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Texas air-pollution regulators today approved a crucial environmental permit for a large and controversial coal plant in Matagorda County.

A judge in Nueces County today dismissed a criminal indictment against Texas Commission on Jail Standards Executive Director Adan Muñoz, who was charged in connection with his release of information about a jailhouse suicide. Open government advocates have called the indictment outrageous.

In the shadow of a projected $21 billion budget shortfall, lawmakers told juvenile justice agencies that they must start budgeting like a cash-strapped family. 

Secure Communities, a controversial government program that identifies immigrants in custody in local jails, is now active in every county in Texas, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced today.

The Trib was named a finalist this morning for two Online Journalism Awards — truly a top honor in our little slice of the media biz.

The University of Texas campus has reopened following the apparent suicide of a young man who burst into the Perry-Castañeda Library in a business suit and a face mask, wielding an AK-47, according to witness accounts. We've rounded up the best of the media coverage so far. 

Not long after a gunman ran through the University of Texas campus randomly firing an AK-47 and then shot himself, an old debate resurfaced: Should concealed handguns be allowed on campus?

Three years after passing some of the toughest sex offender laws in the nation, Gov. Rick Perry is pitching another effort to crack down on sexual predators. 

There are no viable substitutes for the longest segment of a controversial proposed transmission line through the Hill Country, the state grid operator reported today.

In the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs broke several regulations when it contracted with a firm to distribute more than $200 million in disaster recovery funds, according to a federal audit.

It's still poisonous in Texas politics to be painted with the trial lawyer brush.

After a spring filled with bitter culture wars over textbooks, the Texas State Board of Education reopened the fight today with — what else? — a fight over alleged "pro-Islamic/anti-Christian" bias in Texas textbooks. 

Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott's absence from joint hearing at the Capitol today left some lawmakers annoyed.

A new report details an undercover investigation of federally funded child care subsidy programs by the GAO in five states, including Texas. The GAO determined that the Texas program was vulnerable to fraud.

Senate Republicans voted unanimously against opening debate for the defense authorization bill this afternoon, a move that blocked the so-called DREAM Act, a controversial immigration measure.