The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 7hToday's News Brief: The man shot in the back by an ICE officer in North Austin is now charged with assaulting a federal officer, and the criminal complaint says the officer who fired had no body camera. 1104
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 01/10/2026Today's News Brief: Texas voter ID, explained. Seven forms count, including a Texas driver license, Texas ID card, handgun license, U.S. passport and military ID with photo. 171
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 30/09/2026Today's News Brief: Your Texas election calendar. Here's every date you need for Nov. 3. Screenshot and please share to spread the word. Oct. 5 (next Monday!) is the last day to register or update your name or address. Early voting runs Oct. 19–30 at any site in your county. 153
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 29/09/2026Today's News Brief: Want to vote in November? In Texas you must register by Monday, Oct. 5. You qualify if you're a U.S. citizen, live in the county and will be 18 by Election Day. You can sign up at 17 and 10 months. 1103
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 28/09/2026This evening's News Brief: The Texas Railroad Commission has nothing to do with trains. It oversees your gas rates and whether the gas system is ready for the next Winter Storm Uri. 154
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 27/09/2026Sunday morning News Brief: Ken Paxton never accepted the Sept. 22 Senate debate in the Valley. The day before, he was at a Cypress church rally with Ted Cruz. Two more debates are scheduled, and he hasn't confirmed either. Meanwhile, Texas Southern's new poll has Talarico at 47 and Paxton at 46. 292
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 26/09/2026Today's News Brief: More than a million Texans are on the state's voter suspense list. Check your status in two minutes before the Oct. 5 registration deadline: votetexas.gov → "Am I Registered?" 176
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 25/09/2026Today's News Brief: Texas' voter registration deadline is Monday, Oct. 5. About 1.2 million Texans are on the state's voter suspense list. Check and update at votetexas.gov. 275
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 24/09/2026Today's News Brief: 🎟️ State Fair of Texas tickets are cheaper in 2026! Kids 3–12 are $10 every day, down from $22 on weekends. Adults are $2 less than last year. Parking is down to $25. Buying at the gate saves $2 per ticket. Enjoy! 🎡🎠🎢 020
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 23/09/2026Today's News Brief: Who pays to plug data centers into the Texas grid — them, or you? Last week the House voted 417–3 on a bill about it. Sen. Martin Heinrich blocked it in the Senate, saying it didn't go far enough. 🧵 130
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 22/09/2026Today's News Brief: Texas diesel just hit a record — $5.96 a gallon, per AAA. Even if you never buy diesel, you pay for it. It moves the freight trucks — it's in the price of your groceries before you ever see a gas station. Thoughts on what's driving it? 🤔 2100
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 18/09/2026On today's News Brief: Houston faces the same climate risk as New York, per AlphaGeo's ranking of 72 cities. The difference: New York's adaptation cuts 19 points off its risk. Houston's cuts 15. Dallas and San Antonio also landed in the bottom half. 🏙️ 132
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 17/09/2026Today's News Brief: Texas' GOP nominee for oil and gas regulator saw UT students celebrating a win over Ohio State and called it proof Americans are being "displaced by foreigners." His own party pushed back. He called them "less conservative." 182
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 16/09/2026Today's News Brief: Hemp and marijuana are the same plant. The legal difference is one number — delta-9 THC by dry weight, from the 2018 Farm Bill. "By dry weight" is the whole game. Make the gummy heavy enough and it carries ten milligrams of THC and still tests under the line. 150
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 15/09/2026Today's News Brief: Texas' report on women who die in pregnancy and childbirth was due 9/1. It's now due 12/1 — a month after the election. This is the first report to examine deaths under the abortion ban. But it reviews 2024 cases only, and skips 2022 and 2023, the first two years of the ban. 167
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 10/09/2026Today's News Brief: The big Dallas GOP convention protest march is today. Organizers applied for a permit in early August. For a month, Dallas said nothing. No permit was ever issued — this was an application, stalled and killed. The coalition says it's marching from Pike Park anyway. 193
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 10/09/2026Texas relies on sales and property tax — and neither one asks what you earn. The sales tax on a new phone is identical whether you make $30,000 a year or $3 million. If you rent, you're paying property tax too. 0115
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 11/08/2026Ken Paxton is losing in four straight Texas Senate polls. Fox News: Talarico +3. Texas Southern: +2. YouGov: +3. Texas A&M: +4. All inside the margin of error. Cook still rates it Lean Republican. One poll is a data point. Four in two weeks is a pattern. 1115
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 07/08/2026An ICE agent shot Lorenzo Salgado in Houston. The only witnesses — 3 men in his van — were all put in immigration detention. No body cam, no dash cam, nothing to settle whose account is true. A judge ordered one released. Two are still held. Full story from @texastribune 0811
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 06/08/2026Austin's been promising light rail longer than some of you have been driving. This week it bought the trains: 21 electric Stadler cars for Project Connect, a ~$353M program, construction aimed at 2027, riding in the 2030s. Via The Daily Texan. 🚈 0160
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 05/08/2026Three Texas Senate debates have dates: Sept 22 Rio Grande Valley, Oct 6 Dallas, Oct 13 Austin. Talarico accepted all three. Paxton's campaign says he'll debate but hasn't confirmed a date. Agreeing to debate and agreeing to show up are two different things. 091
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 31/07/2026A federal bill would strip school funding for any material that "involves gender dysphoria or transgenderism." House version cleared committee in March. Senate companion is in HELP now. The ALA calls it "dangerously broad." Texas wrote this playbook. Congress is reading from it. 096
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 24/07/2026🧐 Ken Paxton's Address Problem Just Became a Formal Complaint The Collin County Democratic Party has asked the Texas Secretary of State to investigate whether Ken Paxton committed voter fraud by voting in the May Senate runoff from an address where he appears not to have lived. 1182
