How BlackRock Became Texas’ Comeback Kid
Once a blacklisted ESG bogeyman, the Wall Street giant has won back the Republican rulers of Texas as it pours millions into data centers and the gas plants that power them.
Featured Stories
The Latest
How Texas Could End Up Paying Billions to an Israeli Company for Water
IDE Technologies hopes to revolutionize—and privatize—the state’s supply of water.
Politics ⋆
Ken Paxton’s ‘October Surprises’ Are Pure Disinformation
For Paxton and the influencers around him, shoddy work in the election’s home stretch is getting rapidly exposed—though some mystery still surrounds a deceptive mail campaign.
Politics ⋆
Inside the New AI Slop Era of Texas Politics
As synthetic attack ads blur the line between political satire and deception, the Lone Star State is becoming a testing ground for the limits of election law and free speech.
Opinion ⋆
Black Texans Built More than 400 Schools When the State Would Not
What we can learn from Rosenwald schools and Jeanes teachers today
Reviews ⋆
‘After the Genocide, the Genocide’: A Houston Doctor’s Record of Gaza
Fady Joudah’s latest work, “Exhibit G,” charts complicity and erasure with medical precision.
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Politics
Why Aren’t Texas Democrats Talking About Abortion?
Once seen as a crucial issue after the fall of “Roe,” candidates here are now largely ignoring it altogether.
Poll: Bobby Pulido Appears Poised to Flip the 15th Congressional District
The South Texas-based district went for Trump by 18 points in 2024.
Is Brandon Gill the Future of MAGA in Texas?
The young-ish right-wing Republican has rapidly gone from freshman lawmaker to one of Trump’s top attack dogs.
Border and Immigration
What Will It Take to ‘Get ICE the Fuck Out of Austin’?
Shootings by federal agents are proliferating since Donald Trump took office in 2025, several of them in Texas. To stop it from happening again, local elected officials and prosecutors are hunting for options that aren’t already foreclosed.
Santa Ana’s Last Stand
Congress repeatedly shielded the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge from the border wall. Now, construction has begun—and an irrigation district lawsuit may be the only option left to buy time for lawmakers to act.
ICE Contractor for Controversial Camp East Montana Is Trailed by Fraud Allegations
To continue running the deadly El Paso detention center, the feds turn to a company that’s faced numerous lawsuits from labor unions and former employees and is actively fighting a whistleblower in court.
Culture
Houston’s ‘Living Archive’ of Migration
At Fresh Arts, photographer Violeta Álvarez created a space where immigrant families in Houston can see their own histories reflected back to them.
Houston’s Historic Black Theater at 50
For five decades, the Ensemble has brought Houstonians together to laugh, cry, and talk back to plays representing all aspects of African-American life.
Can We Survive Naomi Klein’s Depiction of ‘End Times Fascism’?
Klein and co-author Astra Taylor’s new book is too bleak and unfocused for our shameless and sharp-edged political moment.
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November/December 2026
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