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Though graduation rates for community colleges are stagnant nationwide, a few Texas colleges have seen improvements. But don't go busting out the champagne just yet.

Your afternoon reading: the Republican Caucus; Arizona-style immigration policy in Texas looks unlikely, a study says; and a bid to rename the Railroad Commission

Thirty-six states' worth of nuclear waste has found a home — in Texas.

In the midst of state-mandated budget cuts, 135 tenured professors have accepted buyouts at the University of Texas and Texas A&M University.

Your afternoon reading: more religious rhetoric in the speaker's race; Texas' clout in Congress; and DNA clears wrongly jailed man

As the speaker's race wraps up, the drama's still thick.

Alan Bersin, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol commissioner, will be headed to Big Bend National Park on Thursday for an announcement that might please residents of that remote area of the border. Bersin is set to meet with National Park Services staff to discuss the opening of a border crossing in Boquillas Canyon.

Your afternoon reading: (another) speaker's race video, nuke waste and a truce in the Mexican drug war

The big day's coming up fast, but first, let's take a moment.

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It was a very interesting and newsworthy year for Texas politics and public policy, so it makes sense that traffic on our still-new-ish site would be robust — but even we optimists at Trib HQ didn't imagine that it would be this robust.

Texas lawmakers shouldn't let the party caucuses choose the next speaker of the House, according to former Speaker Rayford Price.