On March 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to…
Category: Politics
These Librarians Won’t Let America’s Fever Hit Fahrenheit 451
In Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, protagonist Guy Montag revolts against his profession of incinerating…
Texas’ First Abortion Arrests Stem from Monthlong Attorney General Investigation
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared March 17 and was updated March 18 in The Texas…
Loon Star State: Trump’s Grocery Run
(Ben Sargent) To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section. Find Observer political…
The Texas Border Is the New Frontier of Film
In the movie The In Between, set in Eagle Pass, a group of five athletic high…
An Inside Look at Taser Use in Texas Prison
Editor’s Note: The Texas Observer sought TDCJ responses to this essay, which were incorporated into the…
Marathon Hearing on School Vouchers Features Intense Bipartisan Opposition
Representative Brad Buckley, Republican House Public Education Committee chair and author of the chamber’s voucher proposal,…
Earth Orbit Is Filling Up with Junk. Greenhouse Gases Worsen the Problem.
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. At any given moment,…
How Voucher Vendors Could Make Millions from ‘School Choice’ in Texas
In August 2024, the business magazine Inc. released its annual list of the top 5,000 fastest-growing…
What Ever Happened to Ethics Reform?
In the early 1970s, Texas experienced one of the most explosive political scandals in its history.…
Loon Star State: Remember When…
To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section. Find Observer political reporting here.…
ICE Raids on Beloved Bakery Reverberate Through Rio Grande Valley
In recent years, Los Fresnos has changed, much like the rest of the Rio Grande Valley.…
David Wood, Set for Execution, Says He Was Never the ‘Desert Killer’
Young women had been disappearing from the streets of El Paso for months before the first…
What a Drag: Nate Schatzline
Editor’s Note: This article is part of an occasional series profiling the Texas lawmakers who make…
Abbott’s Border Splurge
Forty-five days into President Joe Biden’s first and only term, Governor Greg Abbott announced plans to…
From Bullion to Bitcoin: Crypto Reserve Is Latest Fiscal Folly in Texas
Republicans want to stamp the State of Texas’ seal on Bitcoin by creating a “strategic reserve”…
Editor’s Letter: Introducing Our March/April 2025 Issue
Texas Observer readers, A half-century ago, Molly Ivins penned one of her many famous lines about…
Local and State Police Are Joining Trump’s ‘Deportation Force’
Since he began touting it on the campaign trail, the idea that President Donald Trump could…
Congressmen Demand Investigation of ICE Prosecutor Running Racist X Account
Last week, the Texas Observer reported that James “Jim” Joseph Rodden—an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)…
Congressmen Demand Investigation of ICE Prosecutor Running Racist X Account
Last week, the Texas Observer reported that James “Jim” Joseph Rodden—an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)…
‘Till They Have to Roll Me Off the Floor’
Throughout her political ascent, Sylvia Garcia has been followed by the word “first.” In 1987, she…
Did Mike Miles’ Former Charter School Network Fail to Provide Required Classes?
Dawn Miller was a true believer in Mike Miles when she started working, in March 2023,…
Costly New Bail Bills Would Needlessly Jail More People
David Gaspar is chief executive officer of The Bail Project, a nonprofit that provides bail assistance.…
Poetry Prompts for Detained Children
Write about the untouchable. Something out of arm’s reach, like freedom, the stars, or you. Write…
Will Texas Secure Its Water Future?
