Billions more for tax relief and border security under budget approved by Texas Senate
Next step will be action in the state House, where budget writers have different plans for distributing property tax help. Full Story
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![Senator Joan Huffman, R-Houston, speaks with Senator Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, during a Texas Senate meeting on March 25, 2025.]()
Credit: Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune -
West Texas lawmakers push bills to divert some oil and gas taxes to help oil-producing counties with roads, other needs
Reps. Tom Craddick and Brooks Landgraf want to divert 10% of taxes collected on oil and gas production to help budget-strapped counties keep up with growth. Full Story
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![Truckers line up to receive a load of sand, used in oil and gas fracking, at the Capital Sand plant Monday, July 1, 2024, outside of Monahans.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ DEI debate centers on a disagreement about whether programs perpetuate or prevent discrimination
Supporters say diversity initiatives close educational and income gaps born from a history of prejudice. Republican officials say they prioritize identity over merit. Full Story
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![Illustrated posters reading “We Belong Here” litter the Capitol’s rotunda floor during Texas Students for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’s protest of HB1 Rider No. 186, which would defund DEI initiatives at public universities, on Mar. 23, 2023.]()
Credit: Leila Saidane/The Texas Tribune -
Lawmakers push to spend billions of dollars for water projects and debate which ones to prioritize
Gov. Greg Abbott has made water a priority for this legislative session. Lawmakers will debate whether to invest more into new water supplies or repairing old, leaking pipes around Texas. Full Story
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![Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, during a Senate meeting on March 11, 2025.]()
Credit: Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ DEI bans: What to know about the term and the debate
Diversity, equity and inclusion has become highly politicized — and there’s no standard definition for what it is. Full Story
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![The Capitol dome is seen from the north side of the complex in Austin on March 18, 2025.]()
Credit: Kaylee Greenlee for The Texas Tribune -
Federal judge strikes down Texas' mail ballot ID requirement
The judge found that the provisions of SB1, the state's 2021 voter security law, discriminate against voters with disabilities. Full Story
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![A ballot is dropped in Austin in October, 2020.]()
Credit: Amna Ijaz/The Texas Tribune -
How Texas Republicans plan to keep cracking down on abortion
A flurry of bills aims to restrict the flow of abortion pills into the state and abortion seekers traveling out of the state. Full Story
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![Misoprostol on the shelf at Parker Road Drug Store in Greenville, S.C., on June 13, 2024.]()
Credit: McKenzie Lange/The Greenville News via REUTERS -
Republican lawmakers revive effort to give attorney general more power to prosecute election crimes
Critics fear increased election prosecutions could intimidate voters and local election officials. Attorney General Ken Paxton has long sought more autonomy over election cases. Full Story
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![Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas, speaks to the media Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, during a press conference following arguments in the case “Free Speech Coalition, Inc., et al. v. Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas,” at the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C.]()
Credit: Luke Johnson for The Texas Tribune -
Texas is poised to make measles a nationwide epidemic, public health experts say
Public health experts say Texas needs better messaging on vaccinations and quarantining and more people conducting contact tracing to contain the spread. Full Story
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![A sign donning measles information is posted outside of the office of Dr. Rumbidzai Mutikani, a pediatrician at the Hobbs Medical Clinic, as she works at her desk Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, in Hobbs, N.M.]()
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95,000 Texas children are waiting for state help to pay for day care
Adding more funding to scholarships is just one way experts say state lawmakers could address Texas’ child care crisis. Full Story
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![Clarissa Alday spends her morning reading to children at Katherine Sage Temple Early Learning Center, on Tuesday February 25, 2025, in Diboll.]()
Credit: Michael Cavazos for The Texas Tribune -
Different pace and priorities separate Texas Senate and House on school vouchers
The gaps over eligibility and on spending levels are narrower than the fundamental differences of the previous session. Full Story
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![Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, left, and House Speaker Dustin Burrows applaud as Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock gives the biennial State of the Judiciary speech in the Texas House chamber on Feb. 26, 2025.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Senate advances bill to allow smaller homes on smaller lots
Lawmakers, who are preempting locals on lot sizes in new subdivisions, have been eyeing ways to allow more homes to be built as the state faces a shortage. Full Story
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![The Mueller neighborhood in East Austin on Oct. 7, 2023.]()
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Jackpot withheld, $83 million winner “caught in crossfire” amid lottery courier investigations
The winning ticket, purchased online through the courier Jackpocket, is being scrutinized by lawmakers concerned about the legality of third-party services. Full Story
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![Winners Corner TX LLC in Austin, on Feb. 20, 2025.]()
Credit: Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune -
Trump administration drops challenge to Texas law targeting people who illegally cross the border
Senate Bill 4, the Texas law that makes illegally crossing the border a state crime, will continue to be challenged by two immigrant rights groups and El Paso County. Full Story
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![A National Guard soldier sits atop a wall made out of shipping containers while watching over the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, in Eagle Pass.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune -
Bills seek to improve state’s response to wildfires a year after devastation in Panhandle
A proposal to create a statewide system connecting emergency personnel and agencies is among several bills that target problems exposed in 2024. Full Story
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![Trees marked from the 2024 Smokehouse Creek Fires line the sides of the main roads of Canadian, Texas, Feb. 7, 2025. The Smokehouse Creek Fire is the largest wildfire in Texas history.]()
Credit: Jacob Lujan for The Texas Tribune -
After COVID, Texas is less prepared for the next pandemic
Five years after Texas’ first COVID death, the state spends less on public health, vaccination rates have dropped and a distrust of authority has taken hold. Full Story
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An abandoned West Texas oil well has created a 200-foot-wide sinkhole
The rapidly-growing sinkhole in Upton County is the latest of many problems caused by old wells in the Permian Basin. Full Story
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![A sinkhole formed by an old oil well on the Kelton Ranch in Upton County, Texas, has grown rapidly in the past year.]()
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Lawmakers weigh moving bingo operations out of Texas Lottery’s purview amid agency’s uncertain future
A possible reassignment of the charitable games comes as 15 bills in the Legislature seek to either alter or abolish the troubled agency. Full Story
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Texas’ first abortion arrests stem from monthlong attorney general investigation
These represent the first criminal charges under Texas’ near-total abortion ban. Full Story
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![A nurse speaks with a patient at a clinic in Houston on Aug. 2, 2013.]()
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As Trump vows mass deportations, Texas lawmakers want to require sheriffs to work with ICE
Some sheriffs worried that Senate Bill 8 could create an unfunded mandate, while civil rights advocates warned about possible racial profiling. Full Story
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![U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers carry out a raid as part of Operation Cross Check in Sherman on June 20, 2019.]()
Credit: Courtesy Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
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