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 ducto del coronavirus

2The Coronavirus Pipeline

3El Paso Remembered

4Back to the Wall

5Between Borders

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:

1El ducto del coronavirus

2The Coronavirus Pipeline

3One of Texas’ Biggest Nursing Home Operators Beset By COVID-19 Cases and Deaths

4Telehealth Could be Great, if Texans Had Access to It

5Texas Nursing Home Residents Were Already at Risk. Then COVID-19 Hit.

6Neglected in Care

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:

1Improbable, Prophetic Houston

2Announcing the 2020 Insider Prize Winners

3‘A Saint From Texas’ Gets the Lone Star State Right

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

5In ‘Crooked Hallelujah,’ Kelli Jo Ford Explores How Pain is Passed Down Through Families

6In ‘Separated,’ One Journalist’s Close-up View of the Family Separation Crisis

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

Articles tagged: Brian Birdwell

marijuana, texas, legalize

by Vicky Camarillo

Texas Legislature Set to (Slightly) Expand Medical Marijuana Access

Only Texans with intractable epilepsy can currently use medical cannabis. As new legislation heading toward the governor’s desk adds a few more conditions to the list, advocates wish lawmakers had gone further and Republicans fret about a "slippery slope."

Thu, May 23, 2019 |

It wasn’t the wide-ranging medical cannabis bill that Democrats and marijuana advocates wanted. But patients with terminal cancer, autism, neurodegenerative d...Read More

Jack Finger

Proposed GOP Platform Calls for Trans Bathroom Ban, Constitutional Convention

A secession plank didn't make it into the document, but could make a reappearance on the floor Friday.

Fri, May 13, 2016 |

The GOP's running with Gov. Greg Abbott's call for a constitutional convention, and has doubled down on anti-LGBTQ planks in this year's proposed platform....Read More

by Kelsey Jukam

Senate Brings Texas One Step Closer to Open Carry

Mon, May 18, 2015 |

A day after nine people died in a massive shootout in Waco, a Senate committee approved a bill legalizing the open carry of handguns....Read More

Kristen Katz and Julie Gavran

by Kelsey Jukam

Gun Control Activists Fight to be Heard at Capitol

Opponents of open carry and campus carry say their access to lawmakers has sometimes been limited, even as the most extreme gun activists get meetings with top elected officials.

Wed, Mar 11, 2015 |

Opponents of open carry and campus carry say their access to lawmakers has sometimes been limited, even as the most extreme gun activists get meetings with top ...Read More

WTF Friday: Soldiers of God, Frats of Fury, Snake Assault

Fri, Feb 13, 2015 |

In this week's WTF Friday: Brian Birdwell, gangster rapper. Did Jesus open carry? A theological meditation. Snakes. Frats. The war of Northern Aggression....Read More

by Christopher Hooks and Kelsey Jukam

Open Carry, Campus Carry Pass Their First Test

Thu, Feb 12, 2015 |

Bills to allow Texans to carry guns on college campuses, and unconcealed handguns in public, passed out of a Senate committee today....Read More

Van de Putte Treated to Compliments, Awkward Jokes as Senate’s New President Pro Tem

by Olivia Messer

Tue, Jan 8, 2013

Zaffirini's nomination roast continued with a nod to Van de Putte's 12 kids and grandchildren gathered around her desk. "I'm not sure when she became an advocat...Read More

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