Social conservatives are asking Governor Abbott to call a special session to block implementation of same-sex marriage in Texas in case the U.S. Supreme Court declares bans on gay marriage to be unconstitutional.
The Texas Department of Public Safety is in the running for an award from a national journalism organization as one of the most secretive government agencies in America.
Greg Abbott emerged this session as the state’s uncontested leader—despite a few missteps along the way.
With eyes filled with tears, state Representative Sylvester Turner bid his House colleagues farewell today after 26 years of service.
Words just cannot describe this video by Representative Jonathan Stickland.
Homeowners in October will receive property tax bills that include an inducement to vote for the proposed homestead exemption increase in November.
The Legislature is leaving unspent $18 billion that could go to further tax cuts or repairs to infrastructure or even, perhaps, to education.
This was a night in the House that left no one happy.
The opposition of faith-based adoption agencies making placements with same-sex couples hits the House floor today in an amendment that could take down the overhaul of the Texas Department of Family & Protective Services.
At first glance, yes. On closer inspection, probably not.
Texas Monthly’s Best and Worst Legislators. Any nominations?
Lawmakers had a busy day Sunday fighting over veteran benefits, abortion and making the airways safe for Amazon drones.
The Legislature’s efforts at ethics reform this year have been more about petty paybacks and creating lawmakers as a special class of citizens than about improving government.
Higher education critic Jeff Sandefer wants the $200,000 back that he gave to the American Phoenix Foundation.
So far this legislative session, Texas lobbyists have spent $1.8 million feeding members of the legislature, their staffs and other state officials.
The leaders of the American Phoenix Foundation claim their hidden-camera investigation of the Legislature has just one goal: Disrupt the narrative.
Hannah Giles and Joseph Basel explain why their hidden-camera investigation of the Legislature is focused on sexual infidelity.
Hannah Giles, who has been leading a hidden-camera investigation of the state legislature, appeared in the past on Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s talk radio show, and Senator Paul Bettencourt once raised money for her.
The American Phoenix Foundation employees who are aggressively questioning legislators have created an aura of mystery and distrust around the organization’s hidden-camera investigation.
The American Phoenix Foundation leaders say their hidden-camera investigation of the Legislature is not meant to disrupt the balance of power in the House.
Activists Hannah Giles and Joseph Basel say they have been disillusioned by the conservative movement in America.
The American Phoenix Foundation founder Hannah Giles in 2012 delivered a speech in which she describe the goals of her advocacy journalism group.
State Representative Jonathan Stickland says the Texas Department of Public Safety has cleared him of any wrong-doing in the investigation of people signing up to testify for his bill banning red-light cameras.
No offense to Michael Quinn Sullivan, but he’s never even won a Republican primary runoff, has he?
The leadrs of the American Phoenix Foundation told the Houston Chronicle lawmaker infidelity is a major focus of their undercover, hidden-camera investigation.
The American Phoenix Foundation’s undercover hidden camera video taping of Texas Legislators is not the first project of this kind. The last one received awards from the Investigative Reporters & Editors as well as the Society of Professional Jouranlists.
The debate on new restrictions on judicial bypass for teens to receive an abortion may have played a key role in killing a bill to block same-sex marriages.
Open carry of licensed handguns and border security are the hostages in the tax-cut debates.
The Senate has already lost the fight over tax cuts.
The people behind the hidden camera investigation of the Legislature have more of a history of political activism than of journalism.
Eight hundred hours of secret video footage have the House on high alarm.
In a time of diminishing expectations, politicians are avoiding the term “middle class.”
In honor of Mother’s Day, I’m defecting from the War on Women
If you go to work sleepy next March 14, you can thank the Texas House for keeping the state on Daylight Savings Time
Comptroller Glenn Hegar has sent the legislative leadership a letter reminding them that tax cuts might feel good but they also have obligations to face.
They are both libertarian Republicans, but while Jonathan Stickland makes noise in the House, David Simpson is getting things done.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw apparently has been pushing back against media investigations questioning his agency operations.
Greg Abbott is on the edge of whether his first legislative session as governor will end in success or failure.
Former U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright has died at age 92.
The Houston Chronicle is reporting that a right wing political group has been secretly recording Texas legislators, apparently with an aim at unseating Speaker Joe Straus.
A bill on the House calendar for today would establish how Texas chooses delegates to a national constitutional convention, if or when one ever occurs.
A report in today’s Austin American-Statesman shows the Texas Department of Public Safety was responsible for just 10 percent of all the drug seizures along the Texas border despite the state surge.
The Texas Senate today sent Governor Greg Abbott legislation to prohibit cities from passing total bans on oil and gas drilling in the municipal limits.
One of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s grassroots advisory committee members apparently was a promoter of the Garland event that came under gunfire on Sunday. According to his Facebook page, Ken Emanuelson, a member of Patrick’s advisory panel, was present at the event when the shooting occurred and was locked down
The Texas House earlier today removed from the Internet video of Transportation Committee Chairman Joe Pickett ejecting Representative Jonathan Stickland from a meeting Thursday night over allegations of false witness registrations for Stickland’s bill to ban red light cameras.
In an amazing plot twist, the Texas Senate passed a real property tax reform bill yesterday.
The House General Investigating & Ethics Committee will look into whether witnesses affirmations were improperly filed for a bill carried by Representative Jonathan Stickland.
With more than 200,000 federal military personnel already in Texas, paranoia over the Jade Helm 15 exercise in Bastrop seems absurd.
House Transportation Committee Chairman Joe Pickett apparently had Representative Jonathan Stickland escorted out of his committee tonight, according to the Austin newspaper.
A new study found federal subsidies helped reduce the percentage of Texans lacking health insurance from about 25 percent to 17 percent, but a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court could suddenly end those subsidies.
