Most Recent in Texas Politics:

1The Unlikely Demise of Texas’ Biggest Corporate Tax Break

2Again, Texas Republicans Fail to Gut Local Labor Protections

3With a Special Session on Voting Restrictions Looming, Texas Dems Push for Federal Protections

4The Lege This Week: Bitterness and Brinkmanship

5Texas Educators Worry Bill Limiting the Teaching of Current Events and Historic Racism Would “Whitewash History”

6As Homeless Camping Drama Rages, Protestors Camp Outside Austin City Hall

Most Recent in Environment:

1The Unlikely Demise of Texas’ Biggest Corporate Tax Break

2How the Alabama-Coushatta Use Fire to Save the Longleaf Pine

3La Niña Brings Wildfires

4Robert Bullard Isn’t Done Yet

5ERCOT Asked Texans to Conserve Power as Electric Grid Again Struggled to Keep Up with Demand

6One Researcher’s Quest to Quantify the Environmental Cost of Abandoned Oil Wells

Most Recent in Border:

1Follow the Money

2Siguiendo La Ruta Del Dinero

3Texas Activists Took Their Fight Against a Natural Gas Project Abroad—And They’re Winning

4‘Not Celebrating Yet’: South Texans Wait for Biden to Cancel Trump’s Wall

5How Texas Courts Went Virtual

6In ‘At the Ready,’ Latinx High Schoolers Train to Be Border Patrol Agents

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1An Irreversible Sentence

2Yet Again, Texas Lawmakers Face Crisis Conditions in Texas Prisons

3Armed With Lessons From a Dallas Serial Killer, Families Push for Reforms in Texas Law

4How Flawed Death Investigations Can Leave Texas COVID-19 Deaths Uncounted

5Editorial: Defund the Constables

6Uninvestigated, Uncounted: How Justices of the Peace Miss Important Clues in Death Investigations

Most Recent in Education:

1The Unlikely Demise of Texas’ Biggest Corporate Tax Break

2Texas Educators Worry Bill Limiting the Teaching of Current Events and Historic Racism Would “Whitewash History”

3‘I Felt Like They Were Demonizing My People’: Advocates and Families Point to Biases in Texas Curricula

4The Long, Winding Road that Led to the SBOE’s Decision for Texas Schools to Teach Abstinence-Plus Sex Education

5Efforts to Save What’s Left of Mary Allen Seminary Reveal The Challenges of Preserving Black Placemaking in Texas

6Texas Has the Widest Digital Divide in the Nation. What Does that Mean for the School Year?

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Editorial: Even ‘Turning Texas Blue’ Won’t Fix Us If We Don’t Face Some Hard Truths

2Portraits of the Pandemic: Part Two

3Editorial: Texas Wasn’t Prepared for the Statewide Vaccine Rush

4COVID-19’s Deadly Toll on Texas Workers

5COVID-19 Response has Been Starkly Different for Indigenous Communities in Texas

6After Sarah Davis’ Election Defeat, Texas Reproductive Health Advocates Worry About Losing a Powerful Republican Ally

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Researcher Howard Henderson on Reimagining Policing in the U.S.

2Texas Observer Founding Editor Ronnie Dugger Reflects on 65 Years of Publication

3How Katharine Hayhoe Stays Hopeful as the Planet Warms

4Author William Lopez on How Immigration Raids Inflict Long-Lasting Trauma

5Why a Texas Gun Control Activist is Optimistic About the Chances for Reform

6American Health Care is Broken, Especially in Texas. What Can We Do About It?

Most Recent in Books:

1‘Forget the Alamo’ Unravels a Texas History Made of Myths, or Rather, Lies

2‘On Juneteenth’ Refuses Easy Answers About the Importance of People of Color to Texas History

3‘Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing’ Tours Dark Places That Are Hard to Call Home

4Jung Young Moon’s Strange Novels Cross Continents

5Writer Rick Bass Fights for 20 Grizzly Bears

6‘Luz at Midnight’ Reimagines Blackouts, Polar Vortexes, and Environmental Justice in San Antonio

Most Recent in Features:

1How to Die in Texas

2Young Texans Keep Spelling Bees Going From Home

4San Antonio Embraces Mandaean Refugees

5The Ghosts of Jefferson

6Little Arthouse on the Prairie

Most Recent in Essay:

1An Irreversible Sentence

2Editorial: Look Down Ballot for Democratic Wins in Texas

3What the Black Lives Matter Protests Mean for East Texas

4Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

5What’s a Bookstore for?

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

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: The Essential Women of Austin

2Eye on Texas: A House Divided

3Eye on Texas: The Black Yearbook

4Eye on Texas: Border Tuner

5Eye on Texas: The Broken Wheel Ranch Project

6Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

Most Recent in Poetry:

1‘My Cousin Dies, Like a Deer, On the Side of the Road’

2Poet Claudia Delfina Cardona on Her Debut Poetry Chapbook

3Author Saeed Jones on Empathy, the Power of Memoir, and Growing up Gay in North Texas

4Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

5Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

6Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

Dateline Houston

Jani Maselli Wood court fees

Houston Attorney Crusading Against ‘Unconstitutional’ Court Fees

Wed, Mar 4, 2015 |

A Harris County attorney is waging a one-woman war against the way Texas uses hundreds of court fees it collects from people in the criminal justice system....Read More

State Rep. Eric Johnson, D-Dallas

Lege May Finally Lift Hiring Policies That Hurt Ex-Cons

Mon, Feb 9, 2015 |

If Eric Johnson's clever bill passes, Texans with criminal records—including for writing a bad check—won't fear they'll never be hired again....Read More

police body cameras

The Eyes of Texas: Are Police Body Cameras Inevitable?

Fri, Jan 16, 2015 |

Texas is well on its way to having cops in its major cities equipped with body cameras—but doesn't yet have unified policy on when to turn them on....Read More

A hydroponic garden growing medical marijuana.

Houston Investors Hope the Legal Marijuana Industry Will Make Them High Rollers

Wed, Oct 22, 2014 |

Houston-based investors took to the Marijuana investment Conference hoping to see high returns from the legal Marijuana industry. ...Read More

WTF Friday: I’m Sure It’s Nothing

Fri, Oct 17, 2014 |

This week's nutball roundup includes sermon subpoenas, Ebola hysteria, and Jim Hogan asking the big questions, which involve watermelon....Read More

WTF Friday: November Is Coming

Fri, Sep 26, 2014 |

This week's WTF Friday, our look at the dialectical excellence of Texas politics, focuses on Rick Perry, Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz, but also has gifs, which help...Read More

Houston Police Dept. Plagued By Fresh Scandal, Old Denial

Fri, Sep 26, 2014 |

HPD has plenty of problems--sexual harassment, forged tickets, neglected homicides--but the overarching one is denial....Read More

More Prisoners, More Problems: Mass Incarceration Climbs Again

Wed, Sep 17, 2014 |

The biggest, best, and newest studies agree that the U.S. needs to incarcerate fewer people. So why are the numbers climbing? Texas is one reason....Read More

Houston Cops Always Justified in Shootings. Always.

Thu, Aug 28, 2014 |

Houston police kill an average of one person every three weeks. According to all evaluating groups, they also never make mistakes....Read More

WTF Friday: The Usual Suspects

Fri, Aug 8, 2014 |

Dear ones, we have a problem. WTF Friday is in a rut. Every week, we set out to bring you the best in absurdity from this state we all love and/or are stuck wit...Read More

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