West - The Texas Observer

Most Recent in Politics:

1Six Things to Watch in Texas’ 2018 Runoff Election

2The Resistance has a Runoff in the Houston Suburbs

3Bunni Pounds Emerged from the Political Money Swamp to Run for Congress

4Texas Has the Most Cities More than 100 Miles from an Abortion Clinic, Study Finds

5How ‘Hostile Design’ Hides in Plain Sight in Austin

6Meet Farris Wilks, Kingmaker of the Texas GOP

Most Recent in Environment:

1Austin’s on the Wrong Side of the 100th Meridian

2Unpublished Federal Report Projects Bleak Future for Central Texas Mussels and Rivers

3In Washington, D.C., Republicans are Writing the Recipe for a Smoldering Panhandle

4Despite Trump, Water Agency Fosters Cross-Border Cooperation Between U.S. and Mexico

5Trump’s Border Wall Lands Rio Grande on List of Nation’s Most Endangered Rivers

6Alleging ‘Environmental Racism,’ El Paso Activists File Civil Rights Complaint Against School District

Most Recent in Border:

1ICE Issues More Detainers in Texas, Withholds Crucial Data

2In Presidio, a New Public Art Project Crosses Borders

3Trump’s Border Wall Lands Rio Grande on List of Nation’s Most Endangered Rivers

4Militarization of Texas-Mexico Border a Sign of Complacency, but Not From Border Residents

5Elecciones presidenciales en México. ¿Finalmente puede ganar la izquierda?

6Will Mexico Elect its First Leftist President Since 1934?

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Ahead of Mother’s Day, Activists Bail Out Young Black Moms Across Texas

2A Catch-22 in the Crimmigration System in Harris County

3Lawyers Seek to Reform ‘Ethical Minefield’ of Public Defender’s Office Controlled by Texas Prison System

4Women in Texas Prisons Denied Same Academic, Job Training Opportunities as Incarcerated Men

5Galveston Lawsuit Is Writing on the Wall for Other Counties that Haven’t Ended ‘Wealth-Based Detention’

6Bail Lawsuit Accuses Dallas County of Violating Poor People’s Rights in Secret Hearings

Most Recent in Education:

1SMU Just Lost Its Independent Student Newspaper. Is Your College Next?

2Lawsuit: Texas Art Teacher Suspended Because She Told Students About Her Wife

3Texas Teachers ‘Blow the Whistle’ After Conservatives Accuse Them of (Gasp!) Getting out the Vote

4Nazis Go To School

5‘I Would Have to Drop Out’: 200 Texas Grad Students Walk Out to Protest GOP Tax Bill

6Homelessness in Texas Public Schools is a Suburban and Rural Problem, Too

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Texas Has the Most Cities More than 100 Miles from an Abortion Clinic, Study Finds

2Trump Administration Orders Refugee Shelters to Direct Pregnant Teens to Anti-Abortion Clinics

3Lawmaker: State Metric for Success of Women’s Health Program is ‘Totally Misleading’

4‘Heart-Wrenching, Gut-Wrenching’: How Child Therapy Providers Deal with State Budget Cuts

6What’s Going on with Texas’ Maternal Mortality Rate?

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Meet Nueces County’s New DA, a Self-Professed ‘Mexican Biker Lawyer Covered in Tattoos’

2The Interview: Joaquin Castro Says Texas Democrats are Poised for a Comeback

3The Interview: Beto O’Rourke on Trump, the Border and How to Revive the Democratic Party

4The Interview: Tom ‘Smitty’ Smith

5The Interview: Lupe Valdez

6The Interview: Paul Quinn College’s Michael Sorrell

Most Recent in Books:

1A Masterful New History Explores the Contradictions and Complexities of Ciudad Juárez

2The Ghosts of Abandoned Texas Buildings Rise Up in an Eerie New Photo Book

3Troubled Waters: New Book Plunges into Texas’ Convoluted Water Law

4How a Texas Author Learned to Love Cockroaches (and Other Tales of Off-Putting Creatures)

