This West Texas town's proof is in the banana pudding
More than 10,000 people met over Labor Day weekend in Slaton to sample the banana pudding — a major boost to the rural town’s economy. Full Story
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![People line up to purchase or pick up passes at Texas Banana Pudding Festival in Slaton on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025. An estimated 10,000 people attended the festival in the small town about 17 miles southeast of Lubbock.]()
Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ oldest wildlife refuge was set to expand. Then the Trump administration changed course.
Established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge was set to grow up to 700,000 acres to protect wildlife in West Texas and the Panhandle. Full Story
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![Sandhill crane, seen at Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge.]()
Credit: Wyman Meinzer/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -
Struggling Texas cotton industry emphasizing the hazards of fast fashion
A group representing High Plains region farmers has launched a campaign to make buyers aware of synthetic fibers’ impact on the environment and health. Full Story
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![Walt Hagood leans on his truck on his cotton farm in Wolfforth on May 12, 2025. .]()
Credit: Annie Rice for The Texas Tribune -
Amarillo breaks ground on psychiatric hospital, part of the state’s $1.5B investment in mental health
The facility will bring mental health resources closer to the largely rural region that’s home to nearly 436,000 people. Full Story
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![Artist rendering of the new Panhandle State Hospital in Amarillo, expected to be completed in 2027.]()
Credit: West Texas A&M University website -
Lubbock’s public health director fights to stop measles and build public trust
Katherine Wells was celebrated early during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then public health became a political litmus test. Full Story
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![Director of Public Health Katherine Wells, MPH, looks through one of the vaccine logs that show who and when vaccines were given. Wells and her staff are working to stem the measles outbreak in the Lubbock area as well as throughout Texas. Wells was in the City of Lubbock Health Department Monday afternoon, Mar. 17, 2025.]()
Credit: Mark Rogers for The Texas Tribune -
“How do we protect our poultry flocks?” Texas dairy, poultry producers grapple with bird flu
Across the country, dairy producers have dumped milk and infected chickens have been killed, including millions of egg-laying hens, causing egg prices to skyrocket. Full Story
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![Cattle are brought across the U.S.- Mexico border at a livestock import/export facility in Santa Teresa, New Mexico on January 22, 2021.]()
Credit: Justin Hamel for The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ uneven population boom is creating ghost towns in many rural counties
Local leaders and rural revitalization experts say Texas’ smallest towns can survive — despite a shift to urban and suburban counties — but it will take investments. Full Story
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![Cornudas, Texas with a population of less than 20, hosts a chili cook-off hoping to draw over 1,000 visitors on September 28, 2024.]()
Credit: Justin Hamel for The Texas Tribune -
“More than our wombs”: Women in conservative Texas cities mobilizing to end GOP dominance
Democrats in Lubbock and Amarillo hope Kamala Harris’ candidacy and a backlash to abortion laws will help make their long-held vision of a blue wave a reality. Full Story
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![Texas State Board of Education District 15 candidate Morgan Kirkpatrick, center, hosts a postcard-writing campaign, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, at the Mahon Public Library in Lubbock.]()
Credit: Annie Rice for The Texas Tribune -
How Lubbock artists pushed back after the city ended funding for its popular art walk
The City Council did approve $5,000 for security, about one-fifth of the money it withheld over last month. Full Story
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![First Friday Art Trail attendees write what they love about the montly event on a wall outside of the LHUCA gallery during
First Friday Art Trail in Lubbock on Aug. 2,2024.]()
Credit: Trace Thomas for The Texas Tribune -
Amarillo City Council rejects so-called abortion travel ban
A group of anti-abortion advocates must now decide whether they want the city voters to have the final say on their proposed policy. Full Story
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![Amarillo Mayor Cole Stanley talks during the City Council on Tuesday, May 28, 2024]()
Credit: Mark Rogers for The Texas Tribune -
Three months after the Texas’ largest wildfire, Panhandle residents are preparing for the next one
