Bearing Witness
Alan Pogue has spent his life documenting progressive struggle. Along the way, he captured the history of the Observer, too.
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Our Best Longform Stories of 2024
This sort of nonfiction is designed to be started, finished, and actually leave you with something to show for it.
Opinion ⋆
Monopoly Tycoons in a Game of Jenga: The Censorship of Bodies, Protest, and Speech at UT-Austin
Faculty and students are experiencing profound disruption and distress, which starkly contrasts with the arrogant posture and detached demeanor of those perpetrating this harm.
Brownsville Elected Officials Are Doing PR for Embattled LNG Megaproject
The mayor, county judge, and others are parroting talking points provided by liquefied natural gas developer NextDecade, as the company faces another legal hurdle.
Books ⋆
Uvalde’s Darkest Hour
A new book by the publisher of the Uvalde Leader-News illuminates events that forever altered lives in this small Texas city.
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Politics
‘They Bought a Legislature’: What the GOP’s Gains Mean for Vouchers in Texas
Republicans nearly ran the table in state House races, shoring up Governor Abbott’s school voucher majority for the 2025 session.
Texas House Dems Trip Over Their Own Low Bar
On Tuesday, the most modest of boasts became famous last words for the lower chamber’s dwindling Ds.
Border and Immigration
Will Texas Finally Wind Down Border Security Spending?
Top state officials have already made promises that, under Trump, money can be shifted to education. But that didn’t happen last time.
How Texas Jails Built Migrant Incarceration
Following a 1925 investigation, immigrant detention in the Galveston County Jail was declared “a crime against humanity.”
She Fled Mexico as a Child. Now, She Teaches Migrant Kids in Tamaulipas.
“When I see a mom with her child trying to cross, it’s like I see myself in her.”
Culture
The Questions the Death Penalty Cannot Answer
“I Am Ready, Warden,” a new short documentary, exposes the unresolved pain on all sides of a Texas execution.
Texas’ Hotbed of Taiwanese Nationalism
For decades, Houston families like mine have helped keep the flame of independence burning.
Seeing the Unseen
New collections of fiction and nonfiction build on Dagoberto Gilb’s long career as chronicler of the working-class Southwest.
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January/February 2025
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