The proposed $68 million settlement with a Texas land developer that the Justice Department had accused of preying on Hispanic residents includes no money for the victims but more than $20 million for police and immigration enforcement.

Big Bend Sentinel, the Houston Chronicle, KRIS 6 News in Corpus Christi, KXAN Investigates in Austin and the Texas Observer will report on state and federal efforts to restrict local control.

The Texas Tribune has added some new faces to the roster who will be digging deep and investigating some of the state’s most urgent and interesting storylines.

Federal prosecutors, who can face discipline for not advancing the Trump administration’s priorities, are bringing military trespassing charges against immigrants with little evidence.

ProPublica is tracking the historic rise in challenges filed by immigrants claiming their detention is illegal.

The administration’s push for mass deportations has resulted in more than 18,000 habeas petitions, a historic high. Texas and California account for about 40% of cases this year.

Skyrocketing detentions, violent arrests, troops in cities. One year into President Donald Trump’s second term, we look at how it’s changed the lives of immigrants and citizens.

Texas earmarked $1.4 billion to help fund flood prevention projects. But after learning that so many communities turned down the money, two lawmakers who approved the program acknowledged it was flawed.

The heavily redacted emails reveal little of the two men’s relationship.

At the core of the program is the idea that there is no separation between what happens within the church and what happens in the government.

It’s the latest step to pool confidential data that the Trump administration claims will help identify noncitizens on voter rolls and tighten immigration enforcement.

Over the last three years, the head of a small charter school network that serves fewer than 1,000 students has taken home up to $870,000 annually, a startling amount that appears to be the highest for any public school superintendent in the state and among the top in the nation.

The former president captured 55% of Latino voters in the state, according to exit polls. He also won 14 out of the 18 counties within 20 miles of the border, a number that doubled his 2020 performance in the Latino-majority region.

The group of 111 doctors cited recent ProPublica reporting on two pregnant women who died because doctors did not provide lifesaving care.

Here’s what you need to know after a ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and Votebeat investigation found that Gov. Greg Abbott likely inflated the number of noncitizens on voter rolls.

Vice President Kamala Harris says Donald Trump’s role in undoing national abortion rights is to blame for the death of Amber Thurman.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office has accused Annunciation House, which operates a network of migrant shelters, of human smuggling.

As a grand jury considers whether any law enforcement officers are criminally charged for their inaction during the Robb Elementary shooting, some families say they feel they’ve been let down and betrayed by elected officials.

A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service who pleaded guilty to leaking tax information to news outlets about former President Donald Trump and thousands of the country’s wealthiest people was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday.

The state police agency had been withholding nearly all of its records on law enforcement’s botched response to Texas’ deadliest school shooting. DPS will have an opportunity to redact the files before they are released.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito accepted a 2008 trip to a luxury fishing lodge in Alaska from two wealthy Republican donors, one of whom repeatedly had interests before the court.

With the 2022 midterms less than a month away, election administrators in Texas and elsewhere continue to face a level of harassment and threats that experts say had never been experienced before the November 2020 presidential election.

A first-of-its-kind analysis reveals that, on average, Army soldiers had to face at least eight counts of sexual offenses before their commanders detained them ahead of trial as often as soldiers charged with drug or burglary crimes.

One of them is in Laredo, which has elevated rates of cancer, according to a recent state analysis. The findings come after reporting by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.

The fact that the gunman responsible for this week’s massacre in Uvalde was able to buy two AR-15s days after his 18th birthday highlights how much easier it is for Americans to purchase rifles than handguns.

A graduate of Sam Houston State University, Priest has worked in newsrooms in Temple, Victoria and Fort Worth.

Despite the need, Pfizer is the only manufacturer whose pediatric vaccine trials are far enough along to potentially have data on elementary-school age children by the end of the summer. The adult trials paved much of the way, but researchers still need to study how kids’ immune systems react and to confirm the optimal dosage. And even if the shots are authorized by September, there will need to be enough supply on hand in order to get school children immunized before school doors open. AdThat’s enough to prove safety and benefit, experts said, in part, because the adult trials have already paved the way. AdWhen it comes to proving benefit, the pediatric trials will focus on a different metric than the adult trials.

The monthslong probe showed the loan company had sued thousands of lower-income Latinos in Texas during the coronavirus pandemic while depicting itself as a benefactor of that community. California-based Oportun, founded in 2005, has always been a regional company and lends in just 12 states including Texas. “Unfortunately, recent investigations and research have revealed egregious debt collection practices by Oportun,” the letter states. That means the OCC may decide on Oportun’s application by early spring. “The public comment period is an important part of this process,” Oportun said in a statement to ProPublica and the Tribune.

The situation could become even more complicated if President-elect Joe Biden makes good on his promise to stop border wall construction. The agreements are to build 146 miles of border wall and install nearly three dozen gates. Biden has said he will cease wall construction and drop all the lawsuits on day one. Under the Trump administration, Starr has become one of the agency’s top priorities for the border wall. But Starr County, which lacks a levee system, had no wall before the Trump administration first proposed building there in 2017.

