https://www.texastribune.org/about/staff/jayme-lozano-carver/The latest news by Jayme Lozano Carver.enThu, 12 Jun 2025 12:21:37 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/12/water-texas-legislation/Among other changes is a new law that says homeowner associations can no longer fine Texans for not watering their grass during a drought.By Jayme Lozano Carver and Alejandra MartinezThu, 12 Jun 2025 12:21:37 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/12/water-texas-legislation/Texas lawmakers have pledged $20 billion over the next two decades to help the state manage its water supply. Voters will be asked to approve that committment in November.The secondary clarifier at the Bustamante Waste Water Treatment Plant expansion in El Paso, Texas on March 5, 2025.Justin Hamel for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/10/amarillo-psychiatric-hospital/The facility will bring mental health resources closer to the largely rural region that’s home to nearly 436,000 people.By Jayme Lozano CarverTue, 10 Jun 2025 17:12:06 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/10/amarillo-psychiatric-hospital/An artist rendering of the new Panhandle State Hospital in Amarillo, expected to be completed in 2027.Artist rendering of the new Panhandle State Hospital in Amarillo, expected to be completed in 2027.West Texas A&M University websitehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/05/texas-steak-beef-industry-dan-patrick-new-york-strip/Far from the Capitol, students at Texas Tech spend time examining the quality of beef for meat judging competitions.By Jayme Lozano CarverThu, 05 Jun 2025 11:00:00 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/05/texas-steak-beef-industry-dan-patrick-new-york-strip/Zachary Buckley, production manager at Raider Red Meats in Lubbock, shows the different facilities at Texas Tech University's meat processing lab on May 1, 2025.Zachary Buckley, production manager at Red Raider Meats, shows the different facilities at Texas Tech University's campus meat processing lab on May 1, 2025.Jacob Lujan for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/05/rural-texas-legislation/Lawmakers sought to close gaps in education and support funding for agriculture, disaster preparedness and health care this year.By Jayme Lozano Carver, Carlos Nogueras Ramos, Jess Huff and Berenice GarciaThu, 05 Jun 2025 05:00:00 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/05/rural-texas-legislation/The Texas State Capitol on March 17, 2025.The Texas State Capitol on March 17, 2025.Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/03/texas-wildfire-legislation/A package of bills aims to better prepare the state to prevent and fight wildfires.By Jayme Lozano CarverTue, 03 Jun 2025 05:00:00 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/03/texas-wildfire-legislation/The Rolling Pines Fire blazes through Bastrop State Park in 2022. The Texas Legislature passed a package of bills aimed at mitigating the damage of wildfires and preparing for future disasters.The Rolling Pines Fire blazes through Bastrop State Park on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022.Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/29/texas-water-crisis-groundwater-rights/Texas property owners can use nearly as much water under their land as they want. That’s unlikely to change even as the state approaches a crisis.By Jayme Lozano Carver, Graphics by Yuriko SchumacherThu, 29 May 2025 13:17:53 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/29/texas-water-crisis-groundwater-rights/High Plains Underground Water District Field Technician Supervisor Billy Barron, left, and Permit Administrator Gray Sanders measure a well on May 21, outside of Slaton.High Plains Underground Water District field technician supervisor Billy Barron, left, and IT and permit administrator Gray Sanders measure a well, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, outside of Slaton.Annie Rice for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/27/texas-water-supply-infrastructure-deal-bill/The deal allocates $1 billion a year to water projects for 20 years, which some groups estimate is a fraction of what Texas needs to save its water supply.By Alejandra Martinez and Jayme Lozano CarverTue, 27 May 2025 15:44:17 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/27/texas-water-supply-infrastructure-deal-bill/The SAWS’ Steven M. Clouse Water Recycling Center in San Antonio on Aug. 23, 2024.The SAWS’ Steven M. Clouse Water Recycling Center in San Antonio on Aug. 23, 2024.Chris Stokes for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/26/texas-gun-buyback-program-ban/Much of the debate focused on the tense relationship between cities and the Texas Legislature. The bill is head to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.By Jayme Lozano CarverMon, 26 May 2025 18:10:42 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/26/texas-gun-buyback-program-ban/A private gun buyer advertises cash sales