News and articles

Teachers are losing hope that lawmakers will give them a big raise this session

With less than a month left in the legislative session, the odds that teachers will get the kind of raise they say they badly need are rapidly diminishing.

Clarence Thomas Had a Child in Private School. Harlan Crow Paid the Tuition.

In 2008, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas decided to send his teenage grandnephew to Hidden Lake Academy, a private boarding school in the foothills of northern Georgia. The boy, Mark Martin, was far from home. For the previous decade, he had lived with the justice and his wife in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Thomas had taken legal custody of Martin when he was 6 years old and had recently told an interviewer he was “raising him as a son.”

After years of little progress, Texas gun control and safety advocates see some small openings for dialogue at the Capitol

As someone who wants firearms better secured in a state that’s long balked at additional gun regulations, Leesa Ross expected opposition to some proposed laws as she headed into this legislative session. What she didn’t expect was more dialogue.

Dallas Democrat Colin Allred announces 2024 challenge to Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz

Sources: U.S. Rep. Colin Allred preparing to challenge Ted Cruz in 2024

U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, announced Wednesday he is challenging U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for reelection.

Environmental groups sue EPA over water pollution standards

More than a dozen environmental groups are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for not revising its water pollution-control standards, which regulate the amount of harmful chemicals that can be dumped into rivers, lakes and streams. The groups claim the current standards haven’t been updated in decades, which violates the Clean Water Act.