Settle in this holiday season with a few of our staff-selected greatest hits from 2014.

Forgetting How to Read? Stop Reading Online

By Michael Agresta

Published October 13, 2014

If we want to maintain the kind of thoughtful, reflective, curious minds that engineered the Internet in the first place, it’s time to face up to what reading online is doing to our brains.

Barred Care

By Emily DePrang

Published January 13, 2014

Harris County is Texas’ largest mental hospital. Many Texans can get better mental health treatment inside the jail than out of it.

Into the Pines

By Patrick Michels

Published February 5, 2014

After months of burglaries, a terrorized East Texas town discovers the culprit is one of their own, a survivalist watching them from the woods.

The Texas GOP Swings Further to the Right

By Christopher Hooks

The Ascendancy of Dan Patrick

Published March 5, 2014

Backs to the Future: The 2014 GOP Convention

Published June 7, 2014

Lawman, Lawbreaker: Ken Paxton and the Problem with One-Party Rule

Published August 1, 2014

Laid to Rest in Huntsville

By Robyn Ross

Published March 11, 2014

Of the roughly 450 inmates who die in Texas prisons each year, about 100 are laid to rest in Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery in Huntsville.

A Texas Border Militiaman Reconsiders the Mission

By Forrest Wilder

Published October 15, 2014

Militiaman Charles Gilbert joined the Texas Border Volunteers to “kick some ass,” but the group’s tactics forced him to do some soul-searching.

Gimme Shelter

By Emily DePrang

Published July 8, 2014

Are megachurch-goers looking for sanctuary in all the wrong places?

Texas’ New Abortion Law is Driving Women to Extremes

By Carolyn Jones

Published February 25, 2014

A woman must pawn her wedding ring and flee to Arkansas to terminate her pregnancy because of Texas’ new 20-week abortion ban.

To Kill? Or Not to Kill?

By Maurice Chammah

Published April 23, 2014

As executions decline in Texas, a small-town prosecutor decides whether to seek the death penalty.

Beyond the Border

By Melissa del Bosque

Published August 6, 2014

Our four-part series, produced in collaboration with The Guardian, examines migrant deaths in South Texas.