22-year-old Ward Sakeik, a Palestinian woman who has lived in Texas since she was 9, says her experience in federal detainment could only be identified as “human trafficking.” And she’s not staying quiet about the women she was forced to leave behind. thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/22/w...

post-retirement truth-telling is an interesting period in the life cycle of every politician. did not call Dade Phelan to be the dark knight of free speech but here we are. thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/16/d...

love editing @iamleslierangel.bsky.social because there is always a chance that one of us or @oliviamesser.bsky.social will cry. which we did here. because journalism matters, our words matter, and who writes them matters. we will keep taking that seriously at @thebarbedwire.com

I wrote about the weekend in Texas football thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/15/c...

are you football-curious? have no idea who Kirk Herbstreit is (or he gives you the ick)? @thebarbedwire.com is here to help. we’re doing Texas football coverage our way. which means jokes, internet moments and just enough analysis to hold your own in a group chat. thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/15/c...

Firing a Black woman for quoting Kirk’s horrific statements about Black women is insane. It seems the Washington Post would rather perform politeness (and demand that the people Kirk harmed do it too) that tell the truth: karenattiah.substack.com/p/the-washin...

"The Bullock Museum glorifies Texas heroes while treating slavery like an awkward uncle no one wants to talk about." At the link @briangaar.bsky.social examines the serious consequences of teaching history this way. ⬇️

publishing this story from @briangaar.bsky.social in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death (bomb threats, ill-advised op-eds) has me thinking about how fundamental agreed upon facts are to a functioning society. if we can’t get the Alamo right… thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/11/b...

Texas loves to pick on queer kids. It’s also one of the queerest states. It’s diverse, and also opened an ICE detention center on the site of a WWII internment camp. Yet, for every Ted Cruz, there’s a Barbara Jordan. For every Joe Rogan, there’s a Simone Biles. thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/10/t...

After lawmakers failed to pass a THC ban, Abbott steps in. Because nothing says “personal freedom” like showing your ID for a watermelon-flavored cube.

Texas lawmakers spent weeks fighting over THC like it was the last brisket plate at Franklin’s, only to adjourn their special session with nothing to show for it but Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s sulk-face. Now, Gov. Abbott has decided to issue an executive order and pretend it was all part of the plan.

we’re trying a version of Monday morning quarterbacking for Texas football fans and those who just want to know enough to hold a conversation about C.J. Stroud (its me). please let us know how we did: thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/08/h...

when I say this bill was a dramatic and surprise win for survivors during the last lege session, I mean a down to the buzzer vote and an unlikely supporter in Angela Paxton. and now it’s law thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/04/t...

The Texas Senate has passed HB7, which will incentivize people to bring $100k lawsuits against anyone who makes, sends, or transports abortion medication in Texas. A Texas mother who nearly died giving birth warns HB7 does not protect anyone. “Let doctors treat bleeding without a lawyer." ⬇️

“Women of childbearing age should just leave Texas.” Okay, aside from the economics of that... I’m an eighth generation Texan whose ancestors were among the first-ever to plant oats in places towns later formed. I deserve the right to stay here and fight for my home by telling the truth about it.

Apparently banning weed gummies is harder than outlawing women’s rights, because THC is still legal in Texas. ⬇️

Researchers at Texas State University examined 189 drownings and found no evidence of the “Rainey Street Ripper” — a rumored serial killer in Austin. But conspiracy theories aren’t easy to squash. Skeptics online have turned on both police and the study’s authors. thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/02/n...

As a lifelong Cowboys hater, @briangaar.bsky.social admits he’ll never love the team. But after watching Netflix’s deep dive, he can’t help but appreciate the Arkansas oilman who turned the franchise into America’s soap opera. ⬇️

not me finally sitting down to work on our employee handbook and… getting weirdly excited about an employee handbook? one of the best things about @thebarbedwire.com is getting to change all the things I saw go wrong in newsrooms. (also Love Island in the background bc motivation)

Hi, I wrote about the new Cowboys Netflix documentary from the perspective of a lifelong Cowboys hater. And it made me... like Jerry Jones? thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/02/j...

“Jerry Jones is basically our Queen Elizabeth” has to be one of the best analogies to ever come out of a @thebarbedwire.com editorial meeting. Read @briangaar.bsky.social and prepare to feel some sort of way for the Dallas anti-hero. thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/02/j...

On Labor Day, @thebarbedwire.com is spotlighting the “invisible labor” that abortion bans have put on healthcare workers and their patients. Because the more dangerous pregnancy is for Texans, the more laborious it is for healthcare providers and their patients. thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/01/t...

Since no one's written about Arch Manning yet I figured it fell on me, the greatest sportswriter in America, to give the kid some publicity thebarbedwire.com/2025/08/29/l...

it’s the “eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated” section for me… “The intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines favoring natural infection and unproven remedies will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer.” 🤯

it’s not just school shootings… stabbings are increasing in Texas schools, which surprised me as we started working on this story. the solutions thus far are disciplinary. for example, a new law allows kindergarteners to be suspended… which is not what parents are asking for, to put it mildly.

the first school shooting after sending your child to their first day of school is some sort of dystopian American right of passage that I’m marking today I guess

I wrote about how incredibly messed up Texas politics has gotten over the last 12 months. thebarbedwire.com/2025/08/26/t...

another day, another false profit accused of making personal servants ransport women to him, then forcing them to take Plan B what’s unsaid in this indictment is… wtf is happening between those two steps? rape? is this sex trafficking? are forced labor charges really that much easier to prosecute?

today is the 1st birthday of @thebarbedwire.com and editor @briangaar.bsky.social summed it up: when we launched, the Texas government was dysfunctional. now it’s dystopian. “Lately, it feels like screaming into a void filled with Ten Commandments posters.” thebarbedwire.com/2025/08/26/t...

