EAST TEXAS

Tuesday brought much-needed rain to parts of South Central Texas as a strong area of low pressure pushed across the state, sparking severe weather in East Texas and snow in North Texas.

Like feral hogs, zebra mussels, and giant salvinia, fire ants are an invasive species unleashing chaos on our native landscape.

The Texas Rangers have evolved from a frontier organization to one famed for expert interrogators. But some cases have tarnished that reputation.

So far there has been an average of six boil-water notices a day across Texas in 2023.

After successfully serving smoked pork belly pizza at the State Fair, Stephan Nedwetzky offers more-traditional fare at Pit Commander Barbecue.

As Texas lawmakers consider what to do with an unprecedented $32.7 billion state surplus, leaders of the state’s six largest public university systems are pitching that nearly $1 billion be allocated [San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

The leaders of the six biggest university systems want the money to fund instruction, university operations and employee health insurance.

The leaders of the state’s six biggest university systems are seeking the money to fund instruction, university operations and employee health insurance and to cover a free tuition program for veterans and their children.

The leaders of the state’s six biggest university systems are seeking the money to fund instruction, university operations and employee health insurance and to cover a free tuition program for veterans and their children.

Women in Deep East Texas drive over an hour to give birth after the last obstetrics unit in the area closed in 2019. But if closing the unit was hard, reopening it is proving nearly impossible.

Nathaniel Moran, the former Smith County judge, has promised to be a staunch conservative who will pass legislation. That worries some of his constituents.

What should we do with our $27 billion windfall? We asked a variety of Texans for their brightest ideas.

Federal inspectors cited a sawmill run by members of the insular Church of Wells with multiple safety violations.

It was another historic, news-filled year. As you get ready for 2023, check out these memorable articles the Tribune published in 2022.

Fatal crashes in rural areas accounted for 51% of Texas’ 4,489 traffic fatalities in 2021, even though only about 10% of the state’s population lives in a rural area, according to data from the state’s department of transportation.

In marking the Rangers’ bicentennial, we should engage with critiques of the organization’s history and have more open, honest discussions.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recalled bag of H-E-B brand dry cat food last week because of possible salmonella contamination.

An investigation highlighted church leaders' failures to heed warning signs about a youth pastor later imprisoned for crimes related to child sex trafficking.

Texas officials found remains that were positively identified as Lauren Thompson, who went missing in January 2019.

Lauren Thompson went missing in January of 2019. Her remains were discovered in July.

Kerrville County’s John Michon gives “hogwash” a new meaning with his Boar Brand line of body products.

Somewhere inside every story—including the one told on Netflix’s ‘Harry & Meghan’—lies a Texan.

Rural communities face compounding reasons they can’t improve their water infrastructure, including inflation and a lack of human resources.

The latest county to make a disaster declaration is an eight-hour drive away from the Texas-Mexico border, but local officials there say they’re under “invasion.”

Zavalla lost all water for several days. The Texas Department of Emergency Management has sent pallets of bottled water and a team to help.

A Texas Parks and Wildlife Department drone program is helping local Texas law enforcement officers locate crime suspects and lost citizens.

An AMBER Alert was canceled for a 5-year-old boy after he was found about 6 hours away from where he was abducted, authorities said.

Texas’ seven freshly elected members of Congress run the ideological gamut, from impassioned conservatives to some of the most progressive members ever sent from Texas.

Texas Tribune photographers spread out all over the state to document a momentous midterm election.

He was the fourth inmate put to death this year in Texas and the 13th in the United States.

A Texas death row inmate was executed Wednesday nearly 20 years after he killed his mother after an argument.

A man who killed his mother and buried her body in her backyard was executed Wednesday in Texas despite his lawyers’ appeals that he should not be put to death because he had a history of mental illness. Tracy Beatty, 61, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

Texas voters cast their ballots Tuesday with a wide variety of issues on their minds, including the state’s grid and the Uvalde shooting.

Downtowns are deserted, hospitals are closing, teachers are leaving. Every part of life in rural Texas is harder — but it’s worth saving.

At least one person killed as tornadoes pummel parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas damaging homes and injuring dozens, according to emergency authorities.

Photos and videos posted to social media showed leveled homes and fields of debris.

An increase in fake active-shooter reports since the beginning of the school year has intensified parents’ anxieties and required an additional law enforcement response.

