On September 9 at 6:51 p.m., Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo exited an ongoing budget meeting in protest. “Shame on you,” she scolded her colleagues—namely her fellow Democratic Commissioners Lesley Briones and Adrian Garcia, but also Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey—after they refused to fund several early childhood education programs and a juvenile probation program. It […]

The post Lina Hidalgo Had a Vision. Harris County Won’t See It. appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Editor’s Note: This article was produced and published by In These Times. It is republished here with permission. Angelique Estes knew her stay would be rough as soon as she arrived at her new home in Arlington, Texas, in early December 2023. At 53 years old, Estes had learned to read her environment quickly. She’s […]

The post Nowhere to Go: Inside the Texas Boarding Home System Where Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation Are Widespread appeared first on The Texas Observer.

In a pre-dawn raid in November 1990, feds armed with warrants, padlocks, and chains seized everything Willie Nelson owned—his golf course, ranches, studio, all of it. Only one thing slipped through the IRS perimeter: Willie’s guitar, “Trigger.” Thirty-five years later, Willie still has Trigger. Oh, and he eventually got back the ranches, studio, and golf […]

The post A Trip Through Willie Nelson’s Golf Course, His Unorthodox Rules, and His Uncertain Tribal Identity appeared first on The Texas Observer.

On November 13, surrounded by family and listening to Guy Clark songs in the capital of the state on which he left such an enormous mark, David Richards left us at the age of 92. How to capture the life of such a man in such a small space?  The obituary his daughter, Ellen Richards, […]

The post Remembering David Richards, 1933-2025 appeared first on The Texas Observer.

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. Researchers at Texas Southern University in Houston have analyzed demographic data around the locations of almost 100 industrial facilities proposed statewide and found that about 90 percent are located […]

The post Petrochemical Expansion in Texas Will Fall Heavily on Communities of Color, Study Finds  appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Democrats haven’t won a U.S. Senate race in Texas for more than 35 years. In 2018, Beto O’Rourke came the closest when he lost to Ted Cruz by only 2.6 percentage points. In 2024, Cruz, boosted by Donald Trump’s performance in the state, beat then-Congressman Colin Allred by 8.5 percentage points. But, as many Texans […]

The post With Primary Field Still in Flux, James Talarico Pitches His Big Tent Revival appeared first on The Texas Observer.

The post The Ballad of Betty Rizzo appeared first on The Texas Observer.

My dad’s list is short and simple. He loves the Marines, his grandsons, menudo on Sundays, and Clint. If pressed, he’ll own up to loving the Cowboys but admits they’ve lost much of his admiration, largely thanks to Jerry Jones. It’s best not to get him started on Jerry Jones.    Daddy is a sentimental man […]

The post ‘Mija, Solamente Me Importa Clint’ appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Around 30 people recently gathered at a Fort Worth co-working space to discuss ways to build a more inclusive community for all of Tarrant County’s residents. “Welcome to the one-year anniversary of the 817 Gather,” Nydia Cardenas, the event organizer, told the crowd. “Whether it’s your first time or your 12th time, you are welcome […]

The post In Tarrant County, a Grassroots Coalition Pushes Back on Christian Nationalists appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Pam Perillo greets me at the door of her trailer, the yaps of a chihuahua named Peewee nearly drowning out our niceties. Perillo had just been looking for something to put on TV to soothe her animals—the territorial dog, two cats named Karla Faye and Tucker, plus a kitten she just rescued—while she leaves for […]

The post Pam Perillo’s Sisterhood of the Condemned appeared first on The Texas Observer.

To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section. Find Observer political reporting here.

The post Loon Star State: Trump’s Derangement Syndrome appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Smoke curled lazily from the kitchen, carrying the sweet weight of brown sugar and spice through the room. An elk and two whitetail deer stared down from the wall, their glass eyes fixed above a Texas flag and a scatter of wooden crosses. Around a circular laminate table, the group of locals bent over a […]

The post Dammed if You Do: East Texas Locals Fight to Stop an Unnecessary Reservoir appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Sitting in a Brazoria County courtroom in 1994, Anthony Graves, a Black man, looked at his nearly all-white jury. He was on trial for a murder he didn’t commit, and the state was seeking the death penalty. At that moment, he felt like nothing had changed in 150 years.  “I felt like Dred Scott,” he […]

The post New Report Highlights the ‘Fatal Flaws’ Behind Wrongful Capital Convictions appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Gu was looking forward to his first semester as a master’s degree student in philosophy at the University of Houston in August. The 22-year-old, who asked the Associated Press to use only his family name because of the political sensitivity of his situation, had previously studied at Cornell University, received a full scholarship, and been […]

The post The High Cost of Targeting International Students in Texas appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Editor’s Note: This story is a collaboration between the Texas Observer and Inside Climate News. For 15 years, Debrah Linn and her children have raised chickens, miniature donkeys, pet geese, and, more recently, longhorn cattle on what she’d considered an idyllic and peaceful farmette near the village of Elysian Fields.  Her kids ride horses on […]

The post Pitted Against Waste appeared first on The Texas Observer.

