Two years after the party’s hybrid primary/caucus system allowed Barack Obama to win more presidential delegates than Hillary Clinton, Texas Democrats voted at their convention this weekend in Corpus Christi to keep the controversial “Texas two-step.”

The Texas Democratic Party State Convention is underway in Corpus Christi, and the Tribune is there to cover the whole shebang. Follow along with reporters Ben Philpott, Brandi Grissom and Reeve Hamilton as they bring you live updates and photos from the weekend.

The newest state senator talked to the Tribune on Wednesday about being a 9/11 survivor, whether he's really eligible to serve, his ties to the Tea Party, why he'd eliminate property taxes and the Texas pols he'll model himself after.

A decisive victory for political novice Brian Birdwell over Capitol veteran David Sibley in a Senate special election reflects a no-compromise attitude among GOP voters — but may not be the final word on who represents District 22 come January.

Two little words — “I apologize,” uttered by U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, to Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP — have upgraded the status of David Cozad’s campaign from Sure Loser to Longer-Than-Longshot.

In 2000, higher education in Texas languished compared to other states, and a plan was adopted to “close the gaps” by 2015. A decade later, the commissioner of higher education tells the Tribune that bold steps still need to be taken. But can we afford to take them?

The chair of the Texas Democratic Party on why he should keep his job, whether Matt Angle is really running things, why zero out of 29 statewide offices held by Democrats isn't his fault, why he's optimistic about 2010 and what he thinks of Barack Obama.

As the Texas Department of Transportation heads into a House Transportation Committee hearing today to review a highly critical 628-page audit, the value of the $2 million report is being called into question.

Increasing numbers of college students are attending classes, and even completing some degree programs, online — an innovation that could be welcome in an era of rising enrollments and shrinking budgets. But virtual higher ed has its critics, who say the distance learning model will never match what one lawmaker terms the "interpersonal Aristotle style" of education.

Should we base the funding of state universities on course completion rather than enrollment? The commissioner of higher education says yes. Some state lawmakers say no — not until we attack the manipulation of the financing formula by the higher ed lobby.

Which part of "this is a red state" doesn't Luke Hayes understand? Undaunted and optimistic, the 26-year-old state director of Organizing for America, the forward operating base for the president's re-election bid, sees blue in our future — perhaps as soon as 2012.

The top professors and administrators at Texas universities routinely earn between to $250,000 and $500,000 year, while presidents and chancellors earn up to $900,000, according to salary data for more than a dozen universities and university systems added today to the Tribune's public employee salary database. Some 57 employees at the University of Texas make more than $250,000; by contrast, only 13 employees at Texas Tech make that much.

For years, Texas universities have focused on getting more students onto to their campuses. The hard part, it turns out, is getting them to leave in no more than six years.

When Gov. Rick Perry announced the establishment of the Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine, a public-private partnership between the Texas A&M University System and Lexicon Genetics, he said the $50 million high-level mouse laboratory, paid for through the Texas Enterprise Fund that he controls, would “attract millions of dollars for medical research and lead to the development of life-saving medical treatments and therapies” for everything from diabetes to cancer. Five years later, depending on who you ask, TIGM has either been a massive taxpayer-subsidized boondoggle or a blessing to scientists across the globe.