Topics
In San Antonio, a Landmark Art Exhibit Celebrates Gender Identity and Community
Meet the ‘Abortion Abolitionists’ Shaping Policy in the Texas GOP
The most extreme anti-abortion group in the state has gained momentum this year, growing to nearly 90,000 members since the beginning of 2019.
With the far right ascendant in Texas politics, once-marginal ideas and people have found a place in the political mainstream. Our recurring Fringe Factor serie...Read More
From Crystal City to Carrizo Springs, When Will We Stop Locking Up Kids?
Crystal City, Texas, was home to the nation’s largest detention camp during World War II. Now a camp for migrant teens has opened just a few miles away.
Within a 10-foot tall barbed wire fence and between guard towers, armed immigration officers patrolled children in custody. The president declared the children ...Read More
Where the Bodies are Buried
In 1910, East Texas saw one of America’s deadliest post-Reconstruction racial purges. One survivor’s descendants have waged an uphill battle for generations to unearth that violent past.
In 1910, East Texas saw one of America’s deadliest post-Reconstruction racial purges. One survivor’s descendants have waged an uphill battle for generations...Read More
Loon Star: The Huddled Masses
To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section, or find Observer political reporting here....Read More
Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston
Chris Qualls, 39, works as a deckhand on Ed Machaceh’s oyster boat off the coast of Palacios. I photographed him as part of a project on the Gulf of Mexico’...Read More
Mosquitoes Are Bad. So Are the Chemicals Some Texas Cities Are Using to Kill Them.
As an impressively wet Texas spring turns into summer, mosquitoes are coming to a neighborhood near you. Cities aim to eradicate the pesky insects, but at what cost?
Mosquitoes suck. And with all the rain that’s inundated Texas this year — many parts of the state have blown past their average rainfall amounts — mosquit...Read More
Book Review: Scapegoating the Media Ignores Other Major Problems in American Politics
Yes, the news industry helped get Trump elected — but not to the extent that Nolan Higdon and Mickey Huff argue in their new book, United States of Distraction.
In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, the American news media was the subject of much well-deserved criticism. A report from Harvard’s Shorenstein Ce...Read More
How Julián Castro’s ‘Decade of Downtown’ Reshaped San Antonio
The presidential hopeful has branded himself as an affordable housing visionary. But his record in San Antonio on this issue is more complicated.
In January 2010, eight months into his job as mayor, Julián Castro delivered his vision for San Antonio to the city’s business and political elites. Inside a...Read More
Power Steering
The most interesting story in American politics in the coming year isn’t in Iowa, but on the outskirts of Houston and Dallas.
For years, the question asked of Texas politics has been whether or not the state would “turn blue” during a presidential election or high-profile statewide...Read More