October 12, 2026
Ep. 14 - The Austin Record Convention: A Hanners Family Business
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Texas Veterinary Board Moves to Close About 150 Complaints Without Discipline Oct. 20
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Road to the 90th
23
days until bill prefiling opens
Latest Texas News
Agencies
RRC Commissioner Christian Urges Fast-Track Pathway for Industrial Reuse of Treated Produced Water
Agencies
Paxton Sends Letters to 156 Texas Data Center Developments Seeking Water Use Information
Agencies
TxDOT Awards $226M for 321 Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Across Texas
Agencies
TWC Hosts Annual White Cane Day Celebration at Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Agencies
Comptroller Huffines Signs Order Requiring Contractors and Grantees to Certify No Discriminatory DEI
Agencies
Paxton Secures $773M Multistate Opioid Settlement With Albertsons, With Up to $57.8M Eligible for Texas
Agencies
Abbott, HHSC Announce $78M in Rural Texas Strong Grants for 216 Rural Health Care Providers
Opinion
OPINION: Texas Gave Consumers the Right to Repair. Now Finish the Job.
Sep 28, 2026
OPINION: Meeting With Small-Business Owners Signals Strong Start to Comptroller Huffines’ Taxpayer First Project Sep 24, 2026
OPINION: How Middlemen and Hidden Kickbacks Inflate Healthcare Costs Sep 22, 2026
OPINION: Young People Have a Place in State Government Sep 17, 2026
OPINION: Abbott Bought Texas Time. Now the Legislature Must Act. Sep 15, 2026
Property Taxes
Dallas County and Eight School Districts Ask Texas Voters to Approve Higher Tax Rates Nov. 3
Early voting begins Oct. 19 in Texas elections where Dallas County and at least eight school districts are asking voters to approve tax rates higher than state law lets them set on their own.
Profiles of Texans
Rep. Carl Tepper Wants DA Accountability — and a Remedy That Fits the Problem
Oct 8, 2026
The Yellow Pages: How a Computer Scientist Became Texas’ Voice for Children’s Mental Health Oct 2, 2026
“Quit Picking on Us”: Texas Hospitals Prepare to Defend Their Share of the Bill Oct 1, 2026
The Punch Card: How a Janitor’s Job Built America’s First Tiny Home Village Sep 28, 2026
The Prescription She Never Filled: Rep. Katrina Pierson’s Bid to Depoliticize Women’s Health Sep 24, 2026
“It’s in the Way”: Sidecar Health’s Patrick Quigley Makes His Case to Texas Sep 17, 2026
Featured Stories
Agencies
Two Texas Jails Begin Checking Arrestee DNA in Two Hours, Not Months
Rural Texas
Same 20-Cent Gas Tax, Very Different Bills: Rural Texans, Home Health Aides and Long-Haul Commuters Pay Two to Three Times What City Households Do
Agencies
Texas Moves to Rein In the Unlicensed Helpers Who Handle Home Sales
Data Centers
Bastrop County Asks State to Hold Public Meeting on Gas Plant It Cannot Zone
Agencies
Texas Never Learns Which Police Officers Failed the Annual Gun Test
Agencies
Texas Windstorm Insurer Sends Four Recommendations to the Legislature, Including a Plan to Move Coastal Policies to Private Carriers
Latest Policy Clips
Why does Medicaid require a prescription for prenatal vitamins that can be bought over the counter?
Why are patients sometimes required to get medical tests they may not need?
What does it mean when every tax dollar is backed by government force?
Texas Talks Podcasts
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Janis Joplin Sends the Sixties Out Over a Texas Lake
On September 1, 1969 — Labor Day — the Texas International Pop Festival reached its final night near Lewisville, with Port Arthur's own Janis Joplin headlining. It was the closing chord of Texas's answer to Woodstock.
