“They’re tools. These are testing strips. They’re not expensive. They’re incredibly effective and they’re drastically needed in our community. Having testing equipment so people know what’s in the substance they’re about to use is just so important right now.” https://www.texasobserver.org/fentanyl-test-strips-texas-legislature/
#Texas #TXlege #health #healthcare #fentanyl #drugs #news #HumanRights #USpol #politics
On an average school day, harried students at UT #Austin rush across Speedway to get to class, stopping only to dodge a dangerously fast Lime scooter. On Monday, however, several students made a pitstop to get their makeup done by one of over a dozen drag performers. https://www.texasobserver.org/university-texas-students-day-of-drag-defiance/
“Whenever they try to ban drag, we just put students in drag, bitch.”
New today from Joelle DiPaolo: Brigitte Bandit and other queens staged a joyful protest at the UT #Austin campus over a university ban on #drag performances. https://www.texasobserver.org/university-texas-students-day-of-drag-defiance/
#Texas #politics #USpol #UTAustin #news #education #LGBTQIA+ #trans #transphobia #TXlege #schools
New today from @josephinelee: Sheria Smith, an attorney at the Department of Ed's Office of Civil Rights, described Trump's anti-DEI effort as “witch-hunting school districts and schools that might be providing services that benefited Black and brown or students of color.” https://www.texasobserver.org/beaumont-pepper-spray-school-department-education/
#education #racism #Trump #DEI #politics #USpol #GulfCoast #police #HumanRights #PoliceBrutality #news #Texas
From the archives: School vouchers have proven devastating for #disabled students in #Arizona, one of several outcomes that worry experts now that a similar program will become law in #Texas. https://www.texasobserver.org/voucher-program-arizona-privitization-public-schools-disabilities/
#disability #politics #USpol #HumanRights #education #schools #vouchers #GregAbbott #TXlege #news
“This crazy wind ought to be worth something, right? It really blows down here, and so if we can capitalize on it, I’d love to see it.”
In our magazine: @josephinelee visits a farming community in the Rio Grande Valley that's been rejuvenated by harnessing the power of the weather. https://www.texasobserver.org/willacy-texas-largest-wind-farm/
More than 50 years later, some Houston families still wait for confirmation that their sons and brothers were among the victims of serial killer Dean Corll.
Out this month, the new book from Lise Olsen: https://www.texasobserver.org/the-scientist-and-the-serial-killer/
#books #history #CriminalJustice #science #Houston #GulfCoast
Earlier: At a moment when our institutions of learning seem to be engulfed in flames, incited by right-wing witch hunts of diversity, equity, and inclusion, The Librarians reminds us how we got here and reveals, perhaps, how we can get out. https://www.texasobserver.org/librarians-movie-sxsw-book-bans/
#politics #USpol #books #libraries #documentary #film #movies #culture #censorship #news #Texas
From our magazine: Like most rural counties, not just in Texas but nationwide, Nolan County has no psychiatrists. The lack of providers means that people are more likely to receive care from a general physician with little mental health training, if they receive treatment at all. Sometimes, that absence can prove deadly.
https://www.texasobserver.org/mental-health-crisis-rural-texas
#MentalHealth #Texas #politics #USpol #news #health #GunViolence
From the @texastribune: Two people have been arrested and charged with performing illegal abortions at a Houston-area health clinic, the first criminal charges brought under the state’s near-total #abortion ban. https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-first-abortion-arrests-attorney-general-investigation/
#politics #USpol #KenPaxton #healthcare #CriminalJustice #HumanRights #news #Texas #Houston #GulfCoast
Earlier, from Francesca D'Annunzio: Texas law enforcement agencies and others around the nation are reviving a long-dead "task force" program that led to racial profiling in the past. https://www.texasobserver.org/local-state-police-ice-287g-task-force/
#ICE #police #USpol #politics #Trump #immigration #HumanRights #CriminalJustice #news
Earlier: Yael Schacher. a director at Refugees International and a historian of U.S. #immigration policy. spoke with The Texas Observer about asylum, #border policing, and the parallels between the country’s past and present.
https://www.texasobserver.org/asylum-history-america-trump/
#history #politics #USpol #Immigration #ICE #asylum #news #HumanRights
“People are scared to go out because they go out with their kids, and they don’t want to go to a place where (people are) going to show up with guns to check whether they’re a U.S. citizen or not. That was very upsetting for a lot of people.” https://www.texasobserver.org/ice-raids-abbys-bakery-valley-los-fresnos/
#border #ICE #Immigration #politics #USpol #news #HumanRights #SouthTexas #Texas
“The environment is very cluttered already. Satellites are constantly dodging right and left. As long as we are emitting greenhouse gases, we are increasing the probability that we see more collision events between objects in #space.” https://www.texasobserver.org/earth-orbit-satellites-greenhouse-gases-spacex/
New today: A prisoner watches as guards use Tasers on a naked, mentally-ill woman in a shower, and reflects on their increasing use inside #Texas prison walls..
https://www.texasobserver.org/an-inside-look-at-taser-use-in-texas-prison/
“The goal is to cast vaccines into the shadows. That has deadly consequences.”
Legislators are bent on dismantling our vaccine safety net even as this deadly disease sees a frightening resurgence in our state. https://www.texasobserver.org/measles-outbreak-anti-vax-legislation/
#politics #USpol #Texas #measles #antivax #vaccines #health #healthcare #news #TXlege #Republicans
Previously: Politicians, especially those who grew up in the digital age, have repeatedly learned the hard lesson that you can never truly delete anything from the web.
Take, for instance, Nate Schatzline. https://www.texasobserver.org/nate-schatzline-drag-lege-2025/
#Texas #politics #USpol #news #TXlege #Republicans #transphobia #extremism #drag
“We’ve had the sad circumstance of a young school-age child [dying] of measles. Yet we see these lawmakers doubling and tripling down, filing these bills and advocating for these policies that will harm #Texas children in the long run.” https://www.texasobserver.org/measles-outbreak-anti-vax-legislation/
#politics #USpol #education #antivax #health #children #measles #TXlege
“What we’re seeing is a full-on assault on our state’s immunization program.”
Some lawmakers are celebrating “medical freedom” even as the virus spreads due to low immunization rates. https://www.texasobserver.org/measles-outbreak-anti-vax-legislation/
Jailhouse snitch testimony is considered a red flag by many legal experts. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 256 people who have been exonerated of felonies in the United States since 1989 were convicted in a case using jailhouse informant testimony. Sixteen were from #Texas. https://www.texasobserver.org/david-wood-execution-desert-killer/
#HumanRights #DeathPenalty #CriminalJustice #politics #USpol #news #prison