Most Recent in Politics:

1Will Texas Keep Fighting Foster Care Reform?

2Book Review: Scapegoating the Media Ignores Other Major Problems in American Politics

3How Julián Castro’s ‘Decade of Downtown’ Reshaped San Antonio

4‘A Mockery of Public Trust’: Bexar Sheriff Cleans House, Angers Deputies’ Union

5Loon Star: Trump University, Department of Mendacity

6Shelter Director Ruben Garcia on How Struggling Nonprofits Carry the Load of the Migrant ‘Crisis’

Most Recent in Environment:

1TCEQ Report Could Pave the Way for Chemical Plants to Emit More Hazardous Air Pollutants

2Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

3Mosquitoes Are Bad. So Are the Chemicals Some Texas Cities Are Using to Kill Them.

4Without Transmission Lines, Renewable Energy Still has a Long Way to Go — Literally

5Nurdle by Nurdle, Citizens Took on A Billion-Dollar Plastic Company — and Won

6Nearly 500,000 Texans Live in Communities with Contaminated Groundwater. Lawmakers Aren’t Doing Much About It.

Most Recent in Border:

1From Crystal City to Carrizo Springs, When Will We Stop Locking Up Kids?

2Loon Star: The Huddled Masses

3In Matamoros, Asylum-Seekers Wait, and Wait and Wait

4Migrant Children are Our Children

5Forgotten in the Fields

6Doctor Details ‘Insane,’ ‘Demoralizing’ Conditions for Kids at Texas Migrant Detention Center

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1The High Cost of Hays County’s Decision to Keep Prosecuting Low-Level Marijuana Cases

2A Poor Defense

3Texas’ New Medical Marijuana Law Doesn’t Cover Veterans Suffering from PTSD

4Death of Dog Trainer Highlights Strenuous Heat and Working Conditions at Texas Prisons

5Doctor Details ‘Insane,’ ‘Demoralizing’ Conditions for Kids at Texas Migrant Detention Center

6‘A Mockery of Public Trust’: Bexar Sheriff Cleans House, Angers Deputies’ Union

Most Recent in Education:

1The Cost of Carve-Outs

2Texas Legislature Improves Suicide Prevention in Schools, but Makes Little Progress for Adults

3Texas House Considers Free College For Students Experiencing Homelessness

4‘The Wolf is in the Henhouse’

5‘We’re Not Stupid’: Texas Teachers Take on Dan Patrick and the Legislature over Dismal Education Funding

6In Violation of Texas Law, Most High Schools Aren’t Giving Students the Chance to Register to Vote

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Meet the ‘Abortion Abolitionists’ Shaping Policy in the Texas GOP

2Texas’ New Medical Marijuana Law Doesn’t Cover Veterans Suffering from PTSD

3Yet Another Rural Texas Hospital is in Jeopardy After Anti-Tax Activists Kill Funding Proposal

4Texas Legislature Improves Suicide Prevention in Schools, but Makes Little Progress for Adults

5Inside Texas’ Failed Experiment to Replace Planned Parenthood with an Anti-Abortion Group

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Without Transmission Lines, Renewable Energy Still has a Long Way to Go — Literally

3The Interview: Mass Resistance

4Meet Jim Allison, Texas’ Newest Nobel Laureate (and Three-Time Cancer Survivor)

5Dolores Huerta is Still Knocking on Doors and Registering Voters at 88

6The Interview: Veronica Escobar is Poised to Make History

Most Recent in Books:

1Book Review: Scapegoating the Media Ignores Other Major Problems in American Politics

2Without Transmission Lines, Renewable Energy Still has a Long Way to Go — Literally

4Announcing the Ninth Annual Texas Observer Short Story Contest

5‘Human Matter’ Dredges up the Dark History of the Guatemalan Civil War

6With Sprawl and Serial Killers, Houston Noir Packs a Mean Punch

Most Recent in Features:

1The Clothes that Make the Man

2Washington Crossing the Rio Grande

3Ghosts of the Baker Hotel

4At Home in the World

5Plight at the Museum

6The Texas Observer’s Best Features of 2018

Most Recent in Essay:

1Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

2The Trouble with Yoga

3Heads in the Mud

4The Day the Windows Shook

5Women’s Work

6I Grew Up on the Texas-Mexico Border, but Now I Barely Recognize It

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

2Eye on Texas: Loren Elliott

3Eye on Texas: Charlotte Moore

4Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

5Eye on Texas: Ghosts of the City

6Eye on Texas: Fiesta Protesta

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

2Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

3Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

4Parallel Planes

6Poem: ‘Resistance’

Floor Pass

The Winners and Losers of the Battle for Campus Carry

by Kelsey Jukam | Tue, Jun 2, 2015 at 19:22 CST

Lawmaker Pushes for ‘Liberty Cities’

Tue, Jun 2, 2015 |

Collectively referred to as "liberty cities," Texas conservatives have come up with a way to defend local control while denying municipalities the freedom to en...Read More

2015 Inauguration Day Capitol

by Christopher Hooks

WTF Sine Die: #TxLege History Edition

Mon, Jun 1, 2015 |

While it pales in comparison to previous sessions, the 84th Texas Legislature proved that our state government still likes to entertain some dysfunction....Read More

by Alisa Semiens

Truancy Reform Legislation Headed to the Governor

Mon, Jun 1, 2015 |

Truancy reform legislation, which would decriminalize Texas’ punitive system for handling students who miss school, has made it to the governor's desk....Read More

by Christopher Hooks

Democrat Tanks Bill Strengthening Consumer Loan Regulation

Sat, May 30, 2015 |

Last week, Democrats killed a bill that advocates say would have built up the ability of an important state agency to regulate consumer loans....Read More

by Forrest Wilder

Dan Patrick to the Rescue on Hays County Groundwater Bill

Fri, May 29, 2015 |

After his tour of the Wimberley flood damage, Dan Patrick revived a groundwater bill that if passed would protect residents’ water wells in Hays County....Read More

by Kelsey Jukam

House Divided Over Cop-Blocking Open Carry Provision

Thu, May 28, 2015 |

If added to the open carry bill, the "Dutton amendment" would ban police officers from stopping someone solely because they're openly carrying a handgun. This w...Read More

LGBT Advocates Laud Passage of Homeless Youth Study

Wed, May 27, 2015 |

Thanks to a proposal by Rep. Sylvester Turner, Texas is set to take a more holistic approach to studying homeless youth, a large portion of whom identify as LGB...Read More

by Christopher Hooks

Ethics Reform Buffeted by GOP Infighting

Wed, May 27, 2015 |

Ethics reform was a headlining initiative of Gov. Greg Abbott's at the start of the session, but with a week to go, reform's prospects look ... complicated....Read More

Reproductive rights supporters wear hospital gowns and carry signs reading "I support Jane."

by Alexa Garcia-Ditta

Restrictive Abortion Bill Targeting Teens One Step Closer to Law After Senate Approval

Mon, May 25, 2015 |

Opponents raised concerns that the bill may violate a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the bypass process must be confidential and expeditious, and endangers alre...Read More

Top