EXCLUSIVE Yamirla Chavez’s last two months at the Refugee & Immigrant Center for Education & Legal Services, or RAICES, are a blur to her now. She’d been a senior staff attorney for the nonprofit organization’s Unaccompanied Children’s Program, fighting in court on behalf of children who fled violence and poverty in other countries to start […]
Category: News
Posted inNews
376 Officers Responded to the Uvalde School Shooting. Why Are Only Two Facing Charges?
Just past 11:30 a.m. on May 24, 2022, four Uvalde school district police officers entered Robb Elementary School. Officers Adrian Gonzales and Donald Page stepped in first, followed by Police Chief Pete Arredondo and Sergeant Daniel Coronado. They heard gunshots coming from two fourth grade classrooms. Over the next 77 minutes, a total of 376 […]
Posted inCulture
Yes, Everything’s on Fire. But People Are Still Helping Each Other.
If you’re reading this, congratulations!!!! You survived 2025. Truly, an achievement on par with running a marathon, passing calculus, or navigating I-35 through Waco without crying. The world right now feels like a group project where half the participants insist that gravity is a hoax, another quarter is trying to monetize gravity with crypto, and […]
Posted inCulture
Dear Santa, Can You Give Texas a Break? We’ve Tried Nothing and We’re All Out of Ideas
Dear Santa, Howdy from Texas, big man. Hope things are well up at the North Pole, where I assume the ice hasn’t melted, the power grid works, and y’all haven’t deported any elves. I’m writing because I have a few tiny Christmas wishes for next year. Nothing huge. Just small, achievable miracles on par with, […]
Posted inNews
Texas Is Leaving Autistic Kids Without Necessary Services, Parents Say. Ken Paxton’s Tylenol Lawsuit Isn’t Helping.
When Nayeli Calderon’s son Sebastian was 2 years old, a daycare teacher suggested she get him tested for autism. That’s when she said the work, and the waiting, began. Sebastian joined a month-long waitlist for a neurologist, who saw him for a few months and then diagnosed him with autism. After the diagnosis came the […]
Posted inOpinion
Remember the ‘War on Christmas’? I Kinda Miss It.
Remember the “War on Christmas”? Yes, that early-2000s fever dream when Fox News convinced half the country that “Happy Holidays” was basically Sharia law in a festive font. A time when the right blamed “secularists” for everything, but everyone understood the subtext: post-9/11 panic, a dash of Islamophobia, and a preview of the endlessly escalating […]
Posted inNews
Jasmine Crockett Is Running for U.S. Senate. Let’s Revisit Her Most Viral Quotes, Clapbacks, and Provocative Alliterations.
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett announced her highly-anticipated run for U.S. Senate on Monday after weeks of rumors, guessing, and national headlines. “Turning Texas blue is what I want to talk to y’all about today. Now, there are those that say ain’t no way,” Crockett said to a crowd of supporters as she officially announced her […]
Posted inInvestigations
Where Did Anti-Trans Laws Start? How a Forgotten Houston Ordinance Turned Into a Massive, Nationwide Culture War
This story is a collaboration between The Barbed Wire and the Investigative Reporting Workshop— a nonprofit newsroom at American University that trains student journalists on in-depth reporting. When she was elected mayor of Houston in 2009, Annise Parker became the first openly gay mayor of a major American city. In 2014, Houston was one of […]
Posted inHealth
Texas’ New Abortion Ban Aims to Stop Doctors From Sending Abortion Pills to the State
This story was originally reported by Shefali Luthra of The 19th. Meet Shefali and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. Texas’ massive new abortion law taking effect this week could escalate the national fight over mailing abortion pills. House Bill 7 represents abortion opponents’ most ambitious effort to halt telehealth abortions, […]
Posted inNews
He’s an Unapologetic Fascist Who ‘Despises’ Democracy. He Still Wants You to Vote for Him.
“If a fascist is merely someone who opposes democracy, then let me be clear: I oppose democracy — and have always opposed democracy,” Jason Lee Van Dyke wrote. That was a part of a lengthy response I received after I’d emailed the North Texas lawyer to ask a few questions because on Nov. 11, he […]