Cover Story
Turbulent Times for the Texas Hemp Industry
he unofficial stoner holiday, 420, is right around the corner. But this go-round is going to look a little different than previous years in the Lone Star State. For cannabis consumers, the day typically serves as reason to celebrate. And while some celebrations will still be held, this year, the date acts as a reminder…
News
APD Says It Is Using Force Less Often
Austin police want you to know that reform is underway at APD. The department’s leaders appeared at City Hall last week to show City Council members recently released data they say demonstrates that officers are using less force in encounters with community members, even though arrests have risen. Social justice advocates are questioning the department’s…
Where the Austin Area Stands With ICE Partnerships
Back in January, the Austin Police Department summoned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities to an Oak Hill home when they had no legal obligation to do so. As a result, Karen Gutiérrez Castellanos and her U.S. citizen daughter were deported to Honduras. APD officers’ decision to call ICE when they encountered an administrative warrant…
Historically Underutilized Business Program Temporarily Restored
Dozens of marginalized business owners, legislators, and advocates gathered at the Travis County District Court Monday morning for a long-awaited hearing on a lawsuit against acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock’s 2025 emergency regulation that dismantled the state’s Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) program, which was established in the Nineties and has allowed minority-, women-, and disabled-veteran-owned businesses…
City Proposes Daily Homeless Camp Sweeps
Austin officials are planning to dramatically increase the number of homeless camp sweeps the city conducts, starting this summer. These sweeps – in which police and Austin Resource Recovery workers descend on camps, give their residents an hour to gather possessions, and then throw their remaining belongings into dumpsters – are controversial. Advocates for the…
Despite Pushback, Texas Advances Controversial Social Studies Curriculum
Despite heavy criticism from Texas students, educators, historian associations, civil rights organizations, and their own content advisors, the Republican-majority Texas State Board of Education voted on Friday, April 10, to give first approval to a controversial draft of the new social studies curriculum to be taught in public school classrooms across the state, starting the…
The Week’s Biggest News in Brief: April 9-15
Data Center Hearing With Texas Lawmakers: According to KUT, the House Committee on State Affairs held a hearing with data center developers and other lawmakers in Austin to discuss how the industry should move forward, keeping grid constraints, surging energy costs, and lack of available water in mind. Pablo Vegas of the Electric Reliability Council…
Music
Music Notes
Victor Jones Friday 17, Mohawk Inside Swan Dive during last month’s South by Southwest, dance rock artist Victor Jones – shirt plastered to his body with sweat – repeatedly wailed “I wanna get your number, I wanna touch your shoulder.” Those … straightforward lines come from a six-minute track titled “Shoulder Song.” Expect more raw…
Charley Crockett Concludes His Sagebrush Trilogy in Cinematic Style
If the afterlife had a saloon, Charley Crockett’s songs would be a perfect soundtrack to never-ending, neon-drenched drinking at the bar. Soon enough, he may have enough music to accompany eternity. Age of the Ram, Crockett’s third album in a year, stars Billy McLane, a cattle rustler-turned-outlaw on the run after crossing a powerful crime…
American Sharks Are Not Dead Yet
Crashing out, formerly meaning off to bed, jumped the literary shark recently – in case you missed the memo from middle school. Employ it now when stressing hard and on the verge of melodrama. “Going Insane,” a stomp mosh batting third on American Sharks’ corker Not Dead Yet, projects party-punk visions of a “magic pillow,”…
Artistry Bleeds Immortal for Blood Sucking Maniacs
“We’re not vampires and we’re not ghouls/ We’re not dumbasses, we’re not fools/ We like to play poker and some like to fish/ Some like to work and some like to wish.” So proclaim the Allen family, led by married octogenarians Terry and Jo Harvey, in an eccentric pseudo-manifesto on their debut album. Befitting of…
Arts + Culture
Texas Mushroom Conference Explores Fungal Lessons
Beneath your feet and in your body, fungi are creative agents of change and connection. At the fourth annual Texas Mushroom Conference on Sunday, April 19, mycologists and researchers in biology, mental and physical health, ecology, and psychedelics unravel mushrooms’ lessons in how to change your environment and how to change your mind. “We have…
Screens
The Stranger Review: Alienated in Algiers
For those of you who kept a copy of Albert Camus’ 1942 novella L’Étranger around your college apartment to impress fellow students but never actually cracked the spine, it’s not too late to immerse yourself in its subtly revolutionary pages. For those of you that can’t even be bothered with the CliffsNotes, writer/director François Ozon…
Lorne Film Review: Behind the Scenes at Saturday Night Live
Ken Burns may have American parks, presidents, and wars on lock, but Morgan Neville is arguably the documentary world’s most prolific chronicler of American pop culture. His films have covered children’s TV icon Fred Rogers (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?), global traveler Anthony Bourdain (Roadrunner), banjoing comedian Steve Martin (STEVE!), and a whole swath of…
The Christophers Review: But Is It Art?
