Most Recent in Politics:

1A ‘Stay-at-Home’ Order by Any Other Name

2The New U.S. Food Safety Czar is a Texas Researcher with Close Ties to the Meat Industry

3Texas Republicans’ Pandemic Performance Is True to Form

4Texas Democratic and Republican Parties Spar Over How to Hold Elections During a Pandemic

5How The Coronavirus Pandemic Exposed Abbott’s Hypocrisy On Local Control

6How Christian Nationalism Moved from the Fringe to the White House

Most Recent in Environment:

1COVID-19 Could Be a ‘Double Whammy’ for Those in Pollution Hotspots

2Coronavirus is Exposing the Faulty Foundations of the Texas Fracking Industry

3In Big Spring, a Rural Community Braces for Another Oil Bust

4In Southeast Lubbock Neighborhood, Residents are Fed Up With a Feedlot

5With Coal Plants Offline, the Air in Central and East Texas Has Cleared

6It’s Illegal to Take Drone Photos of Cattle Feedlots in Texas. Press Groups Say That Violates the First Amendment.

Most Recent in Border:

1In Migrants Camps Along the Texas-Mexico Border, Close Quarters and Closing Borders Raise Concerns

2U.S. Supreme Court Sides with Trump Administration on ‘Remain in Mexico’

3Following a Protest, ICE Moves Asylum-Seekers For the Second Time in Two Weeks

4Trump’s Wall May Have to Avoid Multiple Historic Cemeteries

5Following a Protest, ICE Transfers Dozens of Asylum Seekers to an Isolated Laredo Facility

6In the Trump Era, Practicing Immigration Law is Like ‘Swimming in Molasses’

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Families of Sick Prisoners Plead for Compassionate Release as Coronavirus Spreads Behind Bars in Texas

2In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives

3Some Texas Officials Want to Divert People from Jail Amid Coronavirus Scare

4Texas Prosecutor Races Offer Competing Visions for Criminal Justice Reform

5Texas Prisons Ban Greeting Cards, Expand Drug-Sniffing Dog Searches to Visitors

6Alec Karakatsanis on the ‘Usual Cruelty’ of the Criminal Justice System

Most Recent in Education:

1Tough Decisions Ahead for School Leaders in Rural Texas

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

3The Creature of Martin Creek Lake Won’t Die

4The Cost of Carve-Outs

5Texas Legislature Improves Suicide Prevention in Schools, but Makes Little Progress for Adults

6Texas House Considers Free College For Students Experiencing Homelessness

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Scientist Peter Hotez on Why Vaccine Development is ‘Critical to the Security of Our Nation’

2COVID-19 Could Be a ‘Double Whammy’ for Those in Pollution Hotspots

3Abortion Clinics in Texas Rely on Traveling Doctors. Coronavirus is Keeping Some of Them Home.

4The COVID-19 Crisis Points the Way Toward a Better Texas

510 Ways to Help Your Fellow Texans Endure the Coronavirus Pandemic

6Some Texas Officials Want to Divert People from Jail Amid Coronavirus Scare

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:

1A New Book on the Sutherland Springs Shooting Explores Resilience, Forgiveness, and Grace

2‘Trust Me’ Tackles Politics, Power, and Perception

3In a New West Texas Novel, Women Kick Ass and Take Names

413 Small Texas Presses to Read Right Now

5How Christian Nationalism Moved from the Fringe to the White House

6In ‘Barn 8,’ an Unsparing Look at the Industrial Chicken Industry

Most Recent in Features:

1San Antonio Embraces Mandaean Refugees

2The Ghosts of Jefferson

3Little Arthouse on the Prairie

4The Clothes that Make the Man

5Washington Crossing the Rio Grande

6Ghosts of the Baker Hotel

Most Recent in Essay:

1In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives

2Loneliness in the Age of Coronavirus

3‘Cheer’ Takes an Overlooked Sport Off the Sidelines

4Governor Abbott’s Campaign Against the Homeless Isn’t Just Cruel—It’s Dangerous

5Why a Small Offense Shouldn’t Have Life-Altering Consequence

6Why I Started a Book Club in the Harris County Jail

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

Urban Cowgirl

Despair in Fashion

by Ruth Pennebaker | Tue, Jul 5, 2011 at 16:08 CST

Edsel U.

by Ruth Pennebaker

Tue, Jun 7, 2011

Using a car analogy, [University of Texas System Board of Regents Chairman Gene Powell] said a $10,000 degree would be more like a Chevrolet Bel Air, a midlevel...Read More

Shut My Mouth

Since when did "uterus" become an offensive term—especially when you're talking about regulating abortion?

by Ruth Pennebaker

Wed, May 11, 2011

In the immortal words of the great Tammy Wynette, sometimes it’s hard to be a woman. Anyway, that’s the tune I’ve been humming — “Stand by Your Man,�...Read More

Bringing Up Baby

by Ruth Pennebaker

Wed, Mar 30, 2011

On a wintry day in February, I went to the Texas Senate to hear citizens and medical and legal experts testify about the sonogram bill. You know, the bill we’...Read More

What’s in a Nombre?

by Ruth Pennebaker

Tue, Mar 1, 2011

All you have to do is move and you get this question 600 times a day: “What’s your new address?” Funny they—the friends, the bankers, the credit-card ca...Read More

Home Soul

by Ruth Pennebaker

Tue, Feb 1, 2011

We’ve lived in our house in West Austin for almost 14 years—the longest we’ve ever lived anywhere. Our kids finished school here, brooding and backtalking...Read More

One Texan’s Xmas List

by Ruth Pennebaker

Mon, Dec 20, 2010

I’ve finally learned that you have to ask for what you want in this life. I know, I know—getting what you want is another matter. But it’s been a hard yea...Read More

Bloody Bloody Tea Party

by Ruth Pennebaker

Tue, Nov 23, 2010

When I wasn’t working on a migraine, when I wasn’t despondent about the future of the world, when I was feeling halfway brave, I occasionally tuned in to TV...Read More

What’s Remarkable is How Serious It Was

Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity

by Ruth Pennebaker

Mon, Nov 1, 2010

My husband and I were two of the hundreds of thousands who showed up for the Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington, D.C. Saturday. It was one of those per...Read More

The Textbook Plot

by Ruth Pennebaker

Tue, Oct 26, 2010

The State Board of Education today instructed publishers to curtail positive coverage of Islam and include more favorable treatment of Christianity in future wo...Read More

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