Most Recent in Texas Politics:

12021 Texas Lege in Review: Red Meat, Broken Promises, and More of the Same Old Shit

2The Unlikely Demise of Texas’ Biggest Corporate Tax Break

3Again, Texas Republicans Fail to Gut Local Labor Protections

4With a Special Session on Voting Restrictions Looming, Texas Dems Push for Federal Protections

5The Lege This Week: Bitterness and Brinkmanship

6Texas Educators Worry Bill Limiting the Teaching of Current Events and Historic Racism Would “Whitewash History”

Most Recent in Environment:

1The Unlikely Demise of Texas’ Biggest Corporate Tax Break

2How the Alabama-Coushatta Use Fire to Save the Longleaf Pine

3La Niña Brings Wildfires

4Robert Bullard Isn’t Done Yet

5ERCOT Asked Texans to Conserve Power as Electric Grid Again Struggled to Keep Up with Demand

6One Researcher’s Quest to Quantify the Environmental Cost of Abandoned Oil Wells

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:

1An Irreversible Sentence

2Yet Again, Texas Lawmakers Face Crisis Conditions in Texas Prisons

3Armed With Lessons From a Dallas Serial Killer, Families Push for Reforms in Texas Law

4How Flawed Death Investigations Can Leave Texas COVID-19 Deaths Uncounted

5Editorial: Defund the Constables

6Uninvestigated, Uncounted: How Justices of the Peace Miss Important Clues in Death Investigations

Most Recent in Education:

1The Unlikely Demise of Texas’ Biggest Corporate Tax Break

2Texas Educators Worry Bill Limiting the Teaching of Current Events and Historic Racism Would “Whitewash History”

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

4The Long, Winding Road that Led to the SBOE’s Decision for Texas Schools to Teach Abstinence-Plus Sex Education

5Efforts to Save What’s Left of Mary Allen Seminary Reveal The Challenges of Preserving Black Placemaking in Texas

6Texas Has the Widest Digital Divide in the Nation. What Does that Mean for the School Year?

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

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

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

4Jung Young Moon’s Strange Novels Cross Continents

5Writer Rick Bass Fights for 20 Grizzly Bears

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

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:

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

The Picture Show

by Patrick Michels

WTF Friday: Primaries and Other Scams

Fri, Feb 28, 2014 |

The frantic last week before Tuesday's primary election has been a truly rich pageant of WTF in Texas politics. Just this morning Barry Smitherman promised to f...Read More

Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra hold their trophies tight in 4 for Texas.

by Josh Rosenblatt

The Texas Misstep

Tue, Sep 24, 2013 |

4 for Texas proves that no one knew how to ruin a good thing better than the Rat Pack....Read More

Ben Affleck and Javier Bardem in To the Wonder.

by Josh Rosenblatt

When Wonders Cease

Thu, Aug 15, 2013 |

The trappings of the Malick aesthetic felt less like an artist searching for meaning than the habits of an established master with nothing new to say....Read More

Scenes from Byrd: The Life and Tragic Death of James Byrd Jr.

by Josh Rosenblatt

Long Road Out of Jasper: A Documentary Chronicles James Byrd Jr.’s Life and Tragic Death

Thu, Jul 25, 2013 |

The fact that Byrd's producers are unwilling to screen the film in its subject's hometown, fearing racist backlash, may be proof enough of its importance. ...Read More

Matthew McConaughey and Tye Sheridan star in Jeff Nichols’ Mud.

by Josh Rosenblatt

Matthew McConaughey Finds Meaning In Taking Off His Shirt In Jeff Nichols’ Mud

Wed, Jun 19, 2013 |

At last, Matthew McConaughey has found a movie that makes taking off his shirt meaningful....Read More

Keith Poulson and Jess Weixler in Somebody Up There Likes Me

by Josh Rosenblatt

Life Or Nothing Like It

Mon, May 13, 2013 |

Byington’s latest employs a rigid devotion to deadpan, keeping the story’s humanity at a safe and manageable distance, locked behind walls of dispassion....Read More

Rachel McAdams and Ben Affleck in To the Wonder.

by Josh Rosenblatt

What’s the Frequency, Terrence? Malick Returns With To the Wonder

Tue, Apr 9, 2013 |

Maybe it’s best after all that Malick wait years between movies....Read More

Portrait of Wally

by Josh Rosenblatt

Portrait of Wally Recounts Sordid History of Egon Schiele’s Painting of his Muse

Thu, Nov 15, 2012 |

Schiele painted “Portrait of Wally” in 1912. In it, the artist’s mistress and muse, Valerie “Wally” Neuzil, is clothed nearly to her chin in a garment...Read More

Friedkin Continues Career Dive

by Josh Rosenblatt

Tue, Jul 31, 2012

After the one-two punch of The French Connection and The Exorcist in the early 1970s, William Friedkin was on top of the world. The writer/director was right up...Read More

Amped-Up Imposter Could Use More Vérité

by Josh Rosenblatt

Mon, Jul 9, 2012

For nearly 60 years Albert Maysles has been the face of the Direct Cinema movement, whose followers believe that non-interventionist observation is the key to d...Read More

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