EoT: Fishing for Fraud, and an Alamo Fight

Eyes on Texas is a weekly look at how the national media views Texas.

The New York Times finds out just how serious Texans are about their fishing, and that the long arm of the law extends even into the leisure fishing world. “Texas is the only state with a tournament fishing fraud law, but perhaps the most extraordinary thing about the crime was how ordinary such fraud has become across the country,” writes Manny Hernandez.

The Washington Post, via the Associated Press, is once again remembering the Alamo, with “one Texas agency mounting pressure on another to loan out one of the state’s most sacred texts for display at ‘the shrine of Texas independence.’ ”

The Atlantic runs the numbers on why Texas — now the “King of Exports” –- has left California’s export industry in the dust. “Since 1998, the state has increased its total exports by 217 percent, compared to 139 percent for the country as a whole,” it reported. “California’s have risen by a comparatively paltry 66 percent.” This story isn’t too number-heavy, though, with some easy-to-digest graphs.

Jezebel, the snarky but serious feminist media outlet, reported this week that Texas women with unwanted pregnancies are dangerously taking matters into their own hands: “Concerned women’s health providers in Texas report that they’re seeing a higher number of women who cross the Mexican border to acquire misoprostol in order to terminate their unwanted pregnancy, but show up to their regular clinic to ask for a pregnancy test shortly after, finding that the pills hadn’t been effective.”

ABC News reported that a Texas condo owner who called 911 after she discovered that burglars had taken everything from her home, including the bathroom sink, was surprised to discover that her neighbors were harboring her stuff.