
“Election Integrity” or Voter Intimidation?
Texas Republicans are pushing changes to election laws that would let partisan poll watchers record voters in polling places.
Since 1954
Lise Olsen is a Houston-based senior reporter and editor at the Texas Observer. Lise has investigated many twisted Texas tales, including crooked judges, an unjust execution, massive environmental disasters, myriad cases of corporate and public corruption, and unsolved serial killings. Her reports in three states over 20 years contributed to the prosecutions of a former congressman and a federal judge, inspired laws and reforms, helped solve cold cases, restored names to unidentified murder victims, and freed dozens of wrongfully-held prisoners. Her work is featured in CNN's “The Wrong Man” (2015) about the innocence claims of executed offender Ruben Cantu and the six-part A&E series on the victims of a 1970s serial killer, The Eleven, (2017). She is the author of Code of Silence: Sexual Misconduct by Federal Judges, the Secret System that Protects Them and the Women who Blew the Whistle.
Texas Republicans are pushing changes to election laws that would let partisan poll watchers record voters in polling places.
According to a new study, undercounts of COVID-19 deaths appear worst in rural and suburban areas served by elected justices of the peace.
In Texas, justices of the peace with little training can miss important clues in death investigations, and make mistakes tracking suicides, homicides, and COVID-19 deaths.
Top ERCOT officials collected six-figure salaries while failing to prepare for extreme weather events that they were warned about.
Homicide cases are going unsolved in Texas, leaving serial killers to murder again.
A new report shows Texas led the nation with seven deaths among immigration detainees from 2018-2020.
Two native Texans teamed up to produce a just-released podcast that tells the story of an innovative group of Houston homicide detectives.
Death row exoneree Anthony Graves reflects a decade after his release.
Chase was the state’s first licensed Black architect and the first Black person to receive a master’s degree from the University of Texas.
Even in Democratic strongholds, some voters in the state’s vast shale plays were afraid of Joe Biden’s energy platform.