Leslie Rangel, a first generation daughter of Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants, is former deputy managing editor for The Barbed Wire. Her award-winning journalism is focused on issues of health, mental wellness, race, gender and social justice.
Health
In Texas, support for abortion rights isn’t always consistent along party lines. Here's a look at the legislators who voted on Senate Bill 8, which outlawed abortion after six weeks and House Bill 1280, which made providing abortions a felony. We also put together a list of
Culture
A Dallas Cowboys’ cornerback confronted a scrum of reporters on Sunday after a WFAA journalist, during the game against the 49ers, tweeted: “What is Trevon Diggs doing on this play?” Critical — though innocuous — as that was, Diggs’ saw it after the team's 30-24 loss and went to
Health
In Texas, the past few years for women have been terrifying. Abortion bans became real. Exceptions turned out to be rare. Some have nearly died during miscarriages. If you don’t feel like you’ve been abandoned by our lawmakers, you might feel like the government is trying to kill
Crime & Justice
(Editor’s note: After this story was published, Guillén’s family appeared with former President Trump on Friday at an event in Austin.) Leave Vanessa Guillén’s sister alone. Guillén, a 20-year-old Houston native and daughter of Mexican immigrants, was last seen in April of 2020 on a
Arts & Entertainment
What goes around comes around, and management for the Dallas Black Dance Theatre is learning the hard way. This past May, its dancers voted to unionize with the American Guild of Musical Artists for the usual reasons — because they wanted better working conditions. Terrell Rogers, one of the fired dancers,
Culture
The Texas Longhorns lost their number one spot as the best college football team in the country this weekend. But fans aren’t blaming the Georgia Bulldogs — they’re blaming Sen. Ted Cruz (who never attended UT) and podcaster Joe Rogan. The Longhorns had a huge matchup Saturday against the
Culture
When Texans go to the hospital for emergency care, starting on Nov. 1, they can expect to answer questions about their citizenship status. On Aug. 8, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order to collect immigration statuses for anyone who uses public hospitals in Texas. The governor claimed undocumented people
Culture
Two hundred and seventy miles north of Edinburg, Abby Garcia walked into mariachi rehearsal at Texas State University on a Wednesday in September. Three years ago, she filmed with a documentary crew for “Going Varsity in Mariachi,” which Netflix released on August 29 after it dazzled the Sundance Film Festival
Crime & Justice
Editor’s note: This story mentions threats of violence against the LGBTQIA+ community. Before dawn on a Sunday morning in April, the bars in Austin had just closed. Joshua Ybarra started walking to his Uber. Then he heard an anti-gay slur hurled at him from behind. Three men leapt
Health
My sister Victoria was wrangling Elias, her then-2-year-old, into his costume on Halloween when the spots of blood in her underwear became worrisome. It was almost exactly two years ago, in 2022, and Elias had woken up from a nap excited about trick-or-treating. She’d
Crime & Justice
Texans have turned to official channels to complain about last Friday’s ear-splitting Blue Alert, which spurred hundreds of angry posts on every social media channel used by the more than 30 million Texans who received the early-morning notification from police. As of Monday morning, approximately 4,500
Crime & Justice
Hundreds of people have taken to social media to share their collective anger — and to announce that they’ve turned off their phone’s public safety alerts — over a 4:52 a.m. Blue Alert on Friday, which sent a piercing alarm to the roughly 30 million people who live