In books, from @liseolsen.bsky.social: Lauren Hough, and her dog, set out to retrace John Steinbeck's 10,000 mile journey across America. But the trip is very different when you're a queer woman in 2026.

“The University of Texas is dead. Serving at the pleasure of our Governor, you have failed to fulfill your mission, and students mourn what once was.”

When it comes to social work, the reason for diversity training is simple and universal: Everyone deserves competent care. Competence is not a recommendation; it is required. But, predictably, social work programs are under attack.

"In these images and collages, I look back to see where I come from and orient myself toward the person I want to be. As the one so often behind the camera, I step in front of it to place myself in the story."

Out today: “There is simply no excuse for workers being exposed to preventable hazards. Whether someone is a direct employee or a contract worker, their life should never be treated as expendable.”

Update: 8 defendants in the Prairieland case were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 30 to 100 years. The DOJ called it the “first sentencing of defendants affiliated with Antifa following President Donald J. Trump’s executive order designating the group as a Domestic Terrorist Organization.”

NEW: Every drought for the last 30 years in Corpus Christi has exceeded the parameters contemplated in local plans, thanks to fatal delusions, deep in the heart of Texas’ methodology: Texas doesn’t plan for droughts to get worse. www.texasobserver.org/texas-climat...

"the grief the grief the unrelenting grief"

The Texas Observer office is closed next week for summer break. Thanks for your support in 2026! We hope you're having a beautiful and relaxing season wherever you are. 🤠 (📷 Krause Springs, Texas / Wikimedia / M1kmurph1 CC SA license)

Despite all the Trump administration's crackdowns, seven people climbed into a cargo container last month, probably near Del Rio, for a journey by rail to San Antonio. They never made it.

From our magazine, poetry by Ariana Brown: warm funk, thick bass, alarms going going going, full lips and gloss, roast chicken with crackly skin, the car I gave you and the road barreling past ...

Top story: When Jose Luis Bautista fell 8 stories from the ceiling of the SpaceX Starfactory, he became the first worker to die on the job. But far from the first to be injured. The Observer obtained OSHA reports for hundreds of injuries at the site, from burns to broken bones.

“It’s not specific to urban or rural areas. … It’s not confined to any sort of racial or ethnic breakdown. That is why we say it’s not a local failure; it’s a statewide trend.”

From @liseolsen.bsky.social in our magazine: Texas Rangers were asked to assist a border city in three murder cases -- including that of a local attorney. The results? A botched trial; a controversial plea and lots of missing evidence.

The larvae hatch and latch onto their host with hooklike mouthparts, supping voraciously for 14 days before metamorphosizing into adult flies. Female flies can lay 300 eggs at a time, and larvae can feed so vigorously as to cause the death of their host within one week.

"Not a woman and not a man: Conveying my experience of gender with words is clumsy at best. I find peace when I occupy the place in between." In magazine, the photos of Jo E. Norris: www.texasobserver.org/a-mirror-and...

make zines and share zines until they are ubiquitous to the point that there is no stopping or criminalizing them

"As climate models predicted, every drought for the last 30 years in Corpus Christi has exceeded the parameters contemplated in local plans, thanks to fatal delusions deep in the heart of Texas’ methodology." www.texasobserver.org/texas-climat...

Update: 8 defendants in the Prairieland case were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 30 to 100 years. The DOJ called it the “first sentencing of defendants affiliated with Antifa following President Donald J. Trump’s executive order designating the group as a Domestic Terrorist Organization.”

Out today: “There is simply no excuse for workers being exposed to preventable hazards. Whether someone is a direct employee or a contract worker, their life should never be treated as expendable.”

When it comes to social work, the reason for diversity training is simple and universal: Everyone deserves competent care. Competence is not a recommendation; it is required. But, predictably, social work programs are under attack.

“This can happen to you, and if they can do it to you, they will.” From @stevanzetti.bsky.social in March: The convictions of the Prairieland activists puts everyone's right to protest at risk. Today, they were sentenced to 50+ years in prison.

Elon Musk, briefly the world's first trillionaire, has a history of running companies that are especially dangerous for workers. Read @gaigedavila.bsky.social on the recent death of worker Jose Luis Bautista at "Starbase": www.texasobserver.org/worker-death...

