The Latest Breaking News from Texas Observer

Can Democrats Keep the Texas House Anti-Voucher?

Four years after a failed attempt to flip the lower chamber, the minority party has set its sights on a more modest objective.

Texas Observer · Oct 2, 2024

A Houston Storyteller Finds the Humor in Hard Knocks

Bayou City comic Ali Siddiq turns street life and incarceration into laughs, while challenging stereotypes and provoking the occasional tear.

Texas Observer · Oct 1, 2024

A Texas Pipeline Giant Is Backing a Regulatory Disaster

Energy Transfer owns the pipeline that caught fire recently near Houston, and it’s setting another fire at the National Labor Relations Board with the help of right-wing jurists.

Texas Observer · Sep 27, 2024

Bipartisan Legislators Join Calls for Clemency for Robert Roberson

The condemned Texas man was convicted of killing his daughter in 2003 based on an outdated ‘shaken baby syndrome’ diagnostic process.

Texas Observer · Sep 17, 2024

Pipeline Explosion in Deer Park Reveals Hidden Hazards Texans Face

The pipeline’s owner is “the same company that got $2.4 billion richer when Texans froze to death during Uri,” one activist points out.

Texas Observer · Sep 17, 2024

Lawmen Above the Law

The sheriff is a position that serves no legitimate purpose in modern America, Jessica Pishko concludes, and the United States should abolish it.

Texas Observer · Sep 17, 2024

The Company You Keep

Ken and Angela Paxton have ties to a corporate honcho caught in a tangled web of alleged fraud involving a powerful business clan and a commercial shipping giant.

Texas Observer · Sep 16, 2024

Trump Would Doom the U.S. Department of Education and Harm Texas Teachers

Educators are calling for more funding, support, and a system that protects them. Removing the DOE would only perpetuate the problems. 

Texas Observer · Sep 13, 2024

A Slice of Life in Watermelon Country

The annual Watermelon Thump has been a Central Texas staple for more than 70 years.

Texas Observer · Sep 12, 2024

Junk Science, ‘Shaken Baby Syndrome,’ and the Fate of Robert Roberson

An East Texas man could soon become the nation's first person killed by the state based on the controversial hypothesis.

Texas Observer · Sep 11, 2024