• ‘Recipe for Disaster’: New Family Detention Center Could Open in South Texas
   
• The Trump Administration Deported up to 12 Parents Without Their Very Young Children

• College Degree Options Are Disappearing for Women in Texas Prisons
   
• Automatic Voter Registration Could Add 2 Million Texans to the Rolls. That’s Why it Won’t Happen.

The Lede
On the Road with Beto

• The next several months will be an experiment at break-neck speed to see if Beto O’Rourke can overcome low name recognition and build a rapport with non-white voters.
   
• In Starr County, O’Rourke barely limped past 30 percent of the vote in the primaries. He lost much of South Texas to one of those underfunded, little-known opponents, Sema Hernandez, and took a little better than half of the vote in many of the state’s largest urban counties.
   
• O’Rourke, for his part, agrees that the campaign has a lot of work to do. “I think we’ve got to do more and a better job, in really every community,” he told columnist Christopher Hooks.

• Dan Patrick, the Person, is Trying to Save the World from Dan Patrick, the Politician
   
• After Decades of Living with Pollution, Relocation Program Offers Corpus Christi Residents a Way Out
   
• Could Private Prison Cash Become a Liability for Texas Democrats?

• After Years of Working with ‘Ritmo’ Detainees, I Know the Inhumane Facility Doesn’t Deserve a Second Chance
   
• A Timely, Enraging Documentary Humanizes the Rape Kit Backlog Crisis
   
• Cash-Strapped Rural Texas Schools Look to Universities for Help

From the archives
In the Name of Our Ancestors

• Before Standing Rock, there was Eagle Pass. Against the odds, indigenous activists take on an international coal mining firm in this 2016 feature.
   
• From the story: “On the day of the April march against the mine, flags with the insignias of a dozen indigenous nations flapped in the wind. Mancias spent the 9-mile march alternating between participating in a drum circle while sitting on a truck bed, and walking with other indigenous leaders and tribal members, some dressed in full powwow regalia. Mancias led a chant: Vote for the water/Vote for the land/Vote like an Indian/Not like a white man.”

Loon Star State

What’s Happening at the Observer

• Submissions are now open for the eighth annual Texas Observer Short Story Contest. Enter by August 6 for the chance to win $1,000 and publication in our October issue. This year's guest judge is Natalia Sylvester.
   
• The Texas Observer has a brand-new merch store! Here you can find all kinds of new ways to show your support for the work we do. Show the world your love for independent investigative journalism, and help pay for it all at the same time!
   
• The "State of Drought" events are almost over — but the conversation doesn't have to end. We launched a Facebook group dedicated to a deep dive discussion of Texas' convoluted and outdated water policy. To join, follow this link and answer a simple screening question. The final water discussion takes place in Brownsville tomorrow.