Back Talk

Alan says: I am in favor of limiting the governor to two consecutive terms. But blacklisting someone after eight years altogether, regardless of how good or bad they did their job, can needlessly force an effective public official out of public service. Many state governors throughout history have served well over eight years without their constituents regretting it. I would point out that such a system is wholly unworkable in twenty-first century America: we live in the era of the permanent campaign and the 24-hour news cycle. A governor facing re-election every other year would essentially do nothing but fundraise (which is close to what most do anyway even with four-year terms). (November 19th, 2009 at 11:09pm)

Helen Thorpe

Features

What he learned about himself at Andover and Yale. (June 1999)

What are tens of thousands of Muslims doing in Arlington? Adjusting to life in America, debating the merits of assimilation, and trying to convince the world that they’re not terrorists. (May 1999)

Does Tom DeLay kill Democrats on contact? Not exactly, but as the president can tell you, the profoundly partisan Republican congressman attacks his enemies relentlessly. (April 1999)

Who gives a hoot about an owlish auteur with nary a directing credit in twenty years? All of Hollywood, that’s who—which is why Austinite Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line is the most anticipated film of the season. (December 1998)

As the 77-year-old prepares for yet another liftoff, fans and foes alike are praising his missionÑand questioning NASA’s. (October 1998)

The doctor is in. (September 1998)

Read all about her. (September 1998)

Barring a miracle, Garry Mauro will lose to George W. Bush in this November’s gubernatorial election. So why is he acting like a winner? (August 1998)

Even by South Texas standards, the undoing of Starr County sheriff Eugenio Falcón, Jr., was one for the books. (June 1998)

The cocaine goes north. The money goes south. And Mexican kingpins like Juan García Abrego laugh all the way to the bank—a Texas bank, that is. (January 1998)

The life and legacy of a Texas icon. (October 1997)

Still plugged in. (September 1997)

No one will admit we’re in the middle of one, even as the economy surges. How come? Because the last time we had it this good, bragging only hastened the arrival of another four-letter word: “bust.” (July 1997)

Battles over the river’s precious waters are pulling in everyone from pecan growers in Central Texas to shrimpers in Matagorda Bay, not to mention thirsty cities like San Antonio and Corpus Christi. Who will be left high and dry? (May 1997)

William Guess seemed to be an ordinary man: He had a wife and three children and owned his own business. So why did he become the most prolific bank robber in Texas history? (March 1997)

Most everyone agrees that Dominique de Menil did the right thing when she paid for two stolen Cypriot frescoes and had them painstakingly restored. But her decision to build a chapel to house them in Houston has proved controversial. (January 1997)

This month, a ragtag group of wanderers will descend on Hueco Tanks state park in West Texas, where they’ll spend their nights hanging out and their days hanging on to the most challenging boulders around. (November 1996)

Family planner. (September 1996)

Inside a state-of-the-art semiconductor factory, a day’s work is never done, as technicians race to build smaller, faster, and more-powerful computer chips. (April 1996)

Offshore drillers are finding mammoth reservoirs in places that were once considered barren, which is why the Gulf of Mexico is booming again. (February 1996)

Combining the latest technology with an old-fashioned passion for her work, Austin astronomer Anita Cochran redefined the solar system. Now her star is on the rise. (August 1995)

Columns | Miscellany

Coming January 1 to a small screen near you: A round-the-clock, Texas-specific, CNN-style cable channel. Its creators will be watching. Will you? (January 1999)

I wanted to see lightning strike the steel rods that artist Walter De Maria installed in a New Mexico field. I didn’t, but the trip was still illuminating. (May 1998)

Conflicting accounts of the killing of German immigrants in the Hill Country during the Civil War are creating a certain amount of dis-Comfort. (October 1997)

As the Navy’s top civilian leader, Texan John Dalton has navigated one scandal after another. He might also be charting a course back home—and to elected office. (May 1997)

To perfect a promising new gene therapy, doctors at Houston’s M. D. Anderson need time. Unfortunately, that’s one thing people with malignant brain tumors don’t have. (January 1997)

This spring, Texas’ leading white-bread maker was ordered to pay a fine of $10 million and settled a lawsuit for another $18 million. Why does the company have to cough up so much dough? (August 1996)

Reporter

The remaking of a South Texas town. (April 1998)

A little-known financial institution could be the future of the war on poverty in Texas. (June 1997)

Why Texarkana’s Truman Arnold is in the thick of a scandal over Democratic fundraising. (April 1997)

Sowing the seeds of the hemp craze. (January 1997)

Wyatt Roberts says he’s simply crusading against sin, but critics contend that the Christian activist is trying to usher in a new era in Texas: the anti-gay nineties. (April 1996)

Web Exclusives

Dominique de Menil—1908-1997 (December 1997)

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