Senator Charles Perry is a man on a water mission as he prepares to file a…
ICE Prosecutor in Dallas Runs White Supremacist X Account
Fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids began to spread the day after President Donald…
‘Asylum as We Know It’: An Immigration Historian on Trump, Refuge, and Exclusion
President Donald Trump seeks to fundamentally alter how the United States approaches immigration. Less than a…
Inside Fort Worth’s Narcotic Farm Experiment
Texas’ history of addiction treatment can be seen as a dance in place: public opinion swings,…
Speaker Burrows Remodels Texas House With All-Republican Chairs
Nearly a month after his contentious election as the new Speaker of the Texas House, Dustin…
Strangest State: Makeovers, Critters, and Friday Night Lights
The post Strangest State: Makeovers, Critters, and Friday Night Lights appeared first on The Texas Observer.…
‘It’s Demoralizing’: Trump’s Climate Funding Freeze Has Left Tribes and Community Groups in Limbo
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. When the…
Molly Ivins on School Vouchers (1997)
Editor’s Note: The Observer published this column in its April 11, 1997, edition under the headline:…
Trans Texans are Under Attack (Again), But Advocates Aren’t Giving In
When Emmett Schelling first moved to Texas, it wasn’t to become an advocate. It was for…
Remembering Boca Chica Beach—Before Elon Musk Came to Town
One Saturday late last summer, Boca Chica Beach was cloudy and oppressively humid. An incoming thunderstorm…
When a Death Penalty ‘Volunteer’ Changes His Mind
Richard Tabler, 45, is the second person scheduled to be executed in Texas this year, with…
New DEA Chief’s Background Includes Surveillance Tech and Border Misinformation
Derek Maltz, Trump’s pick to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, served in a leadership role at…
Counting Hate: At Least 61 Anti-LGBTQ+ Incidents in Texas Last Year
A national project tracking anti-LGBTQ+ hate found dozens of homophobic and transphobic incidents in Texas during…
Who Really Benefits from School Vouchers?
Editor’s Note: The following is adapted from Boulton’s written testimony against Senate Bill 2, which was…
The ‘Texas Three-Step’: Defund, Demonize, and Privatize Public Schools
Chloe Latham Sikes is deputy director of policy at the Intercultural Development Research Association, a San…
Abbott’s Familiar Priorities Include Property Taxes, Vouchers, Cracking Down on Bail
Governor Greg Abbott declared seven emergency items during his biennial State of the State address, including…
Trans Children Are God’s Gifts
Editor’s Note: The following is by Molly Carnes, as told to Nico Lang, the author of…
Loon Star State: Send In the Clowns
(Ben Sargent) To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section. Find Observer political…
ICE Agents in Churches ‘Does Not Bode Well for the Future of Religion’ in America
Last week, the federal Department of Homeland Security reversed longtime policies restricting Immigration and Customs Enforcement…
‘Drill Baby Drill’: Arlington Approves New Site for Fracking Near Daycare and Schools
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared at Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy,…
Cartels Are Not ‘Foreign Terrorist Organizations,’ but Terror in Mexico Is Real
Editor’s Note: An earlier Spanish version of this article appeared in La Opinión. I have always…
Public Education Bills: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
In recent years, Texas public education has become a battleground for right-wing ideologues aiming to embed…
Name Games: Trump’s ‘Gulf of America’ Move Flouts History, International Cooperation
Dubbed the Gulf of New Spain by the conquistadors, the vast body of water that borders…
Corpus Christi Launches Emergency Water Projects as Reservoirs Dwindle and Industrial Demand Grows
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared at Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate,…
‘How Innocent Do They Have to Be?’: Texas’ First Scheduled Execution of 2025 Raises Thorny Questions
The crime that landed Steven Nelson on Texas’ death row took place 14 years ago in…
In Austin, a Rare Prosecution over Worker Death in Trench Collapse
Three years and three months ago, Rosa Isela Batalla Morales learned that her son had been…
Cecile Richards Isn’t Giving Up the Fight
Editor’s Note: This interview, which first appeared in our January/February 2025 print issue, was originally scheduled…
Is Mexico Prepared for Mass Deportations?
Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs will operate in 2025 with 700 million fewer pesos than in…
Her Body Was 126 Degrees After She Died, Bexar County Medical Examiner Blames Drugs
This article was originally published by Deceleration, a nonprofit online journal of environmental justice. Sign up…
Lost in Transit: Russian Dissenters’ Perilous Path to America
My second semester at Texas State University began last January. I remember the morning of January…
Texas Foresees Strong Revenue, Full Rainy Day Fund. Who Will Benefit?
