El Paso County files lawsuit seeking to halt Texas "sanctuary" law
A lawsuit in federal court charges that Senate Bill 4, if enacted, would violate several provisions of the U.S. Constitution. Full Story
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![Monserrat Garibay of Education Austin speaks in front of the Texas Governor's Mansion on May 8, 2017, after Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 4, known as the "sanctuary cities" bill, the night before.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Senate approves monthly payments for relative caregivers of abused children
Texas senators voted unanimously on Monday to increase money given to kinship care families. Full Story
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Credit: Elizabeth Ann Colette/Wikimedia Commons -
Dan Patrick unconvinced by House action on bathrooms, property taxes
After threatening to force a special session of the Legislature unless lawmakers approve a "bathroom bill" and property tax legislation, Lt. Gov Dan Patrick on Monday appeared to be unconvinced by the House's actions on the two issues. Full Story
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![House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick at a Texas Legislative Budget Board meeting on December 1, 2016.]()
Credit: Laura Skelding for the Texas Tribune -
Texas House passes bill extending alternative high school graduation route
The Texas House on Monday passed a bill extending a program that lets students who fail a couple of required exams take an alternative route to graduation. Full Story
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![State Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, discusses a bill in the Texas House on May 3, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Senate passes "second chances" bill for nonviolent offenders
The Texas Senate has approved its version of House Bill 3016, which would make it easier for people to apply for jobs if they have low-level offenses on their records. Such applicants would not be required to disclose their offenses. Full Story
Credit: Bob Daemmrich -
Texas Senate puts voucher-like program in school finance bill
The Texas Senate voted to approve a bill that would simplify funding formulas for public schools and let parents use state money to send their kids with disabilities to private schools or pay for homeschooling. Full Story
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![State Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, discusses a bill amendment in the Senate on March 30, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: A legislative session ending on the lieutenant governor’s terms
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has put the clock to his advantage. With a week to go in the regular legislative session, his threat of pushing lawmakers into overtime if he doesn’t get his way on pet issues is paying off. Full Story
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![Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick confers with State Sens. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, Royce West, D-Dallas, on March 14, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for the Texas Tribune -
When UT denied this valedictorian, she got it to change admissions rules
Madison Mau is valedictorian of her tiny high school's senior class, but the University of Texas denied her anyway. Unwilling to accept that result, she lobbied the school to change its admissions policy. Full Story
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![Madison Mau, valedictorian of a rural school between Houston and Austin, successfully fought her denial from the University of Texas at Austin.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Effort to overhaul Texas voter ID rules survives — for now
A flurry of legislative activity Sunday night gave life to efforts to overhaul the Texas’ voter identification law, a change that's crucial to the state’s arguments over whether lawmakers disenfranchised minority voters. Full Story
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![Voters line up outside the Oak Cliff Sub-Courthouse in Dallas, Texas, for the first day of early voting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2016.]()
Credit: Laura Buckman for The Texas Tribune -
Senate passes religious protections for child welfare agencies
Texas state senators voted to allow child welfare providers to be protected from legal retaliation if they assert their “sincerely held religious beliefs.” Full Story
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![A father holds his child in a public health clinic outside of McAllen, Texas.]()
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Texas House approves bathroom restrictions for transgender students
The Texas House voted to require schools to provide single-stall restrooms, locker rooms and changing facilities to students who don't want to use facilities designated by “biological sex.” Full Story
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![During a debate on the "bathroom bill," state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, holds up a photo of a sign that reads, "RESTROOMS WHITE COLORED," on May 21, 2017.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune -
Abbott, Patrick: More work needed as special session threat looms
Gov. Greg Abbott says he's optimistic that lawmakers can avoid a special session. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wants the "bathroom bill" passed or he'll keep pushing for one. Full Story
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Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera -
Budget compromise taps Rainy Day Fund, transportation funding
Lawmakers, scrounging for cash in a tight-fisted legislative session, agreed to dip into the state’s savings account and to make use of an accounting trick using funds set aside last session for highway projects. Full Story
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![The Texas Legislative Budget Board, including House Speaker Joe Straus, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state Sen. Jane Nelson, on Dec. 1, 2016.]()
Credit: Laura Skelding for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Republicans fear federal oversight as voter ID overhaul stalls
Republicans fear a failure to overhaul strict Texas voter ID rules could torpedo the state's position in litigation over whether lawmakers discriminated against minority voters. Full Story
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![Attorney General Ken Paxton and Solicitor General Scott Keller after oral arguments on the voter ID case before the U.S. 5th Circuit of Appeals in New Orleans on May 24, 2016.]()
Credit: Cheryl Gerber for The Texas Tribune -
During busy Saturday session, House moves on key pieces of legislation
After moving at a glacial pace several times this Legislative session, the Texas House on Saturday kicked into high gear and passed measures that could help them avoid a special session. Full Story
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![State Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, in a heated debate with Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, about property tax legislation on May 20, 2017.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune -
House backs property tax changes, but leaves out election requirements
The lower chamber responded to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's threats of a special session by moving key legislation — but omitting provisions that he wanted included. Full Story
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![State Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, speaks on his property tax legislation as he attempts to get it added to another bill as an amendment on May 20, 2017.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune -
School lunch bill revived as an amendment; no longer mandatory
After being denied by the House Freedom Caucus multiple times, a measure to let schools give meals to students without money in their accounts was revived as an amendment to another bill. Full Story
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![State Rep. Helen Giddings, D-Desoto, holds up a sample of a piece of cheese given to students who lack money to pay for school lunches in Dallas area schools during a personal privilege speech on the House floor May 9, 2017, where she chastised House Freedom Caucus members for killing her bill on school lunches for poor kids.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
House OKs bills targeting sexual assault on college campuses
The Texas House on Friday approved two measures aimed at combating sexual assault on college campuses across the state. Full Story
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![State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, is shown voting on the House floor on May 17, 2017.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune -
Texas House sends Sandra Bland Act to governor
The bill would mandate that county jails divert people with mental health and substance abuse issues toward treatment, make it easier for defendants with a mental illness or intellectual disability to receive a personal bond and require that independent law enforcement agencies investigate jail deaths. Full Story
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![Sandra Bland, who was found dead at the Waller County Jail in 2015.]()
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Texas House approves new abortion restrictions
GOP House lawmakers took a sweeping approach to anti-abortion legislation on Friday, passing a measure that would ban the most common form of second-trimester procedure and change how health care providers dispose of fetal remains. Full Story
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![State Rep. Cindy Burkett, R-Sunnyvale votes on an amendment in the Texas House on May 19, 2017.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune
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