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News & Politics|
July 25, 2017

Country Revival

Texas A&M is booming: new construction, world-renowned academics, and sports teams on the rise. The man behind all this success is the pickup-driving, straight-talking politician turned system chancellor John Sharp.

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News & Politics|
July 25, 2017

The Drug Runners

The Tarahumara, of Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains, are the world’s greatest ultramarathoners. But in recent years, their legendary endurance has been put to a sinister use—in service of the narcos.

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Music|
June 26, 2017

Bad Girls Get Old

How Jo Carol Pierce went from adventurous Lubbock teen to restless single mother and social worker to Austin’s most underrated songwriter is a story unlike any other in Texas music. Now, at 72, she’s ready for her next act.

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Business|
June 14, 2017

The Shelf Life of John Mackey

The Whole Foods founder revolutionized the way Americans consume food. Now, with profits and the stock price down, and after a series of controversies ($6 asparagus water!), can he reinvent his company before Wall Street swipes it from him?

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Features|
May 25, 2017

Welcome to the Green Machine

My son was jobless, directionless, and apartmentless. So when he decided to join the Army, we were just glad he was out of the house. What we didn’t know was just how much the military would change him—and us. 

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Sports|
March 22, 2017

Star Rocket in Flight

With slick television ads promoting his signature Adidas, hip-hop songs dropping his name, a possible MVP award, and the most famous beard since ZZ Top, James Harden has arrived. In fact, he may just be the biggest name in Texas.

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Music|
February 23, 2017

The Underdog’s on Top

Country singer Aaron Watson wears denim, loves two-steppin', and sings about bluebonnets without irony. Which gets him little attention in Nashville—but plenty of love everywhere else.

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Libations|
December 30, 2016

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

In the age of gastropubs and microbreweries, Texas still boasts a few real dive bars—where the jukebox is irreplaceable, the beer is domestic, and the patrons feel like family—if you know where to look.

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Deer running across the Blanco River in the Texas hill country.
Books|
December 21, 2016

Let the River Run

Wes Ferguson has paddled and walked all 87 miles of one of the Hill Country’s most prized waterways. In this exclusive excerpt from The Blanco River, he uncovers a few of its natural secrets.

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Politics & Policy|
November 23, 2016

Lost and Found

They have fled war-torn countries, given up livelihoods, and left behind possessions and family for the safety of a foreign world of cowboy hats and Walmarts. But the refugees who land in Amarillo’s Astoria Park have an ally who understands their confusion and loss: a 64-year-old former teacher named Miss

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Business|
November 23, 2016

Crossed Stitches

Beverly Pennington was a Pinterest-perfect entrepreneur whose patchwork quilts—made from people’s most treasured T-shirts—found thousands of devotees all over the country. But when the quilts stopped coming, leaving the shirts in limbo, her customers pieced together a plan to fight back.

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Politics & Policy|
November 22, 2016

The Televangelism of Ken Paxton

It’s been a difficult two years in office for Texas’s attorney general. First came his indictment on multiple felonies, then an embarrassing series of missteps and staff shake-ups. Now, with his trial looming, he’s seeking salvation one live television interview at a time.

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Sports|
October 19, 2016

Orange Crush

Who needs the playoffs? After years (and years and years) of heartache, Houston has fallen for the Astros all over again.

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Health|
October 19, 2016

The Iconoclast

Jim Allison has always gone his own way—as a small-town-Texas kid who preferred books to football, and as a young scientist who believed the immune system could treat tumors when few others did. And that irreverence led him to find a potential cure for cancer.

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Lead|
September 21, 2016

Trash Talk

The scion of one of Laredo’s first families wants to build a mammoth landfill on his ranch. But the opposition is fierce and vocal—and backed by none other than his uncle and his cousin.

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Snow's Barbecue pitmaster, Tootsie, poses by her equipment for a black and white photo.
Food & Drink|
September 21, 2016

Snow’s Queen

On Saturdays Tootsie Tomanetz cooks barbecue the old-fashioned way for legions of loyal fans. That doesn’t mean she’ll ever give up her day job.

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Novelist Paulette Jiles
Books|
September 15, 2016

True Western

Paulette Jiles wasn't born in Texas, but she started writing novels set here as fast as she could.

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Art|
September 14, 2016

Fame in the Abstract

Dorothy Hood was one of Texas’s greatest artists, yet her work remains largely unknown. Now, sixteen years after her death, can her fans bring her the acclaim she never received in life?

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True Crime|
September 9, 2016

Cops and Robbers

They were some of the toughest narcs on the border, known for busting smugglers, staging raids, seizing cartel cocaine—and being dirty.

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True Crime|
August 24, 2016

The Yes Man

He was just a regular kid in South Texas, until a brush with the law propelled Gabriel Cardona into petty crime—and the service of a drug lord rising to power across the Rio Grande. In this exclusive excerpt from Wolf Boys: Two American Teenagers and Mexico’s Most Dangerous Drug Cartel, Dan

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Science|
August 24, 2016

When the Dust Settles

After Texas Tech researchers discovered that windstorms may be spreading antibiotic-resistant bacteria from local feedlots, public health experts stood up and took notice. So did the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.

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Critters|
August 24, 2016

Ruffled Feathers

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. 

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Politics & Policy|
August 11, 2016

Remember the Christian Alamo

Evangelist Lester Roloff drew a line in the dirt to keep the State of Texas from regulating his Rebekah Home for Girls. Years later, then-govenor George W. Bush handed Roloff's disciples a long-sought victory. But this Alamo had no heroes—only victims.

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Business|
July 20, 2016

Countdown to Liftoff

Sleek, shiny rockets on sleepy, shifty sands: as SpaceX prepares to build in South Texas, I wonder if my old stomping grounds can handle the inevitable collision of cultures. I sure hope so.

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Members of the Valley Ranch Islamic Center in front of their mosque.
The Culture|
July 20, 2016

Faith and Hope

The country’s largest group of Muslims live in Texas, yet many of them don’t feel welcome here. A few young and progressive leaders—like Irving imam Omar Suleiman—are working to change that.

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Waco Murders Collage
True Crime|
July 13, 2016

The Murders at the Lake

In 1982 three teenagers were killed near the shores of Lake Waco in a seemingly inexplicable crime. More than three decades later, the tragic and disturbing case still casts a long, dark shadow.

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Texas History|
June 16, 2016

Off Course

I never knew my father, a decorated World War II pilot who died before I was born. But a trek at age 67 to the site where his airplane crashed brought me closer to him than I’d ever dared hope.

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