I have long been bothered about the constitutionality of random checks of motorists by police. I, of course, like the idea of drunks being off the streets and not behind the wheel of vehicles, but I don’t like the concept of giving police authority without probable cause. I agree that Read more…
Guest post by Gary Scharrer Texas is headed for the ditch, but few people are aware of the state’s perilous path. The demographers have seen the future, though, because it’s in their numbers. And they’ve been sounding the alarm. But any meaningful reaction has been stifled by those willing to Read more…
There was a moment in the Ann Richards campaign against George W. Bush when I knew in advance she had lost. The late governor was speaking to a Girls’ State assembly, which is a little legislature created annually for high school students to meet for a day and learn about Read more…
Anyone who has watched, even from a remove, the rulings of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, is not surprised by the decision to uphold the new restrictive Texas abortion laws. It is, however, slightly baffling that three of the justices were women, and that the Read more…
You never know who’s watching your tweet stream. Or maybe you should assume someone is that might have a question or two. During a trip last week to the Rio Grande Valley, a political activist informed me that U.S. Senator Ted Cruz had made only one visit to the region Read more…
Far out on the west side of Hidalgo County, the land is dark and rich and flattened into an alluvial plain by ancient floods in the Rio Grande Valley basin. There is no end to growing season this close to the Mexican border and the fields are only barren between Read more…
We lived in a small house, 850 square feet, six kids, Daddy and Ma. The neighborhood was all southerners that had moved north to work in the factories. Daddy told me late in his life that he had left the sharecropping of cotton in Mississippi to move to the unknowns Read more…
While Ted Cruz was happily meeting with home schoolers in Iowa, the residents of the Rio Grande Valley in his home state were getting ready to sign up for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Cruz, a Republican, has been to Iowa four times in the eight months Read more…
(McAllen, Texas) – We flew down on a cold January day. A dome of Canadian air that seemed to collapse from the arctic top of the world had reached all the way to the sub-tropical region of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Nothing kills in the tropics as Read more…
Those of us who write, either for income or pleasure, are constantly asked about where we get our motivation and determination. Writing, of course, is a discipline that requires an output of product on a regular basis to achieve a final vision. William Styron was quoted more than a few Read more…
You can’t, or at least you should not, debate science. By definition, science is factual information that has stood theoretical tests with data that stands up to consistent scrutiny. The idea that evolution is a theory, and ought to be taught, as Texas conservatives insist, along side creationism, is patent Read more…
The people promoting Texas as a location for business constantly push the idea that the state does not have an income tax. While that has some appeal, newcomers learn that there are property taxes that are almost punitive, and that force homeowners to carry the tax burden for corporations. Not Read more…
God apparently wants creationism taught in Texas public schools. Or at least the Texas Tea Party does. Conservative and semi-crazy State Senator Dan Patrick won a big victory over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the state’s Republican primary, and appears likely to defeat the eleven-year incumbent in the May runoff. Read more…