Texas led country in new jobs in 2022 as state’s unemployment rate fell below 4%
The state set a record for the number of employed people for 14 consecutive months. Full Story
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![The Austin downtown skyline on Sept. 22. 2022.]()
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Accused El Paso shooter will plead guilty to federal hate crime charges
The expected plea, announced by the accused shooter’s lawyer, comes after federal prosecutors took the death penalty off the table last week. Full Story
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![Guillermo and Yvonne González, right, release 23 doves during a memorial service on the third anniversary of the Walmart mass shooting that left 23 dead, at Ponder Park in El Paso on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. Yvonne González’s parents, Maribel Hernandez and Leo Campos, were killed inside the Walmart.]()
Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune -
Three Texas counties are suing the attorney general to get clarity on when the public can access post-election ballots
For decades, the attorney general’s office advised counties to keep ballots for 22 months after an election. Then Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion saying they could be quickly released to anyone who requested them. Full Story
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![Election workers sort provisional ballots and forms from the polling centers at the Tarrant County Election Administration building in Fort Worth on November 8, 2022.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune -
In a border graveyard, volunteers exhume migrants’ bodies and search for their families
In Maverick County, 26 bodies pulled from the Rio Grande were buried, some without attempts to identify them. Teams of Texas State students are trying to learn their names so their families can be notified. Full Story
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![Dozens of metal crosses, painted white and starting to rust where they’d been placed in the ground over unmarked migrant graves, scatter the ground at the Maverick County Cemetery where dozens of “John Doe” graves have been exhumed in an effort to identify the bodies in Eagle Pass on Jan. 10, 2023.]()
Credit: Kaylee Greenlee Beal for The Texas Tribune -
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick unveils committee assignments with one Democratic chair
Conservative activists have pushed for legislative leaders to ban Democrats from leading committees. Full Story
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![State. Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, listens to State Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, filibuster against Senate Bill 1 on Aug. 11, 2021.]()
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Help us identify what matters most to Texans during the 2023 legislative session
We would like to know more about what you’re seeing in your community to help guide our reporting during the 88th legislative session. Full Story
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![House Sergeant Robbie Breslin standing guard in the back hallway of the House chamber of the Texas Capitol on opening day of the 2023 Texas legislative session.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for the Texas Tribune -
In Texas’ first post-Roe legislative session, there’s a new political power dynamic on abortion
While Democrats and the far-right edge of the Republican Party remain focused on abortion, leaders in both chambers have not yet spent much time discussing the issue this session. Full Story
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![Anti-abortion advocates at the Rally for Life march at the Capitol in Austin on Jan. 27, 2018.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Conservative lawmakers push for review of school board group’s guidance on transgender students
Texas Freedom Caucus asked Attorney General Ken Paxton to weigh in on school board association’s guidance for navigating complex issues related to transgender youth. Full Story
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![Students leave the classroom to work in the computer lab at Mata Intermediate School.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang for The Texas Tribune -
New Texas foster care report shows both improvements and continued deficiencies
In a fifth report tracking the state’s efforts to remedy its embattled foster care system, federal monitors documented persistent risks to Texas children ahead of next week’s court hearing. Full Story
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![The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services building in Austin.]()
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Bill to ban Chinese citizens and government from buying Texas land gains steam among Republicans
Sen. Lois Kolkhorst filed a bill that would ban citizens, governments and entities from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from purchasing land in the state, part of what she and other Republicans have said will help stem foreign influence in Texas. Full Story
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![State Sen. Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, speaks from her desk on the Senate floor on May 30, 2021.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
After 10 days, dozens of Texas prisoners remain on hunger strike protesting solitary confinement practices
Although the number of men refusing food has steadily declined, 38 are still starving themselves to protest Texas policies that often keep prisoners in isolation for years or even decades. Full Story
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![Texas Department of Criminal Justice William G. McConnell Unit at Chase Field in Beeville.]()
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Texas GOP launches radio attack ads against Republican state House speaker
The radio ad, which criticizes Phelan for appointing Democratic committee chairs, prompted pushback from Republican colleagues in the House over why the state party would use resources to attack its own member. Full Story
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![Former state representative Matt Rinaldi spoke to demonstrators at the Governor’s Mansion in protest of Gov. Abbott’s executive orders to close businesses and mandate masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
TribCast: Is bipartisan immigration reform a realistic goal?
In this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Washington correspondent Matthew Choi and immigration reporter Uriel J. García about U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s trip to the border and the odds of Congress passing a major immigration bill. Full Story
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![U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., joined other Senators to speak to media after a tour of a vacant school in El Paso that is being used as a migrant shelter, on Jan. 9, 2023.]()
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Montgomery County-owned venue will host Kyle Rittenhouse rally against censorship
The venue change comes days after a Conroe-based brewery faced threats and harassment for pulling out of the event. Full Story
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![A member of the media interviews Kyle Rittenhouse during a right-wing gathering known as America Fest, an event organised by Turning Point USA, in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., December 18, 2022.]()
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After alleged sexual assault of two children living in state care, another foster shelter closes
Two girls in the care of Child Protective Services were allegedly sexually assaulted in October after sneaking out of a facility run by the state agency. Advocates say it’s a symptom of the Texas foster care systems’ problems. Full Story
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![Heart Galleries, portraits of adoptable children, on display at the Child Protective Services office at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services in Austin on Nov. 14, 2019.]()
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State regulators approve controversial Texas electricity market reform
The substantial change in the way the state’s market works will first be reviewed by the Legislature. Full Story
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![The Decker Creek Power Station, a natural gas power plant northeast of Austin on February 28, 2021.]()
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Migrant shot and injured by National Guard soldier patrolling border
It’s the first-known incident where a soldier has shot a migrant since the mission began. The injury is non-life threatening. Full Story
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![A National Guard soldier oversees an area where the border wall ends in Del Rio, on Nov. 7, 2021.]()
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A year after FBI raids Henry Cuellar’s home, no arrests and no answers
One year later, there have been no arrests or charges filed related to the case. Cuellar maintains that he was never the target of the investigation and will ultimately be cleared of wrongdoing. Full Story
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![Sandi Villarreal, deputy editor for digital at Texas Monthly, moderates a panel with US Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and former speaker of the Texas House Joe Straus at The Texas Tribune Festival on Sept. 24, 2022 in Austin, TX.]()
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“Who ever thought I would be chief?” Texas’ Alabama-Coushatta tribe elects first female chief
Millie Thompson Williams was elected the tribe’s first female second chief, a lifetime appointment, last year. For the first time, her accession comes as women make up the majority of the tribe’s council. Full Story
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![Myra Battise helps newly elected second chief Millie Thompson Williams with her official regalia after a press conference on Monday, January 3, 2023. Battise nominated Williams for the leadership role. Williams is the first female elected as a chief in the tribe’s history.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune -
When showing up at the Texas Capitol made a difference
Readers sometimes ask us if the outcomes in governing are predetermined and whether civic engagement makes a difference. There are plenty of examples of Texans influencing lawmakers’ decisions. Full Story
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![Members of Austin's LGBT community gather on the steps of the capitol to celebrate the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots on June 28, 2017.]()
Credit: Austin Price for The Texas Tribune