Texas Legislature

More than 6,000 Texas smoke shops and related businesses could be forced to shut down if the ban goes into effect next November as scheduled. The industry is organizing a lobbying effort to get Congress to rewrite the law from a blanket prohibition to a regulatory approach.

The program will now only be eligible for service-disabled veterans. It will be called Veteran Heroes United in Business.

Texas lawmakers passed the bill, referred to as the "Women's Privacy Act" by supporters, earlier this year. It requires a person in publicly owned buildings to use restrooms, locker rooms, and similar facilities associated with the gender on their birth certificate. Enforcement of the controversial new law begins this Thursday.

The law requires school employees to use names and pronouns that conform to students’ sex at birth.

Conservative activists argue they’re protecting women and rebalancing the law that Democrats tilted in favor of LGBTQ+ people.

The Select Committees on Civil Discourse and Freedom of Speech in Higher Education were formed days after Kirk’s assassination on a Utah college campus. Members assembled Thursday in Austin for their first meeting to assess state free speech laws.

Roughly 7% of the state's registered voters casted their ballots during early voting.

An Austin-based conservative public policy nonprofit sued on behalf of three Dallas residents, alleging the city has overstepped its authority with dozens of local ordinances that are burdening taxpayers.

A Waco judge this week made permanent a block on a state law that required book vendors to rate materials based on their sexual content and references.

The 5th Circuit last year overturned its previous ruling that allowed racial groups to band together to challenge voting maps, laying the groundwork for Texas’ mid-decade redistricting.

More than half of new Texas classroom teachers who joined the profession last year lacked certification. Education leaders say that's hurting students and district budgets.

No new taxes would be collected for the package that would give the state’s water department $1 billion to spend on projects like cleaning salty water, flood control and reservoirs.