Most Recent in Texas Politics:

1The Lege This Week: For Whom the Bill Tolls

2The Lege This Week: Lurching Rightward

3In Gainesville, the Past Is Repeating Itself

4The Lege This Week: The Capitol’s Longstanding Toxic Culture

5Mayoral Candidate Lily Bao Wants to Make Plano Great Again

6The Lege This Week: Texas House Passes Budget, Republicans Again Reject Medicaid Expansion

Most Recent in Environment:

1La Niña Brings Wildfires

2Robert Bullard Isn’t Done Yet

3ERCOT Asked Texans to Conserve Power as Electric Grid Again Struggled to Keep Up with Demand

4One Researcher’s Quest to Quantify the Environmental Cost of Abandoned Oil Wells

5Waves of Abandonment

6‘No Teeth and No Funding’: How Regulators Failed to Police the Oil Industry

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:

1Armed With Lessons From a Dallas Serial Killer, Families Push for Reforms in Texas Law

2How Flawed Death Investigations Can Leave Texas COVID-19 Deaths Uncounted

3Editorial: Defund the Constables

4Uninvestigated, Uncounted: How Justices of the Peace Miss Important Clues in Death Investigations

5Clogged Toilets, Snow Inside: How the Winter Storm Exacerbated Problems in Texas Lock-Ups

Most Recent in Education:

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

2The Long, Winding Road that Led to the SBOE’s Decision for Texas Schools to Teach Abstinence-Plus Sex Education

3Efforts to Save What’s Left of Mary Allen Seminary Reveal The Challenges of Preserving Black Placemaking in Texas

4Texas Has the Widest Digital Divide in the Nation. What Does that Mean for the School Year?

5The New Ensemble

6Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

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

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

3Jung Young Moon’s Strange Novels Cross Continents

4Writer Rick Bass Fights for 20 Grizzly Bears

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

6Lady Bird Johnson Was About More Than Wildflowers

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:

1Editorial: Look Down Ballot for Democratic Wins in Texas

2What the Black Lives Matter Protests Mean for East Texas

3Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

4What’s a Bookstore for?

5Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

6In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives

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

Articles tagged: coal mining

Freeport LNG plant in Quintana.

by Naveena Sadasivam

The Five Foulest Texas Environmental Stories of 2016

Lowlights include failing to track chemical spills during floods and rejecting the link between earthquakes and fracking.

Tue, Dec 20, 2016 |

Thanks to investigative reporting, this year we learned of new ways the powerful in this state are messing with Texas. From failing to oversee toxic waste injec...Read More

by Naveena Sadasivam

Green Groups Urge Lawmakers: Don’t Leave Taxpayers on the Hook for Coal Cleanup

Tue, Aug 23, 2016 |

Following an Observer investigation into loose coal regulations that could put taxpayers on the hook for mine cleanup, green groups are demanding change....Read More

by Naveena Sadasivam

Mine Games

With little more than a promise, the Texas Railroad Commission is trusting a struggling coal industry to pay for the cost of cleaning up old mines.

Thu, Aug 18, 2016 |

In mid-2014, Texas’ biggest utility, Energy Future Holdings, was about to file for bankruptcy, and Texas regulators suddenly had a big problem on their hands...Read More

Luis Martinez, a Maverick County resident who opposes the Dos Republicas mine, speaks out against the TCEQ's decision to grant the mine a wastewater permit Wednesday. Nearby Elm Creek runs through Martinez's property.

by Naveena Sadasivam

TCEQ: Contested Coal Mine Can Release Wastewater Into Drinking Supply

Locals called the environmental regulators' decision ‘unconscionable.’

Wed, Jul 6, 2016 |

Locals called the TCEQ's decision "unconscionable," saying that wastewater from the mine will pollute drinking water for Maverick County residents....Read More

Bobby Inman Blames the Unions

by Forrest Wilder

Mon, Apr 19, 2010

Updated below Bobby Ray Inman now seems to be blaming labor unions for the West Virginia mining disaster that killed 29 people at the non-union Upper Big Branch...Read More

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