Residents of a rural Texas school district decide in November whether to expand Austin Community College’s reach.
Alexa Ura
Alexa Ura reported for The Texas Tribune from 2013 to 2023. She covered the complex dynamics of race, ethnicity, wealth, poverty and power and how they are shaping the future of Texas and Texans, in the long and short term. Alexa started at the Tribune as a reporting intern before graduating from the University of Texas at Austin and joining the staff full time. Originally from Laredo on the Texas-Mexico border, she is a native Spanish speaker and is based in Austin.
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Demographics
Family legacies and the state’s Jim Crow past underlie a fight over mineral rights on a stretch of South Texas scrubland
Descendants of a prominent white family and a formerly enslaved couple are fighting over ownership — and the oil and gas royalties that would come with it — of an 147.5-acre tract that has bound and divided generations of their families.
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Demographics
In federal trial, Galveston County challenged on efforts to undo Black and Latino voting power
The coastal county faces a drawn-out trial over claims of intentional discrimination in its 2021 redistricting of commissioners court precincts. The only district in which Black and Latino voters could meaningfully influence elections was dismantled.
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TribCast
TribCast: Extreme heat and the toll of climate change on Texas
In this week’s episode, we speak with The Texas Tribune’s climate reporter Erin Douglas about why it’s been so hot in Texas and examine the long-term implications as climate change shifts the entire range of Texas heat upward.
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Demographics
As race-neutral college admissions begin, Texas counselors work to convince students of color they still belong
Black and Latino students make up about two-thirds of Texas’ public schools. But they are vastly underrepresented at its top universities, and Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling will shake up an already complicated application process.
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Demographics
Hispanics officially make up the biggest share of Texas’ population, new census numbers show
White people had been the state’s largest population group since at least 1850. Sometime in 2022, the Hispanic population surpassed them, new data shows.
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Redistricting Texas
Where Texas redistricting lawsuits stand after U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Alabama case
The high court left intact a key provision of the federal Voting Rights Act in a case many feared would go the other way. The decision’s importance in ongoing litigation over Texas’ political maps will largely be felt in what didn’t happen.
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Demographics
At the fringes of Houston’s prosperity, the city’s eviction machine is running full throttle
Houston has seen eviction rates soar since pandemic protections for renters lapsed. At one apartment complex, ejecting people from their homes is a ritual part of the business model.
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Asking to be Heard
At session’s end, Houston language access advocates clung to one last hope that their voices had been heard
Their dream of passing a bill to improve access to state services for Texans who don’t speak English or Spanish was dashed. Woori Juntos activists fought until the end seeking at least a study of their ideas.
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Ken Paxton Impeachment
Lawyer currently leading Texas attorney general’s office has been swept up in Ken Paxton’s legal challenges
Brent Webster came to the Texas attorney general’s office in 2020. His work as Ken Paxton’s top aide was quickly mired in controversy.