Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples has been named president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA), succeeding Rob Looney who is retiring after 26 years with the group.

At a special meeting of the University of Texas System regents on Monday, the board unanimously voted to keep lawmakers out of the room during an investigation into alleged political influence in admissions at UT-Austin. Those lawmakers had sought to sit in on interviews conducted by an external investigator into those admissions procedures.

The State Board of Education took its first vote Wednesday on an amendment that would require teachers in the state to adhere to the state's curriculum standards when teaching Advanced Placement courses. The move is a rebuff to the Common Core curriculum, an attempt to standardize academic standards nationwide.

NASA announced on Tuesday that it will contract with two private companies, Boeing and SpaceX, to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station beginning in 2017. SpaceX recently announced plans to build a commercial spaceport near Brownsville.

The Planned Parenthood Association of Hidalgo County is cutting its ties with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The move is an attempt to reclaim state dollars for women’s health care for impoverished women.

Moody's Investors Service described a judge's declaration of the state's school finance system as unconstitutional as a “credit positive,” saying the ruling would compel Texas lawmakers to “redesign the school finance system.”

The Lower Colorado River Authority approved a new plan on Wednesday to manage the Colorado River and its reservoirs, known as the Highland Lakes. The new plan would have a higher "trigger level" on the release of water downstream, raising questions on how coastal rice farmers will fare.

A new study released Monday concluded that oil and gas activities – but not hydraulic fracturing – tainted drinking water wells atop North Texas’ Barnett Shale and Pennsylvania’s Marcellus formation.

Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin, the Lower Colorado River Authority and Planned Parenthood are corporate sponsors of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Texas Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.