Short of an immediate statewide response, Texans who lost homes and livestock are taking matters into their own hands to better prepare their property for a wildfire. Full Story
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![Green grass grows around plants and trees scorched by Smokehouse Creek wildfire on April 3, 2024 near Canadian. “The lands recover faster than the people,” said Janet Guthrie, a Canadian resident who raises cattle in Hemphill Co.]()
Credit: Maria Crane/The Texas Tribune -
Amarillo council may reconsider abortion travel ban after residents gather 10,000 signatures
Supporters began the petition drive after the City Council punted on the proposed policy. Voters may have the final say. Full Story
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![Empty streets in downtown Amarillo, Friday, May 29, 2020.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune -
Cows at two Texas dairy farms have bird flu, another blow to Cattle Country following wildfires
Federal officials said the nation’s milk supply should be not at risk after a bird flu outbreak hits dairies in Texas, New Mexico and Kansas. Full Story
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![Livestock at a dairy farm on Feb. 19, 2013.]()
Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune -
As their neighbors fled, these Texas volunteer firefighters raced toward the flames
The wildfires offers a reminder that most of rural Texas is protected by volunteers. And there aren’t many of them. Full Story
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![Local firefighters work to contain a wildfire after it was whipped up by high winds in Pampa on March 2, 2024.]()
Credit: REUTERS/Leah Millis -
These three “bandidas” are changing the face of Texas barbecue
With menu items like birria brisket ramen, the Bar-B-Que Bandidas in Lubbock are challenging the norm of Texas barbecue and a male dominated industry. Full Story
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![Raquel Lopez, left, Simone See, center, and Jewel Hill, right, season ribs before putting them on the smoker at Hill Barbecue Friday, Feb. 9, 2024, in Lubbock, Texas. (Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune)]()
Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune -
Lubbock group pushes forward with marijuana ballot question despite Paxton lawsuit
The Texas attorney general has sued five other cities that have passed similar policies decriminalizing marijuana. Full Story
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![Nathan Lewis gets signatures on a petition to to legalize marijuana from Andrew Alcala, center, and Yvette Castillo, right, at the South Plains Fair Monday, Sept. 25, 2023, in Lubbock, Texas.]()
Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune -
Once a laborer, this immigrant now owns his farm. He and his daughter are among few Hispanic farmers in Texas.
According to the most recent census, Texas has fewer than 26,000 Hispanic farmers compared to 236,000 white farmers. Full Story
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![From left, Amaldo Serrato and his daughter, Yuleida Serrato look over a failed dry-land cotton field that they had to plow under because it was too dry. The Serrato family own and run their multigenerational family farm in and around Floydada. Amado Serrato, his wife and father came to the United States, where they and their American born kids have created a successful agricultural business.]()
Credit: Mark Rogers for The Texas Tribune -
Shuttered for decades, a downtown theater in a rural Texas town is getting new life and new mission
Rural Texas towns like Levelland on the South Plains are increasingly turning to the arts to help revitalize their downtowns and provide more attractions for families. Full Story
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![Workers remove a plywood covering on the front of the Wallace Theater in Levelland on Dec. 5th, 2023. The historic theater, which has been vacant since the 1980s, is now under restoration and is expected to reopen by Dec. 2024.]()
Credit: Mark Rogers for The Texas Tribune -
After pause, this Texas city is set to reconsider banning travel to access an abortion
A handful of local governments have already put the legally dubious bans in place. The news that Amarillo will take the issue up again comes shortly after a Dallas woman left the state for an abortion after losing a legal battle to obtain one here. Full Story
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![Downtown Amarillo, Thursday May 28, 2020. Potter and Randall Counties have been under extra scrutiny as a Covid-19 hotspot.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune -
In Texas’ Panhandle, a long-awaited oasis for mental health care is springing up
The region that includes Amarillo, a Panhandle city of more than 200,000 people, and surrounding towns has long been a mental health care desert. Officials hope a new $159 million hospital can help reduce a massive spike in suicide attempts. Full Story
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![Residential area near downtown Amarillo on May 29, 2020.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune