Earlier this month, the San Antonio-area enclave of Castle Hills agreed to pay $500,000 to former city council member Sylvia Gonzalez, who had alleged that political opponents in the local government orchestrated criminal charges to silence her. (Read her full story here.) The agreement also requires officials to participate in training on First Amendment retaliation […]

The post Castle Hills Settles ‘Retaliatory Arrest’ Case for $500,000 in Win for Free Speech Advocates appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Once a month, 79-year-old Ann Gaskill pulls her Dodge Caravan into the parking lot of the Ark Church in Conroe, where Combined Arms, a Houston-based veterans organization, operates one of its mobile food pantries throughout the region. Gaskill started using the program after husband, an Air Force veteran, died, limiting her income. Whenever the third […]

The post Trump’s Federal Cuts Are Hitting Texas Food Banks Hard appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Texas Observer reader, Books. That’s right—it’s 2025, and I’m using the medium of a print magazine to talk to you about the even longer words-on-paper form that is the book. Why? Because I have the business acumen of someone who edits a small progressive news outlet, in Texas mind you, while having absolutely zero more […]

The post Editor’s Letter: Introducing Our November/December 2025 Issue appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Texas workers have long struggled with wage theft by their employers—and the state’s willingness and ability to crack down on scofflaw employers has been relatively minimal. Now, rates of suspected wage theft are increasing, and the state labor law enforcement system is straining to keep up.  Last year, state investigators faced the highest number of […]

The post Texas Can’t Keep Up with Surge in Workers’ Wage Theft Complaints  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. Major oil companies are drilling in East Texas again, but not for oil. This time, they’re after lithium for batteries and other rare elements. Chevron and Halliburton announced East […]

The post A New Generation of Industries Emerges in Texas from Federal Push for Mining Revival appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Democratic Congressman Marc Veasey made an unannounced visit to a Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing facility on Monday in an effort to demand accountability from the agency, which has failed to substantively respond to multiple inquiries from the congressman—including one stemming from a Texas Observer investigation earlier this year. “I’m here today to […]

The post ICE Still Won’t Answer Questions About Prosecutor with White Supremacist X Account appeared first on The Texas Observer.

It’s a tough time to be an Austin property taxpayer. Nothing seems to make sense.  Maybe you figured high taxes were a fair price to pay for the tremendous increase in the value of your home over the years. But in the past couple years home prices have actually plummeted, and yet your taxes are […]

The post Why the City of Austin Wants Voters to Hike Their Property Taxes appeared first on The Texas Observer.

When immigration agents detained Douglas Menjivar in June, it wasn’t his first time. Menjivar, a 50-year-old master mechanic originally from El Salvador, had lived in the United States for most of the last twenty years. A decade prior, he’d spent 2013 to 2015 in immigrant detention, including at the Houston-area Joe Corley Detention Center, which […]

The post Trump’s ICE Arrested a Whistleblower Who Exposed Sexual Assault in Detention. Now, He’s Left the Country. appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Greg Abbott intends to run for reelection to a fourth term as Texas governor in 2026, which if served to completion would secure his spot in the history books as the longest-serving top executive in the Lone Star State. He’s at the height of his powers and is arguably in as strong a position as […]

The post ‘Failures and Grift’: Gina Hinojosa Wants to Stop Greg Abbott from Making History appeared first on The Texas Observer.

At the end of the “Satanic Panic” of the 1980s, a man in my hometown was accused of sexually abusing children. The claims were bizarre: He had supposedly taken children to secret tunnels beneath a church, killed animals, and forced children to participate in satanic rituals. The trial became a public spectacle when the CEO […]

The post What a North Texas Pride Fest Taught Me About Today’s ‘Rainbow Panic’ appeared first on The Texas Observer.

On another night, Alienated Majesty Books near the University of Texas at Austin campus might host a conversation with a novelist or a poetry open mic. But on this Saturday, the shelves and tables holding new releases have been pushed to the side, opening up the large polished cement floor. A drum kit sits in […]

The post A Night at the Screamo Bookstore appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Editor’s Note: This story is a collaboration between Puente News Collaborative and the Texas Observer. As the healthcare workers approach the small collection of makeshift shelters along the train tracks that cut through the northern Mexico industrial hub of Ciudad Juárez, the people who gather in this place to use drugs prepare for their arrival. […]

The post Border Barriers to Harm Reduction appeared first on The Texas Observer.

On September 24, a gunman shot at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Dallas, killing two immigrants, Norlan Guzman-Fuentes and Miguel Ángel García-Hernández, and seriously injuring another, Jose Andres Bordones-Molina, who were being detained at the site.  The federal government was quick to blame the attack on the “far left” and the […]

The post In Dallas, Organizers Mourn the Immigrant Victims of Recent ICE Shooting appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Editor’s Note: This story was produced by Agência Pública (Brazil). You can read the original version here. It was late afternoon on June 17 in Newport, Vermont, when six Brazilian carpenters left the house where they were working on a renovation. On the horizon, eight patrol cars appeared at high speed and suddenly stopped near […]

The post A Brazilian Carpenter’s 51-Day Detention Journey from Vermont to Texas appeared first on The Texas Observer.

