Most Recent in Politics:

1On Rodney Reed Case, Greg Abbott Gets a Political Reprieve

2John Cornyn’s Weaselly Immigration Record

3Texas Congressional Candidate Shannon Hutcheson Defended Corporations Against the Vulnerable. EMILY’s List Endorsed Her Anyway.

4‘You Can Only Take So Much’: Low-Income Hurricane Harvey Survivors Sue Over ‘Discriminatory’ Recovery Process

5Rick Perry Exports His Pay-to-Play Politics to Ukraine

6‘Nobody’s Beating You,’ Trump Assures John Cornyn

Most Recent in Environment:

1The Long Battle to Stop the Kinder Morgan Pipeline

2Landowners Got One Hill Country Oil Pipeline Moved. But Can They Do It Again?

3Beautiful Ruins: ‘Anthropocene’ Is a Sobering Ecological Prophecy

4Tropical Storm Imelda Will Likely Be Southeast Texas’ Fifth 500-Year Flood in Five Years

5The Green New Deal Can Exist in Texas

6How BP Oil Spill Fines Could Help Protect the Texas Coast

Most Recent in Border:

1‘We Build the Wall’ Lands in South Texas, Vilifies Priest and Butterfly Refuge

2John Cornyn’s Weaselly Immigration Record

3Activists Rally for the Closure of Hutto Detention Center as Private Contract Rumors Swirl

4When ICE Emptied Out an All-Women Detention Center in Texas, Chaos Ensued

5The Fear—and Hope—of Living in Sanctuary

6Editorial: Reckoning with El Paso

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1On Rodney Reed Case, Greg Abbott Gets a Political Reprieve

2Having My Period in Prison Was Awful. In Texas, That May Finally Change.

3The Movement to Free Rodney Reed Illustrates the Growing Unease Over Texas’ Use of the Death Penalty

4Potter County Criminal Defense System is Lambasted in a New Report

5Watch: ‘Life and Death in a Carceral State’

6Dallas Is What Happens When People Can’t Trust Police

Most Recent in Education:

1The Creature of Martin Creek Lake Won’t Die

2The Cost of Carve-Outs

3Texas Legislature Improves Suicide Prevention in Schools, but Makes Little Progress for Adults

4Texas House Considers Free College For Students Experiencing Homelessness

5‘The Wolf is in the Henhouse’

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

Most Recent in Health Care:

1The Rural Health Care Crisis, Mapped

2Driving My Life Away

3Scenes from a Rural Hospital’s Final Day

4State Investigators Identify ‘Serious Contractual Violations’ by the Heidi Group

5Critical Condition

6A Dying Town

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Author William Lopez on How Immigration Raids Inflict Long-Lasting Trauma

2Why a Texas Gun Control Activist is Optimistic About the Chances for Reform

3American Health Care is Broken, Especially in Texas. What Can We Do About It?

4Thousands of Rape Kits in Texas Went Untested For Years. Lavinia Masters Is Ending That.

5Floodplain Maps Are Outdated. This Scientist Wants to Change That.

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

Most Recent in Books:

1I’ve Lived in East Austin for 60 Years, and I Don’t Recognize it Anymore

2American Cities Weren’t Revitalized by the White ‘Creative Class.’ Immigrants Made Them Great.

3Short Story Contest Winner: ‘Dear Mr. Gottlieb’

4Author William Lopez on How Immigration Raids Inflict Long-Lasting Trauma

5An Observer Staff Guide to the 2019 Texas Book Festival

6A Bold New Memoir Struggles to Reconcile Faith and Feminism

Most Recent in Features:

1The Ghosts of Jefferson

2Little Arthouse on the Prairie

3The Clothes that Make the Man

4Washington Crossing the Rio Grande

5Ghosts of the Baker Hotel

6At Home in the World

Most Recent in Essay:

1Having My Period in Prison Was Awful. In Texas, That May Finally Change.

2Up From the Desert

3To Understand the El Paso Massacre, Look to the Long Legacy of Anti-Mexican Violence at the Border

4Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

5The Trouble with Yoga

6Heads in the Mud

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: The Broken Wheel Ranch Project

2Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

3Eye on Texas: Loren Elliott

4Eye on Texas: Charlotte Moore

5Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

6Eye on Texas: Ghosts of the City

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Author Saeed Jones on Empathy, the Power of Memoir, and Growing up Gay in North Texas

2Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

3Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

4Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

5Parallel Planes

6Options

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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