Texas Has a Water Shortage and a Water Glut. They’re the Same Problem.
Every day the Permian Basin brings up more water than nearby communities use, and treats most of it as waste. The state can no longer afford to do so.
Rural Texas
After Abortion Ban, Texas Teen Birth Rate Rises
The increase reverses a 15-year trend. And unwanted pregnancies will rise, researchers predict.
Border Angels and Magic Moments
A professor and a journalist report from the communities along the U.S.-Mexico border in a new book.
The Texas Observer Lives!
After a terrifying near-death experience, we live to muckrake another day.
Senator Kel Seliger Becomes the First Victim of Redistricting in Texas
The Republican lawmaker has chosen not to run for re-election in District 31, which has been redrawn to benefit more conservative candidates.
‘On the Porch’ Celebrates Terlingua and Its Residents
Deep in a mountainous landscape, West Texas-born musician W. Chase Peeler stumbles upon a gold mine of music makers who prefer life off the grid.
Rural Voters Stepped on the Gas for Trump Across the Texas Oil Patch
Even in Democratic strongholds, some voters in the state’s vast shale plays were afraid of Joe Biden’s energy platform.
A West Texas Nursing Home Sent Its COVID-Positive Residents Elsewhere. Now Two of Them Are Dead.
Texas allows nursing homes to voluntarily accept COVID-positive patients from hospitals and other nursing homes. But there are no additional safeguards for the people sent there, and some of the facilities have a history of breaking rules.
How Texas Lawmakers and Industry Have Weakened Citizens’ Rights to Fight Pollution
At the behest of the industry, legislators have chipped away at the environmental permitting process in Texas, stacking the deck against concerned people protesting industrial projects.
COVID-19 Has Infected Workers at a Tyson Beef Plant in Amarillo, Employees Say
The infections are the latest in the surge of coronavirus cases at Texas meatpacking plants and in the Panhandle.