In case you find yourself this holiday season with a little extra reading time, or maybe time to return to a story you left open in a tab some many months ago, here are 10 of the best Observer longform stories from 2025 (in chronological order). May they enrich you for the now, and steel you for the future.
1. Texas’ War on Drug Users. A mass overdose event in Austin reveals the state’s backward approach to the ongoing crisis spurred by fentanyl and other super-potent substances. By Jason Buch
2. ‘This Town Has Nothing’: Rural Texas’ Mental Healthcare Crisis. Against long odds, Sweetwater’s public hospital recruited counselors to help address a wave of mental health crises in rural Texas—yet struggles continue. By Daniel Carter
3. The Crypto Racket. Public officials at all levels are propping up a Texas Bitcoin mining boom that’s threatening water and energy systems while afflicting locals with noise pollution. By Candice Bernd
4. Texas Already Gives Public Ed Dollars to Private Operators. Here’s How That Worked Out. The state created “Texas Partnership” charter schools to turn around struggling public campuses, but an Observer investigation has uncovered numerous academic and financial issues. By Josephine Lee
5. Wrestling with the American Dream. Afghan refugees find a home on a San Antonio high school athletics team. By Brant deBoer
6. ‘With What Water?’ The shrinking of a mighty Mexican river has hollowed out the economy of Chihuahua’s Conchos Valley and bred civil unrest as South Texas demands the water it’s owed. By Chilton Tippin
7. The Adoption Trap. Private foster care and adoption agencies in Texas are brokering contracts for moms to turn over their children in a murky legal world, spawning protracted civil custody battles. By Sandy West
8. The Eyes of Chihuahua. The 20-story Torre Centinela looming over Juárez is part of a much larger AI-powered surveillance system that won’t stop at the Texas-Mexico border. By Francesca D’Annunzio
9. Pam Perillo’s Sisterhood of the Condemned. She’s a death row survivor, but she doesn’t think she’s really any different from her friends who are still set to die. By Michelle Pitcher
10. Lina Hidalgo Had a Vision. Harris County Won’t See It. Her anti-climactic exit from office caps a saga of waning power and growing discord. But what her rise once promised is worth remembering. By Sam Russek
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