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Paul Burka

Paul Burka's Profile Photo

Former senior executive editor Paul Burka joined the staff of Texas Monthly in 1974, one year after the magazine’s founding. He led TM’s political coverage for nearly forty years and spearheaded its storied roundup of the Best and Worst Legislators each biennium. A lifelong Texan, he was born in Galveston, graduated from Rice University with a BA in history, and received a JD from the University of Texas School of Law.

Burka spent five years as an attorney with the Texas Legislature, where he served as counsel to the Senate Natural Resources Committee. He won the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award in 1981. He also received a National Magazine Award in 1985, for his two-part profile of Clinton Manges. After retiring from Texas Monthly in 2015, he taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He died in 2022.

3666 Articles

State Secrets|
June 30, 1980

State Secrets

Houston could forfeit the world’s largest convention; Mutscher loses—again; real estate empires totter; the growing ambitions of Bob Bullock.

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State Secrets|
May 31, 1980

State Secrets

A controversial nuclear plant moves to Texas; Clements costs us $11 million; making census out of Houston; the Senate moves toward the center.

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State Secrets|
April 30, 1980

State Secrets

Plaguing the Panhandle; rebuking the Washington Post; slaughtering the Beeferendum; lusting after the Speakership.

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State Secrets|
April 1, 1980

State Secrets

Nebraska scoundrels are absconding with West Texas water; adding grist to the Murdoch rumor mill; the old Dallas City Council was never like this.

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State Secrets|
March 1, 1980

State Secrets

Texas witches need regulation; the Killer Bees sting again; a cloud hangs over the Contemporary Arts Museum; the feds insist that minority rules.

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State Secrets|
February 1, 1980

State Secrets

Marlin sidetracks the Missouri-Pacific; school boards wrangle over the handicapped; two Texas Sports magazines slug it out.

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State Secrets|
January 1, 1980

State Secrets

A helicopter plague descends on Dallas; is the Texas environmentalist an endangered species?; cattlemen won’t be cowed.

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State Secrets|
December 1, 1979

State Secrets

Will the feds hijack out power? Will Akers slip off to LSU?

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State Secrets|
November 1, 1979

State Secrets

Texas Democrats run scared over Teddy; Arkansas bigwigs cry foul over gas lease; Mexican diplomats make waves over salt water.

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State Secrets|
September 30, 1979

State Secrets

How will Christo wrap up his trip to Texas?; pooh-poohing Three mile Island; the greatest train robbery of all; shake-up at Houston’s city hall.

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State Secrets|
August 31, 1979

State Secrets

Not-so-little leaguer finds fountain of youth; schools have to test and tell whether Johnny can’t read; Houston’s new shingle ordinance tries to lock the barn door.

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State Secrets|
July 31, 1979

State Secrets

Crying over spilt oil, greedy doctors, and disappearing millionaires.

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Sports|
July 31, 1979

Pennant Fever

At midseason, long-suffering Astros and Rangers fans were having visions of grandeur. We hope they weren’t delusions.

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State Secrets|
June 30, 1979

State Secrets

Texas real estate up for grabs; will Houston get a third daily newspaper?

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State Secrets|
May 31, 1979

State Secrets

Will Arthur Temple take over Time Inc.? A Bergstrom AFB dentist gets the drill.

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State Secrets|
March 1, 1979

State Secrets

Why doctors don’t like nurses anymore; where is the tax revolt?

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State Secrets|
February 1, 1979

State Secrets

Working on the Railroad Commissioner; romance on the range; another guild nipped at the Post; should Bill Clements be for sale?

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State Secrets|
January 1, 1979

State Secrets

Pop a cork for Château UT; Fort Worth wins American Airlines from New York and “loses” it to Dallas; will Dallas’ law firms catch Houstonitis?

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State Secrets|
December 1, 1978

State Secrets

Will somebody write the Great American LBJ biography? Is Billy Clayton Texas’ Earl Butz? Will Dolph take care of his flock?

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Contest|
February 1, 1978

Contest

Are you from Blewett? Don’t enter this contest.

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