The two-year-old revenue forecast used to justify massive cuts in the current state budget was wrong — and not by a little bit. But the conservative Legislature elected in 2010 wasn't complaining.

In a wide-ranging interview, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst talked about the state budget, education, immigration, water, transportation, and his hopes and plans for the legislative session that began this week.

House Speaker Joe Straus won another term in that position after his challenger, Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, withdrew from the race.

The Legislature is back for the 83rd time, and we've refreshed our directory of statewide officials and legislators. Many of the old names are here, and so are the names of the numerous freshmen.

House Speaker Joe Straus faces a challenge on the first day of the 83rd Texas Legislature, and the Senate gets another run at a rule that empowers political minorities and sometimes frustrates majorities.

It feels like the 2013 legislative session, which gets under way Tuesday, is a five-month interruption of the election season. At some point, elections expanded to fill all of the space between the biennial sessions.

The Texas congressional delegation has eight new members — four resulting from retirements and elections, and four because the state’s growth increased the size of the delegation to 36 from 32. We've updated our congressional directory to mark the delegation's start. 

Some state lawmakers don't trust themselves not to spend more money than they really think they should spend. They want a law that would tie their own hands.

For the last week of the year, we picked a sampling of our best of 2012: Hamilton on four-year graduation rates from Texas colleges, Ryan and Galbraith map the troubling levels of the state’s water reservoirs, Galbraith on groundwater fights in the Panhandle, Aaronson on the state insurance commissioner’s turbulent first year, Grissom, Ryan and Dehn on prosecutorial errors in Texas, M. Smith on what to do with failing school districts, E. Smith’s “Satan” interview with Gov. Rick Perry at TribFest, excerpts from “Oops!” ^— Root’s book on the governor’s presidential campaign, Rocha on the tussle over the Women’s Health Program, Ramshaw on a controversial effort to control Medicaid costs, Batheja examines the boom in toll roads, and Aguilar on “restorative justice” on the Texas-Mexico border.

Criminal prosecutors are investigating allegations that Kenneth "Buddy" Barfield, a top aide to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from Dewhurst's campaign accounts.

Third parties — outsiders — can't vote in the race for Speaker of the House. But the lawmakers who will actually elect the speaker next month are listening, and acting, on what's going on outside.

The year began with Rick Perry's first political losses and ends with speculation about his future and about the entire political organization chart in Texas. A last look at what happened in between.

Gov. Rick Perry's strikingly disastrous presidential bid, U.S. Sen.-elect Ted Cruz's surprisingly successful campaign and a Legislature full of fresh faces were among the top political stories of 2012. Jay Root and Ross Ramsey take a look back.

The courts aren't expected to finish their work on school finance until after the regular legislative session, giving lawmakers an excuse for leaving some expensive work incomplete for now.

Texas is a gun state, more likely to expand gun rights after a mass killing than to restrict them. While there are proposals to buy back guns or restrict sales, Texas leaders are pushing to allow guns in more places.