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Allen West questioning a witness during a hearing in Rayburn.If you’ve ever wondered what happens to some formerly lauded chairs of the Texas GOP, look no further than Florida man Allen West. A mere four years ago, the former congressman from the Sunshine State was on a stunning upward trajectory in Texas politics. He came to Texas searching for a cause and early in the pandemic found it: effectively wielding a megaphone to bully party leaders into adopting his brand of far-right conservatism. There was the time, for instance, when he and a handful of far-right Republican officials protested outside of the Governor’s Mansion, in October 2020, openly criticizing Governor Greg Abbott for taking too many COVID precautions. (Abbott would, ultimately, make Texas one of the first states to reopen the economy and drop…

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fourth city bbq trayAt the end of the nineteenth century, St. Louis, Missouri, garnered the nickname Fourth City. Its population trailed only New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia, making it the fourth largest city in the country. While other cities have since surpassed it in population, St. Louis is better known now as the Gateway to the West thanks to the Gateway Arch, completed in 1965. But married couple Greg Mueller and Erica McKinley are bringing the old moniker back with their restaurant, Fourth City Barbecue.“It was going to be Mueller Barbecue, but we just couldn’t do that,” Mueller said, referring to the iconic status of Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor. He’s a student of Texas barbecue, calling Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto an inspiration. Mueller read it…

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Playing Texan: Dancer, Texas Pop. 81Filmmakers have long been drawn to “the Texan” as a character type. Our series Playing Texan revisits some of the most notable of these portrayals, from the legendary to the ludicrous, to determine what they say about how the world sees Texas—and how we see ourselves. Another Texas summer has sprung and—to butcher Alfred, Lord Tennyson—a young person’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of getting the hell out of here. Or maybe it’s not just the young. Come next May, I will have been out of high school for thirty years, yet every June I feel the same stirring to light out for the hills and start truly living, something I doubt would go over too well with my wife and kids. There are several explanations…

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joshua ray walkerAs he prepares to take the stage at beloved Dallas listening room the Kessler, country artist Joshua Ray Walker is feeling terrible. Sipping a Topo Chico in the green room of his hometown’s venue, he’s sweaty and a little shaky—the side effects of a chemotherapy treatment completed just five days earlier. But, dressed in all black save for a pair of purple Lisa Frank Crocs, the 33-year-old Walker is getting ready to get onstage, nausea be damned. This Monday night show in June is Walker’s fifth consecutive monthly performance at the Kessler, all of which have sold out within days. Many audience members—childhood friends of Walker’s; fans who’ve been watching him play since he was performing for tiny crowds in Deep Ellum clubs—come back every single…

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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.

The first thing I notice on entering the store is the smell. It is an earthy sandalwood mixed with some type of citrus, perhaps sour lemon. It tells me I am in the right place, because I am here to buy cannabis. On my left sits a smoking lounge with four booths facing large windows that look out on an upscale South Austin shopping center. To my right, behind a glass window, is a demonstration grow room—more for show than large-scale cultivation. Straight ahead, on the back wall, a large lacquered-wood cabinet looks like something out of an old-fashioned drugstore. Its shelves hold a cannabinoid cornucopia: cookies, gummies, tinctures, machine-rolled joints, and glass containers half-filled with tightly clumped plant buds.Another customer enters and makes a…

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TCR caddo lakeCaddo Lake State Park is home to towering cypresses and dangling Spanish moss—just the type of moody swamp celebrated in Ghostlight, Keith Carter’s latest photography book. In the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter, Carter explores the park from his canoe, camera in hand, reflecting on the allure of the Southern spaces he calls “otherworldly.”

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Out-of-state billionaires have dramatically increased their contributions to Texas politics over the past two election cycles. In the third installment of Answer Me This, senior editor Alex Samuels reviews reports from the state’s ethics commission to identify the five top donors and which campaigns their money helps influence.

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Max Scherzer rangers slow start“I’m a high-adrenaline pitcher.”That was an unnecessary admission coming from someone whose demeanor throughout a Hall of Fame career has earned him the nickname “Mad Max.” But Max Scherzer’s intent last Saturday was to explain why his fastball velocity had been in the low nineties during rehab outings after averaging a tick faster last season.Scherzer’s heater reached a game-high 94.3 mph on the second batter last Sunday afternoon, in the ace’s long-awaited season debut for the Texas Rangers. He threw the pitch on a 0–2 count, and even though it crossed the plate well above the strike zone, Kansas City Royals phenom Bobby Witt Jr. (son of former Rangers pitcher Bobby Witt) chased it for the game’s first strikeout.The game was Scherzer’s first official appearance…

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From the Texas Monthly team behind the podcasts Tom Brown’s Body, Stephenville, and Shane and Sally comes another true story of crime and justice in the Lone Star State.When Erik Maund was blackmailed about a secret affair, he didn’t go to the cops. He took matters into his own hands—but it didn’t go according to plan. In The Problem With Erik, host Katy Vine and producer Ana Worrel explore what came next: a perfect storm of secrets, mistaken identities, and tragic miscommunications that left two people dead.Look for The Problem With Erik on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

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The Best, Worst, and So-Bad-They’re-Good Texas City and County FlagsTexas can lay claim to a truly iconic state flag, one we plaster on pickups and T-shirts and even pledge allegiance to in grade school. But did you know that dozens and dozens of Texas cities and counties also have flags? Neither did we until recently. But as soon as we found a website cataloging the flags, we fell into a rabbit hole of wonderment. The flags of Texas’s cities and counties run the gamut from good to bad to downright weird. The art of vexillology, the study of flags, is a passion for some and a chore for others, but it’s an important part of fostering a collective identity as a community. Who would Texans be, after all, without the iconic lone star? The best…

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