Bruce Bugg, chair of the Texas Transportation Commission, dead at 70
The San Antonio banker previously served as a senior adviser to then-Gov. Rick Perry and chaired the Texas Economic Development Corporation. Full Story
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![Prominent San Antonio banker Bruce Bugg has died, a source close to him said Wednesday.]()
Credit: Scott Ball/San Antonio Report -
Texas Senate OKs stricter limits on city, county property tax revenue
The proposal would put tighter limits on how much property tax revenue cities and counties of a certain size can collect each year. Full Story
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![Republican legislators talk amongst themselves during the 89th legislative special session in the Senate Chambers on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025 in Austin, Texas.]()
Credit: Ronaldo Bolaños/The Texas Tribune -
Texas youth camps tell lawmakers they need better coordination, emergency plans during disasters
Two youth camp owners told lawmakers more layered disaster plans would create critical backstops and improve communication with first responders. Full Story
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![Committee Chair Will Metcalf R-Conroe speak with Stephen Baskin, onwer of Camp Champions and Meg Clark, owner of Camp Waldemar during a committee hearing Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025 in Austin, Texas.]()
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Texas Senate approves bill to protect Texans from real estate fraudsters
Senate Bill 15 seeks to prevent the use of fraudulent deeds to sell someone else’s property or take out loans. It now heads to the House, where its fate is uncertain. Full Story
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![A San Antonio neighborhood on Saturday, May 25, 2024.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune -
Senate OKs latest bill restricting use of government and school bathrooms by transgender people
Senate Bill 7 would require people to use restrooms that match their birth gender and fine institutions up to $25,000 for repeated violations. Full Story
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![Texas Sen. Brian Birdwell R-Granbury speaks as Texas Sen. Bob Hall R-Edgewood and Texas. Sen. Mayes Middleton R-Galveston during a senate committee hearing at the Senate Chambers Monday, Aug. 4, 2025 in Austin, Texas.]()
Credit: Ronaldo Bolaños/The Texas Tribune -
Federal appeals court sides with Texas on ID requirements for voting by mail
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the state’s voter ID requirements for mail-in ballots do not violate the Civil Rights Act. Full Story
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![An election worker submits a mail-in ballot at the Harris County ballot drop-off site at NRG Stadium in Houston on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune -
Venezuelan men and their families share experiences after CECOT release
For months, the families of Venezuelan men sent to CECOT by the Trump administration awaited news about their loved ones. Now that the families have been reunited, they open up about the harm they experienced. Full Story
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Dems say a bomb threat made at their hotel and other redistricting updates
Texas Democrats left the state to stop a Republican-led effort to change the state’s congressional boundaries, setting off a national conversation. Full Story
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![Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., center, stands with other Democratic members of Congress and Texas House Democrats during a press conference at IBEW Local 701 in Warrenville, Ill., on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025.]()
Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis for The Texas Tribune -
House Democrats helped Dustin Burrows win the gavel. Their departure from the state marks a pivotal moment for him.