With the 89th legislative session kicking off this week, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar delivered a cautious—yet…
The Border Propagandist
Editor’s Note: This report is part of “Seeds of Distrust,” an investigative collaboration between Lighthouse Reports, the Arizona…
From Houston to Lebanon, Seeking Truth and Music
Filmmaker, journalist, podcast producer, record collector, and DJ Jackson Allers has lived an eclectic life. The…
Texas Gave $1 Million in Expert Contracts to Defend Border Buoys in Court
The full cost of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s floating buoy barrier in the Rio Grande near…
This Aspiring Social Worker Should Not Be Blacklisted
Families in crisis trust Katherin Youniacutt, a grandmother who lives a quiet life with her husband…
Texas’ War on Drug Users
Listen to an auto-generated audio version of this article. Over the last weekend of April 2024,…
Editor’s Letter: Introducing Our January/February 2025 Issue
Texas Observer readers, Last month, we at the Observer officially celebrated our 70th year of continuous…
Booked Up in 2024: What to Read from a Strong Year in Texas Letters
Winding up your year by the fire (or by the pool) as the temperature rises and…
Our Most-Read Stories of 2024
Web traffic is a fickle thing, somewhat subject to the whims of tech overlords. And an…
Our Best Longform Stories of 2024
Yes, I am aware that the world today runs largely on TikTok, YouTube, some combination of…
Monopoly Tycoons in a Game of Jenga: The Censorship of Bodies, Protest, and Speech at UT-Austin
As a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin, each day feels like a…
Brownsville Elected Officials Are Doing PR for Embattled LNG Megaproject
Local elected officials in the border city of Brownsville are receiving talking points and media strategy…
Uvalde’s Darkest Hour
Editor’s Note: The following is excerpted with permission from Uvalde’s Darkest Hour (Texas A&M University Press,…
Editorial Moves at the Observer
I’m pleased to announce some good internal news at the Texas Observer. Two of our writers…
Trans in the Heart of Texas
One night last summer, I went out with my wife. Through the restaurant windows, we could…
Bearing Witness
As we at the Texas Observer were racing to finish proofreading of our November/December 70th anniversary…
Will Texas Finally Wind Down Border Security Spending?
Two days before Thanksgiving, Texas Governor Greg Abbott jetted around deep South Texas to brag about…
TEA Exoneration of Mike Miles’ Charter Schools Leaves Questions Unanswered, Raises New Ones
On October 15, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) released a Special Investigation Report of Findings stating…
The Questions the Death Penalty Cannot Answer
When the end credits rolled on I Am Ready, Warden at the Austin Short Film Festival,…
The Phones Are Still Ringing
In June of 2000, the Texas Observer’s longest tenured editor, Lou Dubose, bade farewell with a…
The Trump Picks Who Could Decide Our Climate Future
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.…
Texas Uranium Mining Portends Nuclear Revival
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared at Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate,…
Revealed: the Operators Behind Four Major Neo-Nazi X Accounts
Under owner Elon Musk, the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, has become a…
What Trump 2.0 Could Mean for Public Education
From McCarthyism to public school desegregation to Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs, and now to…
When the Prophetic City Fails
“Loose dogs” on Houston’s Northside were roving the streets in small bands, sowing chaos. At least,…
Riding the Pines in Palestine and Rusk
I pulled up to the train depot in the East Texas city of Palestine, $220 poorer…
Strangest State: Snacks, Scents, and Rays in the Bay
The post Strangest State: Snacks, Scents, and Rays in the Bay appeared first on The Texas…
Texas’ Hotbed of Taiwanese Nationalism
Dai wan wei. The sounds of the Taiwanese Hokkien language don’t resemble Mandarin Chinese, which drifts…
To the CEO of Centerpoint Energy, Who Smirks Next to a Thermostat that Reads 70 Degrees
I am here on the cold tiled floor with my son who is stripped who is down…
Seeing the Unseen
Since the publication of his 1985 chapbook of stories, Winners on the Pass Line, Dagoberto Gilb…
‘Not Everyone Can Leave’: Survival Advice from Trans Teens in Texas
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Deceleration, coproduced with Truthout, and is republished here with…
How Texas Jails Built Migrant Incarceration
In 1926, the Galveston League of Women Voters wrote to their U.S. senator to express concern…
The Vet, the Cattle Prod, and the ‘Guttural Wail’
Ashlee Watts, a veterinary equine surgeon and Texas A&M University faculty member, referred to the draft…
Taxpayers Fund Post-‘Roe’ Business Boom for Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers in Texas
If you had the means to provide diapers to a struggling new parent, what would you…
Announcing the Texas Observer’s Editor-in-Chief
Dear friends, I’ve been struggling to put into words my feelings from the last week: anger,…
She Fled Mexico as a Child. Now, She Teaches Migrant Kids in Tamaulipas.
