Our new interactive map visualizes population changes by House and Senate district for the total population and residents who are of Hispanic origin. These totals are important now given that lawmakers are preparing to redraw all 181 districts based on their growth, demographics and election histories.

We’ve pushed the first update of the New Year to our government salary database, which now includes data on more than 650,000 employees from more than 100 entities. This update refreshes the salaries of more than 20 public agencies and adds 13 new entities.

The U.S. Census Bureau collected 2010 population totals for Texas counties, breaking down the figures by race and Hispanic origin. The data will be used for redistricting of political districts during the 2011 session of the Texas Legislature. This interactive map displays those totals in shades, with darker colors representing higher rates of total population growth.

Texas' explosive growth during the past decade was fueled by a boom in its minority population, which accounted for 89 percent of the total increase in population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

New U.S. census data shows the Hispanic population in Texas increased by 42 percent since 2000 and makes up 38 percent of the population. The state's total population increased by 4,293,741 since 2000.

Gov. Rick Perry has delivered five previous State of the State speeches. Has his emphasis on certain words and themes changed over the years? We created word clouds of the past addresses to find out.

View the most recent county-by-county life expectancy rates and compare life spans over time with our two interactive maps. On the 2006 Life Expectancy map, the darker the county, the longer the life span; on the Rate of Change map, the darker counties have seen the most improvement in life expectancy since 1985. Click on individual counties to get specific life expectancies and rates of change.

The number of Texas adults with diabetes is set to quadruple over the next three decades, from roughly 2 million to nearly 8 million, according to new projections. Use this interactive map to track diabetes rates in Texas from now through 2040 — and to get a county-by-county look at the rising population of diabetics over time.

A month ago, we started tracking the whereabouts of the major-party candidates in the governor's race — Rick Perry and Bill White — using an interactive map and Twitter feed. Today we launch an update with improved navigation and an embed feature.

This week we added more than 20 new public agencies to The Texas Tribune's government employee salary database. The application now features payroll data on more than 620,000 employees from 88 school districts, cities, community colleges, universities, state agencies and transit authorities.

About 60 percent of Texas students who continue their education after high school start out at community colleges, whose payrolls have not been part of our database of public employee salaries — until today. We've added in the pay of nearly 20,000 administrators and faculty at seven Texas community colleges and college districts: Houston Community College, Dallas County Community College District, Alamo Colleges, Lone Star College, Austin Community College, Collin College and Tarrant County College. While the median salaries at community colleges are comparable to those of state universities, dramatic differences can be seen at the margins.

The Tribune analyzed Texas Department of Public Safety data on concealed handgun license issuance during 2009, creating thematic maps that show a county-by-county breakdown of the total number of licenses issued and the per-capita rate. The latter figure is a more accurate measure for the proportion of residents who received licenses. Darker colors represent higher totals and rates.