The Texas Observer

The Texas Observer is an Austin-based nonprofit news organization known for fearless investigative reporting, narrative storytelling and sophisticated cultural criticism about all things Texan.

The Texas Observer • VOLUME 5 • SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2021

EDITOR’S NOTE

TO THE RIGHT, TO THE RIGHT • Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton both won Donald Trump’s coveted endorsements. But their 2022 primary battles are just beginning.

ON THE CORONAVIRUS, LOSS, AND MY MOM’S TACOS • My mom’s cooking offered comfort as my dad battled COVID-19.

TEXAS TALLY • THE NEWS, IN NUMBERS

PROMOTING EQUITY • Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, San Antonio’s first openly gay council member, wants a local civil rights office to investigate the kind of discrimination he faced as a city staffer.

STRANGEST STATE • NOTES FROM FAR-FLUNG TEXAS

ALL IN THE FAMILY • For the Parras family, the fight for environmental justice has always been personal.

PORTRAITS OF THE PANDEMIC

JUSTICE FOR SOME • THE TEXAS RANGERS ARE TASKED WITH INVESTIGATING CORRUPTION AND CRIMES BY PUBLIC OFFICIALS. THOSE OFFICIALS ARE RARELY HELD ACCOUNTABLE.

564 INVESTIGATIONS 67 PROSECUTIONS

NO OTHER OPTION • Across the country, medical boards allow abusive doctors to keep seeing patients. And patients addicted to opioids keep going back.

THE FINAL FRONTERA • Elon Musk wants to go to Mars. Money, regulations, and public beaches are no object.

ON THE PORCH CELEBRATES TERLINGUA AND ITS RESIDENTS • Deep in a mountainous landscape, West Texas-born musician W. Chase Peeler stumbles upon a gold mine of music makers who prefer life off the grid.

THE RIVER, AT NIGHT • Where the Rio Grande narrows, migrants take their chance.

FORGETFUL CITY • Dallas’ first freeway was built over a Freedmen’s cemetery, a cultural clear-cutting in a city built on convenience.

TRIGGER WARNING: TIME

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