5Jorge Ramos’ New Book, ‘Stranger,’ is a Journalist’s Manifesto

6On Giant’s Shoulders: New Cinema History Dissects Texas Tropes

Most Recent in Postcards:

1The Time-Traveler’s Guide to the Lower Pecos

4Field Notes from Santa Ana

5The King of Pulp

6Ride Like a Girl

Most Recent in Essay:

1I Grew Up on the Texas-Mexico Border, but Now I Barely Recognize It

2Somewhere It Hides a Well

3Drinking the Kool-Aid at the Garden of Eden

4The Road to Huntsville

5The Impossible City

6Dear Governor Abbott: The ‘Bathroom Bill’ Endangers Trans Texans Like My Son

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Gentrification in East Austin

2Eye on Texas: Transgender Youth in Texas

3Eye On Texas: Hurricane Harvey

4Eye on Texas: Fantastical Taxidermy

5Eye on Texas: Runners Take on 170-Mile Race in Big Bend

6Eye on Texas: Liberty Hill Hosts Texas Firearms Festival

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

2Parallel Planes

4Poem: ‘Resistance’

5Poem: ‘Screenplay for a Homemade Movie’

6Poem: ‘To Be One with the All’

Tag Archives: West

by Priscila Mosqueda

Report: Firefighter Deaths at West Fertilizer Plant Disaster Could Have Been Prevented

Fri, May 16, 2014 |

The State Fire Marhsal's Office reports that the deaths of 10 volunteer firefighters who perished in the West fertilizer plant disaster in April 2013 were preve...Read More

Members of the West Volunteer Fire Department proceed to a memorial in Waco on April 25, 2013, for victims of the West explosion.

by Jonathan McNamara

Observer Radio Episode 54: Lingering Questions From West, Texas

Fri, Apr 18, 2014 |

We discuss the one-year anniversary of the West fertilizer plant disaster and what is being done (and not done) to prevent it from happening again....Read More

by Jonathan McNamara

Recovery: West, Texas Rebuilds

Thu, Apr 17, 2014 |

Today is the one-year anniversary of the fertilizer plant explosion in the small town of West, Texas, which killed 15 people and injured an estimated 300....Read More

by Priscila Mosqueda

Hero Complex

Last year was the deadliest on record for Texas firefighters. Can dampening a culture of heroism keep them safer?

Tue, Apr 1, 2014 |

Last year was the deadliest on record for Texas firefighters. Can dampening a culture of heroism keep them safer?...Read More

by Forrest Wilder

Inspections Show Texas Fertilizer Plants Still Vulnerable

Thu, Feb 27, 2014 |

Nearly a year after the West fertilizer plant explosion, holes in the system that allowed it to happen in the first place have not been addressed. ...Read More

Duke

by Alex Hannaford

Rescue Dogs: The Canines and Their Handlers Who Search the Aftermath of Catastrophe

Fri, Sep 20, 2013 |

Texas Task Force II currently has four dog handlers. Five more, currently in training, will join the team later this year. All are taught to find survivors. ...Read More

by Priscila Mosqueda and Forrest Wilder

State Agencies Meet Resistance in Policing Fertilizer Industry

Mon, Aug 26, 2013 |

In the aftermath of the West, Texas fertilizer disaster, state agencies meet resistance from other fertilizer facilities....Read More

by Forrest Wilder

The Lessons from West

Mon, Aug 19, 2013 |

I think it’s clear that West wasn’t an unavoidable act of God. It was a man-made industrial crime....Read More

by Forrest Wilder

Conservative Think Tanker Proposes Tax Cuts to Pay for West Disaster

Fri, Aug 2, 2013 |

Texas Public Policy Foundation deep thinker John Davidson proposes tax cuts for businesses to help West, Texas recover from the April fertilizer explosion....Read More

Top