U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday sent panicked residents of the capital, Tehran, into the streets and parents racing back to schools where they had just dropped off their children. Follow live updates. trib.al/yRLAlzO

“This is the eighth military intervention of Trump’s second term in office”

“Nobody’s coming to save the working class and the regular American, so we might as well step up and save ourselves.” www.texasobserver.org/texas-labor-...

New from Josephine Lee: “People are tired of the same old politics. The working people of Texas are looking for somebody that is actually going through what they are, who can understand what their kitchen table issues are and make sure they have somebody that fights on their behalf.”

“Nobody’s coming to save the working class and the regular American, so we might as well step up and save ourselves.” (via Josephine Lee / @texasobserver.org) Featuring @marcosisaiasvelez.bsky.social, @joseloya.bsky.social, @rableforwesttexas.bsky.social, & other union-first candidates!

"When immigrant workers are targeted, it threatens all workers’ ability to fight for better pay and conditions," writes @sarahlazare.bsky.social @inthesetimes.com. That's why we need equal rights for ALL workers. See equalrightsforallworkers.com for more. inthesetimes.com/article/trum...

“The Texas Education Agency on Tuesday warned school districts that they could be taken over by the state if they help facilitate students walking out of class to attend protests.” www.texastribune.org/2026/02/03/t...

BREAKING: We just approved our Texas AFL-CIO COPE 2026 Primary Endorsements! We're ready to get to work to elect this wave of union members, and take on the billionaires and the big corporations. View our full list of endorsements here: texasaflcio.org/news/texas-a...

The Houston Chronicle editorial board says that Democrats should make state Rep. James Talarico their Senate candidate because he's running like he actually wants to win in Texas. bit.ly/4qfdZkM

New from @josephinelee.bsky.social: "I lived in Pearland for six years, but I didn’t learn about the Sri Meenakshi Temple until last year when I made a wrong turn. The temple’s sculpted stone tower rises 58 feet, seeming to materialize out of nowhere in this otherwise humdrum space ..."

While accusing Democratic leaders in Minnesota of inciting violence, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says the federal government should “recalibrate” its immigration operations in order to garner respect.

@nytimes.com fails to answer its question! Jobs turned 'bad' because bosses use an underclass of workers to drag down our working conditions. The only way to end this is to unite the working class and fight against the criminalization of working people. Learn more at equalrightsforallworkers.org

You can see pretti’s hands under the pile all the way up to where gray jacket guy takes the gun. Pretti clearly never pulled it out.

I've been informed that the man in this video is Matthew James Obadiah Allen, better known as Twin Cities hip hop artist Nur-D

this guy just wanted to help defend his community and they murdered him for it and the highest officials in the nation are lying about what multiple camera angles are showing the nation this cannot stand

3) @josephinelee.bsky.social at the @texasobserver.org finds that many private schools accepted into the program openly discriminate by religion and sexual orientation - while rural Texans have few private school options at all. bsky.app/profile/texa...

Coalition group Youth Against Sweatshops put out a statement on Venezuela and how it will directly hurt American workers. www.instagram.com/p/DTdHMnsjWb... www.stopcriminalizing.us/articles/tru... Join Break the Chains and learn more at equalrightsforallworkers.org

The execution of Renee Good clearly shows that ICE's assaults are not just a war on immigrants but a tool to silence all workers. We must go further beyond ICE accountability to demand equal rights for ALL workers @ equalrightsforallworkers.org. time.com/7345243/ice-... #SayHerName #stopiceviolence

Exactly @channel5bluesky.bsky.social ! Our government criminalizes immigrants so we fight among ourselves! We cannot let our bosses and landlords continue to exploit us and divide workers! Unite to fight back against those who are killing us! go to: equalrightsforallworkers.org to learn more!

An important and heartbreaking look at how incarcerated people are dying of overdoses under the care of facilities meant to rehabilitate them, by @michellepitcher.bsky.social for @texasobserver.org 👇 www.texasobserver.org/state-jails-...

Out today: “Isn’t it ironic that the same system that punished him for his addiction on the outside continued to supply and feed it on the inside?”

The expansion raises questions long-term about the size, strength, and investigative firepower of the state’s press corps—particularly at the Capitol. Is it in fact a good thing that Hearst now runs the papers servicing the four largest metros in Texas?

The neo-fascist group Patriot Front is building a network of businesses in North Texas in an attempt to create a parallel, self-sufficient white nationalist economy. The Observer identified the men behind 4 of these companies.

