As details about the bomber continue to emerge, it’s worth examining who kept us grounded in facts during the explosive saga, and who led us astray.
THIS WEEK: As details about the bomber continue to emerge, it’s worth examining who kept us grounded in facts during the explosive saga, and who led us astray. While law enforcement scrambled to find the killer, and local journalists pulled long hours to report each development, others leapfrogged prudence to fill the narrative vacuum – including the state’s attorney general and some national media outlets.
For decades, word of mouth alone has drawn thousands of annual visitors to remote Salineño, a world-famous bird preserve on the Texas-Mexico border.
The Salineño Preserve is one of many wildlife sanctuaries — including better-known destinations like the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, the National Butterfly Center and Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park — at grave risk if Trump’s wall is built as planned.
“When you start talking about the land that would have to be cleared, it’s all the way from the river to the town,” said Merle Ihne, a volunteer caretaker at the preserve. “This place wouldn’t exist anymore.”
Support the Texas Observer with a tax-deductible
donation or subscribe to the magazine.
From the archives
Inside the Nation’s First Bilingual University
In this story from 2017, writer Daniel Blue Tyx visits UT-Rio Grande Valley, which hopes to become the first "bilingual, bicultural, biliterate" campus in the country.
From the story: "'It’s about being much more aware of the language that is being spoken, and making sure that the space is safe for my students,'" Saldívar told me after class in his office, which is decorated with an oversized pennant from Stanford, his alma mater. Saldívar, who in the fall of 2016 taught the first of what is expected to be dozens of bilingual or Spanish courses, has plenty of common ground with his students. Now in his late 30s, he grew up in the rural South Texas community of Edcouch-Elsa; his parents were punished in school for speaking Spanish and encouraged him to speak only English at home. Language could play a role in helping students feel a sense of comfort and belonging at the university, Saldívar said, but he wanted to impress on me that what the students were talking about was as noteworthy as how they chose to say it.
What’s Happening at the Observer
Tickets are now on sale for the 2018 edition of the Observer's MOLLY Prize dinner. The MOLLY Prize is an annual national journalism award presented by the Texas Democracy Foundation and the Texas Observer in memory of Molly Ivins, columnist, author, political commentator, and humorist. This year's event will include a keynote from Joan Walsh, of CNN and The Nation. We'd love to see you there.
The Observer will have a booth at this year's San Antonio Book Festival. The event is April 7, and features a ton of great stuff. More details here: http://www.saplf.org/festival/
The Texas Observer has been holding powerful interests accountable for more than six decades. If you know something that you think needs to be investigated and made public, contact us.
Know someone who would like our email? Send it to them now.
