For decades, residents of impoverished Mexican border towns have toiled in the cotton and alfalfa fields or in the giant factories of Juárez. Those seeking more than paupers’ wages worked for the cartels. Yet their communities remained peaceful until the horror of the drug war bled into the farmland. As the violence worsens, law enforcement has rushed to both sides of the Rio Grande — but greater security brings little comfort and little hope.
July 2010
Posted in
Higher Education
Naming Rights
The University of Texas once admired Ku Klux Klan organizer and law professor William Stewart Simkins. Today the UT System’s regents meet to consider whether the tree-shaded all-male residence on San Jacinto Boulevard that bears his name still should.
Posted in
Demographics
The Weekly TribCast: Episode 37
In this week’s TribCast, Ross, Elise, Ben and Brandi discuss the issues framing Texas politics this week — education, immigration and campaign finance numbers.
Posted inState Government
Ads Infinitum: Nothing for Texas?
In new web videos released today, both gubernatorial campaigns are accusing the other of failing to bring anything to the table that benefits Texas.
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: Musical Chairs
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has shuffled the chairs in the Texas Senate.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Cornyn Says No to Kagan
The senator says Kagan has not made clear she would “protect the fundamental rights written in our constitution.”
Posted in
Public Education
The Brief: July 14, 2010
Don’t look now, but things just got substantive in the governor’s race.
Posted in
Demographics
Floundering and Flourishing
Depending on whom you ask, anywhere between 100,000 to half a million Juarenses have left Mexico since drug violence exploded in 2008. In a tragic irony, neighboring El Paso is flourishing economically as Juárez descends further into terror.
Posted in
Energy
Back on the Ban-wagon
As BP tests the latest attempt to plug its runaway oil well, the Obama administration is taking another shot at forcing a pause in deep water drilling. This week, the government issued a new moratorium on some kinds of drilling in the Gulf… after a federal judge criticized one put in place in May. Matt Largey reports on how the oil industry in Texas is reacting to the new ban.
