"Thanks to the extraordinary success of the staff’s fundraising this week," the publication's board of directors voted to rescind layoffs and shutdown.

Seth Donnelly was one of the many inmates Texas prison officials use as prey for dog hunts. He died from heatstroke after collapsing on the job in Abilene.

The governor's promise to call a fourth legislative session is expected to yield a similar result.

The Senate passed its bill this week as the governor continues to pressure House members to compromise.

Beto's bid to deny Greg Abbott a third term as governor is a steep one, but he can still muster some magic on the campaign trail.

Rural Republicans team up with Dems to remove vouchers from HB 1 in intra party showdown in the House. From Reporting Fellow Josephine Lee.

The Senate passed its bill this week as the governor continues to pressure House members to compromise.

And culpable.

Losers during the 88th session of the legislature included taxpayers, teachers, trans youths, and anyone who uses electricity.

The Senate passed its bill this week as the governor continues to pressure House members to compromise.

Police cited four men for distributing antisemitic and racist flyers in Fort Worth and Weatherford. From Steven Monacelli.

The governor's promise to call a fourth legislative session is expected to yield a similar result.

The Senate passed its bill this week as the governor continues to pressure House members to compromise.

From bullying legislators to co-opting churches, the governor and the billionaires behind him are determined to defund public schools.

As weather gets more extreme and the population booms, ERCOT and state leaders need to get a grip on reality.

Despite Trump’s attempt to paint the Texas-Mexico border as a war zone, border counties are safer than the president’s own backyard. And local lawmen don’t believe a wall will do any good.

It’s not just Ted Cruz. For years, Texas Republicans have fueled the toxic politics that led extremists to storm the Capitol.

A former judge, the top state official’s inept response to the Uvalde shooting shows how little of his legal training he remembers.

When Lina Hidalgo was elected Harris County judge in November, many scoffed at her unexpected victory. Now she’s on a mission to prove that her progressive agenda is just what Houston needs.

In Texas’ most populous county, funding for law enforcement takes center stage. Lina Hidalgo tries to beat the media spin around the election.

And culpable.

Despite Trump’s attempt to paint the Texas-Mexico border as a war zone, border counties are safer than the president’s own backyard. And local lawmen don’t believe a wall will do any good.

Losers during the 88th session of the legislature included taxpayers, teachers, trans youths, and anyone who uses electricity.

A fifth-grader reported being bullied by his principal. Five days later, he was handcuffed and detained.

Beto's bid to deny Greg Abbott a third term as governor is a steep one, but he can still muster some magic on the campaign trail.

The governor's promise to call a fourth legislative session is expected to yield a similar result.

Police cited four men for distributing antisemitic and racist flyers in Fort Worth and Weatherford. From Steven Monacelli.

Health care advocates were optimistic that the Legislature would do something this year to address high, and rising, uninsured rates; high rates of maternal mortality; and the rural hospital closure...

Trump and Sessions are uniquely awful. But it’s also true that the road to this fresh hell was laid, at least in part, by Bush and Obama.

With bans on books and “critical race theory,” Republicans are scapegoating the state’s teachers for political gain.

Losers during the 88th session of the legislature included taxpayers, teachers, trans youths, and anyone who uses electricity.

Two federal filings claim workers were not paid at all or were shorted on overtime pay and that a worker was provided with fake OSHA certificates while building the Travis County facility.

COVID-19 has provided Governor Greg Abbott the chance to wield more power than anyone in Texas history. He’s not eager to give it back.

Once sidelined, the decades-old right-wing group has seen a resurgence in the state.

Despite the presence of anti-LGBTQ+ protesters, over 150 people attended the first story time event in Wolfforth, a small suburb of Lubbock.

Despite Trump’s attempt to paint the Texas-Mexico border as a war zone, border counties are safer than the president’s own backyard. And local lawmen don’t believe a wall will do any good.

When Lina Hidalgo was elected Harris County judge in November, many scoffed at her unexpected victory. Now she’s on a mission to prove that her progressive agenda is just what Houston needs.

