In case you find yourself this holiday season with a little extra reading time, or maybe time to return to a story you left open in a tab some many months ago, here are 10 of the best Observer longform stories from 2025 (in chronological order). May they enrich you for the now, and steel you for the future.
1. Texas’ War on Drug Users. A mass overdose event in Austin reveals the state’s backward approach to the ongoing crisis spurred by fentanyl and other super-potent substances. By Jason Buch
Two people walk through an alley near the site of many of the overdoses in Austin. (Joseph Rushmore)
2. ‘This Town Has Nothing’: Rural Texas’ Mental Healthcare Crisis. Against long odds, Sweetwater’s public hospital recruited counselors to help address a wave of mental health crises in rural Texas—yet struggles continue. By Daniel Carter
Candi Garrett stands on the spot where her husband died by suicide in 2019. (Shelby Tauber)
3. The Crypto Racket. Public officials at all levels are propping up a Texas Bitcoin mining boom that’s threatening water and energy systems while afflicting locals with noise pollution. By Candice Bernd
(Guillermo Ortego)
4. Texas Already Gives Public Ed Dollars to Private Operators. Here’s How That Worked Out. The state created “Texas Partnership” charter schools to turn around struggling public campuses, but an Observer investigation has uncovered numerous academic and financial issues. By Josephine Lee
(Illustration/Ivan Armando Flores)
5. Wrestling with the American Dream. Afghan refugees find a home on a San Antonio high school athletics team. By Brant deBoer
(Christopher Lee)
6. ‘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)
7. The Adoption Trap. Private foster care and adoption agencies in Texas are brokering contracts for moms to turn over their children in a murky legal world, spawning protracted civil custody battles. By Sandy West
(Guillermo Ortego)
8. The Eyes of Chihuahua. The 20-story Torre Centinela looming over Juárez is part of a much larger AI-powered surveillance system that won’t stop at the Texas-Mexico border. By Francesca D’Annunzio
Torre Centinela remains under construction in the heart of Ciudad Juárez. (Omar Ornelas)
9. Pam Perillo’s Sisterhood of the Condemned. She’s a death row survivor, but she doesn’t think she’s really any different from her friends who are still set to die. By Michelle Pitcher
Perillo at the Dominican Sisters of Houston Spirituality Center in August (Michelle Pitcher)
10. Lina Hidalgo Had a Vision. Harris County Won’t See It. Her anti-climactic exit from office caps a saga of waning power and growing discord. But what her rise once promised is worth remembering. By Sam Russek
Hidalgo awaits the arrival of Vice President Kamala Harris in Houston in November 2023. (Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto via AP)
The post Our Best Longform Stories of 2025 appeared first on The Texas Observer.
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