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 23/07/2026🚸 Ease Off the Gas for 'Operation Slowdown': Texas just launched a two-week statewide speed crackdown, July 18–August 2 — expect a lot more troopers watching for speeders statewide. Consider this your sign. 😉 #Texas #OperationSlowdown #TexasNews #RoadSafety #TxDOT 173
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 22/07/2026🙊 What can and can't Texas professors teach? A new federal lawsuit against the Texas Tech University System lays out what professors say they were ordered to cut from courses. 🧵 12813
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 16/07/2026Other Texas cities are already calling San Marcos to see if the ban survives. We'll be watching what happens when it hits the courts — and the Capitol. Follow along. 👇 🎥 Mario has the News Brief. 030
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 16/07/2026The Texas grid is about to get tested again. ERCOT expects power demand to top 92 GW this summer — an all-time record. Driving it: heat, a growing state, data centers and crypto mines. ERCOT puts the odds of an emergency this month under 1%. If you lived through 2021, you're allowed to be skeptical. 1279
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 15/07/2026The Democrat out-raised the Texas GOP machine 3 to 1... Talarico's campaign says he pulled $30M between April and June. Paxton: just over $9M. Most common job among his donors — teachers! Most gifts under $100. FEC reports are due today — we'll bring you the latest when they're released. 0155
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 11/07/2026News Brief: 35 years in Houston. One ICE traffic stop, and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo didn't come home. ICE says self-defense; his family disputes it. Body-cam and dash-cam footage exists — the family wants it released. Please share & follow for the latest from The Barbed Wire. 2126
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 09/07/2026Is smokeable hemp legal in Texas? Depends what month you ask. Banned, then legal, then banned again — while ~30,000 jobs hang in the balance and Dan Patrick pushes for a total ban. Trial's set for July 27 in Travis County. Our 60-second brief on an industry stuck in legal limbo. 🎙️ 051
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 09/07/2026The Onion officially relaunched InfoWars — as a parody — and is donating $100K to the Sandy Hook families Alex Jones spent years smearing. Tim Heidecker now hosts, selling a supplement that "replaces breathing." Our 60-second brief on the dumbest, best revenge on the internet. 🎙️ 0272
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 29/05/2026if you wanna see Olivia’s memes and memories ♥️ of TBW 030
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 04/03/2026We’re LIVE with Olivia Messer, our editor in chief, and our panelists of experts, commentators, and creators, talking about the Texas Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. Join and share your questions as unpack this race. www.instagram.com/thebarbedwir... 0199
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 03/03/2026Have you voted yet? 🗳️ Send us a pic with your "I voted" sticker, and you could end up on our social media. 1266
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 03/03/2026 Find us live on Bluesky, Instagram, and YouTube Tuesday, March 3 at 6 p.m. CT. 073
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 03/03/2026We’ll chat about “electability,” the candidates’ policies — and the glaring spotlight on political content creators this cycle. 100
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 03/03/2026Join The Barbed Wire editor-in-chief Olivia Messer and special guests on Tuesday, March 3 at 6 p.m. CT. 131
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 03/03/2026The Texas Democratic primary for U.S. Senate has been a wild ride. The Barbed Wire will unpack it all while we all wait for the results to roll in, from the primary’s historic turnout to the scandals (with a keen eye on fact-checking). 34120
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 18/02/2026If you’re a paying member of @thebarbedwire.com — did you receive a Valentine from us? If you’re not a member (and you care about the independent journalism we keep free to read): Do you wish you did? thebarbedwire.com/become-a-mem... 164
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 03/02/2026UPDATE: Texas state Rep. James Talarico has responded, claiming the comments being discussed were "a mischaracterization of a private conversation" and that he was describing Congressman Colin Allred's "method of campaigning as mediocre" — not his life or service. 163
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 06/01/2026AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! (look who is verified now 😏) 1533
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 11/11/2025Tired of the club scene? Queer and trans folks are finding creative, sober ways to connect and build community, reports @kitoconnell.com in our latest piece for Big & Bright 🌈⭐👏 , The Barbed Wire’s space for queer life in Texas :) thebarbedwire.com/2025/11/10/q... 0217
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 27/10/2025Texas is one of the queerest states in America — 1.8 million of us, more than double the number of queer New Yorkers. Welcome to Big & Bright 🌈⭐👏 , The Barbed Wire’s new space for queer life in Texas! Subscribe here: thebarbedwire.com/subscribe-bi... 511339
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 24/04/2025She stripped down in Dealey Plaza, dropped jaws, and made the best damn Texas music video of all time. Sorry, Beyoncé. Full story here: thebarbedwire.com/2025/04/24/e... 071
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 24/04/2025And just like that… we're having our very first live event! Tonight we’re teaming up with @howdypolitics.bsky.social in Austin to talk all things Texas—politics, culture, chaos, you name it. Can’t wait to see y’all there! 050
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 11/04/2025A white labradoodle held the “keys” to the case after a woman was killed in Robinson, near Waco. Read more: thebarbedwire.com/2024/11/14/y... #nationalpetday 130
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 08/04/2025After just a few minutes, Musk had to log off in humiliation. Maybe it’s his new fetish? Find out what caused all this here: thebarbedwire.com/2025/04/08/e... 061
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 03/02/2025Texas bladesmith Johnathan Sibley shut down a couple’s Nazi request with a firm “No Nazi bullshit,” refusing to swap a Hitler Youth knife emblem. His wife says these requests aren't new, “at least a few a year.” Read more: thebarbedwire.com/2025/02/03/t... 0206
The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 31/01/2025If Texas cities were characters in Severance… and honestly, the accuracy is unsettling. Which one is your city? Or better yet, which one are you? #Severance #Texas 1224
