U.S. and Mexican authorities can still put aside their differences long enough to link the two countries together.
Demographics
Explore population trends, diversity, and data shaping Texas communities, politics, and policy.
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Ramshaw’s four-parter on the rural health care condundrum and depressing take-out on sexual abuse in youth lock-ups. Ramsey on filing day follies and the untimely death of a Democratic mainstay. Aguilar on the U.S. government’s detention center mea culpa. Grissom on alien deportations in the name of making our streets safer. Rapoport on the organization and association endorsement dance. Hamilton on whether coattails exist. Hu and Philpott’s multimedia profile of Linda Chavez-Thompson. And Philpott on big gubernatorial campaign bucks and even bigger candidate angst over the ways journalists are using social and new media to cover them. The best of our best from January 4 to January 8, 2010.
Fighting for Security
Immigration advocates say the feds are deporting thousands of illegal aliens who are minor offenders and some who’ve committed no crimes at all. But federal officials and local law enforcement argue that they’re simply making Texas streets safer.
Big Border Business
For the last year and a half, Tom Barry visited immigrant detention centers in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Here’s what he found.
A Detention Center Mea Culpa
The U.S. government is imposing greater restrictions than necessary on most aliens held in custody for immigration violations, according to a charge made by … the U.S. government.
TribBlog: Tejano Monument Finally Coming to the Capitol
The State Preservation Board today approved installation of a Texas Tejano Monument on the south lawn of the Capitol. The project has already taken nearly a decade.
Meet Linda Chavez-Thompson
She was born into a family of eight children near Lubbock, worked on cotton fields in her teens and later became a Hispanic labor leader. Now she’s running for lieutenant governor. We’ve packaged resources (in various media platforms) on the latest entrant to the race.
TribBlog: Not-so-happy New Year’s Eve for MALDEF
The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the Texas Department of Public Safety does not have to halt its policy that prevents some legal U.S. residents from getting driver’s licenses.
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Roll your own political videos … interactive travel maps of your federal and state legislators … scary movies, to keep the kids out of the border’s scary drug wars … puttting dropouts back in class … rates squeezing families out of home health care … how many lobby and trade associations do teachers in Texas need? … enjoying the silence before an expected two-month siege of political advertising … the dean of Texas political writers gets shut out of the gubernatorial debates … and we have an interactive database of the state’s best and worst public schools. The best of our best for a short news week, from December 19 to 26, 2009.
TribBlog: Border Mayor Escapes Mexico Shootout
Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster might have to change his tune about his idyllic border home after this week. Foster was having lunch Tuesday with Mexican officials across the border in Piedras Negras when a gunmen started spraying the place with bullets.