"If Abbott calls a special session to get a voucher program, we've been told by a lot of House members that the opposition to a voucher program will increase. "

Despite Trump’s attempt to paint the Texas-Mexico border as a war zone, border counties are safer than the president’s own backyard. And local lawmen don’t believe a wall will do any good.

The long arm of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick reached far into the Ken Paxton impeachment saga. From Politics Writer Justin Miller.

The natural gas industry raked in billions during the winter grid failure and Governor Abbott let them off the hook. He was rewarded with a huge campaign contribution from the grid collapse’s biggest...

Beto O’Rourke has run the best campaign of any Texas Democrat in a generation. What’s that mean for Election Day and beyond?

Health care advocates were optimistic that the Legislature would do something this year to address high, and rising, uninsured rates; high rates of maternal mortality; and the rural hospital closure...

Mastodon is a decentralized (aka “federated”) approach to social media. Here's what that means.

Texas Republicans are facing popular resistance over a sweeping bill that critics say is anti-immigrant and would tear families apart.

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?

People in the Panhandle are getting sick from breathing fecal dust created by cattle feedlots—and the state isn’t doing much about it.

The magazine that Molly Ivins edited and that remains the voice of speak-truth-to-power Texas liberalism is threatened with closing. We can’t let that happen.

Rhett Murry Loftis, the Texas Active Club leader, blurred his face but forgot to scrub his socials. From Steven Monacelli.

The Wall started as an applause line at Trump’s campaign rallies, and has morphed into one of the dumbest policy debates in the history of American politics.

IMPORTANT! IF YOU ARE ABLE TO GIVE RIGHT NOW--BEFORE 5 PM TEXAS TIME WE… James Canup needs your support for Help Save the Texas Observer & Fight Staff Layoffs

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?

Two federal filings claim workers were not paid at all or were shorted on overtime pay and that a worker was provided with fake OSHA certificates while building the Travis County facility.

Health care advocates were optimistic that the Legislature would do something this year to address high, and rising, uninsured rates; high rates of maternal mortality; and the rural hospital closure...

Conservative consultants and PACs are turning Texas school boards into partisan battlegrounds. From Steven Monacelli.

ICU beds are limited, medical providers are falling sick, and urban hospitals where small facilities transfer critical patients are running out of space.

Environmentalists, veterans of the Standing Rock protests and Carrizo/Comecrudo tribal members are vowing to stare down the president's bulldozers.

A South Texas nature refuge's 14-month legal battle against the feds was derailed as Congress moves to shield the refuge and Trump declares an emergency.

Hundreds of immigrant children and parents in federal detention facilities say they’ve endured inedible food, verbal and physical abuse and a lack of medical treatment.

From the jaguarundi to the Mexican long-nosed bats, animals in the Texas-Mexico borderlands face extinction from the triple threats of climate change, urbanization and the border wall.

Physician Marty Makary’s new book shows how sky-high medical bills can ruin patients’ lives—but puts the burden on individuals to demand change.

When Lina Hidalgo was elected Harris County judge in November, many scoffed at her unexpected victory. Now she’s on a mission to prove that her progressive agenda is just what Houston needs.

You know, the kind that might encourage violence in a place like El Paso.

According to a University of Houston report, the increase reverses a 15-year trend. And unwanted pregnancies will rise, researchers predict.

Rural Republicans team up with Dems to remove vouchers from HB 1 in intra party showdown in the House. From Reporting Fellow Josephine Lee.

Jacob Soboroff’s new memoir is a thorough account of how such a cruel policy came to be and how it traumatized hundreds of children and their families.

Physician Marty Makary’s new book shows how sky-high medical bills can ruin patients’ lives—but puts the burden on individuals to demand change.

Other candidates focus on broad policies that affect everyone. That’s undeniably good, but it elides that fact that environmental injustices have historically hurt poor, minority communities the most.

There’s no shortage of talented Latinx writers with all kinds of stories to tell. Let’s make space for them.

Recent audits of Austin's police cadet training spotlight a warrior-cop culture that pervades policing, even in a so-called progressive city

Founded in 1954, The Texas Observer is a progressive nonprofit news outlet and print magazine covering the Lone Star State.

The Mary Allen Museum continues to race the clock to preserve what’s left of Texas’ first African American school for Black girls and women.