Final approval given to bill that would let prosecutors pursue murder charges in some fentanyl deaths
House Bill 6 has widespread bipartisan support and now heads to Gov. Greg Abbott, who has named the issue a priority. Full Story
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![Seized fentanyl pills during a press conference at the Montgomery Police Department's Criminal Investigations office in Montgomery, Alabama, on Aug. 8, 2022.]()
Credit: Jake Crandall/Montgomery Advertiser via REUTERS -
Rural Texas landowners who lost water access due to San Antonio pipeline could soon get relief
Groundwater levels rapidly declined in rural Lee County after San Antonio began pumping the water and moving it 100 miles southwest. A Senate bill would help affected well owners. Full Story
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![The Vista Ridge site in Burleson County on July 12, 2021.]()
Credit: Sophie Park/The Texas Tribune -
House waters down some of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s priorities, adding to late-session uncertainty
Although the lower chamber backed the Senate’s action on gender-affirming care, it has been less accepting of school choice and attempts to rein in higher education. Full Story
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![Lt. Governor Dan Patrick presides over the Senate at the Capitol in Austin on April 06, 2023.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
State budget leaders adopt some spending plans for 2024-25 but still no compromise on property taxes, power plants
With two weeks to go before the legislative session adjourns, chief budget writers still have not announced compromises on some of the largest fights facing the Texas Legislature. Full Story
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![The state Capitol in Austin on Feb. 9, 2023.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
Texas GOP’s broadest attempt yet to erode blue cities’ power gets one step closer to becoming law
Gov. Greg Abbott and other supporters of the bill have long sought legislation to push back against local regulations that they say hamper business owners and harm the state’s economy. Full Story
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![The Austin skyline on July 13, 2022.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
Why tax policy experts fear the Texas House plan to lower property taxes could have dire ripple effects
Both the House and the Senate’s proposals on property tax cuts would give modest savings to the typical Texas homeowner, but critics say the House plan could create vast inequities and disproportionately benefit wealthy homeowners. Full Story
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![A home in a Houston neighborhood on Dec. 14, 2022.]()
Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune -
Texas House approves bills to spend up to $1 billion to buy more state parkland
The Texas House paved the way for a billion-dollar investment in state parks, which one advocate said would create “a new golden age” for the park system. Texas now ranks 35th nationally in state park acreage per capita. Full Story
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![A park visitor casts a fishing line at Fairfield Lake State Park on Feb. 27, 2023.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Houston-area chemical fire highlights gaps in Texas environmental enforcement
A fire broke out at a Deer Park Shell plant the day after a public hearing on renewing the permit for ITC, a nearby facility that caught fire in 2019, sparking a Texas Tribune/Public Health Watch investigation that documented failures in state and federal oversight. Full Story
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![Deer Park, Texas: An overhead view of an explosion at a Shell USA Inc. facility on May 5, 2023 in Deer Park, Texas. Mark Felix/The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune -
Eliminating countywide voting in Texas would make the process harder on voters, cost more money, election leaders say
Currently, more than 80% of Texas voters can vote anywhere in their home county, a model that originated in Lubbock County. If lawmakers approve new legislation, that would change. Full Story
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![A voter walks past an election sign on his way to vote outside of the Lauro Cavazos Middle School polling station. Lubbock voters chose their voter preferences during the mid-term elections Tuesday, November 8, 2022.]()
Credit: Mark Rogers for The Texas Tribune -
Texas schools say it’s time to stop tying mental health funding to school safety money
Federal pandemic aid helped build public school mental health services in Texas. School officials now brace for the expiration of those funds next year. They’re urging lawmakers to create a dedicated funding stream for mental health assistance in schools. Full Story
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![High school students between classes in the hallway at the high school in Buffalo on March 28, 2019.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune -
Austin doctors who treated trans kids leaving Dell Children’s clinic after AG Paxton announces investigation
Attorney General Ken Paxton previously announced an investigation into “potentially illegal” activity. Parents are scrambling to find transition-related care for their kids as the Legislature appears poised to ban it altogether. Full Story
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![People line the railing on all three levels of the outdoor rotunda of the state Capitol in Austin, and wave signs during the "Fight for our Lives" rally in opposition of anti-LGBTQ+ bills on March 27, 2023.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
