Texas Democrats recently gathered to determine their party platform and game out the chances of winning a statewide seat for the first time in decades. Politics reporter Alejandro Serrano and Renzo Downey, lead writer of the Blast, unpack what it means for November and beyond. bit.ly/4eZc5Cx

A Texas Senate panel laid the groundwork for a renewed push to ban THC products at a public hearing, examining THC’s effects on issues ranging from homelessness to mental health. bit.ly/4glIrbz

Breaking: An ICE agent fatally shot a man in Houston on Tuesday after he allegedly tried to run over the agent bit.ly/44iwlst

New: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appears to have used an address where he did not live while voting in six elections in the past two years — despite his warning voters that “it is illegal to misrepresent your residence on election records.”

New: U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune will be a special guest at an upcoming fundraiser for Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Texas community colleges have made small but steady gains in enrollment since the pandemic, researchers with the Federal Reserve of Dallas found.

Last month, the Texas Republican Party included in its platform a ban on foreigners using American surrogates, arguing the practice allows children born under these circumstances to obtain U.S. citizenship.

Thank you to our #TribFest26 media partner, @fortworthreport.bsky.social! We’re grateful for your partnership. 🌟 Join us at TribFest Sept. 24–26. Get your tickets today: trib.it/tribfest2026...

Business owners across the state are grappling with rising health insurance costs, as lawmakers pin the blame on health companies for consolidating and creating less competition. bit.ly/4wlLjd8

Democratic congressional candidate and Tejano musician Bobby Pulido has been dogged by a series of headlines regarding his former accordionist, a registered sex offender. Pulido has insisted he did not know about the man’s rap sheet. bit.ly/4f2q7SD

NEW: The Trump administration asked a small Texas agency to represent immigrant kids as it seeks to end that aid in court & slashed other protections. Some worry it signals an attempt to move kids to Texas, from where it is easier to quickly deport them. www.texastribune.org/2026/07/03/t...

Four years after Roe v. Wade was overturned, just 2% of Texas voters named abortion as the most important problem facing the state. Some Texas women continue to advocate for abortion rights, but not everyone in Washington is receptive. bit.ly/3T517CJ

I'm thinking today about the people I've met and the stories they've shared since the July 4 floods. What happened that day -- and the grief and loss and rebuilding and resilience -- will certainly stay with me. Here are some of their stories:

A year after deadly floods, Texas lawmakers haven’t addressed training for emergency coordinators.

Trump administration asks Texas for help providing legal services to immigrant kids facing deportation.

Texas Stock Exchange to launch trading on Monday in test of upstart’s challenge to Wall Street. The exchange represents the most well-funded challenge to the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ duopoly of U.S. stock trading.

Border wall through Big Bend state park in “planning stages” as updated map includes 2-mile barrier

New: The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled the federal government can’t hold undocumented immigrants for more than 90 days without a bond hearing, rejecting a Trump administration policy that requires immigration agents to hold immigrants until they are deported.

State Rep. Nate Schatzline resigned from the Texas House Thursday to take a new position as Gov. Greg Abbott’s senior adviser on election policy. bit.ly/4y2Zg18

New: Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Don Huffines, a former Republican state senator, to be Texas Comptroller for the rest of the year. Huffines won the GOP nomination for the role in March, and will replace Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, who announced his resignation Wednesday. bit.ly/4fbQ5El

Corpus Christi faces another setback in the midst of an ongoing water crisis: Design work has halted on a water pipeline that’s supposed to reach communities across the state. bit.ly/4weFXR0

Measles vaccination rates for Texas kindergarteners increased slightly this school year, following a deadly 2025 outbreak. However, state data also shows exemptions on all vaccines for schoolchildren rose after the release of a downloadable exemption form. bit.ly/44GPuV7

Vaccination rates in Texas schools have been dropping. See the latest vaccination rates in your district using our database. bit.ly/3SDgzWB

Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock will step down from his post as Texas’ chief financial officer at the end of July, according to a resignation letter he submitted to Gov. Greg Abbott Wednesday.

