Many of the illegal voting cases the Texas attorney general has boasted about are unraveling after a key court ruling. But Tomas Ramirez III said the pursuit of charges against him has taken its toll.
Alejandro Serrano
Alejandro Serrano writes about Texas politics and government, with a focus on immigration and education issues. Since joining the Tribune, he has helped investigate the 2022 Uvalde school shooting, lived for half a year in Eagle Pass during a temporary assignment covering immigration and documented a variety of major occurrences in the state from Houston, where he used to live. He previously covered education for the Houston Chronicle and breaking news for the San Francisco Chronicle. The Long Island, New York, native received his bachelor's degree in journalism from Northeastern University. He is based in Austin and speaks fluent Spanish.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2023
Texas bill requiring 10-year prison sentences for gun felonies faces opposition from criminal justice and firearm advocates
Under Senate Bill 23, all felonies involving a gun would incur a mandatory 10-year prison sentence. It’s meant to curb crime, despite the lack of correlation between harsher sentences and crime rates.
Posted in
Politics
Former Texas House Speaker Rayford Price dies at 86
The Texas Democrat served as speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from 1972 to 1973.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Uvalde’s state lawmakers face an uphill battle raising the age limit for semi-automatic guns. They’re trying anyway.
Many relatives of Uvalde victims back bills that state Rep. Tracy King and Sen. Roland Gutierrez are pushing in the Legislature. But limits on gun access don’t fare well at the Capitol.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2023
New family and child welfare commissioner foreshadows change as agency plans to outsource case management
Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Stephanie Muth told lawmakers Friday the agency will require a different set of skills from its employees as it changes how foster children’s cases are managed.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Texas executes John Balentine for killing three teens in Amarillo
Though he confessed to the murders, Balentine’s lawyers argued he might have been spared a death sentence if not for pervasive racial bias at his trial.
Posted in
Uvalde school shooting
After botched response to Uvalde massacre, Texas senator wants better mass shooting training for public safety entities
State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, wants to prevent communication breakdowns like the ones that occurred in the botched response to the Uvalde school shooting.
Posted in
Economy
Austin makes progress restoring power, but tens of thousands still without
The city originally said it would restore all power by 6 p.m. Friday. But more than 57,000 customers are still without electricity Saturday night.
Posted in
Energy
Austin doesn’t know when it’ll fully restore power as hundreds of thousands of Texans remain in the cold
Close to 325,000 electricity customers statewide lacked power Thursday evening. Austin’s main power provider said it can no longer promise full restoration by 6 p.m. Friday.
Posted in
Economy
Texans urged to avoid travel in icy weather; power grid is expected to meet demand
School closures and hazardous road conditions are expected throughout a large portion of Texas, according to forecasts. State officials caution Texans about local power outages but expect the grid to stay up.
