November/December 2022

The Texas Observer

Observing Texas since 1954

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The Texas Observer
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Gabriel Arana CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ivan Armando Flores SENIOR WRITER & EDITOR Lise Olsen EDITOR-AT-LARGE Gayle Reaves DIGITAL EDITOR Kit O’Connell SENIOR WRITER & ASSISTANT EDITOR Gus Bova SENIOR WRITER Justin Miller STAFF WRITERS Delger
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Editor’s Note
As Texas’ population booms and climate change bakes the land, the state’s lifeblood—its rivers—are drying up. In this issue, we inaugurate “Drifting Toward Disaster,” a series that takes a hard look at how regulators, big ag, and big business have lo
The Texas Observer4 min readAmerican Government
Right-wing Protectionism Is Costing Texas
Republicans’ moralizing, “anti-woke” crusade has entered the arena of fiscal governance, and it’s likely to cost taxpayers, pensioners, municipalities, and everyday Texans a big chunk of change. Last fall, new state laws went into effect that prohibi
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The Guardian Angel Of Laughlin Drive
A longer version of this essay won a Ten Spurs Award from the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in 2021 and will be published in this year’s Ten Spurs Journal. The Texas Observer is helping sponsor the Mayborn’s writing contests this year. Joe l
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Heading Off The Next Water Crisis
Cities and farmers in Central Texas used to pump groundwater from the Edwards Aquifer much more freely—draining local springs and rivers and depriving several endangered species of a habitat. In the 1990s, the Sierra Club sued the U.S. Fish and Wildl
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Strangest State
No wild buffalo have roamed Big Bend country for decades, yet locals and tourists kept reporting encounters with a bison bull near the Chisos Basin in August. The bull, some say, is possibly an escapee from Bruce Ranch, a family-owned outfit with dom
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Uvalde Vs. Abbott
As he watched a couple load ice chests into their car at a gas station, something didn’t sit right with Roland Gutierrez. The pair were likely on their way to the lake to enjoy the late May sunshine in San Antonio—a normal way to spend the day, he kn
The Texas Observer20 min readCrime & Violence
Frank J. Robinson’s Ghost Haunts East Texas
This piece was produced in partnership with Texas Public Radio. Listen to the Texas Public Radio podcast series, “The Ghost of Frank J. Robinson.” Dorothy Redus Robinson didn’t believe in ghosts, but she always said she knew her husband was murdered
The Texas Observer12 min readCrime & Violence
Course Corrections
On a lower level of the Wynne Unit, a state prison in Huntsville, about 20 men in white jumpsuits and matching white sneakers sit around the perimeter of a room. Their attention is focused on Paul Allen, who stands in front of them. He’s a familiar f
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Drifting Toward Disaster
Aheavy monsoon season hit the Chihuahuan Desert in September. It flooded city streets in northern Mexico, overflowed some Mexican reservoirs and sent raging water down the Rio Grande through snaking canyons on the West Texas border, which months befo
The Texas Observer2 min readLGBTQIA+ Studies
Are You OK?
In 2021, Jesse Freidin began traveling across the country to photograph transgender youth for a photo project called “Are You OK?” He’s been to more than half the states in the country, meeting with dozens of trans kids. In August, Freidin made his s
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In Mo, I See Me
One thing about Mo, a limited series that debuted on Netflix last month, is that it’s fast. Think diction-of-“Mattress Mack” fast. Fast in doling out gags that at minimum will redden your face and dramatic beats that address the tragicomic reality of
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A Subdivision For Stargazers
Ana Chandler points south to a dip in the Davis Mountains. Often, when she and her husband are sky-watching, “Omega Centauri appears in that notch,” she said. Omega Centauri is a globular star cluster—millions of stars so crammed together that their
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Writing Their Own Stories
Big-city traffic and a resolution on New Year’s Eve of 2020 led Pflugerville resident Kelsey Black to become a bookseller. An avid reader, she disliked the hour round trip required to get from her suburb of 65,000 to downtown Austin to browse a books
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Steady The World
Here lean against mewhile I lean against the windowtrying to steady the world.Something jittery as the day begins,a hesitation, a catch in its step,its uncertain breath. My friend the librarianalways told me that the worldwas more than anyone deserve
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Support
An El Paso member gives. A Caddo Lake reader explores our climate change coverage. A whistleblower in Austin leaks proof of corruption. A Molly fan in Mesquite names us in her estate plans. A Houston student peruses at the library. A San Marcos activ

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