June 2014 Issue

Features

Scenes From the Cowboy Rides Away Tour
Fans at the Tulsa, Oklahoma, show had pretty much the same reaction they've had at every stop along the tour—joy, sorrow, excitement, and, perhaps most of all, gratitude.




War Without End
For many military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, their only relief comes from a drug that is illegal in Texas: marijuana. Can a growing band of cannabis advocates persuade our legislators to change that?

“I Would Only Rob Banks for My Family”
Scott Catt was a single dad who held up banks to make ends meet. As his greed intensified, he knew just whom to enlist as accomplices: his kids.

Bloodless Sport
Every year, some of Mexico’s very best matadors travel to a remote South Texas bullring—one of the few in this country—for no-kill fights. Their pageantry draws spectators by the busload.
Columns

How Long Blues
What will it take for Stevie Ray Vaughan to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

The Texanist: Can a Non-Native Texan Teach Texas History?
Our estimable advice columnist on seventh-grade Texas history teachers, the ban on the can ban, sought-after stick sausages, and more.

Spanish Gauntlet
Faced with the realities of a rugged land, a band of sixteenth-century explorers left behind their dreams of conquest, as well as this chain mail glove.

Gone to (and From) Texas
Jake Silverstein on what first drew him to Texas, what kept him here, and what he will miss as he takes his leave.

Liquid Assets
You know that fracking boom? Now it’s putting Texas at the front of a new energy race: exporting natural gas to the rest of the world.
Reporter

Also, Everyone Reading This Item Is Ordered to Forget It Forthwith
After League City attorney Calvin C. Jackson and the State Bar settled allegations that he had forged lawyers’ signatures in a civil case, Jackson decided that he wanted all references to the case removed from the Internet. To the surprise of many legal observers and pretty much anyone who has ever used a computer, San

Meanwhile, in Texas . . .
Some crazy stuff went down in the past thirty days. Here are a handful of headlines you may have missed.


Old News: An Illustrated Look at Curious Headlines From a Bygone Era
“There are so many mad dogs in Denton county that people won’t send their children to school, and people riding about o’nights ride like Arabs on dromedaries, crossing their nice little legs in front of them.” —Weekly Democratic Statesman (Austin), June 3, 1875



The Runoffs Rundown
Click to enlarge.Thanks to the domino effect of Rick Perry’s retirement, an unusual number of high-profile Republican politicians have been vying for statewide office this year. Add to that the intensity that the tea party insurgency has brought to ideological debates within the GOP, and


The Effluent Society
A hellish drought has forced Wichita Falls to embrace a radical method of conservation: drinking treated toilet water.
Touts

Untroubled Waters
Drifting down the river—and through the shops and restaurants—in quiet but quirky Bastrop.



Texas Dreamin’
California chefs Bradley and Bryan Ogden give the Lone Star State a whirl.

