Did the Abbott-O’Rourke Debate Change Anything?
The conventional wisdom among the political observer types in Texas about this one and only gubernatorial debate in Texas was that Beto O’Rourke needed to somehow, someway have a breakthrough against an incumbent governor who—despite taking a drastic rightward lurch and presiding over an increasingly…
Austin Nurses Win Largest Hospital Union in Texas
Kellen Gildersleeve, a labor and delivery nurse in Austin, has just helped birth one of the Texas labor movement’s biggest victories in recent memory. Last week, nurses at Ascension Seton Medical Center voted overwhelmingly to join National Nurses United, the largest nurses’ union in the…
Alamo Drafthouse: Far from Fantastic
Over the years, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema has become the multiplex for people who want to see films not only in a safe, comfortable space—but a cool one. The Austin-based, dine-in-theater empire is basically what the Hard Rock Cafe was in the ‘80s and ‘90s—whenever…
A Party Built Entirely on Lies
If Texas Republicans were a restaurant, I’d complain to the manager. If I were a teacher grading their work, they’d get an F. In other words, Texas Republicans don’t deserve even a lone star rating at this point. The GOP’s false statements, unethical behavior, and…
Toxic Texas Revealed
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here. Texas is a notably easy place to set up shop for industrial projects with…
Racist Busing Rides Again – The Texas Observer
A collaboration between palabra and the Texas Observer. Early in the morning of September 15, two buses full of migrants arrived near Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence in Washington DC, sent by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The day before, about 50 migrants came to Martha’s…
Conservatives Against Conservation
The concrete parking lot was radiating heat outside of Mercury Studios in Irving, home of notoriously weepy conservative pundit Glenn Beck’s media empire. A faux colonnade painted on one side of an otherwise unremarkable building presaged the menagerie of kitschy Americana inside, where the far-right…
Criminal Injustice: A View From the Juror’s Box
I reported to the Hays County Government Center in response to a jury summons on June 27, 2022. Little did I know then that I would be selected as a juror on a highly controversial capital murder case, giving me an unexpected and unsettling window…
Can Dave Carney Extend His Winning Streak?
Ahead of the Texas Democratic Party convention in Dallas this July, a series of billboard ads strung along Interstate 35 depicted the elderly face of President Joe Biden morphing—sign by sign—into gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke. Each stage of the highway metamorphosis blared a different phrase….
Arms Makers Target Kids to Boost Sales
In August, authorities in Hondo, Texas, revoked a permit for an NRA-affiliated group to hold its fundraiser on city property. The event featured a raffle for an AR-15, the same assault rifle that slaughtered 21 people in nearby Uvalde last May. At a city council…