Texas’ environmental agency targets small business owners for minor recordkeeping violations, while letting the corporate polluters off easy.
THIS WEEK: In the Democratic primary for governor, Lupe Valdez’s intersectional appeal has made her a frontrunner. But her story is more complicated when you take a deeper look at her background as Dallas County Sheriff. Many with a stake in the Dallas jail say Valdez was at best a sheriff who embraced changes that years of scandal had forced upon her department. At worst, she was a law enforcement official who downplayed problems that continued at the lockup.
Environment reporter Naveena Sadasivam spent nearly two years reporting and writing our cover story for the February 2018 print issue, “Too Big To Fine, Too Small To Fight Back.”
It’s the story of corporate polluters getting off easy while first-generation immigrants are strapped with thousands of dollars in fines for recordkeeping violations by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the state environmental agency.
From the story: "That is what parents of kids with autism disorders want more than anything for their children: a normal childhood. Those children just might have a fighting chance to get it—if they don’t have to undergo therapies and treatment unsupported by any scientific evidence, therapies and treatments that are time-consuming, costly, and benefits only to the people administering them."
What’s Happening at the Observer
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