Gov. Greg Abbott draws criticism for ordering state troopers to pull over vehicles with migrants, saying it will stem COVID-19 risk
The executive order allows DPS troopers to reroute vehicles back to their origin point or a port of entry. Immigration rights advocates say the governor's action is an invitation for racial profiling.
A tale of two capital cities: Texas Democrats continue fight for voting rights in Washington as Republicans push them to return
Both Republicans in Austin and Democrats in D.C. have engaged in the political drama over the past two weeks, with the two camps battling it out on cable news interviews and social media over the quorum bust and who is to blame for it.
Invoking the spirit of Selma, Texas activists begin 27-mile march demanding federal action on voting rights
The marchers will travel south from Georgetown to Austin over four days, hoping to build pressure on Congress to act on federal legislation to boost or safeguard access to voting. They will end with a Saturday morning rally at the Capitol.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s son says Texas Republicans are misrepresenting his father’s words in effort to whitewash history
Republican Texas lawmakers have justified their efforts to limit how racism and current events are taught in school by saying that critical race theory judges people by the color of their skin. Martin Luther King III and experts disagree.
GOP senator says Gov. Greg Abbott should lose line-item veto after cutting Legislature’s funding, jeopardizing staffers’ jobs
The bill is largely symbolic, as the Legislature is currently at a standstill, unable to move any legislation because House Democrats broke quorum two weeks ago when they fled to Washington, D.C., to block GOP voting bills.
In a major upset against a candidate backed by Donald Trump, Jake Ellzey wins runoff for Fort Worth-area congressional seat
Ellzey, a state representative, beat fellow Republican Susan Wright, who was backed by former President Donald Trump. Ellzey will finish the term of Ron Wright, who died earlier this year after contracting COVID-19.
Speaker Dade Phelan signs civil arrest warrant for Texas House Democrat who returned to Washington
The warrant to apprehend state Rep. Philip Cortez is the first one signed by the speaker since more than 50 House Democrats left the state to block Republicans from having the quorum needed to pass legislation during the special legislative session.
Texas lawmakers to testify as U.S. House oversight committee plans hearing on Texas voting bill
Three of the Democratic legislators who went to Washington, D.C., to deny the Texas House a quorum have been invited to detail their concerns at a specially called hearing on the contentious legislation that includes new restrictions on voting.
After UT-Austin signals a Big 12 exit, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick moves to create a Senate panel focused on college sports’ future
The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Oklahoma are expected to leave the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference. The move throws the athletics future of several other Texas schools into uncertainty.
What you need to know about the latest COVID-19 surge and how to stay safe
COVID-19 cases have been increasing in Texas and nationally — mostly among unvaccinated people — as the highly contagious delta variant has become dominant. Here's what that means for Texans, both vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Man sentenced for attempting to smuggle 23 kilos of meth into TX, told border authorities he was ‘traveling for work’
A 53-year-old U.S. citizen living in Tamaulipas, Mexico, was ordered to federal prison for importing meth into the United States, Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery announced Friday in a release.
Texas veterans homes overseen by George P. Bush were often the deadliest places to be during COVID-19 pandemic
Seven of the state’s nine veterans homes had a fatality rate of 25% or more, far higher than the statewide average of 11% for nursing homes. Bush has vowed to not renew the operators’ contracts.
Gov. Greg Abbott promised “transparency and accountability” for border wall donations. But donors don’t have to use real names.
Despite promises from Abbott that transparency in the crowdfunding process for the border wall would be paramount, donor information released to The Texas Tribune for the first week of collections was bereft of any way to verify the identities of the majority of the donors.
Why did the Texas Senate remove “white supremacy” and ways “it is morally wrong” from new education bill?
An education bill that was recently passed along party lines by the Texas Senate removed, among other things, a teaching requirement about “the history of white supremacy… and the ways in which it is morally wrong.”