by Ross Ramsey, The Texas Tribune Nov. 10, 2017 Push comes to shove tomorrow, politically speaking. The filing period for people who want to be on next year’s state ballots opens — the beginning of a one-month put-up-or-shut-up period for those who think they ought to be running our governments….

By: Allan Sloan, ProPublica There are times that you run across something that’s so preposterous that it’s hard to believe it’s true. But in this case, it is. I’m talking about the multiple — and permanent — set of tax breaks that some of the Trump administration’s mega-wealthy appointees and…

By: Jessica Huseman, ProPublica A Democratic member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity filed suit against the commission in federal court in Washington, D.C. on Thursday morning, alleging that its Republican leadership has intentionally excluded him from deliberations and violated federal transparency laws. The commission has been sued…

by Brandon Formby, The Texas Tribune Nov. 8, 2017 Coastal Texas officials whose counties and cities bore the brunt of Hurricane Harvey’s deadly blow this summer unleashed a barrage of complaints about recovery efforts at a Texas House subcommittee hearing in Corpus Christi on Wednesday. The mayors and county leaders…

by Shannon Najmabadi, The Texas Tribune Nov. 8, 2017 In a five-day trial that concluded Wednesday, lawyers for the state defended part of a Texas law that bans the most common second-trimester abortion procedure unless the fetus is deceased. Abortion rights groups sued the state in July, arguing the provision…

By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2017 The City of Eagle Pass, Texas and the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced the ribbon cutting ceremony of the Eagle Pass International Bridge No. 2 Commercial Lane Expansion Project will be held on Monday, November 13,…

By: Andrea Sears, Public News Service – CT NEW HAVEN, Conn. – A new analysis of the Republican tax plan in the House of Representatives shows Connecticut’s wealthiest would benefit the most, while low and middle-income earners would be harmed. The analysis, prepared by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and…

By: Mark Richardson, Public News Service – TX AUSTIN, Texas — Another deadly mass shooting, this time in a south Texas town, has some state legislators seeking to recast the debate over gun violence as a public health issue. At a news conference by the group Texas Gun Sense, lawmakers…

by Edgar Walters, The Texas Tribune Nov. 8, 2017 Earlier this year, the Tribune’s Sold Out series examined how state policies — including a severely underfunded child welfare system — failed to help child sex-trafficking victims. Since then, lawmakers set aside a budget increase of more than $500 million for…

by Alex Samuels, The Texas Tribune Nov. 7, 2017 All seven constitutional amendments on the statewide ballot were approved by Texas voters, according to results released Tuesday evening by the Texas Secretary of State’s office. With roughly 99 percent of precincts reporting, less than 6 percent of the state’s 15…