Texas is poised to lead the nation in power plants to fuel data centers, according to a new report from an environmental watchdog group. The report warns the plants could emit tons of greenhouse gases and air pollution, causing significant climate impacts and health risks. bit.ly/4auZ9S2

Watch live: Texas schools are shaped by a long chain of decision-makers. Panelists discuss where meaningful change can actually happen, and how educators can build community relationships, communicate their school’s story and grow into impactful leadership.

In 2008, Hurricane Ike snapped pipes in an oil and gas facility east of Galveston, releasing thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf. Nearly two decades later, many petrochemical facilities on Texas' coast still may not be prepared for fierce storms. bit.ly/3QRcIo8

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision loosening campaign finance rules means national Republican committees can use their flush war chests to help candidates like Paxton close fundraising deficits. bit.ly/3Rdlr4g

Watch live: Schools have absorbed roles that other agencies were built to handle, asking teachers to provide care they were never trained for. Panelists discuss how schools can ensure students get the support they need while positioning educators to focus on teaching and learning.

Crider’s dance hall is back. Homes are rebuilt. Kids swim in the river. But there’s also deep grief in Kerr County after last year's flood killed 119 people and traumatized more.

Watch live: Throughout the day, The Texas Tribune is convening public school educators from around the state to explore the realities shaping schools today.

Thank you to our #TribFest26 student media partner, Texas Tech student newspaper, the Daily Toreador! We’re grateful for your partnership. 📚✨ Join us at TribFest Sept. 24–26. Student and educator tickets are only $65! Get your tickets today: trib.it/tribfest2026...

Bo French, the GOP nominee for the state’s oil and gas commission, called the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold birthright citizenship “traitorous,” saying Texas should not recognize babies born to undocumented parents as citizens.

The Catholic Diocese of Brownsville is working to gather information on Sunday’s arrest of a nun as she was walking to church in McAllen, calling circumstances behind the actions by federal immigration agents “wildly disturbing.”

Breaking: Breaking: The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday shut down President Trump’s attempt to reverse a 170-year-old constitutional right that gives American citizenship to babies born to undocumented immigrants.

As cases of the New World screwworm increase, so do rumors about the parasitic fly. Here are some of the biggest myths.

San Marcos is testing a novel approach to outright ban data centers by exerting its home rule powers, which gives certain bigger cities the right to create their own zoning codes and control development, land law experts say.

Of the more than 200 rural counties in Texas, about 70% have no hospital at all or have hospitals that don’t have facilities for delivering babies.

States that already ran voter rolls through the revamped federal SAVE immigration database can continue ongoing investigations of the estimated 24,000 voters it flagged.

Forced to remove rainbow crosswalks, some Texas cities are channeling support for LGBTQ+ residents into murals, lighting and rainbow-decorated sidewalks and stairs.

Black elected officials said state Rep. James Talarico still needed to do more to connect with voters in their communities, though they emphasized he has time before November to build those relationships.

Kendall Scudder will lead the Texas Democratic Party into the critical midterm elections this year after Texas Democrats elected him to a full term as chair at the party’s convention in Corpus Christi.

Dolores Huerta addressed Texas Democrats in a surprise Q&A on stage at the state party’s convention Friday, urging the crowd of rank-and-file activists to go all out in stirring up voter turnout this fall.

New: The State Board of Education on Friday approved a rewrite of K-8 social studies lessons that minimize racial, geographic and cultural diversity.

Abbott trolls Talarico with tacos and cattle at Texas Democratic Convention, ignoring opponent Hinojosa

Texas will require Bible stories in public schools after the State Board of Education approved a mandatory reading list Friday.

Sen. John Cornyn came out against top Texas Republicans’ efforts to close the state’s GOP primaries on Friday, saying requiring voters to register with a party would backfire on Republicans in the state. bit.ly/3QsskhY

New: The Texas Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Robb Elementary students and teachers who argued failures by DPS and Uvalde County contributed to a botched response to the 2022 shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers. bit.ly/4w9wHNT

As Texas focuses on digital literacy for its elder residents, some Japanese cities are gifting low-cost devices to its older population so family can better monitor them.

Texans are having more babies than the rest of the United States as the nation’s fertility rate declines, Census data released Thursday show. Still, the state’s fertility rate has fallen for nearly two decades, mirroring a global trend of declining births.