Texas has continued to send mentally retarded criminals to death row. Will a Mexican immigrant's case correct this injustice?

PLUS GONE BABY GONE A shocking murder exposes the holes in Texas' mental health care system. BY DAVE MANN

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CRACKED GONE BABY GONE by Renee Feltz by Dave Mann Despite a U.S. Supreme Court ban, Texas 1 A shocking murder exposes the holes in NARVER 0 has continued to send mentally retarded Texas's mental health care system. criminals to death row. Will a Mexican immigrant's ONLINE case correct this injustice? See a short video report on men- REGULARS tally impaired 01 DIALOGUE 22 DATELINE DALLAS: 25 POETRY 2 PURPLE STATE prisoners, 02 POLITICAL BINE PATHOLOGY by Robin Robertson The White Stuff listen to the Otty INTELLIGENCE Cyclists debate the by Bob Moser Sanchez 9-1-1 05 EDITORIAL future of city streets. 26 TEX IN THE CITY call and hear 05 LOON STAR STATE by Ian Dille KBH: Always True to 29 EYE ON TEXAS Michael May's 21 HIGHTOWER REPORT Us, Darling, in Her Own by Arthur Myerson audio report Fashion 24 CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK from Big D. Spoon Fed by Robert Leleux by Josh Rosenblatt uniemosiobseilvoung A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES SINCE 1954

AP OBSERVER VOLUME 102, NO. 1 I LOGUE FOUNDING EDITOR Ronnie Dugger CEO/PUBLISHER Carlton Carl Divided Childhood EDITOR Bob Moser All you need to know about Kelt Cooper, the school superintendent in Del Rio: MANAGING EDITOR Chris Tomlinson "Cooper appears to have imported at least one educational principle from Arizona: ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave Mann CULTURE EDITOR Michael May an overarching concern about Mexican nonresidents attending public schools." INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER Melissa del Bosque ("Child X-ing," Dec. 11) It's the sort of attitude you get from the Minutemen and STAFF WRITER Forrest Wilder their supporters along the Arizona and California borders. It's nothing but bigotry, ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Julia Austin CIRCULATION/OFFICE MANAGER and he should not have a job on the taxpayers' dime in Texas. Candace Carpenter Sarah Hayes CREATIVE DIRECTION Em Dash LLC POSTED AT TEXASOBSERVER.ORG ART DIRECTOR Daniel Lievens

MARKETING ASSISTANT Jaime Kilpatrick THE PARENTS IN MEXICO SEND THEIR KIDS TO U.S. WE SPEND ZILLIONS ON FOREIGN AID OVERSEAS HALF A WEBMASTER Shane Pearson schools so that they can compete with my grandchil- world away to kill, kill, kill. Better we spend a few COPY EDITOR Rusty Todd dren for the scant, few jobs left in America by the million on our border to educate, educate, educate. POETRY EDITOR Naomi Shihab Nye greedy thieves on Wall Street and their pay-to-play Ken Loveless government. Why should hard-working Americans POSTED AT TEXASOBSERVER.ORG INTERNS Laura Burke, Robert Green, Lara Haase, Hudson have to pay for educating Mexican kids in the first Lockett, Maddie Pelan, Jen Reel place? When and where does the insanity end? CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Enough is enough. Lee Hutchings Rewarding Whistling Emily DePrang, Lou Dubose, POSTED AT TEXASOBSERVER.ORG KUDOS AND SYMPATHY FOR ROBERT MCCARTHY, THE James K. Galbraith, Steven G. Kellman, Joe R. Lansdale, federal employee whistleblower featured in Melissa Robert Leleux, James E. IT IS AMAZING TO ME HOW AMERICANS WANT TO SAVE del Bosque's piece ("Dept. of Transparency," Nov. 27). McWilliams, Char Miller, Bill children all over the world through various As pointed out, the Whistleblower Protection Act of Minutaglio, Ruth Pennebaker, Josh Rosenblatt, Kevin Sieff, means, and rightfully so, but here on the border of 1989, while certainly an improvement in the laws of Brad Tyer, Andrew Wheat Texas it is a different story. On the border, and in the nation, fell far short of being adequate by provid- CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Texas in general, there are those who just cannot ing that the plaintiff could sue for relief, but not for Jana Birchum, Alan Pogue, see the forest for the trees. Poor children appar- damages. Reinstatement, even with receipt of back Steve Satterwhite ently only deserve help if they are far, far away. pay, is a far cry from what the law should provide. How CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Ben Figueroa Michael Krone, Alex Eben grand it would be if the law were to be altered so as to Meyer, Ben Sargent POSTED AT TEXASOBSERVER.ORG render whistleblowers American heroes: champions

TEXAS DEMOCRACY of responsible government, defenders of honest dis- FOUNDATION BOARD SCREW THE MEXICANS. PEOPLE ARE BEING TAXED TO tribution of the taxpayers' monies, exposers of graft Lisa Blue, Melissa Jones, death by the school districts and these Mexicans are and corruption! I have long thought that governmen- Susan Longley, Jim Marston, Mary Nell Mathis, Gilberto getting a free ride. Force them all back. In Houston tal whistleblowers should be encouraged to ferret out Ocanas, Jesse Oliver, Bernard we are paying for illegal kids to go to school, too and expose malfeasance. They should be awarded Rapoport, Geoffrey Rips, many to count. We can no longer afford them. compensation for upholding the public welfare and Geronimo Rodriguez, Sharron Roger Glass Rush, Kelly White, Ronnie be honored at annual award ceremonies for those Dugger (emeritus) POSTED AT TEXASOBSERVER.ORG who have protected the taxpayers from fraudulent and wasteful expenditures. When a whistleblower OUR MISSION We will serve no group or succeeds in exposing and halting corrupt practices, he party but will hew hard to Blaming Barack or she should receive a percentage of the savings. the truth as we find it and THE ONE QUALIFYING QUESTION FOR DEMOCRATIC Tom Camfield the right as we see it. We SAN ANGELO are dedicated to the whole candidates for any office from now on is: When truth, to human values above did you start publicly criticizing President Barack all interests, to the rights of Obama's escalation of the Afghanistan quagmire? humankind as the foundation of democracy. We will take ("Is Afghanistan Worth It?" Nov. 27.) The dif- orders from none but our own ference between Obama and President Lyndon conscience, and never will we Johnson is that LBJ could pass his domestic pro- overlook or misrepresent the grams, and they worked. Lars Eighner truth to serve the interests of Sound Off the powerful or cater to the AUSTIN ignoble in the human spirit. editors@texasobserver. org

JANUARY 8, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 11 po yin wit INTEL"' 01 Bringing EERGY the Heat

"They're looking the other waif whip !Ain iiiipui radioactive waste from around the

country, and The Waste Control Specialists site near Andrews PHOTO COURTESY OF WCS

possibly the WASTE CONTROL SPECIALISTS, A RADIOACTIVE-WASTE nonprofit. "They're failing to enforce their own rules and company owned by major Texas GOP financier looking the other way while WCS imports radioactive world " Harold Simmons, appears to be defying state regula- waste from around the country; and possibly the world." tors by importing canisters of nuclear waste from out Beginning in early 2008, TCEQ repeatedly told of state. So far, the amount is not huge—about 300 Waste Control that it needed permission before accept- cubic feet. But the brazen move appears to be part of ing canisters of Class B and C waste—the "hottest" of WCS's plan to turn Andrews County into the nation's so-called low-level radioactive waste—from Studsvik new dumping ground for radioactive waste. Inc., a Tennessee waste processor. Even if the agency Waste Control already has permission to bury 60 eventually okayed the plan, the waste could be stored million cubic feet of radioactive waste from Texas, for no more than a year, according to agency records. Vermont and federal sources. But the company has said In 2008, Waste Control agreed to submit safety and it will seek permission to import and bury radioactive security plans as part of a major amendment to its license materials from the 36 states that lack a disposal option. that would allow the storage. But the company never filed Critics see the current importation of out-of-state for a license amendment. Last February, Waste Control waste without permission as a backdoor attempt to CEO Rod Baltzer told the Observer that the company speed the process. Once the waste is stored on site, the had determined that it could already import out-of-state thinking goes, it's unlikely to ever be sent away. waste and would begin doing so in March or April. TCEQ

READ THE AGENCY The handful of environmental and citizen groups said it was unaware of any such plans. DOCUMENTS mentioned aware of the issue are furious with the Texas Commission Evidently the agency found out. On May 20, TCEQ in this story at www.texas observer.org/uploads/files/ on Environmental Quality, the agency that regulates sent a letter to the company saying it had "not made a WCSLetters.pdf radioactive waste. "TCEQ is asleep at the wheel," says determination that acceptance of [the waste] is autho- Eliza Brown of the SEED Coalition, an environmental rized," and warning that Waste Control "maybe subject

2 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG THE STATE CE OF TEXAS to enforcement for the receipt" of unauthorized radio- nances preventing city employees and police officers active materials. from asking people about their immigration status. On June 2, a Waste Control lawyer wrote to TCEQ White has confronted the "sanctuary city" allega- that the first shipment from Studsvik would be arriving tion before. In 2006, the nonpartisan Congressional in a few days. There was no need for regulators to get Research Service described Houston and 31 other cities Highest involved, the letter implied, since the lawyer had con- as having "don't ask, don't tell" policies around immi- Unemployment ducted his own legal review and concluded that there gration status—a phrase that immediately translated Rate was "no question" the company could take the waste— into "sanctuary city" in right-wing circles. White was and store it "indefinitely." quick to point out that in Houston, people arrested TCEQ took no action. In mid-July, the Observer asked for Class B misdemeanors or more serious crimes are the agency for an explanation. Nearly a month later, a checked for immigration status, and that Immigration 10% TCEQ spokesman responded from his personal e-mail and Customs Enforcement officers are given full access MCALLEN- account: "The TCEQ subsequently received additional to city jails. On December 17, White announced that the EDINBURGH information from the company re: Studsvick [sic] waste. city will now also screen anyone who commits a less- As indicated previously, staff continues to evaluate serious Class C misdemeanor. issues related to receipt and storage of Studsvik waste None of which is likely to stop Texas' Grand Old Lowest for compliance with WCS' license." Party from continuing to lob the "sanctuary" grenade Unemployment The agency has not responded to numerous fol- at White in hopes of riling up anti-immigrant voters. low-up questions. Waste Control, on the other hand, But in a state in which Latinos have accounted for 65 Rate recently told the Observer that it plans to import up percent of the population growth over the past decade, to 1,000 more cubic feet of out-of-state waste in 2010. the Republicans could be doing White a favor. —FORREST WILDER "It's a double-edged sword," says Jeronimo Cortina, a 4.8% political science professor at the University of Houston. AMARILLO "They're not only alienating Latinos but also some of CAMPAIGN TRAIL their own constituency: wealthy businessmen who Based on the latest have undocumented employees." county data available The S Word —MELISSA DEL BOSQUE from the Texas BEFORE BILL WHITE COULD EVEN SLAP A "WHITE FOR Workforce Commission Governor" sticker on the nearest Smart car, the Republican Party of Texas was already hitting the for- DEPT. OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE mer Houston mayor with an attack ad. First aired two days before the Democrat announced Sessions V Stanford his candidacy in late November, the ad shows White EVEN AFTER HOUSTON FINANCIER ALLEN STANFORD speaking, his words muted as the Platters croon "The was charged with perpetrating one of the largest Great Pretender." Text scrolls across White's bald pate, frauds in American history Texas Congressman Pete TO VIEW THE TXGOP accusing him of various liberal misdeeds. The first Sessions still hadn't lost the faith. ATTACK AD on Bill White accusation: White ran a "sanctuary city"—a loaded and "I love you and believe in you. If you want my ear/ go to wvvw.youtube.com/ amorphous term often tossed around by anti-immigra- voice—e-mail." user/txgoptv tion groups. Richard Murray, director of the University That was the email message that Sessions, a Dallas of Houston's Center for Public Policy, says the GOP has Republican, sent to Stanford on Feb. 17, just hours after picked up the term as shorthand for being "soft on ille- Stanford was charged with overseeing a $7 billion ponzi gal immigration and pro-amnesty" scheme, according to The Miami Herald. Immigration bashing might work fine in March's The newspaper reported on Dec. 28 that the Justice Republican primary Murray says, but with most Texans Department is investigating whether several mem- supporting immigration reform and the Hispanic pop- bers of Congress, including Sessions, did favors for ulation continuing to boom, it's a questionable general- Stanford in exchange for campaign contributions that election strategy at best. As for the specific "sanctuary" totaled $2.3 million and lavish trips to the Caribbean. allegation, Murray notes that "they have a rather flimsy Sessions received $44,375 in campaign contributions case. Houston is not San Francisco." from Stanford, according to public records. At the Before "sanctuary city" became a buzz phrase for moment, there's no evidence that Sessions did any- anti-immigration types, it had a more beneficent (and thing unethical on Stanford's behalf. accurate) origin. During the 1980s, some U.S. cities Sessions has weathered one minor scandal like San Francisco offered havens to Central American after another in his 13 years in Congress. Some political refugees, who were often unable to obtain visas Republican colleagues have nicknamed him Teflon to enter legally when they fled CIA-funded dirty wars in Pete. (See "What, Me Worry?" April 20, 2007.) their own countries. The cities passed "sanctuary" ordi- But telling the disgraced Allen Stanford that he

