On last night's episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert "defended" state Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, who came under fire last week for using an ethnic slur in a legislative hearing.

Every time a student drops out of public school, taxpayers save money. That’s one fewer student, at an annual savings of more than $11,000 per year from state and local sources.

Another veteran is retiring from the Legislature, special election candidates are flinging endorsements at each other, and a doctor is leaving the House.

The redrawing of political district lines — which ideally happens just once a decade after a federal census — could create a series of crazy election cycles for Texas voters and candidates. It happened in the 1990s, and it could happen again now.

Lost track of who's leaving and who's staying in legislative office?

State campaign news, candidate announcements, retirements and rumors from the past week.

State Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas, said this afternoon that he won't seek another term in the Texas House.

Rep. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, will run for Steve Ogden's Senate seat. Ogden isn't running, and Williamson County has become the 300-pound gorilla of that district in terms of population. Rep. Larry Gonzales, R-Round Rock, won't run.

The U.S. Justice Department said Monday that new political maps for the Texas House and the state's congressional delegation don't protect the electoral power of the state's minority populations as required by the federal Voting Right Act.

Lots of things affect election outcomes. Candidates. Money. Issues. Surprises. But some of the results are wired into district maps, through redistricting. Here's our charting of the political atmosphere — Republican or Democratic — in each of the House, Senate and congressional districts drawn by the Legislature this year.

Gov. Rick Perry has said the Rainy Day Fund should be preserved as an insurance policy against natural disasters, but Texas can't actually dip into it until the next legislative session — in 2013.

Another House freshman won't be back: Lanham Lyne, R-Wichita Falls, says he won't seek re-election to the Texas House in 2012.

Former state Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale, defeated in Tomball in the 2008 Republican primary, will run for an open seat in Cedar Park in 2012.

Former Brazos County Tax Assessor-Collector Gerald "Buddy" Winn might run for the Texas House next year, but it won't be for state Rep. Fred Brown's seat.

As expected, state Rep. Kelly Hancock, R-Richland Hills, will run for the Texas Senate next year in SD-10, the district currently occupied by state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth. Hancock is the first challenger to announce, but this could get crowded, and quickly.

Aaronson examines the Texas jobs "miracle," Root on how Rick Perry built his financial portfolio, Tan and Wiseman on Perry vs. Ron Paul, Philpott on how budget cuts will affect a mental health provider, yours truly on a House freshman who was less than impressed with his first legislative experience, M. Smith on public schools charging for things that used to be free, Hamilton on a new call to reinvent higher education, Grissom on a rare stay of execution, Galbraith on the end of a Panhandle wind program, Aguilar on the increase of legal immigration into the U.S. and Texas: The best of our best content from July 25 to 29, 2011.

State Rep. Senfronia Thompson is the longest-serving woman, African American and Democrat in the Texas House, where her career spans nearly four decades. Here's a photographic look back at her tenure in the Legislature's lower chamber.