Most Recent in Texas Politics:

1For Greg Abbott, All the Border’s a Stage

2How Far Can Texas Democrats Take the Quorum Break?

3After Kelcy Warren’s Energy Transfer Partners Made Billions from the Deadly Texas Blackouts, He Gave $1 Million to Greg Abbott

4Texas House Republicans Vote to Track Down Absent Democrats and Arrest Them If Necessary

5Greg Abbott’s Summer Special Session Sideshow

6Texans With Disabilities Fear Voting Will Get Harder for Them as Special Session on GOP Restrictions Nears

Most Recent in Environment:

1In West Texas, Astronomers Worry About Growing Oilfield Light Pollution

2After Kelcy Warren’s Energy Transfer Partners Made Billions from the Deadly Texas Blackouts, He Gave $1 Million to Greg Abbott

3Communities of Color in Houston Will Face Another Hurricane Season Without Adequate Flood Control

4“People Are Wiped Out”: Costs Pile Up as Hurricane Season Begins

5In the Drill Zone, Children’s Health Is Looking Bleak

6The Unlikely Demise of Texas’ Biggest Corporate Tax Break

Most Recent in Border:

1For Greg Abbott, All the Border’s a Stage

2Moments From the Reopening of Balmorhea Pool

3Undocumented Immigrants Continue to Be Expelled From the U.S. Under Title 42 COVID-19 Measures

4Follow the Money

5Siguiendo La Ruta Del Dinero

6Texas Activists Took Their Fight Against a Natural Gas Project Abroad—And They’re Winning

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1In Memory of Santos Rodriguez

2Home, But Not Free: NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner Adjusts to Her Release From Prison

3A Wrongful Execution in Texas Points to the Fallibility of the Death Penalty

4Mentally Ill and Sentenced to Death

5An Irreversible Sentence

6Yet Again, Texas Lawmakers Face Crisis Conditions in Texas Prisons

Most Recent in Education:

1Resignation Letter

2The Unlikely Demise of Texas’ Biggest Corporate Tax Break

3Texas Educators Worry Bill Limiting the Teaching of Current Events and Historic Racism Would “Whitewash History”

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

5The Long, Winding Road that Led to the SBOE’s Decision for Texas Schools to Teach Abstinence-Plus Sex Education

6Efforts to Save What’s Left of Mary Allen Seminary Reveal The Challenges of Preserving Black Placemaking in Texas

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Texas Veterans Homes Overseen by George P. Bush Were Often the Deadliest Places to Be During COVID-19 Pandemic

2The People’s Scientist

3Profit Before Patient

4Texas Expands Access to Medical Cannabis—But Advocates Say It’s Not Enough

5In the Drill Zone, Children’s Health Is Looking Bleak

6Editorial: Even ‘Turning Texas Blue’ Won’t Fix Us If We Don’t Face Some Hard Truths

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:

1In ‘Al Norte,’ a Through Line of Transience That Is Still True Today

2A Feminist Rewrite of Lot

3‘Forget the Alamo’ Unravels a Texas History Made of Myths, or Rather, Lies

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

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

6Jung Young Moon’s Strange Novels Cross Continents

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:

1An Irreversible Sentence

2Editorial: Look Down Ballot for Democratic Wins in Texas

3What the Black Lives Matter Protests Mean for East Texas

4Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

5What’s a Bookstore for?

6Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

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:

1Poem: ‘Late Night at the Lege’

2‘My Cousin Dies, Like a Deer, On the Side of the Road’

3Poet Claudia Delfina Cardona on Her Debut Poetry Chapbook

4Author Saeed Jones on Empathy, the Power of Memoir, and Growing up Gay in North Texas

5Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

6Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

Articles tagged: state parks

by Sarah Vasquez

Moments From the Reopening of Balmorhea Pool

The popular West Texas swimming spot has been closed since 2019 for repairs.

Mon, Jul 5, 2021 |

Moments From the Reopening of Balmorhea Pool The popular West Texas swimming spot has been closed since 2019 for repairs. . Story and Photography by Sarah M. Va...Read More

san solomon springs

by Joe Nick Patoski

‘All it Took was 25 Years’: Legislature Ponies Up Cash for Underfunded Texas Parks

After two decades of looting state park funding, lawmakers appropriated nearly $350 million this session, greenlit development of a new state park and gave voters a chance to maintain a long-term source.

Tue, Jun 11, 2019 |

Texas state parks have been a convenient piggy bank for the Legislature whenever money was short elsewhere, but this session they got their due. Lawmakers put m...Read More

by Christopher Collins

Texas State Park Could Close as Vistra Energy Seeks to Sell Land Near Shuttered Power Plant

For decades, the energy company has leased to the state the property on which Fairfield Lake State Park sits. But there’s no guarantee the new buyer will do the same.

Wed, Feb 20, 2019 |

For decades, Fairfield Lake State Park has been a fixture of family life for Brenda Pate. She’s spent countless hours at the park, an expanse of timber, trail...Read More

parks, enchanted rock

by Joe Nick Patoski

Is Texas’ Overcrowded, Underfunded State Parks System Being Loved to Death?

Texans love their state parks. But our state's public lands are overcrowded and rapidly deteriorating. Maybe it's time to take the long view.

Mon, Dec 17, 2018 |

by Joe Nick Patoski December 17, 2018 In July, on a 100-degree day in the desert, 562 miles west of Houston, I stood on the concrete bank of the San Solomon...Read More

by Emily Mathis

A Permanent Solution for the Ailing Texas Parks System?

Mon, Mar 4, 2013 |

Those who enjoy the natural benefits of Texas state parks (which is to say, most self-respecting Texans) had ample reason to pay close attention today as a Hous...Read More

Top