After Title 42’s end, Texas DPS pauses Austin patrols so officers can head to the border
Despite no major influx in border crossings, state troopers will be relocated to border cities. Austin and the Texas Department of Public Safety faced criticism for the racial disparities in state trooper arrests in the capital. Full Story
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![Members of the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Pubic Safety at the entrance to where hundreds of migrants wait to be processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents inside a makeshift migrant camp about three hours after Title 42 ended at 9:59 p.m. local time, Friday, May 12, 2023, in El Paso.]()
Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune -
Pivotal House vote moves Texas closer to banning puberty blockers, hormone treatments for trans kids
The House approved a bill Monday that would ban doctors from providing transition-related care to children. It now heads back to the Senate, which can accept the changes or ask for a committee to iron out the chambers’ differences. Full Story
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![Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas, gives instructions regarding a press conference to people who have gathered on the stairs across from the House floor to protest against SB 14, which seeks to ban puberty blockers and hormone therapies for transgender youth, before it is heard for debate in the House at the state Capitol in Austin on May 12, 2023.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
Effort to allow casinos falls short in Texas House
Facing a rigid deadline, gaming supporters were unable to get the supermajority support needed to move the legislation forward. Full Story
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![A cup with the message "I'd rather be a the casino" sits on the desk of state Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, on the House floor at the state Capitol on April 6, 2023.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
Bills by the handful perish as Texas House hits crucial late-session deadline
It was a night of frustration, retaliation and, for some, elation as the stroke of midnight spelled doom for a lot of legislation. Full Story
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![House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, surveys the chamber during a break in the action on deadline day May 11, 2023.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Texas sends more buses with migrants to Washington, D.C., the day before Title 42 is set to end at the border
As the Biden administration prepares to end the Trump policy that quickly expels migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, Gov. Greg Abbott orders two more buses to take migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence. Full Story
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![Union Station, Washington, DC - Activists line up for escort as two buses of migrants arrive near Union Station as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s new plan in response to the end of Title 42, a pandemic-era emergency health order to that allowed immigration authorities at the border to deny entry to migrants in Washington, DC, on Thursday, April 21, 2022.]()
Credit: Shuran Huang for The Texas Tribune -
Abortion bills gain little traction as Texas Legislature turns its attention to LGBTQ restrictions
Texas’ abortion laws look likely to remain about where they were at the beginning of the legislative session, as key deadlines pass without any movement on abortion-related bills. Full Story
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![Addison Kardos, 15, walks with thousands of people in an abortion rights protest in San Antonio after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022.]()
Credit: Kaylee Greenlee Beal for The Texas Tribune -
In dramatic vote, Texas House approves online sports betting measure
A resolution to let voters decide whether to legalize casino gambling, however, was delayed for a day while supporters worked to find enough support for passage. Full Story
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![A gambler stacks chips at a roulette table during the reopening of Bellagio hotel-casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on June 4, 2020.]()
Credit: REUTERS/Steve Marcus -
Texas House passes sweeping border funding bill, guts proposed policing unit
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle threw their support behind a new requirement that the unit use only commissioned peace officers for enforcement actions. Full Story
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![Department of Public Safety agents arrest an undocumented migrant for trespassing private property as part of Operation Lone Star in Kinney County near Brackettville, Texas on Nov. 9, 2021.
Verónica G. Cárdenas for ProPublica/The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune/ProPublica -
Greg Abbott says to stop mass shootings, Texas must improve mental health care. A $25 billion investment hasn’t been enough.
Texas still lags nationally when it comes to mental health services and there have been seven mass shootings since Abbott took office in 2015. Full Story
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![Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a presser at Uvalde High School on May 27, 2022.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy for The Texas Tribune