The situation is an opportunity for the speaker to bolster his credibility with the right, but he has limited tools to combat a prolonged Democratic absence. Full Story
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![House Speaker Dustin Burrows address the press with a host of Republican members behind him during the Texas House session on August 4, 2025 where less than 100 members registered failing to reach a quorum with the departure of dozens of Democrats out of state.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Local Texas election officials concerned about software vendors’ financial scare
Votec, maker of voter registration management software used in Texas’ largest counties, has thrown election officials for a loop with mixed messages about its financial viability. Full Story
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![Lily Trieu, interim executive director of Asian Texans for Justice (ATJ), who produced a report researching Asian voters, holds a voter registration card in her home in Austin on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022. Asian communities are growing rapidly in Texas, but still feel left out of the political process.]()
Credit: May-Ying Lam for The Texas Tribune -
Hundreds of old EV batteries have new jobs in Texas: Stabilizing the power grid
After reaching the end of their automotive lives, the batteries are being reused to provide lower-cost grid energy storage. Full Story
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![580 EV battery packs are deployed in B2U’s SEPV Cuyama energy storage project in Santa Barbara County, Calif. The system charges from on-site solar and from the grid.]()
Credit: Courtesy of B2U Storage Solutions -
The Texas redistricting fight spurring a legislative standoff: What you need to know
Texas Republicans are trying to redraw congressional districts to pick up five additional U.S. House seats. Democrats face financial and political risk in their bid to block the GOP plan. Full Story
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![Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu speaks during a press conference alongside dozens of fellow Texas lawmakers and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in Carol Stream, Ill., on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025.]()
Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis for The Texas Tribune -
Texas House committee discusses flood bills despite standstill
Only one Democrat taking part in the quorum break was absent from the panel as the group discussed five bills and the chair vowed their work would go on. Full Story
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![Texas Repersentives gather for a committee hearing regarding flood relief in the Capitol Extension on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025 in Austin, Texas.]()
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TribCast: How long can Texas Democrats hold out?
In this week’s episode, Matthew and Eleanor speak with state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, about her and her colleagues’ decision to flee the state, the potential financial and criminal penalties and her opposition to the state’s proposed new congressional map. Full Story
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![State Rep. Jolanda Jones, D-Houston, looks at a packet of maps during a Congressional Redistricting committee meeting on Thursday, July 24, 2025 in Austin, Texas.]()
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Beto O’Rourke’s political group is a top funder for Texas Democrats’ exodus to block GOP congressional map
The former El Paso congressman also contributed to House Democrats’ 2021 quorum break. A PAC backed by Democratic donor George Soros is also involved in this year’s effort. Full Story
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![A private plane headed to Chicago sits on the tarmac after loading luggage at Signature Aviation in Austin with Texas Democratic legislators headed to Illinios on a quorum break on August 3, 2025.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Texas AG can't depose Catholic Charities leader in migrant aid case, appeals court rules
The three-judge panel agreed with a lower court that Ken Paxton’s office can’t question officials from Catholic Charities under oath without first filing a lawsuit. Full Story
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![A migrant child waits with his family in front of the Catholic Charities RGV Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen on July 27, 2021.]()
Credit: Jason Garza for The Texas Tribune -
Wesley Hunt tests waters of a Senate bid, setting up possible heavyweight primary with Cornyn and Paxton
The Houston Republican’s case rests on the notion that Sen. John Cornyn cannot win the primary and his challenger, Attorney General Ken Paxton, could jeopardize the seat in November. Full Story
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![U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, alongside his house Republican colleagues, speaks about the Republican Party’s upcoming legislative agenda and accomplishments in the first one hundred days of holding the majority in the House of Representatives, on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 17, 2023.]()
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Texas House issues arrest warrants for Democrats who left state to block congressional redistricting
The warrants apply only within state lines, making them largely symbolic as most of the legislators in question decamped to Illinois, New York and Massachusetts. Full Story
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![during the Texas House session on August 4, 2025 where only 90 members registered failing to reach a quorum with the departure of dozens of Democrats out of state.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Flood relief, THC regulation and more in limbo after House Democrats leave Texas
Democrats fled the state to stop Republicans’ attempt to redraw congressional districts, but bills aimed at everything from a THC product ban to bolstering flood response are now in doubt. Full Story
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![An empty House of Repersentive Chambers on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025 in Austin, Texas.]()
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Denying quorum has been a Texas political strategy since 1870
While the Democrats could technically derail the GOP’s redistricting map, such efforts have been largely symbolic and had limited success blocking past legislation, experts say. Full Story
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![At least 50 House Democrats that Texas left the state held a press conference in Washington D.C. The democrats broke quorum and stopped Republicans from taking up GOP priority bills on July 13, 2021.]()
Credit: Shuran Huang for The Texas Tribune