FORGOTTEN HISTORY: 19 - Caught on Camera

When a Death Penalty ‘Volunteer’ Changes His Mind

Richard Tabler is scheduled to be executed February 13, making him the second person set to be killed by the state in 2025.

Texas Observer · Feb 7, 2025

New DEA Chief’s Background Includes Surveillance Tech and Border Misinformation

Derek Maltz formerly worked at PenLink, a Nebraska-based tech firm that has sold software that can track phone locations without a warrant to agencies like ICE and Texas DPS.

Texas Observer · Feb 6, 2025

Counting Hate: At Least 61 Anti-LGBTQ+ Incidents in Texas Last Year

The LGBTQ+ advocacy organization GLAAD, which tracks incidents, warned that threats against the queer community are likely to worsen under the Trump administration.

Texas Observer · Feb 5, 2025

Cartels Are Not ‘Foreign Terrorist Organizations,’ but Terror in Mexico Is Real

It is difficult to determine how these heterogeneous crime groups target the United States, but Mexican authorities need to respond to what might be called domestic terrorism.

Texas Observer · Jan 29, 2025

Public Education Bills: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Conservative state lawmakers have filed hundreds of bills targeting the school finance system, LGBTQ+ students, undocumented immigrant children, and more.

Texas Observer · Jan 28, 2025

Death in the Desert

Migrants’ bodies pile up in New Mexico after Texas cracks down in the sprawling El Paso sector.

Texas Observer · Jan 27, 2025

Name Games: Trump’s ‘Gulf of America’ Move Flouts History, International Cooperation

The president could just as logically rename the body of water the “Chinese Sea,” one historian argues.

Texas Observer · Jan 24, 2025

Corpus Christi Launches Emergency Water Projects as Reservoirs Dwindle and Industrial Demand Grows

This Texas city has struggled to develop a seawater desalination plant, but its efforts have lagged as thirsty industries arrive and drought persists. 

Texas Observer · Jan 23, 2025

‘How Innocent Do They Have to Be?’: Texas’ First Scheduled Execution of 2025 Raises Thorny Questions

Steven Nelson says he was a lookout for a robbery that ended in a pastor’s death. He’s set to be killed by the state February 5.

Texas Observer · Jan 23, 2025

In Austin, a Rare Prosecution over Worker Death in Trench Collapse

Travis County’s progressive DA has secured indictments for the 2021 death of Juan José Galvan Batalla, remembered as a “cheerful” hard worker and beloved sibling.

Texas Observer · Jan 22, 2025