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Texas Observer: Covering What Others Won’t
A version of this story ran in the January / February 2024 issue. Above: Longtime friends Molly Ivins and Carlton Carl danced at the 1971 governor's inaugural ball. Carlton Carl is a former CEO and publisher of the Texas Observer, but he’s been a fan of the magazine since he was a kid. He met Molly Ivins in high school, and they were fast friends for 45 years. While Ivins stayed in journalism, Carl turned to Democratic politics, working on campaigns and in government offices and also for the American Association for Justice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America). He spent 24 years in Washington, D.C. Returning to Texas with the proceeds of a house sale in 2005, he promptly bought most of downtown Martindale, a 1,200-population town east of San Marcos. A longtime board member of the Texas Democracy Foundation, which publishes the Observer, he still reads proofs just before the magazine goes to press.
Kelly Siegler: The Prosecutor and the Snitch Ring
Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”. Articles cannot be rewritten,...
The Era of EBJ Comes to a Close
Longtime Dallas Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson passed away after a career that will be etched into the history of Texas politics. Before leaving her seat, she made sure she had a say in who would succeed her, endorsing then-state Representative Jasmine Crockett, who went on to win a contested primary race for that seat. In a statement, Crockett said that EBJ “was, as I liked to refer to her, a quiet storm. She prided herself in getting things done to better the lives of the people that she served.”
How Texas Commission On Environmental Quality Helps Polluters Evade Federal Law
Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”. Articles cannot be rewritten,...
Cruzin’ for a Bruisin: Can Anyone Defeat Ted?
A version of this story ran in the January / February 2024 issue. Above: From left, Colin Allred, Ted Cruz and Roland Gutierrez. Since President Joe Biden’s term began, Texas has assumed its customary position at the vanguard of resistance to the federal government, while elections here have become quasi-referendums on a Democratic-controlled White House. Historically, this terrain makes for tough traveling for Democrats—certainly more difficult than the last time that GOP Senator Ted Cruz was on the ballot.
Kelly Siegler: Trading Favors
Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”. Articles cannot be rewritten,...
Top 20 Stories From the Year We Nearly Went Under
Contributor Jason Buch followed the money from Mexico. (Jason’s earlier series, Follow the Money, was named one of the 15 best investigative reports in all of the Americas in 2022-2023 at COLPIN, the Latin American Investigative Reporting Conference.)
Kelly Siegler: The Cold Case Killer
Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”. Articles cannot be rewritten,...
Working Class Perspectives on the ‘Migrant Crisis’
NYC Mayor Eric Adams was supposed to welcome immigrants bussed from Texas. That's not what's happened. Above: A Border Patrol agent arrives to take custody of a group of immigrants from Texas Border Volunteers. When Governor Greg Abbott first started bussing migrants to liberal strongholds around the country in 2022,...
Oil and Gas Wastewater Spills Pollute the Lone Star State
Above: The Texon scar covers several hundred acres near Big Lake, Texas where "produced" water was discharged for decades. The land has still not recovered and a salty crust covers the soil, seen here in August 2023. The city found elevated levels of chlorides and total dissolved solids in several...
Poem: From There to Here
A version of this story ran in the November / December 2023 issue. awaiting the healthy, the wealthy, the privileged, the. he couldn’t save. Inhales ashes to ashes, exhales. herself. Inhales lemon peony, exhales. A limousine. slides to a somber stop. Stilettos, softly knobbed. knees, and a coiled braid...
Texas Is Challenging 150 Years of Immigration Law
Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”. Articles cannot be rewritten,...
Prosecutors Won’t Drop Charges Against Brownsville ISD Honor Student
Timothy Murray was put in solitary confinement after reporting Principal Myrta Garza for bullying. Above: 11-year-old Timothy Murray at his new school, Canales Elementary. After the Texas Observer first reported last month that 11-year-old Timothy Murray was arrested by the Brownsville Independent School District police and detained in solitary confinement just days after he reported being bullied by his school principal, Myrta Garza, Timothy’s mother Nadia Rincon had hoped prosecutors would drop the charges against her son.
The Texas Observer’s 2023 Must-Read Lone Star Books
From poetic dreamworlds to the people’s hospital, Texas authors paint very different portraits of our diverse state. Above: A collage of staff favorites by Texas authors in 2023. Despite a disturbing rise in book bans, Texas is, against all odds, becoming more and more of a literary hub with...
Unmasking the Klansman
A version of this story ran in the November / December 2023 issue. Unmasking the Klansman, a new book by historian Dan T. Carter, tells the strange saga of a violent Klan leader, known for his racist and antisemitic radio rants, including then-Alabama Governor George Wallace’s 1962 gubernatorial inauguration speech pledging “segregation forever.” That speechwriter, an unstable alcoholic whose rages scared even the hardest men in Wallace’s inner circle, soon disappeared from Alabama.
The Death Toll: An Expensive Tollway’s High Cost In Human Lives
A version of this story ran in the November / December 2023 issue. Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story:. This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their...
Phạm Thiên Ân: From ‘Yellow Cocoon’ to Cannes
A version of this story ran in the November / December 2023 issue. In 1993, the Caméra d’Or award, reserved by Cannes Film Festival for the best directorial debut, went to a filmmaker of Vietnamese descent—Trần Anh Hùng for The Scent of Green Papaya (Mùi đu đủ xanh). In May, 30 years later, it happened again: The winner was Phạm Thiên Ân of Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Bên Trong Vỏ Kén Vàng).
Texas Observer School Board Investigation Spurs Call for Reform
State Representative Erin Zwiener says Texas must improve campaign finance transparency and adopt contribution limits. In November, state Representative Erin Zwiener, a third-term Democratic legislator representing the 45th district of the state House of Representatives, issued a call for campaign finance reform in response to the part 1 of “The School Board Backers,” a Texas Observer series that reveals how a network of partisan PACs and consultants supported dozens of ultraconservative candidates that took over some Texas school boards and then forced hard-right policy turns.
Texas Court Strikes Down Air Pollution Permit for Gulf Coast Oil Terminal
A judge reversed a 2022 decision by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality which involved its controversial “one-mile rule” to deny hearing requests. In a one-page ruling posted Tuesday, Travis County District Court Judge Amy Clark Meachum reversed a 2022 decision by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to deny local shrimpers’ request for a permit hearing and authorize an expansion of Max Midstream’s Seahawk Oil Terminal on Lavaca Bay, on the Gulf Coast between Houston and Corpus Christi.
A Paris to Marfa March for Reproductive Rights
A version of this story ran in the November / December 2023 issue. It was something Marfa needed, Culbertson said. The fear of a mass shooting at her own school was real. The shooting at a Santa Fe, Texas, school had happened the same year as Parkland. Four years later, Uvalde’s tragedy would reinforce the bitter, tragic lesson. What happened at Parkland and the other schools “really, really scared me,” she said.
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