The latest state government news from The Texas Tribune.
A bill designed to find cost savings and efficiencies in Texas' costly Medicaid program — and, more controversially, expand managed care into the Rio Grande Valley — is moving to Senate budget writers for consideration. Full Story
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Another bill on Gov. Rick Perry's emergency items list — eminent domain — tentatively passed in the House today, and it could further curb the government's right to take private property. Full Story
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The Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission would be combined into a new Texas Juvenile Justice Department under a bill the Texas Senate approved today. Full Story
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The so-called puppy mill bill that has dog breeders and animal rights groups in Texas squared off in a war of words, HB 1451 by state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, will be up for a vote on the House floor tomorrow. Full Story
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The Big Men on Campus in the school known as the Texas Legislature have the unenviable job of finding money that might alleviate the massive cuts outlined in House Bill 1, the general appropriations bill for the next biennium. Full Story
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News that the state comptroller's office exposed the personal data of 3.5 million Texas has many wondering, as Mose Buchele of KUT News reports, whether the state should be doing more to assure internet privacy — and how the comptroller's office will be held accountable. Full Story
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A House committee is set to consider a bill requiring cities with populations of more than 500,000 to have single-member city council districts. As Ryland Barton of KUT News and ReportingTexas.com reports, the bill's supporters say it would more effectively incorporate minorities and less densely populated areas. Full Story
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Families and doctors testified Tuesday on the grief and tough decisions surrounding Texas' advance directives law, which allows hospitals to cease treating terminally ill patients after a 10-day waiting period if an ethics panel agrees there is no hope for recovery. Full Story
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With more than 3,000 bills and only 140 days to pass them, somebody's got to set priorities and make a schedule. Those somebodies are on the calendars committees. Full Story
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State jail officials would get a clearer picture of potential problems in county lockups under a bill a Senate panel considered on Tuesday that would require counties to report the monthly turnover rate among jailers. Full Story
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For the first time in decades, first-time drunken-driving offenders could get deferred adjudication under a bill the Senate Criminal Justice Committee considered Tuesday. Full Story
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An audio interview with Steve Pollock of the Texas Forest Service on the Texas wildfires. Full Story
The state’s two leading anti-abortion groups — Texas Right to Life and Texas Alliance for Life — agree on where life begins, but not on a law governing how it may come to an end. A house committee will take up the issue today. Full Story
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The House Ways & Means Committee is considering several bills that have the same mission: to make permanent the franchise tax exemption for businesses that report $1 million or less in gross revenue. Full Story
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A panel of senators today discussed an abortion sonogram carve-out that would allow women in remote communities to wait just two hours after a sonogram to have an abortion, instead of 24 hours. Full Story
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Since 2009, the Texas Forest Service has helped douse more than 2,600 wildfires like those scorching West Texas. We mapped the area most effected by the blazes, which burned nearly a half-million acres and destroyed 300 homes. Full Story
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At last Thursday's TribLive conversation, I interviewed state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, and state Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, about the maps they and their colleagues will draw for the state's House, Senate and congressional districts. Full Story
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State Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, and state Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, the chairs of the Senate and House redistricting committees, respectively, were our guests at TribLive on April 7. Full Story
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At last Thursday's TribLive, state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, and state Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, the chairs of the Senate and House redistricting committees, respectively, talked about their approach to redrawing Texas congressional district lines. Full Story
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The chairs of the Senate and House redistricting committees, respectively, were our guests for TribLive on April 7. Full Story