Texas Tribune Reporters: Our Top Stories of 2014

For those — like us — who are infatuated with Texas government and politics, 2014 was a blockbuster year.

Voters picked a new resident for the Governor's Mansion, but not before the current one was indicted on felony charges. Courts — including the nation's highest — weighed in on Texas laws restricting abortion and requiring photo identification for voters. And the topic of Ebola went viral at the Texas Capitol after the death in Dallas of the first person in the United States diagnosed with the virus. 

At The Texas Tribune, we kept these stories in the headlines. But we also went well beyond them, telling the kinds of tales and breaking the types of investigations that couldn't be found anywhere else. Jay Root's probe into the Texas workers' compensation system brought life-altering results for an East Texas widow and her two young children. A groundbreaking multimedia project by a team of Tribune journalists explained how a surge in oil and gas production in Texas has changed the face of communities across the state. And a story by Reeve Hamilton outlined the latest chapter of one of the most notorious moments in University of Texas history — the UT Tower shooting.

But don't just take it from me. Below, our reporters share their favorite stories of the year. 

Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.