From our magazine: Rural Texas wears a friendly facade. You know everyone, and everyone treats each other so kindly, but, if you’re Black, you just ignore the stares when you walk into the local steakhouse for fish fry night.
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From our magazine: Rural Texas wears a friendly facade. You know everyone, and everyone treats each other so kindly, but, if you’re Black, you just ignore the stares when you walk into the local steakhouse for fish fry night.
From Michelle Pitcher in 2024: “[Connecting with labor organizers] provides folks with that lifeline. There’s somebody watching. There’s somebody out there. It’s not just for the person, but it’s also to signal to the [prison] administration that there’s eyes on this.”
I have a master of public health, but it wasn’t until my grandmother got sick and started researching what assistance was available that I found out exactly how states use Medicaid to essentially steal from families that can’t afford to pay for treatment. They’re almost state-run reverse mortgages.
Thank you so much! 🤠
Featured story, from @liseolsen.bsky.social: The doomed man condemned the system that was about to kill him, saying, “I’m dying tonight based on testimony, that all parties, me, the man who gave the testimony, the prosecutor he used knew it was a lie.”
From @byjustinmiller.bsky.social: These changes could deliver the GOP as many as five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and provide enough political cushion to shield Donald Trump’s administration from electoral accountability and Democratic-led oversight.
From Sergio Chapa in 2023: Given a pace of about three miles per hour, it would take roughly 32 hours to hike the entire trail nonstop. Hiking about eight hours per day means less than a week of hiking and camping. But that’s not the path I chose.
From @byjustinmiller.bsky.social: What began as a demand from on high (i.e. the Trump administration) and sparked a national partisan gerrymandering arms race, has become the new political reality now that Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 4 into law on Friday.
From @juliepoole.bsky.social in 2024: For nearly two decades, the state’s Medicaid Estate Recovery Program has filed repayment claims against Medicaid recipients after they die, threatening the inheritances of vulnerable Texans.
From our magazine: Rural Texas wears a friendly facade. You know everyone, and everyone treats each other so kindly, but, if you’re Black, you just ignore the stares when you walk into the local steakhouse for fish fry night.
Out today: “It is harder for a rural hospital to absorb when somebody without insurance shows up in the ER or needs to be hospitalized. There’s just not much fluff at all left in a rural hospital’s margins to suffer any significant hit to collection.”
Our top story: Julián Castro’s case is symbolic of a broader trend in Texas politics in which Democrats’ leading Hispanic political talent has opted against running for higher office. Who will be the party's next leading candidate?
Editor-in-Chief @gusbova introduces the September/October 2025 issue of our magazine. "As always, I hope you’ll find pleasure, alongside the inevitable indignation, in reading it."
“Reports of mistreatment have been widespread and have included disturbing details of overcrowding, food shortages, lack of adequate medical care, and unsanitary conditions.”
We're very pleased to announce Bellingcat and @texasobserver.org won this award- congratulations to @tristanl.ee and @stevanzetti.bsky.social for their hard work on this series of reporting. The winners of the category 'general excellence in an online newsroom' will be announced in September.
Thank you! 🤠
Home is a state where all my homies share best remedies for sads acquired during our new winter. Acquired from a legislative session where our rights are chopped-n-screwed like songs.
New from @byjustinmiller.bsky.social: After two weeks spent outside state lines, Texas House Democrats ended their quorum break as abruptly as a second special session began. Within days, the GOP scheme to engineer a rare mid-decade redistricting had been rammed through the Texas House and Senate.
From @josephinlee.bsky.social: Many of Jodey Arrington's constituents stand to lose access to both their healthcare and their local hospitals under the bill, which will slash Medicaid and ACA spending by more than $1T and knock 10M more people off of insurance.
From Monday: “What are they hiding, if they will break the law and not let a member of Congress in? What are they hiding if they’ll violate constitutional rights and not let a lawyer in?”
Our top story: In reality, Texas Democrats haven’t actually tested the case of whether a strong Latino candidate can mobilize the state’s largest demographic to win a statewide race.
5 days after the deadliest Texas flood in 104 years, Governor Greg Abbott announced a special legislative session not narrowly focused on the disaster but rather covering a Christmas list of far-right pet political projects. More than 150 human beings were still officially missing.
From our magazine, by Texas Observer cartoonist Ben Sargent. See more from Loon Star State: www.texasobserver.org/topics/loon-...
I'm so honored to have won the Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism small newsroom award alongside @tristanl.ee. I also have to thank @kylebazgo.bsky.social, who was a crucial partner in one of the articles, and our editor @gusbova.bsky.social awards.journalists.org/entries/open...
