Attorney, former chairman of the Workers Defense Project, and potential state representative for House District 46 Chito Vela called for the congressional seat's outgoing Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Pflugerville, to step down “immediately,” well in advance of her intended date of resignation, Jan. 10.

Despite emotional public hearings, roughly 35,000 comments, and major pushback from pro-choice advocates, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission finalized a new rule on Monday that would require women to bury or cremate fetal tissue after their abortion or miscarriage, rather than deposit them in sanitary sewers and medical-waste landfills.

After filing anti-LGBTQ legislation late last week, state Sen. Konni Burton, R-Ft. Worth, has gone on the attack over press coverage of her bill.

Some textbooks are too politicized for even the State Board of Education to accept. In a unanimous vote this morning, Republican and Democratic SBOE members preliminarily shot down a controversial Mexican-American studies textbook, after months of debate and rallies against the text.

Wasting no time, Texas legislators filed three abortion-restrictive bills and the first anti-LGBTQ piece of legislation this filing period, assuring another heated fight for pro-choice advocates and LGBTQ allies beginning Jan. 10, the first day of the 2017 legislative session.

Reproductive health advocates marched two full boxes of petition signatures against a proposed rule that would force Texas women to bury or cremate their fetal tissue after an abortion or miscarriage to the front desk of The Department of State Health Services on Wednesday, Oct. 26.

The state may need to shell out more than $4.5 million to lawyers who defended abortion providers in the successful U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down parts of Texas anti-choice law, House Bill 2.

One week after the Texas State Board of Education held a public hearing on a controversial Mexican-American studies textbook, recently released e-mails reveal board member David Bradley, R-Beaumont, wants to “deny the Hispanics a record vote” in November when the SBOE decides whether or not they’ll accept the severely flawed book.

Testimony began Tuesday in the state’s case against Mark Norwood for the 1988 murder of Debra Baker. The trial’s 12 jurors saw nine witnesses: three members of Baker’s family, two neighbors, her landlord, and three former Austin Police officers who handled initial investigations into the murders.