JANUARY 8, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3 still loved and believed in him is one excess that Sessions may never live down. —DAVE MANN

ON THE SCENE HOUSTON Constructing Injustice "Even Texas will let gay ON A CHILLY EVENING SHORTLY BEFORE CHRISTMAS, ABOUT 50 construction workers and workers' advocates gath- people become may rs, ered around a makeshift memorial for three men who fell to their deaths while building a high-rise condo tower near the University of Texas at Austin last June. as long as they don't The crowd huddled together for warmth on the side- walk in front of the 21 Rio high-rise. Holding candles, they gazed at three white wooden crosses placed on advocate too strongly the sidewalk next to the dead workers' battered boots and white hard hats. On each cross was written a name for things like treating in black ink: Wilson Arias, Raudel, Jesus. Inside the building, which opened last fall, a young man could be seen peering out the window at the solemn gay people equally." proceedings, looking puzzled. Ministers and members of the local Latino community took turns at the micro- —John Cook, posting at gawker.com , phone, denouncing the unsafe work practices and wage on the election of Annise Parker as Houston's mayor theft that are rampant in Texas. Construction worker Juanito Mirabal told the crowd that he was there when the scaffolding collapsed and his three co-workers tum- "Parker's elec- "Gene Locke bled 11 stories to their deaths. "I'm here because I want > better security for all of us on work sites," he said in tion is historic is positioned Spanish. "And I want justice." and brings to claim According to the workers and the nonprofit Workers Defense Project, no one—including the with it a lot a narrow families of the dead men—was paid for their final FOR A REPORT ON of hope for a victory over DANGEROUS working condi- two weeks of work on 21 Rio. "I'm still owed $5,200," tions and wage theft in Austin Mirabal says. "The subcontractor I work for is gone— lot of people. the liberal, go to www.buildaustin.org PHOTO BY EUGENIO DEL he went back to Honduras." And much like homosexual BOSQUE It's an all-too-familiar story in the state's construc- tion industry. Contractors hire subcontractors who [the presiden- lobby-backed bid cheap. The bosses don't ask questions. And the tial] election, candidate immigrant men who do the work often end up injured or unpaid—and if they're undocumented, they have I think a lot Annise Parker little legal recourse. of that hope but we There are too few federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors to ensure that every is sooner or cannot take worksite is safe. Even when a construction company is later going to any chances." fined, it hardly makes a dent. After 19-year-old Omar Puerto was electrocuted in Austin in 2006 while fixing run into the —Steven Hotze, speaking rain gutters on an apartment building, the company reality of the on his KSEV-AM radio show that hired him, Gutter Tech, was fined a mere $4,950 for the day of the Houston failing to provide safety training and a fiberglass ladder. economy, and mayoral election In December, the four companies that built 21 Rio— the fact that Andres Construction, Greater Metroplex Interiors, American Mast Climbers and Capoera Construction— like Barack received 23 fines between them for a long list of safety violations that led to the deaths of Raudel, Jesus and Obama, Wilson Arias. The fines totaled $159,600. Annise Parker "OSHA's citations are significant," says Emily Timm of the Workers Defense Project, "because they dem- is much more onstrate how all actors on the construction site are of a pragmatist responsible for the safety of the workers. You can't sub- contract safety away." ... than a You also can't bring back the dead. On average, a crusader." FOR THE LATEST political construction worker dies every two and a half days analysis, read Bob moser's Purple —MELISSA DEL BOSQUE —Charles Kuffner, writing Texas at www.texasobserver.org/ in Texas. at offthekuff.com purpletexas

4 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG New Texas, New Observer

Y THE TIME YOU'VE REACHED THIS PAGE, investigative reporting, incisive political commen- you might—just possibly!—have noticed tary and revelatory cultural coverage—remains as We will serve that something's different about this strong, pungent and substantial as ever. magazine. Drastically different, in We've added new wrinkles: broader, deeper cul- no group or fact. Maybe you're singing hallelujahs, tural reporting from around the state (see pp. 18 - 25); delighted that the good ol' Observer new columns by editor Bob Moser (p. 28) and contrib- party but will finally looks as snazzy as it reads. uting writers Robert Leleux and Ruth Pennebaker (p. Maybe, on the other hand, you're shocked and morti- 26); and some of Texas' finest documentary photogra- hew hard to fied and wondering, "Hey, who stole my Observer?" phy on the inside back page (p. 29). At the same time, Change can be hard, we know—so hard, in fact, that we've restored to our masthead (p. 1) the Observer's the truth as the look and feel of this magazine have evolved in only original mission statement, which begins: "We will the most gentle and barely noticeable ways throughout serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth we find it and most of our 55-year history. A healthy respect for tradi- as we find it and the right as we see it." tion can be a virtue, of course. But we couldn't help feel- Those fightin' words from 1954 will guide us into the right as ing that, especially in terms of the visual experience the the future, no matter how different we might look. Observer offered, we'd been way too respectful for way Texas is poised on the precipice of earth-shaking we see it.' too long. So we've given it more than a facelift; we've change, both culturally and politically, over the next given the Observer a new face altogether. few decades. That's one of the main reasons we're And brace yourself: There's more. Later this reinventing ourselves now, bringing the proudest month, we'll be uncorking a brand-new, highly inter- traditions of the Observer into the 21st century. Both active, daily online Observer as well. in print and online, this new Observer means to be a We hope, of course, that you'll simply adore the force in inspiring, envisioning and shaping a progres- new magazine and Website. And if you don't, we hope sive tomorrow for Texas. And you can't do that when you'll find your peace with all this newness. Especially you're looking, literally, like yesterday's news. when you see that while the shell may be glossy and So come along for the ride, and help us forge colorful and dynamic, the kernel inside—our fearless that future. El

Ben Sargent

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JANUARY 8, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 5 By the time he was 3, Daniel could say "Mama" and Despite a U.S. Supreme Court ban, Texas "Papa," but not much else. His grandmother grew frustrated when, as he got a little older, he couldn't has continued to send mentally retarded seem to run simple errands. "If I sent him for lard he would lose the money," says Cynthia Hernandez. "If I criminals to death row. Will a Mexican sent him for peppers he would bring back tomatoes." In school, Daniel stood out as a slow learner. His first- immigrant's case correct this injustice? grade teacher, Eleazar Herrera Solis, "tried to get him to be the same as the rest," but "the child could barely BY RENEE FELTZ read." His violent father complicated matters. Several times a week he would come home drunk and attack Fli LORESBINDA PLATA HADN'T SEEN A DOCTOR DURING HER ENTIRE Floresbinda. As the oldest child, Daniel would try to pregnancy in the desolate village of Angoa in Michoacan, Mexico. protect his mother and two brothers from Isidro's But after four hours of painful labor, she sought help at the nearest clinic, fists, belt and occasionally his machete. In the process an hour away by dirt road. After Plata arrived, Dr. Luis Zapien recalls, "We he became the target of his father's rage. pulled [the baby] out and he was born completely flaccid and purple." In 1986, Floresbinda fled with her sons to the United Floresbinda heard the doctor say that her son was dead before he States, hoping for safety and a better life. She found untwined the umbilical cord that was wrapped twice around the baby's work as a janitor in Houston. When the boys registered neck and began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. After several minutes, though, her for school, Daniel—then 10—was put in first grade. His son began breathing. But the lack of oxygen had already damaged his brain. A nurse friend Nasario Vasquez remembers him as "the kid who checked off a simple behavioral checklist—did he cry, did he respond appropriately?— got picked last" for basketball. "For Daniel the games and gave him two points out of 10, a score for a newborn with profound cognitive had no rules," Vasquez says. "He would just run down the defects. Just an hour into his life, and 20 years before he would be sentenced to die in court and throw up a crazy shot with no coordination." Texas, Daniel Plata was already being tested for mental retardation. When Daniel was 15, he was socially promoted to

the ninth grade. He acted up in class and was sent to an alternative learning center. He was flagged as "extremely low" performing by his teacher, Terry Rizzo, in a note to the school counselor. At first Rizzo assumed Daniel was having trouble understanding English, but after studying his behavior, she thought he might be learning disabled. She urged the school to test Daniel to see if he should be placed in special classes. But he was never tested and before his ninth- grade year was halfway over, he dropped out. Daniel started working as a busboy at Luby's to help support the family. He took to carrying his mother's gun around as a way to look tough. Then one night in March 1995, Daniel brought the gun along when he and some friends went to rob a nearby Stop'n Go. He had drunk about 20 beers and smoked PCP- laced marijuana, he later testified, so his memory of the night is hazy. But the store's security camera shows Daniel pointing his gun at the clerk, Murlidhar Mahbubani, and yelling, "Give me the money!" His two friends jumped over the counter and emptied the cash RIGHT: Floresbinda Plata at register of about $50. Then Daniel bent over the coun- her home in Houston. ter and shot Mahbubani several times in the back. FACING PAGE: Photograph of The store's surveillance system clearly videotaped Daniel Plata on a bookshelf in Plata's living room. his face. It also showed him, on the way out, using his PHOTOS BY MICHAEL STRAVATO shirt to wipe his fingerprints off the door.

6 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG VAKS.ItrA:*,:ower*** * %MM., en Within 30 hours, police had Daniel in custody. He including: "Did the commission of that offense

