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2014: The Year in Photos

Take a look at our photographers' picks for the top Texas Tribune images of 2014 — from gubernatorial frontrunners to workers injured on the job to the people affected by West Texas' oil and gas boom.

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The Rio Grande has been the lifeblood of the valleys and civilizations it flowed through for more than 3,000 years. As cities and farms suck it dry and a warming climate makes it evaporate faster, the river's future has never been more uncertain.
Credit: Erich Schlegel
Chris Way and his son Ryan, 2, participate in an open carry march on March 12, 2014 during the South by Southwest festival. The event was led by the Austin chapter of Come and Take It.
Credit: Erika Rich
Bernie Tiede, who had been imprisoned since 1997 for the murder of Marjorie Nugent, was released from the Panola County Detention Center in May 2014. He was released on the condition that he live with filmmaker Richard Linklater, director of the movie "Bernie."
Credit: Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson
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Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre
UT Regent Wallace Hall on April 28, 2014. Lawmakers admonished and censured Hall, who was waging a personal investigation into lawmaker influence in the UT-Austin admissions process.
Credit: Charlie Pearce for The Texas Tribune
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis greeted voters while campaigning outside an early voting polling place in Houston on Oct. 26, 2014. Davis was handily defeated by Republican Greg Abbott.
Credit: Michael Stravato
Pump jacks in Reagan County, near the town of Big Lake.
Credit: Tamir Kalifa
A worker provides therapy to a paralyzed 12-year-old girl at the Los Ojos de Dios Center in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico on June 3, 2014. The center opened in 2008 and serves approximately 50 orphan children with disabilities.
Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre
Gerald Cole of Taylor is an advocate for GMO labeling. He is among a small group of farmers and environmental advocates pushing for the labeling of GMO products in Texas.
Credit: Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson
Incoming Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush and UT-Austin President Bill Powers sent out a joint tweet at The Texas Tribune Festival on Sept. 19, 2014.
Credit: Callie Richmond
Glenn Johnson, 55, was injured in a smelting accident near Amarillo in 1997 when a furnace filled with molten metal exploded, crushed him and left major burns across 90 percent of his body. Johnson struggled to get compensation for his on-the-job injuries.
Credit: Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson
Sheep serve as natural lawnmowers at a 4.4-megawatt solar farm in northeast San Antonio on July 8, 2014. The animals' voracious appetites prevent overgrowth at the 45-acre site.
Credit: Charlie Pearce
"Cow Jumping Over Moon," a pumpjack in Luling decorated by artist George Kalesik. Luling, a tapped-out oil town once known as Texas' "toughest," has found a unique way to celebrate its heritage: decorating its aging pump jacks with a full cast of characters.
Credit: Todd Wiseman
Republican state Sen. Dan Patrick at a primary runoff election party in Houston on May 27, 2014. Patrick later won the lieutenant governor's race.
Credit: Michael Stravato
Troy Chamberlin plays with his 5-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, after returning to the RV lot at Custom Touch Village, a so-called man camp established to house workers in West Texas' shale boom. He recently moved to Texas from Colorado, where he worked in corrections.
Credit: Tamir Kalifa
Steve Lipsky shows what he says is the methane contamination of his well outside his family's home in Parker County by igniting the gas with a lighter.
Credit: Cooper Neill
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz speaks during the 2014 RedState Gathering at the Worthington Renaissance Hotel in Fort Worth on Aug. 8, 2014.
Credit: Cooper Neill
Glenn Bailey cleans out the Houston recycling truck he drives after dropping off a load at a waste management facility on March 18, 2014.
Credit: Michael Stravato
Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks to supporters after he is booked into the Blackwell-Thurman Justice Center in Austin following his indictment on two felony counts related to defunding District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg's Public Integrity Unit.
Credit: Bob Daemmrich
Attendees of a San Antonio Water System facility tour sampled treated water at the Dos Rios Water Recycling Center outside of San Antonio on March 19, 2014.
Credit: Gabriel Cristóver Pérez
A program manager in the Harris County Jail's Mentoring Moms program hugs a weeping Marilyn Miles, 35. Miles, who had her eighth baby two weeks prior, is serving time in jail.
Credit: Michael Stravato
The Catholic Charities shelter at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen has provided assistance to hundreds of displaced immigrants who have crossed the Texas-Mexico border.
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera
Oiled birds and stranded boats have been some of the most compelling visual images of the devastation in Galveston Bay in the wake of an oil tanker collision. But marine scientists and fishing industry officials worry that the spill poses longer-term dangers beneath the surface.
Credit: Michael Stravato

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Todd Wiseman’s staff photo

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