The latest state government news from The Texas Tribune.
Because — as both Democrats and Republicans know well — the drawing of congressional, legislative and State Board of Education district lines determines, to a large extent, the outcomes of future elections. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry thanked emergency responders and urged Texans to remain on guard against wildfires, after touring a massive blaze near Bastrop that he described as being "as mean-looking as I've ever seen." Full Story
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In this week's edition of our nonscientific survey of political and government insiders, we asked who the state's 31 senators would pluck from their own ranks to run the Senate, and perhaps to serve as governor, should the state's top officials move on to bigger and better things. Full Story
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Even as the Obama administration delighted conservatives last week by pulling back on a broad regulation to combat ozone pollution, the controversial "cross-state" rule that would also reduce smog-forming pollutants in Texas remains on track. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry’s early opposition to the Obama administration’s education policies — whose bipartisan backers include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — make him something of an ideological outlier among Republicans. Full Story
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Aaronson on the stats behind the Texas Miracle, Aguilar on an area of the budget that didn't get cut during the session, Dehn and Tan wrap-up our 31 Days, 31 Ways project, Galbraith talks to Todd Staples about the drought, Grissom on controversial executions during Rick Perry's tenure (plus a visualization by Murphy and Seger), Hamilton on the Rodney Dangerfield of Texas universities, Philpott on the search for clues in past Perry debates, Ramshaw on Perry's opposition to abortion rights and Root on Perry's assurances to conservatives that his past won't embarrass them: The best of our best content from Aug. 29 to Sept. 2, 2011. Full Story
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Lawmakers are long gone from the statehouse, but their decisions have consequences that will be seen throughout the next two years. The Tribune's Thanh Tan spent the month of August explaining 31 ways Texans' lives are going to change. Full Story
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This morning @TribData released a visualization of all executions in the state of Texas since Gov. Rick Perry took office in late 2000. Here's how we made it happen. Full Story
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Specialty services for thousands of Texans with disabilities are on the chopping block, yet another casualty of the significant budget cuts state lawmakers passed in May. Full Story
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As Gov. Rick Perry touts his tough-on-crime policies on the national stage, the case of Cameron Todd Willingham remains in the headlines. But Willingham’s execution is hardly the only controversial one Perry has presided over. Full Story
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Hand a bunch of insiders a list of 31 senators and ask what's going to happen next, and you turn them into outsiders. Full Story
Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Attorney General Greg Abbott may well use a court ruling against the abortion sonogram law to their political advantage — to lure anti-abortion voters to the polls, and fuel their fire against so-called “activist” judges. Full Story
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On the national stage, Texas' economy is its best selling point. But this so-called "Texas Miracle" doesn't extend statewide: In the border region, unemployment reaches as high as 13.2 percent, and the median income is 30 percent lower than the statewide average. Full Story
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This week on the TribCast, Evan, Reeve, Ben and Thanh talk about Rick Perry's front-runner status and the new roadblock thrown in front of abortion sonogram legislation. Full Story
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Lawyers for death row inmate Duane Edward Buck today asked for clemency based on the statement of a key witness that the fact he was black meant Buck was more likely to be violent in the future. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry says that if you want to know what kind of president he would be, all you have to do is read his book. Fed Up! is filled with potential political landmines, but Perry isn't backing off anything he wrote — not one bit. Full Story
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DAY 31 of our month-long series on the effects of new state laws and budget cuts: Nursing homes were spared the draconian cuts proposed by lawmakers at the beginning of the 2011 session. Still, despite growing caseloads and rising medical costs, they move forward with less state and federal support. Full Story
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The Texas commissioner of agriculture on the "catastrophic" devastation he's seen from the worst one-year drought in recorded Texas history, what the feds and state are doing and what needs to happen to cope with a potential multiyear drought. Full Story
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In his nearly 11 years as governor, Rick Perry has helped make Texas one of the most restrictive states for women seeking abortions. With every legislative session, and every election, his opposition has grown increasingly emphatic. Full Story
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U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks has ruled that the state can't yet enforce the abortion sonogram law slated to go into effect on Thursday. Full Story
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