outside the Alamodome parking lot where San Antonio hosted a gun buyback event in 2024.A private gun buyer advertises cash sales outside the Alamodome parking lot where the City of San Antonio hosts a gun buyback event on Nov. 24, 2024.Scott Stephen Ball for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/26/texas-hemp-thc-ban-farmer/While state leaders say growers can still produce industrial hemp, farmers say they will quit growing the plant altogether under a total THC ban.By Jayme Lozano CarverMon, 26 May 2025 05:00:00 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/26/texas-hemp-thc-ban-farmer/Ann Gauger stands in one of the Caprock Family Farms’ rooms where they grow hemp on May 23, 2025 in Lubbock. “How is our farming legacy going to be passed on to future generations without learning something new?” Gauger says.Ann Gauger stands in one of the Caprock Family Farms’ grow rooms, Friday, May 23, 2025, in Lubbock. “Agriculture is changing and the new age of agriculture has to be cutting edge,” Ann Gauger says.Annie Rice for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/22/texas-lubbock-measles-parents/Many of the patients are being treated in Lubbock, a medical hub for the South Plains where the outbreak originated.By Jayme Lozano CarverThu, 22 May 2025 05:00:00 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/22/texas-lubbock-measles-parents/Kelly Johnson Pirtle holds her six-week-old son, John, on April 9, 2025, in Lubbock.Kelly Johnson hold her six-week-old son, John, as seen Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in Lubbock. “Normal things that are hard [in postpartum], are hard,” Johnson says, “but been having that plus keeping an eye out on a measles outbreak.”Annie Rice for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/01/texas-fire-equipments-legislation/The legislation, which won unanimous approval in both chambers, was written following the state’s historic Panhandle wildfires last year.By Jayme Lozano CarverThu, 01 May 2025 05:00:00 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/01/texas-fire-equipments-legislation/A firefighter with Forest Bend Fire Department extinguishes flames at the site of the 2022 Borrega wildfire. Lawmakers approved legislation to create a database to help fire departments track equipment.A firefighter with Forest Bend Fire Department extinguishes flames at the site of the Borrega wildfire on March 31, 2022. The wildfire burned through a large part of the King Ranch and surrounding areas in Brooks, Jim Wells and Kleberg counties.Michael Gonzalez for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/29/texas-water-crisis-constitutional-vote-2025/The Senate has a similar proposal, but is more prescriptive in how the money should be spent. The two chambers must agree on the final proposal to send to voters.By Jayme Lozano CarverTue, 29 Apr 2025 18:42:22 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/29/texas-water-crisis-constitutional-vote-2025/The Texas House approved a proposal to ask voters to spend $1 billion on water projects annually. It needs Senate approval to reach the fall ballot. Jairo Benavides, center, removes soil as a crew works on upgrading pipes and valves at a North Alamo Water Supply Corporation water plant in Donna in 2024.Jairo Benavides, center, removes soil as the crew works on upgrading pipes and valves at a North Alamo Water Supply Corporation water plant in Donna on Thursday, July 18, 2024. In order to increase the amount of water the plant is able to distribute, pipes were upgraded and replaced, connect to the plant’s existing facility with the newly expanded infrastructure.Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/29/uvalde-strong-bill-texas-house-mclaughlin/Uvalde’s former mayor, now in the Legislature, wrote the bill so that law-enforcement agencies would have better coordination and leadership as they respond to a mass shooting.By Jayme Lozano CarverTue, 29 Apr 2025 15:09:12 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/29/uvalde-strong-bill-texas-house-mclaughlin/Delays in the response to the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, led to legislation to improve law-enforcement coordination, which was approved by the Texas House.Police block off the road leading to the scene of a school shooting at Robb Elementary on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 in Uvalde, TX. A school shooting was reported this afternoon after a high school student opened fire inside Robb Elementary School where two teachers and 14 students were killed.Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/28/texas-water-crisis-legislation-debate/The Texas House took its first step toward revising a priority Senate bill last week. The changes were lauded by the state’s water community.By Jayme Lozano Carver and Alejandra MartinezMon, 28 Apr 2025 05:00:00 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/28/texas-water-crisis-legislation-debate/Texas lawmakers are debating how prescriptive to be in legislation that would spend about $1 billion a year over the next decade to secure the state's water supply.Inside a primary clarifier, resembling petri-dish tanks, heavy solids and grease sink to the bottom and machines skim off particles at the top at the Roberto Bustamante Wastewater Treatment Plant in El Paso on March 5, 2025.Justin Hamel for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/06/measles-texas-outbreak-death-unvaccinated/About 500 Texans, mostly young unvaccinated children, have contracted the disease. The U.S. health secretary was in West Texas to visit the family.By Pooja Salhotra and Jayme Lozano CarverSun, 06 Apr 2025 09:59:05 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/06/measles-texas-outbreak-death-unvaccinated/People stand outside of a Mennonite church in Seminole where funeral services for Daisy Hildebrand, the second Texas child to die from the measles this year, were held. Hildebrand was 8.People stand outside of a Mennonite church in Seminole after a funeral for an 8-year-old girl who died of measles on Sunday, April 6, 2025.Justin Rex for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/03/texas-measles-outbreak-lubbock-katherine-wells/Katherine Wells was celebrated early during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then public health became a political litmus test.By Jayme Lozano CarverThu, 03 Apr 2025 13:00:00 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/03/texas-measles-outbreak-lubbock-katherine-wells/Katherine Wells, Lubbock Health Department's director, looks through a vaccine log on March 17. Wells and her staff are working to stem the measles outbreak in the Lubbock area as well as throughout Texas.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.Mark Rogers for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/02/texas-water-senate-legislation-votes/Senate Bill 7, which won unanimous approval, is among legislation that seeks to avert a looming water crisis as the state’s population booms.By Jayme Lozano Carver and Alejandra MartinezWed, 02 Apr 2025 18:25:03 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/02/texas-water-senate-legislation-votes/Amid growth in Texas' population and the possibility of continued record-breaking drought, lawmakers have proposed legislation to preserve the state's water supply and create new sources.An irrigation system on a farm field near the High Plains town of Ralls, about 30 miles east of Lubbock, on Wednesday, June 22, 2022. Like much of Texas, the High Plains and Panhandle are facing drought conditions and extraordinary heat.Trace Thomas for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/01/texas-wildfire-legislation-house-votes/The legislation was written after the state’s largest wildfire scorched more than 1 million acres in the Panhandle last year.By Jayme Lozano CarverTue, 01 Apr 2025 16:53:00 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/01/texas-wildfire-legislation-house-votes/The Texas House gave initial approval to two bills meant to help the state fight wildfires.The Rolling Pines Fire blazes through Bastrop State Park on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022.Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/31/elehealth-animals-veterinary-medicine-texas-legislation/Animal health care experts raised concern that telehealth would lead to misdiagnosis and erode what little care already exists in rural Texas.By Jayme Lozano CarverMon, 31 Mar 2025 18:17:03 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/31/elehealth-animals-veterinary-medicine-texas-legislation/Genna Deleon, a vet technician, holds Roco, an 11-year-old Silky Terrier, during a 2024 wellness visit at the Spay Neuter Network Crandall clinic in Crandall. A Texas lawmaker wants to establish telehealth for animals.Genna Deleon, 32, vet technician, holds Roco, an 11-year-old Silky Terrier, during a wellness visit at the Spay Neuter Network Crandall clinic in Crandall on Sept. 27, 2024.Desiree Rios for The Texas Tribunehttps://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/31/texas-legislature-water-strategies-solutions/State lawmakers are poised to devote billions to save the state’s water supply. These are some of the ways the state could spend the money.By Alejandra Martinez and Jayme Lozano CarverMon, 31 Mar 2025 05:00:00 -0500https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/31/texas-legislature-water-strategies-solutions/Treated water at the Walnut Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant on March 25 in Austin. The treatment plant will undergo a billion dollar expansion starting this summer to meet the increasing demand due to the growth the city has faced.Treated water at the Walnut Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 in Austin, TX. The treatment plant will undergo a billion dollar expansion starting this summer to meet the increasing demand due to the growth the city has faced. Sergio Flores for The Texas TribuneSergio Flores for The Texas Tribune