Another Setback: Rick Perry Loses Big South Carolina Donor
The governor's "vulture capitalism" remark causes a major South Carolinian donor to close his checkbook.
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 governor's "vulture capitalism" remark causes a major South Carolinian donor to close his checkbook.
By Sonia Smith
A three-judge panel reversed a lower court's injunction against the controversial "sonogram law," which mandates that women who have abortions must submit to a sonogram and hear a description of the fetus as litigation proceeds.
By Sonia Smith
The hearts of music writers everywhere grew three sizes when they heard “Glory,” Jay-Z's new track about his daughter, Blue Ivy Carter.
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Some Apollo-era astronauts, including Apollo 13 Commander James Lovell, had their hands slapped by NASA for putting space artifacts on the auction block.
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The justices heard arguments on Monday, but they found themselves on a sticky wicket and are no closer to making a decision.
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Beyoncé and Jay-Z's named their bundle of joy, who arrived Saturday night, Blue Ivy Carter. It may be unusual, but is it the worst Texas celeb baby name?
By Sonia Smith
Khloe and Kim Kardashian dropped by the Dallas World Aquarium this week.
By Sonia Smith
Jaime Gonzalez Jr.'s parents don't understand why Brownsville officers shot their son three times, but a 911 reveals that police asked the eighth-grader to drop his gun several times.
By Sonia Smith
Manny Fernandez of the New York Times penned a poignant piece about death in Texas’s prison system.
By Sonia Smith
A North Texas teen and his grandmother have become YouTube stars almost overnight, racking up more than half a million views in two days with their lipsyncing rendition of Tyga's "Rack City."
By Sonia Smith
After Ron Paul sends a snarky tweet about Jon Huntsman's poor showing in Iowa, Huntsman takes a jab at Paul on Piers Morgan.
By Sonia Smith
Texas prison officials suspended Jeffs's cut his line to the outside as they investigate allegations that the polygamist leader used a phone call to preach to his flock on Christmas.
By Sonia Smith
Rick Perry, clad in running gear, proves that running a presidential campaign is a marathon, not a sprint.
By Sonia Smith
Ten pictures of the moments and themes that defined this year.
By Sonia Smith
When it comes to courtroom drama, Texas never disappoints, and this year was no exception.
By Sonia Smith
The history of Ron Paul's position on his offensive newsletters is beginning to emerge as the media latches on to the scandal.
By Sonia Smith
Before developing a drilling site in Burleson, Chesapeake Energy relocates a prairie dog colony.
By Sonia Smith
A Bryan crime novelist was arrested earlier this month after she allegedly took out a hit on her estranged, cheating husband.
By Sonia Smith
An old scandal about Ron Paul's newsletters, which contain "racist, anti-gay and anti-Israel passages," has again reared its head as Paul surges in Iowa.
By Sonia Smith
Despite his latest "oops" moment, Perry is picking up endorsements and rising in the polls.
By Sonia Smith
Some 5,000 people rallied in Athens to support the nativity scene displayed outside the Henderson County Courthouse that has been criticized by an atheist group.
By Sonia Smith
The ambulance that carried JFK's body from Parkland Memorial Hospital to Love Field is going up on the auction block next month in Scottsdale.
By Sonia Smith
In Thursday’s GOP debate in Sioux City, Rick Perry scored one of the night’s most memorable lines when he compared himself to the often-underestimated Broncos quarterback.
By Sonia Smith
A nativity scene on the Henderson County Courthouse lawn is at the center of national spat.
By Sonia Smith
The DMV approved a religious plate the same day the Sons of Confederate Veterans filed a lawsuit against the agency for infringement of free speech.
By Sonia Smith
The Illinois senator told the teen’s tragic story to inspire his colleagues to pass the DREAM Act.
By Sonia Smith
The governor’s campaign just bought $1 million worth of advertising in the Hawkeye State. What commercials might Iowans expect to see?
By Sonia Smith
The endangered whooping crane is at the center of a lawsuit that could change the rights of water users in Texas.
By Sonia Smith
Ron Paul’s talons were out over the weekend, slamming the decision to let billionaire mogul Donald Trump moderate the Newsmax debate in Iowa.
By Sonia Smith
Temple-native Bryan Burrough examines how the governor went from being the “anointed” one to a punch-line factory.
By Sonia Smith
Joaquin Luna’s family said he killed himself last week out of despair over his immigration status, but others say the suicide was unrelated to that.
By Sonia Smith
Ready for the next YouTube sensation out of Texas? A phone video of a woman dancing on a treadmill filmed at an El Paso gym has almost a million hits.
By Sonia Smith
It's no accident that Rick Perry has a 10-0 election record. Watch the campaign ads that helped convince voters he was the man for the job.
By Sonia Smith
Hunting from a helicopter isn't as easy as Sarah Palin makes it look.
By Sonia Smith
Sorry, secessionists. The White House says the U.S. Constitution does not "provide a right to walk away from" the Union.
By Sonia Smith
After a few hardline moves in 2011, the Texas Republican Party may be returning to its moderate stance on immigration policy.
By Sonia Smith
On Tuesday, House Speaker Joe Straus won his third term as speaker after a challenge against him fizzled and Governor Rick Perry urged fiscal responsibility despite the state's improving financial picture.
By Sonia Smith
Maybe because of a new state law requiring expensive meningitus vaccinations.
By Sonia Smith
To commemorate the Mayan Apocalypse, video game tycoon Richard Garriott de Cayeux threw a lavish soiree at his 65-acre spread along Lake Austin, complete with various scenes of imagined end-of-the-world scenarios.
By Sonia Smith
Baby rhinos, penguins on airplanes, lions in church, and other animal tales we enjoyed in 2012.
By Sonia Smith
After waiting it out for a year, the singer got a giant canary yellow diamond and will marry Brandon Blackstock.
By Sonia Smith
Five things to know.
By Sonia Smith
A lemur named Keanu attacked a postal worker named Marla Reeves as she drove her rural route outside of Grapeland.
By Sonia Smith
An exclusive peek at the trailer for The Last 40 Miles, an animation about heading to the death chamber.
By Sonia Smith
The former president weighed in on the coming debate over comprehensive immigration reform yesterday at the Dallas Fed.
By Sonia Smith
According to Google searches.
By Sonia Smith
Cities across Texas boasted impressive personal income growth in 2011, government data shows.
By Sonia Smith
27-year-old was suffocated after months of allegedly being raped, at her husband's urging, by members of the prayer group he founded in Georgetown.
By Sonia Smith
Last month, state troopers in a Texas Department of Safety helicopter shot two Guatemalan men who were hiding in the back of a pickup truck near the border. The national media takes note.
By Sonia Smith
The federal government made a cool $8.8 million over the weekend auctioning off racehorses that purportedly belong to the Zetas.
By Sonia Smith