What’s at stake in the long-awaited trial over Texas’s sweeping 2021 elections law
The GOP-backed Senate Bill 1 added voting restrictions that plaintiffs claim unfairly impacts voters of color. Full Story
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![State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, speaks in favor of Senate Bill 1 on Aug. 11, 2021.]()
Credit: Sophie Park/The Texas Tribune -
Texas leads the country in keeping its native-born residents home
A report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas researchers say that economic growth, low taxes and big cities all can keep residents in their home states. Full Story
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![People sit in Zilker Park on the second night of Austin City Limits Radio’s Blues on the Green concert on July 28, 2021.]()
Credit: Sophie Park/The Texas Tribune -
Texas ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for trans kids will go into effect despite legal fight
The state attorney general’s office appealed a state district court injunction that said the new prohibitions deprive trans kids of “necessary, safe, and effective medical treatment.” Full Story
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![A transgender flag sits on the desk of state Rep. Penny Morales Shaw, D-Houston, and Rep. Rhetta Andrews Bowers, D-Rowlett, during discussion of a Point of Order brought against SB 14, which seeks to ban puberty blockers and hormone therapies for transgender youth, on the House floor at the state Capitol in Austin on May 12, 2023.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
This new law will help health care workers save lives in ambulances that cover wide-open West Texas
The emerging technology, paid for by a grant established during the 2023 legislative session, will help emergency health care workers talk with doctors in emergency rooms to better care for critical patients. Full Story
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![An ambulance is parked at Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas
at Austin in 2018.]()
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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. Full Story
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![An array of pumpjacks operate along Texas State Highway 80 Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023 in Karnes County.]()
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U.S. census and other surveys likely undercount the number of LGBTQ+ people living in Texas
Some queer Texans may fear disclosing their sexual orientation or gender identity to neighbors or the government. The lack of accurate numbers makes it more difficult to provide appropriate health care, especially in rural areas. Full Story
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![Activists and members of Austin's LGBTQ community gather on the steps of the capitol to celebrate the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. These riots signify a key moment in the birth of the modern LGBT movement in America. June 28, 2017.]()
Credit: Austin Price for The Texas Tribune -
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. Full Story
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![A statue of a returning Confederate soldier on Thursday, April 21, 2022 in Galveston, TX. Known as The “Dignified Resignation,” the monument has stood in front of the Galveston County Courthouse since 1911. Commissioner Stephen Holmes made a motion to have the statue removed in 2020 but it was not supported by any other commissioners.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune -
T-Squared: The wait is over. Our full program for TribFest23 is here!
We’re bringing people together for talks that will examine education, Texas’ energy future, the 2024 races for U.S. Senate and president, and the state of democracy. Full Story
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![Image promoting The Texas Tribune Festival with a solid yellow background and an illustration of the Texas State Capitol dome opened up with Texas iconography spilling out. Images include western boots and hat, a star, and the Texas flag. With text that reads, "The wait is over. Full program announced!"]()
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LGBTQ+ advocates sue to block Texas’ new law that could criminalize some drag performances
State officials backing Senate Bill 12 have said they want to protect children from seeing sexually explicit performances. But new legal challenges say the law is so broad and vague that it criminalizes constitutionally protected expression. Full Story
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![Drag artist Brigitte Bandit and other attendees wait to give witness testimony for the Senate’s discussion of SB12 in the Capitol rotunda on Mar. 23, 2023. The bill defines drag shows as sexually oriented performances and would fine businesses who host them in front of children.]()
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Black and Hispanic Lubbock residents want federal intervention in zoning, environmental policies
A new federal complaint comes as the city updates its zoning laws for the first time since the 1970s. Full Story
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![Natalie Miller of the North and East Lubbock Coalition speaks during a press conference in Lubbock on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. The North and East Lubbock Coalition filed a Title VI Civil Rights Complaint against the city citing discriminatory zoning practices against minority neighborhoods.]()
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Race was a factor in Black professor’s failed hiring, Texas A&M department head says
Hart Blanton, the head of the university’s department of communications and journalism, also said then-President M. Katherine Banks interfered with the recruitment of journalist Kathleen McElroy. Full Story
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![The Academic Building on the Texas A&M University campus on March 26, 2018.]()
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In a political era of “parental rights,” Texans raising trans kids say new law strips them of choice
Senate Bill 14, which is set to take effect on Sept. 1, bans transition-related care for minors. Parents of transgender kids say it blocks their ability to support their children. Full Story
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![Kari stands with her son, a 17-year-old trans kid, during golden hour at a park in Georgetown on June 30, 2023. As of September 1 of this year, her son will no longer be legally allowed to have gender affirming healthcare and, according to the bill, will have to be “weaned off” their hormones in a “medically appropriate” manner. “I would love to ask somebody what is going to change between today and next March? Is my son going to magically change genders? Please let me know where that magic is,” Kari said.]()
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Lawsuit seeks to block Texas from banning gender transition-related care for children
The families argue the new law, which goes into effect Sept. 1, violates their parental rights by stopping them from providing medical care for their children and discriminates against transgender teens. Full Story
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![People gathered on the stairs across from the House floor to protest against SB 14, which seeks to ban puberty blockers and hormone therapies for transgender youth, before it is heard for debate in the House at the state Capitol in Austin on May 12, 2023.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
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. Full Story
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Voting by mail in Texas will get a little easier with these legislative fixes
Two bipartisan bills passed this session will give voters more time and opportunities to fix mistakes when they request and return ballots by mail. Full Story
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![The Travis County Tax Office at 5501 Airport Blvd is now the only drive-thru location open for hand delivery of mail ballots in the county. The drop-off location photographed here on Oct. 2, 2020, will be open until Nov. 3, 2020.]()
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LGBTQ+ community in Lubbock protests their city council’s failure to pass a Pride proclamation
In the conservative High Plains city, LGBTQ leaders and activists say they feel unseen and unsupported by their elected officials. Full Story
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![The Lubbock LGBTQ+ community protests quietly in response to the Lubbock City Council's failure to pass a proclamation that would declare the month of June as Pride Month in Lubbock, on June 27, 2023.]()
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Twenty years after a breakthrough Texas case launched a new era of gay rights, trans people are still in the fight
The U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for major civil rights victories for queer Americans in the 2003 decision that decriminalized homosexuality. But progress for LGBTQ+ people has been uneven. Full Story
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![People stand with signs and flags as they celebrate the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Lawrence vs. Texas case outside City Hall in Houston on June 26, 2003.]()
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State troopers will resume patrolling Austin streets in July, with some changes in response to criticism
Texas Department of Public Safety officers were criticized for the disparate number of Latino and Black residents arrested during the first iteration of a partnership to help Austin with policing duties. Full Story
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![Texas Department of Public Safety vehicles outside of the state Capitol on Aug. 11, 2021.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
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. Full Story
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![Luisa and Antonio Perez danced to the band Tigrillos at the Festival Viva Mexico in Corpus Christi on Sept 8, 2013.]()
Credit: Eddie Seal for The Texas Tribune -
LGBTQ+ Texans move forward with Pride plans despite tense political environment and fears of violence
Organizers across Texas are balancing a focus on security and a celebration of community after state lawmakers pushed scores of bills that threatened to upend the lives of LGBTQ+ Texans. Full Story
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![Nolan “Fish” Navarro, LGBTQ Task Force chair, poses for a photo in Brownsville, Texas on June 17, 2023.
Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Verónica Gabriela Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune
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