LEGISLATURE

A three-judge federal panel is hearing arguments in a lawsuit claiming that Texas Republicans violated the Voting Rights Act when they redrew state Senate District 10 in Tarrant County to lessen Black and Hispanic voting power.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made clear in his State of the State speech that he likes teachers, first responders and freedom and he doesn’t like Dr. Anthony Fauci, critical race theory, abortion, illegal immigration and Burmese pythons.

Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state of Georgia, says "the only person who should touch your ballot is you and the election official."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says "there's an agreement to be reached" with West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin on President Biden's Build Back Better Act.

A top Republican lawmaker in the presidential battleground state of Wisconsin said Friday that there is “zero chance” the GOP-controlled Legislature will take over the awarding of the state's 10 presidential elector votes in 2024, even as Democrats worry that is their goal. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told The Associated Press in an interview that he also opposes dissolving the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission, which oversees elections, or making wholesale changes to how it operates. There has been an intense focus on Wisconsin and its election laws since President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by nearly 21,000 votes last year.

Current and former Black state lawmakers in Detroit have announced a pending lawsuit to block Michigan’s newly drawn congressional and legislative districts, contending they illegally dilute the voting strength of African Americans.

Illinois lawmakers are on a fast-track schedule in an election-year session as they attempt to pass a budget and complete other tasks against an early April adjournment date.

Last February’s deep freeze and the blackout that followed were brutal. But without the selfless actions of countless Texans, the situation could have been much worse. Cold weather, warm hearts, can help: Without the selfless actions of countless Texans, the 2021 winter storm could have been much worse.

He pledged to empower private citizens to enforce a ban on the manufacture and sale of assault weapons in the state.

He pledged to empower private citizens to enforce a ban on the manufacture and sale of assault weapons in the state.

Gavin Newsom says he will empower private citizens to enforce a ban on assault weapons in the state, citing the same authority claimed by conservative lawmakers in Texas to outlaw most abortions.

Critics of Texas' Chapter 313 corporate tax incentive program say it lacks accountability and is burdensome to taxpayers in the state.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he wants to empower private citizens to enforce a ban on the manufacture and sale of assault weapons in the state.

Critics of the Chapter 313 corporate tax incentive program say it lacks accountability and is burdensome to taxpayers in the state.

A group supporting former President Donald Trump's agenda is working to bypass Wisconsin's Democratic governor to change the swing state's election laws.

The parents of Carrie Parsons, one of the 60 people killed in the 2017 mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival, filed a lawsuit two years ago,

It remains unclear whether Gov. Greg Abbott — the only official with the power to convene special sessions — will order state lawmakers back to Austin, or what issues he would include on the agenda.

Some GOP lawmakers in Wisconsin want to strip the state's bipartisan elections agency of its power and give it to the Republican-controlled Legislature. The idea is backed by GOP Sen. Ron Johnson.

The South Dakota Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a lower court's ruling that nullified a voter-passed amendment to the state constitution that would have legalized recreational marijuana use. Gov. Kristi Noem instigated the legal fight to strike down the amendment passed by voters in November. The high court sided with those arguments in a 4-1 decision, ruling that the measure — Amendment A — would have violated the state’s requirement that constitutional amendments deal with just one subject.

Ohio's final congressional map sprinted through the Legislature last week and was signed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine over the weekend, all in less than five days.

A new state law requires the secretary of state's office to audit results in four randomly selected counties every two years.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis is urging residents to get COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots as the state sees a virus spike. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths have all been on the rise for weeks in Colorado. (Nov. 12)

Kimi Cole wants to become the country’s first openly transgender politician elected to a statewide office.

Poll: More Texas voters unhappy than satisfied over power grid, abortion, property taxes

The U.S.[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Texas over its new voting law, passed earlier this year in the Legislature.

Opening a second front in widening legal wars over redistricting, a coalition of mostly Hispanic, Democratic members of the Texas House filed suit in state court Wednesday challenging the constitutionality of the new political map for the state House.

The Mexican American Legislative Caucus is arguing that the new state House map violates the Texas Constitution. The lawsuit follows two legal challenges to the state’s new maps previously filed in federal court.

The Hyde County Sheriff thrust into the spotlight in the aftermath of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg's fatal crash in September 2020 has died.

The Arizona Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the Republican-controlled Legislature violated the state constitution by including new laws banning school mask mandates and a series of other measures in unrelated budget bills.

President Biden made history on Friday, becoming only the second Catholic President in U.S. history to meet with Pope Francis. CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes tells us more about the meeting between the two leaders, then discusses what else is on the president's agenda with CBSN anchor Lana Zak.

