September 14, 2026
Ep. 12 - Ashley Wall: From the Classroom to the Bookstore
Road to the 90th
54
days until bill prefiling opens
Latest Texas News
Agencies
Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian Votes Against ExxonMobil Carbon Storage Permit
Agencies
TxDOT Adds Digital Alerts to Austin HERO Trucks to Warn Approaching Drivers
Agencies
Governor Abbott Awards $5.8M in Grants to 21 South Texas Veterans Organizations
Agencies
Governor Abbott Names Leadership Team to Bring the US Space Academy to Texas
Agencies
Texas Land Office Seeks Industry Partners for Geothermal, Nuclear and Gas Power on State Land
Agencies
TAHC Reminds Texas Landowners of Chronic Wasting Disease Rules for Exotic Species Ahead of Fall
Agencies
Texas Land Office Opens Public Comment on 2021 Winter Storms Recovery Plan Amendment
Opinion
OPINION: Abbott Bought Texas Time. Now the Legislature Must Act.
Sep 15, 2026
OPINION: Texas Can Protect Kids Without Turning Cannabis Into a Criminal Justice Problem Sep 10, 2026
OPINION: Don’t Mess with Texas’ Energy Advantage Sep 3, 2026
OPINION: Parents Need Simpler Online Safety Tools Sep 1, 2026
OPINION: North Texas Is Leading the Future of First Responder Safety Aug 17, 2026
Under The Dome
Texas Is Running Out of Room for Oilfield Wastewater, House Energy Chair Warns
Texas oil and gas wells throw off roughly 26 million barrels of salty wastewater a day, and operators pump nearly 30 million barrels a day back underground.
Profiles of Texans
The Teddy Bear on the Porch: How a Texas Math Teacher Became a Publisher
Sep 16, 2026
The Bumper, the Verdict and Your Premium: Ryan Patrick’s Case That Texas Courtrooms Are Driving Up Insurance Rates Sep 10, 2026
Put It Online: Rep. Cody Vasut’s Case for Transparency That Doesn’t Require Asking Sep 3, 2026
The Busboy Who Became the Mayor of Sixth Street Sep 2, 2026
The State Took More Control of Texas Higher Education. Rep. Vince Perez Is Asking What It Owes in Return. Aug 27, 2026
Ayn Rand Institute Move to Texas Includes Plans for a New Austin Landmark Aug 26, 2026
Featured Stories
Grid & Power
Texas Data Centers Must Answer Water Questions Under Oath by Oct. 12, and Refusing Is a Crime
Interim Hearings
Senate Panel Presses for Deadlines As Texas Custody Cases Drag On for Years
Property Taxes
Amarillo Republished Its Required Tax Notice With a Figure More Than Twice as Large
Agencies
Texas Would Make Behavior Analysts Get a Family’s Written Consent Before Using AI
Under The Dome
Texas Should Bar Minors from Social Media, Senate Panel Told
Grid & Power
Texas Grid Operator Will Ask 461 Data Centers About Their Water, Power and Owners
Latest Policy Clips
How will growing data center demand affect Texas’ power grid?
Why do pilots shop around for fuel?
What does NVIDIA's investment in Texas Tech mean for the future of higher education and technology?
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.
Read the Full Story →Interim Hearings
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Texas Is Running Out of Room for Oilfield Wastewater, House Energy Chair Warns
Texas oil and gas wells throw off roughly 26 million barrels of salty wastewater a day, and operators pump nearly 30 million barrels a day back underground. The chairman of the House Committee on Energy Resources told witnesses Sept. 14
Senate Panel Presses for Deadlines As Texas Custody Cases Drag On for Years
A Texas Senate panel spent most of a nine-hour hearing Sept. 14 on a question with no bill in front of it: whether the state's family courts take too long to end a marriage and decide who raises the children.
Texas Should Bar Minors from Social Media, Senate Panel Told
The state's most influential conservative think tank told a Senate panel Sept. 14 that parental controls are not enough and Texas should prohibit social media for anyone under 18 — a mandate, from an organization that usually argues against them.
