Texas Legislature

The attorney general – who was acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial earlier this month – settled with the four former employees in February for $3.3 million, but the Texas Legislature has so far declined to approve the funds.

The state’s teachers’ union said in a statement it would stand by the state’s public school teachers who “teach the truth.”

A federal judge in Austin temporarily blocked a new state law restricting which books are available in school libraries. The state then appealed. But whether or not the law is upheld, efforts to censor what students can read have intensified in Texas.

For decades, Texas' recapture, or Robin Hood, law has redistributed money from property-wealthy districts to property-poor ones. It's intended to make education funding equitable, but some districts say the system is broken.

For the third day in a row, former attorneys who worked in the office of embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton testified how they tried - and failed - to convince their former boss to sever ties with a campaign donor who is at the center of allegations.

From fiery remarks from lawyers to tense votes to the prosecution’s first witness, the first day of suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial was one for the books.

The new laws affect schools, the electric grid and the power of local governments.

HB 1, the state’s next two-year budget, goes into effect on September 1. In addition to appropriating more than $5 billion for border security, lawmakers also passed several bills that expand the state’s border and immigration-enforcement powers.

The law, slated to take effect Friday, would have undone local laws. Houston, San Antonio and El Paso argued it eliminated cities' abilities to govern themselves. The state is expected to appeal.

House Bill 2127 has massive — though ill-defined — implications for local governments. But it's not clear when Texans might start seeing its impacts.

After criticizing Republican leaders on abortion, guns and race, Bishop will run as a Democrat against Rep. Angie Chen Button in a competitive district in Dallas County.

The ACLU of Texas claims a new law going into effect next month is so “yawning in scope it criminalizes and restricts an enormous swath of constitutionally protected activity, including theater, ballet, comedy, and even cheerleading.”