An amendment that would have allowed undocumented immigrants to obtain a permit to legally drive and purchase insurance in Texas was derailed Friday on a point of order.

As state and federal regulators analyze the patchwork of policies governing the fertilizer plant that exploded in West, the incident has prompted a closer look at communities that lie near stockpiles of chemicals.

Promoters say tax subsidies are needed to lure events that otherwise wouldn't be held in Texas. Critics say the practice is corporate welfare. The Texas Senate on Thursday backed legislation that keeps the subsidies going but with new restrictions and oversight.

Citing the need for more power to meet the demands of a burgeoning community, El Paso Electric plans to build a natural gas power plant. But a legislator has joined forces with a coalition of residents intent to fight the project.

Legislators, coastal residents and insurance leaders agree it will take a dynamic approach to reform the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association. The Senate Business and Commerce Committee discussed four TWIA bills Tuesday.

UPDATED: Looking to save Texas millions of Medicaid dollars, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee heard four hours of testimony on a proposed redesign of long-term care services for disabled Texans.

The case of death row inmate Andre Thomas offers a lens through which to examine the effects of a long underfunded mental health system and raises important questions about how Texas punishes the mentally ill. 

Texas' public pension systems — including the one state lawmakers pay into — have an airtight exemption from the landmark 1973 sunshine law that was designed to let taxpayers known how public money is being spent. But some lawmakers want to change that.

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday approved a bill to reform the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas and the “scope-of-practice” bill that would increase the prescriptive power of advanced practice nurses.

A decision by the Texas Railroad Commission has paved the way for an open-pit coal mine to begin operating on the Texas-Mexico border. Opponents of the plan are weighing their options, which include making a request for another hearing.

The new chairman and vice chairman of the Texas Ethics Commission board on the state’s disclosure rules, their efforts to prioritize certain types of ethics complaints and the reforms they anticipate in the 83rd legislative session. 

There will be no pay raise for legislators this year. The Texas Ethics Commission, at the urging of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus, declined to raise the per diem payments lawmakers get when they're in session.

Texas prisons are running low on hygiene products that are not considered necessities for inmates, including toothpaste and deodorant. Family members and inmates are frustrated as state officials try to find a contractor.

A little-noticed piece of the fiscal cliff deal approved by Congress this week could mean a windfall for the new Formula One racetrack in Austin. The so-called NASCAR tax credit allows racetracks to potentially write off millions of dollars in costs.

It could cost Texas up to $11 million to clear the backlog of some 20,000 untested rape kits in police agencies statewide. If Congress doesn't come through with funding, lawmakers here in Texas will search for funds to help solve the crimes. 

The Rio Grande Valley became one of the last regions to operate under Medicaid health maintenance organizations last year. Now, many doctors there say the red tape in the new system has taken the joy out of practicing medicine.

The embattled Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas on Friday appointed Wayne Roberts, the vice president of public policy at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, to serve as interim executive director.

In November, for the third month in a row, the Texas unemployment rate dropped, falling to its lowest level since December 2008.

Lawmakers took a close look at the state's Railroad Commission during a hearing this week, focusing many of their questions on proposals to limit gas and oil companies from giving political donations to commissioners.

A veritable flurry of rule-making is under way at the Texas Railroad Commission, involving everything from how oil and gas wells are drilled to the recycling of fracking water.