Our Most-Read Stories of 2025

Web traffic is a fickle thing, but online readership numbers do at least give us at the Observer a sense of what stories are making a splash with a bigger audience, and that’s useful information for us to have. So, for my benefit and perhaps yours, here’s a moderately curated list of our most-read stories of 2025.

1. 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 details matched through publicly available documents, other social media activity, and courtroom observation. By Steven Monacelli

(Shutterstock, X)

2. Veterans Who Work in Texas VA Health System: ‘The Dam’s Gonna Break’. Some vets say they’re being hurt as both workers and patients by Trump administration staffing decisions. By Josephine Lee

(Shutterstock)

3. How Voucher Vendors Could Make Millions from ‘School Choice’ in Texas. The Legislature’s current proposals put a handful of private contractors in the driver’s seat. Other states have already seen problems. By Josephine Lee and Justin Miller

(Logan Hannigan-Downs/College Station Eagle via AP)

4. Name Games: Trump’s ‘Gulf of America’ Move Flouts History, International Cooperation. The president could just as logically rename the body of water the “Chinese Sea,” one historian argues. By Lise Olsen

Mercator 1569 world map (Wikimedia Commons)

5. Texas Can’t Keep Up with Surge in Workers’ Wage Theft Complaints. State labor investigators struggle to process more and more paycheck complaints, with millions of dollars in workers’ pay at stake. By José Luis Martínez

(Shutterstock )

6. The Love and Loss of the Quintanillas. A new documentary uses archival family footage to retell the story of Selena y Los Dinos. By Francesca D’Annunzio

Selena (Courtesy/Q Productions, Inc.)

7. Reefer Madness Returns to Texas with Dan Patrick’s THC Ban. If the governor signs SB 3 into law, thousands of jobs and billions in revenue could soon disappear. By Kit O’Connell

(Photo illustration; photo Courtesy of Texas Senate)

8. ‘With What Water?’ The shrinking of a mighty Mexican river has hollowed out the economy of Chihuahua’s Conchos Valley and bred civil unrest as South Texas demands the water it’s owed. By Chilton Tippin

La Boquilla Reservoir (Eduardo Talamantes)

9. Son of a Gun: What to Do with a Legacy of (Unwanted) Firearms. I love my dad; I don’t love his guns. By Michael Ward

(Photo illustration by Ivan Armando Flores/Texas Observer)

10. ‘How Innocent Do They Have to Be?’: Texas’ First Scheduled Execution of 2025 Raises Thorny Questions. Steven Nelson says he was a lookout for a robbery that ended in a pastor’s death. He’s set to be killed by the state February 5. By Michelle Pitcher

(Courtesy/Noa Dubois)

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