Listen to highlights from the 2025 Texas Tribune Festival

Corpus Christi voters to decide if industry should pay sharply higher water fees during droughts

Activists gathered nearly 13,000 petition signatures to place the measure on the November ballot. Legal challenges are expected.

As Big Bend wall outcry builds, Paxton does not say whether construction should proceed

The attorney general’s campaign said he wants strong border security that considers Big Bend’s “unique characteristics” — but did not say whether he supports building a wall there.

The Texas Tribune is investing in coverage of education and Houston

One of the state’s most important topics and one of its most important regions will get more attention.

Migrant kids are often being held in a South Texas detention center five times longer than a court order allows

The nation’s only detention center for families is routinely holding children beyond the 20-day limit, including an Iranian-born “average American kid” who’s been locked up for 123 days and counting.

Trial lawyers, once a force for Democrats, reclaim political clout in Texas GOP’s MAGA wing

Texas plaintiffs’ lawyers are bankrolling populist GOP insurgents. Tort reform groups like Texans for Lawsuit Reform are aghast.