Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared at Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate,…
Category: Politics
Reclaiming ‘Friendship’ Across Borders
A friend will help you move; a best friend will help you move a body. This…
Generous Guests: Undocumented Immigrants Subsidize Our Healthcare
Former President Donald Trump’s bumbling responses on healthcare in his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris…
Greg Abbott’s Border ‘Theatrics’ Now Include Acting Like the State Department
Governor Greg Abbott is, once again, using the border to test the bounds of his authority.…
A Houston Storyteller Finds the Humor in Hard Knocks
Ali Siddiq sits on stage, mic in hand, in front of a theater full of people,…
‘This Weird, Messy State We All Love in Spite of Ourselves’
Abby Rapoport has the rare distinction of having served as a Texas Observer staff writer, publisher,…
Confessions of a Beaumont Vegan
The number and proportion of vegans, as well as the general acceptance of veganism, are slowly…
Lost in Austin: Climate Change, Displacement, and Race in the Texas Capital
Editor’s Note: Lost in Austin: The Evolution of an American City, by longtime Observer contributor Alex…
Solidarity from Solitary and Beyond
Julio “Alex” Zuniga ends the messages he sends from his prison cell with the signoff “Solidarity…
Strangest State: Robbers, Witches, and Sharks
The post Strangest State: Robbers, Witches, and Sharks appeared first on The Texas Observer.
Loon Star State: ‘When You Assume…’
To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section or find Observer political reporting…
Bipartisan Legislators Join Calls for Clemency for Robert Roberson
A bipartisan majority of the Texas House of Representatives is calling for clemency for Robert Roberson…
Pipeline Explosion in Deer Park Reveals Hidden Hazards Texans Face
One of the biggest explosions and fires in recent Texas pipeline history was apparently sparked by…
Lawmen Above the Law
Mark Lamb decided to run for sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona, after his pest control business…
The Company You Keep
Listen to an audio version of this article. For the past decade, James Frinzi was a…
A Slice of Life in Watermelon Country
East Davis Street in Luling is lined with low-slung brick mom-and-pop shops. One, a cafe, is…
Junk Science, ‘Shaken Baby Syndrome,’ and the Fate of Robert Roberson
The hearing on the innocence claims of a condemned man began on August 14, 2018, with…
The Far Right Wants to End Out-of-State Abortion. Amarillo Is in the Way.
When Amarillo resident Courtney Brown came across a social media post last July that announced anti-abortion…
Rice Farmers on the Brink
Daniel Berglund, a rice farmer for almost 40 years, climbs into his green-and-yellow 2014 John Deere…
The Woman Who Died in the Heat on a San Antonio Sidewalk Was My Friend
This article was originally published on August 24 by Deceleration, a nonprofit online journal producing news…
When Will Texas Workers Finally Get Protections from Heat Exposure?
For more than a decade, Democratic U.S. Representative Greg Casar, an ex-Austin City Council member now…
What Trump 2.0 Would Mean for Texas
Democrats underwent a dramatic change in their 2024 presidential ticket ahead of their convention, going from…
The ‘Untranslatable Palestinian Flesh’
Mahmoud Darwish died in Houston. The Palestinian poet, as monumental to his nation’s literature as Gabriel…
Texas Is Arming Mexico’s Gunmen
Firearms were used to commit 1,799 homicides in Texas in 2023—a devastating human toll. Yet guns…
After Hurricane Beryl, Cooling Centers Were Few and Slow to Arrive for Houstonians of Color—Some Died of Heat Exposure
Carol Samuel, 76, was born, raised, and educated in Third Ward, a sprawling and storied community…
Editor’s Letter: Introducing Our September/October Issue
Texas Observer readers, As we were wrapping up edits on the stories in this issue, a…
Announcing Our Executive Director: Loren Lynch
Texas Observer readers and supporters, The board of directors of the Texas Democracy Foundation is thrilled…
How Can You Tell If Soil Is Healthy? Just Listen to It.
This story was originally published by Grist, and it is republished here with permission. Sign up for…
The Mexican American Story
Editor’s Note: The following is excerpted with permission from Borderlands and the Mexican American Story, out…
In El Paso, a Migrant Death Crisis Emerges amid Extreme Heat
One May afternoon, the temperature was already approaching 99 degrees fahrenheit when the first call came.…
A Visionary in the Borderlands
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by The Border Chronicle, a weekly newsletter that publishes original…
how to admire wildflowers
rub your eyes & see nothin’ more than the flicker of candle flames burnin’ dry grass…
Observing the Borderlands
After stints at the McAllen Monitor and as a Lege staffer, Melissa del Bosque worked at…
The Walls Prison Break–50 Years Later
Fifty years ago last month, prisoner Fred Gomez Carrasco and an accomplice, Rudolfo Dominguez, died in…
DPS Dodges Transparency in Uvalde—Again
By reinstating Texas Ranger Christopher Ryan Kindell in early August, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS)…
Stories from Deep in the Heart
Editor’s Note: The following is excerpted from Native Texan: Stories from Deep in the Heart, a…
Turning Trauma Into Activism: She’s Fighting for Reproductive Rights in Texas and Beyond
When I talked to Amanda Zurawski in early August, she had just finished: a Women For…
A Rough Road to the Christmas Mountains
Dawn was spreading like a giant egg yolk on the horizon when we reached the gate.…
Bringing Home the Story of Ben Spencer
Barbara Bradley Hagerty is an eclectic journalist: In her working life at NPR and later at…
When Summer Heat Hits My Texas Prison
At Huntsville Unit, a prison situated on the edge of a vast national forest 70 miles…
Nancy Pelosi Demands MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell If JD Vance Ever Saw Combat
As our own Doug Powers reported earlier, when you’ve lost CNN, you know you’re in…
A Legal Fight over Legacy Oil Industry Pollution Heats Up in West Texas
In the small town of Monahans, a dozen people huddle around a 10-foot deep hole in…
Strangest State: Lights, Fights, and Frights
(Drue Wagner) The post Strangest State: Lights, Fights, and Frights appeared first on The Texas Observer.…
Earth Is Still Breaking Heat Records
This story was originally published last week by Grist, and it is republished here with permission. Sign…
Funds to Help Low-Income Families With Summer Electric Bills Are Stretched Thin
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared at Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate,…
Neo-Nazi Gang Affiliates Attacked a Mixed-Race Family in Martindale, Only One Was Arrested
On June 22, a hot summer day, a group of 10 family members and friends were…
The Wages of Inequality—Behind Bars
Editor’s Note: Harris, the author of this essay, is incarcerated at the Lane Murray Unit in…
Loon Star State: ‘Demolition Man’
(Ben Sargent) To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section, or find Observer political…
Their Laws. Our Bodies.
On the morning of June 24, 2022, the federal courthouse in downtown Dallas was reinforced with…
The Banality of Border Evil
William Hanson is not your typical biographical subject. Dead for nearly a century now, Hanson was…
Greg Abbott Compares Hamas Attacks to Texas Border Crossings at Sheriffs’ Conference
In a speech Tuesday to attendees at the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas’ 146th annual training conference…
Loon Star State: ‘Hail to the…’
To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section or find Observer political reporting…
Waiting Out the Storm in Prison
James Guevara has ridden out three hurricanes sheltered in-place in Texas prisons. Hurricane Beryl, which blew…
This State Program Collects Money from the Deceased. Families Pay the Price.
When 83-year-old Mary McCaughan died in an Austin nursing home of Alzheimer’s in 2017, her belongings…