Politics & Policy
June 1, 1988
Caught in the Middle
On the eve of the Mexican elections, the country’s dwindling middle class prefers fatalism to Fabianism.
News & Politics
Politics & Policy
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?
News & Politics
May 1, 1988
Earth, Rain, Wind, Fire
A wet year followed by a dry one made for one hellacious brush with disaster in the ranchlands of West Texas.
Energy
May 1, 1988
It Stinks
Times are rotten for refineries.
Energy
May 1, 1988
No Wonderland
Once an oil-field service boomtown, Alice doesn’t live well anymore.
Energy
May 1, 1988
The Wait for Deliverance
Despite all the mewling from the oil patch, there are still ways to make money at $15 a barrel. Here’s our guide to surviving the terrible teens.
Politics & Policy
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.
Politics & Policy
April 30, 1988
Just Add Water
The issues in El Paso’s colonias are watery and grave.
Politics & Policy
April 30, 1988
Fallen Idyll
Profligate and polarized, Austin attempts to salvage its future by looking into the past for its next mayor.
Health
April 30, 1988
Dying for a Heart
For Ted Segal of Waco, the problem wasn’t getting a heart transplant; it was finding a donor. The delay was killing him.
Business
April 1, 1988
What Does H.E.B. Stand For, Anyway?
As the president of Texas’ largest private grocery chain, Charles Butt learned that in order to be nice to his customers he had to be tough on his competitors. And vice versa.
Business
April 1, 1988
Wonder Plane
Up in the sky, it’s a plane, it’s a helicopter—no, it’s a tiltrotor, the Texas hybrid that will soon revolutionize air travel.
Politics & Policy
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.
Politics & Policy
April 1, 1988
Behind the Lines
Conover Hunt and the Sixth Floor Museum.
Politics & Policy
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.
Business
March 1, 1988
Lifestyles of the Rich and Bankrupt
Going broke is for poor people. Here’s a whole chapter of Texans who have found ways to clear the books without losing their ranches, Rolls, or Rolexes.
Politics & Policy
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.
Energy
March 1, 1988
The Man Who Crushed Texaco
Judges take his money. Juries buy his bull. And when clients like Pennzoil need a tiger in their tank, they hire Joe Jamail.
Business
January 1, 1988
Break the Bank!
Don Dixon ran Vernon Savings the way the Romans ran orgies, equating excess with success, until his empire collapsed.
Bum Steers
January 1, 1988
1988 Bum Steer Awards
A year of clumsy Clements, stupid stickups, ripped-off Rangers, cockeyed cops, agitated alligators, rotund cockroaches, jumpy judges, nitwit newsmen, addled Aggies, naughty newlyweds, randy retirees, and a pestered pontiff.
News & Politics
December 1, 1987
All Choked Up
A ground war at the Dallas–Fort Worth Airport is turning innocent passengers into anxious bystanders.
Health
December 1, 1987
This Can’t Be Happening to Me
From the look on my doctor’s face, I knew the results of the biopsy. The lump in my breast was cancer.
News & Politics
November 1, 1987
Sold!
Never mind the million (no lie!) other houses for sale in Texas. If you follow our advice, yours will be the first to sell.
News & Politics
November 1, 1987
Old Times
Before the Dallas newspaper war, the Herald was full of character—or was it characters?
Business
November 1, 1987
Paper Boy
When newspaper entrepreneur William Dean Singleton bought the ailing ‘Dallas Times Herald,’ people thought he was crazy. When he bought the ‘Houston Post,’ they were sure of it.
Business
October 1, 1987
Paradise Lost
Las Colinas was supposed to be Can-Do City. So why couldn’t it?
Politics & Policy
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.
News & Politics
October 1, 1987
A Cross to Bear
Three recent scandals in the Methodist church are forcing it to do some serious soul-searching.
Politics & Policy
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?
Politics & Policy
August 31, 1987
Cowboys and Iranians
What do Odessa beer joints and the Iran-contra hearings have in common? Everything.
News & Politics
August 31, 1987
Guilty Until Proven Innocent
In 1980 a white girl was raped and murdered at Conroe High School, and the police quickly arrested a black janitorial supervisor. Now it looks as if the case wasn’t so open and shut after all.
Business
August 1, 1987
Cities in Bondage
When eighty-year-old Decker Jackson gives financial advice to Texas public officials, nothing in life is certain but debt and taxes.
Health
August 1, 1987
The Booming Business of AIDS
For some entrepreneurs, the dark cloud of AIDS has proved to have a silver lining
News & Politics
August 1, 1987
The Time It Always Rained
The wettest spell in memory has given the people who live in West Texas an unfamiliar topic of conversation.
Best and Worst Legislators
June 30, 1987
1987: The Best and the Worst Legislators
We just rate them. You voted for them.
Business
June 1, 1987
The Party’s Over
In the early eighties, some Dallas savings and loans reaped profits in real estate investments while land was flipped, appraisals were inflated, and property was developed. Now the land deals have flopped, property values are deflated, and there are empty buildings all over town. And some S&Ls are broke
News & Politics
June 1, 1987
The No Decade
Like it or not, it’s time to start behaving yourself.
Politics & Policy
May 1, 1987
Heads, We Win, Tails, You Lose
Highly partisan justices are at the center of the Supreme Court scandal.
Politics & Policy
May 1, 1987
Blind Justice
Should a judge’s friendships survive his election to the Supreme Court of Texas?
Politics & Policy
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.
News & Politics
March 1, 1987
Hey, Mom, Have I Got an Assignment for You
Once kids did their own homework. Now ambitious parents do it for them.
Business
March 1, 1987
Top Gun
Texas Air chief Frank Lorenzo took an airline with no profits and limited prospects and built it into the country’s largest. How? By betting like the sky’s the limit.
Business
March 1, 1987
C. W. Post
At first he couldn’t stand the strain of trying to get rich. Then he couldn’t stand the strain of being rich.
Politics & Policy
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.
Energy
February 1, 1987
Undertakers of the Oil Patch
The death of an oil well keeps an oil-field service company alive.
Business
February 1, 1987
ONE Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Will deprivation, humiliation, and confrontation lead the way to a better, more confident you? A new self-help craze sweeping Texas wants you to think so.
Border & Immigration
February 1, 1987
The Prophets
The border’s self-appointed problem solvers promise new industry, more jobs, and better schools. So why won’t anyone listen to them?
Border & Immigration
February 1, 1987
Madonna of the Maquiladora
While U.S. businessmen and Mexican bureaucrats see her as the answer to their economic prayers, factory worker Graciela Fernández just tries to get by—on about 66 cents an hour.
Border & Immigration
February 1, 1987
The Last of the Border Lords
In his dream to create a dynastic empire along the Rio Grande, Chito Longoria went against the wishes of his family and the values of his native land.
Bum Steers
January 1, 1987
1987 Bum Steer Awards
A year of anguished Arabs, bigshot bankrupts, crazy cookbooks, despoiled dinosaurs, exhibitionist editors, foiled fugitives, greens-eating graduates, half-cocked hashish, in flagrante inmates, jolly jailers, kinky kilocycles, late lobsters, moistened mayors, and northbound Nicaraguans.