A Texas Austerity Crisis Is Playing Out City by City, School by School
Texas’ local governments are facing growing fiscal pain. What’s that mean for the 2026 elections—and the 2027 session?
Featured Stories
The Latest
Corpus Christi Withholds Water to Wetlands While Lifting Restrictions on Lawns
Reservoirs have rebounded from critical levels, but an emergency order absolves the city of requirements to resume releasing water for the Nueces River Delta.
Profile ⋆
Kam Franklin Goes Solo
The accomplished Houston musician, known as lead singer for The Suffers, draws on surprising sources of inspiration and puts “the message into the music” in her new album, “Land of the Neon Sun.”
Politics ⋆
Will a Coalition of ‘MAGA Moms’ Rally Behind Gina Hinojosa’s Bid for Texas Governor?
Some conservatives say they won’t give Governor Greg Abbott a fourth term after what he’s done to the public education system in Texas.
Editor’s Letter: Introducing Our September/October 2026 Issue
A note from the editor-in-chief
‘Living like Vampires’: ICE Surge Fractures Daily Life in Deep South Texas
“It’s gotten that bad: People don’t want to register their children to school. They don’t want to do groceries. They don’t even want to stop by the store for their morning coffee.”
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Politics
Come and Take Them, Dan Patrick
An Abilene public school librarian has a message for the lieutenant governor and his book-banning crusade.
Who Pays for the High-Powered Grid that Data Centers Need?
Texas would make large AI hyperscalers pay for the wires that connect them. Whether they must also pay directly for the broader grid work needed to serve them is still an open question.
University of Houston Is Gutting Its Gender and Sexuality Classes. That Won’t Stop Texas’ Crusade Against Higher Ed.
College administrators wrongly hope that anticipatory obedience will satisfy a GOP-run Texas Legislature that is increasingly hostile toward education.
Border and Immigration
Immigrants Keep Saying She’s Ripping Them Off. Why Won’t Texas Stop Her?
The attorney general’s office once aggressively pursued fraudsters targeting immigrants. Not on Ken Paxton’s watch.
Indigenous Group Sues to Stop Big Bend Border Wall on Religious Grounds
The lawsuit seeks an immediate injunction, arguing that CBP construction and surveying activities in Big Bend violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
American Skater
A Venezuelan immigrant tries to make a home in San Antonio in exclusionary times.
Culture
‘Cocks Not Glocks’ at 10
A decade on, the iconic campus protest has come to symbolize a time of relatively free expression.
An Ode to Austin’s Unsung Proletariat
A new novel about workers at an organic grocery store asks us to consider questions of labor and dignity in the Texas capital.
Cycling the Rio Grande as Trump’s Wall Looms
“We’re gonna be riding around areas where most everybody thinks it’s unsafe, and you’re gonna see that there’s really nothing to be worried about.”
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September/October 2026
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