The Texas Observer December 2018

The Border is Everywhere Melissa del Bosque is one of the best investigative journalists on the planet (“Checkpoint Nation,” October|November issue). Well worth reading every word of this in-depth report. Genie Mitchell FORT DAVIS This heart-stopping story is my biggest fear writ large and why, even with my centuries-deep roots here, I travel inside the United States with my passport, “not because I’m afraid to go to Mexico … I’m afraid of coming back to my own country.” Bernestine Singley TAOS, NEW MEXICO Lyin’ Ted’s Legacy SUPERB ARTICLE THAT ALL TEXAS VOTERS NEED TO READ (“Ted Cruz’s Do-Nothing Record,” October| November issue). Think really hard about what you want a member of Congress to do for the state, the nation and your community. Do you want tangible results (e.g., improved…

“This is just wrong. It’s a public waterway, not a drainage ditch for a bunch of factories.” 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 disrupt the region’s lucrative fishing industry. The dead zone grew to its largest size ever in 2017. But you’re less likely to hear about dangerously low oxygen levels in rural waterways hundreds of miles inland. In East Texas, the nation’s biggest chicken-growers pump large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus — the nutrients responsible for excessive algae growth — into rivers and lakes. The wastewater can also contain harmful bacteria and pathogens. The Environmental…

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 Act exchanges runs from November 1 through December 15 in Texas — leaving little time to get the word out. “We are not here for some luxurious job,” Cortez laughed, urging everyone to “be creative” with their budgets, extend their hours into evenings and weekends, find partners in the community and vote. “We are a necessity,” she said. Then she started crying. Enrollment advocates like Cortez, a leader of Enroll SA, a coalition of health care groups that promotes sign-ups through the ACA, can be forgiven for feeling…

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, they’re also escaping a threat they might never mention to immigration agents: climate change. A narrow strip of land flanked by oceans, Central America is one of the world’s most environmentally vulnerable regions. “It’s an area hit by hurricanes on both sides, rocked by volcanic eruptions, drought, earthquakes, and with accelerating climate change, it’s even more vulnerable,” said María Cristina García, a Cornell University professor of American studies who’s writing a book about climate refugees. Central America hosts both spectacular catastrophes — Hurricane Mitch displaced 3 million people in 1998 — and slow-burn…

Robot sex brothels are now banned within Houston city limits. After Canadian company KinkySdollS announced plans to open its first U.S. location in the Bayou City, City Council moved quickly and unanimously to block it. Which of the following is not banned in Texas? a. Selling one’s own eye b. Holding public office if you’re an atheist c. Modifying the weather without notifying a newspaper d. Milking someone else's cow ANSWER: D. Milking someone else’s cow was illegal in Texas (and carried a maximum $10 fine) until 1973.…

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 totals, Stan Stanart bedeviled Texas politicos during his nearly eight years as county clerk. On election nights, early-voting totals flooded in from other urban counties: Dallas, Tarrant, Travis. But the website of Texas’ most populous county stared back blankly, refresh buttons be damned. The frustration even led a Houston digital strategist in 2012 to create a hashtag, #FireStanStanart, that became a recurring theme. In an interview with the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board in October, Stanart ventured an answer for his office’s lethargy: “There’s really not too much we can do,” he said. The paper…