Most Recent in Texas Politics:

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5Doctors Reverse Course, Say Texas GOP Should Cancel In-Person Convention

6The Next Census Could Determine the Future of Port Arthur

Most Recent in Environment:

1Running from the Storm

2A Coral Reef Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico Could Triple in Size

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6Texas Solar Hits a Turning Point

Most Recent in Border:

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2Mexico Turns To Television And Radio For Remote Learning

3New Engineering Report Finds Privately Built Border Wall Will Fail

4El ducto del coronavirus

5The Coronavirus Pipeline

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Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1When Asthma in Jail Becomes a Death Sentence

2In Harris County, A Group is Working to Expand Voting Access in Jails

3Will The Reckoning Over Racist Names Include These Prisons?

4How Long Can You Hide a Dead Body in a Prison Cell?

5Reform vs. Rebuild: Defunding Law Enforcement in Texas

6As COVID-19 Cases Surge, Some Incarcerated People Remain Behind Bars After Making Bail

Most Recent in Education:

1The New Ensemble

2Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

3Tough Decisions Ahead for School Leaders in Rural Texas

4‘Almost Akin to a Political Coup’: Houston Teachers Fight Back Against State Takeover of HISD

5The Creature of Martin Creek Lake Won’t Die

6The Cost of Carve-Outs

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Conception Deception

2Portraits of the Pandemic

3El ducto del coronavirus

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5One of Texas’ Biggest Nursing Home Operators Beset By COVID-19 Cases and Deaths

6Telehealth Could be Great, if Texans Had Access to It

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Texas Observer Founding Editor Ronnie Dugger Reflects on 65 Years of Publication

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6Thousands of Rape Kits in Texas Went Untested For Years. Lavinia Masters Is Ending That.

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3Improbable, Prophetic Houston

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Most Recent in Features:

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5Little Arthouse on the Prairie

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Most Recent in Essay:

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2Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

3What’s a Bookstore for?

4Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

5In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives

6Loneliness in the Age of Coronavirus

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Border Tuner

2Eye on Texas: The Broken Wheel Ranch Project

3Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

4Eye on Texas: Loren Elliott

5Eye on Texas: Charlotte Moore

6Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

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

Articles tagged: 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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