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The latest state government news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Alternating Current

    By Kate Galbraith

    Since 1999, when then-Gov. George Bush signed a law that deregulated the Texas electricity market, a debate has raged about whether and how much the move has benefitted ordinary Texans. Who's right? Full Story 

    Sunrise after a night of thunderstorms on June 19, 2010, in Alpine, Texas.
    Credit: Spencer Selvidge

  • Age of Innocence

    By Kate Ergenbright

    More than 120 college students worked 12,300 hours-plus on Innocence Project of Texas cases from 2007 to 2009, according to the Task Force on Indigent Defense. As student participation has increased, so have exonerations. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Jacob Villanueva

  • TribBlog: Not OK With the KKK

    By Elizabeth Titus

    University of Texas President Bill Powers has decided it's time to rid the campus of a name that is a reminder of white hoods and racist atrocities: Ku Klux Klan leader William Stewart Simkins. Full Story 

    Bill Powers speaks about budget cuts at The University of Texas on Tuesday, February 2nd.
    Credit: Jacqueline Mermea

  • Keller for the Defense

    By Brandi Grissom

    Judge Sharon Keller has been pilloried as the villain of the Texas criminal justice system, but supporters credit the chief of the state's highest criminal court with working to ensure fair trials for impoverished defendants. Full Story 

    Sharon Keller at the 2010 Texas Republican Convention.

  • Faking the Grade

    By Brian Thevenot

    Last school year, the Texas Education Agency implemented a new “growth measure” purported to reward schools for improving student performance — even if they still fail state tests. The effect on state accountability ratings was immediate and dramatic: The number of campuses considered “exemplary” by the state doubled, to 2,158. But a new analysis shows the projections of future student success may be wrong as much as half the time. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Jacob Villanueva

  • TribBlog: Another Roll of the Dice

    By Sarah Acosta

    It was more like a bidding auction today than a meeting of the Texas House Committee on Licensing and Regulation. Gambling advocates packed into three Capitol hearing rooms, and threw out number after number as they asked legislators — yet again — to consider the benefits of more gaming in Texas. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: Getting Drunks Off the Road

    By Forrest Burnson

    The Senate Committee on Criminal Justice met today to talk about ways to stop Texans from getting behind the wheel after imbibing. Judges, police and even a third-time DWI offender told lawmakers some Texas drunken driving laws could use some stiffening, while other measures take punishment too far. Full Story 

    State Sen. John Whitmire speaks to reporters.
    Credit: Associated Press

  • Ante Up

    By Ross Ramsey

    The starting gun for the debate over gambling fires this morning: Gaming interests inside and outside Texas are asking lawmakers to expand legal wagering to include either resort casinos, slot machines at race tracks, or some combination. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: Broke and Broken

    By Elizabeth Titus

    Rural health advocates asked state lawmakers Wednesday to help pay for improvements to rural hospitals in up to 42 Texas counties. Without state help, they said, the rural hospitals have no hope of doing necessary renovations to catch up to federal and state hospital codes. Full Story 

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    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • TribBlog: TCEQ on DISH

    By Reeve Hamilton

    No other place in Texas has received as much attention from the state's environmental agency as the natural-gas-rich Barnett Shale — and that includes the tiny town of DISH, a spokesman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said today. Full Story 

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  • Leaky Pipes

    By Mose Buchele, KUT News

    A Texas Railroad Commissioner is proposing to replace steel natural gas pipes with plastic. Mose Buchele of KUT News reports. Full Story 

  • After Sunset

    By Elise Hu

    Sunset Advisory Commissioners unanimously approved a series of changes to the troubled Division of Workers' Compensation at the Texas Department of Insurance on Tuesday, but not before aggressively rewriting the Sunset staff's original recommendations to improve the division's medical quality review process. Full Story 

  • DISHed Out

    By Reeve Hamilton

    As he has taken on natural gas companies and the agencies that regulate them, DISH mayor Calvin Tillman has become a media darling, an unlikely face of oil and gas reform and a public speaker crisscrossing the country. Now he’s ready to give up — and to leave town entirely. Full Story 

    Calvin Tillman, Mayor of Dish, Texas
    Credit: Djakhangir Zakhidov

  • The Lobby Wars

    By Morgan Smith

    HillCo's lawsuit against two of its departing partners is threatening business as usual in the insular world of the Texas lobby, raising the specter of open combat in an industry that prefers to settle its fights behind closed doors. But as its allegations make plain, HillCo believes that two rogue employees are the ones who crossed the line, turning competition for clients into espionage and biting down hard on the hand that fed them. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Brad Levenson: The TT Interview

    By Brandi Grissom

    After a series of investigative reports revealed serious problems with the quality of legal representation for indigent defendants on Texas death row, lawmakers created the Office of Capital Writs. California lawyer Brad Levenson will be moving to Texas to open the new office and attempt to restore some confidence in the state's busy system of capital punishment. Full Story 

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    Credit: Courtesy Brad Levenson