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Rep. Carl Tepper Wants DA Accountability — and a Remedy That Fits the Problem
The reason the Texas House didn't subpoena José Garza had nothing to do with reluctance. The Travis County district attorney had been invited to testify before the House Select Committee on Governmental Oversight, and he didn't come. Members discussed compelling
Comptroller’s Office Defends School Choice Safeguards as Senators Probe Pre-K Demand and Award Data
The Texas Comptroller’s Office told the Senate Education Committee on Oct. 7 that the state’s new school choice program runs on parent-approved payments and two layers of audit. Senators questioned who is applying and why. Travis Pillow, interim program director
Houston ISD’s Miles Calls Turnaround Texas’ Largest As Senator Presses on Lost Students
Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles told the Senate Education Committee on Oct. 6 that his three years running the state's largest district amount to "certainly largest turnaround in the history of Texas." Sen. José Menendez, D-San Antonio, pressed
Doctors Say Insurers Block Menopause Care as Health Plans Point to Surge in Claims
Doctors told a House subcommittee Oct. 5 that insurer rules, thin physician training and Medicaid gaps keep Texas women from menopause care. The health plans' lobbyist said coverage is not the barrier, and pointed to a surge in claims. Chair
Four-Day School Weeks Cost Students Learning, Education Commissioner Tells Senate Panel
Texas students lose ground when their districts move to four-day school weeks, Education Commissioner Mike Morath told the Senate Education Committee on Oct. 6. By the end of the hearing's longest charge, the chair said she sees no benefit in
Grid & Power
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Texas Data Centers Seeking 75 Megawatts or More Now Owe $100,000 Up Front and $50,000 a Megawatt in Security
Any company that wants to plug a data center or other very large power user into the Texas grid must now put down $100,000 for a study and post $50,000 for every megawatt it requests, under a Public Utility Commission
Texas PUC Won’t Make Data Centers Measure the Power and Water They Use
Texas will not require data centers to measure how much electricity and water they use inside their buildings. State utility regulators turned the idea down Oct. 1 — not on its merits, which they never reached, but because the proposal
Senators Press for Competitive Bidding and Cost Controls as Transmission Price Tags Climb
Senators spent more than six hours Sept. 30 asking who should control the cost of Texas' transmission buildout, with witnesses urging competitive bidding, a lower guaranteed return for utilities and relief for ratepayers before the 765-kV Permian Basin lines are
Lawsuit Says Two San Antonio Data Centers Built Their Own Power Plants Without the Permits
David Thompson lives across the road from one of two data center campuses rising on San Antonio's far West Side, each with its own gas-fired power plant. "Is it going to be safe for my family, my daughter who was
Analysis: Texas Is About to Study Annexing Three New Mexico Counties. History Says There Is Exactly One Way That Works.
On Sept. 30, a Texas House select committee will take testimony on a question no Texas Legislature has formally studied: whether the state can absorb counties that currently belong to New Mexico. The charge before the House Select Committee on
Education
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Comptroller’s Office Defends School Choice Safeguards as Senators Probe Pre-K Demand and Award Data
The Texas Comptroller’s Office told the Senate Education Committee on Oct. 7 that the state’s new school choice program runs on parent-approved payments and two layers of audit. Senators questioned who is applying and why. Travis Pillow, interim program director
Houston ISD’s Miles Calls Turnaround Texas’ Largest As Senator Presses on Lost Students
Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles told the Senate Education Committee on Oct. 6 that his three years running the state's largest district amount to "certainly largest turnaround in the history of Texas." Sen. José Menendez, D-San Antonio, pressed
Four-Day School Weeks Cost Students Learning, Education Commissioner Tells Senate Panel
Texas students lose ground when their districts move to four-day school weeks, Education Commissioner Mike Morath told the Senate Education Committee on Oct. 6. By the end of the hearing's longest charge, the chair said she sees no benefit in
TEA Says Districts Using Bluebonnet Learning Gained More on STAAR, but Releases No Size for the Gain
The Texas Education Agency says the 619 school districts that used its state-written Bluebonnet Learning lessons last school year posted bigger gains in reading and math than districts that did not. The agency's first-year results release, issued Sept. 30, does
Austin Parents Have Until Oct. 15 to Use the Only Formal Say Texas Law Gives Them in a School Takeover
Parents at two Austin middle schools have until Oct. 15 to use the only formal say Texas law gives families when a school fails five years in a row, and as of Sept. 28 neither school community had formally begun
Health Care
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Texas Still Has Not Adopted the Rule Letting Its Sickest Children Skip the Nursing Home
The rule that would let the most medically fragile children in Texas get Medicaid nursing care at home — without first moving into a nursing facility, and without waiting their turn on a list — has now been through two
Texas Has Lined Up $451 Million in Rural Health Grants, but Only $238 Million Is Under Contract
The Crane County Hospital District in West Texas is in line for $6.84 million over several years from the state's new rural health grant program, but it does not yet have a signed contract. Neither do the hospital districts in
Texas X-Ray Technologists Must Prove Legal Status to Renew Licenses in February
Thousands of Texans who run X-ray, CT and mammography machines will have to hand the state proof that they are United States citizens or lawfully in the country before they can renew their licenses in February. As of mid-September, by
New Texas Insurance Rules Give Newborns 60 Days of Coverage Starting Oct. 11
Babies born to Texans in state-regulated health plans will now be covered for their first 60 days, up from 31. Under the new rules from the Texas Department of Insurance, parents will get until the 60th day to add a
Analysis: Texans Are Paying More to Insure Everything They Own. The State Has Never Once Said No to a Rate.
