2017 Year in Review

2018 is set to be a busy year in Texas politics. Watch as Texas Tribune executive editor Ross Ramsey and political reporter Patrick Svitek discuss what to keep an eye on. Full Story 

Recovering from historic storms can take a long, long time, as the Texas Gulf Coast knows. And we’re entering an election year in which the voters will have a chance to grade incumbents on the longer-term response to Hurricane Harvey. Full Story 

This year, Texas lawmakers met for an explosive legislative session that nearly ended in blows, the governor called an ambitious special session, a hurricane ravaged the coast and scandals rocked the state's members of Congress. Full Story 

TribTalk is a place for opinions and editorials and even poetry (sometimes, if it’s great) written by people who are usually in the audience instead of on stage. Here are the best columns from this year. Full Story 

The end of the year is when property owners have to pay their taxes — an increasingly large bill in Texas that’s a key part of the state’s rickety school finance system. Here’s a sampling of columns tracking that debate in 2017. Full Story 

From DeRay to Dawnna, here are Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith's favorite conversations of the year. Full Story 

There has never been a year in Congress like 2017, and most there spent the last year adjusting to an erratic president and an even more volatile American public. Full Story 

As city officials sought help overhauling pension funds and fought off lawmakers' attempts to legislate local matters, urban Texans continued having trouble finding affordable places to live. Full Story 

Some of the political kids in Texas wanted a quick ruling on redistricting for Christmas, a perennial request that never seems to be granted. With just two Texas elections left in the decade, the courts are still arguing over the state's maps. Full Story 

From tumultuous sessions in the Texas Legislature to widespread devastation from Hurricane Harvey, reporters and photographers for The Texas Tribune were on scene to capture the big picture and the human details. Full Story 

Looking to catch up on your reading this holiday season? You've come to the right place. Here, in no particular order, are our curated picks: the top Texas Tribune storytelling of 2017. Full Story 

After the national spotlight shined bright on Texas politics last year — with a wild presidential race that drew in the state and its leaders — 2017 brought a focus much closer to home. Full Story 

University leaders began this year expecting a bruising Texas legislative session, but they came out mostly unscathed. In many ways, the year will be remembered more for what happened on campus — not in the Capitol. Here are the top higher ed stories of 2017. Full Story 

Take a look back at our 2017 public education coverage and read about how the Texas Legislature failed to overhaul the school finance system, how several Texas students and teachers are still recovering from a devastating hurricane, and more. Full Story 

Relive the year in Texas politics and policy through the Tribune's video coverage of the 85th Legislature, Hurricane Harvey, the deadly shooting in Sutherland Springs, the controversy over Confederate monuments and more. Full Story 

The furor over fake news showed no signs of slowing down in 2017. Take our quiz to see how good you are at identifying falsehoods. Full Story 

President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration garnered a lion's share of headlines in 2017. But the state's Republican lawmakers weren't about to be upstaged by Washington, D.C. on the hot-button issue. Full Story 

2017 was the year when House Speaker Joe Straus found his voice, when the culture conservatives lost out to the business conservatives and when the fault lines that define today’s Texas GOP opened up for everyone to see. Full Story 

Weather-related prison evacuations, legal battles over execution drugs and death sentences, and reform efforts at the Texas Legislature led the state's criminal justice headlines in 2017. Full Story 

Texas tackled a child welfare crisis, sought to address the opioid epidemic and looked at how to help more people in the state access mental health care. Here’s a look at this year's top Texas health and human services stories. Full Story 

Texans successfully fought back against tolled highway projects in 2017. Meanwhile, motorists are now forbidden to text while driving and ride-hailing companies emerged from the legislative session with a major victory. Full Story