Latest Texas News
Local Government
Upshur County Joins Push for East Texas Groundwater District Amid Water Export Fight
Agencies
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Declares Agricultural Emergency for 59 Counties Hit by Flooding
Agencies
TEA Appoints Karen Duffy to Houston ISD School Board Following Member’s Resignation
Agencies
Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office Projects Up to $57M in Annual Savings From Dental Board Rule Reforms
Agencies
TPWD to Host Sea Center Texas’ Annual Shark Celebration July 18
Agencies
Analysis: The Citizenship Crucible—Texas Targets Foreign Exploitation in the Surrogacy and Maternity Industries
Transmission Lines
Sherman, Copperas Cove and Wichita Falls Development Groups Join Statewide Grid Investment Coalition
Opinion
OPINION: Limiting AI Infrastructure Threatens Texans’ Access to World Class, No Cost Healthcare Advancements
Jul 8, 2026
OPINION: Texas Must Fight Big Pharma, Not Wage War on Pharmacies Jun 25, 2026
OPINION: Cities Should Treat Residents Like Grown-ups, Not Dependents Jun 1, 2026
OPINION: Texans Deserve Lower Drug Prices Without Losing Their Pharmacies May 21, 2026
OPINION: Local Governments Failing Victims of Sexual Assault: Law Enforcement Needs State Support May 11, 2026
Data Centers
Texas’s Data-Center Rules Race a Calendar as Abbott’s Ratepayer Memo Comes Due
Governor Greg Abbott's deadline for regulators to spell out how they will keep data-center costs off Texans' electric bills arrives Friday, but the state's push to rein in the industry is running into a problem it cannot regulate away: the calendar.
Profiles of Texans
Kristen Doyle Wants to Take the Luck Out of Surviving Cancer
Jul 16, 2026
Mark Bell Says Texas Can Meet Surging Power Demand Without Passing the Bill to Consumers Jul 10, 2026
Sen. Sarah Eckhardt Is Focused on Long-Term Solutions for Texas Infrastructure Jul 3, 2026
Katherine McLane on Building a Crisis Communications Firm from Public Service Jun 29, 2026
Reeve Bull on How Virginia Used AI to Help Save $1.4B for Residents and Businesses Jun 26, 2026
Dr. Lori Teller on Texas’ Fight with the Screwworm Jun 23, 2026
Featured Stories
New World Screwworm
New World Screwworm Cases Climb to 39 Across Texas and New Mexico as Newest Detection Hits Pecos County
Education
Texas Educators Credit Classroom Cellphone Ban With Gains as Districts Prepare for Year Two
Data Centers
Regulators Face July 17 Deadline to Tell Abbott How They Will Keep Data-Center Costs Off Texans’ Bills
Property Taxes
Austin Proposes Raising Its Tax Rate to the Legal Maximum Even as State Relief Reaches Bills
New World Screwworm
Federal Screwworm Research Dollars Reach Six Texas Universities as U.S. Case Count Holds
Health Care
Policymakers Set a July 24 Hearing on Higher Medicaid Pay for Rural Obstetric Care
Latest Policy Clips
Has Texas "hit the limits" of being a low-regulation, low-tax state?
How Texas' SAM AI tool can help small businesses
What do New World screwworms actually do?
Texas Talks Podcasts
All Episodes →
A Wartime Airfield Rises in Central Texas
On July 17, 1942, the U.S. Army took ground near Temple and began building an airfield to train pilots for World War II. It was one of dozens that turned Texas into the nation's flight school.
