Texas judge says state can’t execute Robert Roberson, but attorney general plans to swiftly appeal
The Supreme Court declined to step in but Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Gov. Greg Abbott to issue a 30-day reprieve.
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What is shaken baby syndrome, the controversial diagnosis for which Robert Roberson is set to die?
The American Academy of Pediatrics embraces the diagnosis, but courts have thrown out some cases, calling it “junk science.”
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Investigations
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2024 Texas Elections
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Latest News
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Ken Paxton sues Dallas pediatrician over providing hormone treatments to teens
In the first test of Senate Bill 14, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has accused Dr. May Lau of providing testosterone to at least 21 teens. Full Story
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![A transgender flag sits on the desk of state Rep. Penny Morales Shaw, D-Houston, and Rep. Rhetta Andrews Bowers, D-Rowlett, during discussion of a Point of Order brought against SB 14, which seeks to ban puberty blockers and hormone therapies for transgender youth, on the House floor at the state Capitol in Austin on May 12, 2023.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
Here’s how much Ted Cruz and Colin Allred have raised in their U.S. Senate race
Updated fundraising figures show that the Senate candidates have fundraised a combined $136 million. Full Story
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![U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, left, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.]()
Credit: The Texas Tribune
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“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 -
With little say over Robert Roberson’s fate, Texas lawmakers take extraordinary steps to buy him more time
With Roberson’s options dwindling, a House panel used its bully pulpit to prove his case and excoriate the failures of the state’s junk science law. Full Story
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![Robert Roberson seeks a new trial for the 2003 conviction of the murder of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis in Palestine on Aug. 14, 2018. His attorneys are asking for a new trial based on new findings they say debunk the flawed science presented in the original trial.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune
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Texas’ order to ask hospital patients’ citizenship status renews focus on the state’s large uninsured population
On Nov. 1, hospitals will begin asking patients their citizenship status. But data suggests uninsured citizens, not immigrants, cost Texas hospitals more. Full Story
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![The emergency center at Ben Taub Hospital in the Texas Medical Center in Houston on June 26, 2020.]()
Credit: May-Ying Lam for the Texas Tribune -
Texas lawmakers signal push to require proof of citizenship from voters
Gov. Greg Abbott gave an inflated number of noncitizens removed from the state’s voter rolls, officials acknowledged, confirming findings by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, and Votebeat. Full Story
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![Ken Cuccinelli, a former acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and former acting deputy secretary of DHS, speaks at a state Senate hearing at the Texas Capitol on Oct. 16, 2024.]()
Credit: Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune -
Ag Commissioner Sid Miller’s former political consultant pleads guilty to bribery
Todd Smith’s plea comes days before he was set to go to trial, where Miller was subpoenaed to testify. Full Story
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![Todd M Smith.]()
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Republicans put up little fight in Henry Cuellar’s race after indictment
Republicans declared the Laredo Democrat a target this year after his indictment, but haven’t spent serious money to unseat him. Full Story
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![U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, R-Laredo, at a Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 10, 2024.]()
Credit: REUTERS/Michael A. McCoy -
Nearly half of Texas high school students who earn college credits are Hispanic, study says
Despite the group’s strong participation, Hispanic students graduate college at a lower rate than peers in the program, according to a report. Full Story
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![Passing period at United South High School in Laredo on Oct. 23, 2018.]()
Credit: Rachel Zein for The Texas Tribune -
Watch: Texas lawmakers discuss noncitizens on the voter rolls
Here’s what you need to know after a ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and Votebeat investigation found that Gov. Greg Abbott likely inflated the number of noncitizens on voter rolls. Full Story
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![Voting signs direct voters outside of the Rolling Fork Castle Club during Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023 in Houston. The castle was built in the late 1970s and has served as a voting location for almost forty years.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune
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Colin Allred, Ted Cruz blast each other as “extreme,” throw jabs on border and abortion in Senate debate
The debate proved combative from start to finish, with Cruz and Allred trading barbs on nearly every issue that came up. Full Story
![U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, left, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, take part in a debate for the U.S. Senate hosted by WFAA on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Dallas, Texas.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune via POOL -
Houston ISD superintendent didn’t illegally funnel state money to out-of-state schools, TEA says
The Texas Education Agency found that checks mailed to Miles’ charter school network in Colorado were eventually deposited into the network’s Texas account. Full Story
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![Mike Miles, the state-appointed superintendent of Houston ISD, discusses public education in Texas' largest city with Jacob Carpenter, team leader of the Houston Landing, at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Sept. 23, 2023.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Robert Roberson’s final efforts to stop Texas execution dwindle as support for clemency grows
Few options to avoid death remain for the Palestine man, who is set to be executed Thursday on the basis of a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis. Full Story
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![Interior of Death Chamber in Texas.]()
Credit: Jenevieve Robbins/Texas Department of Criminal Justice
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Laredo enters its sixth day of a boil-water notice after E. coli is discovered in water system
The South Texas city is the latest to grapple with aging water infrastructure, which officials suggested could have been the cause for the E. coli outbreak. Full Story
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![An empty street in historic downtown Laredo, TX on Nov. 7, 2021. Businesses along the border crossing are hoping to see a return in Mexican clientele after the U.S. land borders reopen to vaccinated travelers.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang -
Texas rejects insurance rate increase for coastal homeowners, businesses
Texas Windstorm Insurance Association officials argued they needed a 10% rate increase to help insure a growing number of policyholders. Full Story
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![Damage to homes caused by a tornado that moved through Round Rock on March 21, 2022.]()
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Texas can investigate people for alleged vote harvesting as legal battle over 2021 law continues playing out
A federal judge had ruled Senate Bill 1 unconstitutional, but an appeals court says the law can remain in effect as Texas appeals that previous decision Full Story
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![Voter registration forms at a registration event in Austin, on Sept. 27, 2020.]()
Credit: Amna Ijaz/The Texas Tribune
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Gov. Greg Abbott boasted that Texas removed 6,500 noncitizens from its voter rolls. That number was likely inflated.
An investigation by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and Votebeat found that U.S. citizens were incorrectly labeled as noncitizens or removed from the rolls because they did not respond to letters about their citizenship. Full Story
![Gov. Gregg Abbott speaks at a podium in a photo collage that also includes a sign for a polling location.]()
Credit: Photo illustration by Tiffany Herring/ProPublica. Source images: Amna Ijaz/The Texas Tribune, Montinique Monroe/The Texas Tribune. -
A Texas rematch: Republican Mayra Flores aims to beat Democrat Vicente Gonzalez for U.S. House seat
Flores briefly represented the district after winning a 2022 special election. Gonzalez went on to beat her by nearly 9 points in the general. Full Story
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![From left: U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, is facing a challenge from Mayra Flores in Texas' 34th congressional district. Flores briefly represented the district after winning a special election in July 2022.]()
Credit: Michael Gonzalez for The Texas Tribune -
A Panhandle town says goodbye to its newspaper
Watch this documentary about the final run of the Canadian Record, a small-town, family-owned newspaper that closed last year. Full Story
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![Canadian Record editor Laurie Ezzell Brown flips through a bound archive of her newspaper’s product on March 8, 2023.]()
Credit: Mark Rogers for The Texas Tribune - More News