Texas Standard

2 days ago | texasstandard.org | Travis Bubenik |Mose Buchele |Brad Burt |Lucio Vasquez

After 140 days at the Capitol in Austin, the Texas Legislature has just wrapped up its 89th session. This year, state lawmakers passed over 1,200 bills. Among them were several important pieces of legislation focused on energy and the environment. Barring a veto from Gov. Greg Abbott, these will soon become law in Texas. Here’s a breakdown of some of those measures. Abbott opened this year’s legislative session by naming water as one of his top priorities.

2 days ago | texasstandard.org | Michael Marks

Schmidt still raises cattle in the area. He says he’s “absolutely terrified” of screwworms returning – which they’re in the process of doing. New World screwworms were largely contained at the border of Panama and Colombia for the last 30 years. But they broke through that barrier in 2022. Since then, they’ve advanced more than 1,000 miles to the Mexican states of Veracruz and Oaxaca.

2 days ago | texasstandard.org | Bill Zeeble

From KERA News:Texas has ended its decades-long policy of extending in-state tuition to students without legal status. Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday the state had filed a joint motion with the U.S. Department of Justice asking a federal court to declare a section of the Texas Education Code “unconstitutional and invalid” and permanently block the state from enforcing it. A judge agreed.

3 days ago | texasstandard.org | Raul Alonzo

San Antonio residents are set to choose the city’s new mayor in a runoff election this Saturday. There were 27 candidates in the original race in May to replace Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who reached his term limit in the office. None of the candidates on that very long ballot received the majority of votes, so the two candidates with the highest percentages moved forward to this runoff.

3 days ago | texasstandard.org | Raul Alonzo

From The Texas Newsroom:After nearly five months meeting in Austin, the Texas Legislature wrapped up its 89th session on Monday. Once again, education was a huge topic at the statehouse this year. From passing a billion dollar school voucher plan to a sweeping school funding bill, lawmakers made some big moves that will affect public education in Texas for years to come. But there were also many other consequential education-related bills lawmakers passed in addition to the marquee legislation.