Most Recent in Politics:

1Casey Gerald’s Memoir Isn’t the Inspirational Tale You Think It Is

2Ted Cruz Won Because of Rural Texas, but Beto Made Small Gains for Democrats

3The Midterms Trigger a Seismic Shift in Harris County’s Courts

4Trump’s Sabotage of ACA Enrollment Is Particularly Dangerous in Texas

5Texas is a Purple State Now. The Proof is in Last Night’s Results.

6Loon Star: Blue Wave

Most Recent in Environment:

1In East Texas, Chicken Plants are Polluting Rivers and Lakes with Oxygen-Sucking Contaminants

2Why Environmental Groups Are Salty on Corpus Christi’s Pricey Desalination Plan

3Despite Trump and Rick Perry’s Best Efforts, Another Coal Plant Eats the Dust in Texas

4Exxon Appears to Mislead State to Secure Tax Break

5After the Flood, the Political Storm?

6Government Asks Court for More Time To Fix Houston’s Decades-Long Sewage Problem

Most Recent in Border:

1Border Patrol Calls Cops on Lawyers, Activists Trying to Attend ‘Stakeholder’ Meeting

3Border Residents Protest Trump’s Wall in Hidalgo County

4AUDIO: Melissa del Bosque and Rachel Poser on Border Patrol’s Unchecked Mission Creep

5More Than 150 Families Separated at the Border Remain Locked Up in Texas

6U.S. and Mexican Officials Collaborating to Stop Asylum-Seekers, Attorneys Allege

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Ken Paxton’s Strange Quest to Execute an Intellectually Disabled Man

2The Midterms Trigger a Seismic Shift in Harris County’s Courts

3Harris County Judges May Face a Reckoning Over Bail On Election Day

4Dallas County’s Cop-Convicting DA Is Among the Most Vulnerable Down-Ballot Republicans This Election

5Author Shane Bauer on How the Racist Roots of Private Prisons Still Permeate the System

6In Arlington, How Not to Respond to a Police Shooting

Most Recent in Education:

1In Violation of Texas Law, Most High Schools Aren’t Giving Students the Chance to Register to Vote

2Amid Record Youth Suicide Attempts, Texas Lags in Prevention Training for Teachers

3Cash-Strapped Rural Texas Schools Look to Universities for Help

4What’s in a Name? Texas SBOE Tentatively Approves ‘Ethnic Studies: Mexican American Studies’

5SMU Just Lost Its Independent Student Newspaper. Is Your College Next?

6Lawsuit: Texas Art Teacher Suspended Because She Told Students About Her Wife

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Meet the Scientist and Autism Dad Who’s Fighting the Anti-Vaccine Movement

2Trump’s Sabotage of ACA Enrollment Is Particularly Dangerous in Texas

3In the Rio Grande Valley, New Citizens Turn Out to Vote for the First Time

4We Support Pre-Existing Condition Protections, Say Republicans Who’ve Repeatedly Tried to Eliminate Them

5Meet Mikael Love, the OB-GYN Who Doesn’t Prescribe Birth Control

6Without Planned Parenthood, Almost Half the Providers in Texas’ Women’s Health Program Saw No Patients

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Dolores Huerta is Still Knocking on Doors and Registering Voters at 88

2The Interview: Veronica Escobar is Poised to Make History

3Redistricting Guru Michael Li on Texas’ Gerrymandered Maps

4Senfronia Thompson Says #MeToo: Texas Lawmaker on 45 Years of Sexism, Racism at the Capitol

5Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo on Sanctuary Cities, Police Unions and Tommy Guns

6Meet Nueces County’s New DA, a Self-Professed ‘Mexican Biker Lawyer Covered in Tattoos’

Most Recent in Books:

1‘When I Spoke in Tongues’ Chronicles a Long Walk Away from the Church

2Casey Gerald’s Memoir Isn’t the Inspirational Tale You Think It Is

3‘Beyoncé in Formation’ is a Texas Professor’s Love Letter to Queen B

4Author Shane Bauer on How the Racist Roots of Private Prisons Still Permeate the System

5Best of the 2018 Texas Book Festival: An Observer Staff Guide

6An Evocative New Memoir of Nature and Loss Never Quite Gets Off the Ground

Most Recent in Features:

1Raspa Revolution

2100 Ways to Draw a Line

3Homeward Bound

4The Sisterhood

5The Time-Traveler’s Guide to the Lower Pecos

Most Recent in Essay:

1Heads in the Mud

2The Day the Windows Shook

3Women’s Work

4I Grew Up on the Texas-Mexico Border, but Now I Barely Recognize It

5Somewhere It Hides a Well

6Drinking the Kool-Aid at the Garden of Eden

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Fiesta Protesta

2Eye on Texas: Gentrification in East Austin

3Eye on Texas: Transgender Youth in Texas

4Eye On Texas: Hurricane Harvey

5Eye on Texas: Fantastical Taxidermy

6Eye on Texas: Runners Take on 170-Mile Race in Big Bend

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

2Parallel Planes

4Poem: ‘Resistance’

5Poem: ‘Screenplay for a Homemade Movie’

6Poem: ‘To Be One with the All’

Ken Paxton’s Strange Quest to Execute an Intellectually Disabled Man

Prosecutors have agreed to spare Bobby Moore’s life due to his intellectual disability. Texas’ highest criminal court and top legal official want to kill him anyway.

by Michael Barajas

Features

by Roberto José Andrade Franco
Border
Chuco Style

The suits are flashy, the dancing is mesmerizing and the enchiladas are hot. For members of this El Paso club, borderlands identity runs deep.
by Melissa del Bosque
Border
Checkpoint Nation

Border Patrol agents are extending their reach deep into the country’s interior.
by Michael Barajas
Criminal Justice
Stand By Your Man

How the Collin County GOP derailed Ken Paxton’s prosecution and turned him into a right-wing hero.
by Naveena Sadasivam and Zoë Schlanger
Environment
Shallow Waters

This nine-part collaboration between the Texas Observer and Quartz explores the complexities of border water in a hotter, drier world.

Border
The Surge
by Melissa del Bosque and G.W. Schulz
Health Care
Indoctrinated
by Sophie Novack
Politics
Access Denied
by Christopher Collins
Culture
Big Trouble in Little Cambodia
by Michael Hardy
Civil Rights
Will Hurricane Harvey Recovery Sink or Save a Texas City Already Fighting for Survival?
by Michael Barajas and Sophie Novack
Education
Nazis Go To School
by Candice Bernd and Jordan Buckley
2017 in Review
The Rise and Fall of the ‘Freest Little City in Texas’
by James McCandless
Criminal Justice
A Prison By Any Other Name
by Michael Barajas
Environment
Too Big To Fine, Too Small To Fight Back
by Naveena Sadasivam

The Magazine

Texas Observer members get the first look at our in-depth investigative reporting before it’s published online. Join today to get the magazine so you don’t miss out!

In This Issue

Past Issues

Top