Texans behind bars are also testing positive at a rate 40% higher than the national prison population average, according to a new report from the University of Texas at Austin.
Stories by Texas Tribune fellows
The Texas Tribune welcomes a group of student fellows into our newsroom each spring, summer and fall. Here is a sampling of their work. Learn more about the fellowship program here.
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Coronavirus in Texas
El Paso officials attribute Nov. 4 single-day record coronavirus case count to data backlog
Cases continued rising as a state district judge heard arguments Wednesday over a shutdown order issued by El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego. Judge William Moody said he would render a decision later this week on whether to temporarily halt the county order.
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Texas 2020 Elections
Jim Wright wins Texas Railroad Commission race, extending decades of Republican dominance on the oil and gas regulating board
Wright defeated Democrat Chrysta Castañeda. The commission’s elected, three-member board has been entirely Republican for at least 25 years.
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Texas 2020 Elections
Tarrant County faces delayed counts for its tightest races due to staffing shortages
Officials are warning that coronavirus-related staffing shortages mean elections workers are unlikely to finish counting mail-in ballots Tuesday night, potentially leaving the county’s tightest races undecided until later this week.
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Texas 2020 Elections
“No one understands how difficult elections are to run”: Officials in small-town Texas endure a stressful election
While big cities and high-stakes lawsuits dominate Texas voting news, the election may come down to rural counties like Archer or Aransas, where there’s usually just a few people to handle registering voters, reporting results — and everything in between.
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Texas 2020 Elections
As Texas Republicans center campaigns on city crime, anti-police brutality activists say the party’s messaging is racist
GOP campaign ads paint cities as lawless places and Democrats as enablers of crime. But people pushing for criminal justice reform say those portrayals sidestep the systemic racism that prompted this year’s protests against police brutality.
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Texas 2020 Elections
Texas Democrats think a seat on the oil and gas regulating board could be their best chance of winning statewide in two decades
With attention on Texas races up and down the ballot, a virtually unknown Republican candidate and big-time donations to the Democratic nominee, Democrats think they have a shot of winning a seat on the Railroad Commission.
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Coronavirus in Texas
A MAGA face mask? A Black Lives Matter T-shirt? Here’s what you can and can’t wear to vote in Texas
Wearing T-shirts, buttons or hats supporting political candidates at the polls is illegal. But in the pandemic era, voters are now being reminded that the electioneering rules also apply to face masks.
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Texas 2020 Elections
A week before the election, Texas National Guard prepares to deploy troops to cities
A spokesperson for the Guard said the deployment is not related to the election and troops would not be stationed at polling places. Mayors in two cities say they weren’t advised of the deployment.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott didn’t require masks at polling places. It’s made some voters uncomfortable.
Polling locations are one of Abbott’s 11 exemptions to his statewide mask mandate that went into effect July 3. Abbott said at the time that the exemption is meant to prevent people from being turned away at the polls just because they don’t have a mask, though he has also recommended that people wear them.