Hearings Today 0
Animal Health Commission to Vote Nov. 3 on Certifying Private Screwworm Inspectors
All →
Road to the 90th
9
days until bill prefiling opens
Latest Texas News
Agencies
Attorney General’s Office Sues Harris County Clerk Over Alleged Racial Targeting of Voter Ads
Agencies
Comptroller Huffines Bars Entities Tied to Convicted Human Traffickers From Agency Contracts and Grants
Agencies
Governor Abbott Issues State Disaster Declaration for El Paso County After Flooding
Agencies
Governor Abbott, TWC Announce $1.7 Million in Job Training Grants for Houston and Rio Grande Valley
Agencies
Governor Abbott Announces $87 Million in Rural Texas Strong Grants for 129 Healthcare Providers
Agencies
TPWD Urges Waterfowl Hunters to Clean, Drain and Dry Gear to Stop Spread of Invasive Species
Agencies
Comptroller Huffines Launches Webpage to Track Texas Education Freedom Accounts Spending
Opinion
OPINION: Central Texas Is Building a Critical Piece of America’s AI Future
Oct 22, 2026
OPINION: Why America First Matters For Texas Oct 20, 2026
OPINION: COLA Helps, But Older Americans Need More Than an Adjustment Oct 19, 2026
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
Grid & Power
Texas Draft Contract Would Make Data Centers Post Cash Guarantees and Report Their Water Use
A company that wants to plug a large data center into the Texas grid would sign one standard contract that makes it post cash-backed guarantees, report how much water it will use and disclose its backup generators, under a draft the Public Utility Commission of Texas will consider Nov. 5.
Profiles of Texans
The Miracle Voters Don’t Feel: John Hryhorchuk on What Texans Want From the 90th Legislature
Oct 30, 2026
Dr. Joshua Rhodes Ran the Numbers on Texas’s 400-Gigawatt Forecast Oct 22, 2026
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
Featured Stories
Agencies
Texas Told Two Who Finished Rehab Their Crimes Were Too Recent for a License
Agencies
Thousands of Texas Doctors Face a License Deadline Without the Account They Now Need
Property Taxes
Owning a Median Texas Home Costs Up to 76% More a Month Than in 2021, TPPF Report Finds
New World Screwworm
Screwworm Confirmed in Arizona as Active U.S. Cases Reach 18, Including a Dog in El Paso County
Economy
Four States Paused Their Gas Taxes. Studies Find Most of the Savings Reached the Pump, but Not All of It
Recycling
States With Container-Recovery Systems See About Half the Bottle and Can Litter, but a Beer Maker Warns of Lost Sales
Latest Policy Clips
Why is Texas spending $35 million a year, and why is it getting worse?
How do single moms manage the rising costs of health care?
Why would one hospital system write off $1 billion?
Texas Talks Podcasts
All Episodes →
Reconstruction Leader George Ruby Dies
George Ruby, a Freedmen’s Bureau official and influential Black Texas senator during Reconstruction, died of malaria after relocating to New Orleans.
Read the Full Story →Interim Hearings
View All →
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
View All →
Texas Draft Contract Would Make Data Centers Post Cash Guarantees and Report Their Water Use
A company that wants to plug a large data center into the Texas grid would sign one standard contract that makes it post cash-backed guarantees, report how much water it will use and disclose its backup generators, under a draft
Dr. Joshua Rhodes Ran the Numbers on Texas’s 400-Gigawatt Forecast
Dr. Joshua Rhodes did the math so the rest of Texas wouldn't have to. The headline figure in Texas energy right now is the size of ERCOT's large-load queue — the electricity that data centers and other big industrial users
Texas PUC Approves a Data Center’s Hookup to a Pecos County Solar Farm Over the Utility’s Objection as Amazon’s Nuclear Deal Awaits a December Decision
The Public Utility Commission of Texas approved a plan to run a 180-megawatt data center directly off a Pecos County solar farm on Oct. 15, overruling the local wires utility, which had argued the grid study behind the deal was
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
Education
View All →
The Miracle Voters Don’t Feel: John Hryhorchuk on What Texans Want From the 90th Legislature
John Hryhorchuk opened a recent op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman with a line that sounds like it came from a campaign attack ad: Your Texas miracle has become my Texas nightmare. It didn't. It came from a voter, and it
New Texas Rule Withholds Charter School Facilities Aid From Schools With Failing Ratings
Texas charter schools with an unacceptable academic rating or a failing financial rating can no longer collect state money for their buildings under a rule that took effect Oct. 25. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) published the adopted rule in
New TEA Rule Cuts School Deadline to Report Suspected Child Abuse to 24 Hours
Texas school districts and charter schools will have 24 hours, not 48, to report suspected abuse or neglect of a student starting Oct. 25, under a rule the Texas Education Agency adopted and filed with the Secretary of State on
Analysis: Texas Capped What Local Governments Can Take. On Nov. 3, Voters Decide What They’ll Give Up.
