TribWeek by Ross Ramsey
Launching his
presidential bid, former Gov. Rick Perry warned of the perils of electing young, grandstanding U.S. senators to the nation’s highest office. The dart was aimed at more than one target, and looks to be a centerpiece of the Perry campaign.
He’s been teeing up the ball since leaving the governor’s office, and on Thursday Rick Perry was set to take the first official swing in
his 2016 presidential bid. He enters the race with decided disadvantages and little room for mistakes.
As Rick Perry announces his second run at the GOP presidential nomination, here are the
eight things to know about him.
Accusing Republicans of a systematic effort to
undercut voter access to the ballot box, Hillary Clinton was in Houston on Thursday to call for expansive reforms to U.S. election laws.
On Thursday, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry officially
threw his name into the 2016 race for the White House. His announcement comes four years after his first presidential campaign. Supporters say they’re not looking back.
Lawmakers in the State Capitol spent
the final day of the 84th Legislature making speeches and saying farewell to colleagues who aren’t seeking another term. But before Monday, there was plenty of debate and bills passed on issues that impact every Texan.
Seven months after
a rag-tag group of local activists scored a surprising victory over the state’s powerful oil and gas industry when Denton voted to ban hydraulic fracturing, a natural gas company Monday resumed operations under a state law passed to overturn Denton’s ban.
Here’s a look at how the Texas House and Senate budget proposals compared and what the two chambers
ultimately settled on, using information from the Legislative Budget Board.
On balance,
health care for the neediest Texans didn’t fare well this session. Departing lawmakers leave behind a Medicaid budget that most experts agree is too low, and they predict it will spawn a hole in the state budget that will have to be filled later.
Though campaign promises to enact
immigration-enforcement measures and repeal in-state tuition for undocumented students didn’t see the light of day, Republicans who championed the measures said they’ll be back next session to try again.
Two years after passing some of the strictest
abortion regulations in the country, Republican lawmakers are leaving their 2015 session having passed just one piece of anti-abortion legislation.
When the gavel came down on the legislative session on Monday, lawmakers had failed to pass into law about two dozen different proposals aimed at curbing conflicts of interest and
shining light into the dark corners of the Capitol.
Full video of
our conversation with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Among the topics discussed: 84th session accomplishments, conservative criticism, the Senate vs. the House, the 2016 presidential race and why he’s not running against Gov. Greg Abbott.
As
an inquiry broadens into whether Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton violated securities law, a special prosecutor involved in the investigation indicated Thursday that he might have more time to pursue the issue than previously expected.
A death row inmate who has proclaimed his innocence for three decades was executed Wednesday night in Huntsville. Lester Bower, 67, became
the oldest death row inmate executed in Texas after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.
Ross Ramsey is the Executive Editor and Co-Founder of the Texas Tribune where this article originally published and reprinted here through a news partnership between the Texas Tribune and Corridor News.