It’s my 27th birthday tomorrow, and the only gift I want is for you to forward this newsletter to a friend! It would mean the world to me if I could wake up on Tuesday morning and see lots of new subscribers.

It’s because of people like you that we’re able to continue our mission of keeping Texans informed and engaged.

📘 What to read this week: A look into author Melani Sanders, who founded the “We Do Not Care Club” for perimenopausal or menopausal women, as told by Houston columnist Joy Sewing.

Last week, I shared some stats about gun violence in Texas and asked if we need stronger gun safety laws. An overwhelming number of y’all said we do, but a good number said we’re fine as is.

So this week, I’m asking:

What should gun control look like in Texas?

Reminder:

♥️ In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Holocaust Museum Houston will offer free admission on Tuesday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (Holocaust Museum Houston)

❗ Legal experts are warning Houston immigrants to remember their rights, as reports of ICE agents being told to use administrative warrants to enter homes have surfaced. Administrative warrants are issued by ICE and are not signed off on by a judge. (Houston Chronicle)

🗣 Ever wanted to integrate yourself into an art exhibit? “Undercurrents” by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, opening in April, will allow visitors to watch their words be transformed into a light show. (CultureMap Houston)

🎼 A new contest for young conductors will come to Houston in 2028, hosted in partnership between the Houston Symphony and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. (The New York Times)

Thanks for being a subscriber of COURIER HTX!

We love sharing what Houston has to offer and want to give our readers a chance to win a token of our appreciation! In partnership with Good On Paper, an independent Houston bookstore, we’re giving away a $50 gift card to one lucky subscriber.

Subscribers must sign up here to enter and to view the giveaway’s official rules.

By Katie Serrano

Dr. Leonard Bright became a professor for a simple reason: “Teaching is important.”

“We have the ear of the next generation,” Bright, who has taught at Texas A&M University for 15 years, told COURIER Texas. “We are in a place to help mold the future. How we do that will affect democracy itself.”

Bright taught a graduate-level Ethics and Public Policy course at Texas A&M for six years until last week. His class was canceled three days into this semester after the university claimed he did not submit the information needed to be exempt from a new policy that bans “advocating for race and gender” in the classroom. 

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Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Sierra Rozen, with reporting by Katie Serrano. It was edited by Paula Solis.

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