3. P confessed to Mahbubani's murder soon afterward. require forethought, planning and complex execu- 2 -'$1 One cent The hundindth parr of e dollar During his trial in 1996, prosecutors repeatedly tion of purpose?" If a defendant didn't address these A rocrn al money Smarm 1114.7 Coin Something dull ran hymn, played the videotape showing Daniel ruthlessly kill- questions to the court's satisfaction, he could be eli- TW can Upend ii. boy until Onemenceloicel money 1 Paint ing Mahbubani. The guilty verdict was a foregone gible for execution even if his test scores showed he IA wonh lowt Man • nide Ur it to make chanim (0) Money:0) IA made a copper arid Ivo dem on it IQ) conclusion. During the penalty phase of the trial, was mentally disabled. nelnOU km Ike • inickei. dame. gunner) II has a Ovine nn n 10) A finale fun name an Daniel's mother and stepfather testified that he was Most of Texas' questions emphasize the events of a Round a good son, and his attorney argued that he was "pas- crime in deciding whether a defendant meets a legal 110). 4. WINTER Point in Mc ward IVM.TER and sap. sive, docile. For one minute and a half, he just lost definition of mental retardation. "I think much of Le. Won with the word IITIOTPR. Tell me what Maw rn.all, Z ZOIZIV it." In the prosecutor's closing statement, he urged that emphasis is inappropriate because it embodies lb< cold teat. :of the yrar! The eaten of the year In winch Irecrinner ;Month March the Icon stunts 0II11 obimmik day. an Amu, The lemon 01 the leer lmniern a death sentence: "This was a shocking crime, and it the stereotype of mentally retarded people as unable rail and span. Season whop nn mn b below the equator Swan 01 we and num Log .11101101the mar ir3A. deserves a shocking punishment." The jury agreed. to do anything," says Sheri Lynn Johnson, a profes- Cord:gm of Me rear tter fah. Mime spin I WE) Daniel Plata was sentenced to die by lethal injection. sor at Cornell Law School and co-director of its Death One. ol rn MIAOW Season- eo Therm. ,n of Minn. Cold weather r13: Mien you hate in dm. W meanly Within four years, Plata's appeal had wound its way Penalty Project. In Texas, under the Brisefio standard, (lush Foul serum nit Me Few ',Mornings Mr down and rest Some. we (0) through the courts and ended in failure. His mother if you're capable of committing a murder, it's difficult 0 Math Time of eon year (Q) Chant In the weadm sought help from several lawyers in Mexico; her inabil- to establish that you're also mentally retarded. Aker Monate ity to speak English made it hard for her to find legal In other states, evidence of mental retardation is Scoring system for the test assistance in the United States. "I would sleep and wake heard in pretrial hearings that decide whether a per- Denkowski gave Plata up with the same thought about each day passing ... that son is even eligible for a death sentence. In Texas, he was one day closer to death," she says. prosecutors have fought successfully to hold off Two more years passed before officials from the evidence of mental retardation to the penalty phase Mexican Consulate in Houston called her and said a of a trial, meaning that jurors consider it only after lawyer wanted to ask about Daniel's history of being they have convicted a defendant of murder. Keith slow. The lawyer thought it might save his life. Hampton, legislative director of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, says "the gamesman- IN 2002, SIX YEARS AFTER Daniel Plata landed on ship is this: I can make you hate this guy so much that Death Row, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case you won't care if he's mentally retarded." called Atkins v. Virginia that "executions of mentally Since 2002, Texas has removed just 13 men from retarded criminals are cruel and unusual." Even though Death Row after they were found to have the mental mentally disabled people can understand the difference and emotional development of 12-year-olds. In con- READ THE U.S. SUPREME COURT'S between right and wrong, the court reasoned that they trast to a 40 percent success rate for Atkins appeals Atkins v. Virginia opinion are less able to control impulsive behavior or learn from nationally, just 28 percent have been successful at www4.law.cornell.edu/ supct/htm1/00-8452. mistakes. The court supported its decision by pointing in Texas. "I suppose you could imagine that Texas ZO.html to bans on executing the mentally retarded in 17 states Death Row inmates are smarter than everyone else," and in federal cases as "evolving standards of decency." says Johnson, "but I'd be surprised." Like most of the states that had already passed bans, the justices used a clinical definition to establish the DURING DANIEL PLATA'S original trial, prosecutors had "I suppose level of mental retardation that would exempt Daryl portrayed him as a sophisticated criminal who'd tried to Atkins, the Virginia defendant, from death: below- hide his identity and erase his fingerprints after mur- you could average intellectual abilities defined by an IQ score of dering Murlidhar Mahbubani. But attorney Kathryn 70 or below and "deficits in adaptive behavior" such Kase figured that Plata's accomplices, who made no imagine that as practical and social skills. Both of these limitations, such attempts, had realized the store's security camera the court ruled, had to be present before the age of 18. had captured their faces and didn't bother. If anything, Texas Death But the court left it up to the states to choose their she thought the crime showed how Plata was prone to own definitions of mental retardation. Since 2002, act impulsively, as mentally retarded people are known Row inmates eight more states have passed laws that use the to do. And when she interviewed Floresbinda Plata, she clinical definition cited in Atkins. Texas is not one of learned that there was a family history of retardation: are smarter them. With bipartisan support, the Texas Legislature Daniel's younger brother, Jesus, and his Aunt Celianel passed a law in 2001 mandating a life sentence for had both been diagnosed as mentally retarded. His than everyone mentally retarded people convicted of capital crimes. cousin, Rosalba, had Down syndrome. But Gov. Rick Perry vetoed the measure, agreeing To prove that Daniel Plata should be exempt from else, but I'd be with critics that it was a "backdoor attempt to ban the death penalty, Kase had to start by showing the death penalty." Bans on executing the mentally that he had an IQ of 70 or below. She hired Antonin surprised," retarded have been floated in every legislative ses- Llorente, a neuropsychologist who had designed sion since but have never again come up for a vote. intelligence tests and was a native Spanish speaker— In 2004, a Texas death row inmate named Jose important because it would allow him to test Plata in Briserio contended that he was mentally retarded the language he understood best. and shouldn't be executed for murdering a Dimmit In May 2003, Llorente spent about five hours with County sheriff. In the absence of legislative guide- Plata in a small visiting room at the Polunsky Unit READ JUDGE MARK KENT ELLIS'S rejection lines, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals wrote in Livingston, where men on Death Row are housed. of Denkowski's methods "temporary judicial guidelines" that have guided He began by asking Plata if he felt he was mentally at www.texasobserver. org/uploads/files/ Texas courts ever since. In its Brisefio decision, the retarded. Plata vehemently denied it. When Llorente KentOrder.pdf F court called clinical definitions of mental retarda- asked him to draw his family, the 28-year-old man tion, like those used by the U.S. Supreme Court, "drew stick figures," which Llorente noted in his "exceedingly subjective." Texas added its own set of report were "appropriate for children, not mature additional criteria in the form of seven questions, adults." Then he measured Plata's intellectual ability

8i THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG through puzzles and math questions that are part of a tic chair and paid close attention to Denkowski, who test called the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. spoke slowly and maintained a patient, yet authorita- Llorente reported that Plata's IQ score was 65. tive, demeanor. On a small table next to the psycholo- Even in Texas courts, it's generally accepted that IQ gist sat several open binders and test booklets. scores include a "standard error of measurement" Denkowski, who does not speak Spanish, began by of five points up or down. This means a person's IQ introducing himself and handing Plata his business score falls within a range; a person who tests at 75 card. But when he asked Plata to read the court order could still be considered retarded. Plata's 65 was a that had led to their meeting, things got off to a slow strong indication that his intellectual abilities were start. Plata stared at the page and asked for clarifi- below average and met the U.S. Supreme Court's cation, saying, "I don't understand this word right standard for mental retardation. here." Denkowski explained: "'Evaluate,' that's like, Note from Daniel Plata's The next psychologist to evaluate Plata was Texas do testing. Like your attorney said. That's another high school teacher prosecutors' favorite tester, George Denkowski of Fort word for testing." Worth. Denkowski's career stretched back 30 years PLATA: "Do I have to read it all?" to when he directed a 15-bed group home for mildly DENKOWSKI: "No. Just, do you ... is it OK with you? retarded adolescent offenders in Houston, teaching Do you understand what it means?" them adaptive skills that would improve their behav- PLATA: "Yeah, urn." ior. He'd also been the chief psychologist at the Fort DENKOWSKI: "What do you think it means? Tell me." Worth State School, a 365-bed facility for people with PLATA: "That you're uh. Represent. That you're uh, all ranges of mental retardation. Since 1989 he'd been hire by the state. Something like that." in private practice conducting psychological evalua- Denkowski then ran through several rounds of tions. Denkowski had also directed a national study of memory questions designed to trip up people who are mentally retarded people in state prisons. intentionally trying to do poorly. Plata scored well, After the Atkins decision in 2002, Denkowski convincing Denkowski that he was giving his best "I can make became the first choice for Texas prosecutors. He effort. And since Plata seemed to understand him well would ultimately testify in 29 cases—nearly two- enough, Denkowski assumed it was fine to do the IQ you hate this thirds of such appeals in Texas to date. In one of the tests in English. But when Plata misread the word "jar" first cases he worked on, Denkowski found James as "job" on a reading test, Denkowski figured he'd just guy so much Clark, a man accused of raping and killing two teenag- misspoken and noted his "Hispanic mispronunciation ers in Denton, mentally retarded. The state dismissed of `j.'" The extra point Plata received for this answer that you won't him after that finding and hired another expert who bumped up his score from a fifth-grade reading level disagreed. Denkowski's opinion was presented by the to a seventh-grade level. It was the first indication that care if he's defense to no avail, and Clark was executed. Denkowski was making assumptions during the test- In 29 cases, Denkowski has found defendants ing that would inflate Plata's scores. mentally retarded only eight times. By 2006, when he tested As the evaluation continued, Denkowski began to Plata, Denkowski had garnered an "almost Dr. Death reword questions from the tests as he read them to retarded." status" among defense lawyers, according to attorney Plata—a no-no in administering these tests. One of Robert Morrow. Morrow represented Alfred DeWayne the questions designed to measure comprehension Brown during his 2004 trial for killing a clerk and a secu- is, "What are some reasons a defendant would choose rity guard at a Houston check-cashing store. Morrow to be tried by a jury of peers?" But Denkowski, appar- said "Denkowski pretty much thought that if you had ently realizing that Plata had trouble with more engaged in criminal behavior you were not retarded," complicated terms, didn't use the word "defendant." Morrow says. Brown remains on Death Row. Instead, he asked, "Why is it important to be tried The work was lucrative. Denkowski charged pros- by a jury of your peers?" Plata replied: "Because the SEE THE TEXAS STATE ecutors hourly rates of $180 for evaluations, and $250 jury don't know nothing about the law? I mean that's BOARD OF EXAMINERS OF for court testimony. Most of the cases he worked on exactly what it is, right?" Denkowski asked the ques- PSYCHOLOGISTS' complaint against Dr. Denkowski at www. were in Harris County, which until 2009 pursued tion again, differently: "OK, what's another reason a texasobserver.org/uploadsi more death-penalty sentences than any other county person should have a trial by jury?" files/SBEPComplaint.pdf in Texas. Between 2003 and 2009, Harris County paid him $303,084 for his services, according to the Harris County Auditor. Denkowski did not respond to repeated interview requests for this story.

WHEN "DR. DEATH" met Daniel Plata at the Harris HAPPINESS County jail over the course of two days in March post01 OF 2006, each of the roughly five-hour sessions was vid- WWW.planetictexas.coin " - eotaped at defense attorney Kathryn Kase's request. GROWNUP GIFTS FOR KIDS OF ALL AGES Like the video of his behavior in the Stop'n Go rob- AUSTIN (512) NEW STORE bery, this footage would later play a crucial role in NEW STORE! NORTH SOUTH RESEARCH E. RIVERSIDE STASSNEY IN AUSTIN deciding whether Plata would be executed. 832-8544 443-2292 502-9323 441-5555 707-9069 A large desk dominated the small, brightly lit room CESAR CHAVEZ NEW STORE!! SAN MARCOS 512 392-4596 where the two met. On one side sat Denkowski, a slim, 3M L (BAR CHAVEZ middle-aged, mustached man. On the other side of the SAN ANTONIO (210) NEW STORE (East of Pleasant Valley EAST CENTRAL EVERS MILITARY WEST AVE at Tillery) desk, Plata, wearing his orange prison jumpsuit with 247-2222 "JAIL" stamped on the back, sat up straight in his plas- 654-8536 822-7767 521-5213 333-3043 525-0708

