Texas Matters

Today on Texas Matters: Ken Paxton strikes back. After being acquitted from impeachment charges the Texas Attorney General is promising to crush his political enemies. Also, why are Venezuelans coming to the border en masse, and how is TPS going to help many of the Venezuelan asylum seekers?

Today on Texas Matters—The buoys are back – in fact they never left. What is happening with the legal battle over the border barrier? How to get paid for tweeting about Ken Paxton. It could be illegal.And Mark Gonzalez—the Corpus Christi progressive D.A. is now running for Senate.

This week on Texas Matters: a look at some of the new laws now in effect in Texas and some of the significant ones that didn’t. And gearing up for the Ken Paxton Senate impeachment trial. Will Texas voters watch and care?

Today on Texas Matters: Some scary hours with the Texas grid during the summer heat. What is happening? And Republican candidates for president say they’ll invade Mexico. Why that is a terrible idea?

It's estimated that half a million people live in colonias along the Texas-Mexico border. These communities lack basic needs for the residents, including running water, storm drainage and sewage. What are the challenges of living in a colonia? Who is responsible for improving the substandard conditions?

This week on Texas Matters: Mexico makes it clear they want the buoys out of the Rio Grande. The San Antonio Police Department's use of its mental health unit examined. And records show that the San Antonio Police Department failed in policing its problem cops.

This week on Texas Matters—a trip down the Rio Grande to see the buoy barrier and meet with the people it’s supposed to stop. How the Eagle Pass City Council pushed back on Operation Lone Star. And climate change is making water more precious, so will Texans be paying more at the tap.?

This week on Texas Matters - How Operation Lone Star is being felt in Eagle Pass. Abbott is building his own border wall. Texas is using spyware on the border—and maybe beyond.

Texas is gripped with extreme heat that’s putting lives at risk. Should President Biden step in to protect Texas outdoor workers? And the Texas GOP makes the voting system less secure and easier to cheat.

This week on Texas Matters, a school bus tour is highlighting the mass shootings of Texas; with climate change disasters now the norm, some Houston residents are transforming their homes into emergency hubs; and a state program to help people to pay traffic tickets is punishing the low income further into debt.

As border communities celebrate a victory against building a border wall, Abbott’s floating river barrier is about to be built. Solar power is saving the Texas grid during the record-breaking heat wave and Texas leaders aren’t happy about that. And how forensic hypnosis was finally banned from Texas Courtrooms.

Former San Antonio Rep Will Hurd is now running for president and taking aim at Donald Trump. We hear from Hurd. And Texas Monthly’s Forrest Wilder is trying to make sense of the mess that is the Texas public school funding system.

Governor Greg Abbott is fully behind a plan to completely eliminate property taxes in Texas. Property taxes fund public services like schools and hospitals. With no state income tax, Texas would have to rely on sales tax which would likely have to increase. Lt. Gov Dan Patrick is calling Abbott’s plan a fantasy.

How the Texas legislature dealt with voting rights (it's not all bad news), and a stripper takes on San Antonio's anti-nudity ordinance.

What’s the latest with Attorney General Ken Paxton, his alleged crimes and possible impeachment? What are the charges? What is the impeachment process? Who could be the next Texas Attorney General?

Roll Call's "Inside Elections" has changed the rating for Sen. Ted Cruz’s re-election bid from "Solid Republican" to "Battleground." Cruz is now seen as vulnerable, and Dallas Democratic Congressman Colin Allred is running to replace him. We hear from Allred about why he thinks Texas voters will pick him and send Cruz packing. Could the fate of Senate control ride on this election?Also, how Texas is getting ready for electric cars.

The Texas legislative session is getting closer to wrapping up. Is there any progress on gun safety, abortion exceptions and making the grid reliable? And the battleground over Texas History is now at Texas State Historical Association. Can the state turn away from the old Lone Star myths and towards the facts of the state’s founding?

He stood up to Gov. Greg Abbott and SB8 when he performed an illegal abortion, and he dared people to sue him — and they did. Dr. Alan Braid tells his story to TPR's David Martin Davies.

How making illegal voting a felony is part of a Republican campaign to supress voting. And an update on the developments at the Texas legislature from Democrat State Senator Roland Gutierrez and how he is working on gun safety with the families of Uvalde who lost children in the school shooting. Also Gutierrez sizes up running for Senate against Republican Ted Cruz.

On Texas Matters: The assault continues on free and fair elections by the Texas legislature.Many citizen complaints to the Texas Commission on Evironmental Quality could be ignored in the future.And why Texas could be making big bucks in the new green economy but state leaders are holding it back.