The latest 82nd Legislative Session news from The Texas Tribune.
At last Thursday's TribLive conversation, the authors of Texas Monthly's biennial Best and Worst Legislators story, senior executive editor Paul Burka and senior editor Nate Blakeslee, defended their 2011 picks. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/2274ec1d683edc219fcb797c497c9834/TT%20Event%20Triblive%20Best%20Worst%2002%202011)
At last Thursday's TribLive conversation, the authors of Texas Monthly's biennial Best and Worst Legislators story, senior executive editor Paul Burka and senior editor Nate Blakeslee, defended their 2011 picks. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Triblive_TexasMonthly_BestWorst_Burka_close.jpg)
At last Thursday's TribLive conversation, the authors of Texas Monthly's biennial Best and Worst Legislators story, senior executive editor Paul Burka and senior editor Nate Blakeslee, explained why no Democrats appeared on the Ten Worst list. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Triblive_TexasMonthly_BestWorst_Burka_close_1.jpg)
At last Thursday's TribLive conversation, the authors of Texas Monthly's biennial Best and Worst Legislators story, senior executive editor Paul Burka and senior editor Nate Blakeslee, explained why state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, made the Ten Worst list. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Triblive_TexasMonthly_BestWorst_Burka_close_2.jpg)
Like parents threatening to withhold allowance from a misbehaving child, proponents of Senate Bill 9 are warning local authorities across the state: Comply or face the fiscal consequences. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/border.jpg)
Brace yourselves. There's still a possibility it won't happen, but brace yourselves nevertheless, because in some ways it’s happening already. Full Story
Want a quick recap of some of the happenings this week in the Texas Legislature? We've made it easier for you with our weekly video rundown of the action under the dome. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/domeskyflag.png)
Aaronson and Murphy visualize what happened to the nearly 5,800 bills introduced in the 82nd Lege, Aaronson, Hasson and Swicegood interactively recap the budget battle, Aguliar on the surge in illegal re-entry cases prosecuted by the Obama administration, Galbraith on a coal plant that wants a water deal from the LCRA, Grissom interviews a man wrongly imprisoned and nearly executed — twice, Hamilton on a controversial UT regent who wants a do-over in the debate over higher ed reform, Ramshaw on the continuing fight over pre-abortion sonograms, Root on Rick Perry's newsmaking trip to NYC and M. Smith on whether cash-strapped school districts will raise taxes: The best of our best content from June 13 to 17, 2011. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Triblive06132011.jpg)
The 82nd Legislature has ended its regular session, and that means it's time time to keep an eye out for the bills Gov. Rick Perry dislikes enough to veto. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/PerryVetoStamp.jpg)
Gov. Rick Perry gave his seal of disapproval to 24 bills today, two days before the veto deadline for all legislation passed during the regular session. Measures that didn't meet Perry's approval include a ban on texting while driving and bills that would continue the operations of two state agencies. Full Story
The veto deadline for the 82nd legislative session — June 19 — is quickly approaching, and Gov. Rick Perry is expected to announce a slew of vetoes any moment. Explore our latest data visualizations to find out which Texas governors vetoed the most bills during their tenure, and see the total number of vetoes from sessions past. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/VetoPowerViz.jpg)
One certain result of the 82nd Legislative Session is that the University of Texas at Austin will lose a signfiicant amount of funding in the 2012-2013 budget. Nathan Bernier of KUT News interviewed UT-Austin President Bill Powers on the effects of that cut and other session-related matters. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/4a137966cfaea56df7fd4fbb0dc9674c/BD%20INC%20Powers%2002%20CMS%202011)
One of the most emotional and controversial issues of the year centered around the sanctuary cities bil. Senate Democrats managed to block SB 9 during the regular session, but it's found a new life in the special session. Behind the scenes, some question whether the Democrats are now reaping what they sowed when one of their members pushed the Legislature into overtime. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/BurnamRally_1.png)
The 82nd Legislature delivered a fatal whack to state grants for full-day pre-kindergarten. But some public schools are refusing to let the budgetary machete finish off their early childhood programs, choosing instead to charge tuition to students. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/PreschoolBlocksAndCash.jpg)
Likely voters in Texas approve of President Barack Obama almost as much as they approve of Gov. Rick Perry, according to the third and final release of poll results from the Texas Lyceum, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group of civic leaders. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/_KCB0198.jpg)
At this morning's TribLive conversation, the authors of Texas Monthly's biennial Best and Worst Legislators story explained why they put Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on the Ten Worst list. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/TribliveBestWorst.jpg)
A border lawmaker has written Gov. Rick Perry in the hopes of adding another item to the agenda for the current special session. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/_KCA5938.jpg)
Texas peace officers will be allowed to inquire into the immigration status of any person arrested or legally detained under legislation passed by the Texas Senate early Wednesday morning. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TxTrib_Immigration_JV-18.jpg)
The Texas House tentatively passed SB 4 on Tuesday afternoon, following nearly four hours of debate in which Democrats argued the congressional redistricting plans under consideration would "ensure" minority voters will lack proper representation in Congress. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/37ae1eebbee3af6e0d156a97a71fd95c/BD%20INC%20Solomons%20Vill%2001%202011)
Public education in Texas is now the top concern — surpassing immigration and even the economy — for many Texans, according to poll results released today by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Texas Lyceum. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/SchoolFundingCuts.jpg)