Just in: @stevanzetti.bsky.social & @tristanl.ee's work on open-source extremist identifications for the @texasobserver.org & @bellingcat.com has won the Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, small newsroom category, from @journalists.org: awards.journalists.org/entries/open...
Editor-in-Chief @gusbova.bsky.social introduces the September/October 2025 issue of our magazine. "As always, I hope you’ll find pleasure, alongside the inevitable indignation, in reading it."
Earlier: He survived the treacherous Darien Gap to come to the U.S. Then ICE agents called him a member of Tren de Aragua. No criminal record, no gang tattoos, he was deported over the sneakers he wore.
Featured story: This man was put to death in 1999 for murders that his co-defendant claimed to have committed without him. A new documentary-in-progress seeks to bring his case to light.
Yesterday, from @josephinele.bsky.social: Between 2005 and 2025, 25 rural hospitals in Texas have closed, the most of any state. 5 of them no longer offer in-patient services. The future of those that remain is uncertain.
Texas Rep. Orchestrated Big Beautiful Cuts That Could Harm Rural Hospitals in His District: Jodey Arrington’s district is home to more rural hospitals than any other in TX; roughly a 1/4 of those are at risk of closing under the new law, a recent study showed. www.texasobserver.org/jodey-arring...
As of late June, 13 people had died in ICE detention this fiscal year—which is the same amount of deaths for the entirety of fiscal year 2024.
From 2023: "We manage to keep our clients alive for months and sometimes years … It’s time that they get to spend with their friends and their family and their loved ones." That time can be life-changing, in unexpected ways.
Join us next month at this special event!
The Texas Legislature is moving forward with replacing the STAAR with three tests, but parents say the high stakes for districts, schools, teachers, and their students will only increase. www.texasobserver.org/texas-legisl...
Out today: “It is harder for a rural hospital to absorb when somebody without insurance shows up in the emergency room or needs to be hospitalized. There’s just not much fluff at all left in a rural hospital’s margins to suffer any significant hit to their collection.”
Featured story: James Beathard was known as an unconventional thinker—an outspoken peacenik who marched in the high school band and sometimes played chess during lunch breaks. So it confounded residents of his East Texas home when Beathard was arrested for capital murder.
New from @Josephinelee.bsky.social: Many of Jodey Arrington's constituents stand to lose access to both their healthcare and their local hospitals under the tax-and-spending bill, which will slash Medicaid and ACA spending by more than $1T and knock 10M more people off of insurance nationwide.
“Reports of mistreatment have been widespread and have included disturbing details of overcrowding, food shortages, lack of adequate medical care, and unsanitary conditions.”
"I was 7 or 8 when I realized I would always be treated differently than my white friends. It was picture day and I was waiting in line near our classroom and watching as my teacher fixed every girl’s hair. I eagerly waited for her to fix mine, but she never did."
In poetry: I insist on survival every day I stay in Texas. Let me explain. A friend came over today & boom: joy shone from our fingertips. While the moon transitioned from waxing to waning, my bro got a top surgery letter. We get by with bitterness & rage.
Perhaps the best way to fight trend lines, win back voters, and prove that Democrats are the party of the working-class majorities in Texas is also the most obvious way: Run a strong Latino candidate. www.texasobserver.org/latino-top-b...
Featured story, from @candicebernd.bsky.social: “It’s been an open secret in the Legislature for a while that if your bill has the word ‘climate’ in the caption, it’s not getting a hearing. That has been true for many sessions.”
Previously: “He has never been imprisoned or had a criminal record. His life has always been marked by hard work and integrity. He has no connection to the Tren de Aragua case.”
“It is not acceptable for the Trump administration to ignore the law and limit Congressional oversight and authority; this cannot go unchallenged.” Democratic members of Congress are going to court over their legally protected access to immigration facilities.
From our magazine: Rural Texas wears a friendly facade. You know everyone, and everyone treats each other so kindly, but, if you’re Black, you just ignore the stares when you walk into the local steakhouse for fish fry night.
Last week: As a student, I’ve lived through the drastic changes. From removing librarians on campuses to requiring teachers to cut personal pronouns from their email, quiet attacks on personal expression and free speech have become apparent throughout the district.
Thank you so much for being inspired by the piece to share it that way. Passing this on directly to @earthtokb.bsky.social !
Out today: At least a dozen Democratic members of Congress have been denied entry to federal immigration facilities as President Donald Trump has ramped up his mass deportation efforts. Now, they are suing the administration.
Featured story, from @liseolsen.bsky.social: The doomed man condemned the system that was about to kill him, saying, “I’m dying tonight based on testimony, that all parties, me, the man who gave the testimony, the prosecutor he used knew it was a lie.”
Last week, from @francescadnunz.bsky.social: He survived the treacherous Darien Gap to come to the U.S. Then ICE agents called him a member of Tren de Aragua. No criminal record, no gang tattoos, he was deported over the sneakers he wore.
