West Texas

An unusual coalition of people across the political spectrum have banded together to rally against a border wall in the Big Bend.

This week on Texas Matters: Sections of SB4 are blocked — which would have allowed local police to arrest suspected illegal border crossers. And Despite outcry in West Texas the efforts to build the border wall in Big Bend Country continues.

The vast political divide in America has largely become a battle between folks who live in the cities and those who don’t. This was not always the case. Somehow rural voters have almost uniformly become Republican voters. How did the divide emerge and why does it pose a threat to democracy?

West Texas is a reliably hard-red political stronghold. In the last presidential election, the region voted about 80% for Donald Trump. West Texas is the reddest place in the country, according to Jeff Roche, author of "The Conservative Frontier." He says cowboy conservatism is rooted in the dusty landscape. But how well does that political philosophy serve the communities of West Texas?

The civil lawsuit was filed on behalf of a young woman who survived and the family of a man who died after the former warden of the West Texas Detention facility shot them. They were with a group of migrants who stopped at a watering hole near the border in Hudspeth County.

Big Bend area officials say the U.S. military has in recent weeks discussed the possibility of housing 200-300 troops at small county-owned airports near Marfa and Presidio, though the county’s top elected official says the idea is “not etched in stone.”

“If that’s a stump, it’s the weirdest stump I’ve ever seen.”

W.F. Strong points to how geological features defined over a century ago hold lessons for water challenges in the future.

The kindergarten vaccination rate against the measles in Gaines County is 82%, far below the 95% needed to achieve herd immunity.

The first death in relation to the ongoing measles outbreak in West Texas has been confirmed by local and state health officials. The patient was an unvaccinated school-aged child, hospitalized in Lubbock last week.