A Historical Look at Jim Crow Laws in Texas

byJillian Price

Charles Zelden, history professor at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, sat down with Reporting Texas to discuss the unfortunate history of Jim Crow in Texas.

Sexuality in the Age of COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many people to spend a large amount of time alone, and more and more people have turned to sex therapists to explore their sexuality. 

Texas Lawmakers Want to Make Single Eyewitness Testimony No Longer Grounds for Death Penalty

byMadi Donham

A state representative wants to make it impossible to hand down a death sentence in Texas based on the testimony of a single witness without corroborating evidence. Supporters of the change say it’s dangerous to sentence someone to death row based on eyewitness testimony alone. Prosecutors, meanwhile, say they doubt  it’s actually a problem and that the proposal could be a slippery slope that leads to micromanaging their work. 

Austin Sumo Wrestlers Prepare for National Competition

byRamón Rodriguez

Over the past 20 years, the male-dominated sport has found increasing popularity outside of Japan among wrestlers of different genders, weight classes and racial backgrounds. In 2022, the sumo World Games will be held in the U.S., in Birmingham, Ala — an opportunity to put American sumo on the map. 

Esports Gaming Seeks Validation from University

byDane Byrd and Thomas Galindo

Esports, or competitive gaming, has been growing on college campuses nationwide including here at the University of Texas at Austin. On their official website, Longhorn Gaming defines themselves as “the central hub for casual and competitive gaming at the University of Texas at Austin.” Longhorn Gaming has 23 teams competing in leagues for games across multiple genres […]

Rural Texans Left in Dust Without Adequate Healthcare

byBrooke Nevins

On their way to suburbia, Texas, the moving vans of more than 500,000 people who relocated here from out-of-state in 2019 likely passed through small towns in the boggy thicket of rural East Texas or along the dust-blown western highways that stretch as far as the sky above is wide. These rural communities may not […]

A College Kid Reviews Movies Called 2020’s Best

byHannah Pruitt

To quote Anton Ego, the critic from Pixar’s Ratatouille, “in many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and themselves to our judgement.” The box critics often put art into can become stiff and outdated. As art evolves new generations should get to contribute their voices. With […]

Visually Impaired People Face Difficulties Throughout Pandemic

byJillian Price and Mizelle Mayo

Some visually impaired people in Central Texas have struggled to schedule vaccines and faced other COVID-19-related challenges that might not occur to sighted people. About 700,000 people in Texas are visually impaired, according to the most recent numbers from the National Federation of the Blind. In a series of interviews with Reporting Texas, visually impaired Austinites and their advocates in Central Texas discussed the difficulty of getting vaccinated for COVID-19 and the challenge of avoiding the illness during the pandemic.

Black Mothers in Central Texas Helping Others Deal With Postpartum Depression

byMadelyn Gee

Black mothers in Central Texas are rising up to support women coping with postpartum depression, which disproportionately affects Black women.

TreeFolks’s Carbon Credit Program Taking Root

bySumaiya Malik

When Tamara Stutz heard about a free tree planting program at her neighbor’s house, she was sold. Coordinators from TreeFolks, an Austin-based non-profit, had reached out to property owners in her neighborhood outside Manor offering to plant trees in an effort to prevent floods.

“This is a 100-year floodplain we are standing on,” Stutz said when Reporting Texas visited in April.

By February 2020, Stutz had more than 1,800 saplings planted on 3⅓ acres of her 30-acre farm. Her part of the bargain: Leave them alone. The trees would fend for themselves. Stutz was so delighted with how the saplings progressed that she asked TreeFolks to come again in 2021.

Stutz gets trees and protection against erosion and everyone benefits from the carbon dioxide-sequestering potential of her saplings. TreeFolks earns carbon credits for planting the trees, which the organization then sells to the City of Austin. 

A carbon credit is “a tradable credit granted to a country, company, etc., for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases by one metric ton,” […]

Reporting Texas TV – May 6, 2021

byReporting Texas TV Staff

Journalism students from Moody College at the University of Texas made their sixth  and final newscast of the semester on May 6, 2021. This week student journalists report on preparations for the spring commencement ceremony and the return to in-person classes for the fall, efforts to protect Austin’s bats, and concerns about gerrymandering as the […]

UT Prepares for its First In-Person Commencement Since 2019

byDominique LaVigne

AUSTIN, Texas — In January, The University of Texas at Austin announced plans to host its first in-person graduation ceremony since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Unlike traditional UT graduation ceremonies in front of the UT Tower, the spring commencement will take place at Darrell K. Royal Stadium on May 22 at 8 p.m. […]

Texas Redistricting Prompts Gerrymandering Concerns

byClark Dalton

AUSTIN, Texas — As a result of the 2020 census, Texas gained two congressional seats due to its population growth.  The state will have 38 seats in the House of Representatives in the 2022 election and 40 electoral votes for the 2024 presidential election. New York and California each lost one seat and one elector. […]

Protecting Palm Trees to Protect Bats

byMaggy Wolanske

AUSTIN, Texas — After a year in which they were scorned as the source of the coronavirus, bats continue to have a rough time in 2021. Many of the mammals are losing their Austin homes. The Austin Bat Refuge works to protect the local bat population and ensure the animals are loved. Co-founders Lee Mackenzie […]

UT Plans for an In-Person Fall Semester

byBrynne Herzfeld

AUSTIN, Texas —With more than 100,000 vaccine doses distributed by the UT vaccination hub, returning to campus for in-person classes seems more and more likely. Terrian Spurs, a junior communications and leadership major, expected to return to campus in March 2020 after a two-week Spring Break. Instead, she finished her sophomore year at home in […]

Homeless People Face Waitlist for Services at Downtown Austin Community Court

byMizelle Mayo

About 200 unsheltered people are on a waiting list for the kind of intensive case management services at the Downtown Austin Community Court, which is temporarily located in the Terrazas Library at 1106 E. Cesar Chavez St. The court attempts to divert people charged with petty crime from the criminal justice system and to provide them with help getting their lives in order. 

The community court was established in 1999 and was the eighth community court in the U.S. and the first in Texas. Many of its clients are experiencing homelessness and tend to cycle through the criminal justice system. Initially, the court focused its efforts downtown, but it has since added East Austin and the West Campus area to its jurisdiction.

Reporting Texas TV – April 29, 2021

byReporting Texas TV Staff

Journalism students from Moody College at the University of Texas made their fifth newscast of the semester on April 29, 2021. This week student journalists report on an upcoming Austin vote that could ban camping and soliciting, student efforts to warn others of UT professors who violated sexual misconduct rules, a nurse’s fight against her […]

Houston Nurse Crowdfunds to Take Hospital to Court Over Vaccine Layoffs

byKenny Jones

HOUSTON, Texas — Several Houston Methodist Hospital employees are resisting their boss’s order to receive COVID-19 vaccines by June 7. Dr. Marc Boom, Houston Methodist’s President and CEO, announced April 15 that all employees must comply with the vaccination deadline or face suspension and eventual termination.  “The process [to decide to require COVID-19 vaccines] was […]

Austinites Engaging in the Profitable Fetish of Financial Domination

byRamón Rodriguez

In financial domination, a financial submissive, “finsub,” pays a financial dominant, “findom,” often without expecting anything in return, and often without meeting in person. In some findom arrangements, dominants hurl insults online at submissives. Submissives get aroused from the loss of control and surrendering of power, sex experts say.

Reporting Texas Newsletter April 23, 2021

Download the April 23, 2021 edition of the Reporting Texas Newsletter