Our top story, from Justin Miller: Julián Castro’s case is symbolic of a broader trend in Texas politics in which Democrats’ leading Hispanic political talent has opted against running for higher office. Who will be the party's next leading candidate?
New from @francescadnunz.bsky.social: “What are they hiding, if they will break the law and not let a member of Congress in? What are they hiding if they’ll violate constitutional rights and not let a lawyer in?”
In poetry, by @earthtokb.bsky.social: Everything’s bigger in Texas. Even the aching hearts. Love is wrapped up in a land that wants me more than the news lets on, so I run to it quicker than a governing body says get out
From @byjustinmiller.bsky.social in our magazine: At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, the largely unknown Julián Castro became an instantaneous political phenom and a seemingly inevitable rising party star. But the party's traveled a rocky road since then ...
From @francescadnunz.bsky.social: “He has never been imprisoned or had a criminal record. His life has always been marked by hard work and integrity. He has no connection to the Tren de Aragua case.”
20 years after Katrina, the storm still lingers. Join @motherjones.com, @capitalb.bsky.social & Texas Observer in Houston for an evening of stories, action & resilience. When: Sept 10 | 7PM Where: Julia Ideson Building, Houston, TX Tickets: bit.ly/KatrinaEvent2025#Katrina20 #TheLingeringStorm
Featured story: Quigley is a dopey gringo vacillating between colonial-gaze fascination and fear of a world he doesn’t understand. But he's also a way in for readers hoping to learn about the Rio Grande Valley and the inner workings of cartels.
From Mihika Manocha: From removing librarians on campuses to requiring teachers to cut personal pronouns from their email, the quiet attacks on personal expression and free speech have become apparent throughout Texas school districts.
From Lise Olsen: This man was put to death in 1999 for murders that his co-defendant claimed to have committed without him. A new documentary-in-progress seeks to bring his case to light.
Our top story: The Texas Legislature is poised to pass what transparency advocates warn is “the most massive secrecy grab in Texas since the adoption of the Public Information Act.”
From our magazine: In reality, Texas Democrats haven’t actually tested the case of whether a strong Latino candidate can mobilize the state’s largest demographic to win a statewide race.
New today: Everything’s bigger in Texas. Even the aching hearts. Love is wrapped up in a land that wants me more than the news lets on, so I run to it quicker than a governing body says get out
new(ish) poem by me!
Our top story: The proposed legislation would shield large swaths of records about officers—including complaints of misconduct that didn’t result in discipline—from public view. This would allow hundreds of departments that would have previously disclosed these records to keep them secret.
From our magazine, poetry by @earthtokb.bsky.social: I insist on survival every day I stay in Texas. Let me explain. A friend came over today & boom: joy shone from our fingertips.
Yesterday: He survived the treacherous Darien Gap to come to the U.S. Then ICE agents called him a member of Tren de Aragua. No criminal record, no gang tattoos, he was deported over the sneakers he wore.
In Texas Observer magazine: A Fort Worth modern art exhibition and a new experimental film are part of a renaissance of work about an influential Caribbean writer.
In our magazine: At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, the largely unknown Julián Castro became an instantaneous political phenom and a seemingly inevitable rising party star. But the party, and Castro, have traveled a rocky road since then ...
20 years after Hurricane Katrina, the storm still lingers. Join @motherjones.com, @capitalb.bsky.social & @texasobserver.org in Houston for an evening of stories, action & resilience. When: Sept 10 | 7 p.m. Where: Julia Ideson Building, Houston, TX Tickets:
James Beathard was known as an unconventional thinker—an outspoken peacenik who marched in the high school band and sometimes played chess during lunch breaks. So it confounded fellow residents of his East Texas home when Beathard was arrested for capital murder.
"History has proven time and time again that ignorance fuels division and misunderstanding. Students deserve the truth—not sanitized or politicized—because we’re the ones inheriting these crises."
New today from @francescadnunz.bsky.social: “He has never been imprisoned or had a criminal record. His life has always been marked by hard work and integrity. He has no connection to the Tren de Aragua case.”
In culture, from @kitoconnell.com: “I think women are not supposed to have that kind of rage. So it was important for me to have this lead character who’s going through it and is not being pretty and sweet and nice about it.” =
New today: Texas is pushing away the very people who could help it thrive. Out-of-state migration for Texas high school graduates grew 106 percent from 14,300 in 2004 to 29,485 in 2022.
The failure of U.S. & Mexican drug policy: Rather than rely on individual smugglers, cartels specializing in fentanyl and other synthetic drugs use legal ports of entry, commercial vehicles, and digital payment systems to move drugs and launder profits with less risk.
