Matt Zdun

1 week ago | houstonchronicle.com | Matt Zdun

CreditsReporting and data by Matt Zdun. Editing by Allie Morris. Originally published on April 17, 2025Powered by the Hearst Newspapers DevHub.

2 weeks ago | expressnews.com | Matt Zdun |Evan MacDonald

We're also tracking counties with the highest nonmedical vaccine exemption rates among school-aged children, which experts say increases the risk for an outbreak. The epicenter of the current measles outbreak, Gaines County, also has the highest share of students in kindergarten through 12th grade who received vaccine exemptions for religious and other nonmedical reasons over the past four school years.

4 weeks ago | houstonchronicle.com | Rebecca Schuetz |Yilun Cheng |Matt Zdun

The public agency says it accomplished this monumental task by exempting apartment complexes from property taxes in exchange for making some units affordable. In Houston, there are over a hundred of these deals, all created under a state program called Public Facility Corporations. The program allows apartment developers to receive 100% property tax breaks in exchange for marking some units as "affordable."But are these good deals, and for whom?

1 month ago | houstonchronicle.com | Tanya Babbar |Isaac Yu |Matt Zdun

Never in a million years did Ann Gauger think she and her husband would start growing cannabis on their family farm in Lubbock. The success, Gauger said, has been a lifeline for their family farm amid dropping commodity prices and water shortages in the Panhandle. Critics in the Legislature say the booming and largely unregulated market in Texas has gone too far, and are especially worried that THC gummies are being sold to children.

1 month ago | houstonchronicle.com | Matt Zdun

President Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to launch the "largest deportation program in American history" over his second term. But as the President and local leaders ramp up efforts to make good on his promise, one key question remains unanswered: No one knows exactly how many immigrants live in the U.S. without legal permission. That's because there is no major government survey that asks people about their legal immigration status.