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Featured story from @lisedigger: Samuel Junior Sanchez was among about 300 criminal defendants who’d received notice that they’d been affected by a nationally publicized misconduct scandal. He appears to be the first freed on a plea deal. texasobserver.org/moonlighting-m…

From our magazine: It was a police-led art heist. The target: Some of the most controversial, but best-studied and most-discussed works in U.S. contemporary art. texasobserver.org/fort-worth-sal…

From @GusBova, in our magazine: The majority of U.S. states enacted forced-sterilization laws that targeted the non-white and the disabled, leading to more than 60,000 coerced operations. But Texas, perhaps surprisingly, never passed such a law. texasobserver.org/texas-eugenics…

"When you get intense rainfall, the rain falls on the ground and it runs off quickly because of those steep slopes and it really just accumulates in rivers and becomes this deadly wave of water that travels downstream very fast." texasobserver.org/hill-country-r…

The Texas Observer ran a great review of our new book, “The Purifying Knife: The Troubling History of Eugenics in Texas” texasobserver.org/texas-eugenics…

Kent waded through the floodwaters toward where he kept a ladder. By the time he set it up to reach the outside entrance of the attic, floodwaters were rushing onto the property. They made it just in time to watch the waters rise. They were marooned. texasobserver.org/texans-hang-on…

Farmers, water managers, fishermen, river advocates, and everyday residents told me they would fight for their water to the very last drop. Others have already begun asking the existential question: Where will we go when the river runs dry? texasobserver.org/rio-conchos-te…

From @FrancescaDNunz in our magazine: Those people that are commenting or viewing from a million miles away don’t have a clue. Come to the border and take a tour of the border at any time. ... They’re not gonna see anything, ’cause nothing’s happening. texasobserver.org/val-verde-coun…

In books: Ultimately, the combination of greedy capitalists, right-wing anti-intellectualism, and solidifying religious opposition doomed eugenicist legislation that was considered in Austin between the 1850s and the 1930s. texasobserver.org/texas-eugenics…

Featured story: In the summer of 2002, much of South Texas and the Hill Country was experiencing a bad drought. On June 30, that changed. It began to rain. A lot. texasobserver.org/hill-country-f…

If Elon Musk's natural gas plant proceeds, Abilenians could face increased risks of asthma, lung infections, and other respiratory diseases. While permits for the natural gas plant have already been approved, the fight is far from over. texasobserver.org/abilene-texas-…

From our magazine: The new book, out June 3 from University of Oklahoma Press, unearths a cast of unsavory Texas characters who pushed eugenics from the mid-19th century through the 1930s. texasobserver.org/texas-eugenics…

I'm poetry: I remember the river, flowing so peacefully and slowly you could almost miss its motion texasobserver.org/poem-guadalupe…

New today: People living near a power plant experience an 11 percent increase in asthma rates, a 15 percent increase in acute respiratory infections, and a 17 percent increase in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. texasobserver.org/abilene-texas-…

From @JankCurbelo in 2024: "I fled. Destination: Dallas, where my father lives. I became a man without a country, and I was as terrified of setting foot in the United States as I was of not surviving the trip." texasobserver.org/cuba-journalis…

The on-site natural gas power plant has been authorized to emit 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases and 14 tons of hazardous air pollutants per year. Pollutants emitted from power plants can have serious environmental and health consequences. texasobserver.org/abilene-texas-…

New from Lise Olsen: If approved, opponents warn that a massive new utility project could disrupt toxic sediment, and more, in Lake Livingston—Houston’s “most critical” water source. texasobserver.org/locals-oppose-…

“If you’re not receiving money, you’ve got a target on your back.” From 2024: Texas prison labor is completely unpaid, creating a stark divide between those who get money from home and those who don't. texasobserver.org/the-wages-of-i…

New from Michelle Pitcher: Attorneys went toe-to-toe over the fate of the man whose 2024 execution date was halted in a dramatic eleventh-hour intervention by state legislators—and whose appeals have raised the question of whether a crime occurred at all. texasobserver.org/robert-roberso…

“All of these routes are 100 miles long. Going across the lake is one mile. For the safety of everybody’s drinking water, why go across the water?” texasobserver.org/locals-oppose-…