What Is (and Isn’t) Happening with the Border Wall in Big Bend
Thu, 09 Jul 2026 14:52:23 +0000
You’ve probably heard about the Trump administration’s plans for a border wall through Big Bend. Or its plans not to build a wall at all, but instead to put up a futuristic forcefield of lights and sensors. You may have even heard that public pressure backed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into a corner […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/state-of-play-border-wall-big-bend-trump/
One State Under Whose God?
Wed, 08 Jul 2026 13:00:00 +0000
If Texas is, as its pledge of allegiance states, “one state under God,” this begs a question. What God? Whose God? For many Texans, it’s undoubtedly the Christian God, because (so they say) we’re a Christian nation. They can point, for instance, to the 190-foot-tall “Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ” near the Panhandle town […]
The post One State Under Whose God? appeared first on The Texas Observer.
https://www.texasobserver.org/one-state-under-god-book-review/
Inside Houston’s 1970 School Strike
Tue, 07 Jul 2026 18:01:25 +0000
Editor’s Note: Lupe Mendez, poetry editor of the Texas Observer, is author of the new book We Exist in the Whisper: Huelga School Verses (Arte Público Press, 2026)–one of the first works to tackle Houston’s 1970s huelga school movement. Mendez’s moving mélange of poetry, interviews, and journal entries describes a citywide strike, during which Mexican-American […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/inside-houstons-1970-school-strike/
Throwing the Book at Books in Prison
Mon, 06 Jul 2026 14:03:01 +0000
Every Thursday and Sunday evening, a dozen volunteers file into the back room of Vesper, a community space in East Austin. In the workroom-turned-library, there is a small kitchen, bright overhead lighting, and hundreds of books and magazines stacked every which way on floor-to-ceiling shelves that line the walls. Each person plucks a handwritten letter […]
The post Throwing the Book at Books in Prison appeared first on The Texas Observer.
https://www.texasobserver.org/prison-crackdown-reading-access-profile/
Turning Back the Clock
Wed, 01 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000
To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section. Find Observer political reporting here.
The post Turning Back the Clock appeared first on The Texas Observer.
https://www.texasobserver.org/turning-back-the-clock/
Unity and Discontent at the Texas Dems’ Corpus Convening
Tue, 30 Jun 2026 16:27:01 +0000
At this year’s Texas Democratic Party convention, sounds of the Corpus Christi coastline lulled Lone Star liberals into the recurring dream of a blue wave crashing over the state. After 30 years of Republican rule, Democrats once again insisted that 2026 would be their best shot at flipping Texas in decades. Emboldened by a viral […]
The post Unity and Discontent at the Texas Dems’ Corpus Convening appeared first on The Texas Observer.
https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dems-corpus-convention-2026/
Editor’s Letter: Introducing Our July/August 2026 Issue
Mon, 29 Jun 2026 12:30:00 +0000
Texas Observer reader, The following are my remarks, in part, from our May 6 MOLLYs fundraiser gala: Last year, some of you may remember, we published a very viral story in which we identified an ICE prosecutor in Dallas as the operator of an extremely, extremely racist X account. In terms of impact, everything seemed […]
The post Editor’s Letter: Introducing Our July/August 2026 Issue appeared first on The Texas Observer.
https://www.texasobserver.org/editors-letter-july-august-2026/
Portrait of Us, 2019-2023
Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000
Poems are selected by Poetry Editor Lupe Mendez, the 2022 Texas poet laureate and author of Why I Am Like Tequila. To submit a poem, please send an email with the poem attached to poetry@texasobserver.org. We’re looking for previously unpublished works of no more than 45 lines by Texas poets who have not been published […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/portrait-of-us/
Worker’s Death at SpaceX Factory Followed Hundreds of Injuries in Recent Years
Thu, 25 Jun 2026 13:15:00 +0000
Around 4 a.m. on May 15, in the 1-year-old South Texas town of Starbase, Jose Luis Bautista, a 25-year-old man from nearby Donna, rode a scissor lift around 50 feet up toward the ceiling of the “Starfactory,” where Elon Musk’s SpaceX makes parts for its Starship rockets. Bautista and other workers with Delta Fabrication and […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/worker-death-starbase-spacex-osha-elon-musk/
Texas’ Refusal to Plan for Climate Change Created a Crisis in Corpus Christi
Thu, 25 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared at Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. This story was produced in partnership with the Texas Newsroom, the state’s network of public radio stations. A decade ago, Corpus Christi’s regional water plan projected shortages as soon as […]
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https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-climate-change-refusal-crisis-corpus-christi/