State Sen. Kel Seliger, the Amarillo Republican who leads the Senate's Higher Education Committee, filed a bill Tuesday offering broad changes to student assessment and high school graduation requirements in the state. Full Story
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At this morning's TribLive conversation, state Reps. Sarah Davis, R-West University Place, and Donna Howard, D-Austin, talked about whether the new state-run Texas Women's Health Program will have enough providers without Planned Parenthood. Full Story
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A new national report puts Texas high school graduation rates at slightly above average, contrasting with a federal study released late last year that ranked the state among the best at graduating students within four years. Full Story
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For this week's nonscientific survey of insiders in politics and government, we asked about state ethics laws — about lawmakers' disclosure of personal finances, of client lists, and about what laws the insiders would change if they could. Full Story
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State Rep. James White, R-Hillister, has filed legislation that would require the state to study the effects of cutting financial ties with the federal government. The bill is not intended as a call for secession, White said. Full Story
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In search of new revenue for road construction and maintenance, Texas lawmakers are weighing whether to raise fees on electric cars, a move that is gaining ground in some other states. Full Story
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On the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade — the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized abortion — the lawyer who successfully argued the case talks with the Tribune about women’s rights and recent anti-abortion legislation Full Story
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Thanks to his state pension — the subject of double-dipping controversy — and the sale of an interest in gas wells, Gov. Rick Perry got a pay bump in 2011, according to tax returns he provided to the Tribune. Full Story
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This interactive map shows the locations of Planned Parenthood clinics excluded from the new Texas Women's Health Program, overlaid with the non-Planned Parenthood providers that have agreed to treat state-subsidized patients in those areas. Full Story
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Controversy over whether hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, poses a threat to groundwater has spurred a group of scientists to try to make fracking fluid traceable — by injecting it with DNA. Full Story
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Texas Republicans in Washington largely put partisanship aside on Monday as President Obama marked the beginning of his second term with a vigorous defense of liberalism. Full Story
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A South Texas pharmacy featured in a June Tribune article on independent pharmacists struggling to adapt to lower Medicaid reimbursement rates will shut its doors on Friday. Full Story
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Your evening reading: Texas lawmakers set politics aside for inauguration; Cornyn calls Obama's speech "aspirational"; Mexico drawn into gun control debate Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry’s opponents say his tenure hasn't been kind to Texas women — but they can't argue about his hiring practices. Among Perry’s most senior staff, two-thirds are women. Full Story
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It's been a long time since the Legislature took a good, hard look at its ethics laws and its own practices. With the Texas Ethics Commission up for review, a restive electorate and a herd of new lawmakers, they have a golden opportunity. Full Story
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Texas Democrats rode a fresh wave of optimism over the weekend as inauguration festivities descended on Washington. Full Story
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The blazing stars of Texas politics at the moment, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and the Castro brothers, once again did a turn on the Sunday talk shows. Full Story
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Some Mexican and American officials hope that the gun control debate might spur laws that curb the flow of illegal weapons over the United States' southern border. But others say that changing gun laws in the U.S. would not change gun behavior in Mexico. Full Story
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Three days after President Obama called for stricter gun laws nationally, gun owners in Texas gathered in Austin to rally in defense of their Second Amendment rights. Full Story
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Roughly a thousand Texans flooded the Capitol grounds on Saturday to rally against a renewed national push for gun control legislation and to criticize President Obama for signing gun-related executive orders. Full Story
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