texas

July 14, 2017 - Eight justices who had previously dismissed a challenge to same-sex spousal benefits recently changed their minds. Some have argued they were riding a change in political tides, but there may be more to the story than a nationwide conservative swing.

July 14, 2017 - Two years ago this week Sandra Bland was found dead inside a Texas jail cell. Last month Texas passed a law named in her honor, but it focuses on mental health issues in jails and ignores the other factors that contributed to her suicide.

July 12, 2017 - A perennial bill to create a national single-payer public health insurance program has record support in this Congress. Though none of the cosponsors are Republicans, they include a growing number of conservative Southern Democrats, signaling a shift in health care politics.

June 2, 2017 - Immigrant rights advocates are working to block the harshest sanctuary city ban in the nation before it goes into effect on Sept. 1.

June 2, 2017 - Science watchdogs are warning of serious flaws in the plan for storing spent nuclear fuel in pools at individual power plants — flaws that could ultimately lead to the long-term relocation of millions of people. North Carolina and Alabama are among the states with the largest amount of spent fuel stored in pools.  

May 23, 2017 - This week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that congressional districts drawn by North Carolina's GOP-controlled legislature back in 2011 involved unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. The decision connected racial and partisan gerrymandering in a way that experts say will lead to many more successful racial gerrymandering cases in the South and elsewhere.

May 11, 2017 - The construction industry is thriving in big cities across the South, but a new report finds workers contending with unsafe conditions, low pay and a lack of basic employment benefits.