After hours of contentious and often emotional debate, the Texas House passed HB 12, the controversial "sanctuary cities" legislation. The measure was passed on a 100 to 47 vote just after midnight.

What will happen next in the debate over the contentious “sanctuary cities” bill is anyone’s guess. As the afternoon bleeds into night, Democrats in the Texas House are still huddling on the floor to discuss their next move.

The controversial “sanctuary cities” bill hit a roadblock in the Texas House late Friday when a point of order derailed the legislation and knocked it off the calendar.

Debate is underway on HB 12, the so-called “sanctuary cities” bill, which would prohibit cities, counties and other governmental entities or special districts from adopting a policy that prevents law enforcement from asking persons lawfully detained or arrested if they are in the country legally.

Is it about security or racial profiling? Will U.S. citizens be targets of harassment? Will it stain Texas with the reputation Arizona thrust upon itself? The Texas House will likely entertain those and other sensitive questions when House Bill 12, commonly referred to as the “sanctuary cities” bill, hits the chamber's floor on Friday.

Despite a bevy of bills filed this session that would require Texas employers to use the federal electronic verification system known as E-Verify, the legislation has, so far, failed to advance out of committee — and the clock is winding down.

State lawmakers may do what the judicial system so far hasn't: settle a dispute between the University Interscholastic League and the Texas Association of Sport Officials over which organization controls the officiating at school sports events.

The newly named Texas Oil and Gas Commission won't be able to meet in secret to discuss contentious issues after all.

Members of the Texas Railroad Commission would be allowed to meet behind closed doors to discuss the details of disputed cases under a bill tentatively approved by the Texas House on Monday.

For a rare moment, Republicans in the lower chamber set aside their anti-Washington rhetoric and joined their Democratic colleagues to congratulate President Barack Obama for ordering the military action that led to the death of Osama bin Laden.

The U.S. State Department is asking U.S. citizens traveling or residing abroad to avoid mass gatherings and demonstrations because of Osama bin Laden's death, but no law enforcement changes are planned along the Texas-Mexican border.

With fewer than five weeks left in the regular session, none of Gov. Rick Perry's emergency items — voter ID, sanctuary cities, sonograms for women getting abortions, a federal balanced budget amendment, and eminent domain protection — have made it to his desk. 

Lawmakers are hoping nonprofit organizations can do a better job of recruiting organ donors and saving lives. HB 2904 would transfer management of the state-run organ-donation registry from an agency to a new collaboration of nonprofits, a shift supporters say will reduce the number of Texans who die while waiting on the list.

You wouldn't know it by the miniscule amount of debate Thursday, but the Senate approved what some lawmakers called the most significant piece of homeland security legislation filed this session, a measure civil liberty groups worry is a major encroachment on civil rights.

Residents of Ciudad Miguel Alemán, across the border from the South Texas town of Roma, fear their town could be the next to fall to drug-related violence after a pre-dawn battle by Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel last week.