"We believe Texas can be better — but only if we fight for it." As we mark one year at The Barbed Wire, @briangaar.bsky.social writes that our job as journalists is not just to document Texas’ decline into a right-wing fever dream, but to remind you that democracy and decency still matter.

cool take we need so much more of this than some new multimillion dollar pseudo-left group blog

Journalists Are Just as Fucked Up as Everyone Else. Admitting It Might Help Us Save Democracy. "In today’s world, we have an obligation to do better. And to make the people in power sweat. Important @carakelly.bsky.social piece on why journalists must do better. thebarbedwire.com/2025/08/18/j...

At, @thebarbedwire.com we’re reflecting on the state of independent journalism ahead of our first birthday. From @carakelly.bsky.social: Investigative journalism actually can save democracy — but only if we abandon the myths of “both sidesism” and “moral clarity.” thebarbedwire.com/2025/08/18/j...

hi its me. I’m the USA Today reporter the Uber spokesman “trashed” rape victims to. their 3rd party adjusters were hounding victims. I recall disparagement of their home lives, implying they were from ‘troubled backgrounds.’ and blaming a girl who’d been drinking. www.usatoday.com/story/news/i...

“For a quorum break to stop passage of any bill, that means you have to break quorum indefinitely, for months or years, even. That’s obviously not realistic,” Turner told @thebarbedwire.com So what’s the point? To warn others: you’re in the redistricting fight too thebarbedwire.com/2025/08/05/t...

here’s a rough translation of Abbott’s reaction to Dem’s quorum break: I’m going to try to remove democratically elected officials from office for not supporting my plan to take away the ability of voters to democratically elect the officials of their choosing… thebarbedwire.com/2025/08/04/q...

“The Republican governor of Texas is out of his mind,” U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on CNN Monday. “There is no basis to charge these House Texas Democrats.” thebarbedwire.com/2025/08/04/q...

it’s easy to zone out on gerrymandering news — I usually do bc it feels like a foregone conclusion — but here’s why you should be pissed: “voters will no longer have the ability to choose our politicians if our politicians can, on a whim, choose their voters” thebarbedwire.com/2025/07/31/t...

Tech bros, it’s your time to shine! “Love is Blind” is casting in Austin. It might be a lofty goal to cast in the slightly male-dominated Austin, whose men earned Match.com’s 2018 label of “worst behaved singles” in the country.

📣 TX Journos:Want to join our @thebarbedwire.com email list for pitch calls? We’re looking for hot takes, enterprise, investigative and culture stories others don’t deem “their target audience.” (I’m looking at you, journalists of color) DM me! CC: @oliviamesser.bsky.social @carakelly.bsky.social

State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, author of Texas’ abortion trigger ban, denies allegations from a former exotic dancer who claims he paid for abortions. Capriglione recently announced he won’t seek reelection, but some state leaders are now calling for his resignation. Learn more at the link ⬇️

NEW bombshell allegations from the Texas Legislature today. The author of Texas’ abortion “trigger ban” has been accused by a former exotic dancer of paying for abortions. He has denied the claims and threatened to sue the outlet that ran them. More: thebarbedwire.com/2025/07/25/t...

well my Friday really changed direction… as always, @oliviamesser.bsky.social and I are available for your tips, suggestions, comments, reactions… tell us what we should know. thebarbedwire.com/2025/07/25/t...

I’ve had a lot of “y’all this is crazy” moments since starting to cover Texas 2 yrs ago. learning that 2/3 of Texas prisons don’t have a/c & everyone knows its unconstitutional & people have died & the state has had to pay $$$ in lawsuits & still no a/c is WILD. thebarbedwire.com/2025/07/25/t...

When Dr. Adil Husain finally reached the hospital in Gaza, he told the staff he didn’t mind working 12-hour shifts. They laughed. “You’re not going to survive more than four-hour bursts,” they told him. thebarbedwire.com/2025/07/22/c...

a hard but essential read. I’m so glad we could run this piece from Tyler, and at the same time when so many are warning of mass starvation in Gaza. as Dr. Adil Husain told @tylerfromtexas.bsky.social “This is a man-made starvation.”

Doctors like Adil Husain are experiencing a reality many continue to deny exists. As the few remaining journalists in Gaza face the brink of starvation, visiting physicians are thrust into roles as messengers while coping with the horrors they witnessed. thebarbedwire.com/2025/07/22/c...

32-year-old Adil Husain tells @thebarbedwire.com he’ll spend the rest of his life thinking about the patients he couldn’t save on his 2-week trip to Palestine. Our in-depth interview with a Dallas ER doctor who remains haunted by the incomprehensible devastation. thebarbedwire.com/2025/07/22/c...

“This is pure and simple mismanagement at the highest levels that in all the way up to the fire chief, the city manager and the Mayor of the City of Austin,” said Randell Nations, a retired Austin firefighter. thebarbedwire.com/2025/07/17/a...

Austin just proposed cutting $8.6 million from the fire department’s overtime budget — right after historic floods killed at least 134 people in Central Texas. Learn more: