Politics
Texas Legislature Set to (Slightly) Expand Medical Marijuana Access
Texas Republicans Poised to Make Voting ‘Harder, Scarier and More Confusing’
SB 9’s passage out of committee Friday sets the stage for a heated debate over voting rights in the waning days of the session.
A bill raising criminal penalties for certain election-related offenses and imposing new voting restrictions cleared a major hurdle Friday, setting the stage fo...Read More
With a Bizarre Assist by Democrats, Police Groups Kill Bill to Limit Arrests for Fine-Only Offenses
A combination of incompetence and sabotage appears to have killed a police reform bill that had passed the House with an overwhelming bipartisan majority.
Law enforcement’s ability to arrest Texans for crimes punishable only by fine, including traffic violations, will likely remain unchecked after House Democrat...Read More
Renter, Beware: Millions of Texans Could Soon Face Higher Fees for Late Rent, with Little Recourse to Fight Back
Tenant advocates say proposed legislation nearing the governor’s desk could lead to increased evictions.
UPDATE: Senate Bill 1414 passed the Texas House on Tuesday, May 21, on a vote of 94-52. The bill heads back to the upper chamber, where it has already passed, f...Read More
The Dissenter
Texas’ highest criminal court turned Elsa Alcala into one of the state’s most prominent death penalty critics.
Elsa Alcala began her legal career in the Harris County DA’s office, joining a prosecutorial machine famous for cranking out death sentences. Three decades la...Read More
‘The Penal System Today is Slavery’: Lawmakers Finally Start to Talk About Unpaid Labor in Texas Prisons
The 13th Amendment left a loophole for prisoners to be forced to work without pay. Texas remains one of five states that exploits the carveout for state profit.
Inmates in Texas make license plates, grow crops, tend to cattle, make soap and clothing, refurbish buses and computers, build furniture and more. They’re req...Read More
The Texas GOP’s War of Municipal Aggression
With their approval of a bill to “protect” Confederate monuments from liberal city halls, Senate Republicans exposed the raw racial dynamics of the party’s preemption crusade.
For more than a century, a pillar of granite and marble has loomed 60 feet high in downtown Dallas, topped with a statue of a Confederate soldier. Statues of f...Read More
Four Years Later, Sandra Bland’s Arrest Continues to Sow Distrust in Law Enforcement
New reporting shows that Sandra Bland recorded her infamous 2015 arrest. Authorities never told her grieving family.
After Sandra Bland’s death in the Waller County jail became a national scandal, former Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Brian Encinia struggled to ju...Read More
The EPA Told Texas to Crack Down on Dangerous Air Emissions in 2015. The State Never Did, and Now It Won’t Have to.
Trump’s EPA rescinded a rule that would have forced Texas to close a loophole exploited by industrial polluters in 97 percent of illegal emission events.
May, 22, 2015, was a red-letter day for Hilton Kelley. The 58-year-old environmental justice activist was on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., 1,300 miles from ...Read More
Texas House Votes to Significantly Expand Medical Marijuana Law
The proposal, which still must pass the more-conservative Senate, would allow doctors to prescribe cannabis to patients who suffer from cancer, autism, PTSD, severe pain and other conditions.
Christy and Mark Zartler consider cannabis to be their daughter’s “rescue medicine.” Kara, 19, has severe autism and cerebral palsy, and has hurt ...Read More