Ray Sullivan, a former top staffer to former Gov. Rick Perry, announced Thursday he was joining the presidential campaign of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Steve Patterson's troubled tenure as athletics director at the University of Texas at Austin officially ended Thursday after the UT System's board of regents approved his separation agreement at a special meeting.

State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, on Tuesday focused on jail deaths at a meeting of his Senate Committee on Criminal Justice. In all, the panel heard four hours of testimony from policy analysts, law enforcement leaders and state corrections officials about making jails safer and diverting people with mental health problems from the criminal justice system.

Weighing in on a case before the FCC, Texas Railroad Commission Chairman David Porter signed a letter authored by a pipeline company. Critics say the move illustrates a coziness with the industries he regulates.

Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt blasted the funding deal that allows a giant insurance company to pay for criminal prosecutions of its fraud cases, but said Tuesday that the commissioners court in Travis County is powerless to stop it.

New evidence presented in court on Monday painted a clearer picture of discussions taking place inside the state’s main health agency as it sought to make deep cuts ordered by state lawmakers to a therapy program for poor and disabled children.

Texas' largest health agency says it has not studied how budget cuts will affect children’s access to medically necessary therapy treatments — and appeared this week to place the blame for that on Texas A&M University. The university is denying the state's account.

Halliburton, the Houston-based oilfield service giant, has agreed to pay nearly $18.3 million in back overtime wages to more than 1,000 U.S. employees, following a federal investigation.

A Travis County jury on Monday convicted former Texas Health and Human Services Commission chief counsel Jack Stick of drunken driving, the latest chapter in a year of problems for the former prosecutor and state lawmaker.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker dropped out of the presidential race this week. He had a substantive presence in Texas and rival presidential organizations were courting Walker donors even before his exit from the race.

The head of the nation's largest Hispanic business organization said Monday that U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has damaged himself in the Latino community by refusing to condemn bombastic billionaire Donald Trump.

More than 18 percent of female undergraduates at the University of Texas at Austin and about 15 percent at Texas A&M say they have been sexually assaulted since arriving on campus, according to comprehensive surveys released Monday.

Following a directive from the Legislature, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission announced Wednesday that it would combine two of the state's main women’s health programs to create the “Healthy Texas Women” program on July 1.

The Texas Supreme Court scrutinized the legality of court costs imposed on indigent plaintiffs — in this case, fees the Tarrant County clerk’s office charged six poor plaintiffs pursuing divorces — during oral arguments on Wednesday.

Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University are corporate sponsors of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.