Notices by Texas Observer (texasobserver@texasobserver.social), page 2

#BestOf2025: Between 2010 and 2020, Texas ordered employers to pay #workers $99M across 57,000 wage theft cases. As of 2024, 80% of of those wages had yet to be recovered. https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-workers-wage-theft-complaints-surge/

#politics #USpol #news #Texas #HumanRights #labor

“It’s like seeing the eye of Sauron hanging over your city.”

#BestOf2025: The 370-foot-tall Torre Centinela will be the nucleus of Chihuahua’s burgeoning, AI-powered state #surveillance system called Plataforma Centinela. https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-chihuahua-border-ai-surveillance-centinela/

#AI #tech #politics #USpol #news #border #Mexico #Texas

#BestOf2025, from @stevanzetti: The Texas Observer revealed that ICE Assistant Chief Counsel James Rodden operated "GlomarResponder," a white supremacist account on the social network X. https://www.texasobserver.org/ice-prosecutor-dallas-white-supremacist-x-account/

#politics #USpol #SocialMedia #racism #WhiteSupremacy #ICE #immigration #law #news

#BestOf2025, from Michelle Pitcher: “The State of Texas makes every inmate seem like the most evil, horrible [person]. We demonize them, and we don’t see the trauma of people like Pam Perillo.” https://www.texasobserver.org/pam-perillo-women-death-row-community/

#prison #law #DeathPenalty #HumanRights #politics #USpol #news

From #cryptocurrency to adoption, from an immigrant's experience in school sports to a former death row inmate, here are 10 of our best long-form stories of 2025:
https://www.texasobserver.org/best-longform-stories-2025/

#politics #USpol #news #Texas #environment #DeathPenalty #immigration #BestOf2025

Last week from Dylan Baddour and Inside Climate News: Researchers in #Houston found that 90% of new petrochemical facilities will be built in places with high concentrations of people of color and poor families. https://www.texasobserver.org/petrochemical-expansion-harm-communities-of-color-study/

#energy #OilAndGas #politics #USpol #news #environment #pollution #racism #GulfCoast #Texas

The rules at Willie Nelson's #golf course:
Par is what you set it at.
No more than 12 in your 4-some.
Missing balls are considered stolen. (No penalty.)
Bikinis Ok.

https://www.texasobserver.org/willie-nelson-golf-course-essay/

#sports #culture #Texas #music #history #Indigenous

"I am very interested in fighting for a public option, so that every single Texan, every single American, would have the ability to join Medicare and would have that option of affordable, quality coverage."
https://www.texasobserver.org/james-talarico-big-tent-revival-primary/

#politics #USpol #Texas #news #healthcare #Democrats

Since 1973, at least 201 people on death row have been exonerated—meaning cleared of any responsibility for a crime. Eighteen of those people were in #Texas. A recent report reveals how racist the ultimate punishment really is: https://www.texasobserver.org/aclu-report-death-penalty-exonerations/

#DeathPenalty #HumanRights #law #politics #USpol #news #prison #racism

Out today: Daddy doesn’t live in Clint anymore. He’s in an assisted living facility in the city, El Paso, but he visits for family gatherings. Each time, he asks his daughters “¿Mijas, y mi pueblo?” https://www.texasobserver.org/clint-father-eye-on-texas/

#WestTexas #border #culture #Thanksgiving #family #history

“I felt like Dred Scott. I felt like a person sitting in front of white people with no rights, knowing that I hadn’t done anything to anybody, but I could not control what they were trying to do to me.” https://www.texasobserver.org/aclu-report-death-penalty-exonerations/

#DeathPenalty #politics #HumanRights #racism #Texas #law #prison #USpol #news

Last week, from Lise Olsen: Gu's dream of an academic future in #Houston ended in an airless limbo room where the lights never dimmed and the temperatures hovered at around 60 degrees. Instead of entering school, he's now banned from re-entering the U.S. For 5 years. https://www.texasobserver.org/targeting-international-students-texas-trump/

#ICE #immigration #fascism #education #politics #USpol #news #border #Texas #GulfCoast

From our magazine, the latest by Texas Observer cartoonist Ben Sargent.

See more cartoons from Loon Star State: https://www.texasobserver.org/topics/loon-star-state/

#politics #comics #cartoons #Trump #USpol #news

Our top story, by Candice Bernd: A Texas Observer analysis found since 2021, at least 60 cryptomines have been developed or are under construction in at least 33 counties statewide. Experts worry our grid, and #water supply, can't handle the load. https://www.texasobserver.org/crypto-energy-grid-texas-bitcoin-water/

#crypto #bitcoin #energy #Politics #USpolitics #environment #ClimateChange #news

Yesterday: "The death penalty is extremely fiscally irresponsible. It costs more to sentence someone to death and execute them than to sentence them to life in #prison without parole. It’s also an ineffective deterrent to violent crime." https://www.texasobserver.org/pro-life-anti-death-penalty/

#DeathPenalty #politics #USpol #news #law #Republicans #religion #ethics #HumanRights

From 2023: For decades, the U.S. military has targeted communities of color for recruitment. For #immigrants, the #military can offer a path to citizenship, but even for those who are born here, military service offers a way to establish one’s bona fides as an American. https://www.texasobserver.org/latinos-lured-to-the-military/

#politics #Latino #race #USpol #Texas #VeteransDay

New from @josephinelee: Each year, 1000s of students apply for a seat at one of the top performing magnet high #schools in #Houston through an open-enrollment lottery system. But that opportunity could end under a proposal to turn seven of Houston ISD’s top public high schools into private partnerships. https://www.texasobserver.org/houston-magnet-hspva-private-charter-tea-takeover-mike-miles/

#education #GulfCoast #politics #USpol #news #TXlege #Texas

New from Francesca D'Annunzio: The #Texas Department of Public Safety and #ICE recently signed a pair of agreements that will authorize some state police within DPS’s Criminal Investigations and Highway Patrol divisions to effectively operate as ICE agents, on a statewide basis. https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dps-287g-ice-trump-abbott/

#immigration #Trump #fascism #genocide #police #law #politics #USpol #news

Last week: "About 11.4 % (nearly 3.5M) of Texans will lose access to healthy, complete meals. I will no longer be able to buy meat or fresh vegetables. I will lose the only reliable way I have to eat lunch." https://www.texasobserver.org/snap-benefits-shutdown-will-leave-hungry-students/

#hunger #poverty #SNAP #food #Trump #politics #Texas #USpol #news

Earlier: “They stepped on our heads, handcuffed us, and took us to the station. And we didn’t know why we were being arrested. We were scared, because they could shoot us or use a Taser. That’s how it works there: If you make any sudden move, they can shoot.” https://www.texasobserver.org/brazilian-carpenter-detention-vermont-texas/

#ICE #immigration #fascism #genocide #law #HumanRights #Texas #border #politics #USpol #Vermont