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Ross Ramsey co-founded The Texas Tribune in 2009 and served as its executive editor until his retirement in 2022. He wrote regular columns on politics, government and public policy. Before joining the Tribune, he was editor and co-owner of Texas Weekly. He did a 28-month stint in government with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Before that, he reported for the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Times Herald, as a Dallas-based freelancer for regional and national magazines and newspapers, and for radio stations in Denton and Dallas.
Weatherford car dealer Roger Williams switched from the U.S. Senate race to a race for Congress this morning, finishing up a swap that began last week with calls to supporters in and around the new CD-33. Full Story
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Lawmakers must wrap up the special session on Wednesday, with a few outstanding priorities left to tackle. Here's a rundown of where the Texas Legislature stands going into the second-to-last day of the special session. Full Story
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State legislators say they've reached a compromise on reform of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, potentially averting a second special session this summer. Full Story
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You’d think the Aggie consultant would be working for the Aggie candidate. Full Story
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For the latest installment of our unscientific survey of political and policy insiders, we asked about the special session, whether lawmakers will finish what they're working on, and whether another special session will follow this one. Full Story
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Now that lawmakers have drawn, approved and sent congressional redistricting maps to the governor for approval, the Senate voted to hand future mapmaking to a bipartisan, non-legislative commission. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry is promising to bring lawmakers back for another special session if they can't dig their way out of the TWIA hole. Full Story
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The bill numbers have been changed to protect the innocent. If you had left Austin for a couple of weeks starting, say, right after the regular session, you'd have returned to find new congressional maps in place and little else to show for the special session. Full Story
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An Everybody-in-the-Pool effort on what's left to do in the special session, Ramshaw on a doozy of a congressional race shaping up, Aguilar on the debate over sanctuary cities and other immigration proposals, M. Smith on the state's used-up Rainy Day Fund, Grissom on efforts to kick the special interests out of an insurance fight, Dehn and Tan on whether the special session helps or hurts the governor's national ambitions, Galbraith and KUT Radio team up for a series on the long-term outlook for Central Texas water, Aaronson on government attempts to balance openness and privacy with data releases, yours truly on Amazon's run at a sales tax break, and Hamilton on an ethnic gap in higher education: The best of our best from June 20 to 24, 2011. Full Story
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Lawmakers aren't buying Amazon's latest pitch for a sales tax break in Texas. But Rick Perry is. Full Story
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