The Latest Breaking News from The Texas Tribune

Revised SB 18 has major problems

The two-term Republican, criticized by his own party for breaking with the GOP on key votes, is not inclined to change his ways.

After mall shooting, residents of the Dallas suburb are experiencing familiar rituals: mourning, anger and despair.

A new version of Senate Bill 18 scheduled for a hearing in the House Higher Education Committee on Monday would keep faculty tenure and direct university governing boards to establish policies to grant and revoke tenure.

The House General Investigating Committee found that Slaton, a Republican from Royse City, engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with a subordinate. The Texas Tribune previously reported on an allegation that he had sex with one of his staff, a woman under 21, and gave her alcohol.

San Antonio voters rejected by wide margins an effort to decriminalize abortion and require police to issue citations rather than make arrests for some nonviolent offenses. In El Paso, an effort to wean the city from fossil fuels fared similarly poorly.

A new version of Senate Bill 17 expected to be considered by the House’s Higher Education Committee on Monday would still ban DEI offices and prohibit required diversity training, but it would open the door for university boards of regents to approve such programs in certain circumstances.

A Venezuelan couple with two children waited in Mexico for weeks for a chance to claim asylum. They decided to cross the border after a relative died in a detention center fire and other family members successfully made it across.

Senate Bill 14 spurred protests that led to altercations with state police earlier this week. Bill supporters and opponents again showed up at the Capitol for an expected vote Friday.

In Deer Park near Houston, memories of the massive ITC fire are still fresh. Residents told state environmental regulators they should reject the company’s permit renewal, but officials said the fire won’t be part of the decision.

An estimated 500,000 people live in thousands of colonias along the Texas-Mexico border. Largely built between the 1950s and 1980s, these communities have been promised water — but it has never come.