Politics
A ‘Stay-at-Home’ Order by Any Other Name
What the GOP’s Big Win in Fort Bend County Means for 2020
The special election runoff rout is a sobering reminder for Democrats that the GOP still dominates much of Texas. But it wasn’t the 2020 death knell that Republicans have made it out to be.
Democrats wanted to send a message in the Texas House District 28 special election runoff. A strong performance by Democrat Eliz Markowitz in Fort Bend County...Read More
Controversial Anti-Abortion Activist Wants a Guarantee Her New Group Will be Eligible for Title X Funding Next Year
The argument from Heidi Group founder Carol Everett has “no logical limit,” wrote government attorneys in a recent court filing.
Heidi Group founder and anti-abortion activist Carol Everett is battling the federal government over the future of federal family planning funding. In a lawsuit...Read More
He May Not Be a Candidate, but Beto O’Rourke is Rebuilding His Texas Organizing Machine for 2020
O’Rourke’s 2018 Senate campaign was fueled by an organizing network of 20,000 volunteers. Can he harness that energy again without being on the ticket?
Beto O’Rourke began 2019 as a political phenom, but ended it as an also-ran. The much-hyped former U.S. representative from El Paso initially rode a wave of o...Read More
Trump Harvests Support in America’s Farmlands
At a farm convention in Austin, the nation’s agriculture sector warmly welcomed a president who has hurt them in the past.
Donald Trump flew down to Austin on Sunday evening to commune with the sunburned, work-weary farmers and ranchers who comprise one of his most prized voting blo...Read More
As Fossil Fuel Industry Invests Billions in New Texas Facilities, it Could Unleash a Huge Emissions Bomb
A new report finds that a pipeline of new and proposed oil and gas projects—many of them in Texas—could produce half a billion tons of additional greenhouse gas emissions a year.
A hulking new $10 billion ethane cracker near Corpus Christi set for completion by 2022. A trio of approved liquified natural gas export terminals near Brownsvi...Read More
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
