Molly Ivins is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where she writes about Texas politics and other bizarre happenings.

Ivins is from Houston, has a B.A. from Smith College, a Master's in journalism from Columbia University and studied for a year at the Institute of Political Science in Paris. She began her career in journalism as the Complaint Department of the Houston Chronicle. She rapidly worked her way up to the position of sewer editor, from whence she wrote a number of gripping articles about street closings. She next went to work for the Minneapolis Tribune, first as a police reporter and later on a beat called Movements for Social Change. She covered militant blacks, angry Indians, radical students, uppity women and a motley assortment of other misfits and troublemakers.

In 1970, Ivins returned to Texas as co-editor of The Texas Observer, a sprightly, muck-raking publication devoted to the coverage of Texas political and social events. Her specialty was covering the Texas Legislature, which doubtlessly accounts for her frequent fits of hysterical laughter in those years. When the Lege was not in session, Ivins roamed the state in search of truth, justice and good lead stories for the magazine.

In 1976, Ivins joined The New York Times as a political reporter, first at City Hall and then at the statehouse in Albany. In 1977, she was named Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief, chiefly because there was no one else in the bureau. For three years, she covered nine mountain states by herself and was often tired.

In February 1982, she returned once more to Texas, which may indicate a masochistic streak, and has had plenty to write about ever since.

Ivin's freelance work has appeared in Esquire, Atlantic, The Nation, Harper's, TV Guide and numerous other publications. She also does occasional commentary for National Public Radio and the McNeil/Lehrer program. She served for three years on the board of the National News Council, is active in Amnesty International's Journalism Network and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. She writes about press issues for the American Civil Liberties Union and several journalism reviews. She has received a number of journalism awards and in 1976 was named Outstanding Alumna by Columbia University's School of Journalism.

She speaks both French and Spanish, loves to camp, canoe and run rivers and is a semi-famous storyteller and beer-drinker.

She is author of two best-selling books, Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? and Nothin' But Good Times Ahead, both collections of essays on politics and journalism. She has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize three times and was the winner of the 1992 Headliners Award for best column in Texas.

However, Ivins counts as her two greatest honors that the Minneapolis police force named its mascot pig after her and that she was once banned from the campus of Texas A&M.

Articles by Author

29 December 2005
AUSTIN, Texas -- 2006 makes the ninth year in a row the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 an hour. It's bad economics, it's bad policy, it's stupid...
28 December 2005
AUSTIN, Texas -- The first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Thirty-five years ago, Richard Milhous Nixon, who was crazy as a bullbat, and J. Edgar...
21 December 2005
AUSTIN, Texas -- It is clear we will need to practice hard on our credulity in the future just to get a grasp on how dumbfounding the entire Iraq War is. We...
19 December 2005
AUSTIN, Texas -- Uh-oh. Excuse me. I'm so sorry, but we are having a constitutional crisis. I know the timing couldn't be worse. Right in the middle of the...
15 December 2005
AUSTIN, Texas -- As one on the liberal side of the chorus of moaners about the decline of civility in politics, I feel a certain responsibility when earnest,...
13 December 2005
AUSTIN, Texas -- Pre-procrastination Christmas booklist! Look at this, fellow procrastinators -- almost two weeks before the actual day, and here I am to solve...

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