The Legislature goes to Austin on Tuesday, but lawmakers will find out a day before that what kind of budget they’re going to write. Spoiler alert: Money is tight.

Texas health officials on Tuesday delivered a final legal notice to nix the funding Planned Parenthood receives through the Medicaid program.

Rising property values in Texas should have lowered school property tax rates. But they didn’t, and you can thank the folks who write the state budget for that.

Two days after the Mayor of Dallas filed a lawsuit against the Dallas Police and Fire Pension system to block withdrawals, which he referred to as a “run on the bank” of an “insolvent” pension system in “financial crisis, the Pension’s board has finally taken steps to halt further withdrawals.

The Obama administration is arguing that Texas lawmakers intentionally discriminated when they passed a strict voter ID law in 2011. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton refuted the arguments in his own filing.

Wednesday’s vote followed an hours-long public hearing Tuesday, when 35 Hispanic activists and scholars spoke out against the textbook’s adoption.

The filings come less than a week after several other states approved measures weakening marijuana laws. And according to the bills filed Monday, Texas lawmakers are looking to do the same thing.

“House Bill 110 (HB110), filed by Representative Matt Krause, (R-Ft. Worth), would deny state material support and enforcement of many federal gun control measures, past, present or future. Experts have noted that the federal government lacks the resources to enforce such measures without participation on the state level and passage would help eliminate enforcement in practice”

One of Texas’ most pressing problems, the state pension fund, an August 2016 report states that the difference between what’s been promised to retirees and what’s actually on hand to provide for those benefits, soared to a deficit of more than $61 billion. That’s up almost $1 billion dollars in just six months.

The governor’s office has put the Department of Family and Protective Services on notice to come up with a plan to help foster children find home placements faster and seek out those facing abuse.

A massive investigation is underway in Tarrant County as law enforcement officers from the Texas Attorney General’s Office investigate a vote-harvesting scheme alleged to involve as many as 20,000 ballots.

States do have the ability to impact the Federal Government’s refugee resettlement program. Share This Article

It’s not often that the very sleepy subject of transportation offers a fiery discussion, but Thursday’s Senate Transportation Committee meeting did not disappoint. In a rare olive branch extended to grassroots anti-toll advocacy groups, Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom and Texans for Toll-free Highways, Chairman Senator Robert Nichols invited them to address the committee about one of its interim […]

AUSTIN – The State of Texas launched a sweeping new statewide online eminent domain database to provide more protections for landowners. This new tool will allow citizens to quickly verify which governmental and non-governmental entities have the authority to exercise eminent domain. Share This Article

State regulators last year documented 276 new cases of groundwater contamination across Texas, a slight increase compared to 2014 but far fewer than in years past. Share This Article

As toll weary Texans anxiously await Governor Greg Abbott’s promise to fix our roads without tolls to come to fruition, House Transportation Committee Chair Joe Pickett is one of the few taking action to make it happen. At yesterday’s House Transportation Committee meeting, Pickett continued his war against toll ‘managed’ lanes on several fronts. Share This Article

AUSTIN, Texas (Aug. 18, 2016) – The creation of a state gold depository in Texas represents a power shift away from the federal government to the state, and it provides a blueprint that could ultimately end the Fed. The depository inched closer to reality last month when Texas officials formally called for businesses to submit their plans for building the facility. […]