Politics &amp; Policy

February 1, 1989

Jailhouse Hock

Bill Clements’ ambitious—and expensive—prison-expansion plan is only a tiny first step toward escaping the overcrowding problem.

January 1, 1989

Superpolitics

Will Texas’ acquisition of the supercollider increase the state’s clout in Washington? We’d better hope so, because now that we’ve got it, we’ve got to get the money to deliver it

January 1, 1989

God Help Her

How Madalyn Murray O’Hair became the supreme being of the American atheist movement.

By Lawrence Wright

January 1, 1989

Behind the Lines

The case against conspiracy.

By Gregory Curtis

December 1, 1988

Can Ross Perot Save America?

One day in 1962 Ross Perot read Thoreau’s insight that the “mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” The country hasn’t been the same since.

November 1, 1988

Power Play

Houston Lighting and Power’s purchase of a Canadian cable TV company may come as a shock to HL&P ratepayers.

October 1, 1988

It’s the Way We’ve Always Done It, Sir

How the Pentagon really works, as told by a Texan who tried to make it work a little differently.

By Chase Untermeyer

September 1, 1988

Texas Primer: Bush vs. Bentsen

Eighteen years after their Senate race determined the course of Texas politics, their rivalry may determine the course of national politics.

August 1, 1988

Wright and Wrong

The congressional investigation that is focusing on Speaker Jim Wright’s ethics is missing the real problem —his judgment.

June 30, 1988

Country Boys

A battle over a vacant state Senate seat reveals that the scars from years of Democratic party infighting haven’t healed yet.

June 1, 1988

Caught in the Middle

On the eve of the Mexican elections, the country’s dwindling middle class prefers fatalism to Fabianism.

By Dick Reavis

May 31, 1988

The Self-Destruction of Lance Lalor

Houston’s city controller prided himself on being the most scrupulously honest politician in town. So why did he sign his name to someone else credit card?

By

May 1, 1988

Learning to Love the Bomb

Can a Texas publisher of technical books make a difference in the nuclear powers’ arms race? You bet.

By Michael Ennis

April 30, 1988

Just Add Water

The issues in El Paso’s colonias are watery and grave.

By Alison Cook

April 30, 1988

Fallen Idyll

Profligate and polarized, Austin attempts to salvage its future by looking into the past for its next mayor.

By John Taliaferro

April 1, 1988

The Night Lyndon Quit

For twenty years, the story behind President Johnson’s withdrawal has remained a mystery. Now, on the anniversary of his decision, his former secretary reveals the drama of LBJ’s biggest surprise.

By George Christian

April 1, 1988

Behind the Lines

Conover Hunt and the Sixth Floor Museum.

By Gregory Curtis

March 1, 1988

Should This Man Be President?

For all his integrity and noble intentions, George Bush has yet to prove he’s got the agenda of a true statesman.

By Nicholas Lemann

March 1, 1988

Disorder in the Court

An eleventh-hour filing by two candidates for the state Supreme Court has kicked off a season of judicial campaigning unprecedented in Texas history.

October 1, 1987

Famine, Pestilence, Destruction, and Death

These are only aliases. Their real names are Mattox, Mauro, Richards, and Hightower. And they may be leading the Democratic party to its apocalypse.

September 1, 1987

The Time of His Life

Henry Cisneros has the vision and charisma of a born leader. Does it matter that he has the soul of an Aggie?

By Stephen Harrigan

August 31, 1987

Cowboys and Iranians

What do Odessa beer joints and the Iran-contra hearings have in common? Everything.

By Larry L. King

May 1, 1987

Heads, We Win, Tails, You Lose

Highly partisan justices are at the center of the Supreme Court scandal.

May 1, 1987

Blind Justice

Should a judge’s friendships survive his election to the Supreme Court of Texas?

By Ken Case

April 1, 1987

High Noon at the Capitol

The biggest legislative bloodbath in 31 years is shaping up between Clements and Hobby. At stake: not only the state’s education budget but the economic and political future of Texas as well.

March 1, 1987

The Bullock Alumni

Caught between the budget crisis and the power of Bob Bullock, politicos are hiring the comptroller’s savvy ex-employees in self-defense.

