El Paso

The Future of Women's Healthcare in Texas Looks Bleak. What's Next?

Listening to the oral arguments before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday confirmed what advocates for reproductive rights feared upon seeing the three-judge panel selected to hear the Texas' appeal of a lower-court ruling striking down two sections of House Bill 2, the 2013 legislation ... More >>

Be Proud, Chihuahuas

The little dog is a fine metaphor, if not the best baseball team name.

Time to Wake Up

Combating Mexican political apathy.

Krys Boyd Accomplished the Near-Impossible: Successful Radio Without Yelling

In this week's Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area's most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Stanton Stephens. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Imagine sitting down with media company execs today and making this pitch for a show: ... More >>

Burning Questions with Omar Flores of Driftwood, Including Extreme Requests and Barbacoa Tacos

Each week we track down a chef for a few burning questions. This week, Omar Flores at Driftwood shares some cookbook advice, spills on a few crazy requests and has a suggestion for a damn good margarita. What are a few of your favorite cookbooks? I love anything by Thomas Keller. Recently I've be ... More >>

Could This Be the Year that Texas Repeals Its Sodomy Ban?

It's been a decade since the Supreme Court, in Lawrence v. Texas, struck down the state's law banning sodomy and "homosexual conduct" as an unconstitutional violation of privacy. Texas has since stopped enforcing the law, but not everyone got the memo. In 2009, two men were kicked out of an El Pas ... More >>

OpenTable Lists 100 Most Romantic U.S. Restaurants, Including The French Room and a Spot in Arlington (Obviously)

Lists are fun. The categorize our lives, serve as reminders of things to do, stack favorites and remind us of people we're mad at. The fun part of listing is that they often serve as a launch pad for conversation and debate. Because half the fun of a list is arguing about what's not on it, right? Ri ... More >>

Chris George of Fang Island On Staying In A "50-Room Child's Fantasy Mansion," Opening For Stone Temple Pilots

Fang Island just released Major, one of the best albums of the year. No joke. These guys somehow mix power pop with progressive rock, and the resulting chaos is quite appealing. Speaking from a tour stop in Kansas City, and in anticipation of tonight's show at Dada, guitarist Chris George talked abo ... More >>

A Road Trip Through Texas, And The State of Dallas Radio

In the last few months, research for a project has taken me across the state and, more recently, into Mexico. It may be something sentimental in me, or this weird notion that road trips are meant to be soundtracked by where you are and not by a list you cultivated online, but I noticed what was popu ... More >>

Mexicans Pay in Blood for America's War on Drugs

City Says Regulating Boarding Homes Could Cost More Than $1 Million A Year

For years, Dallas has struggled to regulate the city's boarding houses, the places that many low-income mentally ill, disabled and elderly people call home. As we discussed in a recent cover story, right now, the city knows where about 330 of these homes are, and they're inspected regularly for code ... More >>

Bruce Corbitt of Rigor Mortis: "One Day We're Getting Signed To Capitol Records And The Next I Am Getting Stabbed In The Back Five Times At A Show."

Hugely influential on the local metal scene, Rigor Mortis' violent live performances throughout the mid-to-late-'80s are the stuff of legend. Vocalist Bruce Corbitt was fired in 1989 and the band was never the same. Luckily, after a 20-year cooling off period, the original line-up has been playing r ... More >>

At The Drive-In To Play Intimate Gig At Trees Tomorrow

On Friday afternoon, clubs editor Daniel Hopkins played a fun game called How Many Promoters Does It Take To Confirm An At The Drive-In Show, and I believe the tally was three by day's end. As the weekend progressed, social media confirmed that the El Paso band's whereabouts on Tuesday night, especi ... More >>

As Dallas Boarding Homes Struggle, City Hall Sits on its Hands

Texas lawmakers gave cities the power to regulate homes for the mentally ill -- but so far, Dallas hasn't used it.

If Dallas Ever Actually Starts Regulating Boarding Homes, Maybe They Can Talk To El Paso About How To Do It

In this week's cover story, we wrote about Dallas' boarding houses, which are home to thousands of the city's mentally ill, elderly, and disabled, as well as people recovering from alcohol and drug abuse. The homes aren't regulated by any state agency, and despite a law passed some three years ago t ... More >>

The Long Arm Sees All: Ten Musicians Arrested in Texas

When Snoop Dogg was issued a citation for marijuana possession at a border checkpoint outside El Paso last week, the world reacted with shock and disbelief. We had no idea this beacon of sobriety -- the same guy who penned "Smoke Weed Everyday" - could act so out of character. Of course, Texas is f ... More >>

Dinner at Spiral Diner: Let's Take This Meat-Free Business Right into the Lion's Den

The Facebook​Booze correspondent Whitney Filloon is experiment with going meat-free once a week. Here's her latest animal-fat-less dispatch. "How can you hate on a joint whose tagline is 'We Love You'?" This is what I thought to myself as I walked through the door at Oak Cliff vegan destinat ... More >>

Tom Leppert Reviews Obama's Immigration Policy Speech Given in El Paso Tuesday

Official White House Photo by Pete SouzaPresident Obama in El Paso on Tuesday​No doubt you're well aware that President Barack Obama was in El Paso yesterday, where he said that "genuine, comprehensive reform" was the only way to repair a "broken immigration system." In his speech, posted in its e ... More >>

Critics' Pick: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

Thursday, April 28, at South Side Music Hall

Bad Hands

Juarez's Children: Drugs, Death and Fear.

