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
Under policies adopted last year, the VA now refuses to support newly transitioned veterans. Even accessing routine healthcare can be a challenge.
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.
Happy Pride, queer stars. On celebrating loudly, the Queerbomb march, and why the move is to blast the haters with bubbles and keep being you.
In March 2023, we became two of the first women to sue Texas over its abortion bans. While pregnant with twins, we’d each learned that one of our twins had severe complications that were threatening the lives of the other — and our own. Yet, we were denied potentially live-
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.
Fort Worth sisters Donna and Donya Craddock refer to 2020 as “the unicorn year.” There was the COVID-19 shutdown, but there was also something more — a death that prompted a period of racial reckoning. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered on camera by a white police officer
In 1988, the city of Dallas filled in a hole. City council spent half a million dollars to fix a dangerous gap left on a vacant lot by a construction company. Seemingly good news, right? Well, to local LGBTQ+ activists, it was a sign of how little local politicians cared
My brother was wrongfully convicted. My wife is a police officer. My sister is the former city attorney for Austin, Texas. I have worked to free innocent people who were wrongfully convicted in Tarrant County and in the state more broadly. I was not shocked — but still incredibly disappointed — when
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
In Austin, a city with an abundance of drag shows, one monthly showcase offers a unique platform — and launch pad — for emerging talent. “You get to see future legends get their start, and other people just flourish and find their niche.” That’s how “Big Tits, Bigger Dreams,” or BTBD,
EXCLUSIVE If anyone had told Joey Giminiani what was under his house, he never would've bought it. On April 23, Giminiani took off work at the electric utility and joined a Zoom meeting from the home he had sunk his life savings into. He watched as the residential
Culture
Clifton Pappas, who is unhoused, has been a distributor for The Challenger newspaper for a year. He walks Austin streets wearing a black cowboy hat with a short rim and a backpack. He also carries what all distributors do: printed copies of the paper, as well as an ID badge
News
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. Salty water is gurgling up from underground in the middle of the small Permian Basin town of Grandfalls, Texas. The liquid began pooling
Culture
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
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Five Congressmen from Texas are included in a new report released this week on sexual harassment in Congress, which has been rocked with recent sexual misconduct allegations against former U.S. Reps. Tony Gonzales of San Antonio and Eric Swalwell of California. The report by the National Women’s Defense
Immigration
Editor’s note: The views and opinions presented by guest contributors to The Barbed Wire do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the company, the newsroom, its staff, advisers, or advertisers. Emmanuel Gonzalez, a 15-year-old who has a serious intellectual disability, walked away from his mom’
Culture
I have a secret to admit. I’m not a Texas native. Luckily, I’m not a Californian who moved to the Lone Star State. I’m a Nebraskan who fell in love with the Dallas Fort-Worth area. But my introduction to Texas was not the metroplex. Nor was
News
In recent days, Texas Tech University has come under fire by free speech advocates over its decision to cancel programs — and a first amendment lawsuit filed by a student after she was disciplined in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death. The university system will shutter its programs focusing on
Culture
This essay, originally written by Maurice Chammah, is an edition of Redemption Songs, a limited-run newsletter from The Marshall Project that dives into the music produced in prisons over the last century. Sign up now to get a song by incarcerated artists delivered to your inbox each Sunday through
Arts & Entertainment
A pirate radio station broadcasting from inside an art gallery, a cowboy who refuses to be a conqueror, and mirrors positioned so carefully throughout the space that you can't look at the work without looking at yourself. That's ‘The Neon Republic’ — and it might be the
Culture
Nearly two months after University of Texas at Austin President Jim Davis announced plans to consolidate seven ethnic and gender studies departments, students and faculty say they’re still in the dark and bracing for what comes next. On Feb.12, Davis announced a consolidation set to take effect in
Immigration
Obed Valencia wasted no time in his first two years of college. He joined several clubs, made friends, got an internship — he even won a “Most Involved” student award in his first year at Texas A&M San Antonio, he said. “I made the most of it just because
News
In early December, drilling resumed near Mother’s Heart Learning Center. Newly installed gas wells dot property at 2020 S. Watson Road, less than one mile from the day care. One day in December, the sound of fracking machinery was so cacophonous that children couldn’t play outdoors. For gas