TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

After a months-long staring contest between the House and the Senate, the lower chamber gave a final blessing Thursday to House Bill 11, a sweeping border security bill.

Budget writers have added some last-minute cash for the Alamo, in large part to ensure the state holds on to a collection of Alamo artifacts from British music legend Phil Collins.

Democratic lawmaker Dawnna Dukes of Austin has missed most of the session because of lingering injuries from a car accident. She made it back to the floor Tuesday for a crucial rules vote, helping block a Republican move to speed up several major bills.

Inmates in some Texas county jails may no longer have to speak to loved ones on a video screen, after the Senate voted Monday to pass a House measure guaranteeing a minimum of two 20-minute, in-person visitations per week.

After a night of dramatic maneuvers in the Texas House, lawmakers were back at it on Wednesday morning, with a handful of irked conservatives using parliamentary tactics to kill previously uncontested Senate bills.

It's a calculation every member of Congress who runs for president faces: Is time spent fundraising and campaigning worth the blowback for missing work in D.C.? So far, Texas' junior senator appears to be betting yes.

Climate change is taking a toll on Texas, and the devastating floods across the state are some of the best evidence yet of that phenomenon, state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said. But efforts to consider climate change policy in Texas have fallen flat.

The incentive fund for attracting film and video game companies to Texas is about to take a major budget hit. Advocates for both industries are licking their wounds, and blaming each other for failing to present a united front.

Now that the massive overhaul contained in Senate Bill 19 has gone on life support, a few targeted efforts to shine the light on conflicts of interest and enhance transparency remain. Here's a guide to what's moving and what's not.

A controversial provision, which law enforcement officials have said would allow criminals to carry firearms without repercussions, has been removed from a key gun bill.

Just five months into his first term, Gov. Greg Abbott is tackling the kind of crisis his predecessor likes to say there is no manual for.

Following an emotional floor debate, the Senate passed a resolution reaffirming the state's opposition to same-sex marriage, an action taken as it became clear a bill to prevent such marriages in Texas was dead.

When Bill Powers’ second-in-command was appointed to replace him as president of UT-Austin this year, it would have been reasonable to expect continuity in the school's upper ranks. But that's not the situation Greg Fenves inherited.

Full video of our conversation with state Sens. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills; Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham; and José Rodríguez, D-El Paso.

In the Roundup: Measures related to guns and border security all got one step closer to becoming law in these final days of the 84th Legislature, and Democrats succeeded in knocking a key bill for conservatives off the calendar.