Texas foster care agency chief to step down this summer
Two years after Stephanie Muth became Department of Family and Protective Services commissioner, staff turnover is down and the number of children without a placement has dropped. Full Story
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![DFPS Commissioner Stephanie Muth listens to agency updates during a DFPS Council Meeting in Austin on March 10, 2023.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Texas will begin a summer lunch program in 2027, but only if feds don’t raise costs
The program would give low income families an extra $120 per child for summer lunches, but federal debate about food benefits could endanger the program. Full Story
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![Bonham Middle School employees watch as students begin to gather for lunch in the school’s cafeteria Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023 in Odessa.]()
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Texas reined in recreational THC for more medical marijuana this legislative session
Texas passed sweeping changes to cannabis policy, including expanding the medical marijuana program and banning hemp products, while also boosting psychedelics research. Full Story
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![Hemp plants are seen at Caprock Family Farms, Friday, May 23, 2025, in Lubbock.]()
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A look at the wins rural Texas scored in this year’s legislative session
Lawmakers sought to close gaps in education and support funding for agriculture, disaster preparedness and health care this year. Full Story
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![The Texas State Capitol on March 17, 2025.]()
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Texas hospital that discharged woman with doomed pregnancy violated the law, a federal inquiry finds
Federal investigators found that the Round Rock hospital had violated a Biden-era law intended to provide abortions in emergency situations. Full Story
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![Ascension Seton Williamson hospital Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, in Round Rock. Two Texas women filed separate federal complaints last week against Texas Health Arlington Memorial and Ascension Seton Williamson hospitals alleging that the hospitals denied treatment of ectopic pregnancy, leading them to lose their fallopian tubes and suffer severe health consequences.]()
Credit: USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect -
Sodas, candy to be banned from Texas food stamp purchases
Buoyed by the Trump administration's willingness to place restrictions on food assistance programs, Texas moves to limit junk food. Full Story
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![Local convenience store and meat market El Torito serves residents living along U.S. Highway 281 in San Benito, on June 29, 2018.]()
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School vouchers, THC ban, property tax cuts: Here’s what Texas lawmakers did in the 2025 regular session
The Legislature wrapped up without the same drama that defined the end of the last two sessions, with state GOP leaders checking off nearly everything on their to-do lists. Full Story
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![State Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston, looks out the window from the Texas House of Representatives chamber as the lawmakers debate on bills at the Texas Capitol, on Monday, May 26, 2025.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
How RFK Jr., Democrats and Republicans found common ground over food labels in Texas
Texas is poised to lead the country in an initiative to inform denizens of what’s in their food. Food industry experts say it’s going too far. Full Story
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![A woman pushes her shopping cart down an aisle at a Brookshire Brothers grocery store in Buffalo, Texas, on June 29, 2023. According to clients of The Lord’s Pantry of Leon County, Brookshire Brothers is the only grocery store in the county which they describe as a food desert.]()
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Texas Legislature approves $338 billion two-year spending plan with a focus on property tax relief
A boost in public school spending, school vouchers, and money for water systems are other highlights of the state budget, which was bolstered by a $24 billion surplus. Full Story
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![The State Capitol on Nov. 19, 2020.]()
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A bill to air-condition all Texas prisons likely to fail again in the Senate
House Bill 3006 would have required the installation of climate control in state prison by 2032. Full Story
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![Inmates shuffle past new fans in the TDCJ Memorial Unit in Brazoria Co. on July 12, 2017. The prison was called the Darrington Unit until 2023.]()
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Texas just defined man and woman. Here’s why that matters.
Critics say House Bill 229, which has gone to the governor, discriminates against trans people, but the full effect remains to be seen. Full Story
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![Naia Fulton-Jones chants in front of the Texas Capitol to protest for transgender kids' rights on Tuesday, Mar. 1, 2022.]()
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Bill that would have banned Texas minors from social media misses key deadline
House Bill 186, approved by the lower chamber in May, never received a vote in the Senate. Full Story
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![Students check their phones while waiting for the bus following classes at Lufkin High School in Lufkin on Jan. 29, 2023.]()
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Bill curbing the flow of abortion pills into Texas likely dead
Proponents of SB 2880 have singled out Rep. Ken King, House State Affairs committee chair, for letting the bill languish. Full Story
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![Nurse practitioner Debra Lynch holds a box of mifepristone, the first drug used in a medication abortion regimen. Practicing under Delaware's shield law, Lynch prescribes the pills via telehealth, largely to patients in abortion-restricted states like Texas.]()
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Texas will require state documents to reflect sex assigned at birth
Many trans Texans have changed the sex listed on their birth certificate, driver’s licenses and other documents. They say their identities will be invalidated under bill headed to governor's desk. Full Story
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![The crowd gathered at a rally for Trans Day of Visibility at the Bexar County Courthouse listens to pediatrician Dr. Lulu in San Antonio on March 31, 2023.]()
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Texas lawmakers expand medical marijuana program eligibility amid looming hemp ban
House Bill 46, which awaits Gov. Greg Abbott’s approval, would include more patients with chronic pain and allow for prescribed vaporized and aerosol products, such as vapes. Full Story
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![An engineer at Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation in South Austin tests for impurities on April 30, 2021.]()
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New limits for personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits may become a reality in Texas
The House made changes to the proposal that leave open ways for victims to be compensated beyond medical bills. 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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THC ban will destroy Texas' hemp agriculture industry, farmers say
While state leaders say growers can still produce industrial hemp, farmers say they will quit growing the plant altogether under a total THC ban. Full Story
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![Ann Gauger stands in one of the Caprock Family Farms’ grow rooms, Friday, May 23, 2025, in Lubbock. “Agriculture is changing and the new age of agriculture has to be cutting edge,” Ann Gauger says.]()
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Ban on THC products in Texas heads to Gov. Abbott’s desk after Senate agrees to House changes
The governor has not addressed whether he supports the ban, as hemp industry leaders have urged him to veto Senate Bill 3. Full Story
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![Edible THC and CBD products sit on display at Sweet Sensi, a shop specializing in THC products five blocks away from the Capitol in Austin on May 22, 2025.]()
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Texas Legislature approves making vaccine exemption process easier
Instead of waiting for the state to send them one, parents would be able to print out vaccine exemption forms at home if they want to skip school-required shots. Critics believe the bill would increase infections. Full Story
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![A lab employee works on tissue cultures for research in the Tropical Medicine Lab in the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development on Oct. 5, 2021, in Houston.]()
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Food aid cuts and other changes: What the U.S. House spending bill could mean for Texans
Many low-income families would see cuts in health care and food benefits. The state hopes for a big reimbursement for border security spending. Full Story
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![A volunteer loads a box of groceries into a truck for delivery to a nearby community in the the panhandle.]()
Credit: Callie Richmond for The Texas Tribune