AltWeeklies Wire
The Strange and Scary Story of the North Central Texas Fusion Systemnew
Fusion centers arose amid post-9/11 efforts to get local and state law enforcement involved in anti-terrorism. The meteoric rise of this confoundingly complex and patchwork system has scary implications for privacy and civil liberties.
The Texas Observer |
Forrest Wilder |
04-08-2009 |
Policy Issues
Curtis Severns Is Serving 27 Years for an Arson He Almost Certainly Didn't Commitnew
Over the past 15 years, many unscientific assumptions about how fire spreads have turned out to be wrong. Using newer methods, an arson expert has helped exonerate dozens of people wrongly convicted of arson. He believes Severns was railroaded.
The Texas Observer |
Dave Mann |
04-08-2009 |
Crime & Justice
One Day in Dallasnew
Adam Braver’s book deserves to be known; it ranks first among novels focused on the death of JFK.
The Texas Observer |
Don Graham |
03-12-2009 |
Fiction
You Have the Right to Sue. Right?new
The American citizen’s access to trial by jury—taken for granted as it is—plays a salutary role in curbing corporate abuse. It should be no surprise that such access is under attack, or that the battle reached a fever pitch during the Bush years.
The Texas Observer |
Dave Richards |
03-12-2009 |
Nonfiction
Who's Making Our Medicine?new
To treat everything from allergies to heart problems, half of Americans take a prescription medicine every day. It’s perfectly safe, though, because the Food and Drug Administration regulates the ingredients, right?
The Texas Observer |
Jim Hightower |
03-12-2009 |
Science
Why a Texas County Is So Eager to Get Dumped Onnew
Waste Control Specialists LLC has spent the last 20 years pulling political, business, and regulatory strings to do what no other company in the nation has been able to do in three decades: license and build a new radioactive waste dump.
The Texas Observer |
Forrest Wilder |
03-12-2009 |
Economy
Unseated by Republican Redistricting, Five Former Texas Congressmen Cash Innew
An investigation has discovered that the Texans whom Tom DeLay gerrymandered out of Congress have proven even more likely than the average member of Congress to become lobbyists.
The Texas Observer |
Andrew Wheat |
03-12-2009 |
Politics
Corn Ethanol is Fueling Controversy ... Except Among Democratsnew
Mounting opposition to corn ethanol, and the spreading global food crisis, pose a serious question for President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Washington: Will they attempt to slow or reverse the ethanol mandates?
The Texas Observer |
Robert Bryce |
02-18-2009 |
Environment
Can Janet Napolitano Stop the Border-Fence Boondoggle?new
We talk to border residents and lay bare the private contracts that have soaked up alarming amounts of government money, much of it wasted.
The Texas Observer |
Melissa del Bosque |
02-18-2009 |
Immigration
'Dynamite Club' Revisits the Bomb Heard 'round the Worldnew
John Merriman examines how an 1894 anarchist bombing in Paris kicked off the age of modern terrorism, and what we stand to learn from the bomber.
The Texas Observer |
Tom Palaima |
01-16-2009 |
Nonfiction
Austin Activist Admits He Infiltrated RNC Protest Groupnew
Brandon Darby has acknowledged that he provided information to the FBI leading to the arrest and felony indictment of two Austin men who participated in protests last September at the Republican National Convention.
The Texas Observer |
Renee Feltz |
01-07-2009 |
Politics
'Slavery by Another Name' Examines Post-Civil War Convict Labornew
Douglas Blackmon argues -- passionately, forcefully and convincingly -- that by any measure, blacks in the states of the former Confederacy saw their freedom so warped and constrained in the decades after the Civil War that the overwhelming majority were not in any meaningful way free.
The Texas Observer |
Todd Moye |
12-17-2008 |
Nonfiction
How Obama's Ground Game Helped Him Win North Carolinanew
In the run-up to February's Super Tuesday primaries, no one guessed that North Carolina could, in the early morning hours of Nov. 5, become the 28th state to declare for Obama.
The Texas Observer |
Lawrence Goodwyn |
12-17-2008 |
Politics
Ike Was Bad for Galveston's Poor, but it Might Get Worsenew
The hurricane devastated the city's North Side, an historic African-American community. Four of the area's six housing projects have been condemned and many residents have lost everything. Will the community be rebuilt or will it suffer the same fate as New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward after Katrina?
The Texas Observer |
Forrest Wilder |
12-17-2008 |
Disasters
The Latino Factor: How Ethnic Bias Distorts Texas Electionsnew
There is compelling evidence that ethnic bias skewed Texas' 2008 statewide judicial election results. Some voters, with little else to go on in these low-profile races, appear to have cast a vote against Latino surnames. You've heard of the Bradley Effect. Call this the Latino Factor.
The Texas Observer |
Forrest Wilder |
12-03-2008 |
Politics
