Politics
As Fossil Fuel Industry Invests Billions in New Texas Facilities, it Could Unleash a Huge Emissions Bomb
Loon Star: The Governor Shows His Concern for the Homeless
To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section, or find Observer political reporting here....Read More
The Internet Broke Democracy. To Fix It, Design for Human Rights.
Author Samuel Woolley argues that a slew of new technologies will further degrade political life unless we rein them in.
In 2013, when Samuel Woolley began studying online misinformation as a graduate student at the University of Washington, hardly anyone was worried about the sub...Read More
Ken Paxton Says New Anti-Abortion Law Bars State Employees from Donating to Planned Parenthood
Advocates warn that the attorney general’s new opinion indicates how far efforts to implement a vague new law could go.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says state employees can no longer make payroll donations to Planned Parenthood under a new state law that bans abortion provi...Read More
Hemp Snafu Offers Texas Cities a Way to Decriminalize Marijuana
Austin leaders will consider a proposal to effectively end enforcement of misdemeanor pot possession.
Last year, police groups killed marijuana reform in Texas, which both political parties now support, with a Reefer Madness-style misinformation campaign. But a ...Read More
The Return of Karl Rove
Political strategist and pundit Karl Rove was an architect of the GOP takeover of Texas in the 1980s. Now, he's come home to ensure Trump doesn't unravel his legacy.
Former Dallas Morning News political journalist Wayne Slater remembers the moment well. He was sitting at a sports bar near downtown Austin one day in the late ...Read More
Questions About Politics in 2020 That Aren’t ‘Will Texas Turn Blue?’
Democrats and Republicans are gearing up for a clash in Texas. Here’s the context you need to understand the coming year in politics.
As we head into 2020, brace yourself for an onslaught of headlines from national media posing a reductive question: “Will Texas Turn Blue?” It’s become so...Read More
Julián Castro’s Bid May Be Over, But His Influence on the Presidential Race Will Continue
The son of San Antonio’s presidential campaign never quite took off, but he still left an indelible impression.
Nearly one year ago, Julián Castro stood before a crowd of supporters on San Antonio’s West Side—just blocks from where he grew up—and announced his pres...Read More
5 Stories About Rural Texas You May Have Missed in 2019
A view into the weird, sad, and sometimes funny world of rural Texas.
Once again, we’ve completed another excruciatingly slow journey from one December to the next, exhausted and unrewarded for our trouble. Let’s take stock of...Read More
The EPA Faces Lawsuit Over Slaughterhouse Pollution in Waterways
The Environmental Integrity Project and other advocates are suing the EPA for failing to update wastewater pollution standards for meat processing facilities for 15 years straight.
The Trump administration has taken another hard jab at protections for the nation’s rivers and lakes—and a broad coalition of advocates is swinging right ba...Read More
