The latest edition of The Texas Observer states that the 32-mile long island of Galveston, Texas, was dubbed by the New York Times as the "Lone Star equivalent of the Hamptons." But barrier islands have their own agenda. The sea is inexorably laying claim to the island, nibbling at the beaches, drowning wetlands, and inching up the seawall that protects the eastern third of the island. The Observer talks to those who would fight Mother Nature (with giant fiber socks filled with sand) and those who would bend to her will.
www.texasobserver.org
Other new stories include:
Feature - Sticking point
When Josè Ernesto Medillin was arrested for murder, he told authorities that, while he had been raised in the United States, he was a Mexican by birth. According to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, detained foreigners must be told "without delay" that they have a right to let their consulate know they have been arrested. Medellin did not know of this right, and Houston authorities were either unaware or unwilling to clue him in. Medellin's case, now at the U.S. Supreme Court - and 53 similar cases - have created a judicial train wreck that has ensnarled state, federal, and international courts of law for more than a decade.
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2619
Editorial - Too much hot air
An unassailable majority of the world's scientists believe that climate change is real, yet our president and the governor of Texas insist it's not true. We don't have time for this nonsense anymore. It's time to sound out every candidate for public office and stop electing people who want to take us down with them.
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2616
Political Intelligence - Spying and splurging
A Quiet Victory This last April, the Observer exposed the fact that Gov. Rick Perry had personal control of the Texas Data Exchange, or TDex, a database containing information on millions of Texans. On October 10, the governor's office quietly, and for unknown reasons, signed over all control of TDEx to the Department of Public Safety. Regent to Nowhere Rick Perry recently appointed James Dannenbaum to the University of Texas System Board of Regents. But his company, Dannenbaum Engineering, is currently embroiled in a border scandal that involves a $21 million bridge that doesn't exist. Cell Game Voters almost always approve amendments to the Texas Constitution, but they need to pay special attention to Proposition 4, which proposes to build (but not fund) three new prisons. Are they being built to further the political ambitions of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst? Fund Folly The most expensive proposition on the November ballot is Proposition 12, which provides for bonds up to $5 billion issued by the Texas Transportation Commission. While the Texas Department of Transportation pleads poverty, a large chunk of the more than $14 billion state highway fund is being used for purposes that don't actually have anything to do with putting down asphalt.
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2621
Books & the Culture - A Mexican Steinbeck's Work Resurfaces
Recently published in English for the first time as Under the Texas Sun, Conrado Espinoza's 1926 novel El sol de Texas chronicles Mexican immigration to the United States. A Tex-Mex precursor to The Grapes of Wrath, Under the Texas Sun similarly uses the travails of migrant worker families to drive home a social message.
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2622
News Release: The Texas Civil Rights Project has named The Texas Observer this year's recipient of the Molly Ivins "Give 'Em Hell" Award.
Books & the Culture - Studs on Studs
Steve G. Kellman looks at Studs Terkel's Touch and Go: A Memoir. Studs sums up his own life in a deprecating phrase: "I'm a disc jockey who happens to have written some books," but he'll be well remembered as someone who "celebrated the lives of the uncelebrated."
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2623
Books and the Culture - Some People You Need to Know
Alan Pogue explores Fine Line: Mental Health/Mental Illness, an ongoing exhibit by San Antonio photographer Michael Nye. Nye spent four years photographing and tape-recording subjects as they talked about their experiences with mental health and illness.
Afterword - Back in the UAE:
Ruth Pennebaker reflects on her recent trip to Dubai, where she hoped to encounter a newly international city that aspires to the best in commerce, mass transit, and government. Ruth, however, returned from Dubai with a new outlook on the booming city - one that could correlate to the massive construction in her own town, Austin.
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2615
And, of course, Jim Hightower's column, poetry, and more...
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Contact: Julia Austin at 512-477-0746