Most Recent in Texas Politics:

1The Lege This Week: Adventures in Circular Finger Pointing

2The Lege This Week: Out Cold

3The Lege This Week: Senators Poke, Prod and Punch Paxton

4The Lege This Week: Amid Pandemic, Abbott Prioritizes Red Meat

5The Lege This Week: Texas Redistricting Will Be A Summer Showdown

6Will the Texas Legislature Stop Police from Arresting People for Fine-Only Offenses?

Most Recent in Environment:

1Biden Plans to Ban All New Fracking Leases on Public Land. Will He Actually Do It?

2The Sunniest City in Texas is Expanding … Natural Gas Production

3What to do With a “Tidal Wave” of Texas Wind Turbine Blades

4Teens for a Green New Deal

5Why the South Is Organizing Its Own Green New Deal

6Solar Energy is Hitting a Growth Spurt. So Is The Disinformation Around It.

Most Recent in Border:

1How Texas Courts Went Virtual

2In ‘At the Ready,’ Latinx High Schoolers Train to Be Border Patrol Agents

3Forgotten for Over a Century, Border Hero Jovita Idár Is Rediscovered by Her Hometown of Laredo

4Deaths in ICE Custody Skyrocketed During the COVID-19 Pandemic

5Local Organizers Explain the Republican Surge in South Texas

65,000 People Contract COVID-19 While In ICE Custody, Including This Father Of 5

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Clogged Toilets, Snow Inside: How the Winter Storm Exacerbated Problems in Texas Lock-Ups

3Exploring the Rise, Fall, and Lingering Trauma of the Death Penalty in Texas

4Anatomy of a Crime

5Fort Bend County Will Soon Have Its First Black Sheriff Since Reconstruction

6How Texas Jails Avoid Investigations of Inmate Deaths

Most Recent in Education:

1The Long, Winding Road that Led to the SBOE’s Decision for Texas Schools to Teach Abstinence-Plus Sex Education

2Efforts to Save What’s Left of Mary Allen Seminary Reveal The Challenges of Preserving Black Placemaking in Texas

3Texas Has the Widest Digital Divide in the Nation. What Does that Mean for the School Year?

4The New Ensemble

5Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

6Tough Decisions Ahead for School Leaders in Rural Texas

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Editorial: Texas Wasn’t Prepared for the Statewide Vaccine Rush

2COVID-19’s Deadly Toll on Texas Workers

3COVID-19 Response has Been Starkly Different for Indigenous Communities in Texas

4After Sarah Davis’ Election Defeat, Texas Reproductive Health Advocates Worry About Losing a Powerful Republican Ally

5For Families That Lost Loved Ones or Jobs to the Pandemic, Thanksgiving Carries an Extra Weight This Year

6How We Got Here

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Researcher Howard Henderson on Reimagining Policing in the U.S.

2Texas Observer Founding Editor Ronnie Dugger Reflects on 65 Years of Publication

3How Katharine Hayhoe Stays Hopeful as the Planet Warms

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

5Why a Texas Gun Control Activist is Optimistic About the Chances for Reform

6American Health Care is Broken, Especially in Texas. What Can We Do About It?

Most Recent in Books:

1“Wings of Ebony” Brings Black Girl Magic to Life

2A New Book Celebrates the Work of Architect John S. Chase

3The Flâneur of Downtown Dallas

4Remembering a Jewish Upbringing in Meyerland, Texas

5How Texas Women Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment

6A New Short-Story Collection Imagines a Texas Town’s Secession

Most Recent in Features:

1How to Die in Texas

2Young Texans Keep Spelling Bees Going From Home

4San Antonio Embraces Mandaean Refugees

5The Ghosts of Jefferson

6Little Arthouse on the Prairie

Most Recent in Essay:

1Editorial: Look Down Ballot for Democratic Wins in Texas

2What the Black Lives Matter Protests Mean for East Texas

3Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

4What’s a Bookstore for?

5Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

6In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: The Essential Women of Austin

2Eye on Texas: A House Divided

3Eye on Texas: The Black Yearbook

4Eye on Texas: Border Tuner

5Eye on Texas: The Broken Wheel Ranch Project

6Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Poet Claudia Delfina Cardona on Her Debut Poetry Chapbook

2Author Saeed Jones on Empathy, the Power of Memoir, and Growing up Gay in North Texas

3Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

4Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

5Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

6Parallel 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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