JANUARY 8, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 9 According to the manual for administering these scores outside the range of mental retardation." tests, Denkowski's rephrasing of the question was a In December 2006, Plata's hearing finally got under violation of procedure. The irregularities didn't end way before Federal District Court Judge Brock Kent there. The video shows Denkowski assigning more Ellis in Houston. Both Denkowski and Llorente were points than he should have for some of Plata's answers. quizzed about their opinions of Plata's mental capa- During a vocabulary test, he asked what the word bilities, and they critiqued each other's methods. Ellis "winter" meant. Plata's reply—"When it's cold ... when ended the hearing by saying that "both sides, all the it snows ... when we wear jackets"—should have been lawyers involved, have worked extraordinarily hard worth one point, according to the manual. A two-point in fully representing their clients in this regard and I answer would have been either "the cold season (of appreciate it.... I wish it was always the case." the year)," or "the season of the year between fall and More than half a year passed before Ellis issued his spring." Denkowski gave Plata two points anyway. opinion. He ruled that Plata is "a person with mild After straying from proper administration and retardation" and should be removed from Death scoring methods, Denkowski inflated Plata's scores Row. More significantly, given Denkowski's status as through "estimation." Denkowski used his assump- the "go-to" psychologist for Texas prosecutors, Ellis tions about Plata's upbringing to re-score his issued a scathing critique of his methods. responses on a test measuring basic skills like how All of Denkowski's testimony, the judge wrote, to count money, groom oneself, or use a microwave. "must be disregarded due to fatal errors." Ellis agreed He later argued that Plata "was just never taught and with Fletcher that "it is not generally accepted practice required to do a lot of these things. So I don't think within the field of psychological assessment to obtain that's a genuine deficit." an IQ score, declare it invalid, and then estimate an IQ Denkowski has argued that the test manuals pro- score with numbers," as Denkowski had done. duce skewed results because they offer no guidance On Jan. 18, 2008, the Texas Court of Criminal on how to take such psychological and cultural factors Appeals agreed and commuted Plata's death sen- into consideration. So he made up his own method tence to life in prison. He was transferred to the and defended it in a 2009 article for the American Hodge Unit in Rusk, where he is now housed with Journal of Forensic Psychology, a journal that is not other mentally retarded prisoners. peer-reviewed. He reasoned that criminal offenders from poor families would not have learned such skills THE DECISION ENDED Daniel Plata's 12-year stay as counting money. Instead, they often develop skills on Texas' Death Row. It might also lead to the end of Dr. Denkowski that are more appropriate for a criminal lifestyle. And George Denkowski's career as a licensed psychologist. tests Daniel Plata since the IQ and skills tests were "not developed for Judge Ellis' decision emboldened one of Denkowski's criminal offenders," Denkowski argued that they fail colleagues, Jerome Brown of Bellaire, to file a com- to truly measure how well defendants have adapted. plaint with the Texas State Board of Examiners of That makes it appropriate, in his view, to adjust test Psychologists. If Denkowski loses his license, the cases of scores using one's "clinical judgment." 17 other Texas men on Death Row—men he determined SEE A VIDEO of Denkowski Denkowski made liberal use of his "clinical judg- were not mentally retarded—could be re-examined. testing Plata at www.youtube. com/user/TheTexasObserver ment" when he reported Plata's scores. Judges rely And Texas' status as a national outlier in cases involving on both adaptive-behavior and IQ scores. They are mental retardation could be changed for good. looking to see if both scores are above the cutoff point Brown worked as an expert for the defense on five of 70. Denkowski adjusted Plata's adaptive-behavior capital cases in which Denkowski worked for the score from 61 to 71. He increased Plata's IQ score from prosecution. He says Denkowski used the same esti- 70 to 77. He discounted testimony from Daniel's par- mation techniques and showed the same deference ents and teachers, relying instead on information the to prosecutors' evidence in those cases as he did in prosecution gave him, including a list of books and Plata's, and that it was "essentially junk science. It magazines found in his cell and testimony from prison is science that appears to be scientific, but it doesn't guards who said they saw him reading. (The guards have any background ofYalidation to it." later admitted they never heard him read aloud and One of those cases resulted in an execution. In had just seen him flipping the pages.) 2005, Brown and Denkowski tested Michael Richard, Denkowski's conclusion: Plata was "not consid- who had been sentenced to death for the 1986 rape ered to be mentally retarded for Atkins purposes." and murder of a 53-year-old Houston woman named Marguerite Dixon. Based on test scores and school WHEN KATHRYN KASE realized the prosecution records, Brown concluded that Richard was mentally was going to argue that her bumbling client could retarded, and had been all his life. function like a normal adult—and could thus be exe- At first, Denkowski agreed that Richard was mentally cuted—she knew she needed help. If she was going retarded. As the state's expert, he had submitted a find- READ DR. DENKOWSKI'S to win Daniel Plata's Atkins claim, she had to find a ing that Richard had an IQ of 64 and adaptive-behavior AFFIDAVIT that Plata is not a mentally retarded psychologist who could prove that Dr. Denkowski's scores that clearly showed mental retardation. His person" at www.texas methods amounted to junk science. So she contacted combined score was a 57, well below the 70 cutoff. But observer.org/uploads/files/ DenkowskiPlata.pdf Jack Fletcher, a nationally known neuropsychologist Denkowski retracted his findings after prosecutors who had served on the President's Commission on showed him a list of books that were found in Richard's Excellence in Special Education. cell, including two dictionaries. Denkowski said the dic- Fletcher watched the videotape of Plata's test- tionaries showed that Richard could read much better ing and reviewed the test materials Denkowski than he had indicated under testing. He adjusted sev- had included with his opinion. His conclusion: eral of Richard's scores. When he added them up, the Denkowski's methods appeared to be "driven to yield total score jumped from 57 to 76. In his new opinion,

i THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG Denkowski concluded that Richard should no longer be SEE THE ORIGINAL AND RECONCILED test scores considered mentally retarded. Denkowski gave Michael Richard The When Brown saw the prosecution's list of books, he at www.texasobserver.org/up- met with Richard a second time to ask him about his loadsifiles/RichardScores.pdf reading abilities and clarify how he'd used the books Letter in his cell—one of which was written in German. Denkowski had not followed up with Richard to ask from Death about the books. Richard described to Brown how he Lillian Moats • Illustrations by David J Moats stacked the books on top of each other and used them How many have you killed in your beloved to sit on, since his death row cell lacked a chair. "Denkowski wars? And you call ME the "Grim Reaper?' What do you know of me? Nothing! Read on - Even so, the judge accepted Denkowski's revised you may never see me the same way again. score. In September 2007, Richard was executed. pretty much Brown was appalled. "To those of us familiar with the tr right way to do these things, it is very apparent that thought that what he's doing is wrong." After the judge rejected Denkowski's findings in if you had the Plata case, Brown enlisted Jack Fletcher and a Florida-based psychologist named Tom Oakland to engaged jointly file a complaint against Denkowski. Oakland co-authored the adaptive-behavior test. Their com- in criminal plaint cited the Richard case, as well as those of Plata Foreword by Howard Zinn and DeWayne Brown. behavior Last February, the state Board of Examiners "Moats uses death not as a threat, of Psychologists upheld the complaint, finding you were not that Denkowski had made "administration, scor- but as a prism through which ing and mathematical errors" in all three cases. retarded." to examine the most profound The board sent the complaint to the State Office of questions that confront the human Administrative Hearings. Denkowski will have a race today." chance to defend himself in a hearing scheduled for Feb. 16 in Austin. He could lose his license. Howard Zinn The broader psychological community has also rejected Denkowski's methods. He is mentioned by name in the 2010 edition of the American Association The on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities' diag- nostic manual. In a section about how cultural or eco- nomic factors should impact scores on adaptive behav- Letter ior tests, the authors "strongly caution against practices such as those recommended by Denkowski." Denkowski's career as a prosecution expert appears from Death to be over, whatever the outcome of his hearing. The Lillian Moats Harris County District Attorney's office stopped using Illustrations by David J Moats him after Plata's death sentence was overturned. Foreword by Howard Zinn No other counties have hired Denkowski to work on Atkins cases since 2008. But the impact of his previous work continues to unfold. In October 2009, the U.S. ISBN: 978-0-9669576-3-1 Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals put the Atkins appeal Three Arts Press threeartspress.com of Steven Butler on hold pending the outcome of Denkowski's hearing. In November a federal district court put another appeal, that of Joel Escobedo, on SEE A VIDEO version of this hold for similar reasons. And in December, the Fifth story and related videos at www.youtube.com/user/The- Circuit found that a lower court had "erred" when it TexasObseiver dismissed Anthony Pierce's right to a hearing based on Denkowski's role in denying his Atkins claim. Several similar requests to put appeals on hold are pending. Daniel Plata's lawyer, Kathryn Kase, argues that all of the appeals on which Denkowski worked should be re- heard. "When you have junk science in a case, it's like pouring poison into a punch bowl," she says. "You aren't going to get the poison out. So you have to pour out the punch, clean the bowl, and start all over again." CO Renee Feltz is an investigative reporter living in New York City. Research support for this article was pro- vided by the The Nation Institute's Investigative Fund. Special thanks to Gislaine Williams, Bryan Parras, Claire Loe and Tish Stringer for their assistance with translation and equipment.

JANUARY 8, 2010

BY DAVE MANN

ABYGOne The shocking case of OTTY SANCHEZ exposes the holes in Texas' mental health care system.

PHOTO BY MATT WRIGHT-STEEL

JANUARY 8, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 13 The first police officers at the crime scene were When they arrived at the white- aneled house on San Antonio's north side at 5 a.m. on July 26, officers found a bedroom I doused in blood, the decapitated not even a month old, and his mother, 33-year-old Otty Sanchez, screaming that

Sanchez had left the baby's father after a fight and Combs' message about the severity of Sanchez's was staying with her mother and cousins. Around condition didn't quite get through. At the hospital, 4:30 a.m., while the rest of the family slept, she'd Sanchez would be diagnosed with visual hallucina- attacked her infant son with a large kitchen knife. tions and audible voices, but nowhere in Sanchez's Police officers would describe the crime as one of hospital records does the more alarming diagnosis the most gruesome they had ever seen. Some of them Combs suspected—"postpartum psychosis"—appear. later needed counseling. The ambulance arrived at Metropolitan Methodist, It was hard to imagine that anyone in her right a private hospital, at 11:39 a.m. Sanchez waited 20 mind could do such a thing. And it turned out that minutes and was examined in the emergency room Sanchez was suffering from postpartum psychosis, at 12:05, according to hospital records obtained by a rare but severe form of postpartum depression in the Observer. Though Sanchez had been rushed to which paranoid hallucinations prod new mothers the hospital because of a mental-health crisis, for to violence. (Postpartum psychosis and its poten- the next three hours, nurses gave her only physical tially tragic consequences gained national notoriety tests and lab work and determined that her body was after the trial of Andrea Yates, the Houston woman mostly healthy. who killed her five children in 2001.) Sanchez had Alittle before 3 p.m., more than three hours after her been enduring a mental-health crisis for at least a arrival, Sanchez was finally examined by a member of week before the killing. But when she reached out the hospital's psychiatric team—not a psychiatrist, but for help—like so many Texans with severe mental a trained counselor. The evaluation lasted 44 minutes, illness—she was left to fend for herself. and the records of that session show the seriousness Just six days before she killed her son, on July 20, of Sanchez's condition. She was experiencing "voices Sanchez had met with a counselor at the obstetrics- and hallucinations," according to hospital records, gynecology clinic that ushered her through preg- and "sees babies [sic] face change." nancy. The counselor, Luinda Combs, could tell Sanchez asked to be admitted to the hospital's 31-bed right away that Sanchez wasn't well. Sanchez spoke inpatient psychiatric unit. "[Patient] states she needs of delusional, paranoid thoughts that other women to be admitted for voices," according to the records. were trying to breastfeed her baby. She was "hearing Inpatient treatment had worked for Sanchez before. voices which have informed her others would like to During a similar crisis in 2008, she had been hospital- take her baby away," according to Combs' notes from ized for more than two weeks until her mental condition that session. "Client also reports visual images of stabilized. Now she was asking for similar treatment. other children's faces transposed on her baby's face." Sanchez was a good candidate for inpatient care. (The Observer was granted access to these medical Here was a diagnosed schizophrenic who had been HEAR THE 9-1-1 CALL records with Otty Sanchez's permission.) institutionalized a year before, who had recently that led police to Otty Combs suspected right away that Sanchez had given birth, who had stopped taking her meds, who Sanchez: www.youtube.com/ watch?v --Hoyi61E90aA- postpartum psychosis. She knew Sanchez had a his- was hearing voices and hallucinating, seeing her tory of depression and had been institutionalized a baby's face change into other faces. "She's got a big year earlier with paranoid schizophrenia. New moth- red light on her head saying 'I'm going to explode ers with severe mental illness are much more likely any minute,'" says her lawyer, Ed Camara. "You think to suffer postpartum psychosis. Most alarming of all, they would at least talk to her doctor or ask her about Sanchez had stopped taking her anti-psychotic medi- her history. But they don't do anything like that." cation because of the side effects. Instead, the hospital employed another standard Combs told Sanchez she needed an immediate psy- for admission to its psych unit. It mostly boiled chiatric evaluation and called an ambulance to rush down to a simple question: Did Sanchez feel suicidal her to the hospital. The counselor wanted to make or homicidal? New mothers will rarely answer this sure Sanchez wasn't mindlessly shuffled through question honestly. Many will never admit to suicidal a busy emergency room, so she called ahead to let or infanticidal thoughts because—in addition to Metropolitan Methodist Hospital's psychiatric unit the societal stigma of saying they might harm their know that Sanchez would soon arrive with a likely diag- baby—they fear that, if they answer honestly, the nosis of postpartum psychosis. Combs wrote in her government will try to take their child away. Sanchez notes that the "hospital worker did not want to take was already having paranoid hallucinations about information over the phone." So she also gave "specific strangers lusting after her son. details of client's delusions and hallucinations" to the It's hard to know exactly what was in Sanchez's EMS workers to pass along to the hospital personnel. mind at the time. (Because her case is pending, she

THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG couldn't be interviewed for this story.) But what- ever she was thinking, Sanchez told the hospital counselor that she was "not suicidal, not homicidal, no command hallucinations," according to hospi- tal records. (Command hallucinations are voices that instruct a person to take specific actions.) The counselor checked the "no" box on a form next to the line that reads, "Is the patient having suicidal or homicidal ideation and/or making threats?" Asked about the hospital's standard for admission to the psych unit, a spokesperson for Metropolitan Methodist responded to the Observer by e-mail: "Qualified mental health professional perform [sic] a psych assessment, focusing on three things: whether patient is suicidal, homicidal or experiencing a deterio- ration such that, if we let them out of the hospital, they which are almost always near capacity and difficult to The family home in San would be a danger to themselves or somebody else. gain admittance to because of limited bed space. A net- Antonio where Otty Sanchez The qualified mental health professional then gives 39 and her son lived at the time work of community mental-health authorities offers of the murder assessment recommendation to ER doctor and doctor counseling, medication and other outpatient services. PHOTO BY EVA RUTH MORAVEC / makes his own assessment on whether patient needs But with extreme funding shortages, the community SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS to be admitted. Doctors [sic] recommendation always centers can offer help to only a sliver of the people who stands. Doctor bears liability for decision." need it. State officials have estimated that the centers Sanchez was sent home with the name of a clinic can afford to treat only about one-third of the Texans she could contact for outpatient services, though she with severe mental illnesses, leaving at least 400,000 was given no address or contact information. She largely without care. never made an appointment. That's not uncommon. The irony of the Otty Sanchez case is that, of all the People in mental-health crises often can't care for places in Texas to suffer a mental-health crisis, San themselves. Their mental state is too debilitated and Antonio might be the best equipped to offer treatment. agitated for basic outpatient care; they can't be relied "We have a success story to tell," says Leon Evans, telli upon to take medication or show up for appoint- who heads the Center for Health Care Services, the ments. They often need to be hospitalized for a short public mental-health clinic in San Antonio. The crazy persdn period until their minds stabilize to the point that clinic, like many other community mental-health they can function on their own. centers across Texas, is horribly underfunded by the that 'you're I The hospital also provided Sanchez with an informa- state. But the center has forged alliances with the tion sheet—Camara calls it a "you're crazy" document— police, judges and other health-care providers in San mad, and to that lists general descriptions of "Hallucinations and Antonio to create some of the most innovative treat- Delusions" and of "Schizophrenia." The document ment programs in the country. Among other innova- take care of instructed her to "Call your doctor or go to the emer- tions, the center worked with San Antonio police on gency room right away if your symptoms get worse." a program that trains officers how to spot and calmly yourself." As Camara puts it, "They're telling a crazy person subdue people who have severe mental illnesses that 'you're crazy,' and to take care of yourself." without resorting to violence or arrests. And that was that. Just 11 minutes after her psych The Center for Health Care Services, which treated evaluation ended, Sanchez was discharged from the Sanchez for three months in 2008, has also created hospital, at 3:53 p.m. Six days later, she was back in an emergency room, this time at San Antonio's large public hospital. She was escorted by police officers. Her face was still Supporting The Texas Observer smeared with blood from consuming parts of her son. with every transaction. TEXAS MAY HAVE THE MOST beleaguered public mental-health system in the country. The state ranks You Know Me 49th nationally in per-capita spending on mental (with a few degrees of separation) health; only New Mexico is worse, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. State lawmakers have shorted the system for years. The result of this miserly Get real estate help approach is that hundreds of thousands of Texans with from someone you know. severe mental illnesses must fend for themselves. For many people, the public system—such as it is— Call me today! remains the only option. Private facilities are often prohibitively expensive, and most insurance plans offer minimal coverage for mental-health care. A few days' stay at a private treatment facility will usually exhaust the mental-health benefit offered by even the most decadent insurance plans. Larry Hurlbert, Realtor The Kinney Company, Yet in Texas' public system, only the lucky ones 512.431.5370 receive services. Texas operates a dozen state hospitals, Real Estate Services, Austin, TX [email protected] www.thekinneycompany.com JANUARY 8, 2010 The Kinney Company jail-diversion programs aimed at keeping nonviolent didn't obviously disrupt her life until just last year. In offenders with substance-abuse problems or mental fact, family friends often described Otty as one of the illness out of prisons. In 2005, the center helped open most level-headed people in the family. a 10-bed inpatient mental-health crisis center, where She has been hearing voices since age 5, according to people can stay for 23 hours if they have nowhere else the report from a psychiatric evaluation recently con- to go. (The crisis center accepts referrals from hos- ducted on her in the county jail. The voices are often pitals when their psych units are full. Metropolitan "good voices telling her everything is going to be OK," Methodist could have sent Sanchez to the 23-hour according to the report by Brian Skop, a psychiatrist crisis center if the hospital's psych unit had no room appointed by the court to evaluate Sanchez's compe- for her.) Combined, these programs are keeping tency to stand trial. But she also hears "bad voices. ... nearly 1,000 people a month out of the county jail. One voice in particular named 'Lucy,' which is telling That saves taxpayer money and, by providing people me to do bad things like eat my hand," she told Skop. Scott Buchholz treatment instead of incarceration, greatly reduces Sanchez was mostly able to live with these voices and Otty Sanchez. the chances that they'll break the law again. and mild paranoia for years. She finished high school PHOTO COURTESTY SANCHEZ FAMILY. But despite those successes, the lack of funding min- and began taking pharmacy-technician classes. imizes what these programs can accomplish. "Money That's where, in 2003, she met Scott Buchholz, who is very tight," says Gilbert Gonzales, who oversees the also is schizophrenic. The two began a dysfunctional, jail-diversion programs and also serves as spokesman on-again, off-again relationship. Hundreds of for the Center for Health Care Services. "There's only Sanchez's mental illness worsened in the past five so many people we can treat because we literally don't years. Her behavior became erratic. She had trouble thousands of have enough money to meet the need." staying employed, bouncing from one low-paying job State funding for mental-health services hasn't to another. She worked at fast-food restaurants and kept pace with demand. One main reason, Evans briefly as a home health caretaker. points out, is the way Texas doles out money to the In late May 2008, Sanchez went to Austin with a community centers around the state. The funding is friend. While her friend was getting an acupunc- not based on the population of the area a clinic serves. ture treatment, Sanchez wandered off. She walked Rural areas with shrinking populations receive far into a CVS and prowled the store for the next seven more money per capita than Houston, San Antonio hours. Police arrived and took her to the Austin State must fend for and Dallas—cities with exploding populations and Hospital, where she stayed for 16 days. It was the first rising numbers of people with mental illness. There time her family learned of the severity of her mental themselves. have been many attempts to change the way money illness. After her mental state stabilized, Sanchez was is allocated. Most advocates realize that the level of released. The nurses at Austin State Hospital referred SEE A VIDEO NEWS mental-health funding should be based on popula- her to outpatient care at the Center for Health Care REPORT on the case: www.youtube.com/ tion, but the Legislature has resisted this change; Services in San Antonio. They gave Sanchez the con- watch?v=SXXRWFmzeLk it's been blocked largely by rural lawmakers whose tact information, set up an appointment for her and sparsely populated districts would lose money. later called to make sure she showed up. Evans and his staff stretch the meager funds as far Throughout the summer of 2008, Sanchez, who as possible. The state provides enough money for the was uninsured at the time, received free outpatient Center for Health Care Services to treat 4,240 people treatment from the San Antonio clinic, including a month. But the center stretches it to treat about regular counseling sessions and anti-psychotic med- 6,000 adults and children (42 percent above the ication. She soon was feeling much better, according state's goal). Even so, the center can't meet the need. to her health records. There is now a waiting list for services of several hun- But in early September 2008, that all changed. The dred people per month. "We're way under-funded," Center for Health Care Services—its budget strapped Evans says. "Our employees' heads are about to as ever—could no longer afford to provide Sanchez explode because they're so overworked." treatment. She would have to either pay or qualify for It means that many people fall through the cracks. a government benefit. Camara, her lawyer, says that Otty Sanchez was one of them. Sanchez believed she could never afford the treat- ment. So when her next appointment rolled around, IN SANCHEZ'S FAMILY, hearing voices or seeing the Sanchez didn't show. The clinic workers didn't have occasional hallucination isn't unusual. Her mother, the time or resources to track her down. They moved GETTING HELP Find resources for dealing aunts and cousins have all had similar mental illness. on to the next client on the waiting list. A month later, with postpartum depression Sanchez was an only child and never knew her father. the center classified Sanchez's file as closed. "They at http://www.dshs.state. tx.us/mch/depression.shtm She grew up in a crowded household with seven other let her drop out, and they have to, because they don't relatives, including her mother. The family moved have the money," Camara says. OUT OF SERVICE often, living in at least three states during Otty's child- At about the same time she stopped receiving Read more about Texas' hood. They returned to San Antonio from California treatment, Sanchez reunited with Buchholz. In late under-funded mental health system at http://www. when Otty entered high school. Sanchez's mother and September 2008, she got pregnant. You needn't be a psy- texasobserver.org/article . two of her cousins turned down interview requests. chiatrist to see trouble looming for two schizophrenics, php?aid=1302 Although Sanchez would later be diagnosed with one off her medication, deciding to have a baby. paranoid schizophrenia, her relatives had no idea Yet Sanchez managed her pregnancy without inci- she had mental illness until just last year, according dent. She gave birth to Scotty Buchholz on June 30, to medical and court records (and to Camara, her 2009. Her OB- GYN prescribed anti-psychotic med- lawyer, who has extensively interviewed the family). ication—she had given up medication during preg- That's partly explained by other relatives' illnesses. nancy—but Sanchez said the drug made her too tired. But her symptoms were also easy to ignore; they She stopped taking it on July 17, nine days before she

16 1 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG attacked her baby. Her doctor planned to offer her a LONG CENTER PRESENTS different drug, but before that could happen, Sanchez had one of her frequent fights with Buchholz. On July 20, she left him and descended into crisis. Emotional stress often exacerbates postpartum depression. "They're the best. Sanchez soon found herself in the emergency room at Metropolitan Methodist, asking for help. After the hospital ushered her out the door with There's no one like them, little more than an information sheet, there was still one last opportunity to prevent the killing. On the afternoon of July 25, 12 hours before the attack, no one in their league." Sanchez visited Buchholz and his mother, Kathleen. Sanchez had been living with her relatives and wanted to retrieve from Buchholz the baby's diaper Larry King, CNN bag and her medication. She hadn't taken a pill in eight days. Buchholz's mother noticed that Sanchez seemed erratic and paranoid. Neither Buchholz nor his mother would agree to an interview for this story. A relative who answered the phone at Buchholz's home said he's no longer speaking with reporters. This account comes from Camara, the attorney, who has interviewed everyone who was present that after- noon. At one point, Sanchez refused to let Kathleen Buchholz hold the baby because she feared Kathleen was trying to steal her son or breastfeed him. The Buchholzes told Sanchez that she needed to seek help. At that, Sanchez abruptly got up and fled the house. Kathleen Buchholz called law enforcement and told offi- cers that Sanchez had run off with the child and was an unstable schizophrenic. The officers—members of the Bexar County Sheriff's Department—took no action.

IN THE WEEKS AFTER THE ATTACK, prosecutors confronted a difficult decision: Should Otty Sanchez face criminal charges or be sent to a state hospital for treat- ment? Despite the evidence that Sanchez was insane at A .44414.9*; the time of the killing, some in San Antonio openly called for the death penalty. They included Scott Buchholz, who told a San Antonio television reporter in late July that "I think she should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.... She killed my son. She should burn in hell." Prosecutors eventually decided to pursue a crimi- Enjoy a dose of humor and musical madness. nal case. In September, a grand jury indicted Sanchez for capital murder. These former Congressional staffers serve up their In jail, Sanchez has received the counseling and brilliant, wickedly funny parodies of popular American medication to which she had such spotty access on songs with political humor that rivals the outside. Her mental condition has stabilized, Saturday Night for the moment. As a result, she's been found com- Live. Get ready for some non-partisan bashing of petent to stand trial after examinations by experts Republicans, Democrats and Independents. appointed by both the court and her defense attor- ney. Examiners concluded that she understood the legal process and the charges against her. If she remains stable, Sanchez will likely stand trial this summer. Camara plans to have Sanchez plead not guilty by reason of insanity—just as Andrea Yates did. He thinks he has a strong case, but jury trials are unpredictable. Take the Yates case: At her first trial for killing her five children in 2002, she was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. That con- viction was later overturned on appeal, and in 2006, Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death Photos by Richard Termine penalty for Sanchez. If they do, the very state that for years offered Otty Sanchez so little treatment and JANUARY 29 help for her mental illness will try to execute her. El TheLongCenter.org 1512.474.LONG (5664)

JANUARY 8, 2010 Tickets also available at the 3M Box Office at the Long Center. Groups 15+ call 457-5161. ON A RECENT SUNDAY MORNING, I walked a mile from my downtown Dallas hotel to the new AT&T Performing Arts Center. It was a quiet stroll, border- ing on eerie. Huge dark office buildings. Empty side- walks. I kept a close eye on the directions I'd gotten from the hotel clerk. If I got lost, there wasn't anyone around to point me on my way. But as I approached the heart of the arts district, a few signs of life appeared. A couple paused by a fountain. A group of bikers in spandex flew past like a flock of rare birds. The new Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House rose from behind the fountain, with a soaring glass façade and glossy red dome, and across the street stood the new shimmering, metallic Dee and Charles Wyly Theater. By the front door was the person I'd come to meet, Mark Nerenhausen, the president of the AT&T Performing Arts Center. He giddily pointed out the few folks strolling around the CULTURE GAME plaza. "You know, usually Performing Arts Centers are set apart," he said. "You walk by them. But to walk Can extravagant, cutting-edge art and through them is pretty cool." Dallas has long been seen as a city (and metro architecture transform Dallas? area) rich with money but poor on quality of life. Downtown is full of colossal office buildings, huge BY MICHAEL MAY parking garages and one-way streets that whisk office

