sign outside his shop read. No laws govern the use of harsh language outside the city limits, and Lee told KCBD in Lubbock that he doesn’t understand why people were so upset by his roadside F-bomb. “What’s so offensive about it being up on a sign when little kids are using it all the time?” he wondered. “I’m not a profane man, but some things just need to be said and I can say whatever I want. It’s my right.” After days of critical attention, Lee relented, sort of.…

TEXAS’ CHILD WELFARE APPARATUS IS IN A shambles. Zika virus threatens to put some of our most vulnerable in danger. Low oil prices have fiscal leaders worried about the future of the state’s budget. State lawmakers are facing accusations of rampant abuse of taxpayer funds in the form of unsanctioned “emergency leave” policies for certain employees. Our attorney general has been indicted on felony fraud charges. Climate change, as ever, threatens the environmental and economic survival of our communities. ¶ And yet Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is worried about who’s using the bathroom. The Houston talk radio host and bar owner-turned-statesman has been traveling across Texas, fomenting fear about transgender people, including kids at school, using restrooms for nefarious purposes. The narrative worked when it came to defeating a Houston…

“He took up a collection, enlisted a high school shop class to do the sawing and painting, and in 2011 planted the 18-foot-long sign in the grass along Highway 80.” IF IT HADN’T BEEN FOR WILL ROGERS, THE EAST Texas town of Hawkins might still be best known for its annual “Good Ol’ Days Celebration” or the 1995 legislative proclamation that named it the Pancake Capital of Texas. (Lillian Richard, who spent decades portraying Aunt Jemima in Quaker Oats ads, was born here in 1891). Those and other modest distinctions are listed in the town’s promotional brochures that promise “Tranquility… In East Texas.” But in the past few years, since Rogers arrived, tranquility isn’t what has put Hawkins on the map. No relation to the beloved humorist and moralist of…

IN JUNE, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Texas’ House Bill 2, one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. But the damage was already done. Data released by the state health department in the wake of the decision confirmed what the plaintiffs in Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt had contended: HB 2 drastically reduced Texas women’s ability to access abortion and it had a disproportionate impact on poor women of color. More than 20 abortion clinics shut down after HB 2 was passed in 2013. Those clinics cannot be reopened overnight and some will never return, pro-choice advocates said.…

YOU ARE HOLDING IN YOUR HAND THE LAST MONTHLY ISSUE OF THE Texas Observer. Beginning in September, we will publish six issues a year — part of a carefully considered restructuring that will allow us to continue to grow online while deepening the quality of our print publication. What’s not changing is our commitment to the Observer as a community of readers, of Texans who look to us as a hub for forward-thinking reporting and commentary. We will not be publishing fewer stories or investigating with any less determination, but instead reaching readers in new ways across multiple platforms. ¶ Over the past 61 years, the Observer has changed with the times. In our earliest days, we were a weekly newspaper that took the fight to the state’s entrenched conservative…

Earlier this summer, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced plans to build a 381-acre artificial reef in the Gulf off of Matagorda Island, the largest one ever built. The $1 million project — a combination of state and private money — will include 500 concrete pyramids 70 feet underwater. For more than half a century, Texans have been dropping things in the Gulf to build up fish habitats. Which of these has not been used in state-sanctioned reef projects in the past? a. ships b. trailer homes c. vending machines d. refrigerators e. shopping carts…

I DON’T THINK OF MYSELF AS A PARTICULARLY SENTIMENTAL GUY, BUT HILLARY Clinton’s declaration that her campaign leviathan would push to “flip Texas” in November put me in a nostalgic mood. Back when the 2014 Texas Democratic Convention was getting underway, I walked onto the patio bar at the Dallas Omni and saw a senior member of the Wendy Davis campaign I hadn’t met before. The fellow was from out of state, so I asked him: What brought you to Texas? I expected some partly-sincere answer about coming to fight for Wendy’s crusade. Instead, he told me it was money. The money was great. ¶ Looked at one way, the honesty might have been refreshing, but he kept going: Someday, with all that scratch, he wanted to open up a…

IF YOU FOLLOW ABORTION POLITICS IN TEXAS — AND MAYBE EVEN IF you don’t — you probably know that passing anti-abortion legislation is not just one of our lawmakers’ top priorities, it is also one of their top skills. ¶ In 2011, Texas passed a mandatory sonogram and waiting period law meant to shame and scare Texans out of obtaining legal abortions. Then, in 2013, anti-choice leaders bested a 13-hour filibuster that brought thousands to the Capitol in opposition to abortion regulations that the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down as unconstitutional. And in 2015, conservative lawmakers went after what little access to legal abortion was left for abused and abandoned teenagers, forcing many to make a difficult, and maybe impossible choice: Revealing a pregnancy to an abusive parent (or,…

WHEN GREG ABBOTT RAN FOR GOVERNOR, HE HAD BEEN in statewide office for nearly two decades, and we still didn’t know him all that well. We knew his biography, but it was harder to discern what animal spirits drove Mr. Abbott. Rick Perry’s rootless ambition and Dan Patrick’s manic lust for the spotlight made them familiar political characters, and made it easier to predict their next moves. If there is a Grand Unified Theory of Greg to be found, it has yet to present itself, a year and a half into his tenure as governor. ¶ Abbottology takes a half-step forward with Broken but Unbowed: The Fight to Fix a Broken America, Abbott’s entry in the peculiar category of politicians’ books. Part memoir, part political tract, these books typically contain…

With every stroke the white paint splatters back down on me. It melts into my skin, Buelito’s coffee hands pour more paint into my pail. He urges me to continue painting our house. I ask him, Why are you black? With a worn-out half smile, he says, Guerito, my mother, she didn’t love me. One day, when I was a baby, she forgot me outside. I got burned up. That’s why I’m not guerito like you. Against his dark skin his hazel eyes are lost. From his words, Someday we’ll be done, laughter streams, like his blood, from him to me as we walk around the white house. My soles settle into his footprints. He pours gasoline on my hands and shows me how it is best used to cleanse…