Breaking: Democratic state Rep. James Talarico will announce Tuesday he's jumping into the race for U.S. Senate, according to one person familiar with the plans who was granted anonymity to discuss them.
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Breaking: Democratic state Rep. James Talarico will announce Tuesday he's jumping into the race for U.S. Senate, according to one person familiar with the plans who was granted anonymity to discuss them.
About a quarter of the Texas professors surveyed by the American Association of University Professors said they have applied for higher education jobs in other states in the last two years. More than 25% said they soon intend to start searching for out-of-state positions.
Beyond the wide-ranging policy implications, the special session's upshot was a Democratic Party more marginalized in the House and a typically fractious GOP caucus unified by their unapologetically partisan wielding of power.
New: After the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary, school leaders in Uvalde initially planned to publicly defend district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, but instead chose to remain silent as investigations into police actions unfolded. With @propublica.org:
NEW: Records show that Uvalde school leaders initially planned to defend Police Chief Pete Arredondo after the Robb Elementary shooting. The details were revealed in over 25,000 pages the district released after a legal fight with news outlets. With @texastribune.org
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The powerful GOP fundraising arm of the Senate is urging Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, to stop teasing a primary challenge for U.S. Senate and to back incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a scathing memo calling his speculative bid a “vanity project.”
While Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick remains adamant about a ban, hemp industry representatives say they would compromise on creating a 21 age limit to purchase.
Experts say regents have increasingly prioritized political savvy over academic leadership when picking university system leaders, a statewide and national shift they warn could make higher education less independent and give politicians greater influence over academics, research and campus life.
The Republican Party of Texas filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Secretary of State Jane Nelson in a bid to restrict participation in the GOP’s primary elections to only voters registered with the party. Currently, any Texas voter can cast a ballot in GOP primaries.
Texas launches downloadable form to exempt kids from school-required vaccines
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Barring court intervention, many Texans may be voting in new congressional districts in the upcoming 2026 midterms. Use our lookup tool to see how your districts may have changed.
The Texas Senate on Wednesday evening approved a bill that would allow private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, mails or provides abortion medication to or from Texas. House Bill 7 now heads to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.
Most forms of consumable hemp-derived products remain legal in Texas after state legislators couldn’t reach a last-minute deal to tighten regulations.
Efforts to overhaul local emergency response to disasters failed after the Texas Senate concluded its business early Thursday without taking up the House's version of a bill that would have mandated new training and licensing requirements.
Texas Legislature ends second special session marked by new political maps, slew of conservative wins
Texas Republican lawmakers on Wednesday evening adopted a package of sharper penalties and new fundraising restrictions for members who leave the state to freeze legislative action.
Texas kids’ camps must remove cabins from floodplains, operate warning systems under new laws
New: Texas legislators on Wednesday passed a slew of new regulations for kids’ camps, including that no cabins could be located in the floodplain near dangerous parts of a river, and that camps would have to install emergency warning systems.
New: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced Wednesday night that the Senate will gavel out of the second special session, leaving behind a measure that would have broadly banned consumable hemp products with any “detectable amount of any cannabinoid.”
After the Texas Senate stripped a key provision from a bill meant to stop large-scale exports of water from East Texas, the Texas House rejected the changes late Wednesday and requested a conference committee.
New: Texas lawmakers have sent legislation replacing STAAR, the state’s widely unpopular state standardized test, to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. Here's what schools’ new standardized tests would look like.
New: The Texas Senate on Wednesday evening approved a bill that would allow private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, mails or provides abortion medication to or from Texas. House Bill 7 now heads to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.
New: A Texas bill that would restrict which restrooms transgender people can use in government buildings and schools is now headed to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk.
New: A push by Texas lawmakers to curb property tax bills by putting tighter restrictions on cities and counties is on life support as the clock runs down on the special legislative session.
After a decade of efforts and tens of millions of dollars invested, the Corpus Christi City Council moved to cancel a contract for a seawater desalination plant in a 1 a.m. vote Wednesday.
Suburban officials in the Dallas-Fort Worth region have enacted rules aimed at curtailing a sweeping new state law to allow more apartments.
Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday encouraged students to practice the Lord’s Prayer as relayed in the King James Version of the Bible, marking the latest instance of a Texas public official endorsing Christianity over other faiths.
New: Former state Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, a Collin County Republican who authored Texas’ sweeping 2013 abortion law has died, according to social media posts from several lawmakers. She was 68.
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Despite explosive growth turning Tarrant into a racially diverse swing county, two new political maps will leave it with whiter, more Republican representation.
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Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath visited three Fort Worth schools on Thursday as he considers launching the second-largest district takeover in Texas history because of failing state academic accountability ratings.
High priority bills that propose banning THC have not moved through the Texas House, as the current overtime session could conclude in the coming days.
Breaking: Gov. Greg Abbott signed Texas’ new congressional district lines into law Friday. Last week, the state Legislature passed the new map that aims to flip five Democratic seats in the 2026 midterms.
New: The ACLU of Texas and a group of LGBTQ+ and student rights organizations are suing to block a new state law that would ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in K-12 public schools.
The Texas House on Thursday evening approved a bill that would allow private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, mails or provides abortion medication to or from Texas.
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More than 300 Texas school districts and charter schools have signaled plans to use a state-developed reading and language arts curriculum that attracted national attention last year for its heavy references to the Bible and Christianity.
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Texas Democrats say recent changes to a bill that would replace STAAR give too much power to the TEA and fall short of meaningfully easing the pressures of standardized testing.
Texas Tribune climate reporter Emily Foxhall joins this week's episode of TribCast to discuss the emotional pleas Camp Mystic parents made to state lawmakers and analyze the proposed new laws in response to the Kerrville floods.
The Texas House on Tuesday sent a measure to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk that would let the attorney general’s office independently prosecute election-related crimes, years after the state’s highest criminal court ruled the office could not do so without an invitation from local prosecutors.
The Texas House on Tuesday preliminarily approved Senate Bill 11, which would shield sex trafficking victims from prosecution from some crimes if they’re threatened or coerced into the act by their trafficker.
The Texas House on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a measure that would require a state agency to determine which areas in the region that flooded on July 4 should be required to have outdoor warning sirens.
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Experts and energy companies say the Texas Energy Fund's low-interest loans and bonus grants may not be appealing enough to overcome an energy market that makes new power plants more expensive and less profitable.
Watch live: The Texas Tribune sits down with three public media leaders about the services they provide, the impact of federal funding cuts and where their stations will go from here.
The Texas House pushed forward a proposal Monday aimed at containing property tax bills by putting tighter restrictions on cities and counties.
The Trump administration has been testing a strategy of using the courts as leverage to force political outcomes. In Texas, the state’s leaders and conservative activists have been willing, if not eager, collaborators.
Democrats said their walkout over a new congressional map inspired a national protest against GOP redistricting. But the move also unified typically factious Texas House Republicans.
Todd Smith was Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller’s longtime political consultant when he admitted to soliciting bribes for licenses the agency typically issues for $100. Miller then put him on the payroll at $218,000 per year.
Early Saturday, the Texas Senate passed a new congressional map strengthening GOP control and by that morning, Gov. Greg Abbott faced a lawsuit alleging racial bias in the plan.
Breaking: Texas Senate approves GOP congressional map. Republican lawmakers pushed the map through over fierce Democratic opposition, positioning the GOP to net up to five additional seats in Texas.
Tensions between Texans flared at the Capitol on Friday during public testimony over a legislative proposal limiting transgender peoples’ use of bathrooms in government buildings.
Texas Senate expected to take up GOP congressional map, last stop before Abbott’s desk.
Breaking: Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the dean of Texas’ congressional delegation, announced Thursday he would not run for reelection to his Austin-based seat if a new Republican-drawn map is in effect for the 2026 midterms.
Breaking: Former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan announced Thursday he will not seek reelection to the Legislature.
New: State Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, filed paperwork to run for the newly drawn 9th Congressional District on Thursday.
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State Rep. Stan Lambert, an Abilene Republican who survived a contested primary last year supercharged by two of the state’s most powerful GOP leaders, said Thursday that he will not seek reelection after his current term ends.
The UT System Board of Regents authorized campus presidents on Thursday to replace faculty senates with less independent versions of the bodies. Regents also authorized major policy changes that will significantly limit free speech on campuses in response to pro-Palestinian protests last year.
