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Most Recent in Politics:

1Texas Legislature Set to (Slightly) Expand Medical Marijuana Access

2Death Penalty Reform Bill Gets Watered Down to ‘Nothing’ Before Passing Senate

3Trump Megadonor and Houston Mayoral Candidate Is a Top Sponsor for Democratic Fundraiser with Hillary Clinton

4Texas Has the Highest Uninsured Rate in the Country. Lawmakers Haven’t Addressed it This Session.

5In the Texas Legislature’s Final Days, Republicans Find New Ways to Attack Voting Rights

6Ready, Set, File: Transparency Bills Passed by Legislature Could Open the Door to Once-Public Records

Most Recent in Environment:

1Carbon Sequestration Isn’t The Long-Term Solution. Is it a Short-Term One?

2Report: Oil and Gas Producers May Be Pushing the Permian Basin Past Federal Air Quality Limits

3The EPA Told Texas to Crack Down on Dangerous Air Emissions in 2015. The State Never Did, and Now It Won’t Have to.

4The Flood Next Time

5Port of Corpus Christi Pushes Ahead with Oil Terminal Project, Environment Be Damned

6Bucking the Reign of Oil

Most Recent in Border:

1Unearthing Resistance

2The Flood Next Time

3Henry Cuellar and the Art of the Deal

4Engineer Who Helped Build the Wall Details Its Weaknesses

6Documents: CBP Ignored Federal Biologists’ Input on Border Wall

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Death Penalty Reform Bill Gets Watered Down to ‘Nothing’ Before Passing Senate

2With a Bizarre Assist by Democrats, Police Groups Kill Bill to Limit Arrests for Fine-Only Offenses

4‘The Penal System Today is Slavery’: Lawmakers Finally Start to Talk About Unpaid Labor in Texas Prisons

5Four Years Later, Sandra Bland’s Arrest Continues to Sow Distrust in Law Enforcement

6Immune from Justice

Most Recent in Education:

1Texas House Considers Free College For Students Experiencing Homelessness

2‘The Wolf is in the Henhouse’

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

4In Violation of Texas Law, Most High Schools Aren’t Giving Students the Chance to Register to Vote

5Amid Record Youth Suicide Attempts, Texas Lags in Prevention Training for Teachers

6Cash-Strapped Rural Texas Schools Look to Universities for Help

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Texas Legislature Set to (Slightly) Expand Medical Marijuana Access

2Texas Has the Highest Uninsured Rate in the Country. Lawmakers Haven’t Addressed it This Session.

3Despite GOP Support in House, Bill to Provide Contraception to Low-Income Teens Stalls in Senate

4Texans ‘Will Die’: House Republicans Pass Anti-Planned Parenthood Bill After Emotional Debate

5Yes, I am a Sorceress

6Texas House Votes to Significantly Expand Medical Marijuana Law

Most Recent in The Interview:

2The Interview: Mass Resistance

3Meet Jim Allison, Texas’ Newest Nobel Laureate (and Three-Time Cancer Survivor)

4Dolores Huerta is Still Knocking on Doors and Registering Voters at 88

5The Interview: Veronica Escobar is Poised to Make History

6Redistricting Guru Michael Li on Texas’ Gerrymandered Maps

Most Recent in Books:

1Beasts of the Border

2Invasive Species Have Reshaped Texas. Now What?

3A New Crime Novel Asks Tough Questions About Revenge and Redemption

4A New Book on the American Political Divide Calls, Unconvincingly, for Civility

5Swamp City Serenade

6A Sweeping History of Texas Blues Celebrates Little-Known Musicians

Most Recent in Features:

1Ghosts of the Baker Hotel

2At Home in the World

3Plight at the Museum

4The Texas Observer’s Best Features of 2018

5East Texas Photographer Captures 50 Years of Haunting, Ordinary Magic

6Who Writes History? The Fight to Commemorate a Massacre by the Texas Rangers

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: Charlotte Moore

2Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

3Eye on Texas: Ghosts of the City

4Eye on Texas: Fiesta Protesta

5Eye on Texas: Remembering Draylen Mason

6Eye on Texas: Gentrification in East Austin

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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