New from Mihika Manocha: As a student in Texas, I’ve lived through drastic changes. From removing librarians on campuses to requiring teachers to cut personal pronouns from their email, the quiet attacks on personal expression and free speech have become apparent throughout the district.
Out yesterday from @liseolsen.bsky.social: Beathard was put to death in 1999 for murders that his co-defendant claimed to have committed without him. A new documentary-in-progress seeks to bring his case to light.
The Democrats prioritize a cookie-cutter playbook backing moderate candidates like military veteran M.J. Hegar and Congressman Colin Allred, who can raise truck-hauls of money from donors nationwide and proceed to waste it all on ineffective TV ads full of tropes about football and motorcycles.
From 2023: The U.S. has the worst maternal mortality rates of any wealthy country, by a lot, and the rates are increasing. The rate of Black mothers dying is more than twice as high as that for white women.
New from @iamleslierangel.bsky.social and me: Rep. Nicole Collier spent the night held hostage in the Texas House. Then four enraged women — many of them mothers — refused to leave her side overnight. The slept in jail; are banned from Capitol grounds for a year. thebarbedwire.com/2025/08/19/h...
Moments before death, he condemned the system that was about to kill him: “I’m dying tonight based on testimony, that all parties, me, the man who gave the testimony, the prosecutor he used knew it was a lie.”
Top story: These bills are being presented as a way to standardize personnel records in law enforcement agencies across the state. But critics say the measure could have devastating consequences for police transparency.
Don't miss our upcoming event, presented in partnership with @motherjones.com and @capitalb.bsky.social!
Critical disaster-response legislation is once again going ignored as part of a longer pattern of climate-reactive discussions at the Legislature in which Republicans pull their collective fingers out of their ears only to offer piecemeal relief in the aftermath of deadly disaster.
New from @liseolsen.bsky.social: This man was put to death in 1999 for murders that his co-defendant claimed to have committed without him. A new documentary-in-progress seeks to bring his case to light.
Julián Castro’s case is symbolic of a broader trend in Texas politics in which Democrats’ leading Hispanic political talent has opted against running for higher office even as Latinos have become a plurality of the state population.
Featured story: Nearly 1.5M Texans now live in jurisdictions where sheriffs or police chiefs have agreed to train some of their officers to act as immigration agents in the streets of their communities. These agreements currently cover around 30 Texas law enforcement agencies.
Last week: “It’s such a gift to be able to help everyone that calls us, but we don’t know how long that’s sustainable. There’s definitely the fear of, can we actually keep this going? Will we have to start turning people away or changing operations?”
The House and Senate primary testing bills would replace the STAAR test with 3 shorter tests at the beginning, middle, and end of each school year, with requirements to generate the results more quickly. The stakes would be even higher for individual schools and school districts.
New from @byjustinmiller.bsky.social: At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, the largely unknown Julián Castro became an instantaneous political phenom and a seemingly inevitable rising party star. But the party's traveled a rocky road since then ...
Earlier: The Texas GOP has had years to prioritize critical disaster-response legislation but has instead refused to engage with hundreds of related proposed bills to better prepare for disasters and ensure more resilience to climate change.
“This is the most massive secrecy grab in Texas since the adoption of the Public Information Act.” Last week's top story: This bill would supercharge cops' ability to hide misconduct.
Last week: True Lies, The Siege, You Don't Mess With the Zohan, what do all these films have in common? Palestinian author / artist @deltahead.bsky.social has some thoughts ...
From @marytuma.bsky.social: “We continue to be underfunded while the demand—and the stakes—grow. And it’s not as if the attacks on abortion have slowed down in Texas, we still deeply need investment, possibly now more than ever.”
"Loon Star State" is back. Read more Texas Observer cartoonist Ben Sargent: www.texasobserver.org/topics/loon-...
From @josephinelee.bsky.social: “Until we fix the student assessment and the student school accountability system, students will continue to be taught to the test.”
From @candicebernd.bsky.social: “It’s been an open secret in the Legislature for a while that if your bill has the word ‘climate’ in the caption, it’s not getting a hearing. That has been true for many sessions.” www.texasobserver.org/gop-flood-re...
“This is the most massive secrecy grab in Texas since the adoption of the Public Information Act.” Our top story, from @michellepitcher.bsky.social: A move to "standardize" police personnel files could have devastating consequences for transparency.
#ICYMI, from our magazine: Palestinian artist and writer Iasmin Omar Ata-Delta is frustrated by how American fiction depicts their people. They take us from Adam Sandler to James Cameron and beyond in this visual essay ...
Earlier: “Reforming the test without adjusting how it’s used in ratings won’t fix the pressure schools are under. ... Until we fix the student assessment and the student school accountability system, students will continue to be taught to the test.”