Senators today amended an education finance reform bill to allow community college students to carry concealed handguns on campus, increase the cost of cigarettes and allow drastic changes to university administration.
Courts
Stay up to date on Texas courts with in-depth coverage of major rulings, judicial elections, criminal justice, and the judges shaping state law from The Texas Tribune.
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Criminal Justice
Wentworth Gets a Win for Campus Carry
Sen. Jeff Wentworth is relentless with campus carry, and today, the San Antonio Republican got his way.
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Criminal Justice
Loser-Pays Bill Clears Texas House
Texas got one step closer today to becoming one of the few states with a rule that awards legal fees to prevailing parties in lawsuits.
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Criminal Justice
Senate OKs Concealed Carry for Lawmakers
Texas lawmakers — current and former — may soon be able to pack heat at church, the hospital, a sporting event or even bars.
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Criminal Justice
Death Row Inmate Faces Same Prosecutors Who Committed Misconduct
At a hearing Monday in a Bowie County state district court, lawyers for Delma Banks Jr. will ask the court to disqualify prosecutors who the U.S. Supreme Court ruled suppressed evidence and deliberately covered up mistakes in a 1980 murder trial that sent the young black man to death row.
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Aaronson on the latest attack on Planned Parenthood, Aguilar previews the sanctuary cities debate, Grissom on a death row inmate’s unsuccessful appeal, Hamilton on the UT System’s faculty “productivity” data dump, Philpott on the prospect of lawsuits over education cuts, Ramsey on puppies and other distractions, Ramshaw on a tobacco fight, my interview with the presidents of UT-Austin and Texas A&M, M. Smith on a former State Board of Ed member who may have violated state ethics law, Stiles interactively displays the effects of House redistricting and Tan on the Senate budget end game: The best of our best content from May 2 to 6, 2011.
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Criminal Justice
Video: The Week in Texas Politics Recap, May 2 to May 6
No time to follow all the happenings of the Texas Legislature? We’ve made it easier for you with our weekly recaps of the action under the dome.
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Criminal Justice
Perry: We Have a Tort Reform Emergency
With the House set to take up a loser-pays bill for the second time tomorrow, Gov. Rick Perry has added an item to his emergency list: tort reform.
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Criminal Justice
Juvenile Justice Merger Heads to Governor
A bill to merge Texas’ two state juvenile justice agencies is headed to the governor for a signature.
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Criminal Justice
Update: First Texas Execution Done With New Drug Protocol
Less than a month before his scheduled execution, Cary Kerr had no attorney. And the ones he had had up to that point, he argued, didn’t do him much good. Tonight, his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution was turned down.