Enlarge graphic by: Propublica / Todd Wiseman

The team over at ProPublica has created a new news app called PAC Track that tracks Super PAC expenditures. The Make Us Great Again Super PAC has spent $3.8 million in support of Rick Perry. Endorse Liberty, the Ron Paul Super PAC, has spent nearly $3 million.

Enlarge photo illustration by: Todd Wiseman / Gage Skidmore

Rick Perry attacked Mitt Romney on Tuesday for his history at Bain Capital, a private equity firm. Similar companies, though, have contributed generously over the past 11 years to the Texas governor's campaigns.

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Want to track the results live in Iowa? Using data provided by the Iowa Republican Party via Google, WNYC has built an embeddable app that will update live as results come in this evening.

Enlarge photo by: Justyna Furmanczyk

The Lone Star State is getting bigger. Texas had the largest population growth of any state between April 2010 and July 2011, according to figures released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

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The Sunlight Foundation released an update to the interactive Capitol Words on Monday. The application allows users to search and compare words spoken by federal legislators using data from the Congressional Record.

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This gurney is used to perform executions at Terre Haute by lethal injection.

Texas ranks third in the number of exonerations in the United States since 1989, according to data compiled by Mother Jones. Take a look at how Texas compares to other states across the nation with this map.

Enlarge photo by: Marjorie Kamys Cotera

GOP PResidential hopefuls, Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich before Lincoln-Douglas type debate on November 5th, 2011 The Woodlands, Texas

He may be the new Republican presidential front-runner, but Newt Gingrich has been well behind his rivals in raising campaign cash from Texas.

Enlarge photo illustration by: Todd Wiseman

President Barack Obama released an updated list of volunteer fundraisers, known as "bundlers," who raise money on his behalf. Of the more than 350 bundlers listed, 17 Texas fundraisers have collected more than $2.7 million.

Enlarge photo illustration by: Todd Wiseman / Jay Root

The Tribune loves infographics, including the recent one posted by the Perry campaign called “State of Texas Economy.” But like all claims made by a political campaign, it deserves the scrutiny of a fact-checking exercise.

Enlarge photo by: Bob Daemmrich

Gov. Rick Perry listens to U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann's speech at an event in Waterloo, Iowa, on Aug. 14, 2011.

Rick Perry defended a $5,000 contribution from Merck at Monday night's debate, but according to campaign finance data from the Texas Ethics Commission, the governor's estimate of the drug company's support was on the low side.

Enlarge photo by: Bob Daemmrich

The remains of a mobile home lie smoldering in a small subvision east of Bastrop where the wildfire went through earlier in the day on September 6, 2011.

As wildfires continue to sweep across the state, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has authorized seven more grants to help Texas manage the flames. Although the figures for the grants given to Texas after June are not yet available, the Tribune has a look at the $3.8 billion FEMA has given Texas to mitigate disasters.

Enlarge graphic by: Ryan Murphy / Noah Seger / Todd Wiseman

This morning @TribData released a visualization of all executions in the state of Texas since Gov. Rick Perry took office in late 2000. Here's how we made it happen.

Enlarge photo illustration by: Todd Wiseman

The 15 largest donors to Texas politicians and PACs gave a total of $4.7 million in the first six months of 2011, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of Texas Ethics Commission filings. The biggest beneficiary of their largesse: the Texans for Lawsuit Reform Political Action Committee.

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To help visualize demographic changes from 2000 to 2010, the Center for Urban Research at the City University of New York updated its interactive maps of Houston and other major U.S. cities today.

Enlarge photo by: Todd Wiseman / Becca Aaronson

Call it a modern day Ellis Island: More people are moving to Texas than to every other state but Florida, according to a report on migration released today by the Empire Center, a New York policy research project.