FBI Investigating Renee Good While Obstructing Probes Into ICE Killer @sharonzhang.bsky.social truthout.org/articles/fbi...

As someone on the Dallas subreddit said: "This article provides the best description of the individuals attempting to undermine homeless services in Dallas." Give it a read. www.texasobserver.org/dallas-texas...

New from Josephine Lee: Our investigation of the state's voucher program shows that many schools discriminate against potential students. Around 40% of the religious schools have policies that favor their own faith and around 25% discriminate against LGBTQ+ students.

92% of private schools already enrolled in Texas’ voucher programs serving kids beyond kindergarten are religious. @texasobserver.org found many of these exclude non-Christian and LGBTQ+ kids. #TxEd #TxLege #TexasSchools #ProtectPublicSchools #SchoolVouchers www.texasobserver.org/texas-vouche...

Texas encourages students and university faculty members to engage in govt witch hunt of professors. www.dallasnews.com/news/educati...

New: I spoke to Rice University Latin American Studies Professor Luis Duno-Gottberg and @sdonziger.bsky.social about the history of U.S. oil adventurism in Venezuela and the role Chevron is set to play in Trump's blood-for-oil imperial venture. www.texasobserver.org/houston-oil-...

New from @stevanzetti.bsky.social: A Dallas megadonor, a new nonprofit, and a scheme to relocate the homeless out of downtown shed light on a larger right-wing triumph over “housing first.” www.texasobserver.org/dallas-texas...

#ICYMI: Between mid-October and early November, Texas Department of Public Safety and ICE signed a pair of agreements that will authorize some state police within DPS’s Criminal Investigations and Highway Patrol divisions to effectively operate as ICE agents.

Save the date: Join us January 28, 7pm at the Austin Film Society Cinema for a special screening of La Libertad De Fierro, the new documentary about the life of former death-row inmate César Fierro after his release from prison. RSVP for free: www.eventbrite.com.mx/e/la-liberta...

Trump’s Department of Labor continues to degenerate. @sharonzhang.bsky.social truthout.org/articles/why...

BREAKING: Hundreds gathered at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach to form a human banner reading “It Was Murder 🇺🇸 ICE Out,

Developing story

“Bands of masked men apprehending people in broad daylight in the streets and hauling them off. Disappearing people to a third country,” a former DHS official said. “We’re at an inflection point in history right now and it’s frightening.” (Published Oct. 2025)

The ICE agent who murdered Renee Good must be prosecuted for murder. He enjoys no immunity from state murder charges. Then, Blue state governors must call up their National Guard to protect us from the armed ICE terrorists. My latest in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...

As lawmakers fix Florida's school voucher system, educators, students cope with financial fallout www.miamitimesonline... #SchoolVoucherScam

About 100+ folks have gathered to mourn Renee Nicole Good outside an unmarked ICE facility north of Austin in Pflugerville that agents have been using as a temporary holding facility. #AustintoMinneapolis #AbolishICE

“'The guy, I’m telling him like, "Please step off the school grounds," and this dude comes up and bumps into me and then tells me that I pushed him, and he knocked me down,' an official at Roosevelt High School said. 'They don’t care. They’re just animals. I’ve never seen people behave like this.'"

Rep. Seth Moulton: "This is insane. What the hell are we doing? ... this is illegal."

#BestOf2025, from @josephinelee.bsky.social: Per student, Texas ranks among the bottom 10 states for average public education spending: around $12,000 in 2023-2024, roughly $5,000 less than the national average.

Happy Holidays from all of us at the Texas Observer! Thank you for supporting our work in 2025, and we'll see you in the New Year!

In case you find yourself this holiday season with a little extra reading time, or maybe time to return to a story you left open in a tab some many months ago, here are 10 of the best Observer longform stories from 2025.

“He saw a different future ... where all of us can be welcomed, and all of us can be part of the labor movement.” Earlier, from @josephinelee.bsky.social: Texas was long dismissed as a forlorn place, but a new union movement is blooming in the Lone Star State ...

#BestOf2025, from @josephinelee.bsky.social: Healthcare workers, who are themselves veterans, say the healthcare system is about to collapse under budget cuts and an impossible workload.

The Trump administration “has implemented roughly half of the goals laid out in the document’s 920 pages” of Project 2025. @amandabecker.bsky.social @oriion.bsky.social 19thnews.org/2025/12/proj...

Another kind of school voucher is coming to Texas in 2027 www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/tex...