Most Recent in Politics:

1Could Trump’s Reelection Campaign Turn the Texas House Blue?

2Governor Abbott Swaps One Scandal-Scarred Secretary of State for Another

3Republicans Come to Texas to Prepare for the 2021 Redistricting Battle

4Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez Enters the U.S. Senate Race

5Texas Is at the Center of Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Facebook Ad Campaign

6Dan Patrick’s Long History of Toxic Immigrant-Bashing

Most Recent in Environment:

1More Highways, More Problems

2Climate Change Will Drive Up Energy Use in Texas and Beyond

3The Butterfly Effect

4Can a $2.5 Billion Bond Deal Fix Harris County’s Inequitable Flood Control?

5Whiplash Weather in the Valley Brings Fears of Flood, Drought, and Wildfires

6If a Glacier Melts in the Arctic, the Texas Coast Feels It

Most Recent in Border:

1Binational Community Struggles to Help Migrants Under ‘Remain in Mexico’

2Customs and Border Protection Wants To Know What You Think About The Wall

3‘Even the Police Officers Were Laughing at Me’: Transgender Immigrants Share Their Experiences of Abuse and Neglect in Detention

4Nuevo Laredo Shelter Director Reportedly Kidnapped After Protecting Cuban Migrants

5Texas Is at the Center of Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Facebook Ad Campaign

6White Terror on the Border

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1‘A Watershed Moment’ for Bail Reform in Harris County

2Ken Paxton Wants ‘Ultimate Home Field Advantage’ in Felony Case

3The High Cost of Hays County’s Decision to Keep Prosecuting Low-Level Marijuana Cases

4A Poor Defense

5Texas’ New Medical Marijuana Law Doesn’t Cover Veterans Suffering from PTSD

6Death of Dog Trainer Highlights Strenuous Heat and Working Conditions at Texas Prisons

Most Recent in Education:

1The Cost of Carve-Outs

2Texas Legislature Improves Suicide Prevention in Schools, but Makes Little Progress for Adults

3Texas House Considers Free College For Students Experiencing Homelessness

4‘The Wolf is in the Henhouse’

5‘We’re Not Stupid’: Texas Teachers Take on Dan Patrick and the Legislature over Dismal Education Funding

6In Violation of Texas Law, Most High Schools Aren’t Giving Students the Chance to Register to Vote

Most Recent in Health Care:

1A Texas Anti-Abortion Group Dramatically Missed its Family Planning Targets. Now its Founder is Suing the Federal Government for More Money.

2Molly Ivins on Universal Health Care

3The Trauma of Teen Mothers Held in Border Patrol Lockups

4Meet the ‘Abortion Abolitionists’ Shaping Policy in the Texas GOP

5Texas’ New Medical Marijuana Law Doesn’t Cover Veterans Suffering from PTSD

6Yet Another Rural Texas Hospital is in Jeopardy After Anti-Tax Activists Kill Funding Proposal

Most Recent in The Interview:

1If a Glacier Melts in the Arctic, the Texas Coast Feels It

2Without Transmission Lines, Renewable Energy Still has a Long Way to Go — Literally

3The Dissenter

4The Interview: Mass Resistance

5Meet Jim Allison, Texas’ Newest Nobel Laureate (and Three-Time Cancer Survivor)

6Dolores Huerta is Still Knocking on Doors and Registering Voters at 88

Most Recent in Books:

1‘The Weil Conjectures’ Rewards the Intellectually Adventurous

2‘Black Light’ is a Weird, Wonderful Fever Dream of a Book

3A Riveting New History of an Ancient West Texas Canyon

4‘Texas Flood’ is a Soulful Portrait of Stevie Ray Vaughan

5‘Seadrift’ Dredges Up a Little-Known—and Deeply Disturbing—Texas Story

6Book Review: Scapegoating the Media Ignores Other Major Problems in American Politics

Most Recent in Features:

1Little Arthouse on the Prairie

2The Clothes that Make the Man

3Washington Crossing the Rio Grande

4Ghosts of the Baker Hotel

5At Home in the World

6Plight at the Museum

Most Recent in Essay:

1To Understand the El Paso Massacre, Look to the Long Legacy of Anti-Mexican Violence at the Border

2Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

3The Trouble with Yoga

4Heads in the Mud

5The Day the Windows Shook

6Women’s Work

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

2Eye on Texas: Loren Elliott

3Eye on Texas: Charlotte Moore

4Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

5Eye on Texas: Ghosts of the City

6Eye on Texas: Fiesta Protesta

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

2Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

3Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

4Parallel Planes

5Options

6Poem: ‘Resistance’

Tag Archives: Alpine

by Christopher Collins

Government Transparency Suffers a Major Setback Thanks to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

The all-Republican court has removed criminal penalties for violating a portion of the state Open Meetings Act.

Thu, Feb 28, 2019 |

The windows of Texas government have been tinted even darker thanks to a landmark ruling Wednesday by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The nine-member panel...Read More

An Alpine police officer stands watch outside the Purple Zone smoke shop during a federal raid in May.

by Patrick Michels

Alpine Synthetic Drug Case Ends in Plea Deal for Purple Zone Owner

Reason magazine features Purple Zone case in documentary alleging affair between shop owner and prosecutor

Sat, Nov 15, 2014 |

Since the Observer featured the strange tale of a synthetic drug crackdown in Alpine, the cases have ended in plea deals, and Reason magazine has detailed new a...Read More

Purple Zone merchandise on the shelves.

by Jonathan McNamara

Observer Radio Episode 69: How an Alpine Smoke Shop Became a National Civil Liberties Cause

Fri, Aug 1, 2014 |

Patrick Michels tells the tale of a controversial Alpine smoke shop swept up by the federal government's zeal to snuff out synthetic drugs....Read More

An Alpine police officer stands watch outside the Purple Zone smoke shop during a federal raid in May.

by Patrick Michels

The Thin Purple Line

After a controversial raid on a West Texas smoke shop, nothing is hazier than the truth.

Mon, Jul 28, 2014 |

After a controversial raid on a West Texas smoke shop, nothing is hazier than the truth. ...Read More

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