She weaves the state’s climate disasters, including droughts and floods, into terrifying tales.

She weaves the state’s climate disasters, including droughts and floods, into terrifying tales.

School leaders are offering more money and paid training for potential bus drivers. Some routes still go unserved.

The high turnout seen in 2018 may have been an anomaly rather than the start of a long-term trend.

From Johnny Cash to the Stone Coyotes, musicians have long made harrowing music about the Lone Star State.

Access to health care is limited in rural Texas. The mobile clinic operated by Beaumont-based TAN Healthcare aims to close that gap.

Deputies and divers headed “deep” into Davy Crockett National Forest for answers.

Formerly incarcerated Texans face numerous barriers to restart their lives. Without help from the state, the Next Chapter program in Lufkin is helping people released from prison get back on their feet.

The man said that he had previously transported "several loads of people" for the same organizer on other occasions, the Department of Justice release said.

What keeps San Marcos beautiful?The answer may lie with a group of volunteers who meet twice a year to scour embankments and storm drains for trash.Four-hundred-fifty-seven volunteers met Saturday mor[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

Running elections in Texas has never been easy. But since 2020, the scrutiny elections administrators face has grown — even in small Republican-controlled counties that former President Donald Trump carried.

The Texas A&M Forest Service reported some areas of the state are at risk of “significant wildfires” through the end of September and early October.

Sometimes a slower pace of life is a perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of the big city. Here are the 10 small towns in Texas offering nothing but peace and quiet, according to a new travel roundup.

Other anti-abortion groups and Republicans said they will continue to support state Sen. Robert Nichols after his comments at The Texas Tribune Festival.

Local governments in Texas have spent the summer preparing their budgets for next year, wrestling with inflation and a law that prohibits them from raising property tax revenues beyond 3.5% without voter approval.

Texas lawmakers on both sides of the aisle talked schools, abortion and guns in advance of next year’s session in a range of panels at The Texas Tribune Festival.

One of the longest-serving Republican state senators, Robert Nichols is among the first to say publicly he’d support revising the state’s abortion prohibition. He spoke Friday at The Texas Tribune Festival.

San Antonio bookshop joined the national 'Banned Books Week' movement. Texas has reportedly banned the most books in the country.

Texas ranks last among states in access to health care and has the highest rate of uninsured people in the country. Two longtime doctors in rural Henderson County created a homegrown safety net to fill the gap.

Texas banned more books from school libraries this past year than any other state in the nation. It targeted race, racism, abortion and LGBTQ issues.

Across the country, more books have been challenged and removed as religious and conservative groups target LGBTQ and race issues.

In 2022 alone, the list of Texas wildfire names runs the proverbial gamut with pop culture references, popular food items and even a cocktail to boot.

Texas Game Wardens are offering a reward for tips on the person who shot and killed an alligator in East Texas.

More than three-fourths of Texas teachers say they have seriously considered quitting the profession largely because of a perceived lack of respect and support, according to a new survey by the Charle[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

A recent analysis of Oath Keepers’ membership rolls leaked last year found that Texas had more members of the far-right extremist group than any other state — and the most who worked as elected officials, law enforcement officers or members of the military.

“If it’s gonna rise by that much, I don’t think we’re prepared,” one South Texas mayor said of temperature increases.

Texas heat has killed prisoners and cost the state millions in wrongful death and civil rights lawsuits. Prison rights advocates hope a budget surplus next year will finally push lawmakers to invest in air conditioning.

A St. Mary's University student is researching the story of a freed slave who would become the first Black Texan to earn the nation's highest military honor.

In this video, Texas Country Reporter interviews the curator of the wide-ranging collection in Jefferson, one that merely begins with 550 vintage clocks.

He’s a fourth-generation watermelon farmer, he married the Texas Watermelon Queen, and he puts his face on every melon he sells.

Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, the leader of the San Antonio Archdiocese and one of the top two Catholic leaders in Texas, shared his thoughts about Gov. Greg Abbott’s handling of the Uvalde school shooting massacre in an emotional interview.

East Texas is hot, and not in the way you compliment your wife when she’s mad at you for performing an epic cannonball while she’s lounging by the pool with her laptop.[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] Opinions San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

In 2016, the first beetles turned up in Harrison County and have since been found in 11 counties in East and North Central parts of Texas.

