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All Coverage

  • Power From the People

    By Allen Reed

    Two Texas universities are building the biggest power plants of their kind in the nation, converting the sweat energy of exercising students into electricity to fuel their campuses. Full Story 

  • TribBlog: Another Roll of the Dice

    By Sarah Acosta

    It was more like a bidding auction today than a meeting of the Texas House Committee on Licensing and Regulation. Gambling advocates packed into three Capitol hearing rooms, and threw out number after number as they asked legislators — yet again — to consider the benefits of more gaming in Texas. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: Getting Drunks Off the Road

    By Forrest Burnson

    The Senate Committee on Criminal Justice met today to talk about ways to stop Texans from getting behind the wheel after imbibing. Judges, police and even a third-time DWI offender told lawmakers some Texas drunken driving laws could use some stiffening, while other measures take punishment too far. Full Story 

    State Sen. John Whitmire speaks to reporters.
    Credit: Associated Press

  • Perry on Mending Ties with the Farm Bureau

    By Elise Hu

    After Gov. Rick Perry and Democrat Bill White each addressed a Texas Farm Bureau conference in San Marcos, Perry spoke with reporters about his relationship with the group, which Farm Bureau spokesman Gene Hall has described as "strained" after Perry vetoed an eminent domain bill in 2007. The group endorsed Perry's rival, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, in the Republican primary this spring, but its general election endorsement is still up for grabs. Full Story 

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  • Making Nice

    By Elise Hu and Morgan Smith

    A brief meeting in a judge’s chambers Wednesday cut short a brewing turf war between HillCo Partners and two former lobbyists it had sued after they quit and took a stable of clients with them. Full Story 

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  • Ante Up

    By Ross Ramsey

    The starting gun for the debate over gambling fires this morning: Gaming interests inside and outside Texas are asking lawmakers to expand legal wagering to include either resort casinos, slot machines at race tracks, or some combination. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: Broke and Broken

    By Elizabeth Titus

    Rural health advocates asked state lawmakers Wednesday to help pay for improvements to rural hospitals in up to 42 Texas counties. Without state help, they said, the rural hospitals have no hope of doing necessary renovations to catch up to federal and state hospital codes. Full Story 

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    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • TribBlog: TCEQ on DISH

    By Reeve Hamilton

    No other place in Texas has received as much attention from the state's environmental agency as the natural-gas-rich Barnett Shale — and that includes the tiny town of DISH, a spokesman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said today. Full Story 

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  • Leaky Pipes

    By Mose Buchele, KUT News

    A Texas Railroad Commissioner is proposing to replace steel natural gas pipes with plastic. Mose Buchele of KUT News reports. Full Story 

  • After Sunset

    By Elise Hu

    Sunset Advisory Commissioners unanimously approved a series of changes to the troubled Division of Workers' Compensation at the Texas Department of Insurance on Tuesday, but not before aggressively rewriting the Sunset staff's original recommendations to improve the division's medical quality review process. Full Story 

  • DISHed Out

    By Reeve Hamilton

    As he has taken on natural gas companies and the agencies that regulate them, DISH mayor Calvin Tillman has become a media darling, an unlikely face of oil and gas reform and a public speaker crisscrossing the country. Now he’s ready to give up — and to leave town entirely. Full Story 

    Calvin Tillman, Mayor of Dish, Texas
    Credit: Djakhangir Zakhidov