Waiting Out the Storm in Prison
Fri, 26 Jul 2024 14:18:03 +0000
James Guevara has ridden out three hurricanes sheltered in-place in Texas prisons. Hurricane Beryl, which blew into Texas on July 8, knocked out power at the prison where he lives, among several other Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) facilities. The lights went off at Ramsey, a maximum-security prison in Brazoria County where Guevara lives, […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/waiting-out-beryl-in-prison/
Loon Star State: ‘Hail to the…’
Thu, 25 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000
To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section or find Observer political reporting here.
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https://www.texasobserver.org/loon-star-state-emperor/
Greg Abbott Compares Hamas Attacks to Texas Border Crossings at Sheriffs’ Conference
Wed, 24 Jul 2024 18:32:59 +0000
In a speech Tuesday to attendees at the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas’ 146th annual training conference and expo in Fort Worth, Governor Greg Abbott compared attacks on Israel by Hamas—the militant group that killed around 1,200 Israelis on October 7—to crime and immigration in Texas. “Long before even the war began, Israel was suffering challenges […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/abbott-hamas-sheriffs-border/
The Banality of Border Evil
Tue, 23 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000
William Hanson is not your typical biographical subject. Dead for nearly a century now, Hanson was never famous, nor did he ever hold elected office. He was not an underappreciated artist or a forgotten do-gooder. He was a corrupt mid-level bureaucrat—less a mover of history than a man moved by it, ever pursuing his own […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/banality-of-border-evil/
Their Laws. Our Bodies.
Mon, 22 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000
On the morning of June 24, 2022, the federal courthouse in downtown Dallas was reinforced with boards and fences. Protests were anticipated to follow the news that the Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade. For Texans like me, that would mean already-tight restrictions would turn into a near total ban on abortion. Though it […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/their-laws-our-bodies/
Loon Star State: ‘Demolition Man’
Fri, 19 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000
To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section, or find Observer political reporting here.
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https://www.texasobserver.org/loon-star-state-demolition-man/
The Wages of Inequality—Behind Bars
Thu, 18 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000
Editor’s Note: Harris, the author of this essay, is incarcerated at the Lane Murray Unit in Gatesville. The following piece is drawn from her memory of events in approximately 2010 at another unit. Before being released into the general prison population this May, she spent over eight years in solitary confinement. One hundred and five […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/the-wages-of-inequality-behind-bars/
Hunger Was Already Bad Enough. Then Beryl Hit.
Wed, 17 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Amid the widespread destruction, brutal heat, heavy rains, and ongoing outages along the Gulf coast, relief organizations are scrambling to ensure people stay fed in the wake of Hurricane Beryl. Ever since the storm made landfall near Matagorda, causing millions to […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/hunger-hurricane-houston-beryl/
Mike Miles Moved Texas School Funds to Colorado Through a Possible Shell Corporation Without a Paper Trail
Tue, 16 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000
Houston Independent School District (HISD) Superintendent Mike Miles claims to be a financial wizard. But controversy has followed the former military man-turned-school administrator to nearly every Texas school district he’s served. In 2012, he was hired as superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) and was found the following year to have violated district […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/hisd-houston-mike-miles-tea-public-schools-texas/
Texas Plans to Execute Man After Courts Refuse DNA Tests
Mon, 15 Jul 2024 14:16:19 +0000
Update: On July 16, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Ruben Gutierrez a stay of execution just 20 minutes before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection. The stay gives the high court time to decide whether to take up Gutierrez’s case to allow post-conviction DNA testing. Less than a week after an NPR investigation […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/ruben-gutierrez-execution-texas/