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The latest state government news from The Texas Tribune.

  • The Brief: February 23, 2010

    By Morgan Smith

    There’s plenty for Texas-focused Supreme Court watchers to gnaw on today. Also, there’s this election going on, and people really want to vote in it. Full Story 

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    Credit: Supreme Court of the United States

  • Primary Color: SD-5

    By Brian Thevenot

    Forget about issues. The GOP primary for this Senate seat in Central Texas is all about honesty and integrity. Incumbent Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, says of his challenger, Ben Bius, "I can't remember the last time he said something truthful." Bius says of Ogden, "I can forgive a man a policy difference if he keeps his word." Full Story 

    Steve Ogen (left), Ben Bius (right)
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich and benfortexas.org

  • Primary Color: HD-105

    By Andrew Kreighbaum

    North Texas Democrats see GOP state Rep. Linda Harper-Brown's Irving seat as theirs for the taking in 2010 — the top target in their battle to take back the majority in the House. But first they have to settle on a candidate. Full Story 

    Limberg, a Democratic candidate for the Texas House from Irving.

  • Look Back in Anger

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    With only a week to go before the GOP primary for governor, Debra Medina is pressing forward with her insurgent candidacy — despite the controversy over 9/11 truthers that temporarily upended her campaign. Her core supporters remain strongly with her, unfazed by and miffed at the media's scrutiny. How the whole thing ends is anyone's guess. Ben Philpott, covering the 2010 elections for KUT News and the Tribune, spent Monday on the trail with Medina and her flock and filed this report. Full Story 

    February 21, 2010. Debra Medina, flanked by supporters at an event at Texas Pride BBQ in Adkins, TX.
    Credit: Justin Dehn

  • DNA Deception

    By Emily Ramshaw

    When they were sued last year for storing baby blood samples without parental consent, Texas health officials said they'd done it for medical research. They never said they turned over the blood spots to the federal government to help build a vast DNA database. A Texas Tribune review of nine years' worth of e-mails and internal documents on the Department of State Health Services’ newborn blood screening program, released after the state settled the case so quickly that it never reached the discovery phase, shows an effort to limit the public’s knowledge of the program. Full Story 

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    Credit: Rodolfo Clix

  • TribLive: A Conversation with Julián Castro

    By Evan Smith

    For the third event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the mayor of San Antonio about the big issues facing the nation's seventh-largest city, how his early notions of the job squared with the reality of being in it, his age, his ethnicity, his party affiliation in a nonpartisan office and, of course, his future plans. Full Story 

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  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    Ramsey on Flintstone truthers, Thevenot on the explosion of "dual-credit" enrollees and the potential sacking of teachers when student test scores don't measure up, Ramshaw on government-subsidized child care providers with troubled track records, Stiles's enhanced state employee salary app and new dangerous day care app, Aguilar on our commie trading partner and the cost of being undercounted in the next census, Philpott on the legal wrangling over gay divorce and how social media fanned the flames of Debra Medina's 9/11 flap, and our roundup of powderkeg party primaries: Hu in HD-20, M. Smith in CD-23, Ramsey in HD-98, Hamilton in HD-127, Grissom HD-76 and HD-78, and Rapoport in SBOE 5. The best of our best from February 15 to 19, 2010. Full Story 

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  • Trading Places

    By Julián Aguilar

    Texas, that famous bastion of conservatism, has become a leading exporter of agricultural products to communist Cuba — second only to Louisiana among the 50 states. Full Story 

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    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • Data App: Day Care Danger

    By Matt Stiles

    More than 120 federally subsidized day care centers had their licenses denied or revoked by the state for violations of regulations and minimum standards in the last two years. Map their locations and drill down into the records by the provider name or action taken by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Full Story 

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