A Light the Darkness Cannot Extinguish
Fri, 19 Dec 2025 13:00:00 +0000
The editor of this publication wasn’t exaggerating when he called 2025 “this frankly awful year”: Things are dark, and likely to get much darker. Our politics nationally and here in Texas is now firmly in the grip of a narrow, petty tribalism that feeds on enmity. Each day brings new horrors; scrolling through social media […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/a-light-the-darkness-cannot-extinguish/
At the Texas AFL-CIO, a Changing of the Guard in a Time of Growth
Thu, 18 Dec 2025 13:45:00 +0000
For labor organizing, Texas was long dismissed as a forlorn place. “Right-to-work” laws restrict organizing here, most public-sector workers can’t collectively bargain or strike, and local governments are broadly banned from passing their own worker rights ordinances. Yet total membership in Texas unions has been growing. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-afl-cio-changing-of-the-guard/
Hereditary
Thu, 18 Dec 2025 13:00:00 +0000
The train tracks leading to my grandma’s house always reminded me of a spine. Curved & ancient, a body of splintered wood & metal hinges groaned when the train was coming. & my mom once told me that the train tracks split the town in two. Everything here is split in two. If it isn’t […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/hereditary-poem-november-december-2025/
Under Operation Lone Star, Texas State Police More than Doubled Their Drone Fleet
Wed, 17 Dec 2025 15:37:06 +0000
Texas Republicans have been wary of unmanned aerial vehicles, with some even backing proposed laws to allow the citizenry to gun down invasive airborne drones. Now, thanks to years of Operation Lone Star, Governor Abbott’s multi-billion dollar border mission, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is ushering in what might fairly be called the […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dps-drone-fleet-doubled-in-size/
Everyone Knows Jasmine Crockett. Could That Be a Good Thing?
Tue, 16 Dec 2025 15:39:07 +0000
Last Monday, just hours before the candidate filing deadline, Dallas Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett made it official: The high-profile political flamethrower is running for the U.S. Senate. The move was not a surprising one, but it did finally bring resolution to the weeks of her very public consideration of whether to get into the race, […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/jasmine-crockett-interview-senate-december/
Mirando hacia el futuro: Los combustibles fósiles en el Valle del Río Grande
Mon, 15 Dec 2025 14:53:46 +0000
Nota del editor: esta serie fue apoyada por la Beca de Periodismo de Investigación de la Sociedad Ida B. Wells y el Centro Pulitzer. (Read in English here.) Para la industria del petróleo y el gas de la Costa del Golfo, la miniregión alrededor de la Laguna Madre, de 80 kilómetros de largo, es la […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/el-futuro-los-combustibles-fosiles-el-valle-del-rio-grande/
Peering Into the Rio Grande Valley’s Fossil Fuel Future
Mon, 15 Dec 2025 14:53:23 +0000
Editor’s Note: This is part one of what will be a two-part series supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Ida B. Wells Society Investigative Reporting Fellowship. (Leer en español aquí.) For the Gulf Coast oil and gas industry, the mini-region around the 50-mile-long Laguna Madre is the final frontier. A rare hypersaline lagoon that […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/the-valley-fossil-fuel-future-freeport-louisiana/
Strangest State: Drones, Drugs, Deer, and a Dutiful Dog
Fri, 12 Dec 2025 16:18:10 +0000
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https://www.texasobserver.org/strangest-state-drones-drugs-deer-dutiful-dog/
With Islamophobia on the Rise, Houston Becomes Home to First Ismaili Center in the Country
Thu, 11 Dec 2025 16:48:49 +0000
Between 2022 and 2025, the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding’s Islamophobia Index increased by 8 points. The Center for the Study of Organized Hate found that online Islamophobia was widespread throughout Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral race in New York City. From June to October 2025, the study found that online Islamophobic narratives frequently labeled Mamdani […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/first-ismaili-center-in-houston-rising-islamophobia/
Ex-Con Congressman Attempts a Texas Comeback
Wed, 10 Dec 2025 16:27:42 +0000
Former Congressman and felon Steve Stockman, a Friendswood-area conservative who was convicted of 23 federal corruption charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison back in 2018, has declared himself rehabilitated and fit to run again for the U.S. House of Representatives. This week, Stockman, once dubbed Texas’ “weirdest lawmaker”, entered a crowded field of […]
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