Here are a dozen of my columns from 2021: highlights on the winter storm, redistricting, the state’s finances and on issues that could figure into this next round of elections.
Economy
Get the latest on jobs, business, growth, and policy shaping the state’s economy with in-depth reporting from The Texas Tribune.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Holidays and at-home tests mean omicron’s spread will be harder to track in Texas
The Texas Department of State Health Services, which tracks the number of coronavirus vaccinations, cases, hospitalizations and deaths across the state, won’t be updating its daily dashboard Friday through Sunday both this week and next over the holidays.
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Demographics
Unhappy holidays: Texas endures another COVID Christmas
After nearly two years of navigating life during a pandemic, many Texans are now scrambling for COVID tests, delaying plans and worrying about relatives who have been exposed to the virus.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Home prices soared during the pandemic. Here’s what that looks like in one East Texas city.
Texas’ housing crunch has spread outside of the state’s major metropolitan areas and into more rural parts of Texas. Smaller cities and towns saw steep increases in home prices as COVID-19 spread.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he’ll take fight against federal vaccine mandate for large businesses to Supreme Court
Texas is among states that sued the Biden administration over its mandate. An appeals court ruled in the president’s favor Friday and reinstated the rule, set to take effect Jan. 4.
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Texas 2022 Elections
Analysis: From homegrown culture warriors to tomorrow’s Texas leaders
Republicans in Austin have been after local governments for years, pushing aside local laws and rules on a long list of issues where local and state powers overlap. Now they’re recruiting fellow Republicans for local offices, to try to change things at the ground level.
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Winter Storm 2021
Analysis: Texas’ electric grid is half-ready for another winter freeze
Chances are, winter weather won’t be as bad as it was last February. Chances are, Texas won’t have the electric blackouts that caused so much misery then. And chances are, whatever happens will have some influence on the 2022 elections.
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Economy
Texas’ multibillion-dollar corporate tax incentive program is slated to end in 2022. Will state officials let it die?
Critics of the Chapter 313 corporate tax incentive program say it lacks accountability and is burdensome to taxpayers in the state.
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Economy
Evictions in some Texas cities are almost back to normal levels as tenant help dries up
Evictions in major Texas cities have reached levels not seen since the pandemic began. But tenant protections and financial assistance for struggling renters are beginning to fade.
Sponsor Post
Veteran’s experiences, grant build success
By Texas Woman’s UniversityThe harsh lessons that came early in life for Lisa Bass led to a pattern of late starts in her adult endeavors, but as evidence that bad fortune can sometimes turn good, those combined experiences were a formula for career success.“I made some bad choices in my life, and I know that […]