The Texas Senate relied on chance Wednesday to determine which of them would serve for four years and which would serve for two years. For some legislators, the luck of the draw could have bigger political implications. Full Story
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Full video of my January 22 TribLive conversation about family planning and women's health with state Reps. Donna Howard, D-Austin, and Sarah Davis, R-West University Place. Full Story
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After years in which the state's spending limit was irrelevant, it may play a key role in budget negotiations this session, and it could make it tougher for lawmakers to tap billions of dollars in the Rainy Day Fund. Full Story
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The Legislature has its own jargon, and it sometimes feels like members are speaking a different language. Blocker bills? WADA? Chubbing? LARS? Here's a guide — in the form of a multiple-choice quiz — to what they're saying. Full Story
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Texas lawmakers are back at work Wednesday after nearly a week off, and they’ve got about 125 days left in their 140-day session. And while it might seem like a lazy start to their biennial meeting, it is, in fact, all part of the plan. Full Story
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Tuesday's shooting on a college campus in Houston has inflamed the already heated debate over gun rights in Texas. Full Story
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Amid concerns over the safety of Texas' public schools in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting, at least a dozen of the state's districts are considering policies that would permit employees to carry concealed handguns. Full Story
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Your evening reading: 3 injured in shooting at Houston community college; lawmakers sound off on Roe v. Wade anniversary; Legislature weighing fees on electric cars 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 the possibility of legislation in the 83rd session restricting access to abortions. Full Story
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News of multiple gunshot victims at the north Houston campus of Lone Star College on Tuesday will likely weigh heavily on the minds of Texas lawmakers as they prepare to consider multiple bills relating to campus safety. Full Story
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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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