A Texas law dating back to the 1800s that keeps hospitals from directly hiring doctors comes before lawmakers today, in a flurry of bills designed to remove the ban — either for an individual hospital district, or for all the state's rural hospitals. Full Story
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A bill allowing guns on college campuses took the first step Wednesday toward what appears to be its likely passage. Full Story
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Top officials at the University of Texas System said in an interview Wednesday that they are moving quickly to allay the concerns regarding the direction of UT, starting with the reassignment of Rick O'Donnell. Full Story
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The president of Planned Parenthood and daughter of the late Democratic Gov. Ann Richards on Republican lawmakers’ efforts to defund her organization, a Texas attorney general’s opinion she says will keep low-income women from preventative care, and how her mother would’ve handled all of this. Full Story
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Does tapping the Rainy Day Fund have 90 House votes to move on to the Senate — and how much will the process of getting there damage the even bigger task for lawmakers of setting the next biennium's budget? Full Story
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This week on the TribCast, Ross, Reeve, Ben and special guest Jim Henson discuss the Rainy Day Fund, Hispanic Republicans, Tommy Lee Jones and a good deal more. Full Story
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Supporters and opponents of allowing concealed handguns on college campuses packed a House committee room today where a number of bills that would allow it were being discussed. Full Story
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Your afternoon reading: UT System reform controversy deepens; substitute execution drug chosen; Senate passes eyewitness ID bill Full Story
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The Texas Senate unanimously approved a bill today that would revamp eyewitness identification policies used by law enforcement agencies. Full Story
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The recent hiring of Rick O’Donnell as a special adviser to the board of regents at the University of Texas System has some observers — worried about the implications for the University of Texas at Austin — playing connect the dots. Full Story
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Prominent University of Texas alumnus Gordon Appleman says recent changes at the UT System Board of Regents "seemed important enough to where I ought to do something rather than sit by and watch it happen." Full Story
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Cleve Foster will be the first Texas inmate to receive the anesthetic drug pentobarbital — instead of sodium thiopental — in the three-drug cocktail that will be used in his execution on April 5. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry conceded on Tuesday that it may be raining, but he's not putting the umbrella all the way up. Full Story
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In its first hearing since an earthquake and tsunami crippled Japan and threatened nuclear meltdown at several reactors, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission heard testimony today on whether to give early-stage approval to a new nuclear plant in Texas. Full Story
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Tribune readers, wondering what was personally at stake for the state’s education policy makers, asked us to check where lawmakers send their children to school. We obliged, and posed that question to all 181 members of the Legislature and 15 members of the State Board of Education. Full Story
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The nuclear emergency in Japan, 6,500 miles away, has put plans for the expansion of a Texas nuclear facility on hold. And as Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports, utilities in San Antonio and Austin were in talks to buy power from the plant before the crisis began to unfold. Full Story
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The House Election Contest Committee unanimously voted today to uphold Rep. Will Hartnett's determination that Donna Howard won the long-disputed HD-48 seat. Full Story
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The House Calendars Committee voted this evening to place the voter ID bill, SB 14, on the schedule for Monday. Full Story
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Synthetic drugs and hallucinogenic plants shouldn't stand a chance in Texas, lawmakers on the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee said today, as they considered a set of bills that would ban the substances. Full Story
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Late Tuesday afternoon, the House Appropriations Committee voted 27-0 to move HB 275 to the floor. The substitute bill authorizes the state to draw down about $3.1 billion from the Rainy Day Fund. Full Story
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