As the fertilizer plant explosion in West continues to elicit debate about regulation, one factor that hasn’t been discussed as much is the unique needs of the soil in Central Texas. 

Days after a stalemate threatened to force lawmakers into legislative overtime, chances of a special session for the state budget have dwindled.

During a tense meeting of the Committee on Transparency in State Agency Operations on Tuesday, state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer asked UT System Regent Brenda Pejovich about the controversy surrounding the system board's governance.

On the latest Agenda Texas, from KUT News and the Tribune: A plan to fund future water infrastructure projects in Texas may be back from the dead.

Your evening reading: campus carry bill clears Senate committee; House budget chief says leaders close on water, education deal; Cornyn video on border deaths sparks debate  

A measure by state Rep. Allen Fletcher, R-Cypress, that allows college students, faculty and staff to carry concealed handguns on campus is heading to the full Senate after a committee approved the measure Tuesday.

A name change and several ethics reforms on the table this legislative session for the Railroad Commission of Texas, which oversees oil and gas drilling, died on Tuesday in a House committee.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has released a new video and an accompanying opinion piece describing the hundreds of migrants found dead every year near the Texas-Mexico border. But advocacy groups say Cornyn is part of the problem.

UPDATED: A divisive measure requiring the disclosure of certain unreported political donors passed the House on a 95-52 vote on Tuesday with little of Monday's debate. The measure now heads to Gov. Rick Perry.

A Senate committee hearing turned explosive on Tuesday when the brother of a wrongfully convicted man who died in prison railed against a senator who opposes the creation of an innocence commission.

State lawmakers would spend $3.2 billion for public education and $2 billion for water funding under plans being worked out by budget leaders, House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts said Tuesday.

House lawmakers on Tuesday approved two bills meant to ensure that wrongful convictions, like the one that Michael Morton behind bars for nearly 25 years, don't happen to others. The measures will stop next on Gov. Rick Perry's desk.

For this week's nonscientific survey of insiders in government and politics, we asked about the likelihood of special sessions, the issues that might force them and whether there will be multiple such sessions.

After a years-long fight for prescriptive authority, advanced practice nurses and physician assistants supervised by a physician may soon get authority to prescribe controlled substances, under a bill the House gave an early OK to Tuesday.

Good news, Trib fans: We've received a grant from the Ford Foundation that will enable us to dramatically expand our coverage of how precipitous demographic shifts are altering the public policy landscape in Texas.

Efforts to gather data and develop recommendations to reduce the use of solitary confinement in Texas jails and prisons seem to have withered this session in the face of opposition from officials who oversee those facilities. 

In the waning days of budget negotiations, medical providers are pushing lawmakers to raise Medicaid reimbursement rates that were chopped two years ago.

Tax relief has become a key issue in the final weeks of the legislative session, and nearly all of the relief efforts are focused on the franchise tax paid by businesses. Use our interactive to track the status of those bills.

Though Texas is at lower risk for wildfires this summer than in previous years, firefighters will likely have to make do with less as the state's forest service begins to feel the effects of this year's federal sequester cuts.

With the end of the session drawing near, a possible crack in the budget stalemate has emerged.