Thousands of people have been arrested under Texas’ human smuggling law. Now they face at least a decade in prison under sentencing guidelines that took effect this year.
Elijah Nicholson-Messmer
Elijah Nicholson-Messmer was a summer 2024 data visuals fellow and a graduate of Berea College and Northeastern University, where he studied English and data journalism, respectively. Elijah’s work has been published by The Boston Globe, WBUR and WCVB, and he has interned at Bloomberg News, Financial Planning through the Dow Jones News Fund, and The Drive.
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Graphics and data reporting
Texas schools are hiring more teachers without traditional training. They hope the state will pay to prepare them.
Schools are hiring instructors with different types of backgrounds to deal with critical staff shortages.
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Graphics and data reporting
Texas takes its first steps to protect its mountain lions
While many other states limit hunting of the apex predator, Texas is only now introducing rules to ban canned hunts and require regular checking of traps.
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Economy
More Texans join unions although national membership is down
The growth in union membership came from the technology and nonprofit sectors, as well as coffee shops.
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Panhandle Wildfires
Unregulated oilfield power lines are suspected of sparking Texas wildfires
No state agency is taking responsibility for making sure the privately built lines that power many oil and gas sites are safe. Such lines have been blamed for sparking two recent Panhandle fires.
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Politics
Most Texas adults support school vouchers, new survey finds
Most respondents agreed with arguments against paying for private schools with public funds — but ultimately favored creating the programs.
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Graphics and data reporting
Interstate 27 has divided Lubbock for decades. North and east side residents want that to change.
After repeated attempts to convince the City Council to make zoning changes, residents asked the federal government to intervene.
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Graphics and data reporting
A look at the Texas mental health workforce shortage
A guide to some of the professions that make up the mental health workforce.
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Hurricane Beryl
“They need to fix something quick”: Texans without power for days are getting angry
Nearly a million Texans were still without power on Friday. And the utility company with the most outages was facing threats of violence.
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East Texas Floods
More than 100 Texas counties lack plans to curb damage from natural disasters
The plans, which are required by the federal government to access certain grants after a natural disaster, are laborious to assemble — especially for rural counties.