In my last column I discussed the Civil War and the removal of the Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson statues in Richmond, Virginia — the former Capital of the Confederacy. This time I’m going to continue on the Civil War thread, but with a much less happy theme. The...
Texas has really been in the national news since the Independent went on vacation. Among other things, the nation is getting to witness the intensity with which Governor Greg Abbott panders to his right wing base. National headlines about Texas have spanned a wide...
I want to begin today’s column with a few words about my friend Arnold Garcia, former Editorial Board Chairman at the Austin American-Statesman. Arnold passed away from pancreatic cancer on August 12. The Statesman did a superb job of giving him his due, in a story...
Let’s begin with an update on last week’s column where we talked about Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza and County Attorney Delia Garza each sending letters to Interim Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacón charging that some “rogue” Austin Police Department...
Can’t a reporter even take a few weeks off during the Texas summer? It’s always been my opinion that Texans shouldn’t be making big public policy decisions during the summer because it’s just too mind numbingly hot. On the other hand it hasn’t really been that hot...
I’m originally from Virginia. Over the fifty years that I’ve been in Texas, when I tell people that I’m originally from Virginia, at least half of them reflexively repeat back to me, “West Virginia.” Sometimes it’s in the form of a question; other times it’s not. I...
Well, we took a few weeks break from publishing here at the Austin Independent, but we’re back. Let’s take a look at some of the things that happened while we were gone. First of all, our vacation corresponded with the first few weeks of the City Council’s six...
This week’s good news is that the Texas Legislature adjourned. The bad news is that they will be coming back later this year. Oh yeah and some more bad news is what the Legislature did while they were here. United Democrats did manage to kill the voter...
Governor Greg Abbott last week signed the so called fetal heartbeat bill into law in Texas. The bill outlaws abortion the moment a fetal heartbeat is detected. That is often around the six-week mark and before many women even know they are pregnant. In signing the...
The Prop B results have rightly gotten almost all the post election attention and analysis since the May 1 election. (Prop B was the reversal of the Council’s June 2019 repeal of the public camping ban.) That has been the case here at the Austin Independent as well as...