New from @dylanbaddour.bsky.social and @insideclimatenews.org: Every drought for the last 30 years in Corpus Christi has exceeded the parameters contemplated in local plans, thanks to fatal delusions, deep in the heart of Texas’ methodology ... Texas doesn’t plan for droughts to get worse.

New from @gaigedavila.bsky.social: Even before its first workplace death, SpaceX saw 427 injuries and 9 respiratory illnesses between 2022 and 2025. These injuries included concussions, burns, partial finger amputations, hernias, dislocations, crushed hands, and broken ribs, legs, and ankles.

“[Texas school closures are] not specific to urban or rural areas. … It’s not confined to any sort of racial or ethnic breakdown." www.texasobserver.org/school-closu...

"In these images and collages, I look back to see where I come from and orient myself toward the person I want to be. As the one so often behind the camera, I step in front of it to place myself in the story."

We've updated this story to reflect today's shocking sentencing hearing, with many defendants receiving the maximum sentence for their charges.

Truly awful

Dems could be capitalizing on the oil price shock and data center backlash by running on a platform of *FREE* energy.

By early 2025, Permian Basin oil wells used 22M barrels of water a day, a figure that one analytics firm expects to climb another 39% by 2035. That is far more water than cities nearby use, surfacing every day in one of the driest corners of the state.

Out today: “Just in this most recent biennium, the state paid $10 billion to charter schools, and that’s at a direct expense to the money going to public school districts … and now districts are also bracing themselves for the anticipated impact of losing students to private schools.”

Extrajudicial punishment is a hallmark of immigration enforcement in this country.

New from @liseolsen.bsky.social: An Austin essayist, and her dog, took a 10,000 mile journey across America in the footsteps of John Steinbeck. In her new book, Lauren Hough explores the landscape of a transformed and transforming country ...

New from Miranda Williamson: In order to receive accreditation, social work programs must ensure students become "culturally competent." That means these programs are some of the last vestiges of so-called "DEI" in Texas universities. Some Republicans want to change that.

New from @josephinelee.bsky.social: The number of Texas public schools facing closure more than doubled from 2024 to 2025, rising from 22 to 50. In the first six months of 2026, Texas school districts have voted to close even more schools—at least 55.

We've updated this story to reflect today's shocking sentencing hearing, with many defendants receiving the maximum sentence for their charges.

The case represents the feds first use of material support for terrorism charges against alleged "Antifa." Experts say the outcome will give the Trump administration the green light to take a more aggressive stance against left-wing activity and further politicize the use of domestic terrorism laws.

“The Trump administration and the media had demonized Antifa all through the first Trump term, and even more aggressively in the second. This concept of terrorism tends to become politicized, particularly when government officials intentionally politicize it.”

New from @jlbuch.bsky.social: “The more deterrence policies the United States implements, the more people are going to die.”

Opposing fascism will earn you a longer prison sentence than perpetuating fascism via an attempted constitutional coup. That's where we're at.

“This can happen to you, and if they can do it to you, they will.” From @stevanzetti.bsky.social in March: The convictions of the Prairieland activists puts everyone's right to protest at risk. Today, they were sentenced to 50+ years in prison.

"The state is increasingly transphobic—but so is our country. Trans people represent a sense of possibility and self-determination that undermines the colonial project that is America."

One of many fun surprises in this book about @laurenhough.bsky.social ‘s #roadtrip with her #dog -Woody Guthrie- was her stop in LA to see my intrepid journalist friend @keribla.bsky.social . A great #summerread

The judge is openly declaring that the fascism is the point.

The First Amendment is effectively dead until the Prairieland political prisoners are fully exonerated and freed.

New from Mezabahnur Masum: The Permian Basin brings up an ocean and calls it waste, while towns not far away ration what comes out of the tap. Can this water be treated and reused? Texas must find a way.

"I think just generally, societally, we were told that only criminals will be arrested. If we believed that at one point, which I really do think a lot of good-meaning folks did believe that, that has completely been dispelled." www.texasobserver.org/dilley-famil...

“This is a beautiful habitat for native plants and for migratory corridors for birds from Central and South America. We have the wall just kind of looming over all this though, like a dark cloud.”

"Not a woman and not a man: Conveying my experience of gender with words is clumsy at best. I find peace when I occupy the place in between." In magazine, the photos of Jo E. Norris: www.texasobserver.org/a-mirror-and...