banner
LightNews
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer
@texasobserver.org
74K followers 1.4K following 3.3K posts
A nonprofit newsroom covering Texas through investigative journalism & narrative storytelling since 1954. Follow our journos: https://go.bsky.app/EdSL3Co 🤠Learn more about us: https://linktr.ee/texasobserver
go.bsky.app
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 16d
Are you interested in covering politics in the Lone Star State? The Texas Observer is hiring an intern to help us cover the 2026 elections! Apply here:
Work for the Texas Observer
We’re a nonprofit with a strong public service mission; we seek to expose injustice and to produce the kind of impact journalism that makes a difference.
www.texasobserver.org
16 21
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 1h
Out today from @michellepitcher.bsky.social: At Alienated Majesty Books, the "screamo bookstore," volumes from small and indie publishers, plus works in translation, comics, and poetry stand side-by-side with shoegaze, noise and hardcore punk bands. www.texasobserver.org/night-at-the...
A tall bookshelf labeled "Fiction" stands behind a young masculine-presenting person singing at the top of their lungs into a microphone as they play an electric guitar.
4 13
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 3h
Our top story, from @jlbuch.bsky.social: Advocates for one of the most vulnerable populations struggle to offer life-saving services in an increasingly militarized border community.
In Juárez, a Militarized Border Makes Drug Use More Deadly
Growing security deployments pose unique challenges for harm reduction groups.
www.texasobserver.org
1 4 14
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 5h
Want to work for the Texas Observer covering politics in the Lone Star State? We're hiring an intern to help us cover the 2026 elections!

Apply here:
Work for the Texas Observer
We’re a nonprofit with a strong public service mission; we seek to expose injustice and to produce the kind of impact journalism that makes a difference.
www.texasobserver.org
1 10 15
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 7h
From @michellepitcher.bsky.social, in our magazine: Silence is not sacred at Alienated Majesty Books in Austin, where literary knowledge and loud live music go hand in hand.
A Night at the Screamo Bookstore
An Austin literary shop has branched out into loud concerts, cementing a place in the city’s DIY music scene.
www.texasobserver.org
10
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 8h
Featured story: Texas currently has nearly 30,000 open cases—ongoing efforts to recoup money. With so few assets remaining, the family home is often all that's left to target.
One Woman's Fight Against Texas' Medicaid Estate Recovery Program
Her mother had been in a nursing home paid for by Medicaid. Now, the state wanted its money back: “It was like wild animals pouncing on meat."
www.texasobserver.org
4 8 30
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 1d
Earlier: The new Texas "bathroom bill" not only makes it harder for trans people to exist in public, it also attempts to grant immunity from prosecution to those enforcing it, even if they violate the constitution.
How the Bathroom Bill Weaponizes Transphobia Against Public Institutions
A legal expert called the new anti-trans Texas bathroom law “the most plainly unlawful, undemocratic legislation I’ve seen in recent history.”
www.texasobserver.org
1 33 67
Reposted by Texas Observer
harmscommitted.com
Harms Committed @harmscommitted.com · 1d
Increasing "challenges harm-reduction workers face along the border."

"[H]ypermilitarized, as we've never seen."

One study "found the 2010s military deployment in Juárez [..] 'increased drug use and health harms, including HIV risk.'"
#Texas #USA #Mexico #Policing #Drugs #Healthcare
In Juárez, a Militarized Border Makes Drug Use More Deadly
Growing security deployments pose unique challenges for harm reduction groups.
www.texasobserver.org
1 5 8
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 1d
“We have hope that he will come back home. We’re going to apply pressure from every single angle.”

For nearly three decades, Brother Marwan has been a constant presence in the community. Until ICE came.
Trump's ICE Has Arrested a Pillar of the Dallas Muslim Community. I Grew Up Hearing His Calls for Compassion.
When I heard Marwan Marouf had been swept up in connection with decades-old charitable donations, my mind went to his gentle voice we sometimes had to strain to hear at the mosque.
www.texasobserver.org
2 22 47
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 1d
Out today: Today's border “is hypermilitarized, as we’ve never seen. Now if you go, like, to a shopping center, just to the store or a market, you will find a lot of military trucks full of soldiers. I work with people who are homeless, and the stories that they told us are very awful.”
In Juárez, a Militarized Border Makes Drug Use More Deadly
Growing security deployments pose unique challenges for harm reduction groups.
www.texasobserver.org
12 13
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 1d
On a sunny mid-July evening, dozens packed into a community center in Memorial, one of west Houston’s cushier neighborhoods, to meet state Representative James Talarico, the Austin Democrat whose reedy shoulders presently bear the weight of many Texas liberals’ dreams. ...
Inside the Rift Between Texas Dems and a Soros-Backed PAC
The Texas Majority PAC is the latest deep-pocketed initiative meant to turn Texas blue. But have its dollars just brought more discord?
www.texasobserver.org
3 9 29
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 1d
Last week: Family members with loved ones detained at that Dallas field office reported inhumane conditions including overcrowding, medical neglect, and individuals being detained for more than a week without access to running water and air conditioning.
In Dallas, Organizers Mourn the Immigrant Victims of Recent ICE Shooting
At a vigil outside city hall last week, advocates gathered to “center the victims” and to condemn the “dehumanization” of migrants by the federal government.
www.texasobserver.org
1 26 44
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 1d
New from @jlbuch.bsky.social: Research suggests a harm reduction approach helps drug users stay healthier and enter recovery. But doing this work on the border has become more dangerous and difficult as troop presence increases.
In Juárez, a Militarized Border Makes Drug Use More Deadly
Growing security deployments pose unique challenges for harm reduction groups.
www.texasobserver.org
1 19 39
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 2d
From 2024: A massive theft of antiquities from Texas Christian University revealed a shocking lack of security. The incident also raised lingering questions about how universities and museums in Texas acquire artifacts like these.
Anatomy of a Pre-Columbian Art Heist in Fort Worth
A Texas Christian University professor and students probe the unsolved mysteries surrounding the 2001 thefts of dozens of artifacts.
www.texasobserver.org
3 11 38
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 2d
“When they talk about the mixed-race population in the U.S., they don’t include me there, they include me in the category of Hispanic. So the fact that I am native to the Americas gets lost.”

From the archives: The Lipan Apache are reclaiming their identities after decades of denial.
Labeled ‘Hispanic’
Lipan Apaches across Texas are challenging the myth that their tribe was wiped out.
www.texasobserver.org
2 58 140
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 2d
From Darcie @littlebadger.bsky.social in 2024: We were often one disaster or unpaid bill away from displacement. We just had to struggle. We still do. In the eyes of the government, we are breathing ghosts.
Return to Kíłááhíí: An Elder Is Restored to the Lipan Apache People—750 Years Later
"I imagine this Elder’s life alongside the arroyo, where water flows in the desert and prickly pears grow in fountains of green paddles and red fruit."
www.texasobserver.org
12 42
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 2d
From @dylanbaddour.bsky.social in 2024: “Many of the pieces of the puzzle have already been destroyed. This is all we have. This is our only window that’s left into this part of our history that’s not well understood. It’s our only chance to find out about ancestors.”
Defenders of the Delta: A Tribal Leader Fights for Ancestral Land in South Texas
Juan Mancias leads the Carrizo/Comecrudo, unrecognized and little-known, in a struggle against fossil fuels, SpaceX, and historical erasure.
www.texasobserver.org
26 59
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 3d
Catch up on everything we've published from the September/October 2025 issue of our magazine: www.texasobserver.org/issues/septe...
The September/October 2025 issue of Teas Observer magazine has a lead headline, "The Health Penalty by Michelle Pitcher." An illustration shows a Black prisoner in an orange prison jumpsuit, sitting on a prison bed as light streams in the prison windows. Subheadline: How Texas prisoners are denied medications, treatments, disability accommodations and any redress in the courts. Other stories: The State's Estate Collector by Julie Poole. Big Brother at the Border by Francesca D'Annunzio.
5 18
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 3d
Featured story: The long game that research historians played depended on the impractical approach of waiting out the natural death of the traditional narrative, a creation story of frontier exceptionalism that was baked into the Texan identity.
How Scholars Lost the Culture War over Texas History
And how they could still start winning it.
www.texasobserver.org
4 18 48
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 3d
Last week: “On the first day, I thought they had picked me up by mistake. … I didn’t know what kind of situation I was getting into.”

But Salomão Castelo Branco Borges' harrowing journey had just begun.
A Brazilian Carpenter's 51-Day Detention Journey from Vermont to Texas
“On the first day, I thought they had picked me up by mistake..."
www.texasobserver.org
3 20 44
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 3d
From @juliepoole.bsky.social: When callers pose even basic questions about how to get claims on their family homes dismissed, they are often left without answers. When families are hit with enormous six-figure claims, no one advocates on their behalf.
One Woman's Fight Against Texas' Medicaid Estate Recovery Program
Her mother had been in a nursing home paid for by Medicaid. Now, the state wanted its money back: “It was like wild animals pouncing on meat."
www.texasobserver.org
2 41 53
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 4d
Earlier: “SB 8 seeks to establish a precedent that treats marginalized communities in the Lone Star State as less than equal. In reality, trans folks are parts of Texas families, workplaces, schools, and communities, and we are here to stay.”
How the Bathroom Bill Weaponizes Transphobia Against Public Institutions
A legal expert called the new anti-trans Texas bathroom law “the most plainly unlawful, undemocratic legislation I’ve seen in recent history.”
www.texasobserver.org
3 24 59
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 4d
Are you interested in covering politics in the Lone Star State? The Texas Observer is hiring an intern to help us cover the 2026 elections! Apply here: www.texasobserver.org/jobs/
Work for the Texas Observer
We’re a nonprofit with a strong public service mission; we seek to expose injustice and to produce the kind of impact journalism that makes a difference.
www.texasobserver.org
1 12 15
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 4d
From Arman Deendar: Family members with loved ones detained at that Dallas field office reported inhumane conditions in the facility, including overcrowding, medical neglect, and individuals being detained for more than a week without access to running water and air conditioning.
In Dallas, Organizers Mourn the Immigrant Victims of Recent ICE Shooting
At a vigil outside city hall last week, advocates gathered to “center the victims” and to condemn the “dehumanization” of migrants by the federal government.
www.texasobserver.org
1 18 51
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 4d
Robert Roberson's stay of execution came after a months-long wait to see if the court would reconsider its previous denial in light of its grant of relief in a similar case last year. A lower court will now reconsider Roberson’s case.
‘I Got a Lot of People Believing in Me’: Robert Roberson Stares Down Death, Again
Set to be the first U.S. person executed based on the controversial “Shaken Baby Syndrome” diagnosis, Roberson told the Observer last week he hopes his story will mean something.
www.texasobserver.org
3 22
texasobserver.org
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 5d
For the immigrant community in Dallas, the shooting is yet another instance of the violence and fear they have endured under President Donald Trump’s nearly $30 billion “deportation-industrial complex” and a continuation of the lack of transparency and accountability from the government.
In Dallas, Organizers Mourn the Immigrant Victims of Recent ICE Shooting
At a vigil outside city hall last week, advocates gathered to “center the victims” and to condemn the “dehumanization” of migrants by the federal government.
www.texasobserver.org
24 39