July/August 2022

The Texas Observer

Observing Texas since 1954

The Texas Observer1 min read
The Texas Observer
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Gabriel Arana CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ivan Armando Flores SENIOR WRITER & EDITOR Lise Olsen EDITOR-AT-LARGE Gayle Reaves SENIOR WRITER & ASSISTANT EDITOR Gus Bova SENIOR WRITER Justin Miller STAFF WRITERS Delger Erdenesanaa, Michelle Pitche
The Texas Observer2 min readCrime & Violence
Editor’s Note
The story of abortion rights in America is a Texas story. At press time, the Supreme Court had yet to rule on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a draft opinion of which leaked in May portending the demise of Roe v. Wade—a Texas case broug
The Texas Observer4 min read
School Of Hard Locks
In today’s era of school massacres carried out by gunmen armed with military-style weaponry, elected officials have—in the absence of bona fide gun control—turned to what they call “school hardening” as a solution. The ensuing demand for high-tech se
The Texas Observer5 min readDiscrimination & Race Relations
More Women Will Die If Texans Don’t Speak Up
I’ve never been one to mince words, and I certainly won’t now that the Supreme Court seems ready to end our right to choose. This country hates women; Texas hates women; and Republicans have made it perfectly clear that they don’t care if we die. The
The Texas Observer5 min readAmerican Government
The Battle For The Valley
Michelle Vallejo, a 30-year-old congressional candidate and co-owner of a McAllen-area pulga, would like to be the rain on Republicans’ South Texas parade. Running to represent Congressional District 15—a top pickup target for a GOP hungry to gain gr
The Texas Observer1 min read
Strangest State
A man was confronted by an H-E-B manager on Mother’s Day when he tried leaving the store without paying for a $15 floral arrangement, police said. In his rush, the man left a shih tzu inside a shopping cart, according to a report from the Lytle Polic
The Texas Observer5 min readCrime & Violence
Forensics Under The Microscope
Peter Stout’s buoyant presence cuts a sharp contrast to his grisly work as head of the Houston Forensic Science Center. Defying the typical laboratory white, Stout is dressed in hues of blue with bright teal armadillo socks peeking out of brown Oxfor
The Texas Observer13 min readCrime & Violence
Before Roe And After
In 1921, a young woman named Eunice left her northeast Texas hometown of Bonham for Dallas. She didn’t get to stay long. Police found her and brought her back. A grand jury was investigating whether the 19-year-old’s recent miscarriage was actually a
The Texas Observer6 min readCrime & Violence
Roe’s Gr Assroots Beginnings
At the back of the newsroom of the Rag, Austin’s storied and raucous underground newspaper, a volunteer sat by a phone, waiting for calls from women searching for help. In hushed tones, the volunteer would tell the callers what they needed to know to
The Texas Observer14 min read
Pot Of Gold
On June 10, 2019, Governor Greg Abbott signed a law to legalize state hemp production and sales as soon as the Texas Department of Agriculture adopted rules to regulate the potentially lucrative new industry. In the ensuing race to score the state’s
The Texas Observer15 min read
Injured, Sick, Widowed, And Sued
In the quiet but growing border community of Mission, a flag above Fire Station No. 3’s front desk advertises the community’s historic claim to fame as a citrus-growing powerhouse: “Mission Fire Department: Home of the Grapefruit.” The small firehous
The Texas Observer5 min readDiscrimination & Race Relations
Pre-roe, They Risked Their Lives To Control Their Destinies
The women whom my daughter, photojournalist Ilana Panich-Linsman, photographed in 2021 could be anyone—your neighbor, college professor, doctor, or mother. They are women who sought, with great difficulty, to terminate pregnancies as young women betw
The Texas Observer4 min read
More Than A Fish Story
These days the Kemah Boardwalk is a glitzy, overbuilt amusement park where competing pop songs blare from speakers and the smells of fried fish, children’s sweat, and Houston’s overripe air waft over throngs of visitors. But I have never heard Bruce
The Texas Observer4 min read
Is San Antonio For The Birds?
“Everyone knows it’s good luck, if inconvenient, when a bird shits on you.” On an April afternoon, writer and activist Marisol Cortez read this line from a Ross Gay poem to a small audience in the grass of San Antonio’s Brackenridge Park, part of an
The Texas Observer8 min read
The Hills Have Allies
A lost world sits at the bottom of Roy Creek Canyon. Nestled in the Texas Hill Country, beneath chasm walls 200 feet high, grows a secret forest of tall timber, live oak and sycamore and century-old cypress, clustered around a spring-fed creek and ru
The Texas Observer2 min read
Uvalde
WHAT I REMEMBER OF UVALDE IS THEIR DEBATE TEAM,A GIRL WITH A SNAKESKIN BRIEFCASE. THE NAME, AJEWEL IN THE MOUTH, LIKE OTHERS—GUADALUPE, BANDERA—REDOLENT OF SKY, SPACE, HEAT, THE SENSE OF A JOURNEY, ROADS TURNING AND TURNING. WHAT I SAW WHEN I LOOKED
The Texas Observer1 min read
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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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