Tabla de contenidos para August 2017 en The Texas Observer

Writing on the Wall The border fence/wall with Mexico will endure as one of the United States’ most shameful moments (“Over the Wall,” June issue). In 1987, President Reagan chided Soviet President Gorbachev, telling him in a public speech to “tear down this wall,” the fence being long regarded by people as a symbol of oppression and injustice. Then a mere 20 years later, we decide border walls are a good thing. John Herron AUSTIN Suffer the Children WITH UMPTEEN THOUSAND KIDS NEEDING HOMES, TO the extent that they are sleeping in offices, why not restrict the pool of available families (“Recipe for Discrimination: Legal Battle Brews Over New ‘Religious Refusal’ Child Welfare Law,” July 5, texasobserver.org texasobserver.org)? What could possibly go wrong? Judy Burns BUDA AS LONG AS I…

JACKIE SCHLEGEL TITLE/ORGANIZATION Executive Director, Texans for Vaccine Choice THE CAUSE Fighting for the freedom to not vaccinate children NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENT Easing vaccine exemption provisions at the Texas Legislature ALLIES The House Freedom Caucus, homeschoolers and tea party activists MONEY QUOTE “Every day I walk these halls with the opposition, who is fighting to take away your rights. They say they are fighting for vaccines, but the truth is they are fighting to take away your rights, your liberties and your choice.” IN 2015, JACKIE SCHLEGEL, A COFFEE-FUELED MOTHER OF three, launched Texans for Vaccine Choice with what she later described as “a group of mad moms in minivans.” Angry over a bill that would’ve made it harder for parents to opt their kids out of vaccinations, Schlegel and other…

HI. I’M MIKE KANIN. I’M THE NEW PUB- lisher of the Texas Observer. Before I got here in late May, I was the publisher of the Austin Monitor, an online outlet that is now a go-to source for Austin political news. The Monitor established itself with creative approaches to everything from subscriptions to media partnerships to the games we helped design in an attempt to make municipal policy (it’s OK to yawn) more relevant. Creativity remains the watchword for those of us on the business side of media. My challenge now is to honor what’s great about the Texas Observer while taking a hard look at how we can improve our business practices so Observer editors and reporters can do their best work. Growing our audience is also good for…

IN TODD MILLER’S PRESCIENT new book, Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security, the Tucson journalist and author travels the globe to document how climate disasters are uprooting people from their homes. Miller visits the Philippines in the wake of 2013’s devastating Typhoon Haiyan, as well as Central America and other global hot spots, documenting a rapidly changing world of rising sea levels, melting ice caps and border walls guarded by machine gun-toting men. He walks on a pilgrimage with climate activists to the United Nations’ climate summit in Paris, where a former Filipino negotiator turned activist tells Miller a grassroots movement is the only solution to push wealthier nations to act: “Solidarity is not an alternative, it is not an option, it is our only chance.” Despite…

“WHERE Y’ALL FROM? IS THIS YOUR first time here?” The door to the Robert E. Howard House and Museum in Cross Plains swings open, and a volunteer in a red polo shirt greets a group of visitors. The clapboard house’s narrow hallway is noisy and crowded with travelers from Dallas, New York, California and Japan. They’ve come to envision the home as it was in the 1920s, when Howard lived here with his physician father and chronically ill mother. In a porch converted to a tiny bedroom, he typed up to 12 hours a day, spinning stories about his most famous character, Conan the Barbarian, along with other fantasy stories, Westerns, boxing stories, pirate stories, horror stories and “sword and sorcery,” a genre Howard is credited with inventing. Just outside…

Republicans who are repelled by people like Rinaldi have a problem: They depend on the votes of the people who cheer him on. WE SPEND A LOT OF TIME LOOKING FOR WHAT’S HUMAN and what’s kind in our politics, but it’s usually more important when someone shows us the opposite. To that end, Texans owe a great debt of gratitude to state Representative Matt Rinaldi of Irving, the lawmaker who punctuated a cruel and unhappy legislative session by calling ICE on immigration protesters, bragging about it to his Latino colleagues and then threatening to put a bullet in the brain of another lawmaker. Rinaldi’s allies tried to move swiftly past the incident, but it ought to be remembered as a moment when the GOP’s mask slipped. Rinaldi is supposed to…

My husband’s cousin died last week and it was sad for so many reasons. She was loved by her family and will be missed. Then people began to say goodbye to her on Facebook. Writing sweet farewells to her as though there was a Facebook page in Heaven being turned by winged creatures. Is there a Facebook page in Heaven? Who turns the pages? Can you unfollow someone? Is there anger in Heaven or any emotion? Are there emojis in Heaven? For if there are I would like to send one a questioning face.…

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ “Our country has made great strides in dismantling prejudicial laws that have deprived too many of our fellow Americans of their precious rights. Sadly, that is not the case in all parts of our nation, even in the 21st century.” —California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, in a June 22 statement announcing a ban on state-sponsored travel to Texas over a new law that would allow faith-based foster agencies to refuse to place children with LGBT or non-Christian foster or adoptive parents. “I can’t blame California. We’re rapidly moving back in time. Our maternal death rate is the highest in the country, we’ve made adoptions partially illegal, and access to public toilets is restricted unless someone looks at your genitals.” —Facebook comment by Lauren Janelle on a Texas Tribune…

LUBBOCK // Texas Tech University will soon begin giving birth control to pigeons. The university spends more than $100,000 per year trying to deter the birds from nesting on the campus, operations VP Sean Childers told KLBK. Starting this fall, staffers will fill bird feeders with a tasty blend of cracked corn and OvoControl, a commercial product that prevents the birds’ eggs from being fertilized. “We’re hoping to humanely decrease the population by 90 to 95 percent,” said Erin Bohlander, a graduate student studying natural resource management. LEVELLAND // Two friends riding in a pickup truck were startled to see a surprise visitor wriggle out from under the hood. Swade Moyers and Zakary Wyatt were on State Highway 114 when a bull snake crawled out onto the windshield. In a…