18 1 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG workers in and back out to the suburbs as efficiently going to the opera. A new outdoor performance space, SEE THE PLANS for the park that will extend over the Woodall as possible. But Dallas has always strived to be a now being built, will hold up to 5,000 people for con- Rogers Freeway in downtown world-class destination, and its leaders have looked certs on the lawn. And the city has broken ground on Dallas at www.theparkdallas.org to great architecture and art to make that a reality Woodall Rogers Park, a 5-acre stretch of landscaped since 1890, when the city spent $300,000, then an green space that will stretch over a nearby sunken outrageous sum, on a courthouse in the middle of freeway. The park will help connect the arts district downtown. It showed that Dallas was leaving its Wild with uptown, a thriving residential neighborhood West reputation behind. on the other side of the thoroughfare. "The results Nowadays Big D has a collection of modern build- we are trying to achieve are so much bigger than us," ings by famous architects to rival that of any metrop- Nerenhausen said. "We aren't trying to control the olis. Even so, this has been a monumental year for issue so much as influence the issue." Dallas architecture. Two mammoth projects were Architect Brent Brown lives downtown, and recently unveiled that would seem to have little in directs the Dallas City Design Studio, which works "It was a common: the AT&T Performing Arts Center in the from inside City Hall to help create public space. He heart of downtown, and a brand-new stadium for the told me that downtown has already come a long way vision that art Dallas Cowboys in suburban Arlington. The two have from when he first moved there a decade ago. "Back different purposes, to be sure. But with both, Dallas then, if you wanted to find something to eat for din- and culture is betting that great art and architecture will create ner, you might find a slice of pizza," he said. "It's still an experience that will further transform its reputa- dead on weekends, but that's changing. There's a lot could be tion in the 21st century. more green space downtown now, and it's giving peo- The new performing arts center, which includes ple a reason to hang around." a defining the Winspear Opera House and the Wyly Theater, The performing arts center already comes alive completes a plan hatched in 1978, when city lead- around performances. Before a Sunday matinee of characteristic ers drew up an arts district in the northeast corner Otello, the audience gathered on the Winspear's of downtown, hoping to lure people for something patio and began to file inside and up a grand staircase of the city." besides a day at the office. The district now houses to their seats. Since the entire outer wall is glass, the a symphony hall, several art museums and a public building comes alive with activity, like a massive ant high school dedicated to the arts. "It was a physical farm. The opera was sold out, with the older, well- plan," Nerenhausen told me. "But it was also a vision dressed crowd you would expect. that art and culture could be a defining characteristic The biggest challenge for the new arts center will of the city, and essential to the future of the city." be convincing people that it's not just here for the The center updates that vision in important ways. wealthy few who funded it. The season does include The Winspear Opera House sits next to the Myerson shows by local theaters, and they've kept some tickets Symphony Hall, which was built in 1989. Both were under $20, but the opera costs several times that, just built using the same method: Raise millions from for the cheap seats. For audience members Norman wealthy Dallas donors, and hire a prize-winning and Jane Gaddan, Otello was a splurge for Norman's international architect to design the building. But birthday. "We're a little bothered by the elitism of it the experience of visiting the two buildings couldn't all," Norman Gaddan said. "This whole arts district, be more different. At the 20-year-old symphony hall there's very dramatic unique structures, but it's very designed by I.M. Pei, one enters through a parking expensive. The venues are small, and I'm sure they'll lot underneath the angular cement-and-glass struc- keep them full, but most people will not be able to Mark Nerenhausen, the ture. Audience members never have to go outside. At come here." president of the AT&T the new opera house, the escalators from the park- Performing Arts Center. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MAY ing garage empty into the middle of a huge shaded WHEN IT COMES TO EXPENSIVE, the opera is patio in front of the building. People mingle out front nothing compared to a night at the new Cowboys before entering the glass-encased lobby. Stadium. It can cost hundreds of dollars to go to a "We designed the house not to be a more formal game. Parking alone begins at $50. old-fashioned opera house where you have to pluck The opera house and Cowboys Stadium opened at up your courage to come in through a monumental the same time, and they're both masterworks of con- door," said London-based architect Spencer De Grey temporary architecture that aim to transcend their who led the project for the Pritzker Prize-winning primary purpose. Comparing the two illustrates how firm Foster and Partners. "Here the entire lobby is hard it will be for Dallas to change its habits, but at glazed, it's very visible, and the red drum of the audi- the same time shows how much mainstream support torium is a beacon that draws you in. The whole con- exists here for cutting-edge projects. cept is to break down barriers." The new billion-dollar stadium is far from down- Dallas residents have bought into the concept— town Dallas. It's an hour away, in Arlington, a city literally. The new performing arts center was built without a real downtown or a public transportation with more private funding than any other similar system. Unlike most new stadiums, which have gone effort in the country, with 133 Dallas families giv- for a retro look, Cowboys Stadium is an aerodynamic ing more than $1 million each to the $350 million glass-and-cement saucer that rises from its sprawl- project. But many of these wealthy donors had more ing asphalt parking lots like a futuristic cathedral to in mind than simply a place to go for a night at the football. Inside, the decor is more luxury Las Vegas opera. The new center's purpose is as much civic as than gritty gridiron. Sleek modern furniture. Soft OPPOSITE PAGE: The it is cultural—to create an urban, pedestrian-friendly lighting. Three thousand high-definition TVs. And, shaded patio in front of the Winspear Opera House. neighborhood in downtown Dallas. People can use in an unprecedented move, 17 enormous contempo- PHOTO COURTESY NIGEL YOUNG / the enormous shaded patio whether or not they're rary art pieces—sculptures above all the entrances, FOSTER + PARTNERS.

JANUARY 8, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 19 FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: and huge murals covering hundreds of square feet of I make is what you get," Hancock said. "But this was The interior of the concrete above concession stands and in staircases. a bureaucratic process; the final say was not my own. Winspear Opera House, as seen from the stage The stadium is the vision of Cowboys owner Jerry You figure out inventive ways to solve problems, and PHOTO BY IWAN BAAN Jones. But his wife, Gene, insisted on the artwork. I'm happy with what we came up with." She was inspired by what art was doing to down- The members told Hancock to avoid any sexual The lobby of the or violent imagery, which sometimes crops up in his Winspear Opera House town Dallas (she's on the executive board of the PHOTO COURTESY NIGEL Performing Arts Center). "I thought, this stadium work. And his first proposal was sent back—too much YOUNG/FOSTER + PARTNERS. just needs to be the same quality, and do the same pink. "It's hard to find a football team that uses pink well," he chuckled. "One thing I heard was that it At Cowboys Stadium, thing for people who enjoy fine things," Gene Jones Franz Ackermann's said. "I just wanted this to be the best of the best, and wasn't about the pink exactly, but more that it looked Coming Home and (Meet Me) I didn't think it could be without the art." red, which was close to the [Washington] Redskins' At the Waterfall "We knew we were going to have a different type of color. Whatever the case, the pink was out." PHOTO BY DAVE MANN football stadium," she continued. "It was going to be Walking around inside the stadium as the Cowboys A section of Trenton Doyle very futuristic. And we thought every great building squeaked out a win over the rival Redskins on Nov. 22, Hancock's mural, From needs art in it. It needed to be contemporary art, to go it was striking to see football fans framed by cutting- a Legend to a Choir PHOTO BY DAVE MANN with the style of the building. And it had to be huge, edge contemporary art. Although the game was both or you wouldn't notice it. We wanted to be powerful, fleeting and miles away from Dallas proper, it felt explosive, something that reflects a football game." exactly like the kind of public space that arts district Jones brought together an arts panel that included officials want to create. All sorts of people mingled curators from the state's largest museums. They wanted with each other, surrounded by great art and archi- to commission work that would connect with football tecture, and they were thrilled to be here, together in fans, but they didn't shy away from difficult art. One a common purpose: winning the game. of the artists chosen by Jones and her committee was While the district uses art and culture to trans- Houston-based Trenton Doyle Hancock of Houston, form downtown, the stadium is using art to trans- known for his colorful, surreal paintings. "My first reac- form the experience of football. At times, it seems to tion was, really?" Hancock said. "To have a stadium out- be working. Fan Rosalind Perry relaxed in one of the fitted with art seemed too good to be true." stadium's lounges after the game, near a sculpture Once he realized the scale of the project, he signed of floating stainless-steel orbs called Moving Stars on and started working on a piece called From a Takes Time by the hot international artist Olafur Legend to a Choir. His work stretches along a wall on Eliasson. "It just made me feel like I was floating, like the outer ring of the stadium, and fans can see it from I was high," Perry said. "I'd already had one marga- WATCH A VIDEO with aerial views of the stadium. several vantage points as they make their way up a rita, so it just took me to another level." dallascowboys.com/multi ramp to their seats. The piece is incredibly dense, But a lot of football fans told me just what you'd media.cfm featuring a flowering field full of Hancock's distinc- expect. I found Travis Smith waiting in line for food, and tive, zebra-striped creatures called mounds, hybrids asked him what he thought of a red-and-white striped of a sort between plants and humans. Hancock, who mural over the concession stand. It's by the artist Terry played high school football, worked in some gridiron Haggerty and called Two Minds. "Is that art? Looks like references. One of the mounds is wearing a football a bunch of painting," Smith said. "I don't have an opin- helmet, and they're lined up on a grassy field, just like ion about it because I just don't care." the players on the other side of the wall. When I told Gene Jones that many fans hadn't The piece is classic Hancock, but the process noticed the pieces, she just smiled and nodded. "Not was different than anything he had gone through everyone knows it's art, but we'll teach 'em," she said before. The arts committee was involved from the in her sweet Dallas drawl. "That's our goal!" conception. "Usually, I go into my studio, and what Jones believes these great buildings and art give

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JANUARY 8, 2010 OBSERVER DATELINE little hope of getting the city to invest in bike lanes. The plan, which still exists, utilized a grid of routes mainly on neighborhood streets and denoted Bike Pathology by numbered signs. More than 400 people rallied at city hall when the plan was introduced. It won a by Ian Dille merit award from the Texas Chapter of the American Planning Association. ALLAS, WITH ITS KNOT OF HIGHWAYS, Despite the enthusiasm of local cyclists, Dallas' sprawling suburbs, and fast urban elected officials never embraced bicycling. "Bike lanes were left out of the first Dallas bike plan streets, is not an easy place to bicy- because we were skeptical of the city's commitment cle. In 2008, Bicycling magazine to maintain them," says Bud Melton, former direc- declared it the worst city for cyclists tor of the Texas Bicycle Coalition, the state's leading bike-advocacy group. "You need to understand the in the country. Ironically, there's no environment we were working in. We just beat back shortage of people who love to bike. a bill in the state Legislature that proposed banning In the mid-'90s, my dad served as bicycles across Texas." Since Dallas wouldn't pay for infrastructure, the club president of the Greater bicycling coordinator Summer relied on education Dallas Bicyclists. Nearly every weekend, my family joined instead. Over time, his stance hardened. He embraced a model known as vehicular cycling, which involves thousand of cyclists at charity rides, held on quaint coun- training cyclists to operate their bicycles as vehicles. try roads surrounding the city. I wasn't too into the scenery "Take the lane," is the vehicular cyclist mantra. It then. I mostly went for the free cookies. made sense at the time. Dallas cyclists had to adapt to riding in a city that wouldn't adapt to them. But But I grew to love bikes. The Richardson Bike over the past several decades, Summer's dogmatic Mart, one of the nation's largest retailers, was my views did little to increase the number of bicyclists first employer. It's the same shop that sponsored a or reduce risks on the road. young Lance Armstrong. I drove 35 minutes each Vehicular cycling works for some people—mostly way to work the sales floor there, but never thought confident men like Summer. Cyclists come in roughly anything of the commute. I never rode my bike to three categories: aggressive bikers who love riding school, a mere two miles away. I cherished riding alongside cars; people willing to commute in a desig- my bike in the Dallas area, but using it to actually get nated bike lane; and tentative bikers who will ride only around never crossed my mind. It just wasn't done. on a separate bike path. By catering only to the most vig- In many cities, cycling is seen as an economic and ilant cyclists and ignoring the others, Dallas stood by as environmental savior. It can help reduce pollution, nearby towns like Fort Worth developed plans to build health care costs and traffic. A Dallas bike plan has thousands of miles of bike lanes and attract cyclists. existed since the mid-'80s, but somewhere along the Summer and his allies argue that bike lanes offer a way it got a flat tire. The city hasn't created a mile of false sense of security and result in unprepared cyclists SEE DALLAS' EXISTING BIKE PLAN, which is 25 years bike lane. That's likely why, in 2008, only 0.05 percent hitting the road. On his blog, cycledallas.blogspot.com, old, at www.dallascityhall.com/ of the population—roughly 250 out of 500,000 res- Summer frequently rails against the dangers of bike pwt/bike_links.html idents—commuted by bicycle. Still, six cyclists died lanes—often using vitriolic and morbid prose. in the Dallas metro area that year. That same year, in A few weeks ago it got personal. My brother, Ken Portland, Oregon, a town with 174 miles of on-street Dille, also an avid cyclist, was riding in a bike lane in bike lanes, 8 percent of the population— around 17,000 Austin when a car took a right turn and hit his bike. people—commuted by bike, and no one died. The driver was an 82-year-old man. Thinking the This year, after decades of floundering, Dallas is gas pedal was the brake pedal, the driver accelerated embarking on an ambitious bike plan that could cre- instead of stopping and slammed into the median. ate hundreds of miles of bike lanes in the city. The Ken's bike, a high-dollar racing machine, lay shat- plan has opposition, and not from motorists who tered beneath the car. Miraculously, my brother don't want to share the roads. The biggest critic is the escaped serious injury. city's former bicycle coordinator, PM Summer, who Aweek later, Summer blogged about the accident and thinks bike lanes are worse than a waste of money. blamed the bike lane. He argued that if Ken had been riding in the street, he would have blocked the car's WHEN SUMMER and a small group of cycling advo- path, and it wouldn't have taken the right turn. Summer cates drew up Dallas' first bike plan in 1985, there was wrote that the "son of an old friend ... made the mistake