Read the Full Story →New World Screwworm
View All →
New World Screwworm Cases Climb to 39 Across Texas and New Mexico as Newest Detection Hits Pecos County
Confirmed New World screwworm infestations in the United States have risen to 39, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's confirmed-detections dashboard, which the agency updates daily at 6 p.m. Eastern. As of Wednesday, July 15, all 39 cases were
Federal Screwworm Research Dollars Reach Six Texas Universities as U.S. Case Count Holds
Six Texas universities are among the recipients of a $105 million federal research push against the New World screwworm, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed, as the domestic case count held at 35 for a fifth consecutive day with no
U.S. Screwworm Tally Reaches 35 as a Crockett County Goat Marks the Newest Confirmed Case
The number of confirmed New World screwworm infestations in the United States has climbed to 35, with 34 in Texas and one in New Mexico, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's confirmed-detections dashboard. The most recent infestation was confirmed
Screwworm Count Climbs to 34 as First Cases Reach Brewster County in the Big Bend
The tally of New World screwworm cases has risen to 34 and pushed into the Big Bend area for the first time, ending a week-long plateau in the outbreak that has spread across West and South Texas since June. According
U.S. Screwworm Tally Holds at 32 for a Full Week as USDA’s Sterile-Fly Network Scales Up
The count of New World screwworm has held at 32 confirmed animal cases for a full week, the longest plateau since the pest crossed into Texas in early June. Federal and state agencies continue to press an eradication campaign built
Data Centers
View All →
Texas’s Data-Center Rules Race a Calendar as Abbott’s Ratepayer Memo Comes Due
Governor Greg Abbott's deadline for regulators to spell out how they will keep data-center costs off Texans' electric bills arrives Friday, but the state's push to rein in the industry is running into a problem it cannot regulate away: the
Regulators Face July 17 Deadline to Tell Abbott How They Will Keep Data-Center Costs Off Texans’ Bills
Texas utility regulators have two days to answer the governor. The Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas must deliver a joint memorandum to Gov. Greg Abbott by July 17 spelling out how they will shield residential
Data-Center Growth adds to the Permian 765-kV Fight as Texas Regulators Near Decisions
As the Public Utility Commission of Texas approaches a cluster of routing decisions on the state's first 765-kilovolt transmission lines, the fight increasingly turns on a single question: whether the demand forecast for West Texas — driven largely by oil-and-gas
Meta Defends Corporate Resource Footprint in Formal Response to Texas House Water Probe
Tech giant Meta Platforms, Inc. issued a comprehensive regulatory response to the Texas House Committee on Natural Resources, detailing its infrastructure cooling mechanisms and long-term water conservation targets amid heightening state scrutiny over industrial resource consumption. Signed by Vice President
Mark Bell Says Texas Can Meet Surging Power Demand Without Passing the Bill to Consumers
The numbers sound almost implausible: more than 400 gigawatts of prospective new electricity users are asking to connect to the Texas grid — roughly four times the state's all-time current demand — and the vast majority are data centers. Mark
Health Care
View All →
Kristen Doyle Wants to Take the Luck Out of Surviving Cancer
In January 2005, Kristen Doyle was a 32-year-old utility lawyer at the top of her game. She had made partner at an Austin law firm, the legislative session was just getting underway, and she had run five miles that morning.
Governor Abbott Announces $5.5M in Grants to Boost Primary Care Training for Texas Medical Students
Governor Greg Abbott announced $5.5 million in Statewide Preceptorship Program grants to three Texas medical societies, funding hands-on primary care training for medical students in rural and underserved communities.
Policymakers Set a July 24 Hearing on Higher Medicaid Pay for Rural Obstetric Care
Texas health policymakers will take public testimony on July 24 on a Medicaid payment change aimed squarely at one of the state's most acute access problems: the loss of labor-and-delivery services from rural hospitals. The Texas Health and Human Services
TMA Physicians Advise Texans to Stay Cool and Hydrated as Temperatures Near Triple Digits
With highs near or above 100 degrees forecast across Texas this week, Texas Medical Association physicians urge residents to stay hydrated, take breaks, and know the warning signs of heat stroke.
Federal Rural Health Dollars Reach Their First Texas County as ‘Rural Texas Strong’ Awards Begin
The largest state share of a new federal rural-health fund has started reaching individual Texas counties, a step toward shoring up the hospitals and clinics whose closures drive up costs and shrink access across rural Texas. The Fisher County Hospital
Education
View All →TEA Appoints Karen Duffy to Houston ISD School Board Following Member’s Resignation
The Texas Education Agency announced the resignation of Houston ISD board member Michelle Cruz Arnold on July 16 and appointed former teacher and district parent Karen Duffy to replace her, effective immediately.
Texas Educators Credit Classroom Cellphone Ban With Gains as Districts Prepare for Year Two
As Texas districts finalize plans for the coming school year, the verdict from the first full year of the state's classroom cellphone restriction is coming into focus, and educators are largely crediting it with measurable gains in attention and reading.
Governor Abbott Announces $4.7M in Workforce Grants for Texas Community and Technical Colleges
Governor Greg Abbott announced 15 grants totaling more than $4.7 million to Texas community colleges and technical schools for career and technical education programs aligned with high-demand jobs.
Texas Awaits July 31 Science STAAR Scores as Math Lags and Reading Rebounds
Texas families will get their next hard look at student achievement on July 31, when the Texas Education Agency releases spring 2026 STAAR science results for grades 5 and 8, the final piece of this year's testing data and the
Texas Recapture Falls Below $2.3 Billion as HB 2’s Bigger Allotment Blunts ‘Robin Hood’
The amount of local property-tax revenue Texas clawed back from property-wealthy school districts fell sharply in the 2025-26 school year, the first full accounting since lawmakers rewrote the school-finance formulas. According to the Texas School Coalition, 192 districts paid more