On a sunny mid-July evening, dozens packed into a community center in Memorial, one of west Houston’s cushier neighborhoods, to meet state Representative James Talarico, the Austin Democrat whose reedy shoulders presently bear the weight of many Texas liberals’ dreams. Before breaking quorum in August with his fellow House Democrats, the 36-year-old former teacher was […]

The post Inside the Rift Between Texas Dems and a Soros-Backed PAC appeared first on The Texas Observer.

What are set to be the final days of Robert Roberson’s life will be busy. He has lots of people to see before his October 16 execution date.  He’ll meet with his pro bono lawyer Gretchen Sween and others on his defense team; facing a ticking clock, his lawyers will be scrambling to save his […]

The post ‘I Got a Lot of People Believing in Me’: Robert Roberson Stares Down Death, Again appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Editor’s Note: This is part 2 of a series on Medicaid Estate Recovery Program collections in Texas. For part 1, see our July/August 2024 issue. In April 2024, Anne-Marie Boyd got a call from her brother, who sounded frantic after opening a letter from Health Management Systems, Inc. (HMS), an Irving company that serves as […]

The post Burden of Proof appeared first on The Texas Observer.

When I saw Marwan Marouf’s face plastered on my Instagram feed, under bright red letters announcing he’d been arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the first thing I remembered was his distinctive, gentle voice. For nearly three decades, Brother Marwan, as we know him, has been a constant presence in our community. […]

The post Trump’s ICE Has Arrested a Pillar of the Dallas Muslim Community. I Grew Up Hearing His Calls for Compassion. appeared first on The Texas Observer.

On September 22, Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 8, Texas’ new “bathroom bill,” into law, marking another escalation in the Republican war on the rights of trans people. What may be less evident on first glance is how the law also represents an attack on public institutions—and on the legal system writ large.  Andrea […]

The post How the Bathroom Bill Weaponizes Transphobia Against Public Institutions appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Early last month, Raunaq Alam, a 32-year-old Bangladeshi American from the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Hurst, was on the verge of spending a decade behind bars for the alleged hate crime of spray-painting the words “Fuck Israel” on the side of a non-denominational Christian church in nearby Euless.  His trial on the trumped-up charge was […]

The post Inside Tarrant County’s Dogged Prosecution of a Pro-Palestine Activist appeared first on The Texas Observer.

BLD PWR (think: build power) Day 2025 was a hectic one. Starting late in the afternoon, many African Americans flocked to the Ion District, a technology park in Midtown Houston affiliated with Rice University, to take part in this pre-Juneteenth gathering. Vendors of color were both inside and outside, selling everything from clothing to comic […]

The post ‘Make Resistance Sexy’ appeared first on The Texas Observer.

In response to last spring’s student protests against Israel’s war on Gaza that roiled college campuses across the country, including in Texas, the state’s Republican Legislature passed a law this spring placing certain conditions on “expressive activities” on campus. University governing boards were given more power to restrict when and how protests could occur, including […]

The post Party Discipline appeared first on The Texas Observer.

When a land forgets its legends,Sees but falsehoods in the past,When a nation views its siresIn the light of fools and liars—’Tis a sign of its decline,And its glories cannot last.Branches that but blight their rootsYield no sap for lasting fruit. During the spring of 2023, members of the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) gathered […]

The post How Scholars Lost the Culture War over Texas History appeared first on The Texas Observer.

The post Strangest State: Cute Robots, Killer Bugs, and Cloud Conspiracies appeared first on The Texas Observer.

For $8 an hour, B.O., a Kenyan immigrant who asked the Texas Observer to use only her initials for fear of workplace retaliation, once cared for six elderly patients in a Houston group home for as many as 90 hours a week—without any overtime pay. Every day from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m., she fed, […]

The post Texas Domestic Workers Face Trump Attack on Minimum Wage appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Earlier this month, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced that 12 Austin-area schools with an “F” rating could be closed. For many families, this isn’t just a policy decision—it’s a direct threat to thousands of children’s educational stability and their communities’ future.  The affected schools, all part of Austin Independent School District (AISD) received three […]

The post Austin’s Children Deserve More than a Test Score appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Every day that classes are held at the University of Texas at Austin, a procession of students enter Homer Rainey Hall, which houses the Department of French and Italian. How many of them know who Rainey was? He is certainly not a saint in the pantheon of Texas history—a diverse bunch that includes, depending on […]

The post Texas History Offers Warnings amid Rash of Faculty Firings appeared first on The Texas Observer.

On the night of March 31, María, a 40-year-old Venezuelan mother of four who asked that her last name not be published for fear of government retaliation, was home alone in her two-bedroom Austin apartment. Around 9 p.m., her adult son and daughter, along with her teenage son, had left for a birthday party at […]

The post Officials Said They Busted a Tren de Aragua Party. Attendees Beg to Differ. appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Recently released state school ratings reveal that five Texas school districts are at risk of a takeover by the Texas Education Agency (TEA)—the most since a 2017 state law expanded the state’s takeover powers. The new ratings cover the 2022-23 school year, released in April following legal delays, and the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, […]

The post A Wave of School District Takeovers Could Be Coming. Some Past Interventions Ended with More Failing Schools. appeared first on The Texas Observer.

This article was first co-published by The Texas Newsroom and ProPublica. A group of state and national media organizations, including The Texas Newsroom, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, are arguing in court that records in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s divorce case should be made available to the public. The organizations filed their plea to intervene with the Collin County district court […]

The post News Orgs Fight to Unseal Records in the Paxtons’ Divorce Case appeared first on The Texas Observer.