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  • Capitol Insecurity

    By Ross Ramsey

    When Andrew Cuomo took office as governor of New York earlier this month, he ordered the removal of the security barricades limiting access to his state’s Capitol. “This Capitol has become a physical metaphor for the isolation and alienation of our people,” he said in his inauguration speech. He could easily have been talking about Texas. Full Story 

    Capitol visitors pass through metal detectors.
    Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller

  • The Legal Limit

    By Reeve Hamilton

    Texas produces more law school graduates than it has jobs for. But that hasn’t stopped some lawmakers from proposing that the state build a new law school in the Valley. Full Story 

    State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-San Benito
    Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera

  • Who Owns Our Water?

    By Erika Aguilar, KUT News

    Upping the stakes in a long-running debate over groundwater and property rights, state Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, filed a bill this week that would give Texas landowners ownership of the groundwater beneath their property. As Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports, the filing comes as the Texas Supreme Court considers a similar issue. Full Story 

  • The Stroke Belt

    By Emily Ramshaw

    The proof of East Texas' live-hard, die-young culture is in the bread pudding — and the all-you-can-eat fried catfish, the drive-through tobacco barns and the doughnut shops by the dozen. In a community where heavy eating and chain smoking are a way of life, where poverty, hard-headedness and even suspicion hinder access to basic health care, residents die at an average age of 73, or seven years earlier than the longest-living Texans, according to a preliminary county-by-county analysis by the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Full Story 

    Residents of East Texas, and particularly minorities, often make lifestyle choices, like smoking and eating high-fat diets, that affect their life expectancy.
    Credit: Lawrence Jenkins

  • Pitts: "There Will Be Less State Employees"

    By Evan Smith

    In our TribLive conversation this morning, state Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, spoke frankly about the certainty that state employees would be cut as part of the Legislature's solution to the budget shortfall — and he said furloughs for employees who aren't cut may be ordered as well. Full Story 

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  • Permitting Paralysis?

    By Kate Galbraith

    The politics and rhetoric of the Environmental Protection Agency's multi-front battle with Texas make for a grand spectacle. Behind the scenes, however, there are signs that big industrial plants are trying to move past the stalemate on their own, talking with federal regulators and, in some cases, preparing to meet the demands of the agency. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Losing Dependence

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Federal health care reform’s biggest benefit for young adults — a mandate that insurance providers cover dependents until they reach age 26 — won’t apply to thousands of 25-year-old Texans for one simple reason: Their parents work for the state. The federal rule, which went into effect in late September, required all insurance providers to extend their cap to 26 at the start of their next “plan year.” For many private providers, that began Jan. 1. But the Texas Employees Retirement System plan year doesn't begin until next September, meaning 5,500 25-year-olds will miss out. Full Story 

    Kace Layton, 25, on the Texas State University campus in San Marcos. Layton was dropped from his grandmother's state insurance plan on his last birthday, even though federal health care reform expanded dependent coverage until age 26.
    Credit: Callie Richmond

  • The Weekly TribCast: Episode 62

    By Elise Hu

    In our session kickoff edition of the TribCast, Ross, Elise, Ben and Reeve discuss the state's budget morass, so-called "sanctuary city" legislation and their impressions of the newly sworn-in Texas Legislature. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: Fake Pot Ban Could Go Statewide

    By Julián Aguilar

    State Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, announced Wednesday she had filed legislation to make the sale, manufacture and possession of fake marijuana, commonly referred to as K2, illegal. The bill, SB 331, would outlaw six synthetic compounds that mimic the effects of THC, or Tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana. Full Story 

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    Credit: prensa420 (Flickr)

  • Texplainer: What's an Emergency Item?

    By Ross Ramsey

    Ever hear something about Texas politics or policy and wonder what it is? Or read something that made you think, "I have no idea what that means"? We're here to help. From questions about why Rick Perry is within his legal right to shoot a coyote while jogging to what the heck "chubbing" is, Texplainer will answer your burning questions. Today: "What's a Legislative emergency item?" Full Story 

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