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Most Recent in Politics:

1How Silicon Valley Lobbyists Secretly Pushed Texas Regulators to Rewrite the Rules of the Gig Economy

2How Trump’s Tax Cuts Could Accelerate Gentrification and Inequality in Houston

3Civil Rights Groups Call ‘Election Integrity’ Bill a ‘Dangerous New Assault on Voting Rights in Texas’

4Texas Lawmakers Propose Funding Increase to Eliminate Waitlists at Rape Crisis Centers

5Why is Beto Running for President, Exactly?

6Texas Lawmakers are Promoting ‘Anti-New York’ Bills to Limit Abortions

Most Recent in Environment:

1A New Study Shows that the Oil and Gas Industry is Wasting a Shocking Quantity of Natural Gas in Texas

2Texas State Park Could Close as Vistra Energy Seeks to Sell Land Near Shuttered Power Plant

3El Paso School Consolidation Exposes More Kids to Lead and Other Hazards, Parents Say

4Could Kinder Morgan’s ‘Permian Highway’ Scar the Hill Country?

5Millions of Plastic Pellets in Lavaca Bay? Formosa Says it’s Just ‘Trace Amounts’

6Environmentalists Fear Conservative Group’s Push to End Corporate Subsidies is Really Just a Hit on Renewables

Most Recent in Border:

1The Interview: Mass Resistance

2‘The River and The Wall’ is a Visually Stunning Borderland Adventure

3Instead of Building Family-Friendly Jails for Migrants, We Should Just Stop Jailing Them

4Many Texans Want a Border Wall Without a Federal Land Grab. That’s Impossible.

5The Borderlands are a Sacrifice Zone for Our Terrible Politics

6Valeria Luiselli’s Third Novel Reckons with the Trauma Inflicted on Migrant Kids

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Texas Legislature Considers Bills to Break the Cycle of Debtor’s Prison

2Texas Prison Reformers Demand Dignity for Incarcerated Women

3Third Time’s The Charm? Marijuana Decriminalization Gets Another Chance in Texas

4Why Doesn’t Texas’ Most Liberal County Have a Public Defender?

5Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

6The Tattooed Star of the ‘Progressive Prosecutor’ Movement Braces for His First Death Penalty Trial

Most Recent in Education:

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

2In Violation of Texas Law, Most High Schools Aren’t Giving Students the Chance to Register to Vote

3Amid Record Youth Suicide Attempts, Texas Lags in Prevention Training for Teachers

4Cash-Strapped Rural Texas Schools Look to Universities for Help

5What’s in a Name? Texas SBOE Tentatively Approves ‘Ethnic Studies: Mexican American Studies’

6SMU Just Lost Its Independent Student Newspaper. Is Your College Next?

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Watchdog Organization Calls for (Another) Investigation into Failed Texas Anti-Abortion Group

2Texas Republicans Dismiss Research as They Move to Further Defund Planned Parenthood

3Texas Lawmakers Propose Funding Increase to Eliminate Waitlists at Rape Crisis Centers

4In Texas, Three More Measles Cases and Four New Anti-Vaccine Bills

5Texas Lawmakers are Promoting ‘Anti-New York’ Bills to Limit Abortions

6‘Breakthrough’ Chronicles Nobel Prize Winner Jim Allison’s Long Fight for Science

Most Recent in The Interview:

1The Interview: Mass Resistance

2Meet Jim Allison, Texas’ Newest Nobel Laureate (and Three-Time Cancer Survivor)

3Dolores Huerta is Still Knocking on Doors and Registering Voters at 88

4The Interview: Veronica Escobar is Poised to Make History

5Redistricting Guru Michael Li on Texas’ Gerrymandered Maps

6Senfronia Thompson Says #MeToo: Texas Lawmaker on 45 Years of Sexism, Racism at the Capitol

Most Recent in Books:

1A New Book on the American Political Divide Calls, Unconvincingly, for Civility

2Swamp City Serenade

3A Sweeping History of Texas Blues Celebrates Little-Known Musicians

4Elizabeth McCracken’s ‘Bowlaway’ Spins a Dark, Magical Tale of Love, Loss and Bowling

5Valeria Luiselli’s Third Novel Reckons with the Trauma Inflicted on Migrant Kids

6‘Last Woman Standing’ Tackles Toxic Masculinity and Keeps the Pages Turning

Most Recent in Features:

1The Texas Observer’s Best Features of 2018

2Raspa Revolution

3100 Ways to Draw a Line

4Homeward Bound

5The Sisterhood

6The Time-Traveler’s Guide to the Lower Pecos

Most Recent in Essay:

1Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

2The Trouble with Yoga

3Heads in the Mud

4The Day the Windows Shook

5Women’s Work

6I Grew Up on the Texas-Mexico Border, but Now I Barely Recognize It

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

2Eye on Texas: Ghosts of the City

3Eye on Texas: Fiesta Protesta

4Eye on Texas: Remembering Draylen Mason

5Eye on Texas: Gentrification in East Austin

6Eye on Texas: Transgender Youth in Texas

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

6Poem: ‘Resistance’

Tag Archives: Purple Zone

Purple Zone merchandise on the shelves.

by Patrick Michels

Can Texas Lawmakers Possibly Outlaw Synthetic Drugs?

Wed, Feb 4, 2015 |

From the spice-ravaged wilds of East Texas to the incense-dusted Panhandle plains, lawmakers headed to Austin this year vowing to snuff out synthetic drug sales...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

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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