Texas’ Top Voucher Vendor Taps Abbott Allies in Contract Bid, Program Rollout The New York firm Odyssey is now running the state’s lucrative voucher scheme with a little help from the governor’s friends.

In winning the bid to administer Texas’ school vouchers, the venture-capitalist- backed firm, Odyssey, cultivated close ties to the political world of Gov Abbott, by @byjustinmiller.bsky.social. @texasaft.org @democracymoms.bsky.social @hft2415.bsky.social www.texasobserver.org/texas-vouche...

Exciting news! I've got a forthcoming short story slated for publication on the @talestoterrify.bsky.social podcast. Will update y'all when there's a firm date for release. Thanks to @mlmorgenstern.bsky.social !

Interesting phrasing from the PD's spokeswoman: “The fact-finding mission was planned efficiently to allow investigators the ability to divide and conquer a large footprint of museums and see the artwork on display in real time,” Kretz said.

Fort Worth police spent $7K on New York trip as part of Modern child pornography investigation Five officers visited four New York City art institutions as part of their investigation into allegations of child pornography at the Modern.

Great reporting -- Under the guise of investigating artist Sally Mann, Fort Worth police spent $7,000 on a junket to New York: fortworthreport.org/2025/04/27/f...

Texas Craft Breweries’ Plan to Combat Closures? Playgrounds. After a rough year for the industry, many business are rethinking their business models to sell community first and beer second.

After a rough year for the industry, many business are rethinking their business models to sell community first and beer second. 🍻

Happy Earth Day, y’all! (🎨: Steve Pietzsch for @texasmonthly.bsky.social's special 20th anniversary issue.)

And it turns out we share a birthday!

Carlton Carl, 1945-2025 Carlton was a patriot, feminist, Democrat, journalist, bibliophile, philanthropist, entrepreneur, art enthusiast, history buff, and more. He was a staunch supporter of his family and community, of org...

Carlton Carl was a real one www.texasobserver.org/carlton-carl...

'Procrastinate' literally means “having been put forward til tomorrow.”

‘pro’ (“forward”) + ‘crastinus’ (“of tomorrow”)

We meant to post this weeks ago.

ICE Prosecutor in Dallas Runs White Supremacist X Account The Observer has identified the operator of “GlomarResponder,” an overtly racist social media account, as ICE Assistant Chief Counsel James Rodden, based on an overwhelming number of biographical deta...

Important work being done by @texasobserver.org

www.texasobserver.org/ice-prosecut...

Seasoned shrimp labeled Gulf of Mexico shrimp and pale, gross looking shrimp labeled gulf of America shrimp. I saw this from the Texas Reporter on FB, who credits this to someone named Chris Vasquez with no other identifying info.

As seen on my FB

‘Mortgage’ comes from two Old French words meaning “death” and “pledge.”

…seems like a bit much, right?

A Flesh-Eating Worm Is Crawling Our Way. Can a Pause on Cattle Imports Keep It at Bay? The New World screwworm was eradicated from the state decades ago, but now officials are warning it may be poised to return.

The other is about creepy-crawly, flesh-eating parasites that would like nothing better than to dig into Texas cattle like a buffet: www.texasmonthly.com/travel/new-w...

Big Battle on the Little Wichita A North Texas city wants to build a new reservoir to blunt the effect of future droughts. But many local ranchers say it would destroy their way of life.

Yo, I've got two new stories up over at @texasmonthly.bsky.social. One is about a group of ranchers on the Red River fighting the city of Wichita Falls over its plan to build a massive new lake on their properties. www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/...

‘Nickname’ is not ‘nick’ + ‘name.’

It was originally ‘ekename.’

‘Eke’ was the Middle English word for “also” or “in addition.”

Since ‘ekename’ began with a vowel, people used ‘an’ before it.

Over time, 'an ekename' became 'a nickname.'

New Bee, Who Dis? A Shy, Solitary Insect Is Discovered in Texas The identity of this reclusive species was a mystery that took decades to solve.

New bee alert 🐝
The blue-tinged, solitary species was first spotted near Del Rio in 1987, but its identity remained a mystery until now, writes Chris Collins www.texasmonthly.com/travel/new-n...