Most Recent in Texas Politics:

1Historic Runoff Turnout Sets Stage for Texas Democrats in 2020’s ‘Biggest Battleground’

2Amid a National Reckoning Over Racial Injustice, Royce West Seeks to Upset MJ Hegar—and the DSCC

3Doctors Reverse Course, Say Texas GOP Should Cancel In-Person Convention

4The Next Census Could Determine the Future of Port Arthur

5Texas Had a State Office That Could Have Investigated Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Cases. Lawmakers Defunded it Three Years Ago.

6The COVID-19 Disaster Has Made a Mess of Texas’ Open Government Rules

Most Recent in Environment:

1In Houston’s Fifth Ward, the Storm Never Stops

2How Texas Lawmakers and Industry Have Weakened Citizens’ Rights to Fight Pollution

3Texas Relaxed Environmental Enforcement During the Pandemic, State Data Show

4Editorial: Air Pollution Was Already Killing Us. Then Came the Coronavirus. Why Won’t the EPA Act?

5City Nature Challenge Can Help Us Find Resilience and Mindfulness at Home

6Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

Most Recent in Border:

1El Paso Remembered

2Back to the Wall

3Between Borders

5Along the Border, Witnesses of Smuggling Crimes Are Being Held in Detention, Despite Coronavirus Concerns

6In Migrants Camps Along the Texas-Mexico Border, Close Quarters and Closing Borders Raise Concerns

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1In Harris County, A Group is Working to Expand Voting Access in Jails

2Will The Reckoning Over Racist Names Include These Prisons?

3How Long Can You Hide a Dead Body in a Prison Cell?

4Reform vs. Rebuild: Defunding Law Enforcement in Texas

5As COVID-19 Cases Surge, Some Incarcerated People Remain Behind Bars After Making Bail

6A Major Obstacle to Police Reform: The Whiteness of Their Union Bosses

Most Recent in Education:

1The New Ensemble

2Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

3Tough Decisions Ahead for School Leaders in Rural Texas

4‘Almost Akin to a Political Coup’: Houston Teachers Fight Back Against State Takeover of HISD

5The Creature of Martin Creek Lake Won’t Die

6The Cost of Carve-Outs

Most Recent in Health Care:

1One of Texas’ Biggest Nursing Home Operators Beset By COVID-19 Cases and Deaths

2Telehealth Could be Great, if Texans Had Access to It

3Texas Nursing Home Residents Were Already at Risk. Then COVID-19 Hit.

4Neglected in Care

5COVID-19 is Surging in Rural Texas, Threatening to Overwhelm Local Hospitals

6He Removed Labels That Said ‘Medical Use Prohibited,’ Then Tried to Sell Thousands of Masks to Officials Who Distribute to Hospitals

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Texas Observer Founding Editor Ronnie Dugger Reflects on 65 Years of Publication

2How Katharine Hayhoe Stays Hopeful as the Planet Warms

3Author William Lopez on How Immigration Raids Inflict Long-Lasting Trauma

4Why a Texas Gun Control Activist is Optimistic About the Chances for Reform

5American Health Care is Broken, Especially in Texas. What Can We Do About It?

6Thousands of Rape Kits in Texas Went Untested For Years. Lavinia Masters Is Ending That.

Most Recent in Books:

1‘After the Last Border’ Reveals the Human Cost of Trump’s Draconian Immigration Policies

2In ‘Crooked Hallelujah,’ Kelli Jo Ford Explores How Pain is Passed Down Through Families

3In ‘Separated,’ One Journalist’s Close-up View of the Family Separation Crisis

4Lawrence Wright Embraces Pandemic Panic in ‘The End of October’

5Is it Time to Rethink Texas Suburbia?

6What’s a Bookstore for?

Most Recent in Features:

1Young Texans Keep Spelling Bees Going From Home

3San Antonio Embraces Mandaean Refugees

4The Ghosts of Jefferson

5Little Arthouse on the Prairie

6The Clothes that Make the Man

Most Recent in Essay:

1What the Black Lives Matter Protests Mean for East Texas

2Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

3What’s a Bookstore for?

4Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

5In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives

6Loneliness in the Age of Coronavirus

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Border Tuner

2Eye on Texas: The Broken Wheel Ranch Project

3Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

4Eye on Texas: Loren Elliott

5Eye on Texas: Charlotte Moore

6Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Author Saeed Jones on Empathy, the Power of Memoir, and Growing up Gay in North Texas

2Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

3Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

4Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

5Parallel Planes

Sunny Sone

Sunny Sone is the digital editor at the Texas Observer. You can contact them at [email protected]

Poet Alok Vaid-Menon on Protest Art and Immigrant Detention

by Sunny Sone | Mon, Jul 6, 2020 at 12:41 pm CST

Police clash with protestors in downtown Austin Sunday afternoon.

Human Rights

The Protests Against Police Brutality in Texas, in Photos

Demonstrations against police brutality took place in cities large and small across Texas this weekend.

Mon, Jun 1, 2020 |

The Protests Against Police Brutality in Texas, in Photos Demonstrations against police brutality took place in cities large and small across Texas this weekend. June 1, 2020 A wave of protests swept across Texas cities this weekend to oppose police … Read More

generic bookstore

Books

What’s a Bookstore for?

Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, booksellers were facing razor-thin margins, an uncertain future, and the threat of Amazon.

Fri, Apr 24, 2020 |

The people who work in bookstores are, by and large, very brilliant. My co-workers at BookPeople, a large independent bookstore in Austin, were no exception. I started on Halloween in 2016 and worked my last shift on December 24, 2019. … Read More

healthcare workers wearing face masks

Health Care

Mapping the Number of COVID-19 Cases in Texas per Doctor

Many counties with limited medical resources—including no primary care physicians—now have COVID-19 cases.

Thu, Apr 23, 2020 |

Only a month after the first COVID-19 death occurred in rural Matagorda County, reported cases had already spread to 198 counties as of April 21. And cases are rising quickly in rural areas with limited medical resources: in East Texas, … Read More

In Ozona, people who need basic preventative services or prenatal check-ups typically need to make a 170-mile round trip drive to San Angelo.

Health Care

We Asked You About Health Care in Rural Texas. Here are Your Stories.

Much has been written about medical deserts, but these are the experiences of people who call them home.

Fri, Jan 17, 2020 |

Rural health care is in crisis in Texas: More than one-fifth of Texas’ 254 counties have only one doctor or none at all. Of the state’s 158 remaining rural hospitals, just 66 deliver babies. More than half of Texas counties … Read More