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  • Inside Intelligence: The Railroad Commission Should Be...

    By Ross Ramsey

    For this week's installment of our nonscientific survey of political and policy insiders on issues of the moment, we asked whether the Texas Railroad Commission should live or die and whether the commissioners ought to be appointed or elected. And we asked for suggestions on what government is doing now that it ought to stop doing. Full Story 

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  • Who's It Gonna Be?

    By Ross Ramsey

    John Frullo, Jim Landtroop, Charles Perry and Four Price each won election to the Texas House last month, representing districts in a part of the state where the population is dwindling. At least one of them should leave the car running at the curb. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Unemployment Benefits Set to Run Out for Many Texans

    By Matt Largey, KUT News

    New jobless numbers show that the nation as a whole added fewer jobs than expected last month. Here in Texas, things appear better, but there are still plenty of people out of work — and as Matt Largey of KUT News reports, the job market can be an especially daunting place for those who are out of work the longest. Full Story 

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  • Dollars For Data

    By Emily Ramshaw

    The goal of the legislation was lofty: to help people who have been exonerated clear their criminal records, quickly and completely. The unexpected result? News organizations must pay hundreds of dollars in monthly fees to keep a copy of the state’s criminal records database. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Bob Daemmrich/Todd Wiseman

  • A Conversation With Dan Branch

    By Evan Smith

    For the 18th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the Dallas Republican who chairs the House Higher Education Committee about the speaker's race, how the shortfall runs smack into the ambitious plans of universities and why tying funding to outcomes is the best accountability that tax dollars can buy. Full Story 

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  • Drama Club

    By Ross Ramsey

    Maybe Dan Branch is right. Asked whether there's a race for speaker, he called it more of a "Speaker Drama" and said Joe Straus (to whom he's pledged) appears to have the thing locked up. Full Story 

  • Pining for Power

    By Kate Galbraith

    East Texas has none of the wind-power potential of West Texas. But it does have plenty of pine trees. And so, 40 miles apart, two first-of-their-kind power plants are going up near Lufkin and Nacogdoches. They will burn the woody debris to make steam, and that steam will turn generators to make electricity. But environmentalists, pulp mills and locals have concerns about the plants — which could also take an economic hit, because they are coming online during a slump in energy prices. Full Story 

    This woody debris will fuel a biomass power plant in Lufkin, the first of its kind in Texas, which is expected to begin full operations this spring.
    Credit: Kate Galbraith

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    M. Smith and Butrymowicz of the Hechinger Institute on charter schools and public schools making nice in the Valley, Ramsey's interview with House Speaker candidate Ken Paxton and column on the coming budget carnage, Hu on the Legislature's disappearing white Democratic women, Grissom on the sheriff who busted Willie Nelson, Hamilton talks higher ed accountability with the chair of the Governor's Business Council, Aguilar on the arrest of a cartel kingpin, Ramshaw on the explosive growth in the number of adult Texans with diabetes, Philpott on state incentive funding under fire and Galbraith on the greening of Houston: The best of our best from November 29 to December 3, 2010. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Saved by the Bell

    By Morgan Smith, The Texas Tribune, and Sarah Butrymowicz, The Hechinger Report

    Public schools have long had a strained relationship with their charter cousins, which battle them for students and money and boast loudly about their relative success. But in the Rio Grande Valley, a federal grant has the largest public school district partnering with Teach For America and a network of charter schools to create a teacher training center with hopes of luring quality educators to one of Texas' most poverty stricken regions — and keeping them there. In the process, the competitive tension is being replaced by a spirit of constructive collaboration. Full Story 

    PSJA Southwest High School english teacher, Cindie Rivera, talks to small groups on Greek and Roman mythology in her classroom at PSJA Southwest High School in Pharr, Texas Tuesday November, 23, 2010.
    Credit: Joel Martinez

  • The Efficiency Experts

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    "Efficiency" is the buzzword heading into the 2011 legislative session. Lawmakers say they want to make sure the dollars spent on K-12 education are being spent as efficiently as possible — and that anything deemed inefficient could end up the chopping block. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Single White Female

    By Elise Hu

    The force of the GOP wave in November was so strong that black Republicans and Latino Republicans outnumber the Texas House's new endangered species: the white Democratic woman. And if the 16-vote victory of state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, doesn't survive a recount, the species will be extinct. Full Story 

    State Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin and state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • Landing or Launching?

    By Ross Ramsey

    There are lily pads and launch pads in Texas government, and the Railroad Commission is a launch pad. Being a railroad commissioner is less an end than a means — a way to propel yourself into a better, higher-profile and more powerful job. Which is why a serious reform effort is afoot. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman/Bob Daemmrich