Southwest (AZ NM OK TX)

December 1, 2025

DEADLINE: Freedomways Reporting Fellowship

Press On's fellowship program runs Mar-Oct 2026. Six reporters and storytellers from the U.S. South will receive support from experienced mentors and participate in a virtual program rooted in the principles of movement journalism. $8,000 stipend. Deadline: Dec 1, 2025.

Visibility: 
Topics on the Beat: 

Oklahoma Regulators Failed to Stop Toxic Wastewater From Oil Field

"Oil companies have polluted groundwater and the environment by injecting oil field waste deep into the earth at pressures high enough to violate Oklahoma law. ... The regulatory agency says it ... has not fined any company for wastewater leaks in the last five years."

Source: The Frontier, 11/03/2025

FEMA Blocks Most Aid Applications After Deadly July 4 Texas Flood

"Only about one-fifth of applicants for federal disaster assistance from Kerr County have been deemed eligible to get financial help so far, leaving hundreds without governmental aid more than three months after deadly floods ravaged the county on July 4."

Source: Texas Tribune, 10/20/2025

"Texas County Sues Trump Admin Over Canceled Solar Grants"

"A Texas county is suing EPA over the agency’s cancellation of nearly $250 million in solar energy grants." "The lawsuit says the Trump administration unlawfully revoked funding for low-income communities to access clean, affordable energy."

Source: E&E News, 10/16/2025

It’s Brown And Burns Your Eyes. Clean Water Elusive in Small Texas Town

"The water isn’t always brown, but Scarlet Weathers lives like it is. Not once has she drank the tap water from her kitchen sink in her house in Sweeny, Texas. She knows, like everyone else in the town, that it can’t be trusted. Even her small grandchildren have noticed it during bathtime. Why is the water brown?"

Source: Capital & Main, 10/15/2025

AZ Hopi Planned To Connect 600 Homes To Electricity, But Funding Was Cut

"For as long as 55-year-old Hopi Chairman Tim Nuvangyaoma has been alive, high-voltage power lines have cut across Hopi lands in northeast Arizona, carrying vast amounts of power long distances throughout the Southwest. But residents of the Hopi Reservation have never been connected to that grid."

Source: NPR, 10/15/2025

"Saudi-Owned Corporate Farms Are Draining Arizona’s Desert Dry"

"Arizona’s lax water laws let corporate farms pump unlimited groundwater to grow alfalfa for cattle overseas, even as local families spend their savings drilling new wells."

Source: Sentient, 10/15/2025

Officials Won’t Give Cancer Data to Polluted Texas Community

"Last year, state epidemiologists studied an industrialized region east of Houston. They reported  finding high rates of cancer, but refused to release key geographic details—a decision some experts say is irresponsible."

Source: Public Health Watch, 10/10/2025

"Exxon Steps Back From Texas Gulf Coast Plastics Plant"

"Exxon Mobil will postpone its plans for a large new plastics production plant on the Gulf Coast of Texas, according to the company. Construction was initially planned to begin next year on the $10 billion facility in rural Calhoun County."

Source: Inside Climate News, 10/08/2025

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Southwest (AZ NM OK TX)