September/October 2020

The Texas Observer

Observing Texas since 1954

The Texas Observer2 min readMedical
Dialogue
I’d like to thank the Texas Observer for the article by Isabela Dias (“Telehealth Could Be Great, if Texans Had Access to It,” July 16, texasobserver.org). Folks living in rural areas of our state lack access to mental health services, including tele
The Texas Observer1 min read
The Texas Observer
VOLUME 112, NO. 5 FOUNDING EDITOR Ronnie Dugger EDITOR Tristan Ahtone EXECUTIVE EDITOR Megan Kimble ASSOCIATE EDITORS Christopher Collins, Sophie Novack DIGITAL EDITOR Sunny Sone SENIOR REPORTER AND EDITOR Lise Olsen STAFF WRITERS Amal Ahmed, Michael
The Texas Observer1 min read
Trivia Texas
In June, a Texas Tech architecture professor posted on Facebook calling for the city of Lubbock to change its name. The city is named for Thomas Saltus Lubbock, who joined the Confederate Army and fought to uphold slavery from 1861 to 1862. Which of
The Texas Observer1 min read
Texas Tally
Democrats turned out to vote in record numbers for the primary runoff election in July, despite the ongoing pandemic. Nearly 956,000 Texans voted in the Democratic contests, more than twice the number of voters in the party’s 2018 gubernatorial runof
The Texas Observer9 min read
Political Intelligence
ONE HUNDRED MILES SOUTHEAST OF GALVESTON’S muddy shoreline, the Gulf of Mexico becomes a dazzling, vibrant blue. Deep below the surface, salt domes protrude from the seafloor and some of the healthiest coral reefs in the world have formed on them, ma
The Texas Observer3 min read
Texas Observed
THIS SPRING, IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE COVID-19 LOCKDOWN, MY family joined thousands of other Houstonians in taking advantage of the car-free streets to go for long bike rides. It was surreal. Streets in Houston are for cars, not people, and yet there
The Texas Observer1 min read
Strangest State
Visit texasobserver.org/strangest-state for more “Strangest State” and links to original stories. Got a local oddity or some small-town news to share? Tips are welcome at editors@texasobserver.org. ■
The Texas Observer2 min read
Editorial
LIKE OTHER TRIBAL NATIONS ON THE Plains, the Kiowa Tribe, my tribe, created pictorial records of important events, stories, and people. The accounts, known as sai-guat, can be translated as “calendars.” In many calendars, disease and epidemics are gr
The Texas Observer5 min read
Reform Versus Rebuild
THE UPRISING SPARKED BY THE POLICE KILLING OF George Floyd on May 25 has pushed the debate around public safety into territory that would have seemed unthinkable in Texas just months ago. Howard Henderson, director of the Center for Justice Research
The Texas Observer15 min readAmerican Government
The Wasteland Underwater
A special investigation from the Texas Observer & InsideClimate News Just after dawn on a hot, clear summer morning, Myron “Buster” Spree and his friends eased their flat-bottom fishing boat away from the public pier in Point Comfort and steered into
The Texas Observer12 min read
No Place To Be
DATE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 PAGE 21 The years living on the street showed in Alvin Sanderson’s weatherworn face as he approached the microphone at Austin City Hall last June. His bleach-white hair combed neatly back, the 64-year-old had come to urge
The Texas Observer16 min read
PORTRAITS Of The PANDEMIC
NEARLY SIX MONTHS INTO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, MORE THAN HALF a million Texans have been infected. As of mid-August, more than 9,000 had died. Total cases and deaths more than doubled from July to August. For several weeks this summer, hospitalization
The Texas Observer2 min read
Marsha Jackson Wants to Move Shingle Mountain
ON HOT, HUMID DAYS, WHEN THE wind blows over Shingle Mountain, Marsha Jackson can’t breathe. For three years, a company called Blue Star Recycling has been dumping hundreds of tons of roof shingles in the lot next to her home and grinding them up int
The Texas Observer10 min read
A Monumental Undertaking
THE PARTY DEMETRIA MCFARLAND’S family throws every Juneteenth is so big they usually need at least three trailer-size smokers to cook enough food for everyone. McFarland’s brother-in-law invites extended family each year to his home in the rural East
The Texas Observer11 min read
The Work Is All of Us
FERNANDO RAMOS ARRIVES LATE TO the community center, wheels in, and picks up a guitar, joining his voice with the others: Entre tus manos, está mi vida, Señor. From his wheelchair, Noé Ramirez directs the group. Francisco “Pancho” Argüelles strums a
The Texas Observer1 min read
In Early Fall
The angle is just right. The midmorning light makes the windows shine from across the street and brightens the curves of bottles on the shelves. We are still new-enough awakened from darkness that we are relieved to realize the growing warmth, the wa
The Texas Observer1 min read
Eye On Texas
THE BLACK YEARBOOK IS A FINE-ART PIECE THAT CONSISTS OF MORE THAN 200 IMAGES AND 50 interviews with Black students at the University of Texas at Austin. On a campus of 52,000 students, only 4 percent are Black. The Black student population has flatli

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