• 2017 Was Texas’ Second-Warmest Year on Record
   
• ‘A Problem of Political Will’: Why is Texas’ Maternal Mortality Data so Far Behind?

• Tracking a Deadly Cat on the Texas Frontier in ‘The Which Way Tree’

The Lede
Big Trouble in Little Cambodia

• In the Observer's newest feature, Michael Hardy reports from the unincorporated refugee community of Rosharon, about 45 minutes outside Houston. Nearly every home here suffered severe flooding during Hurricane Harvey, and many were total losses.
   
• Residents, many of whom survived the Khmer Rouge genocide before resettling in Texas, were desperate for help. That’s when a coalition of Neo-Confederate and white supremacist groups moved in. 
   
• At first, the community welcomed the help of the bearded men in Confederate flag jackets. But when FEMA and a TV news reporter showed up, the groups ran them out of town. 
   
• The groups remained in Little Cambodia for more than two and a half months, until residents insisted that they begin cooperating with FEMA. And they plan to return for Cambodian New Year in April, as well as to replicate their relief efforts wherever the next natural disaster strikes.

From the archives
The First Time Texas Killed One of My Clients

• An attorney pieces together a life cut short in this story from 2016.
   
• From the story: "Shortly after I joined Marvin’s legal defense team, my colleague Kate took me to meet him on Texas’ death row. We sat in the visitation booth, separated from Marvin by a pane of glass. He spoke to us through a crackly telephone, elbows on the metal table in front of him. He wore a white uniform. Kate and I talked with Marvin about football. She loved the Broncos and he loved the Texans. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of sports, and listened to them every day on his prison radio. Beyond sports, I did not know how to speak with him. He answered my questions with one-word answers. He had no interest in his legal proceedings. He shrugged when Kate talked to him about the execution date, just a few months away."

What’s Happening at the Observer

• Our annual rollicking Rabble Rouser returns! Admission is $30. The first 100 tickets sold include a beer. All tickets come with a free Observer Fight for Truth koozie.