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Shane and Sally: Episode 6Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below.Learn more about the case with original videos, archival photos, and documents from our reporting in our episode guide. Subscribe Apple Podcasts — Spotify “I want this case solved for their family. . . . And these other girls deserve it too. They deserve justice. These guys all need to go to jail, every one of ’em.”—Kristen McLaughlin-BillIn this episode, we explore the last of four suspects investigators have named in their investigation into Shane Stewart and Sally McNelly’s murders. In the eighties, Heath Davis was a violent drug dealer with a tough reputation around town who associated with other main suspects in this case. Davis says he’s turned his life around today and that he has been…

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Nicholas Suntzeff at the Physics and Astronomy Teaching Observatory at Texas A&M, on March 19, 2024.“Can we talk UFOs?” I asked Nicholas Suntzeff, the regents professor of physics and astronomy at Texas A&M University. “I’d be happy to,” he replied, letting out a chuckle. “But just so you know, the government now wants us to call them unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP.”The wiry, good-natured Suntzeff, who’s 71, is one of the most respected astronomers in the world, a specialist in cosmology and supernovas. He majored in mathematics at Stanford University, earned his doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and for two decades worked at the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory facility in Chile, studying distant galaxies through giant mountaintop telescopes beneath some of the darkest skies in the world.In 1994 Suntzeff cofounded the High-Z Supernova…

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Race and medicineAs a shy undergraduate at Harvard University in the late sixties, Constance Hilliard butted heads with the stodgy chairman of the history department. Convinced that there were untold stories buried in her ancestry that could yield far-reaching insights, she told the prominent historian that she wanted to major in African history. “But Africa doesn’t have a history,” she remembers him responding.Hilliard knew that not only does Africa possess a rich and varied history, but it’s also the origin of all human history. Because the first Homo sapiens evolved there and migrated across the globe, our genome can be traced to the continent. The late sixties were a period of social upheaval, and Hilliard believed that a greater understanding of the interplay of African and American…

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Justice system lost in translationThe English expression “like a deer in the headlights” has no real equivalent in Spanish. Instead of its literal translation, “como un ciervo en los faros,” which would be lost on many Spanish speakers, you might instead use the phrasal verb “quedarse pasmado” (“to stay stunned”), which still fails to capture the momentary paralysis that accompanies the subject’s bewilderment. That’s how Fidel Gutierrez-Garcia looked when defense attorney Robert Garcia spoke to him in Spanish about his case, Garcia would later testify: “like a deer in the headlights.”  Gutierrez-Garcia, a pecan picker from a rural part of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, had been charged in Texas with possession with intent to distribute more than one hundred kilograms of marijuana—a felony, punishable by five to forty…

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Boban Marjanovic #51 of Houston Rockets laughs during warmups before their game.WHO: The great Boban Marjanović, and fans in attendance at Crypto.com Arena, in Los Angeles. WHAT: Two meaningless—but critical—missed free throws. WHY IT’S SO GREAT: This has been a somewhat forgettable season for casual fans of the Houston Rockets. The team, by virtue of its win over the playoff-bound Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, managed to avoid posting a fourth consecutive losing season, but it didn’t achieve its first winning season since 2019–20, either. With a 41–41 record, the Rockets merely climbed back to .500 this season. And yet! Fans in attendance at the season finale in L.A. had plenty to cheer about in the fourth quarter, despite the home team’s impending loss. Although Houston already had the game well in hand after the third quarter, the most…

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100 Years of La India Spice Company + How Their Products Can Be Used for WellnessAmong the culinary mainstays that have made their marks on the palates of Laredoans, few have been more essential than La India Packing Company. This April, the family-owned spice-and-herb company hits a monumental milestone as it turns one hundred years old. An official bash celebrating the anniversary is on the books for April 27, and later this year, the Texas Historical Commission will officially designate the company and its headquarters, in old Laredo, with a historical marker. According to owner Elsa Rodriguez Arguindegui, the reason for the company’s success is simple: “People like the flavors and it doesn’t upset their stomachs.” It’s that second part, she says, that makes La India stand out. Her grandfather, Antonio Rodriguez, who founded the shop in April 1924, was insistent…

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Waring Cuney Is the Best Harlem Renaissance Poet You’ve Never Heard OfShe does not knowHer beauty,She thinks her brown bodyHas no glory.If she could danceNakedUnder palm trees,And see her image in the riverShe would know.But there are no palm trees On the street,And dish water gives back no images.In 1926, the poem “No Images,” by nineteen-year-old Waring Cuney, won a literary contest hosted by Opportunity, a prominent magazine of Black culture published by the National Urban League. The poem’s subject is a Black domestic worker or cafe employee standing at the sink washing dishes, worn down by poverty and internalized racism. “No Images” was anthologized in a 1931 collection of Black poetry and reprinted in publications across Europe. Decades later, Nina Simone transformed it into a haunting song she sometimes performed a cappella. The poem remains by…

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big tacoSomething stops Clay Dover cold as he strolls behind the restaurant’s counter. The CEO of Velvet Taco has been all smiles and high fives since he entered the chain’s location in the Grandscape shopping center, amid the suburban sprawl north of Dallas. But now, staring at a few chicken strips in a bin under a heat lamp, he cuts off his friendly patter midsentence and pulls out one of the little brown hunks. He turns it over in his hand, tears it apart, takes a bite, and throws the rest in the trash with a faint trace of a pucker on his face. He’s not going to call anyone out on the spot, but he’s clearly not pleased.Dover happens to be one of the world’s…

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taco palenqueThere’s Taco Bell, and then there’s everyone else. Torchy’s Tacos and Velvet Taco may aspire to national reach, but they’ll never match the market share—or the international footprint, across nearly thirty countries—of the home of the Crunchwrap Supreme.Yet they and other Texas-based chains—Taco Bueno, Taco Cabana, Taco Casa—share common traits with Taco Bell. Their menus are filled with head-scratching takes on Americanized Mexican food, and they were each launched by non-Hispanic white founders with access to levels of investment capital that most Latino business owners can only dream of.That shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying a Cheesy Gordita Crunch at Taco Bell or a Torchy’s Scallywag (fried shrimp coated in coconut and Cap’n Crunch) or whatever mass-produced fast-food concoction delights your taste buds. I’m no stranger…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

big tacoSomething stops Clay Dover cold as he strolls behind the restaurant’s counter. The CEO of Velvet Taco has been all smiles and high fives since he entered the chain’s location in the Grandscape shopping center, amid the suburban sprawl north of Dallas. But now, staring at a few chicken strips in a bin under a heat lamp, he cuts off his friendly patter midsentence and pulls out one of the little brown hunks. He turns it over in his hand, tears it apart, takes a bite, and throws the rest in the trash with a faint trace of a pucker on his face. He’s not going to call anyone out on the spot, but he’s clearly not pleased.Dover happens to be one of the world’s…

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