The state created “Texas Partnership” charter schools to turn around struggling public campuses, but an Observer ...

All of the Texas Observer’s articles are available for free syndication for news sources under the following conditions: The ...

Republicans want to double down on a system that can keep Texans in jail for years without a trial, while attacking bail ...

A version of this story ran in the May / June 2025 issue. It’s the sort of day where you can tell that the state Capitol is bustling with civic activity well before you pass through the security ...

Orlando J. Pérez, Ph.D., is a professor of political science at the University of North Texas at Dallas, specializing in U.S.

President Donald Trump’s recent Oval Office photo-op with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, who calls himself the “world’s coolest dictator”, was staged to unveil a shiny new ...

The U.S.-Mexico border is perhaps the most widely discussed and poorly understood region in the country. MAGA influencers and nationalistic politicians have inaccurately portrayed border ...

We still have one, after all, so may as well act like it.

A reporter returns to a border town riven by a drug war.

Ruben Gutierrez was convicted of murder in 1999 under Texas’ “Law of Parties.” He says he had nothing to do with the killing.