State government

"It’d be like someone standing at the Alamo going, ‘I’m not gonna survive this thing,’ and all of a sudden he jumps up and starts speaking Spanish!" says Rep. Mark Homer, D-Paris. Maybe so, but switching parties usually works out. 

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State schools chief Robert Scott recently failed to get the Legislature to increase the cap on charter schools — then found a legal way to do it anyway, much to the dismay of state Democrats and teachers unions.

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Republican Brian Walker, who lost a close race to Democrat Chuck Hopson in 2008, endorsed Hopson's reelection bid next year — now that Hopson has switched to the GOP.

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State agencies are spending tens of millions of dollars every year on information technology contract workers, employees who aren’t on the state payroll – but whose pay often dwarfs those who are.

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John Bradley, the Williamson County District Attorney and the newly-appointed chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, spent his morning answering a steady stream of questions from Texas lawmakers. At issue, if and when his panel will re-open the investigation into whether faulty science led to the arson conviction of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed by the state in 2004.

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Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley expected some verbal jousting today at the Senate Criminal Justice Committee about his plans for the Texas Forensic Science Commission. He was right.

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A California newspaper's speculation on who will be the country's first Hispanic president lists Texas' own Rep. Rafael Anchia and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro as fan favorites. 

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Experts from around the U.S. and Mexico are debating the War on Drugs and its affect on violence south of the border. Some of them wonder whether decriminalization is the answer.

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The state is cracking down on officials who run afoul of election, lobbying and officeholder rules. Just ask Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole.

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In keeping with our goal of making government data more accessible, we've created a simple application for searching fines issued by the Texas Ethics Commission.

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Federal officials say Texas' testing standards in reading are below the “basic” proficiency standards — and that low bar means  those passing the TAKS may not be as proficient as advertised.

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What concerns me as a Republican is that the race for governor may be focusing too much on the personalities of the candidates and the highly charged nature of the race rather than the long-term vision and consequences. I worry that either candidate could win the race but lose the future — too much focus on the politics of the next year, rather than the policies of the next decade.

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Texas’ chain of inland checkpoints has created a border within a border, separating abused and sometimes undocumented children in counties adjacent to Mexico from services north of the invisible line.

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