22 1 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG Dallas cyclists take the lane. PHOTO BY TREY KAZEE

"Every time you triple the number of of riding in a bike lane in Austin (as required by law) to turn right across a bike lane if a cyclist is present. cyclists in and came away somewhat the worse." Accompanying In Houston, new bike coordinator Dan Raine says, the post was a satellite image of South Congress Avenue "All I've been doing is cutting ribbons." The city a city, you with a skull and crossbones photoshopped over the recently installed 15 miles of bike trails and will begin intersection where the accident occurred. building a bike link from downtown to the Heights halve the He ignored the fact that the driver was elderly and neighborhood this spring. accidentally hit the gas instead of the brakes. An acci- El Paso is a national leader in bicycling. Every crash rate dent like that could have happened with or without a Sunday during spring and summer, the city shuts its bike lane. But Summer is on a mission, and he can't Scenic Drive for a ciclovia, and the road morphs into resist turning someone's accident into an opportu- public space for cyclists and pedestrians. nity to soapbox. As Dallas has fallen behind, citizens have picked up There's really only one factor that makes streets the slack. The city had long refused to build bike lanes in safe for bikes—more cyclists. In cities where bicycle the hip urban neighborhood of Oak Cliff. So last spring infrastructure is embraced, cyclists fair well. After the residents did it themselves. Late at night, with spray doubling the number of bike lanes in New York City paint and stencils, the dissenters painted "sharrows," over the last three years (including a lane through images of bikes and arrows, along street sides. While not Times Square), commuter cycling increased by 45 per- official bike lanes, sharrows indicate that bikes belong cent while the accident rate remained the same. Wiley in the street. While these vigilante methods can reduce Norvell, communications director for Transportation overall public support for bike infrastructure, they tell Alternatives, a group that advocates for bike lanes, city officials how frustrated urban bikers are. said "documentation shows every time you triple the The day after the sharrows were drawn, I rode in number of cyclists in a city, you halve the crash rate." the Oak Cliff Art Crawl, a bicycle tour of area art gal- Dallas is finally changing its tune. A grassroots group leries organized by the nonprofit Bike Friendly Oak called Bike Friendly Oak Cliff, which aims to trans- Cliff. On beat-up old bikes, we pedaled past Oak Cliff's READ THE BLOG of Bike Friendly Oak Cliff at form the urban neighborhood by building bike lanes, tiny taquerias and swank bars. When it was time to bikefriendlyoc.wordpress.com found an ally in City Council member Angela Hunt. She ride home, I followed a long string of cyclists—novice worked to replace Summer as Dallas' bike coordina- and experienced—down Oak Cliff's freshly painted, tor and move him to another division of the planning bike friendly streets. CI department, where he awaits retirement. The North Ian Dille is a freelance writer based in Austin. He is a Central Texas Council of Governments granted Dallas contributing writer for Bicycling magazine. but had $300,000 to plan an overhaul of its cycling infrastruc- nothing to do with the article naming Dallas the worst ture, including a network of on-street bicycle lanes. city for cycling in 2008. With a small but vocal cadre of supporters, Summer continues to stir dissent from within the walls of city ADVERTISEMENT hall—and has managed to divide the cyclists who would benefit from the new plan. VACANCIES requirements, candidates Stores Officer: See gen- The clash can seem almost comical. On Oct. 21, A leading company in the must hold an MBA and eral requirements. have the ability to work Hunt and fellow council members donned bike hel- manufacturing of arts Secretary/Personal on spreadsheets. mets for a ride to City Hall to support the updated and galleries compo- Assistant to CEO: See bike plan. Bike Friendly Oak Cliff organized the nents requires suitably Production/Operations general requirement. qualified candidates. event. It was cold and rainy, but hundreds converged Manager: In addition to Some accounting and on City Hall on two wheels. As Hunt outlined the bike general requirements, admin background with General Requirements: minimum of 2 years ability to create spread- plan update, enthusiasm filled the misty air. When • Computer proficiency experience in an art and sheets is a requirement. in relevant software she mentioned cycling lanes, someone in a group of galleries firm. vehicular cyclists booed her. • 18 years and above Applicants should apply • Not less than a year in a Admin/Account Officer: within 2 weeks of this similar position See general require- OTHER TEXAS CITIES publication. Forward are riding right by Dallas. Last • Some college/BSC in a ments. application letters and year, Austin approved a plan to install nearly 900 miles related discipline. of bike lanes by 2030. The city recently made it illegal Marketing Executive: resume indicating post Marketing Manager: See general require- applied for to: shauncart- In addition to general ments. [email protected]. JANUARY 8, 2010 CULTUR E

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CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK wilder instincts and mastered the art of song sculpture, like Buddhist monks with a sand mandala. On recent Spoon Fed albums, each cymbal crash, maraca shake and guitar squeal is deliberately placed; not a single note sounds Contributing writer Josh by Rosenblatt lives in Austin. uninhibited or improvised. After 15 years, Spoon has evolved into a band for lovers of order, self-control, HEN THE AUSTIN INDIE-ROCK freshly cut grass and finely tailored clothing. band Spoon released their Which helps explain their success. No one has first LP, Telephono, in 1996, more respect for the crisply drawn line and the clear they were acolytes of the idea than advertisers, marketers and TV producers, Pixies' raucous aesthetic; and ever since their 2002 album, Kill the Moonlight, every one of their songs was Spoon's elegantly crafted songs have been ubiquitous under constant threat of parts of the American cross-marketing landscape. being overwhelmed by distorted guitars and unchecked, Unlike other successful indie bands, with Spoon anarchic enthusiasm. Over the years, though, lead you get cool without contempt and distortion with- singer Britt Daniel and his group have corralled their out malice. There's no real danger—only the hint of

24 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG "Britt Daniel and his group corralled their vv" and mastered the fine art

song-scultAILoo UtaLq monk with a sand mandP1A 1 recklessness, like a cold Budweiser at the end of the workweek or a fast drive down a desert highway in a brand-new car. From early on, Daniel and crew were canny and embraced the new reality of the record industry - that the rise of file-sharing and social networking has turned record-buying into a dying ritual. Bands that 10 years ago would have looked at licensing songs PREVIEW OUTSIDER ART COMES INSIDE to ad firms or television shows as "selling out" now Felix "Fox" Harris, born in 1905, worked as a foreman for a construction crew in see it as a necessary first step on the path to success. Beaumont, Texas for much of his life. But after retiring, he said he received a vision Artists like Feist, Of Montreal, Jet and dozens of oth- from God telling him to "make somethin' out of nothin'." Harris took this charge liter- ers have built their careers off of well-placed songs, ally, and began building elaborate totems in his yard out of scrap metal, old toys and but none of them has done it with the pervasiveness other discarded objects. After his death in 1985, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas or the success of Spoon. acquired his work, and has installed it inside in a semi-permanent exhibition that In the last eight years, Spoon songs have appeared recreates Harris' home and yard. The original site is pictured above. The Art Museum on Veronica Mars, The 0.C., The Simpsons and Scrubs; of Southeast Texas is located on Main Street in downtown Beaumont. as the background music for video games Pro BMX 2 and MLB 09: The Show; in commercials for the Acura TSX and the Jaguar X.1( Coupe; and in numerous mov- ROBIN ROBERTSON READS HIS WORK at vAvw.poetry ies. Somewhere along the way, someone figured out archive.orgipoetryarchivel that the market value of Spoon's music doesn't lie in Robin Robertson singlePoet.do?poetld = 7610 its beauty, but in that beauty's ability to sell a lifestyle. It doesn't hurt that the band writes such irresistible I remember playing tag songs. Take their newest single, "Written in Reverse," with my daughters: from the album Transference, to be released Jan. 19. It begins with a piano and a drum set pounding in unison they never caught me then to a simple quarter-note beat. Many of Spoon's recent and never would; songs have played with the tension and release that builds naturally out of repeated, minimal rhythms. The introduction of "Written in Reverse" feels like or that last game pistons moving up and down. By the time the first bass of hide and seek, note appears, listeners are hungry for the slightest when night fell change. Spoon knows the perfect moment to drop in a new element—an open hi-hat cymbal, a single guitar and they went to sleep pluck—for the greatest impact. They've learned the lessons of the dance floor. and woke the next day, "Written in Reverse" is a great song. It's heavy, melodic and danceable—a combination more easily while I remained here imagined than pulled off. It also sounds tailor-made hiding: unfound for marketing. Once again, I have to resign myself to the fact that Spoon has trifled with my affections and for years and years. forced me to fall in love with a song that might show up tomorrow in an ad for a toaster oven or a romantic Robin Robertson is from the northeast coast of comedy starring Matthew McConaughey. Scotland. His last book, Swithering (Harcourt), won Contributing writer. Josh Rosenblatt lives in Austin. the Forward Prize for Best Collection of 2006.

