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THIS WEEK: The federal poverty level fails to take into account 2.6 million struggling Texas households, according to a new report from a United Way project. The analysis showed 42 percent of Texas households make less than the cost of living. More than half of those make too much money to be eligible for many government benefits, but not enough to pay for basic expenses.
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The Lede
Indigenous Activists Set Up Protest Camp at South Texas Cemetery to Stop Trump’s Wall
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- The 154-year-old Eli Jackson Cemetery sits about a mile from the Rio Grande, south of the Hidalgo County town of San Juan. Encompassing just a single acre, it hosts the remains of some 150 South Texans.
- Just a few feet north rises a sloped earthen river levee, which the Trump administration soon plans to transform into a 30-foot concrete and steel border wall. South of the wall, the feds plan to clear a 150-foot “enforcement zone,” raising fears that bodies will be exhumed, and most of the cemetery razed.
- But the dead have new company: environmentalists, veterans of the Standing Rock protests and Carrizo/Comecrudo tribal members have set up camp at the cemetery and vowed to stand their ground in the face of the president's bulldozers.
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Sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin's Briscoe Center
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Lt. Governor William P. Hobby, Jr. on the campaign trail with Ann Richards, ca. 1982. From the William Hobby Family Papers, UT Austin’s Briscoe Center.
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UT Austin’s Briscoe Center was founded in 1991. One of the nation’s largest archives for Texas and Southern history, the center’s collection strengths have evolved to include American news media history and photojournalism, congressional and political history, and the history of public commemoration. These collections are open to the public for research in the center’s recently renovated reading room on the UT Austin campus. The foundation of countless academic pursuits, these collections also provide inspiration for the center’s own books, documentaries, exhibits, programs, and digital projects.
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From the archives
New Border Walls Designed to Flood Texas Towns
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- In 2012, CBP planned to build three new isolated border wall sections. Sierra Club activist Scott Nicol found that they would have no impact whatsoever on immigration, smuggling, or national security, but would put towns on either side at a greater risk for flooding.
- From the story: “Mexico has good reason to fear the harm that border walls could inflict. In July of 2008 seasonal rains swept through the Sonoran desert, inundating the sister cities of Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora. The border wall that separated them acted as a dam. Water reached the tops of doorframes on the Mexican side, but was only ankle deep north of the wall. In Mexico two people drowned.”
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What’s Happening at the Observer
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- Save the Date! Our 2019 Rabble Rouser is set for February 26. Local music faves Shinyribs and TC Superstar will play. This year also sees the return of our annual silent auction. Tickets will be $30 in advance, $35 at the door. RSVP here.
- Have you done great journalism in 2018? The deadline for submissions for the 2019 MOLLY National Journalism Prize is fast approaching. Winner gets a $5,000 cash award and, more importantly, a beer stein. Submit here: https://www.texasobserver.org/mollyawardsubmissions/ by February 28.
- Goods that do good work. Shop shirts, books, issues and accessories at the Texas Observer Store.
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