On a stone slab by the cold waters of Austin’s Barton Springs, transgender Texans celebrate existence. Against the best efforts of the state, they’re still here, laughing and swimming in the heat of a late-August afternoon.  Each year, nearly 800,000 people pay a small admission fee to pass through the gates of the capital city’s […]

The post At Barton Springs, Trans Existence Becomes Resistance appeared first on The Texas Observer.

In the early hours of April 1, state and federal police raided a party at an Airbnb in a wealthy Austin suburb, arresting nearly 50 people including nine children. The participating agencies—the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), and the Hays County Sheriff’s Office—claimed […]

The post Prosecutors Drop Only Criminal Cases from Hays County Airbnb Raid appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Even before the Texas Legislature finally passed its private school voucher bill earlier this year, the race was on among the handful of firms in the burgeoning voucher vendor sector to win the lucrative contract to launch and administer what will be the largest program of its kind in the nation.  That race is now […]

The post Texas’ Top Voucher Vendor Taps Abbott Allies in Contract Bid, Program Rollout appeared first on The Texas Observer.

National support for the death penalty is at an all-time low, with younger adults from both major political parties spurning capital punishment. But in Texas’ execution chamber, the pace of lethal injections has not let up, even as some condemned Texans—including Melissa Lucio and Robert Roberson—have had their high-profile executions halted with only days or […]

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Eli McKay and John Weber, volunteers for the Sierra Club’s Coastal Bend Group, already had their hands full fighting plans for water- and energy-intensive projects in Corpus Christi when Bootstrap Energy’s proposal for two cryptocurrency mines appeared on the city council’s agenda in March 2022. By then, Bitcoin mines were already popping up all over Texas, […]

The post Crypto’s Cryptic Texas Takeover appeared first on The Texas Observer.

In a final message, Jane Goodall urged us not to lose hope, even “as we destroy one ecosystem after another, as we create worse climate change and worse loss of biodiversity.” She believed our actions still mattered on this beautiful Earth. Above all, she said, in a statement released soon after her October 1 death:  […]

The post Jane Goodall, the Natural World, and Why I Track Skunks appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Each year, thousands of students apply for a seat at one of the top performing magnet high schools in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) through an open-enrollment lottery system. Regardless of their background, all district applicants have the same chance of being admitted to these elite schools if they meet the criteria for their […]

The post Houston’s Top Magnet High Schools Could Become Private Partnership Charter Schools, Raising Equity Concerns appeared first on The Texas Observer.

On October 17, Texas Christian University announced it would close its Women and Gender Studies (WGST) and Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) departments, folding what remains of the programs into the English department. The official reason given was “low enrollment.” But I know what this decision really means. I know because I’ve watched my […]

The post My University Just Taught Extremists How to Eliminate Academic Programs They Don’t Like appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Between mid-October and early November, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) signed a pair of agreements that will authorize some state police within DPS’s Criminal Investigations and Highway Patrol divisions to effectively operate as ICE agents.  The move marks a significant expansion of what are called 287(g) […]

The post Texas Turns Its Sprawling State Police Force Into Immigration Agents for Trump appeared first on The Texas Observer.

The image that graces the cover of historian Ashley Farmer’s new biography of Pan-African activist Audley “Queen Mother” Moore is no less regal than the iconic photograph of Black Panthers founder Huey Newton in a rattan throne chair that many of us are more familiar with.  Moore sits in an old striped armchair, wearing an […]

The post The ‘Queen Mother’ of the Reparations Movement Gets Her Due appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Texas has grown a bumper crop of book authors and, with that, an ever-expanding list of literary festivals. San Antonio’s sprawls around its towering tomato-red public library every spring. Lubbock daringly throws its in sweaty August, while Boerne awaits the arrival of typically more bearable October weather. Then there’s the biggest of them all: the […]

The post Black Bookstore Owners, Government Spies, and Murder appeared first on The Texas Observer.

May the world not die of bread or a lost Messiah or the oil smeared desert or a fire washed sky but ripen into childhood— the heart’s crocodiles turned cinnamon shops and love and love  ∞Bruno Schulz was a Polish writer and visual artist regarded as one of the great writers of his century. His collection of stories, Sklepy cynamonowe (Cinnamon Shops), known […]

The post A PRAYER for Brody & Rhys appeared first on The Texas Observer.

The announcement on the Your Texas Benefits app reads: “SNAP benefits for November will not be issued if the federal government shutdown continues past October 27.” I logged in to see a mere $16 left in my account. It wouldn’t last the week, even if I was careful.  The message was cold and clinical, like […]

The post SNAP Shutdown Will Leave Texas Students like Me Hungry appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Paul Barrows spends his nights half expecting a late-night call from his son, who is prone to manic late-night walks that leave him lost and disoriented. Barrows’ son, who’s is his thirties and lives with schizoaffective disorder, has recently found a modicum of stability at a Fort Worth group home after languishing for over two […]

The post Bail Crackdown on Ballot Ignores Mental Health Crisis, Advocates Say appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Despite months of community protests, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced last week that it would begin the process of taking over Fort Worth Independent School District, Texas’ ninth largest school district with 68,000 students. The move marks the second-largest district to be taken over by the state, next to the highly controversial takeover of […]

The post Fort Worth ISD Parents Fear the Same Chaos that State Takeover Has Brought to Houston ISD appeared first on The Texas Observer.