Local elected officials and civil rights groups urged legislators at a committee hearing today to implement more programs for women and girls in Texas prisons and jails.

Bellaire High School senior Li Boynton is smarter than you, so she gets to watch the State of the Union with Michelle Obama.

Texas ranks poorly among the states when it comes to letting taxpayers know how it's using federal stimulus dollars, according to a report released today by several nonprofit public interest groups.

The Texas State Rifle Association has nothing but love for Sen. Hutchison. So why is it endorsing Gov. Perry?

Advocates for people with disabilities want the U.S. Justice Department to investigate state employees who were fired for abuse, but never criminally prosecuted for it.

A new study gives a window into the wide variety of ways college presidents get paid. Think houses, cars, deferred comp — and private monies supplementing public funds.

A man entered Sen. Dan Patrick's office, then fired shots outside the Capitol. No injuries have been reported.

This week, The Daily Beast released its list of the 75 worst commutes in the country. Is yours on it?

Twenty percent of the nation's 17,000 human trafficking victims each year come through Texas, and Attorney General Greg Abbott said today the state should take the lead in collaboration among agencies to fight the scourge of modern-day slavery.

Sharon Keller, the presiding judge of the state's highest criminal court, will not be removed from the bench following a trial and review by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

The president announced he would ask Congress for an additional $1.35 billion for the Race to the Top education grant program — which Gov. Perry spurned last week — along with more flexibility in doling it out to individual districts. He also took a swipe at Texas.

For the disgruntled ultraconservative, nullification may be the new secession. But as one prominent legal scholar puts it, “If you believe in nullification, you don’t believe in the constitution.”

No surprise here, but still: State leaders want state agencies to cut five percent from their current budgets "due to the uncertainty of the state's short-term economic future, as well as potentially substantial long-term costs associated with the passage of federal legislation currently being debated in Washington, D.C."

It’s the end of the week. Productivity is down and the need for distraction is up. Luckily, a psychology professor has a tool that could easily fill a political junkie's afternoon.

In the midst of the social studies curriculum revisions, the SBOE member and former chair kicks off a debate about, of all things, hip-hop.