Covering Texas state agencies, regulatory commissions, and governmental bodies shaping policy across the Lone Star State.
Three Texas counties may leave fire sprinklers out of the cells where they lock people up — including a 500-bed jail Liberty County has not built yet — under votes the state’s jail regulator took Nov. 5.
The Texas Legislature has not overridden a governor's veto since 1979.
A dog in Crockett County tested positive for New World screwworm on Aug. 31, and by the next afternoon the state veterinarian had drawn a new quarantine line around part of the county.
Governor Greg Abbott and White House National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross launched Project Watershed 250 in San Antonio on Monday, a joint initiative that connects Texas water utility providers with cyber defense resources at no cost.
Governor Greg Abbott activated state emergency response resources Monday and held a severe weather briefing at the Texas State Emergency Operations Center in Austin as a tropical system in the northern Gulf moved toward the Upper Texas Coast.
Governor Greg Abbott toured the TEL Texas Technical Training and Research & Development Center in Austin on Monday and led a roundtable with students and business leaders on how industry-led training programs are preparing Texans for high-demand semiconductor careers.
The Texas Animal Health Commission lifted New World screwworm movement restrictions on parts of five Texas counties on Aug. 31, the first zones released since the state began responding to the pest. Designated areas of Gillespie, Kerr, Kimble, La Salle and Webb counties were freed from the restrictions after months of coordinated surveillance and eradication work, according to an Aug. 31 news release from the commission.
Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham announced a new General Land Office initiative on Monday called The Texas Engine: Fueled, Fed, and Fortified, a plan the agency says will put the state’s land and natural resources to work for Texas and the country.
The Texas Water Development Board meets Sept. 2 for a briefing on a one-time grant program that drew nearly $6.9 billion in requests for the roughly $1 billion the Legislature put in it.
The Texas A&M University System's regents vote Sept. 3 on clearing the way for a bid to manage the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the federal lab in California behind NASA's robotic planetary missions.
Texas utility regulators approved the state’s first 765,000-volt transmission lines on Aug. 28, clearing Oncor to build 424 miles of them across 30 counties, from near Glen Rose to the New Mexico line, at a cost of about $3.9 billion — and in the same orders they threw out an administrative law judges’ finding that the utility had failed to give some landowners the notice the rules require.
The Texas Department of Public Safety announced Aug. 28 that Texas Rangers and the Universal City Police Department have identified a suspect in a 1981 Bexar County sexual assault and murder, using modern forensic testing to close a case that had gone cold for more than four decades.
The Texas Department of Public Safety welcomed 51 new Texas Highway Patrol troopers from Recruit Class A-2026 during a graduation ceremony Aug. 28 at Hill Country Bible Church in Cedar Park.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Aug. 28 that $8,367,000 in Funds for Veterans' Assistance grants has been awarded to 35 organizations in the Central Texas region.