New York City is bracing for a worker shortage as its COVID-19 vaccine mandate looms. Police officers, firefighters and most other city workers faced a 5 p.m. Friday deadline to prove they've gotten at least one dose of vaccine. (Oct. 29)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the legislative framework that President Joe Biden presented to House Democrats Thursday as a "remarkable," vision, and compared it to President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. (Oct. 28)

The Associated Press reported last month that on July 27, just days after a state agency moved to deny Kassidy Peters' license, her mother, Noem, convened a meeting that included Secretary of Labor and Regulation Marcia Hultman, the then-director of the appraiser certification program, and Peters herself. Testifying before the Legislature’s Government Operations and Audit Committee, which is looking into the agency at the center of the controversy, Hultman acknowledged it was unusual to have an applicant like the governor’s daughter in a meeting that she said mostly covered potential changes to the application process.

After vetoing a similar measure over the summer, Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday signed into law a bill that makes the unlawful restraint of a dog a crime in Texas.

As they devised political maps to maximize their hold on power for another decade, Texas Republicans laid the foundation for a crucial argument they may need in defending their handiwork against multiple legal challenges claiming they are discriminating against Texans of color.

A highly anticipated nonpartisan audit of the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin did not identify any widespread fraud in the battleground state, which a key Republican legislative leader says shows that the state's elections are “safe and secure.”.

Republicans say Texas’ new political maps are “race blind.” To some voters of color, that translates as political invisibility.

High Texas property taxes were an issue in the state's 2018 elections, and you can see from their work on a new homestead exemption earlier this week that state lawmakers didn't forget that lesson from voters.

As secretary of state, Fort Worth attorney John Scott would oversee election administration in Texas.

With partisan fervor, Republicans drew new maps for Congress and the Legislature that dilute the power of voters of color. Now the lawsuits begin, as groups that feel marginalized battle for representation in the halls of power.

The nursing homes and assisted-living industries are in line to receive nearly $400 million in federal COVID relief funding.

The Texas Senate approved a bill Friday that would issue $3 billion in bonds to fund higher education construction programs hours after Gov.[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

Before they’re even signed into law, the state’s new maps for congressional and statehouse districts have been challenged in federal court by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Before ending the special session Tuesday, Texas lawmakers reached a deal to allocate roughly $3.3 billion to higher education institutions for capital projects. The price tag went up from the Senate's original proposal.

The Texas Senate approved a bill Friday that would issue $3 billion in bonds to fund higher education construction programs hours after Gov. Greg Abbott appeared to clear the way for the issue to be passed in the final stretch of the Legislature's third special session this year.[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

Lawmakers haven’t passed a tuition revenue bond bill since 2015.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a raft of progressive new laws in the weeks after he defeated an attempt to remove him from office.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom spent the summer campaigning to keep his job and, with a landslide victory in hand, he's continued pushing progressive California further left. In the four weeks after beating back a recall attempt, the Democrat signed laws that require gender-neutral displays of children's toys and toothbrushes in large department stores, made it illegal to remove a condom without consent during intercourse and cleared the way for a nation's first ban on the sale of new gas-powered leaf blowers and lawn mowers. California is among the deepest blue states in the country — Democrats control all statewide offices and have super majorities in the Legislature, which nowadays often acts as a laboratory for liberal policies that would not get to a vote in many other states.

They divert precious water during the severe drought and abuse their workers, overwhelmed local officials say.

A county in southern Oregon says it is so overwhelmed by an increase in the number and size of illegal marijuana farms that it declared a state of emergency Wednesday, appealing to the governor and the Legislature's leaders for help. The Jackson County Board of Commissioners said law enforcement officers and county and state regulators and code enforcers are overwhelmed and warned of an “imminent threat to the public health and safety of our citizens from the illegal production of cannabis in our county.” Illegal marijuana grows have been a persistent problem throughout the West, even in states like California that have legalized pot.

The Texas Legislature has not approved bonds to fund capital projects on public university campuses since 2015, and many school leaders say they need help to build new buildings and maintain current structures.

Members considered more than 50 amendments to the proposed map during debate that began Tuesday and ended early Wednesday. Some of the biggest changes focused on Dallas and Harris counties.

Here are things to know for Tuesday, Oct. 12:

Abbott also called on the Legislature to pass a law banning the expanded vaccine mandates.

Abbott also called on the Legislature to pass a law expanding the ban on vaccine mandates.

The punishment for the crime was scheduled to go down in December, due to the passage of a sweeping bill that restricted the state’s voting process and narrowed local control of elections.

The initial drafts of both maps have so far attempted to strengthen Republican majorities by protecting incumbents and creating more GOP-friendly districts.

Take a look at the top five trending stories across all of Community Impact Newspaper’s coverage areas as of Sept. 24.

The news comes less than a month after Paddie, who has represented House District 9 since 2013, announced he would run for reelection.

Within hours, Flores got the endorsement of Sen. Dawn Buckingham, R-Lakeway, who is vacating the seat to run for land commissioner, and then Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate.

The always partisan, always person process of redrawing Texas' political maps is about to get under way in Austin.

Abbott vetoed the funding earlier this year as retribution for the House Democrats’ walkout to block the GOP elections bill at the end of the regular session.