From urban cores to rural regions, Texans' needs differ. Experts worry new districts encompassing geographically distant communities will dilute their voices.
New: U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, Paxton aide turned foe, to run for Texas attorney general.
Gov. Greg Abbott asks for new penalties for lawmakers who flee to halt legislative sessions.
Just In: The Republican led Texas House approved a new congressional map giving Republicans five more U.S. House seats, despite Democratic claims it’s a racially discriminatory effort to sway next year’s midterms.
Breaking: Texas House to take up GOP congressional map delayed by Democrats’ walkout
New: The University of Texas System Board of Regents voted Wednesday to name former Texas Republican lawmaker John Zerwas the system's next chancellor.
An amendment that sought to tie the implementation of the new congressional map to the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files was found to be not germane to the redistricting bill after a representative contested it, effectively killing the measure.
The Texas House voted down an amendment to add a section to the bill saying that the map complies with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against voters on the basis of race.
As the Texas House began its anticipated and delayed debate on congressional redistricting, dozens of protesters gathered in the Capitol rotunda.
New: An El Paso judge temporarily stopped AG Ken Paxton from prosecuting former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s political group, Powered by People, after Paxton moved to block the organization from financially supporting Texas Democrats who left the state.
New: A Texas federal judge on Wednesday blocked from taking full effect a new state law requiring public schools to display donated posters of the Ten Commandments in classrooms. The ruling only applies to the nearly a dozen Texas school districts named in the lawsuit.
Watch live: The Texas House is set to advance a new congressional map crafted to hand five additional U.S. House seats to the GOP over fierce opposition from Democrats.
The GOP push to redraw the state’s congressional maps isn’t just a partisan move but one that deeply affects how Texans are represented in Congress.
The Republican-led Texas House on Wednesday is set to advance a new congressional map crafted to hand five additional U.S. House seats to the GOP over fierce opposition from Democrats.
More than 20 bills that would restrict restroom use for transgender people have been proposed since 2015, but their language — and reception — have shifted.
Lawsuit settled in 2022 shooting death of a migrant in West Texas, but no criminal charges filed yet
The congressional seat in Texas’ 18th District, a hub of Black political power, has been vacant for months. Redistricting could further disrupt representation for its voters.
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Texas Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, was confined in the Capitol overnight after she refused a police escort that Republican leaders imposed on lawmakers who participated in a two-week walkout over a GOP mid-decade redistricting plan.
Advocates say some Texas universities are misinterpreting the court ruling that bans undocumented students from receiving in-state tuition, leaving some students who should still qualify with confusing messages and sky-high tuition bills.
Photos: Texas Democrats return to Austin as redistricting standoff ends.
Breaking: A federal appeals court Monday blocked West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler from enforcing a campus drag show ban, ruling that the performances are likely protected under the First Amendment.
State Rep. Ray Lopez, a San Antonio Democrat, will not seek reelection to a fifth term in the Legislature’s lower chamber.
The proposed congressional districts are fueling a redistricting battle at the Texas Capitol and could have national consequences. A bipartisan war is already brewing across the U.S.
New: The West Texas measles outbreak, the nation’s largest in 30 years, is now over, state health officials announced on Monday. No new cases had been reported in 42 days, according to the the Texas Department of State Health Services.
New: Texas House Democrats announced they would return to Austin Monday, ending a two-week walkout over a GOP mid-decade redistricting plan and paving the way for the map’s passage.
Texas schools are on track to have the lowest vaccination rates in decades if exemption rates continue to climb. In July, the state received 17,197 requests for a vaccine exemption form, 36% higher than the number reported in July 2023.
The 2025 legislative session was transformative for public education in Texas. Here is a look at some of the biggest changes students, parents and teachers can expect as they return for a new school year.
Texas students’ STAAR scores for this year are out. Here’s how your school or district did.
Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke announced that his group, Powered by People, gave over $1 million to Texas Democrats during the special session walkout over GOP redistricting maps.
More than 500 schools are using four-day school weeks, a dramatic increase from two years ago, driven by tight budgets and fierce competition for educators amid a statewide teacher shortage.