"The runaway ringleader of the derelict Democrats" ... will the English major who somehow ended up working comms for Gregory Wayne Abbott please stand up

Our fearless editor Rob D'Amico somehow stumbled upon the craziest Sentinel front page I've ever seen (Jan 31, 1957)

If you are a media reporter for a bigger pub who does not fear sources that threaten litigation ... this is a wild one I'd like to see someone else do a spin on. What happens when newcomers and hometown heroes clash in a small town? bigbendsentinel.com/2025/08/13/har…

I was not aware there was a Texas pledge until I went to report on my first school board meeting (age 29) and right after the regular pledge the 40+ other people in the room launched into it perfectly in unison. The effect was bone chilling

Where is Rachel Monroe ... I need someone to write a Take that will help me unpack the feelings I'm feeling about the HBO yogurt shop murders doc in a thoughtful and devastatingly original way 👀

Wrote about the trans people who go to the Texas Capitol to talk to lawmakers during #txlege, and why they keep doing it even if it doesn't change minds or hearts, and even if they're testifying to no one at all: chron.com/culture/articl…

"The 32-year-old gay Venezuelan makeup artist has survived things that would break most people. But in conversation, he peppers his story with warmth, dignity, and an insistence on seeing the beauty in small pleasures." - The Advocate advocate.com/news/andry-her…

A crash course in why rural Texas schools are in dire straits –– lots of great local voices in this including our wonderful copyeditor, Ariele texasmonthly.com/news-politics/…

Last month, I got to help kids in rural New Mexico make a radio documentary about their town...featuring, among other things: abandoned mine remediation, escaped parakeets, Los Alamos, and a haunted clubhouse. KMRD doc and High Country News dispatch here: hcn.org/articles/in-ru…

A guy out here quit Border Patrol and started a hustle delivering HEB curbside from Odessa. I don't have access to safe drinking water or medical care but I am eating Sushi Ya and mixla tortillas in bed ... give him the presidential medal of freedom Donald J. Trump

Obsessed with this cheerful royalty-free graphic Rob found for one of my stories

96 years ago today, Border Patrol Agent Miles Scannell was murdered on the job in Polvo –– probably by liquor smugglers, but nobody knows. It remains one of the agency's thorniest unsolved mysteries. I wrote about it last year for the USBP centennial bigbendsentinel.com/2024/06/05/a-p…

How the hell did a 1300 pound twisted hunk of metal from Ground Zero end up in the Big Bend? In honor of today's anniversary, I tracked down the Border Patrol agent who put it there to find out bigbendsentinel.com/2025/09/11/exp…

In the border communities of Doña Ana County, New Mexico, people have struggled for years to get clean water. Now, developers plan to bring a $165 billion data center complex to town. For High Country News and Puente News Collaborative: hcn.org/articles/resis…