Bob Perry, a wealthy homebuilder and philanthropist who was among the nation's largest political givers, has died at his home in Nassau Bay, near Houston. He was 80. 

Texas could trim the size of its court fights over redistricting by endorsing maps drawn by federal judges, but legislative leaders fear the harmony of the current session would evaporate in the process.

The House debate on the budget flushed out a new coalition in a Legislature split between traditional and populist Republicans, and Democrats. The losers? The populist Republicans, many of them freshmen.

Voters want better roads. Lawmakers want happy voters. Roads require taxes, tolls, debt or some combination of the three, which is why conservative officeholders are using those three dirty words.

Batheja on a House budget without vouchers or Medicaid expansion, Aguilar on obstacles to a new power plant in El Paso, Permenter on deer breeder regulations, E. Smith’s interview with San Antonio’s Castro twins, Galbraith on proposals for new underground water reservoirs, Root finds holes in a UT regent's appointment files, M. Smith on a planned school rating system that defied recommendations, Murphy maps oil and gas disposal wells in Texas, Dehn on objections to a bigger Medicaid program and Hamilton on efforts to lure gun makers to Texas: The best of our best for the week of April 1-5, 2013.

In 2011, state lawmakers fresh from a Tea Party election surge were hypersensitive to the opinions of and instructions from conservative activists. But as Thursday's House budget debate showed, this session isn't quite the same.

If the state government's resistance to expanding Medicaid sounds familiar, it's because something like this happened when George W. Bush was governor, and conservatives were wary of the Children's Health Insurance Program.

With eight weeks to go in the legislative session, lawmakers got a running start at their big issues: water, education and the budget.

The undercurrents of the bickering between Gov. Rick Perry's administration and UT-Austin President Bill Powers offer a gold mine for the conspiratorial set, with fuel for every obsession: politics, deep school rivalries, policy and governance.

Gov. Rick Perry torments Democrats and disparages trial lawyers, but he likes Aggies. Even if they're Democratic trial lawyers.

The state's drought and the resulting need for conservation is starting to affect voters who are not usually aware of water shortages — people in the suburbs, with lush, thirsty lawns.

At the Texas Legislative Conference in New Braunfels on Friday, newbie political candidate George P. Bush was smooth, cautious and unremarkable. His aim was to get used to the spotlight without making a bad impression, and he got the job done.

Eleanor Kitzman, the state's insurance commissioner, will be out of a job at the end of the session if she's not reappointed by Gov. Rick Perry and approved by the Texas Senate.

George P. Bush is running for land commissioner, clearing the way for other politicians who want to run in 2014 but don't want to run against that famous last name. But the filing doesn't end the speculation — it just changes it.

The state balances its budget by counting nearly $5 billion in unspent funds that were raised for specific programs. To change their ways, lawmakers would have to go back to what they were trying to avoid: choices between taxes and cuts.