Thirty-nine-year-old Jordan Macha spent more than ten summers at Camp Mystic, as both a camper and a counselor. She can imagine in precise detail how the youngest girls, age 8, were tucked into their beds on Thursday in their cabins overlooking the Guadalupe River — hours before it swelled 26 feet in 45 minutes in […]
Author Archives: Olivia Messer
Olivia Messer is editor-in-chief of The Barbed Wire. Her decade-long, dogged investigative work on the Texas Legislature has repeatedly exposed a culture of sexual abuse and harassment, sending bipartisan shockwaves through the state and leading to significant reforms. (Keep sending her tips: olivia@thebarbedwire.com.)
Olivia grew up in Houston, then cut her teeth as a local crime reporter for The Waco Tribune-Herald before moving to New York, where she wrote for The Daily Beast’s award-winning Cheat Sheet newsletter and then national news desk. She is now based in Austin and has published work in Rolling Stone, Marie Claire, Slate, Texas Monthly, and Texas Observer. Tina Brown once called her “meticulous,” and Barbara Bush once read to her elementary school class. Her forthcoming novel — about a journalist losing her grip on reality — is called Something’s Wrong With the Girls and will be published by Rare Bird.
Posted inNews
Congressman and Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner Dies at 70
Congressman Sylvester Turner, who was just two months into his first term representing the 18th Congressional District of Texas, died on Tuesday, according to the Texas Democratic Party. He was 70 years old. Turner told the press in 2022 that he was cancer-free after secretly receiving treatment for bone cancer. Turner was elected to Congress […]
Posted inNews
Fight, ‘Stampede’ at Dallas Cheer Competition Injured 10
Ten people were transported to the hospital on Saturday afternoon after a fight broke out between parents at a cheer championship in Dallas, WFAA reported. During the fight, multiple poles were reportedly knocked down, and the loud noise caused panic. In the chaos, people began running, spurring a stampede, Dallas police spokespeople told The Dallas […]
Posted inHealth
Post-Roe Stats Keep Getting Worse: 6 Texas Children Under 12 Got Abortions Out of State in 2023
Last week would have marked the 52nd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which guaranteed the federal constitutional right to abortion — until it was overturned in 2022. As data rolls in showing the detrimental effects of abortion bans like the one in Texas, the numbers only get more grim. One […]
Posted inNews
Cecile Richards, Former Planned Parenthood President, Dead at 67
Cecile Richards, the eldest daughter of Texas Gov. Ann Richards, died on Monday at the age of 67, according to a statement from her family. Richards, a lifelong feminist activist and advocate for reproductive rights, had an aggressive form of brain cancer. She remained active in Democratic politics throughout her diagnosis. “This morning our beloved […]
Posted inPolitics
Abbott Threatens to Fire Texas A&M President Over a Conference Invitation for Black, Latino, and Native American Students
It’s a new year, but Gov. Greg Abbott’s got the same old hobby: staging dramatic meltdowns over diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Yep, it’s another chapter in a never-ending DEI witch hunt starring Abbott, who’s once again playing tough guy for the right-wing crowd — and this time he’s threatening to fire the president of […]
Posted inEditor's Letter
Best of The Barbed Wire 2024: Video Games, Peyote Gardens, and Millennial Revolutions
In the four months since we launched, we have (hopefully!) made you laugh and think with clever and hard stories. In 2024, over 123 working days, our small team of three full-time editors published approximately 252 stories under 29 bylines — short and long; silly and serious; essays, features, and exclusives. The majesty, absurdity, diversity, […]
Posted inTexana
The Most Delicious Winter Beverage Is Hot Dr. Pepper & Lemon
My dad, now 70, grew up working on farms and in oil patches in South Texas, where the only true choice of tonic during a scorching day was a crisp, cold Dr Pepper from the service station. “They had ice crusted on the edges,” he says. “But you don’t drink cold drinks in the winter.” […]
Posted inArts
10 Perfect Gifts for the Single, Childless Women in Your Life
The holidays are here, which means the single, childless women in your life are baking cookies, hosting dinner parties, and snuggling on their couches with a chic, on-brand blanket. These gifts — for your ambitious loved ones who’ve just deleted Hinge again — are thoughtful and specific. Many of them are also made by good […]
Posted inPolitics
Texas Happily Offers Up Land For Trump’s Mass Deportations
Texas has decided to play real estate agent for the incoming Trump administration, offering up 1,400 acres near the border for the historic mass deportations. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham wrote to President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday, pitching the idea of turning the former ranch into shiny new “deportation facilities” — nothing says Texas hospitality […]