So happy I get to work with the great José R. Ralat 🌶️. This is such a well-deserved recognition!

Holy crap! Thanks, James Beard Foundation for the media nod! I'm honored to be in the company so many awesome folks & friends: G. Daniela Galarza Gab Chabrán Craig LaBan Daniel Hernandez ✍🏽🌞 Dan Pashman Pati Jinich Bradford Pearson. How I am supposed to work today?! jamesbeard.org/blog/2024-medi…

“Though made of the basest materials—lead and sand—stained-glass windows have made the sense of God more tangible for centuries. It’s easier to believe in a higher being, perhaps, with light wafting prisms of color into your pew.” — Taylor Prewitt

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Texas, we have a problem. Newcomers—and the developers who cater to them—love their big, thirsty green lawns. As a result, water conservation is faltering in many parts of the state.

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might I suggest the beloved and fragrant mountain laurel?

Happy Birthday, Willie! Here’s the oral history Texas Monthly did 16 years ago when you turned 75, Lovett, Kristofferson, Emmylou, Redford, Kinky, Jimmy Carter, Dennis Hopper, Norah Jones, Jerry Wexler, Merle Haggard telling tales:
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Pouring WhisperPathCellars at King William Fair 🪅🎊

“The bare minimum is what we’re asking for.”

Students protesting Israel's war in Gaza say they were demonstrating peacefully at the University of Texas at Austin when police tackled and arrested them. texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

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Incredible work from KUT Austin photojournalists who were out yesterday alongside radio reporters covering protests at UT Austin.

This photo from Michael Minasi is so powerful.

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A spokesperson for the Travis County Sheriff’s Office says a total of 57 protesters were booked into jail after being arrested on the UT campus Wednesday.

From leaders of UT Austin’s Faculty Council on the pro-Palestine protest:

“We are gravely alarmed by yesterday’s events on our campus–including President Hartzell’s decision to invite DPS officers, armed and in riot gear, onto the Forty Acres to disrupt a non-violent protest.”

Grateful to Religion News Association for the 1st place award in analysis for this piece on Angela Paxton during Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial. RNA is an excellent resource for reporters doing the impt work of understanding the belief systems behind our politics.
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I love San Antonio. (via Axios San Antonio)

My wife and I recently purchased a Craftsman-style bungalow in the Heights neighborhood of Houston. We knew our mortgage rate and property taxes would be high. We didn’t anticipate the difficulty of finding home insurance. My latest for Texas Monthly texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

Pullman Market, at San Antonio’s the Pearl, offers restaurants, a mezcal bar, and grocery items that celebrate the state’s culinary bounty. 🤠 texasmonthly.com/food/pullman-m…

NEW from me: The 'ghost wolves' of Galveston Island—coyotes with high levels of endangered red wolf DNA—have enchanted folks on the island, but the animals face threats from development, including a Jimmy Buffet-themed Margaritaville resort.

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A controversial new law allows chaplains to replace school counselors.

School districts—and campus ministries—across the state are largely unfazed. texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

🙏

The answer is: it's not a food court and we DO need, nay, *deserve* it. 🍷

“The only ones who seemed to think that chaplains could substitute for trained counselors were lawmakers. ... ‘It’s checking a box on the Christian nationalist scorecard. [Lawmakers] don’t care about it one way or another.’”
Bekah McNeel for Texas Monthly
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