The number came from the regulator herself. "The average annual homeowner insurance premium in Texas has increased from under $2,000 in 2020 to over $3,500 today," Insurance Commissioner Amanda Crawford told the House Insurance Committee on Oct. 5. "That is
Water
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Texas Will Cite Water Systems That Never Told Customers Their Line May Be Lead
Texas water utilities that never told their customers the pipe running into the house might be made of lead will start collecting violations by the end of October, the state’s environmental agency said Oct. 13 — and it does not
Texas Drought Eased Sharply in Early October, but Reservoirs Still Sit Below Last Year and the Worst-Off Lakes Have Not Recovered
Drought covers far less of Texas than it did a week earlier, but the water sitting in the state's reservoirs has still not caught up. The U.S. Drought Monitor's Oct. 8 map put 82% of the state in drought, down
Texas Will Let Sewage Plant Applicants Hire the Modelers Who Set Discharge Limits
Cities and developers seeking permission to pipe treated sewage into a Texas creek may now hire their own consultants to run the computer model that decides how clean that water has to be, under a change the state’s environmental agency
Corpus Christi’s Desalination Plant Wins Its Final State Permit, but Building It Is Still an Open Question
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved the final discharge permit for the Harbor Island desalination plant on Sept. 23, two days before a Corpus Christi lawmaker told a Texas Tribune Festival audience that seawater desalination is a key issue
Edwards Aquifer Falls Back Into Stage 3, Cutting Pumping 35 Percent Across Seven Counties
Farms, factories and city water systems that pump from the Edwards Aquifer must cut their withdrawals by 35 percent after the aquifer's key monitoring well dropped below 640 feet, six weeks after the region had climbed out of the same
Property Taxes
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Dallas County and Eight School Districts Ask Texas Voters to Approve Higher Tax Rates Nov. 3
Early voting begins Oct. 19 in Texas elections where Dallas County and at least eight school districts are asking voters to approve tax rates higher than state law lets them set on their own. If voters say no on Nov.
Amarillo, San Antonio and Fort Worth Raised Tax Rates This Month, but Homeowners’ Bills Will Not Move
Three of Texas' largest cities raised their property tax rates in the past two weeks, and the homeowners living in them will see different tax bill changes—$18 a year on a $200,000 home in Amarillo, $35 increase on the average
Amarillo Republished Its Required Tax Notice With a Figure More Than Twice as Large
Amarillo told its residents in August that the coming city budget would raise $1,596,402 more in property taxes than last year's, an increase of 1.94 percent. On Sept. 10 the city published the same legally required statement again, with a
A Texas House Panel Takes Up Local Debt Sept. 15, and One of the State’s Most Expensive Local Projects is not on the Agenda
The Texas House Committee on Ways and Means meets at 10 a.m. Sept. 15 to take testimony on how local governments spend and borrow, and on whether the Legislature should cap the growth of both. The charge that will occupy
Corpus Christi Kept Its Tax Rate Exactly the Same, and the Vote Failed the First Time
Corpus Christi's city council set its property tax rate on Sept. 8 at $0.599774 per $100 of value — the identical rate it charged last year, to the sixth decimal place. The motion failed on a 4-4-1 vote. The council