Despite the violence-fueled cancellation of bicentennial festivities in other major border towns, Nuevo Laredo plans to forge ahead with its celebration of Mexican Independence Day.

Two state senators told the Texas Forensic Science Commission today that its investigation of the arson case that led to the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham could be damaging public trust in the criminal justice system instead of bolstering it.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, says his failure to report millions in stock transactions on financial disclosure reports from 2008 and 2009 resulted from a clerical error made by his accountant.

Your afternoon reading.

For the first time in the school’s history, the freshman class at the University of Texas has more minority students than white students.

A federal magistrate says the medical malpractice caps Texas lawmakers instituted in 2003 should withstand a constitutional challenge.

Has Texas moved to the right of itself?

Two years after Hurricane Ike’s surge crossed Galveston like a speed bump on its way to Houston, planners and academics are staring down multibillion-dollar public policy dilemmas. To describe Ike as a “wake-up call” understates and trivializes the matter. Like other coastal areas around the nation and around the world, the Houston-Galveston region is only now grappling with complex and costly questions of how to protect sprawling seaside development from the combination of subsidence and an expected sea-level rise from global warming.

Was it a broken process or a breakdown in leadership that kept bad doctors from getting removed from the state workers' compensation system? Lawmakers sought to answer that question on Monday but left a House hearing with no clear understanding of why hundreds of potential enforcement actions stalled or disappeared entirely over the last half-decade.

Nearly half of all Texans would repeal the constitutional promise of citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil, and nearly two-thirds would favor Arizona-style laws allowing the police to ask about the immigration status of anyone they stop for any reason, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll.

In a new feature from our friends at Houston's KTRK-TV, the gubernatorial candidates submit two-minute responses to questions from left field.

Using data compiled by the Austin American-Statesman, we've produced county-by-county maps visualizing Texas Lottery sales by game type. A higher percentage of lottery revenue in Hill County counties, for example, came from Lotto sales in 2009. Many counties in West Texas, however, appear to prefer instant scratch-off tickets.

Make no mistake: A Democrat running in a statewide race in Texas who is not losing by double-digits is doing relatively well. But this raises the larger question: Can Bill White actually win?

Democratic donor Steve Mostyn wins his latest round in a battle with state Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood. A judge has blocked the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association from giving Taylor information about Mostyn's payouts in a massive windstorm settlement this year.

Your afternoon reading.

A new ad in the CD-17 race from the National Republican Congressional Committee attacks the incumbent Democrat's ties to the Washington establishment.

The state's public health laboratories are in financial disarray, according to a report released by the state auditor's office this morning.

Not a fan of the political horse race? Just for today, hear us out.