Most Recent in Politics:

1The New U.S. Food Safety Czar is a Texas Researcher with Close Ties to the Meat Industry

2Texas Republicans’ Pandemic Performance Is True to Form

3Texas Democratic and Republican Parties Spar Over How to Hold Elections During a Pandemic

4How The Coronavirus Pandemic Exposed Abbott’s Hypocrisy On Local Control

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

6With Paid Leave Policies, Texas Cities Tried to Prepare for Coronavirus

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:

1Some Texas Officials Want to Divert People from Jail Amid Coronavirus Scare

2Texas Prosecutor Races Offer Competing Visions for Criminal Justice Reform

3Texas Prisons Ban Greeting Cards, Expand Drug-Sniffing Dog Searches to Visitors

4Alec Karakatsanis on the ‘Usual Cruelty’ of the Criminal Justice System

5Reform Candidates are Trying to Change the Definition of a ‘Progressive Prosecutor’ in Texas

6Jail Deaths in Bexar County Highlight ‘Callous’ Care in Custody

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:

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

2Abortion Clinics in Texas Rely on Traveling Doctors. Coronavirus is Keeping Some of Them Home.

3The COVID-19 Crisis Points the Way Toward a Better Texas

410 Ways to Help Your Fellow Texans Endure the Coronavirus Pandemic

5Some Texas Officials Want to Divert People from Jail Amid Coronavirus Scare

6ACLU Sues East Texas Towns Over ‘Sanctuary City for the Unborn’ Ordinances

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:

1In a New West Texas Novel, Women Kick Ass and Take Names

213 Small Texas Presses to Read Right Now

3How Christian Nationalism Moved from the Fringe to the White House

4In ‘Barn 8,’ an Unsparing Look at the Industrial Chicken Industry

5Gabriel García Márquez and the (Comforting) Case for Embracing Failure

6An Incendiary New Book Reveals How Politics in El Paso Are Rigged

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

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1Loneliness in the Age of Coronavirus

2‘Cheer’ Takes an Overlooked Sport Off the Sidelines

3Governor Abbott’s Campaign Against the Homeless Isn’t Just Cruel—It’s Dangerous

4Why a Small Offense Shouldn’t Have Life-Altering Consequence

5Why I Started a Book Club in the Harris County Jail

6A Chain Reaction

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

Tag Archives: capital punishment

by Forrest Wilder

The 10 Best Observer Stories of 2016: ‘The First Time Texas Killed One of My Clients’

An attorney pieces together a life cut short.

Wed, Dec 21, 2016 |

Editor’s Note: It’s hard to find new ways to write about the death penalty. And in these polarized times, most readers already have their minds made up....Read More

Clayton Lockett

by Maurice Chammah

Why Texas is Also At Risk for a Botched Execution

Thu, May 1, 2014 |

States, including Texas, that execute inmates with lethal injection no longer have the secure sources of drugs they once relied on, and that means the risk of s...Read More

Signs at the Texas Freedom Network's Stand Up for Science rally

by Jonathan McNamara

Observer Podcast Episode 26: Evolution, The Texas Medical Board and The Boy Scouts of America

Fri, Sep 20, 2013 |

In this episode of Observer Radio, staff writer Emily DePrang shares details on a report suggesting capital punishment in Texas needs a major overhaul....Read More

Report: Texas Death Penalty System Needs Top-to-Bottom Reform

Wed, Sep 18, 2013 |

The ABA report makes recommendations on every stage of Texas's capital punishment system. Law enforcement should use model practices when dealing with eyewitnes...Read More

by Priscila Mosqueda

Death Row Inmate Appeals, Cites Report Showing Racial Bias in Harris County

Thu, Mar 14, 2013 |

The study found that from 1992 to 1999, Harris County prosecutors sought the death penalty for African-Americans more than three times as often as they did for ...Read More

Larry Swearingen

by Jonathan McNamara

Observer Podcast Episode 21: Capital Punishment

Wed, Dec 12, 2012 |

In which discuss Alex Hannaford's recent piece about death row inmate Larry Swearingen then dive straight into the current state of capital punishment in Texas....Read More

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