A bill to air-condition all Texas prisons likely to fail again in the Senate
House Bill 3006 would have required the installation of climate control in state prison by 2032. Full Story
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![Inmates shuffle past new fans in the TDCJ Memorial Unit in Brazoria Co. on July 12, 2017. The prison was called the Darrington Unit until 2023.]()
Credit: Jolie McCullough/The Texas Tribune -
Bill that would have banned Texas minors from social media misses key deadline
House Bill 186, approved by the lower chamber in May, never received a vote in the Senate. Full Story
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![Students check their phones while waiting for the bus following classes at Lufkin High School in Lufkin on Jan. 29, 2023.]()
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Texas to expand how schools discipline students
House Bill 6, which now heads to the governor, targets the increase in violence that has plagued schools since the pandemic. Full Story
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![A student walks through the halls of Lufkin High School in Lufkin on Jan. 29, 2023.]()
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Automatic denial of bail for some migrants fails to pass Texas House
Supporters said the proposal, which sought to amend the state constitution, would improve safety. Critics said it would violate due process and unfairly target minority groups. Full Story
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![An undocumented migrant after being arrested in Kinney County on Nov. 9, 2021.]()
Credit: Gabriel V. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune/ProPublica -
Lawmakers near deal to spend $20 billion over two decades on water crisis
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. Full Story
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![The SAWS’ Steven M. Clouse Water Recycling Center in San Antonio on Aug. 23, 2024.]()
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Texas bill allowing smaller homes on smaller lots amid housing affordability crunch advances in House
Senate Bill 15, a top priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, is part of a broad push by lawmakers to put a dent in the state’s high home prices. Full Story
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![A construction worker builds homes in far west San Antonio on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024.]()
Credit: Scott Stephen Ball for The Texas Tribune -
New limits for personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits may become a reality in Texas
The House made changes to the proposal that leave open ways for victims to be compensated beyond medical bills. Full Story
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![An ambulance is parked at Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas
at Austin in 2018.]()
Credit: Laura Skelding for The Texas Tribune -
Top deputies to Attorney General Ken Paxton pushed out over sexual harassment allegations, lawsuit says
The harassment allegedly took place while the two were on leave from the agency working on Paxton’s impeachment defense. Full Story
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![Then-Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone II speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on April 26, 2022.]()
Credit: Eric Lee for The Texas Tribune -
Texas will ask voters to approve $3 billion to study dementia
State lawmakers have been pushing the dementia fund for years, modeling it after a state fund for cancer research. Full Story
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![Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick at a press conference at the Capitol in Austin on April 23, 2025.]()
Credit: Kaylee Greenlee for The Texas Tribune -
Proposal to automatically deny bail to some previously accused of felonies falls in Texas House
Democrats declined to support Senate Joint Resolution 87, which sprinted through the Senate and needed 100 votes to clear the lower chamber. Full Story
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![Groveton, Texas: Inmates sleep in their cell on June 4, 2024 at the Trinity County Sheriff’s office and jail in Groveton, Texas. Mark Felix/The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune -
Oil companies win protections from Texas Legislature ahead of selling fracking water
At least four companies say they are prepared to treat the water well enough to be released into rivers in West Texas. Environmental groups say the state is moving too fast. Full Story
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![Produced water ponds, constructed by Martin Water, in Lenorah, on Feb. 24, 2024. The Railroad Commission approved the construction of the ponds, used to treat and recycle produced water from fracking, next to the Circle 6 Baptist Camp in the Permian Basin.]()
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Once again, Texas Legislature unlikely to pass ethics legislation this year
Lawmakers filed dozens of bills that would increase transparency around spending in elections and strengthen penalties for campaign and lobbying violations. None are poised to pass. Full Story
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![Members work to get bills in by deadline on the House floor on May 15, 2025. May 15 was the final day for the House to file bills, with the hard deadline at midnight.]()
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Bill curbing the flow of abortion pills into Texas likely dead
Proponents of SB 2880 have singled out Rep. Ken King, House State Affairs committee chair, for letting the bill languish. Full Story
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![Nurse practitioner Debra Lynch holds a box of mifepristone, the first drug used in a medication abortion regimen. Practicing under Delaware's shield law, Lynch prescribes the pills via telehealth, largely to patients in abortion-restricted states like Texas.]()
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Texas’ mail-in voting rules pushed voters to cast ballots in person — or not vote at all, study finds
New research from the Brennan Center for Justice suggests that 2021 ID requirements in a recent overhaul of Texas election laws could explain some of the drop in mail voting. Full Story
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![Then-interim Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins shows what a mail-in ballot envelope looks like at election headquarters inside NRG Arena on Oct. 5, 2020.]()
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Texas Republicans want to block cities' gun buyback programs
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. Full Story
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![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.]()
Credit: Scott Stephen Ball for The Texas Tribune -
Texas will require state documents to reflect sex assigned at birth
Many trans Texans have changed the sex listed on their birth certificate, driver’s licenses and other documents. They say their identities will be invalidated under bill headed to governor's desk. Full Story
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![The crowd gathered at a rally for Trans Day of Visibility at the Bexar County Courthouse listens to pediatrician Dr. Lulu in San Antonio on March 31, 2023.]()
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Texas GOP’s bill requiring voters to prove citizenship stalls in House
Senate Bill 16 is imperiled after missing a deadline in the House. It was among the most sweeping proof-of-citizenship proposals in the U.S. and would have applied retroactively to all voters. Full Story
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![The Texas Capitol between the Texas Department of Transportation and the Secretary of State buildings in Austin on June 12, 2023.]()
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Texas bill penalizing cities and counties for progressive policies misses House deadline
Senate Bill 2858 would have expanded a sweeping state law intended to erode the authority of the state’s major urban areas. Full Story
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![The Austin downtown skyline on Sept. 22. 2022.]()
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“Anti-Red Flag Act” that would limit when guns can be taken from people advances in Texas House
Senate Bill 1362 would prevent officials from taking someone’s firearms if they haven’t been charged with a crime or aren’t subject to a protective order under the Texas Family Code. Full Story
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![Patrons of the SAXET Gun Show look at handguns at the Richard M. Borchard Regional Fairgrounds in Robstown on Feb. 26, 2023.]()
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Ronnie Dugger, trailblazing founder of The Texas Observer, dies at 95
Dugger launched the Observer, a fixture of the Texas media landscape known for its decidedly progressive lens to state affairs, in 1954. Full Story
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![ONE TIME USE Ronnie Dugger, founding editor of the Texas Observer, died on May 27 in Austin.]()
Credit: Alan Pogue