December 1, 1986

The Wright House

For the first time since Sam Rayburn’s day, the Speaker of the House will be a Texan. And if Jim Wright of Fort Worth is to be successful, he’ll have to remember what Rayburn taught him.

October 1, 1986

The Strange Case of Mark White

The governor has a good record, good ideas, and good intentions. So why is he in danger of losing his job to a man he already beat once?.

Business|

October 1, 1986

Going for Broke

In boom times, John Connally and Ben Barnes used their political magic to build a sprawling real estate empire. Now they’re in a desperate struggle to keep themselves afloat.

September 1, 1986

Vote for Me, Por Favor. Now Let’s Eat

Mix election time, South Texas, and barbecue, and you get the pachanga circuit, where politics and barbecue are served with equal reverence.

By Alison Cook

September 1, 1986

Texas Primer: Ma Ferguson

She unmasked the Klan and worried about the role of women, but she listened more to her husband than to the suffragettes.

By

August 1, 1986

Mack Wallace, Railroad Commissioner, Wants to Save the World

Tapped by destiny, one man in Austin is forging an unlikely alliance between Texas oilmen and the friends of Israel.

By Emily Yoffe

July 1, 1986

Primary Lesson

Subtract Democratic voters, add new Republicans, and it equals realignment.

June 30, 1986

Showdown in Chihuahua

Pancho Barrio, an ex-accountant, a charismatic Catholic, and the mayor of Juarez, hopes to topple the ruling party in a July governor’s race.

By Dick Reavis

June 1, 1986

Unionbusters

Hank Milam was a businessman with $20,000 in equipment and a firm faith in the rules of the game.He took on the union that had ruled the Houston docks for fifty years and beat it on its own turf.

By Dick Reavis

June 1, 1986

Hate Thy Neighbor

A look at Houston’s Meyerland, Dallas’ Munger Place, El Paso’s Sunset Heights, and Austin’s Hyde Park shows that few fights get the blood boiling like a good fight with a neighbor.

By Emily Yoffe

April 30, 1986

Marching Off to War

In 1969 a young man from Baytown decided, after a struggle, to fight in Vietnam.

By William Broyles

December 1, 1985

Portraits in Power

Helmut Newton, world famous for his bizarre, sometimes shocking erotic photographs, turns his lens on another exotic subject—Texas tycoons.

By Helmut Newton and Texas Monthly

October 1, 1985

When the Well Runs Dry

In parts of Texas drought is a steady boarder who may stray but always comes home for supper.

By Elmer Kelton

October 1, 1985

The Kathy Ratings

Kathy Whitmire’s substantial achievements as mayor of Houston are overshadowed by her bad public image and political ineptitude—not a good situation for a candidate seeking a third term.

By Susan Chadwick

Best and Worst Legislators|

October 1, 1985

The Louie File

Just how good were the good ol' days, when Louie Welch was mayor of Houston?

By

June 30, 1985

1985: The Ten Best and (Groan) the Ten Worst Legislators

We just rate them. You voted for them.

By Paul Burka and Alison Cook

May 31, 1985

The Texas Six-Pack

The six freshman Republican congressmen from Texas are young, angry, and energetic. The only question is, can they be effective too?

By Peter Applebome

April 1, 1985

Life, Art, and the Wackiest Politician in Texas

San Antonio city councilman Bernardo Eureste took a paltry arts budget and built it into a $3 million power base. Then he got mad and tore it all apart.

By

April 1, 1985

Birth of a Lobby

The computer industry in Texas has a new lobby organized by three lobbyists who were in the right place at the right time—and knew it.

By John Schwartz

February 1, 1985

Mayor, Council Locked in Bitter Struggle!

Council tells mayor her budget stinks! Mayor tells council to like it or lump it! Both sides twist arms, trade insults! Read all about it!

December 1, 1984

Why They Won

The inside skinny on the elections.

True Crime|

September 1, 1984

The Double Life of Paul Thayer

He had it all: a wife and a mistress, a limousine and a motorcycle, the second-highest job at the Pentagon and some good-time Dallas buddies. Then the SEC took an interest in his life.