Ruffled Feathers
In Midland a disputed bird and animal refuge has the mayor and others crying fowl.
A native of Houston and a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Sonia Smith is a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly. She cut her teeth reporting on crime on the bayou for the Baton Rouge Advocate. She has also written for Slate, The New York Times Magazine, Roads & Kingdoms, and the Kyiv Post, and was a finalist for the 2008 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists for her reporting on sexual abuse at the Louisiana School for the Deaf. Her Texas Monthly profile of leading climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe was included in the anthology The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2017.
In Midland a disputed bird and animal refuge has the mayor and others crying fowl.
Katharine Hayhoe has made it her life’s mission to proclaim the truth about climate change. Can she get the skeptics to listen?
In 2012 Austin Tice answered a calling: to become a war photographer and tell the world what was happening in Syria. But then he went missing.
When the 85-year-old matriarch of a prominent pecan-farming clan in San Saba was murdered, her death shook the town—and exposed how obsession and greed can fell a family from within.
Alligator snapping turtle populations in Texas were dwindling. One family of smugglers had been poaching them from the state for years.
Federal inspectors cited a sawmill run by members of the insular Church of Wells with multiple safety violations.
The freelance journalist disappeared in Syria in 2012. His family in Houston hasn’t given up on seeing him come home.
Almost 25 percent of severe injuries at mills in the state since 2017 have occurred at a single facility, owned by members of the Church of Wells.
When Given Kachepa first arrived from Zambia as a young boy, he expected to sing in a choir and gain an education. Instead he was forced into servitude.
Our favorite recent items from the police blotter of the ’Lufkin Daily News.’
A new study from two SMU scientists finds that oil and gas activity has made the ground unstable over a 4,000-square-mile swath of West Texas.
In 2014, Russell Bonner Bentley was a middle-aged arborist living in Austin. Now he’s a local celebrity in a war-torn region of Ukraine. His journey reveals a troubling development in Putin’s information war.
It's the Trump administration's latest move to stop addressing—or even acknowledging—climate change at the federal level.
Our favorite recent items from the police blotter of the ’Lufkin Daily News.’
The majority of members also received high grades for their voting record on gun issues.
The city’s new police chief explains how she plans to apply the lessons she learned in Detroit to a troubled department.
Our favorite recent items from the police blotter of the ’Lufkin Daily News.’
Some observers fear the tariffs could slow the industry's rapid growth.
ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips among the companies named in suit.
Our favorite recent items from the police blotter of the ’Lufkin Daily News.’
We recommend this gripping piece on the boom-and-bust cycle for your weekend longread.
States and cities that do not create adequate "adaptation and mitigation strategies" may face tarnished credit ratings, Moody's warns.
Part of the Climate Mayors organization, the leaders are striving to meet goals stated in the Paris Agreement.
Transportation edged out electricity as the biggest source of carbon emissions last year in the United States.
Our favorite recent items from the police blotter of the ’Lufkin Daily News.’
Scientists at UT predict that by 2019, the state will get more energy from wind than coal.
There are not enough pipelines to take away the natural gas being produced in the Permian Basin.
Renewable projects fare better under the Senate’s tax reform measure.
The former head of the TCEQ did not impress senators in Washington on Wednesday with her grasp of science.
Our favorite recent items from the police blotter of the 'Lufkin Daily News.'
The zoo’s residents are no fans of the Dodgers.
So much for second chances.
Marc and Debra Tice sat down with Matt Lauer to discuss their son, who has recently been back in the headlines.
Breaking ground— and betting big—on a doomsday community for the rich.
Last year, U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce president Javier Palomarez was one of Trump’s harshest critics. Today, he’s informally advising the new president.
A snapshot of two of Texas's busiest airports in the aftermath of the refugee ban.
The freelance journalist from Houston was abducted outside of Damascus on August 12, 2012. His parents continue to work for his release.
Whooping crane advocates hope that the sentence will deter future incidents.
When a teenage boy brazenly shot two endangered whooping cranes outside Beaumont, his act unleashed widespread anger and resulted in a quick arrest—and revealed just how difficult it can be to save a species.
Katharine Hayhoe has made it her life’s mission to proclaim the truth about climate change. Can she get the skeptics to listen?
In 2012 Austin Tice answered a calling: to become a war photographer and tell the world what was happening in Syria. But then he went missing.
Catherine Grove walked away from the Church of Wells last month. Now, she and the elders of the East Texas church explain why she left—and why she returned to the congregation that many call a cult.
The 28-year-old had severed contact with her family in July 2013 after joining the controversial East Texas church, which many consider a cult.
When the 85-year-old matriarch of a prominent pecan-farming clan in San Saba was murdered, her death shook the town—and exposed how obsession and greed can fell a family from within.
The area along Greenville Avenue and Skillman street, parallel north-south arteries through the city, has become an Ebola corridor.
Our favorite recent items from the Lufkin Daily News' police blotter.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in El Paso stand accused of violating the confidentiality of dozens of Sikh asylum seekers detained in their facility.
The Dallas-based national bus line got its start in 1914 transporting iron ore miners in Minnesota.
Why did dozens of Sikh detainees in a federal facility in El Paso go on hunger strike in April?
Our favorite recent items from the Lufkin Daily News' police blotter.
Texas Monthly writers Katy Vine and Sonia Smith watched "Outlaw Prophet," the new Lifetime movie based on the life of FLDS leader, and it was actually pretty good.
Katy Vine has been a staff writer since 2002.
On June 21, 1974, on a strip of ranchland alongside Interstate 40, an American icon was born.
Our favorite recent items from the Lufkin Daily News' police blotter.
Merchant Mariner John Dunaway shepherds the world's goods across the high seas, chronicling his journeys on Instagram. His stunning images are oceans apart from the average user's. Here are some of his favorites.