Since he began touting it on the campaign trail, the idea that President Donald Trump could enact “mass deportations”—totalling perhaps a million a year or more—has been criticized as a tall order. In ...

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Texas Republicans have been wary of unmanned aerial vehicles, with some even backing proposed laws to allow the citizenry to gun down invasive airborne drones. Now, thanks to years of Operation Lone ...

In case you find yourself this holiday season with a little extra reading time, or maybe time to return to a story you left open in a tab some many months ago, here are 10 of the best Observer ...

Around Galveston, Sam Collins III is better known as Professor Juneteenth. For the past 20 years, Collins, 53, has devoted his life to educating the public about Juneteenth—the commemoration of June ...

A version of this story ran in the September / October 2019 issue. In 2012, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was facing an ascendant tea party faction and was leery of political insurrection.

It was mid-afternoon on September 28, 2021, when Antelmo Ramirez began acting strange. A 57-year-old originally from the Mexican state of Nuevo León, Ramirez was working at the sprawling construction ...

A version of this story ran in the February 2013 issue. This story was produced as part of a joint venture with Reporting Texas, an online publication at the University of Texas-Austin’s School of ...

The three syringes lie in a row, lined up neatly on a somber black background. Displayed with a saline drip bag and looping IV catheter, the vials are oversized, as though designed for the chubby ...

Imagine spending 23 hours a day in a cement enclosure the size of a bathroom. Now imagine sitting in that small room nearly all day, every day without respite, for a year, five years, even 10 years.

A version of this story ran in the September / October 2020 issue. The years living on the street showed in Alvin Sanderson’s weatherworn face as he approached the microphone at Austin City Hall last ...