Could a Gingrich-Perry Ticket be in the Works?
The Republican presidential rumor mill is abuzz with whispers that Newt Gingrich may tap Rick Perry to be his vice president in a rare, pre-convention ticket.
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.
The Republican presidential rumor mill is abuzz with whispers that Newt Gingrich may tap Rick Perry to be his vice president in a rare, pre-convention ticket.
By Sonia Smith
A combination of steep cuts to women’s health care and an impasse over federal Title X funds threatens to leave some 400,000 low income Texas women without access to cancer screenings and contraceptives.
By Sonia Smith
A study conducted by Texas State University researchers involving vultures and human remains could have big implications for homicide investigators.
By Sonia Smith
Two physics professors at Texas State University believe that a rare lunar event may have flung the icebergs in the ship's path.
By Sonia Smith
Junie Hoang filed a lawsuit against IMDb for revealing her true age. When the New York Times picked up on the story, the paper accidentally misprinted her age.
By Sonia Smith
Ernie Lopez, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a baby and became the focus of a ProPublica investigation into mishandled child death cases, was released from prison after the state appeals court overturned his conviction.
By Sonia Smith
Guards had been aware that the Liberty County jail inmates were viewing porn for months, according to a KPRC News investigation.
By Sonia Smith
A bandit stole a cashbox containing $200 from a troop of Girl Scouts who were selling cookies outside of a Fort Bend County Walmart.
By Sonia Smith
Local gun stores have seen record sales, and in 2011, the FBI conducted more than one million background checks in Texas alone.
By Sonia Smith
Sharon Simmons, a 55-year-old grandmother from Carrollton, plans on trying out to become a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader this May.
By Sonia Smith
Edna Milton Chadwell was the madam running the famous brothel when authorities shut it down in 1973.
By Sonia Smith
In his annual letter to shareholders, Warren Buffett writes that Berkshire Hathaway's $2 billion investment in TXU Corp.'s bonds could be wiped out if natural gas prices do not rise.
By Sonia Smith
Senator Eddie Lucio Jr., said that building two medical schools in the Valley is "totally unrealistic" and the focus should be kept on the plan to build a University of Texas system medical school in Harlingen.
By Sonia Smith
A new study from the Baylor College of Medicine finds “active” video games like Wii Sports and Dance Dance Revolution don't lead to an increase in physical activity.
By Sonia Smith
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange claims the released emails depict a company bent on obtaining intelligence information by any means necessary, but is it as sinister as he makes it out to be?
By Sonia Smith
Wade Steffen, a champion steer wrestler, was arrested after TSA officials found $337,000 and photos of rhino horns in his carry-on luggage at the Los Angeles airport.
By Sonia Smith
American Sniper, the autobiography of Chris Kyle, the most successful sniper in American history, topped the New York Times best-seller list this week.
By Sonia Smith
A selection of our favorite bird-related stories from around the state.
By Sonia Smith
Jeffrey Maxwell of Corsicana, who abducted a former neighbor and tortured her on a deer-skinning rack, was convicted and faces multiple life sentences for his crime.
By Sonia Smith
More than thirty Tivoli students brought their own lunches to school last week as part of a grassroots protest for healthier meal options.
By Sonia Smith
Meet Wildthing, the unlikely Bison housepet of an eccentric family in Quinlan.
By Sonia Smith
As Texas A&M moves to the SEC, change is afoot at the university, but not everyone is supportive of this particular proposal.
By Sonia Smith
Happy Presidents' Day! Before the three presidents from Texas were politicians they were ... babies. See baby pictures of LBJ, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush.
By Sonia Smith
Valley farmers posting videos to ProtectYourTexasBorder.com say there is increased violence in the area, but critics find the stats don't back up this claim.
By Sonia Smith
"Deep in the Heart" tells the story of Centerville's Dick Wallrath, an alcoholic rancher turned 4-H philathropist.
By Sonia Smith
Four new 65-cent stamps pay homage to the dogs of war.
By Sonia Smith
Eighteen-year-old Monica Thieu became the youngest College Jeopardy Champion in the contest's history.
By Sonia Smith
State senator Florence Shapiro says that the Texas Education Agency can (and should) waive the requirement that tests count toward fifteen percent of final grades this year.
By Sonia Smith
Cinders, a wire-haired dachshund from Corpus Christi, was one of seven finalists for the Best in Show title.
By Sonia Smith
Eighteen-year-old Taylor Burnham was naked, but for her cowboy boots, when she was stopped by cops in her Jeep Wrangler in Corpus Christi.
By Sonia Smith
Shanna Widner appeared on Good Morning America to discuss the horror of dealing with her mother, Wanda Holloway, taking out a hit on her cheerleader classmate's mom.
By Sonia Smith
The twelve-year-old girl admitted shooting her father in the head in 2009, but she said she did it because he had abused her.
By Sonia Smith
The governor took a page from his presidential campaign playbook and slammed the president in the pages of the Wall Street Journal.
By Sonia Smith
The tradition of sending mail through the tiny town of Valentine to receive a special stamp could end if the USPS shutters the branch.
By Sonia Smith
Democratic state representative Steve Holland said he filed the legislation to make a point about his Republican colleagues.
By Sonia Smith
Observant Houstonians have discovered a new holy image in a mundane object.
By Sonia Smith
The presidential candidate visited the Metroplex, attending church in McKinney and stumping at a "faux-rustic farm" in Plano.
By Sonia Smith
Kitsch, who played Tim Riggins in Friday Night Lights, takes the big screen, but could does he run the risk of becoming an action hero flop?
By Sonia Smith
Passengers snapped pictures and took video of a pair of Magellanic penguins toddling down an airplane's aisle on a recent flight from Orlando to New York.
By Sonia Smith
The racist YouTube rant of a Colorado transplant to Laredo has the city's residents seeing red.
By Sonia Smith
After Randy Travis was picked up in a church parking lot in Sanger, the peanut gallery had an opinion on everything from his beverage of choice to the reason he was boozing.
By Sonia Smith
Dallas Wiens, a Fort Worth man who lost his face after brushing against a power line, was profiled by the New Yorker's Raffi Khatchadourian.
By Sonia Smith
During a public videochat, an unemployed engineer's wife asked President Barack Obama why her husband didn't have a job. Now, the offers are pouring in.
By Sonia Smith
But is it enough to calm the waters?
By Sonia Smith
Skywatchers (and schlubs who just happened to be outside around 8 p.m. Wednesday night) were treated to the sight of a large meteor streaking across the heavens.
By Sonia Smith
After the island lost more than 35,000 trees to Hurricane Ike, a group of artists carved 35 stumps into beautiful and intricate sculptures.
By Sonia Smith
Rick Perry raised only $2.9 million in the last quarter of 2011, new campaign finance documents reveal.
By Sonia Smith
A Louisianan couple and their four Capuchin monkeys are on the lam in East Texas, avoiding authorities who may want to take away the animals.
By Sonia Smith
The show, titled The Client List, is based on a TEXAS MONTHLY story about a "massage parlor" in Odessa.
By Sonia Smith
Restaurant mogul Tilman Fertitta is building a $60 million amusement park on the pier where the old one used to sit.
By Sonia Smith