Kayla Guo

5 days ago | dentonrc.com | Kayla Guo

A debate in the Texas House over whether to limit children's access to books with sexually explicit material in libraries turned heated and philosophical Friday: What's the definition of sexual conduct? How should teens learn about sex? Are classics like The Bluest Eye and Madame Bovary explicit? “This is a simple bill intended to protect our Texas kids,” Rep. Daniel Alders, R-Tyler and author of House Bill 3225, said on Friday.

5 days ago | click2houston.com | Kayla Guo

Published: May 9, 2025 at 7:02 PMTags: Politics, politics, public education, state government, Texas House of Representatives, Texas LegislatureSign up for our NewslettersPublished: May 9, 2025 at 7:02 PMTags: Politics, politics, public education, state government, Texas House of Representatives, Texas LegislatureSign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

5 days ago | propublica.org | Lexi Churchill |Jeremy Kohler |Andy Kroll |Kayla Guo

This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Sign up for The Brief Weekly to get up to speed on their essential coverage of Texas issues. Two years ago, Texas lawmakers quietly cut millions of dollars in funding for kits intended to help track down missing kids, after ProPublica and The Texas Tribune revealed there was no evidence they had aided law enforcement in finding lost children.

1 week ago | sfgate.com | Kayla Guo |Jasper Scherer

The proposal’s momentum in the House this session reflects a yearslong shift in Texas away from efforts to curtail mass incarceration, reduce wealth-based detention and keep nonviolent offenders out of jail. Instead, under Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, state leaders have swerved toward a tough-on-crime approach to legislating, including through bills that would likely grow the state’s incarcerated population, increase penalties for various crimes and exempt police from deadly conduct charges.

1 week ago | kdhnews.com | Kayla Guo |Jasper Scherer

After struggling for years to gain enough bipartisan support to tighten the state's bail laws, Texas Republicans appear closer than ever to achieving their elusive goal of amending the state Constitution to keep more defendants behind bars pretrial. GOP leaders see the issue as a matter of life and death, arguing that stricter bail laws are needed to curb violent crime tied to defendants who are out on bond.