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July 2011

Politics & Policy|
July 31, 2011

Dear Yankee

You didn’t ask, but here’s some free advice for you and the rest of the national press corps as you prepare to write about Rick Perry.

Paul Burka

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Sports|
July 31, 2011

The Rookie

Two and a half years ago, the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum asked me to organize an exhibit about high school football. Did I mention I'm not a curator?

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Music|
July 31, 2011

Crossing State Lines

With a new album, a wildly popular single, and sold-out shows all over America, the Eli Young Band is one of the state's few homegrown acts to transcend the Texas Country Scene.

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Energy|
July 31, 2011

Wind Instruments

From the old-style models to the three-story turbines, windmills are a part of Texas history. The machine's evolution is on display in Lubbock at the world's largest windmill museum.

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Sports|
July 31, 2011

Successful Formula?

Even in this year of massive budget cuts, Texas will likely spend $25 million to help bring a Formula One race to a newly constructed track in Austin’s backyard. Why?

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Editor's Letter|
July 31, 2011

Cover Edge

One of the best—and the hardest—parts of being a magazine editor is deciding what goes on the cover every month. There is nothing else quite like that little rectangle of real estate. Book jackets and album covers are quiet­er, movie posters are less integral to the product, billboards are more

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Roar of the Crowd|
July 31, 2011

Roar of the Crowd

Great EscapeYour colorful, creative, high-profile cover story is especially valued now, when state parks, like all other aspects of state government, will soon face the reality of operating with fewer resources [“Into the Wild,” June 2011]. However, we do have one concern that amounts to a minor quibble when

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Food & Drink|
July 31, 2011

Brasserie 19

When early reports on a restaurant sound like a train wreck, I tend to wait for the debris to be cleared. And Houston’s Brasserie 19—a project of two veteran restaurateurs, Charles Clark and Grant Cooper, of Ibiza and Catalan—had clearly jumped the tracks. In the first few weeks, the Brasserie’s

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Books|
July 31, 2011

Gunfire and Brimstone

Fort Worth preacher J. Frank Norris paved the way for today’s televangelists. But he’s probably best known as the defendant in a wild 1927 murder trial.

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Illustration of a man noodling.
The Culture|
July 31, 2011

How to Noodle

Catching a catfish with your bare hands has been a tradition passed down for generations, but it has only been legal in Texas since June 17. That’s when Governor Rick Perry signed a bill that officially permits noodling. “No one knows why it was illegal,” said Houston representative Gary Elkins,

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The Culture|
July 31, 2011

Cheryl Evans, Church Sign Writer

Evans, whose official job title is facilities manager, has lived in Amarillo for 55 years. For the past two decades she’s overseen the building and grounds of the Southwest Church of Christ, including its four-by-ten-foot sign. She changes the message every Monday.You can’t just put up there “You’re all going

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The Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center, just outside Sweetwater, one of the largest wind farms in the world.
Energy|
July 31, 2011

A Mighty Wind

The unlikely story of how a handful of dreamers, schemers, and (all too often) failures made oil-and-gas-rich Texas the leading wind power state in the country.

By Kate Galbraith and Asher Price

The Culture|
July 31, 2011

Cowgirl Up

The word probably makes you think of rhinestone-studded jeans, floppy-brimmed hats, and Nashville queens, but “cowgirl” ought to stand for the tough pioneer women who built ranches and went on cattle drives and the hardy rural women who are out there today doing their fair share of the work, usually invisibly,

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Politics & Policy|
July 30, 2011

Perry’s flip-flop

One of the skills that has kept Rick Perry in power is that he has a knack for knowing where his constituency stands on most issues. But his instincts failed him when he comingled states-rights with gay marriage. I'm referring, of course, to Perry's statement to the Family Research Council,

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Politics & Policy|
July 30, 2011

Ritter weighs in on the water bonds

Chairman Ritter posted a comment about the water bond thread of discussion. Rather than having it buried in the comments section, I am going to post it separately, below. Paul, I can certainly understand your frustrations with the legislature not finding a dedicated source of revenue to fully implement our

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Politics & Policy|
July 27, 2011

Should we vote for the water bonds?

[This post has been revised since it was first published yesterday to reflect that the water bonds will not have to be paid for with general revenue. Since then, a reader has posted the fiscal note. It says that the bonds include both self-supporting and not self-supporting debt, and that

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Politics & Policy|
July 26, 2011

Woolley retires

Not a bad resume: nine terms, chair of calendars, speaker pro-tem, and the kingmaker in the 2011 speaker’s race. She was also a major player in eminent domain legislation. A lot of members have left with lesser legacies.

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Politics & Policy|
July 22, 2011

SBOE adopts science standards; was the fix in?

When the Texas Freedom Network puts out an approving statement about an action taken by the State Board of Education, you know something strange is going on. Here was the TFN statement: “Today we saw Texas kids and sound science finally win a vote on the State Board of Education.

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Politics & Policy|
July 22, 2011

Neocon game

I am totally dismayed to see that Governor Perry chose Donald Rumsfeld and several of his neoconservative disciples to advise him on foreign affairs. Rumsfeld was the worst secretary of defense in American history. He couldn’t even manage to put armor on humvees. How many young lives did he

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Politics & Policy|
July 20, 2011

Taylor makes his decision

He’s not running for CD 14 (the former Ron Paul seat). He’ll run for Mike Jackson’s Senate seat if Jackson runs for Congress. If Jackson doesn’t run for Congress, Taylor will run for reelection to the House Taylor was going to have a hard time vs. SREC member Michael Truncale,

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Politics & Policy|
July 19, 2011

Dew tell

I got a robocall from Dewhurst over the weekend — along with 850,000 other Texans. The text was very similar to a video he has posted online. It’s about what you would expect: loser pays, kept $6 billion in the rainy day fund, balanced the budget without raising taxes. And

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Politics & Policy|
July 19, 2011

SBOE’s Mercer blasts “RINO’s”

And “liberal Austin bloggers.” That’s me. Mercer issued a press release, which, I assume, also went to his mailing list, under the following headline: Democrats recruiting a “Republican” to run against Ken Mercer ( San Antonio, Texas) – Well the liberal Austin bloggers let the political cat out of the

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Politics & Policy|
July 18, 2011

Veasey files legal challenge to the GOP congressional map

I missed this story on Friday. State Representative Marc Veasey (D-Fort Wortht) filed a legal challenge to the state’s new congressional map in the Western District of Texas (San Antonio). Here are some excerpts from the filing: Voting Rights Act Section 2 Violations “Though minority communities accounted for 90% of

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Politics & Policy|
July 16, 2011

Ratliff may seek Jackson’s seat

Not Bill. Not Thomas. Bennett Ratliff, the eldest son of the former lieutenant governor, is contemplating entering the race for District 115, the seat being vacated by former Dallas County commissioner Jim Jackson. As is likely to be the case in many districts that are up for grabs, there are

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Politics & Policy|
July 15, 2011

Is Dewhurst too complacent?

When I first wrote about the race for U.S. Senate, I said that there was no race, that Dewhurst has a huge lead in fundraising and name I.D. I still think that Dewhurst has the advantage over Ted Cruz, but, even in a state as big as Texas, there is

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