Executive Editor at Texas Monthly. Singer, songwriter, guitar player in Wild Seeds, Woodpeckers, the Savage Trip, the Soul Bashers.
Austin, Texas
Joined January 2011
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.@Forrest4Trees spent a year reporting this story on UT-interviewing professors, students, & staff: "I was struck by the degree of fear on campus and the sense that a freewheeling intellectual culture was dead or dying." Hook 'em, Forrest @TexasMonthly texasmonthly.com/news-politi…
“We know guns don’t just go off. Somebody has to pull the trigger.” That somebody was a drunk dad—who shot his daughter after arguing about Trump and was never prosecuted. texasmonthly.com/news-politi… @TexasMonthly
The dumbest week in Texas politics: "The saga begins—I’m sorry to tell you this—with a right-wing influencer on X named @TickleTexts" @TexasMonthly @cd_hooks
texasmonthly.com/news-politi…
“Separation of church and state”—filthy myth used by secularists to obscure America’s true Christian heritage? Or brilliant idea conceived by the founders as a bulwark against theocracy? Where Dan Patrick leads, Donald Trump follows. @TexasMonthly texasmonthly.com/news-politi…
Greg Abbott & Ken Paxton made up a fraud case against a Plano mosque. The securities commissioner of the Texas State Securities Board pushed back. Guess who won? “In Abbott’s Texas, stepping out of line has its consequences.” @NicoGutteridge @TexasMonthly texasmonthly.com/news-politi…
Imagine you are 15 years old and your best friend—your only friend--betrays you, telling the police you are responsible for the yogurt shop murders, one of the worst crimes in Texas history. Imagine that the police take your former friend seriously & you spend time behind bars.
This is the story of Forrest Welborn, the youngest of the four men accused of the 1991 yogurt shop murders. He was the only one of the four who never broke down, never accused any of his friends, never lied, never gave in to police badgering.
Forrest is a fascinating person—haunted by the past but determined to create something for his future. His sense of outrage over that betrayal 35 years ago has followed him through the whole exoneration process. And who can blame him? @TexasMonthly texasmonthly.com/true-crime/…
It was hard to make out the exact words that Wilber Rafael Garces Perez spoke at his press conference yesterday—I mean, the guy has a bullet in his back, put there by a criminally reckless federal agent. But Garces Perez’s meaning was clear. @TexasMonthly
texasmonthly.com/news-politi…
An unlikely trio--a mom with purple hair, a 90-year-old Army vet, and a guy who preserves historic buildings--has stopped Trump’s border wall in tiny San Ygnacio, south of Laredo. Can they win the war? They’ve got history on their side. @TexasMonthly
texasmonthly.com/news-politi…
Michael Hall retweeted
In the last week @bofrench:
-Sent a fundraising email that appears to invoke the conspiracy theory that led to the Holocaust
-Called to round up all Chinese people
-Quoted an obscure white nationalist novel
We asked Texas GOP leaders if that's OK. None responded. (Link below)
Mike Shea basically came to Austin by accident in 1975--he wrote songs, played in bands, got married, had kids, and then helped turn SXSW into an international juggernaut. He died last week, here's his story: texasmonthly.com/culture/rem… @TexasMonthly
The battle over Camp Mystic—& whether to let the girls return--was not an easy story to report or write--and it's not an easy story to read. But you should. @peterjholley did an amazing job. @TexasMonthly texasmonthly.com/news-politi…
A Texas woman spent 22 years of her life behind bars for a terrible crime she didn’t commit, finally was released & exonerated, but b/c the wrongful conviction destroyed her legal status, she’s now set to be deported. texasmonthly.com/news-politi… @texasmonthly
In Iran, today, we have stories about police firing on unarmed protesters. Tell me: Is there a single Republican in America willing to say, 'Well, if the protesters refused to comply w orders from the Gasht-e Ershad, then they should expect to be killed.'" thebulwark.com/p/foucault-bo…
"These agents, and the president who sent them, are no one’s heroes, no one’s saviors—just men with guns who have to hide their faces to shoot a mom in the face, and a nurse in the back." theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0…
Happy 90th birthday to Esther Phillips: R&B shouter, disco queen, the first teen idol, favorite of the Beatles and Leonard Feather, the Sister from Texas, and singer of one of the best country albums of the 60s. texasmonthly.com/arts-entert…
Joe Ely & Bruce Springsteen were a lot alike, so it was no surprise when they became friends. When Joe got sick, Bruce’s doctors helped him. Joe texted Bruce: “My head isn’t telling my body the right thing to do, and we’re living one day at a time.” texasmonthly.com/arts-entert…