Steven Soderbergh’s sex, lies, and videotape is a foundational text of the 1990s indie film movement in America and, though the Oscars lost interest after his Traffic/Erin Brockovich double whammy in 2000, Soderbergh is the figure a lot of critics point to when surveying the crumbling state of American cinema: That guy? Who figured out…
Food
Beige and Buzzy: Ēma Joins the Domain
I’ll be honest: I have a love-hate relationship with Aba. The South Congress restaurant is undeniably beautiful – a patio oasis that feels like a Mediterranean fever dream. But dining there often involves fighting a loud, vibey scene. I enjoy the snacky dips and pillowy pita, but I would rather eat them in the peace…
Columns
Day Trips: 24 Hours in Blanco
Most of the parking spaces on the north side of the old Blanco County Courthouse were taken when the four of us and two dogs arrived. The county seat moved to Johnson City in 1891, but the town 50 miles west of Austin has retained a unique personality over the years. We had lunch on…
Qmmunity: Qmmunity at the Cinema on the Cinema
Happy 420 weekend and a merry Earth Day to all – which better be everyone on this planet – who celebrate. Whether you’re partaking of the devil’s lettuce or helping plant some actual lettuce, there’s a crisp spring breeze calling outside. Soak it up! And yet, my indoor-kid ass cannot help but have only movie-related…
Opinion: Why Are We Not Doing More to Stand Up to Trump’s Tyranny?
The president held the world hostage. Where were the Americans? “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” he Truthed. Across Iran, thousands of people joined together to create human chains on bridges and around power plants to protect their civic infrastructure from potential destruction at the hands of the Americans.…
The Luv Doc: Geriatric IT
Dear Luv Doc, About a year ago, my 82-year-old mother was having issues with the computer my dad bought her sometime around the turn of the century. Sadly, my dad is no longer with us, so I had to step in and help my mom clean up a bunch of viruses, bloatware, etc. from her…
Feedback: April 17, 2026
Puzzled Puzzlers Dear Editor, As a devoted fan of the weekly crossword, I write with both affection and a raised eyebrow. My husband and I have cherished this ritual ever since we returned to Austin – it’s been our little pocket of lighthearted fun, coffee in hand, pencils at the ready. Lately, however, the puzzle…
T-Break or Not T-Break
On March 31, the new Texas THC rules went into effect, banning smokable hemp across the state, only for a Travis County judge to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) that blocks the ban for two weeks until the petition for an injunction is heard and decided in court on April 23. Under the new…
Alarming Austin FC Losses Prove More Than Head Coach Can Swallow
Remember a week ago? Austin FC was fresh off consecutive draws against powerhouse clubs LAFC and Inter Miami, and the feeling around the team (and in these pages) was that the Verde and Black were finally about to hit their stride heading into the heart of spring. Yeah, about that … Four halves of soccer…
Fun + Games
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Anthropologist and author Clifford Geertz loved to use “thick description.” He wrote detailed reports that captured not just the surface level of what happened but the deeper levels of meaning. Here’s an example of thin description: “He winked.” Thick description: “He quickly closed and opened his right eyelid in a culturally…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Steven Spielberg directed an episode of Marcus Welby, M.D. and the first episode of Columbo. Do you see faces in inanimate objects like clouds, houses, or even toast? If so, you have face pareidolia, according to Australia’s Royal Society Open Science. Texas leads the U.S. in the number of interstate traffic fatalities. There were 4,291…
