Guest Column: The Texas Political Atlas
On the eve of a noisy election year, the former lieutenant governor of Texas takes us on a tour through voting and demographic statistics. Full Story
The latest Texas Legislature news from The Texas Tribune.
On the eve of a noisy election year, the former lieutenant governor of Texas takes us on a tour through voting and demographic statistics. Full Story
The inflamed immigration rhetoric of the past couple of years has waned, but a report the National Conference of State Legislatures released today shows that state lawmakers still have passion for the issue. Full Story
Texas voters won't be offered a real chance at change in the Legislature and Congress next year. Four out of five state and federal lawmakers face no real competition in their primary or general elections. Full Story
Think like the political pros and your mind will go to the long game instead of the short one. The short game is the elections of 2010. The long game is redistricting in 2011, when maps are drawn that corral the voters into the districts that will elect legislators for the next ten years. Full Story
The El Paso school board this week dumped a controversial policy requiring teachers to give automatic grades of 50 to students who didn't earn them. But teachers are still allowed to do so at their discretion. Full Story
What are state and local governments in Texas doing to make raw data available to the public? Not much. Full Story
Criminal justice blogger Scott Henson is reporting on Grits For Breakfast that lawmakers put 59 new felonies on the books during the last legislative session. Full Story
Remember Van Taylor? Full Story
Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, is not, Not, NOT running against Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, in spite of reports that he was planning a challenge. Full Story
Short-term, high-interest lenders are clustered in neighborhoods where the median household income is less than $50,000 a year. Full Story
Wednesday could be the day voters in SD-5 find out whether Steve Ogden has changed his mind about getting out of the Legislature. Maybe. Full Story
The Rainy Day Fund seems like weather word play waiting to happen. It can plug holes in the budget, defend against an economic perfect storm and keep the deficit clouds at bay. That’s certainly how some see it when looking at the next biennium's projected shortfalls. Full Story
Rep. Dan Gattis says state Sen. Steve Ogden is running for reelection after all. But Ogden has maintained radio silence, not commenting (except through staff, who are happy to tell reporters that there's no comment available). Full Story
Dan Patrick is changing the programming at his Dallas station exclusively to Indian music. Full Story
The stimulus money increased funding for education last session. But can the state keep it up next session without more federal money? Full Story
Dan Gattis' announcement that he won't run for Senate or for reelection to the House next year: Full Story
State Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, is dropping his bid for state Senate and won't seek reelection to the Texas House next year, he said Sunday. Gattis said State Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, will seek reelection after all. Full Story
State Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, announced today on a local radio show that she plans to run for reelection to the Texas House instead of making a go at the state Senate seat that Eliot Shapleigh is vacating. Full Story
The number-crunchers among the Republicans and the Democrats in Texas use election results to get a feel for the political environment in each legislative district. They start with statewide races and then bake in some assumptions about what might happen if they put the right candidates in place. We and other political watchers need the same thing, without the partisan ingredients. So we cooked up the Texas Tribune Index. Full Story
Multi-part stories from Ramshaw and Grissom and Stiles on mental health services for detained immigrants and on payday lenders who provide exorbitantly priced credit to people with nowhere else to turn... Twitter, word clouds and the race for governor — a Stiles joint... Farouk Shami is in and Hu was there to watch... Philpott went to Bastrop for a gather of Republican governors... Rapoport finds a State Board of Education that's trying to control itself... and we have the skinny on legislative races that are likely to be competitive (only about 5 percent of the races on the ballot). It's the best of The Texas Tribune from November 14 to 20, 2009. Full Story