Under various and ever-shifting policies curtailing access to asylum, dating back to the Trump administration and…
The Deep Roots of Deportation
Editor’s Note: This story was co-published with Puente News Collaborative in partnership with palabra. An unrelenting…
Pride and Prejudice in Princeton, Texas
Rowan Hunter, 15, stepped up to the lectern at Princeton City Hall in July 2021. It…
For Texas Democrats, a Lost Decade
There is a room with three doors. Each bears a label: “Latino Vote,” “Purpling Suburbs,” and…
“They Bought a Legislature”: What the GOP’s Gains Mean for Vouchers in Texas
Since the Kingdom of Life Academy moved from its location at the Colonial Hills Baptist Church…
Texas Will Be on the ‘Front Lines’ of Mass Deportation
In Texas and across the country, immigrants and their advocates are now bracing for a second…
Loon Star State: November 2024
(Ben Sargent) To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section or…
Texas House Dems Trip Over Their Own Low Bar
After coming up empty in a well-funded, highly ambitious, and not-slightly hubristic effort to flip the…
Texas Goes All Red for Ted
Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has officially walked away with his election to a third term…
In the Rio Grande Valley, the Red Wave Makes Landfall
Four long years ago, much ado was made about the inroads made by then-President Donald Trump…
GOP Clawing Back Dem Judicial Seats with Big Money and Big Red Wave
A massive investment by a conservative PAC appears to have paid off in key down-ballot judicial…
‘No Trust, No Bond’: Houston School Bond Appears to Fail amid State Takeover Backlash
At the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston’s Third Ward, the writing appeared to be already…
Is Rep Nate Schatzline Misusing Nonprofit to Play Partisan Politics?
On August 20, state Representative Nate Schatzline took the stage inside a black box-style room at…
Loon Star State: Ken Paxton’s Voting Police
To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section or find Observer political reporting…
Editor’s Letter: Introducing Our November/December Issue
Texas Observer readers, I was flitting about the intersection of Lamar and Rundberg in north Austin,…
A Lawman’s Change of Heart?
Editor’s Note: This report is part of “Seeds of Distrust,” an ongoing investigative collaboration between Lighthouse Reports, the Arizona Center…
A Real Race or a Red Redux?
Last Friday evening, more than 20,000 attendees packed a stadium in downtown Houston for a Kamala…
In the Rio Grande Valley, a Humbled GOP Battles with Democrats for the Center
On a warm, late September evening in downtown Harlingen, members of the Cameron County Republican Party…
A Cuban Journalist Adjusts to Service-Sector Precarity in North Texas
Editor’s Note: Jesús Jank Curbelo described his harrowing journey from Cuba to Texas in the Observer’s…
In San Antonio, House Races Could Determine Future of Public Ed and Vouchers
As Principal Joaquin Hernandez shows me around the sprawling campus of MacArthur High School in San…
Border 911: The Misinformation Network Profiting Off the ‘Invasion’ Narrative
Editors’ Note: This report is part of “Seeds of Distrust,” an ongoing investigative collaboration between Lighthouse…
How Mass Deportations Would ‘Devastate’ Texas
Former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump has promised, if elected, to implement the “largest…
The Billionaire Behind the Bid to Break Dallas City Government
At the August 21, 2024, meeting of the Dallas City Council, Joseph Porter stood at the…
Legislators, Attorneys Urge State to Halt Execution of Potentially Innocent Man
Robert Roberson, whose controversial execution is scheduled for today, could have his life spared by state…
Speaker Boxing: Is Phelan Failin’, or Will the Far Right Fall Short Again?
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan escaped a May primary runoff defeat by the skin of his…
Did the First American in Space Take an Extra Golf Ball to the Moon?
Editor’s Note: The Barber, The Astronaut, and The Golf Ball by Barbara Radnofsky and Ed Supkis…
Texas Is Taking Back the State Highway 288 Tollway—at a Steep Price
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is set to take back ownership of the State Highway…
How Texas Diminished a Once-Rigorous Air Pollution Monitoring Team
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared at Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate,…
Reclaiming ‘Friendship’ Across Borders
A friend will help you move; a best friend will help you move a body. This…