Conservative activist Steve Hotze and Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller were among those who tried to block the mailings, which they said flouted state law.

The recall that once threated California Gov. Gavin Newsom's political future has instead given it new life.

The Project SAFE grant would go to school districts and local education agencies that had funding withheld for enacting mask mandates.

Texas was once a model of how to safely and economically move away from mass incarceration. Now the old politics of “law and order” are back.

As Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton vowed to punish any school district that defied Abbott’s ban on mask mandates, Republican legislators were largely indifferent on the matter.

Texas’ new near-total abortion ban, one of the most restrictive in the nation, punctuated a week that brought into stunning relief just how far the state’s political pendulum has swung to the right since the 2020 election.

Democrats haven't won statewide in Texas since 1994. Their troubles won't end until they break that losing streak.

Democrats say it could make it more difficult for disabled voters and voters of color to vote, while Republicans say it'll be harder to cheat the election system.

The first volley in what is expected to be a fierce war over Texas redistricting kicked off Wednesday in the form of a federal lawsuit filed by two Democratic state senators who argue that state lawmakers cannot legally redraw the state’s legislative maps this fall.

Two Democratic state senators filed the federal suit arguing the Texas Constitution does not allow lawmakers to meet in special session to draw up state House and Senate districts. They’re asking the courts to do it instead.

Senate Bill 4, which was advanced by the Texas House on Monday evening, would bar access to abortion-inducing pills to patients who are more than seven weeks pregnant.

Senate Bill 1 would set new rules for voting by mail, boost protections for partisan poll watchers and roll back local voting initiatives meant to make it easier to vote, namely those championed by Harris County that were disproportionately used by voters of color.

New population data from the 2020 census is being used by citizens commissions in some states to try to influence the way voting districts are redrawn for the U.S. House and state legislatures.

It’s unclear what the Legislature will be able to accomplish with just two weeks left on the 30-day clock. Key legislative deadlines are coming. Member relationships are frayed. Some Democrats warn the quorum could be broken again.

Democrat Reps. Garnet Coleman, Armando Walle and Ana Hernandez were the latest to rejoin the House on Thursday, narrowly clinching a quorum.

It’s happening slowly, but during the Texas government’s long summer, with legislative walkouts, fights over voting rights, and new battles over what’s safe and what’s not, Gov. Greg Abbott is mostly getting his way.

People of color make up 95% of Texas’ population growth, and cities and suburbs are booming, 2020 census shows.

Cameron County is one of several that have been sued over their rejection of electronic signatures for voter registration cards. The local application is incidental, as the issue affects every voting district in the state.

Governor Greg Abbott and other state leaders have engineered a temporary fix, but Abbott’s veto of the Legislature’s budget may have permanent ramifications for the balance of power in Texas politics.

The Texas House voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to authorize law enforcement to track down Democrats absent from the chamber and bring them back to the state Capitol, “under warrant of arrest, if necessa[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

The number of Texans hospitalized with lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases is increasing faster than at any other point since the pandemic began in early 2020, due to the highly contagious delta variant.[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

Both chambers convened at noon Saturday for a second overtime round ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott. The first 30-day stretch ended in an impasse after House Democrats left the state to block a controversial GOP elections bill.

Funds amounting to at least $12.6 million will be transferred from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to the Senate, the House, and legislative agencies such as the LBB, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Reference Library.

The Democrats left the Legislature during the regular session in May and then fled the state in July to prevent a vote on a measure governing elections.

The special session will be Aug. 17 with 17 items on the agenda ranging from bail reform to employment.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he regretted signing a law banning local mask mandates as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in his state.

The move is largely symbolic as the legislative session has been ground to a halt by the...

A majority of Democrats in the Texas House left for Washington, D.C., Monday afternoon in a bid to again deny Republicans the quorum needed to pass new voting restrictions with 26 days left in a special legislative session called largely for that purpose.

With a big endorsement and a record-setting fundraising period behind him, Texas' governor is in a political sweet spot.

The Texas Senate will hold a public hearing Saturday on the proposed voting restrictions bill under consideration during the Texas Legislature’s special session.

The Michigan elections bureau has determined that a ballot drive to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ people failed to collect enough valid voter signatures.

Special sessions are tempting for governors, but they’re risky. Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest attempt — starting Thursday — might go better if it’s relatively short.

The list of questions is as long as the list of issues for the new session.

In this edition of the TribCast, Ross talks to pollsters Joshua Blank, James Henson and Daron Shaw about the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll and what voters are thinking about issues argued in the Legislature, immigration and border security, voting law and the pandemic.

A federal judge has blocked a new Indiana law that would require doctors to tell women undergoing drug-induced abortions about a disputed treatment for potentially stopping the abortion process.

The governor had vowed to veto the Legislature’s funding in the final hours of the regular legislative session in May after House Democrats broke quorum and left the chamber to prevent passage of a controversial elections bill.

The California Legislature has passed a bill to make sure state laws don't refer to elected public officials as men.