A preacher showed up to Beto O'Rourke's town hall in East Texas wielding an assault-style rifle.

The Texas Department of State Health Services has received and distributed 14,780 doses of the monkey pox vaccine to local health departments and DSHS regional offices.[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

An East Texas deputy was hit and killed by a drunken driver during a traffic stop on his last day of training, according to the Smith County Sheriff’s Office.

The bodies of three sisters were recovered from a private pond in East Texas and investigators are still working to find out what happened.

New, untested abortion bans have made doctors unsure about treating some pregnancy complications. That's led to life-threatening delays, and trapped families in a limbo of grief and helplessness.

Across the state, Texans are experiencing record-high temperatures, but we might be recalling this summer fondly some day.

The Beaumont photographer zeroed in on the dignity of East Texas residents in his 1989 Texas Monthly photo essay.

Authorities say a car driving on the wrong side of a two-lane highway in East Texas early Friday collided with an SUV, killing all five people in the vehicles.

A car driving on the wrong side of a two-lane highway in East Texas early Friday collided with an SUV, killing all five people in the vehicles, authorities said. The collision happened at about 5 a.m. on Texas 110, about 6 1/2 miles (10 1/2 kilometers) northwest of Tyler and 85 miles (135 kilometers) east of Dallas, the Texas Department of Public Safety said. A Dodge Charger was on the wrong side of the unlit highway and erupted into flames after rounding a curve and slamming head-on into a Chevrolet Tahoe, DPS Sgt. Jason Bundy said.

Officials say a former East Texas deputy pleaded guilty to a civil rights violation for punching a restrained detainee in the chest repeatedly with a shock gun.

Authorities in East Texas are searching for a 10-day-old infant and a man and a woman who are wanted in connection with his disappearance.

The Window Trail in the Chisos Basin in Big Bend National Park is closed to public use until further notice.

Whether you’re a crime fiction addict or you’re looking for a romantic comedy, there’s a book for everyone.

Read these four ambitious crime novels released this year that examine the complicated lives of Texas women.

Our state struggles to serve Texans’ needs on the hottest and coldest days. So why are we welcoming the energy-hogging cryptocurrency industry?

Texas had 3,866 water boil notices in 2021, the most in the last decade. Aging water systems threaten water supply and quality — and for many small towns across the state, they won’t be cheap to repair.

A former East Texas chief deputy has pleaded guilty to violating a prisoner's civil rights by using excessive force on him.

Three people were arrested last week by federal authorities in connection with a human smuggling incident that left 53 migrants dead.The migrants were discovered inside a tractor-trailer on San Antoni[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

Pooja has worked at Chalkbeat, CNN and NPR. Based in Lufkin, she will report from a vast and diverse region that borders on three states.

Texas Parks and Wildlife officials are urging boaters to “clean, drain, dry” ahead of the holiday weekend to help prevent the spread of invasive zebra mussels.

Authorities arrested the fourth man after finding communications between him and the truck's driver on a cell phone.

A Mexican immigration official says that in the chaotic minutes after dozens of migrants were found dead inside a tractor-trailer sweltering in the Texas heat, the driver tried to slip away by pretending to be one of the survivors.

Authorities say five people were shot and injured during an outdoor event in East Texas that featured a trail ride.

Stephen Joseph of Riverport Bar-B-Cue in Jefferson serves Lebanese potato salad and spiced spareribs, and he hopes to incorporate more family recipes.

The work-from-home, learn-from-home experience during the COVID-19 crisis underscored the need to improve access to high-speed internet in Texas.

Authorities in East Texas are searching for a 4-year-old boy and a 34-year-old man wanted in connection with his abduction.

The Texas prison system says it's temporarily stopped transporting inmates as it investigates how a convicted murderer escaped from a transport bus last month, later killing a man and his four grandsons.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and other Republicans argue that gunmen can be stopped by locking all but one door and posting guards at schools. School officials and safety experts say that’s not realistic.

After the Uvalde mass shooting, GOP leaders are again pushing to boost school security. But similar legislation after a 2018 school shooting has fallen short of its goals, and experts said there’s no evidence such tactics work.

A spokesperson for Abbott said he had previously committed to the event but all campaign-related activities are postponed until further notice.