JANUARY 8, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 25 East Texas native Robert ERT LELEUX Leleux, author of The TEX IN THE CITY Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy, lives and writes in New York City, where he is working on an oral history of Sissy Farenthold. His column will run in Always True to Us, this space in every other Observer issue. Ruth Pennebaker's column Darling, in Her Fashion debuts in the next issue. ET ME BEGIN BY SAYING THAT I FEEL BAD FOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON. It couldn't have been easy to carve out a niche for herself in the Republican boys' club. Or to slowly climb the rungs of power, ever-conscious of Poise, Dignity and Self-Possession, only to watch Sarah Palin become her party's first female vice presiden- tial nominee. (Honestly, how would you like to be passed up for a promotion in favor of Palin?) Not to mention the prospect of los- ing a gubernatorial primary to an unpopular incumbent whose strategy seems to be acting as much like a certifiable lunatic as possible without being committed to the Rusk County Sanitarium. I mean, zut alors, as they say in Port Arthur. Won't somebody give a sucker an even break? Having said that, Hutchison does leave something aged us to see her as running with Ann. She said that on to be desired. OK: She leaves a lot to be desired, and the cars of professional women throughout Dallas, her never more so than on the issue of reproductive bumper stickers were placed beside Ann's." Politicians choice. I've been researching Hutchison's position didn't come any more pro-choice than Richards. (The on choice, and I have to admit that, at first, I was a ex-governor's daughter, Cecile, now heads the Planned trifle confused: How could a politician who describes Parenthood Federation of America.) herself as pro-choice consistently vote for measures After Hutchison's speech, guests asked questions. restricting reproductive freedom? Moroney recalled standing and saying, "I need to Wait: You did know that Hutchison has always know your position on Roe v. Wade and choice." To identified as pro-choice, didn't you? If not, it's which Hutchison replied, according to Moroney, "I am understandable. I wasn't aware of it myself until totally pro-choice, and I support Roe v. Wade." On this Muffle Moroney, one of Houston's most admirable basis, many of the women present offered Hutchison Democratic activists, told me a story. In 1989, when their support—to their subsequent regret. Hutchison ran against Nikki Van Hightower for state "Later, when I saw the way she voted in the Senate, treasurer, fundraisers held a luncheon for Hutchison I felt like I'd been stabbed in the back," Moroney said. in a private room at Brennan's, one of the Bayou "Apparently, Kay's definition of pro-choice is very City's most elegant eateries. The guests included different from mine. She seems to feel that you can, some of Houston's most accomplished and progres- in principle, support reproductive freedom while sive professional women. Many were inclined to sup- working to pass laws prohibiting that freedom. And port the liberal Van Hightower, and the purpose of to me, that's like saying a person has the right to walk, the luncheon was to convince them that Hutchison and then shackling them." was the more viable candidate. Though Moroney Now, I myself have said certain things I haven't had known and liked Hutchison since their days as quite meant after spending a few heavenly hours at girls at Camp Longhorn, she hadn't yet determined Brennan's. So, on the theory that people who dine in to back her campaign. That afternoon, however, she glass bistros oughtn't throw stones, I figured I'd do a found herself swayed. little digging before casting aspersions Hutchison's "Ann Richards was leaving the state treasurer's way. After hearing Moroney's story, I swam into the office in order to run for governor, and Kay encour- history of the senator's voting record on choice.

contents copyrighted © 2010, is published biweekly except during April, July, October and December, when THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040-4519/USPS 541300), entire IPP71Ap OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE there is a 4-week break between issues (22 issues per year) by the Texas Democracy Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit foundation, 307 W. 7th St., Austin TX, 78701. Telephone & Soros Foundat,ons Nemork (512)477-0746, fax (512)474-1175, toll free (800)939-6620. Email [email protected]. Periodicals Postage paid in Austin, TX, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER Send address changes to: The Texas Observer, 307 W. 7th St., Austin TX 78701. Subscriptions: 1 yr $35, 2 yr $60, 3 yr $85. Students $20. Foreign, add $13 to domestic price. Back issues $5. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm available from University Microfilms Intl., 300 N Zeeb Rd, The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary Index to Periodicals; Texas Index; and, for the years 1954 through 1981, Ann Arbor MI 48106. INDEXES nii t TOMS The Texas Observer Index. INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING is supported in part by a grant from the Open Society Institute. BOOKS & THE CULTURE is funded in part by the Cuhucul Art. Commission City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts. Division on the Arts

26 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG

It's pretty simple, folks. According to that excel- Jay Root of the Associated Press in October. "There lent political information source, Project Vote is not a single piece of pro-life legislation that has "Hutchison Smart, from 1993 (the year Hutchison came to the been passed by the Texas Legislature that she would Senate) through 2008 Hutchison cast two votes not have signed." seems to feel (out of 24 significant abortion measures) that Who knows what lies at the root of Hutchison's could vaguely be described as pro-choice. Though drift into the anti-abortion camp? Maybe, back in that you can, both votes, in 1994 and 2000, were important, they those Arcadian late-'80s days, when she was first were also political no-brainers, enforcing penal- launching herself into statewide politics, Hutchison in principle, ties against violent protests in front of abortion foresaw a political future for pro-choice Republicans clinics—an issue that arguably has as much to do in Texas. Maybe she really thought, in the pearly light support with domestic terrorism as with women's right to of Brennan's, that all she'd have to do was hitch her choose. On every other piece of important legis- wagon to Ann Richards' star and her political path reproductive lation, Hutchison has voted with the anti-choice would be golden. Then, realizing her mistake during lobby. As recently as this December, she voted for the right-wing backlash of the early '90s, she began freedom while the failed Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment to the tailoring her politics to suit the zeitgeist. health care bill. The amendment would have taken For her sake, I hope so. It's somehow less pitiful to working to away millions of women's abortion coverage. believe that Hutchison's an unprincipled will-o'-the- I'm not the only one who's found Hutchison's wisp attempting to cover all sides of a hot-button issue pass laws record consistent. So have advocacy groups on than to think she has compromised a belief system for both sides of the issue. From 1993 to 1996, Planned ambition's sake. Either way, the outcome has been piti- prohibiting Parenthood graded Hutchison a dismal 13 percent ful enough. I mean, think how heartbreaking it would be out of a possible 100. In 2008, the group gave her 7. to start off imagining yourself as Ann Richards' junior that freedom. In 1996 and 2008, NARAL, the national pro-choice partner, only to end up playing Margaret Dumont to organization, gave her 0 percent ratings. Meanwhile, Rick Perry's Groucho. Lord, what a grim trajectory. That's like the National Right to Life Committee awarded her a Oh, dear. I find that I'm back where I started, feeling perfect 100 percent in 1997, a more-than-respectable sorry for poor ole Kay, when I'm sure she doesn't deserve saying a person 85 in 2007-08, and a special "lifetime rating" of 94. it. Regardless, her stance on abortion now seems self- But here's the twist: Hutchison has continued to explanatory. Kay Bailey Hutchison is solidly in favor has the right say she's pro-choice. And she's made some nominal of reproductive freedom, except when she's called on efforts to back up the claim. In October 2003, after to support it. She's reliably pro-life in everything but to walk, and voting to ban so-called "partial-birth" abortions, name. She's adamantly opposed to federal funding of a Hutchison turned around and voted for a non-bind- procedure she considers a fundamental right. And she's then shackling ing (and thus ceremonial) resolution stating that Roe busily "promoting a culture of life." v. Wade "secures an important constitutional right" It's what you call "broad-minded," people. And therm" and should not be overturned. (In 1999, by contrast, they say Texas politics is confusing! El she voted against an almost identical non-binding resolution supporting Roe v. Wade.) In June 2004, Hutchison reaffirmed her pro-choice stance, tell- ing reporters at the Republican state convention, "My position is, I think there can be an ability for a woman, until viability, to make a choice." Since 2004, with visions of the governorship dancing in her head, Hutchison's rhetoric on the issue has veered rightward and become more consistent with her voting record. During her first Senate campaign, Hutchison had accepted a $34,500 contribution from The WISH ,71,11:10". List, which supports pro-choice Republican women candidates. She even joined The WISH List's advisory board. But in 2005, when she first considered challeng- ing Gov. Rick Perry, the Star-Telegram reported that she had been mysteriously removed from The WISH List board and dropped from its roster of endorsed candi- dates. Read the book that fans have described as "like the best In her current challenge to Perry, Hutchison's cam- of Joe R. Lansdale," "frighteningly authentic," and paign has emphasized her anti-abortion record. "Kay Bailey Hutchison has a ... solid record working to pro- "the beginning of a new genre—`cowboy noir."' tect the rights of the unborn and promoting a culture of life," Hutchison spokeswoman Jennifer Baker told Available on Amazon Kindle or

JANUARY 8, 2010 download at www.horsebackwriter.com MOSER

White, Perry and the G Factor F ANYBODY OUGHT TO KNOW JUST HOW CUSSEDLY ANTI-GOVERNMENT TEXANS tend to be, it's Bill White. Back in the mid-'90s, the former Clinton energy official and future Houston mayor chaired the Texas Democratic Party during its free-fall from monolith to doormat. When White took the helm in 1995, the Democrats were flat on the canvas—woozy from Bush and Rove's roundhouse curve in '94, but conceivably poised for a comeback. The Republicans, back then, looked giddily ascendant but also perilously divided between their Barbara Bush/Big Oil wing and the Bible-beating anti-taxers who'd seized the party's grassroots. As the Democrats' chief flack heading into the 1998 he can run things well. But to win statewide, he has White vs. Perry statewide match-up, White believed—or made a fine to find a way to sell folks on the wildly radical notion show of believing—that his party could still woo the that a competent human being should be in charge of shapes up Barbara Bushies. Texas moderates, he said and said the world's 15th-largest economy. He'll have to make and said again, would come back to the Democrats his case for competence in a state where gummint- as the IL, "once they understand the mainstream Republican bashing is a sport that rivals football in popularity. Party has been hijacked by extremists." Better public And he has to make the sale at a tricky historical test in ar,- - education, decent health care, fair taxation, reason- moment when even moderate voters tend to process able insurance rates—those kinds of issues, White any message that sounds vaguely pro-goverment as of whether insisted, would surely cut the Democrats' way. an Obama-style ruse for running up big deficits, toss- Perhaps only Karl Rove could have prophesied ing tax dollars at Wall Street like confetti, and turn- Texas riT' how wrong White was. The whipping they took in ing America into a socialist state. 1998 sent Texas Democrats sailing straight over the If he were matched up against a mainstream con- can stomas ropes and out of the ring, head-over-tail into political servative—Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, say—White's purgatory. The "extremists" won everything in sight, odds of beating back the anti-government tide in this the idea at starting a run of three consecutive elections (and anti-government state would be next to nil. But his counting) in which the once-dominant Deans would ace in the hole is Perry, who spent 2009 morphing lose every single statewide contest. into a scarily convincing hybrid of Sarah Palin and Twelve years later, White's back for more, step- George Wallace. ping up to challenge the undisputed heavyweight With 12 years of urbanization and Latinization champion of Republican extremists, Gov. Rick Perry. having altered the state's political landscape since White's message, when he announced his candidacy 1998, Perry's act just might—emphasis on might— in November, sounded a whole lot like a spiffed- have outlived its heyday. It's no coincidence that up version of his wishful patter back in the '90s. White only decided to climb into the gubernatorial Referring to Perry's flirtation with secessionism dur- ring after it began to look like a near-certainty that ing his star turn at the Tea Parties, White posed this the governor would pummel Hutchison in the GOP question: "Shouldn't we be the state that leads the primary. Against a mainstream conservative like nation, not leaves the nation?" Hutchison, any Democrat's chances would fall some- White will spend much of 2010 flinging the "S" where between nonexistent and zilch. word (for secessionist) at Perry. The governor and his But White is a canny fellow. And whatever his defi- consultant-thugs will counter with a steady barrage cits as a retail politician—wonky, boring, big-eared, of the "L" word (for liberal, in case you didn't know). bald—he offers the sharpest possible contrast with But the portion of the alphabet that will almost surely the charismatic whack job in the governor's office. If decide the issue—assuming that Perry and White win enough Texans have wearied of Perry's neo-Confed- their primaries as expected in March—will be "G," for erate song-and-dance, and if they're finally ready to government. White vs. Perry shapes up as the purest elect a certifiably competent governor, the politics of test in ages of whether Texas voters can stomach the this state just might look—and be—drastically differ- idea of functional governance. ent a year from now. White's three triumphant terms at the helm of the But those, gentle reader, are some truly Texas- state's biggest city have left no room for doubt that sized "ifs." L

28 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG Arthur Myerson

TAXIDERMY SHOP Corsicana, Texas "My wife, baby daughter and I were walking around the town when I spotted this taxidermy shop. I was totally caught up photographing the exotic animals on display when my wife told me to turn around. That's when I saw my daughter sleeping in that chair amongst all those heads. Many people see this image as a metaphor for various things."

This photograph is part of the collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Meyerson is a an award-winning photographer based in Houston and has been documenting Texas and beyond since 1974. See more of his work at texasobserver. org/eyeontexas. CALL FOR ENTRIES: Seeking Texas-based documentary photography that captures the strangest state. Please send inquiries to may@texasobserverorg.

JANUARY 8, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 29 RABBLE ROUSER ROUND UP Fill CAT SCHMOREFEST & Silent Auction

THIS YEAR AValentine's Day Bash! Sunday, February 14, 2010 at the elegant Barr Mansion 4:00 - 8:00 p.m.

What better way to start your Valentine's evening than sharing love, food, wine and song with Texas Observer editors, writers, luminaries such as Jim Hightower, and many other friends. And, of course, showing your love for the best journalism in Texas.

Music by The Melancholy Ramblers, goodies from Miles of Chocolate, food from the best local restaurants, and many tantalizing items in our Silent Auction

JOIN MANAGING EDITOR CHRIS TOMLINSON FOR AN AUDIO-VISUAL PRESENTATION OF THE New Online and Print Texas Observer January 23 at The Science Spectrum, 2579 S. Loop 289 Following the West Texas Democrats luncheon 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.

The Observer is taking a leap into the 21st century, bringing our investigative reporting and social network to more OBSERVER Texans through an exciting new progressive online community.