The Dallas church community has vowed to forge 25 partnerships with high-poverty public schools and push for 700 units of housing for the homeless — a down payment on a larger effort to heal wounds left by racism and injustice. Full Story
No snowbirds here. A growing number of state employees are retiring and coming straight back to work, padding — and in some cases nearly doubling — their state salaries with pension pay-outs. 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
This ad is worth a look. Toward the end, there's a special shot of Medina really connecting with common man, by carrying a non-descript giant sack on her shoulder. Full Story
We've added Texas A&M to our payroll database, so now you can compare both coaches' salaries. Let's hope next week's game isn't so lopsided. Full Story
Groups that offer high-interest, short-term consumer loans and want to avoid state regulation contributed more than $1.4 million to Texas politicians over the past nine years, Texas Ethics Commission records show. Full Story
As lawmakers in D.C. hammer out a health care reform bill, physician-owned specialty hospitals — a quarter of which are in Texas — face an uncertain fate. Full Story
Farouk Shami's red-carpeted gubernatorial candidacy coming-out party was more like a scene out of Fashion Week than anything Texas Democrats typically put on. But the stagecraft and the statewide ad buy that begins today are aimed to quell doubts about whether he's making a serious run. Full Story
Republicans Kay Bailey Hutchison and Rick Perry have started their air war, and Democrat Farouk Shami — new to the race — starts on TV at the same time. Full Story