POLITICS

Judith Zaffirini started at the bottom of the Texas Senate hierarchy in 1987, ranked number 30 out of 31 members. Thirty-seven years later, she ascended to the highest position when former Senator John Whitmire resigned on December 31, 2023, to become Houston's mayor. She became the first woman Dean of the Senate, succeeding 24 men who held the title since 1909. Senators look to the Dean for guidance on protocol, decorum, traditions, and knowledge. Zaffirini earned this disti

Scrolling through our social media feeds, we’ve all seen those repetitive reminders: “Register to vote.” “Check your registration status.” “Make sure your voice counts.” They appear so often that after a while, they almost blur into the digital background noise. Most of us scroll past, assuming our registration is fine—that because we voted last time, everything must still be in order. But the other day, I decided to click one of those links. And what happened next was a wake

MAGA women have a look. Heavy foundation several shades too dark. Severe contouring that photographs like war paint. Aggressively blonde hair. Exaggerated lashes clumping together like spider legs. Lips pumped full of filler. Spray tans that stop at the jawline. This isn't accidental or incompetence. This isn't a regional beauty trends gone rogue. This is deliberate. This is look is optimized for one specific audience: conservative men. The phenomenon has earned its own Wikip

"My name is Sam Vale. In addition to owning and operating a private port of entry that the rent you pay could support all the others for 1,000 years, it is something we feel efficiencies at the ports are of utmost importance to our border security." Samuel F. Vale delivered those words in 2009 before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Chairman Chuck Schumer had invited him to testify about securing America's borders and points of entry. Vale spoke with authority about customs po

There are moments when words feel too fragile to hold the truth. When a life is taken so suddenly, so publicly, language seems to break under the weight of it. That’s what happened on a Minnesota street, where 37-year-old Alex Pretti was killed before witnesses, cameras, and a world that already feels too familiar with scenes like this. To call it an act of violence feels too small. To call it shocking feels dishonest, because there’s nothing new about this kind of loss, only

Sunday was brutally cold. Most people stayed inside. Food Not Bombs RGV showed up at Archer Park anyway with hot plates, used clothing, and a small pantry. Archer Park sits at 101 N Main Street in downtown McAllen. The 1.8-acre space features a gazebo, benches, and sidewalks where the city hosts community events. Online reviews describe it as well-maintained but note "occasional homeless individuals nearby" as something visitors should expect. It's not that the park has a spe

Block Walking "Good afternoon," she greeted the man. "My name is Letty Garza-Galvan. I am running for Starr County Judge." Simple. Humble. To the point. The man took a sticker and a concha from the candidate. He politely nodded his head as she explained her platform. Political campaigns have become lazy. Somewhere between crafting the perfect Instagram story and tracking TikTok analytics, candidates forgot that voters exist in three dimensions. They have doors. Those doors ca

ICE agents dined at a family-run Mexican restaurant in small-town Minnesota, paid their bill, then returned hours later to detain three hardworking employees. The January 14 operation at El Tapatio in Willmar illustrates the expanding reach of immigration enforcement under President Trump's intensified crackdown. Beyond the immediate arrests, it affects the very contributions of workers who sustain our communities, tamale wrappers, salsa stirrers, and table bussers whose labo

Federal lawsuits are piling up against ICE agents, Customs and Border Protection, and Kristi Noem. The constitutional violations aren't ambiguous. Quick civics refresher for anyone who slept through high school: The Fourth Amendment says the government can't search you, seize you, or break into your house without a warrant signed by a judge. Not a suggestion. Not a guideline. A constitutional requirement. The ACLU just filed a federal class action in Minnesota. The defendants

Picture South Texas politics as your favorite telenovela, unfolding across the ranchos of Rio Grande City, the bustling streets of McAllen, and the colonias from Roma to Brownsville. The general election in November? That’s the dramatic season finale everyone tunes in for. But the primary election is the crucial “casting episode”—the one where we, the viewers in every colonia corner, decide which characters even make it to that finale. The dramatic series of Doña Política La

The 25th Amendment has resurfaced in political discourse with the fervor of a bad penny, and this time the calls are coming from inside the Democratic house. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts sparked the latest round, posting a terse directive to social media after Trump sent a text message to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. The message linked Trump's aggressive pursuit of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump's message to Støre read: "Consi

Beto O'Rourke confirmed he hasn't endorsed a candidate in the Texas Democratic Senate primary between James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett. The clarification came during an interview with the Houston Chronicle's Texas Take podcast, where O'Rourke framed his current neutrality as respect for democratic process rather than personal preference. "No, no. Look, we're the party that says it believes in democracy and self-government and the ability for people to freely and fairly cho

As Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem now presides over one of the most powerful bureaucracies in the federal government. An agency tasked with security, law, and human consequence. What a show. Kristi Noem is not governing so much as managing a lie that has grown too large to control. It is the lie that toughness is leadership, that cruelty is clarity, and that repeating something loudly enough—no matter how false—eventually turns it into truth. Her administration d

President Trump stood in the White House briefing room Tuesday, marking his first anniversary back in office, and dropped a statement that was resounding. While defending his administration's aggressive immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota, he noted that Border Patrol agents are predominantly Hispanic. According to Customs and Border Protection data, over half of Border Patrol agents serving on the southern border identify as Hispanic. Applications surged 70 percen

In January 2019, fifteen hundred private jets flew into Davos so the world's richest people could hear Sir David Attenborough talk about climate change. Nobody seemed to notice the problem with that. Dutch historian Rutger Bregman attended the World Economic Forum for the first time that year. The annual gathering brings together political leaders, CEOs, and billionaires to discuss global issues. He watched them spend days talking about participation, justice, equality, and t

The Supreme Court handed down a decision in September that should terrify anyone who thinks showing an ID means they belong here. In Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, the Court's conservative majority allowed federal immigration agents to resume raids across Los Angeles after a lower court tried to stop them from targeting people based on race, language, workplace, and location alone. The Fourth Amendment requires reasonable suspicion before law enforcement can detain you. That means

There was a time when America believed in itself the way a teenager believes in summer—endless, sunlit, and promised. Don McLean caught that feeling just as it slipped through the fingers of the time. American Pie wasn’t only a song; it was a vigil. A long, circling goodbye to a country that thought tragedy was an interruption, not a condition. “The day the music died” marked more than a plane crash. It marked the moment when innocence stopped being renewable. Buddy Holly, Ri

Congress just authorized federal agents to examine the naked bodies of children. Alone. Without their parents. They're calling it the Kayla Hamilton Act. H.R. 4371 passed the House 225-201 on Monday. Seven Democrats handed Republicans the margin they needed. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Laura Gillen of New York, Jared Golden of Maine, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Adam Gray of California, and Marie Glusenkamp Perez of Washington decided invasive body exam

We must declare: Enough! We are done asking for permission to exist. For too long, being brown in America has been treated like a condition to be cured — something to defend, to prove, to justify. We are told that borders protect, that agents serve, that violence keeps peace. But what kind of peace strips mothers from children and terrorizes citizens born under the same flag it claims to defend? For generations, brown bodies in America have navigated a gauntlet of suspicion,

Rose Benavidez boasts about billions. The president of Starr County Industrial Foundation touts figures that would make most economic development directors weep with envy. Over four billion dollars in investments across the past decade. Six thousand jobs created. Wind farms, solar projects, and retail developments transforming one of the poorest counties in America into an emerging powerhouse. The numbers sound staggering despite Starr County maintaining the highest unemploym