At last night's Online Journalism Awards, presented as part of the annual Online News Association conference, The Texas Tribune was one of six sites to win the prestigious General Excellence award. Full Story
Yes, yes, the governor’s race: It’s tended to suck all the air out of the room this election cycle, hasn’t it? But there’s an undercard as well, and even if it’s received scant attention by comparison, don’t think it doesn’t matter. To the contrary, the outcome of races other than the one at the top of the ballot has serious implications for a great many matters of politics and policy that will affect and should interest every single Texan in the near term. Full Story
Stiles on the other important Perry in Texas politics, E. Smith interviews Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, Aguilar on the illegal cash moving between the U.S. and Mexico, yours truly on the horse race and other results from the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll, Philpott on this year's efforts to turn out Hispanic votes, M. Smith's talks on camera with Judge Sharon Keller about her ongoing tangle with the death penalty, Grissom on a sex offender who's angry about his return to ankle bracelet monitoring, Hu on the Texans in line for hot committee assignments if the Republicans win a congressional majority, Galbraith on a courthouse restoration program that's on the budget chopping block and Hamilton's interview with the co-founder of one of the nation's most successful charter school programs: The best of our best from Oct. 25 to 29, 2010. Full Story
As the nation's shuttle program moves toward its scheduled end next year, observers are asking: What's next for manned space exploration? Ben Philpott reports on how federal funding changes for NASA will determine the answer. Full Story
Today is the first day you'll see robust journalism produced by the reporters of The Texas Tribune in the pages of The New York Times and on nytimes.com. Full Story
Since 1999, dozens of county courthouses — some dating to the 19th century — have been spruced up with the help of state funding, and workers have uncovered old artwork or other historic features. But advocates fear that the renovation program will be yet another casualty of the coming biennial budget shortfall. Full Story
Over the last decade, two Republicans with the last name Perry have dominated the Texas political landscape. One is Rick, the state’s longest-serving governor. The other is Bob (no relation), the state’s largest individual political donor during that time — with no close second. Since 2000, the wealthy Houston home builder has contributed about $28 million to more than 400 candidates and political action committees in Texas, according to an analysis of campaign-finance data by The Texas Tribune. During that time, he's also contributed at least $38 million more to candidates and groups outside of Texas. Full Story
For the 14th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the mayor of Dallas on the challenges of leading the state's third-largest city, why he endorsed Rick Perry despite being a nonpartisan elected official, what he thinks of federal health care reform and whether he'll run for the Senate in 2012. Full Story
Gov. Rick Perry's lead over his Democratic challenger, Bill White, is now 12 points, according to the latest poll commissioned by the five big-city newspapers. Full Story
Texas Democrats today called Gov. Rick Perry's ad featuring a Houston widow an underhanded attempt to promote Arizona-style immigration laws. Perry's camp says Democrats are confused. Full Story
Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes wants to change the way public universities and colleges are funded in Texas. Today, at a meeting of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, he will lay out his latest plan to do just that. Full Story
Each year, billions of dollars are smuggled into Mexico through Texas ports by drug cartels for the purpose of bribing government officials, hiring assassins and purchasing arms. For now, at least, there's not much that the U.S. or Mexican governments can do about it. Full Story
What happens after Discovery, the next-to-last shuttle mission, blasts off Monday from Kennedy Space Center (with an Austin astronaut aboard)? For thousands of engineers and support staff at the Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake, the answer isn’t certain. Matt Largey of KUT News contemplates the impact of the transition to the next phase of NASA's mission in space. Full Story