December 2018

The Texas Observer

Observing Texas since 1954

The Texas Observer2 min readEarth Sciences
Fowling the Water
THE GULF OF MEXICO’S “DEAD ZONE” — A CONNECTICUT-size stretch of ocean where chemical runoff from farms in the Mississippi River watershed feeds oxygen-stifling algal blooms — gets a lot of press. Low oxygen levels spur massive fish kills that disrup
The Texas Observer2 min readAmerican Government
Navigational Hazards
ON A DREARY DAY IN LATE SEPTEMBER, ANA MARIA GARZA CORtez stood in front of a hotel conference room full of worn-out community health workers in San Antonio, trying to get them revved up about Obamacare. Open enrollment through the Affordable Care Ac
The Texas Observer2 min read
No Country for All Them
DONALD TRUMP THINKS THERE’S AN IMMIGRATION CRISIS AT the U.S.-Mexico border. He has no idea what’s coming. Thousands of Central American migrants arrive at the border each month, fleeing both grinding poverty and unchecked gang violence. Increasingly
The Texas Observer1 min readAmerican Government
Say What Now?
THE TERM #FireStanStanart WHO'S USING IT: No one, anymore Ever since the tea party wave of 2010, a mustachioed specter has haunted Harris County elections. With his usedcar-salesman looks, beet-red politics and nonchalance about reporting voting tota
The Texas Observer2 min read
When Prison Reform Goes Bad
IN THE EARLY 1990S, THE TEXAS LEGISLATURE TRIED to build something surprisingly progressive amid the state’s tough-on-crime prison boom: an alternative to prison for low-level felons. Lawmakers reclassified a host of third-degree felony charges, most
The Texas Observer3 min read
Fringe Factor
TITLE/ORGANIZATION President, Understanding the Threat THE CAUSE Making you very, very afraid of Muslims NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENT Trained members of the National Guard and U.S. Marshals Service last year ALLIES Frank Gaffney, ACT for America, Ector Cou
The Texas Observer3 min readAmerican Government
Dear Beto and Julian, Please Don’t Run for President
ARE YOU PLANNING TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT ON THE DEMOCRATIC TICKET IN 2020? IF not, why not? Everyone else is. Seventeen Republicans ran in 2016, and the nominating process winnowed them down to the least qualified and most deranged. Now, Trump looks pre
The Texas Observer2 min readAmerican Government
Texas is Changing
AFTER BETO’S NEAR-VICTORY, A THUMPIN’ in Harris County and surprisingly poor GOP performance in conservative strongholds Tarrant, Williamson and Collin counties, some Republican old heads are trying to make sense of it all. As John Cornyn told the Da
The Texas Observer6 min readBiology
A Nobel Mission
JUST A FEW YEARS AGO, JIM ALLISON WAS CONSIDered something of a “snake oil salesman” by other cancer researchers. The ruddy-faced, scraggly-haired scientist from Alice is used to forging his own path. He fought his high school teachers who refused to
The Texas Observer13 min read
Parks In Peril
IN JULY, ON A 100-DEGREE DAY IN THE DESERT, 562 miles west of Houston, I stood on the concrete bank of the San Solomon Springs Pool at Balmorhea State Park in Far West Texas, one of my favorite places anywhere. The water is so clear, it’s like jumpin
The Texas Observer14 min read
Signs and Blunders
THE NAME OF THE TOWN WAS PORVENIR, or “future.” In the early morning hours of January 28, 1918, 15 unarmed Mexicans and Mexican Americans were awakened by a state-sanctioned vigilante force of Texas Rangers, U.S. Army cavalry and local ranchers. The
The Texas Observer3 min read
Ordinary Magic
PHOTOGRAPHER KEITH CARTER HAS SPENT HIS LIFE REVEALing the magical in the mundane. Born in 1948 in Madison, Wisconsin, Carter moved with his family to Beaumont when he was 3 and, with only occasional interruption, has lived there ever since, document
The Texas Observer11 min read
Plight At The Museum
“LET ME SHOW YOU SOME OF my favorite things,” says Bill Green. It’s just before 10 on a chilly October morning, and we’re standing in the entryway to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, 19 miles south of Amarillo. Outside, on the campus
The Texas Observer11 min read
Expecting Care
When Arianna walked into a church basement in Austin to take a free pregnancy test, she thought of it as a lark, a way to kill time during the long, dull days of life as a street kid. About a month before, she had run away from the Austin Oaks mental

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