State government

Johnson enters a race that includes at least eight other candidates, from Republican former state Rep. Jason Villalba to City Council member Scott Griggs and Dallas schools trustee Miguel Solis.

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Gov. Greg Abbott and his partners in office want to impose limits on the size of local property tax increases, and the governor has added a twist those local governments might like: He has targeted unfunded state mandates.

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Two Democrats and 14 Republicans will chair the upper chamber's committees.

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The Texas House wants to give the state prison system $160 million more to help care for inmates. The Senate wants to cut funding.

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Texas moved to exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid years ago after a highly-edited video from an anti-abortion group suggested abortion providers sold fetal tissue.

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The court ordered Austin to pay a fine to the state for each day it prevented investigators from the attorney general's office from carrying their firearms.

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Watch our interview with new state Sens. Carol Alvarado, Pete Flores, Nathan Johnson and Beverly Powell, moderated by Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith.

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State leaders have promised to tackle school safety this session, and lawmakers are expected to push bills that would beef up mental health screening programs and make it easier to arm teachers.

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The two top statewide elected officials were sworn in Tuesday to second terms at the helm of Texas government.

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After winning re-election in November, both Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are embarking on their second, four-year term. Watch their swearings-in and inaugural speeches here.

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For the few months of each new 140-day legislative session, the respective chambers typically adjourn after meeting for less than an hour. There are several reasons lawmakers can't get off to a faster start.

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The proposed budget would increase state funds for education by about 17 percent but cut funding for health and human services by about 3 percent.

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Amid uncertainty about the federal health law, state legislators will tackle a variety of issues during the session, from abortion to mental health to opioids to funding for Medicaid.

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County party officials overwhelmingly rejected attempts to remove Shahid Shafi because he's Muslim. The 139-49 vote in his favor came after the state's top Republican officials denounced the failed move to oust the trauma surgeon.

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Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, wants to restrain the practice of prosecuting people who default on rent-to-own contracts for household items like TVs and sofas. The proposal comes in the wake of an investigation of rent-to-own prosecutions by The Texas Tribune and Nerd Wallet.

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Here’s a look at the demographics of the 86th Legislature by lawmakers’ race, gender, age, education and religion.

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Watch live coverage of a news conference featuring Gov. Greg Abbott, House Speaker Dennis Bonnen and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, courtesy of KXAN-TV.

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Bonnen’s unanimous election marks a new era of Texas House leadership for the first time in a decade. Meanwhile, the leader of the Texas Senate, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, was conspicuously absent on opening day.

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Advocates for state workers are calling for increased pay after a State Auditor’s Office report released in December found that agency turnover was at 19.3 percent in the 2018 budget year. The top reasons employees said they left were retirement, better pay and benefits and poor working conditions.

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Chris Traylor's new position comes after joining the federal government in July as deputy administrator for strategic initiatives at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

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