Past Contributions

• What happens when immigrant families cross the border outside a port of entry

  By Darla Cameron, Emma Platoff and Chris Essig June 20, 2018

  How exactly are families being separated at the border? Here's where parents and children go after they're apprehended. Full Story 

• A facility to house immigrant children is planned for Houston. City officials don’t want it.

  By Emma Platoff June 19, 2018

  State Sen. Sylvia Garcia referred to the warehouse — which most recently housed families displaced by Hurricane Harvey — as a planned "baby jail." Full Story 

• Texas state Sen. Carlos Uresti resigns after felony convictions

  By Emma Platoff Updated: June 18, 2018

  Four months after he was convicted of 11 felonies, Texas state Sen. Carlos Uresti announced Monday that he will resign from the Texas Legislature, where he's served for more than two decades. Full Story 

• In Sunday sermons, Texas faith leaders rebuke Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy

  By Emma Platoff June 17, 2018

  Churches, especially in deep-red Texas, often sit out partisan squabbles. But the issue of family separations is not a political one, some faith leaders say — it's a humanitarian and moral crisis. Full Story 

• At Texas A&M, a renewed dispute over the university’s response to sexual assault

  By Emma Platoff June 14, 2018

  A varsity swimmer was found "responsible" for sexually assaulting a fellow student. But after a brief suspension and one semester of academic probation, he can rejoin the team. Full Story 

• The Supreme Court struck down a Minnesota ban on political clothing in polling places. Texas has a similar law.

  By Emma Platoff Updated: June 14, 2018

  The high court's ruling on a Minnesota state law is likely to reverberate in Texas, which has a similar law on the books. Neither state allows voters to wear political garments or accessories in their polling places. Full Story 

• After the Santa Fe shooting, a lawsuit aims to “effect change.” Can civil cases do what legislation hasn't?

  By Emma Platoff June 8, 2018

  The lawsuit filed against the Santa Fe shooting suspect's parents aims to hold gun owners responsible for the way they store their firearms around their troubled children. Experts say it fits into a nationwide pattern of gun liability cases that aspire to keep gun owners and manufacturers accountable through fear of high-cost lawsuits. Full Story 

• What the U.S. Supreme Court's Masterpiece Cakeshop decision means for religious refusal laws in Texas

  By Emma Platoff June 5, 2018

  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Christian baker in Colorado who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. The outcome doesn't have direct legal bearing on Texas — but it does have implications for religious refusal laws in the state. Full Story 

• U.S. Supreme Court calls legal challenge in undocumented teenager's abortion case "moot"

  By Emma Platoff June 4, 2018

  Justices made the decision months after the teenager, who was in federal custody in Brownsville, terminated her pregnancy. Federal officials argued they didn't have time to appeal a lower court's ruling that cleared the way for the procedure. Full Story 

• Texas must reveal where it got execution drugs, the Texas Supreme Court affirms

  By Emma Platoff and Jolie McCullough Updated: June 1, 2018

  The move from the Texas Supreme Court comes more than a year after an Austin-based appeals court said the agency must reveal a 2014 supplier of lethal injection drugs. Full Story