Unlike refugees from other troubled countries, only a fraction of Mexicans seeking U.S. asylum are accepted- no matter how horrible their wounds or their stories.

Access Denied

A Report from Juarez, the Bleeding Front Line of the War on Drugs

First Look: Split Peas Soup Cafe

​2533 McKinney Avenue is one of those locations. Vaguely familiar yet often overlooked, the unusual Mediterranean-style building with the wrap-around patio has always suffered from something of an identity crisis. Expect a few rounds of "It was that French place, remember? Then the Italian pla ... More >>

The New York Times Paints a Portrait of Blind Denton Artist John Bramblitt

There has been no shortage of stories about John Bramblitt in recent years, as evidenced by the "news" page on the Denton artist's Web site. Four years ago, Mika Ferris even made a documentary titled, simply, Bramblitt. After all, his is an extraordinary tale: The 37-year-old El Paso native and Univ ... More >>

Mayor Tom and Texas's Other Big-City Mayors Ask Governor for Help Handling Homeless

Never had time to make it to the Texas Big Cities Mayors shindig at City Hall today. But no matter: Meranda Cohn at Dallas City Hall this evening forwards along a copy of the mayors' letter to Governor Rick Perry, in which Tom Leppert, Bill White (Houston), Mike Moncrief (Fort Worth), Phil Hardberge ... More >>

Chewing the Fat: Wednesday Ground 'Round

If you're like me - broke and shameless - Jason Roestel at the Examiner has some tips you might find handy the next time you head to the cinema. I can personally verify that most of his tricks are both effective and ridiculously common-sensical. For the ballsier boozehounds among us, he details an ... More >>

Ask a Mexican

Tongue untied: tracking the history of pachucos, from Mexico to East L.A., via El Paso

Ask a Mexican

An Anglo fool and his money are soon parted

Line Up Set for Austin’s Fun Fun Fun Fest. Fun? You Bet.

With the Austin City Limits Festival (and its rather mediocre line up) coming just around the corner and talk of SXSW 2009 already heating up, it’s a wonder that the state capitol has room for yet another multi-day concert event. But, lo and behold, here comes the third annual Fun Fun Fun Fest (wh ... More >>

Ask A Mexican

All good things come from Texas�in food, anyway

A "House of Death" Lawsuit is No Mas

The House of Death -- has to be one hell of a neighborhood, no? OK, so we’re a little late on this, but late last month a U.S. district judge in El Paso issued a ruling on what is known as the House of Death case, which we wrote about earlier this year. For those unfamiliar with the case: Twelve m ... More >>

The Broken Promises of NAFTA

During recent talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement in Vancouver, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab praised the 13-year-old agreement. "NAFTA works," she told the Associated Press. The Democratic presidential candidates have been saying the opposite, citing American job loss, and t ... More >>

Wait, Wait. Don't Leave.

Napoleon the Great

See a French view of Egypt at Beaux Arts

House of Death

A dozen men were tortured, killed and buried in a small house in Juarez. Three years later, the U.S. government is still trying to cover up what happened.

Bow to Your Partner

Wendorf honors the Texas dances

�Ask a Mexican!

Dallas' "Bewildering" Group Home Problem

The El Paso Times has been running a series of stories investigating the "living conditions and health care of people with mental illness in Texas, including the El Paso area." Today comes the paper's third part in the series, which deals with the rapid increase in the number of group homes for the ... More >>

Dallas to El Paso: Give Us All Y our Teachers

Maybe that's not exactly true, but the El Paso Times is reporting this morning that Dallas Independent School District's chief teacher recruiter, Hector Flore, has been in the West Texas town...well, recruiting teachers, what else? Says in the piece that some 125 El Paso teachers have been hired by ... More >>

Test Patterns

Little strapped for cash? Got knee pain? Migranes? Or maybe vaginal atrophy? Or a spastic colon? Meth addiction? Hypoactive sex drive? Well, do I have the solution for you! It's called Research Across America, a clinical-study biz with offices in Dallas (and El Paso, Manhattan and Reading, Penn.), a ... More >>

Bet on Black

Glory Road relives the season college hoops smashed the color barrier

2003 SnoCore Tour

February 15

Cat Scratch Fever

Plus: Good to The Bone, Eat Your Heart Out, Do the Perp Walk

Drive Away

Sparta leaves At the Drive-In, expectations and a so-called hiatus behind

Run Over

Small towns in the Big Bend area brace for an onslaught of Mexican trucks rolling their way thanks to NAFTA

The Angel of Juarez

Hundreds of poor Mexican girls have been abducted, raped, and murdered on the streets of Ciudad Juarez. They were forgotten and mostly ignored by authorities until Esther Chavez came along.

Death in the Desert

Gary Patterson flew to El Paso for a job interview--and never returned. It took nearly two years for the Texas Rangers and Waco police to unravel the bizarre web of lies and treachery that led to his disappearance.

Through a Lens Darkly

Through a lens darkly Juarez's street photographers capture the face of a horrific future--and the future is closer than you think

Lunar eclipse

The Moon Festival searches for chance's bright light