The Texas Observer • February 10, 2025

Remembering Boca Chica Beach—Before Elon Musk Came to Town

One Saturday late last summer, Boca Chica Beach was cloudy and oppressively humid. An incoming thunderstorm stretched from Matamoros to Brownsville several miles away, which I could see over the flat Tamaulipan thornscrub, just past the duneline and SpaceX’s launch towers.

Deceleration • January 28, 2025

Hawaii State Leaders Demanding Full EIS of SpaceX Starship Program – Deceleration

Hawaii state representatives are demanding the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) study more deeply the impacts of SpaceX’s Starship program, which launches from South Texas, on the waters the rocket is supposed to land in just off the coast of the state.

Deceleration • January 21, 2025

Raining SpaceX Debris Raises Impact Fears as Musk Ascends Alongside Trump – Deceleration

SpaceX’s first Starship launch from South Texas in 2025 ended last Thursday much like most others have: in an explosion. Rather than debris raining down in Port Isabel and around Boca Chica Beach, however, properties in the Turks and Caicos Islands were subject to pieces of Starship, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Texas Observer • December 19, 2024

Brownsville Elected Officials Are Doing PR for Embattled LNG Megaproject

Local elected officials in the border city of Brownsville are receiving talking points and media strategy from the company developing Rio Grande LNG—the Central Park-sized liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant project being built in wetlands outside Port Isabel—as the company attempts to stymie a recent court order to halt its project, emails obtained by the Texas Observer show.

Deceleration • November 30, 2024

How SpaceX Is Colonizing South Texas En Route to ‘Occupying Mars’ – Deceleration

Climbing the Port Isabel Lighthouse’s narrow, spiral staircase is a rite of passage for locals here, usually done in elementary school on a short field trip and rarely repeated. I’ve ascended it several times since then and did so again for SpaceX’s sixth Starship launch after an invite from a member of Port Isabel’s marketing department.

The Texas Observer • October 28, 2024

In the Rio Grande Valley, a Humbled GOP Battles with Democrats for the Center

Trumpian Republicans run left on abortion, border Dems sound more like national politicians, and both ignore crucial grassroots issues.

Deceleration • October 22, 2024

Corpus Christi Solidarity Action Decries Desalination & Polluting Industry as Election Gets Underway – Deceleration

Heading into the last weekend before early voting, Hillcrest, the Northside Corpus Christi neighborhood with a long history of resident-displacing projects, was once again the center of local organizing against the state’s biggest industries.

Deceleration • October 17, 2024

Corpus Christi 'Clean Slate' City Council Candidates Pledge to Resist Extractive Industrial Interests – Deceleration

Over the last decade, Corpus Christi has become an enigma.

MySA • August 6, 2024

Can Harris count on RGV voters? Here's what the Valley is saying

In the Rio Grande Valley, an area that largely votes for Democrats in presidential elections, enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris is growing. In Cameron County, more residents are asking local Democratic Party officials how they can help the Harris’ campaign.

Deceleration • July 19, 2024

Community Vision for Corpus Christi Park Challenges Political Failures and Heat Island | Deceleration

For years a park on Maple Street in Corpus Christi—in what we now know is one of the hottest parts of this coastal city—sat overgrown, unused, and neglected.

MySA.com • July 8, 2024

South Texas man faces new charges after 13 years of bestiality allegations

Last month, an Alamo man was arrested in connection with criminal trespassing after allegedly having sex with a horse in the Rio Grande Valley. Cirilo Castillo, 54, is now in Hidalgo County’s jail awaiting trial, his latest run through the legal system that his attorney, Savannah Gonzalez, says failed him.

MySA.com • July 6, 2024

Texas residents in Beryl's hurricane path prepare for landfall

As Hurricane Beryl made its way through Quintana Roo and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico Friday, Laguna Madre area communities prepared for what is shaping to be a strong storm

TPR • July 3, 2024

After a month of tar, the South Texas coast is now mostly clear of it. Beryl may change that.

Forty-five years ago in June, an oil rig named Ixtoc I exploded off the Bay of Campeche, filling the Gulf of Mexico with nearly half a million tons of oil.

TPR • May 22, 2024

New report shows Operation Lone Star has spent billions arresting people mostly for misdemeanors

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas released a new report showing that Operation Lone Star (OLS), a state immigration law enforcement program initiated by Gov. Greg Abbott, has mostly arrested people for misdemeanor charges since launching in 2021.

TPR • May 20, 2024

Brownsville library reopens after deadly shooting

A portion of the Brownsville Public Library was already open on Monday morning as a voting booth for local primary runoff elections. But the library’s main room remained dark, with a group of eight or so people waiting silently outside the metal shutter.

TPR • May 9, 2024

Cuellar associates to plead guilty in assisting in bribery scheme, will assist investigation

A former aide and a political strategist for Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar pleaded guilty to assisting the lawmaker with an alleged bribery scheme.

TPR • May 4, 2024

Port of Brownsville candidates say they want to return the port to the people

San Antonio residents face a city- and county-wide election on Saturday. Brownsville residents are also facing their own decisions at the voting booth, including who fills three seats on the Port of Brownsville commission. A team of allied candidates are running to fill all three, calling their platform “Port For All,” a nod to their climate and labor focused movement that started from local organizing against liquified natural gas plants coming to the Port of Brownsville.

TPR • May 3, 2024

Laredo Rep. Henry Cuellar indicted for allegedly accepting $600,000 in bribes from Azerbaijan company, Mexican bank

Laredo Congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, were indicted on several federal bribery, wire fraud, money laundering and foreign interference charges on Friday. If convicted, the Cuellars face more than 200 years each in federal prison.

TPR • April 29, 2024

Brownsville nonprofit launches affordable housing model in more expensive Rio Grande Valley

A nonprofit housing developer in Brownsville is hoping to change how affordable homes are built. Come Dream, Come Build (CDCB), officially launched its DreamBuild modular housing program last week, an effort more than five years in the making.

TPR • April 17, 2024

Ocelot killed in Hidalgo County suggests species’ range has expanded

In 2021, a male ocelot was killed after being hit by a car on Highway 281, just south of Linn, Texas. Its location intrigued conservationists and researchers. They asked: What was it doing away from the critically endangered species’ usual habitat range?