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
DFPS Considers Dropping Its “Unable to Determine” Abuse Finding As Families Press House Panel
Texas lists 795,000 people on its Central Abuse Registry, and the agency that maintains it told a House committee Sept. 9 that it wants to stop issuing one of the findings that decides who goes on it. Audrey O'Neill, commissioner
Grid & Power
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Texas Data Centers Must Answer Water Questions Under Oath by Oct. 12, and Refusing Is a Crime
About 1,200 feet from Heather Peysen's house on Three Way Road in Archer County, a company wants to build a data center that would pull 1,000 megawatts off the Texas grid — more than one percent of the record demand
Texas Grid Operator Will Ask 461 Data Centers About Their Water, Power and Owners
The organization that runs the power grid for most of Texas told state regulators on Sept. 11 that it will send a survey of roughly 130 questions this week to 461 data center projects waiting to plug in, asking who
Texas Grid Operator Starts Demanding Sworn Proof From Data Centers Waiting to Plug In
The agency that runs the electric grid for most of Texas began sending formal demands for documents on Sept. 9 to the companies behind the giant power users it has tentatively placed at the front of the connection line, and
Texas Makes Solar Panel Recyclers Post Bonds Oct. 1 After Telling Businesses the Rule Costs Nothing
An Arizona company said Sept. 10 it will build what it calls the first end-to-end recycling plant for retired solar panels in the United States, on a 10-acre site near Dallas, and that it expects to start running it in
Texas PUC Chairman Moves to Send Two 765,000-Volt Power Line Cases Back to the Judges
The chairman of the agency that regulates Texas utilities wants two of the state's biggest proposed power lines sent back to the judges who just recommended rejecting them — a step that would keep the projects alive but push a
Education
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Sixteen Cy-Fair Teachers Face a Vote Sept. 14 That Could Cost Them Their Licenses
The board of Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, the third-largest school system in Texas, is scheduled to decide Sept. 14 whether sixteen of its teachers quit without good cause — a finding that would send each of their names to the
Nineteen Texas School Districts Failed the State’s Financial Rating and Ten Are Not Contesting It
Nineteen Texas school districts serving 60,697 students were rated "substandard achievement" on the state's annual financial report card this year, and ten of them let the deadline to challenge that rating pass without filing anything, according to the Texas Education
Texas Would Lock a District Out for Three Years After It Closes an Early College Program
A school district that shuts down an early college high school in Texas would have to wait three years before it could start another one under a rule the Texas Education Agency proposed Sept. 4, and a campus already running
Austin ISD Will Borrow $140 Million to Make Payroll as Its Deficit Deepens to $86 Million and Two Campuses Trigger a State Takeover Review
Austin ISD plans to borrow $140 million this fall to cover paychecks until property tax money arrives, after its own budget office told trustees the district finished last school year $86 million in the red — $67 million worse than
Proposed State Rules Would Let Charter Schools Require Online Attendance While Districts Could Not
Under rules the Texas Education Agency proposed on Aug. 28, an open-enrollment charter school could require a child to attend school through a computer screen, and a school district could not. The provision sits in proposed 19 TAC §71.1016, part
Health Care
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Texas Would Make Behavior Analysts Get a Family’s Written Consent Before Using AI
Texas would bar a behavior analyst from letting artificial intelligence help write a child’s therapy plan unless the family signed off first — and would forbid the analyst from ever letting the software make the call alone. The advisory board
Texas Gives Up a $105 Million Hospital Payment Increase to Satisfy a Federal Cap
Texas has withdrawn the increase it sought in its largest Medicaid hospital payment program and cut the rate it pays, telling federal officials on Sept. 9 and 10 that it would hold the program to $9,148,763,142 rather than the $9,254,513,046
Texas Law Requires Quarterly Posting of Medicaid Plan Fines and the State Has Not Posted One Since 2022
A Texan who wants to know which Medicaid health plan the state has fined, and for what, can go to the page the Health and Human Services Commission built for exactly that purpose. Twenty spreadsheets sit there, one for each
Texas Lets a Dallas Child Care Center Skip the Wait for Higher State Pay
A Dallas child care center that recently changed hands can start chasing higher state payments almost two months earlier than the rules allow, after Texas workforce commissioners voted Sept. 8 to set aside two of their own eligibility requirements for
Taxpayers Say the Court That Cleared Central Health’s $35 Million Never Cited the Case That Governs It
Student affairs. Admissions. Fundraising. Public relations. Academic instruction for medical students, and the clerical staff who support it. Those are among the things three Travis County property taxpayers say their tax money has been buying at the University of Texas
Water
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Texas Is Running Out of Room for Oilfield Wastewater, House Energy Chair Warns
Texas oil and gas wells throw off roughly 26 million barrels of salty wastewater a day, and operators pump nearly 30 million barrels a day back underground. The chairman of the House Committee on Energy Resources told witnesses Sept. 14
Texas Regulators Affirm Drought Order Holding Corpus Christi’s Water Back from Nueces Bay
Corpus Christi can continue holding back the fresh water it owes Nueces Bay until its reservoirs are half full, Texas environmental regulators decided Sept. 9, affirming a drought emergency order without changing a word. What the bay loses is disputed.
Corpus Christi Eased Its Water Restrictions Two Days After the State Let It Hold Back Nueces Bay’s Water
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s executive director signed an emergency order on Aug. 25 letting Corpus Christi stop sending fresh water downstream to Nueces Bay. Among the findings supporting it was that the city “is currently in Stage 2
Pecos Landowners Split Over Oilfield Wastewater as Rancher Says the Springs Have Gone Dry
A spring on Ryan White's ranch in the Pecos River basin flowed 1,200 gallons a minute until 2014. It has not flowed since. Pecos County once had 42 named springs; it now has one. White told senators Sept. 2 that
Perry Vows to Ban Evaporative Cooling After 70 Percent of Data Centers Ignore State Water Survey
Texas sent water-use surveys to 341 data centers this year. As of Aug. 26, 30 percent had answered. The chairman of the Senate's water committee told the industry Sept. 1 what the response will cost it. "There is no excuse
Property Taxes
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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
Fort Bend County Cut Its Tax Rate From the Dais, and Four More Big Texas Governments Vote Within a Week
Fort Bend County commissioners walked into their chambers on Sept. 10 to adopt a property tax rate of 41.2 cents per $100 of value, the rate printed on their own agenda. They walked out having adopted 40.7 cents instead, a
Analysis: In Texas Budget Season, the Tax Rate Is the Last Number Decided, Not the First
Fort Worth raised its property tax rate by 3.2 cents this year. The average homeowner's bill went down $17. Dallas County raised its rate by a comparable amount. The median homeowner's bill went up about $108, and because the county