🌵 Somebody Finally Wandered Into the Restaurant
Gina Hinojosa is within striking distance of Greg Abbott. Plus: Bo French, and a No. 1 Longhorns team.
Brian Gaar
Brian is founding member of The Barbed Wire team. A longtime Texas journalist, he has written for the Austin American-Statesman, the Waco Tribune-Herald, Texas Monthly, and more. He was also a writer and producer at Rooster Teeth.
🎨 The Passive-Aggressive Power of Oil Paint
Howdy gang, it’s Brian Gaar with The Barbed Wire. And welcome back to Texas, where the courts have become a judicial choose-your-own-adventure, Greg Abbott is having second thoughts about the surveillance-camera empire his state helped build, Tarrant County is cutting polling places, and Texas is
Greg Abbott Is Obsessed with Feet
Our government here in Texas had a busy week finding new things to be mad about
Can You Still Buy Weed? And Other Texas Questions
Hey y'all, it's Brian Gaar with The Barbed Wire. And good morning to everyone who woke up wondering: Can I still buy weed? Is my salad trying to kill me? Is the power grid about to be eaten by AI? Is Ken Paxton actually losing? And
Ken Paxton Would Like a Word (But Not That One)
The AG walked out of his own press conference. Plus: new witness statements challenge ICE's account of a Houston shooting, and Canada quarantines Texas livestock.
☎️ The Voter-Fraud Tip Line Comes for Its Founder
Paxton's own voting address is under scrutiny, the Bible's headed to Texas classrooms, ICE kills a man in Houston, Democrats float $1,500 checks — and flesh-eating flies enter the feral-hog debate.
Camp Mystic files for bankruptcy, a heated Senate race, one missing giraffe🦒
Howdy y’all, it’s Brian Gaar with The Barbed Wire. Welcome back to Texas, which continues to be the only state capable of producing all of these headlines at the same time. Nearly a year after the deadly Hill Country floods, Camp Mystic is filing for bankruptcy, and the
Flesh-Eating Worms, Hemp Chaos, and a Blue Texas?
Democrats think they might finally flip Texas, state officials are fighting over flesh-eating worms, hemp retailers are once again trying to determine whether their businesses exist in a legal dimension, and Texas Tech is embroiled in a controversy.
🗣️The Texans Who Refused To Shut Up
This week’s stories are about the Texans who built communities, whether that meant opening Black-owned bookstores during a racial reckoning or organizing queer mutual aid in Dallas, decades before Stonewall.
Trump Finally Endorses Paxton, Cornyn Reduced to ‘Good Man’ Status
Donald Trump has officially endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, bucking his party's mainstream donors and siding with the MAGA favorite in the May 26 Republican runoff. In a statement roughly the length of a Russian novel, Trump praised Paxton as an “America First
Did Whataburger ‘Fall Off’? We Sent a Team of Texas Comedians to Investigate.
EXCLUSIVE It was 6 p.m. in downtown Austin. Traffic was humming, and responsible adults were bustling, which is to say it was absolutely the wrong time to eat Whataburger. Whataburger is 2 a.m. food. Eating it while the sun is still up feels like seeing a teacher at
‘I Hate This.’ Texas Cracks Down on THC, Maddening Us All.
Texas is about to Thanos-snap a big chunk of what’s sitting on hemp shop shelves. Thanks to a rules shift taking effect on Tuesday, products that were legal yesterday are suddenly failing the test, sending retailers and THC fans into a tailspin. The Texas Department of State Health