Early voting opened Monday on a question Texas has spent a decade engineering its way toward. The state's bond database says voters will decide $62.9 billion in local borrowing on Nov. 3. While that number is massive, the number smaller
Austin Mayor Says Burnet and Webb Parent Petitions Appear to Have Enough Signatures, but the District Will Not Verify Them Until After Oct. 30
Parents at two Austin middle schools appear to have gathered enough signatures to ask the state to close both campuses, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said Oct. 16. Austin ISD says it cannot confirm that until after Oct. 30, and it
Health Care
View All →
The Miracle Voters Don’t Feel: John Hryhorchuk on What Texans Want From the 90th Legislature
John Hryhorchuk opened a recent op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman with a line that sounds like it came from a campaign attack ad: Your Texas miracle has become my Texas nightmare. It didn't. It came from a voter, and it
Thousands of Texas Doctors Face a License Deadline Without the Account They Now Need
Nearly 12,000 Texas physicians have to renew their medical licenses by Nov. 30, and one in five of them had not yet opened the online account the state now requires before it will renew a license, the Texas Medical Board
Hospital Districts in Hamilton, Fisher and Tyler Counties Are Each Slated for About $7.5 Million in Rural Health Grants
Hamilton County Hospital District, Fisher County Hospital District in Rotan and Tyler County Hospital District are each in line for roughly $7.5 million in state rural health grants, according to a list the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC)
Texas Proposes Outside Auditors to Claw Back Medicaid Overpayments From Health Plans and Providers, Projecting $72 Million a Year
Texas wants to hire private auditors to hunt for overpayments in the part of Medicaid run through private health plans, and the state estimates the effort would return $72.4 million a year once it is fully running. The Texas Health
A Texas Nursing Program Taught Pediatrics and Childbirth Without a Single Patient
Twenty student nurses at Hill College finished their pediatrics and childbirth courses without ever caring for a real patient, and the Texas Board of Nursing would not let their graduation papers be signed until they went back and did the
Water
View All →
Analysis: The Hill Country Grew Faster Than the Rules That Govern It. The 2027 Session Will Be Asked to Catch Up.
The groundwater district that covers western Hays County has a state-modeled ceiling of about 9,100 acre-feet a year. Its permits and estimated household wells already draw more than 8,000. By the end of 2024, average water levels in its monitoring
Edwards Aquifer Authority Returns San Antonio Pool to Stage 3, Cutting Permitted Pumping 35 Percent Five Days After Easing to Stage 2
Farms, factories and water utilities that pump from the Edwards Aquifer are back under the deepest cut in the aquifer's drought plan: a 35 percent reduction in their permitted withdrawals, up from 30 percent. The Edwards Aquifer Authority, the groundwater
Edwards Aquifer Authority Steps Back to Stage 2, Easing Pumping Cuts to 30 Percent While San Antonio Stays in Stage 3 Watering Rules
Farms, factories and water utilities that pump from the Edwards Aquifer will now have their permitted withdrawals cut 30 percent instead of 35 percent, after the agency that regulates the aquifer moved the San Antonio Pool back to a less
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
Property Taxes
View All →
Owning a Median Texas Home Costs Up to 76% More a Month Than in 2021, TPPF Report Finds
A family buying the median-priced home in Dallas–Fort Worth in February 2026 faced an all-in monthly payment of $3,518. Five years earlier the same purchase cost $1,996 a month, a gap of $1,522. That figure comes from Federal Reserve Bank
Analysis: Texas Capped What Local Governments Can Take. On Nov. 3, Voters Decide What They’ll Give Up.
Early voting opened Monday on a question Texas has spent a decade engineering its way toward. The state's bond database says voters will decide $62.9 billion in local borrowing on Nov. 3. While that number is massive, the number smaller
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