From the Archives: After the Apollo Program Ended, NASA Settled on a New, Less Glamorous Mission
The shuttle age commences, becomes routine, and draws to a close, while Mars beckons.
The shuttle age commences, becomes routine, and draws to a close, while Mars beckons.
Offshore drillers are finding mammoth reservoirs in places that were once considered barren, which is why the Gulf of Mexico is booming again.
By Helen Thorpe
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.
By Helen Thorpe
Dominique de Menil—1908-1997
By Helen Thorpe
High-tech philanthropy comes of age.
By Helen Thorpe
What he learned about himself at Andover and Yale.
By Helen Thorpe
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.
By Helen Thorpe
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?
By Helen Thorpe
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.
By Helen Thorpe
As the 77-year-old prepares for yet another liftoff, fans and foes alike are praising his missionÑand questioning NASA’s.
By Helen Thorpe
Read all about her.
By Helen Thorpe
The doctor is in.
By Helen Thorpe
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?
By Helen Thorpe
Even by South Texas standards, the undoing of Starr County sheriff Eugenio Falcón, Jr., was one for the books.
By Helen Thorpe
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.
By Helen Thorpe
The remaking of a South Texas town.
By Helen Thorpe
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.
By Helen Thorpe
Conflicting accounts of the killing of German immigrants in the Hill Country during the Civil War are creating a certain amount of dis-Comfort.
By Helen Thorpe
The life and legacy of a Texas icon.
By Helen Thorpe
Still plugged in.
By Helen Thorpe
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.”
By Helen Thorpe
A little-known financial institution could be the future of the war on poverty in Texas.
By Helen Thorpe
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.
By Helen Thorpe
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?
By Helen Thorpe
Why Texarkana’s Truman Arnold is in the thick of a scandal over Democratic fundraising.
By Helen Thorpe
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?
By Helen Thorpe
In February two stolen frescoes paid for and restored by Dominique de Menil will be unveiled in a new Eastern Orthodox chapel in Houston.
By Helen Thorpe
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.
By Helen Thorpe
Sowing the seeds of the hemp craze.
By Helen Thorpe
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.
By Helen Thorpe
Family planner.
By Helen Thorpe
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?
By Helen Thorpe
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.
By Helen Thorpe
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.
By Helen Thorpe
Inspired by th O.J.Simpson case, Texas has taken the lead in fighting domestic violence.
By Helen Thorpe
Critics complain about Houston’s rising debt, but Mayor Bob Lanier’s reputation is blooming, which is why he’ll win a third term this month.
By Helen Thorpe
He’s won the support o Mexican Americans in El Paso; now he wants to win a seat in Congress. Is Silvestre Reyes’ attack on illegal immigration heroism or hype?
By Helen Thorpe
Boone Pickens and his protégé, David Batchelder, built Mesa Petroleum into an energy giant. Now Pickens’ empire is crumbling and his former aide is leading the charge against him.
By Helen Thorpe
After a decade of lab work at Baylor College of Medicine, this husband-and-wife team has solved the mystery of hyperinsulinism.
By Helen Thorpe
Roberts County landowners are battling to save the Ogallala Aquifer—and what remains of their agrarian past.
By Helen Thorpe
Across the state, kids are getting seriously messed up on a dirt-cheap downer from Mexico.
By Helen Thorpe
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.
By Helen Thorpe
Twenty-five years after Norma McCorvey joined the flight to legalize abortion, the battle is still raging—and so is she.
By Helen Thorpe
How a small Houston biotech company and a giant California-based rival are battling over who developed what may be a revolutionary cure for asthma and allergies.
By Helen Thorpe
Shawn Colvin, the latest pop émigré to land in Austin, sets the record straight on her long and difficult road to stardom.
By Helen Thorpe
Twelve years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, the vaunted Austin high-tech consortium is still struggling to find its purpose.
By Helen Thorpe
Dorsett 221 near Buda is the place where a driver is always king of the castle.
By Helen Thorpe
If casino gambling comes to Texas, it’s a safe bet that the Pratt family of Dallas will be in on the jackpot.
By Helen Thorpe