Among these cases, nearly 3 in 10 people were charged only for the emergency order violation, the district attorney said. In the initial month of the virus’ spread in Texas, orders were coming out every few weeks or even days. Fines pile up, and cases are dismissedOutcomes for violating COVID-19 orders varied from community to community in the Valley. Daisy Alvarado was one of more than 340 people cited by Cameron County sheriff’s deputies for violating COVID-19 orders. The virus’ toll hasn’t changed Alvarez’s opinion that rules like the emergency orders need to be applied cautiously.

disqualifiedIf you receive notice that you’ve been disqualified from unemployment benefits, it means something has prevented you from receiving them. In Texas, DUA has become synonymous with Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, during the coronavirus pandemic. Temporary Unemployment BenefitsPrograms that temporarily extend unemployment benefits are housed under this classification, including Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), Extended Benefits (EB) and High Unemployment Period (HUP). Programs that temporarily extend unemployment benefits are housed under this classification, including Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), Extended Benefits (EB) and High Unemployment Period (HUP). UI, UC, UA, UEUnemployment insurance, unemployment compensation, unemployment assistance, unemployment.

This year, our results page will be powered by Decision Desk HQ, a firm that collects, organizes and reports election night results. It's been a common refrain across the country that people should prepare themselves in 2020 for election week, not election night. Second, we know that a small number of votes won't be counted on election night, so some races will simply be too close to call. What to keep in mind as the results come inThe vast majority of the votes in Texas will be cast before Election Day. Conversely, only 15% of Democrats said they'd vote on Election Day, compared with 33% of Republicans.

Early voting in Texas begins Oct. 13 Credit: Allie Goulding/The Texas TribuneEarly voting in Texas begins Tuesday, kicking off in-person balloting in an election unlike any in the state's history. To keep an eye on how things are going, The Texas Tribune is teaming up with ProPublica's Electionland. ProPublica has built a network of news outlets, including The Texas Tribune, across the state and country. To let us know how your voting experience goes, here’s how to sign up and get in touch:SMS: Text the word VOTE, VOTA (for Spanish) or 投票 (for Chinese) to 81380 (standard text message rates apply). WhatsApp: Send the word VOTE, VOTA (for Spanish) or 投票 (for Chinese) to 1-850-909-8683.

Hispanic residents are more likely to work in service jobs or live in multigenerational households that make social distancing difficult. He said COVID-19 is amplifying the existing inequalities of "a health care infrastructure that is faulty by design." Nationally and in parts of Texas, the coronavirus has also disproportionately sickened and killed Black residents, another group with unequal access to health care. "These problems are all coming to a head after decades of not paying attention to the health care infrastructure." Valery Martinez, left, and her family hold a plate lunch fundraiser for her cousin Arturo Valles COVID-19 medical expenses.

The damage comes at the start of what is projected to be an active hurricane season, which runs through Nov. 30. Erosion along the privately funded border wall on the banks of the Rio Grande in Mission has accelerated due to Hurricane ... The privately built border fence is the subject of a lawsuit brought by the federal government and the National Butterfly Center. In 2010, Hurricane Alex caused widespread damage along the banks of the river, including at the National Butterfly Center, just upriver from Fisher’s fence. “We said it was too close to the water, erosion would be an issue, the location made no sense,” Patrick said.

Allie Goulding/The Texas TribuneThis article is co-published with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublicas Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published. A Silicon Valley-based installment lender that caters to Latino immigrants announced on Tuesday that it would drop all the lawsuits it has filed against borrowers who fell behind on payments, including during the coronavirus pandemic. That reporting has included interviews with individuals whom Oportun sued in small claims courts across the state, as well as numerous consumer advocates. Court records show that it has filed thousands of debt claims in Texas this year alone and tens of thousands since 2016.

A state judge who first handled the case had issued a narrower restraining order that temporarily blocked the public disclosure of records concerning unsubstantiated and non-finalized allegations or settlement agreements. In all, the searchable database contains 12,056 complaints against 3,996 active NYPD officers. But we believe the public good it could do outweighs the potential harm, ProPublica Editor-in-Chief Stephen Engelberg said. In issuing the temporary restraining order, Failla also barred the New York chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union from publicly releasing records it had already obtained. The organization said it requested officer misconduct complaints from the CCRB under the states open records law and received them before the unions lawsuit was filed.

SAN ANTONIO During an ever-changing pandemic, there is a constant race to weed out faulty personal protective equipment that ends up in our medical system. Last month, KSAT shared an investigation done by nonprofit consumer watchdog ProPublica, which revealed a Silicon Valley investor was paying workers to repackage non-medical KN95 masks to sell to Texas emergency workers. Thankfully, those masks were denied by a San Antonio team with a lifesaving job. We went to our higher (education) and university systems to make sure that what we were buying was, in fact, quality masks, Kidd said. As the pandemic rages on, PPE will continue to come into the South Texas region from multiple places, and the San Antonio TDEM team will continue to process it before it is handed out.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. A founder and former leader of a neo-Nazi group has pleaded guilty to conspiring to place hoax phone calls targeting an African American church, a Cabinet official, journalists and others. Prosecutors say Denton was leader of a group called Atomwaffen Division. More than a dozen people linked to Atomwaffen Division or an offshoot called Feuerkrieg Division have been charged with federal crimes since the groups formation in 2016. Denton also placed swatting calls to the New York City offices of news outlet ProPublica, and to a ProPublica reporter in Richmond, California. Another member of the swatting conspiracy, former ODU student John William Kirby Kelley, is scheduled to enter a plea next week.

Erosion can be seen along the privately funded border wall that was built less than a year ago in Mission. Fisher, a frequent guest on Fox News, has seen his company become Trumps preferred border wall contractor. Javier Pea, attorney for the National Butterfly Center, which sits just upriver from the fence, told Crane the erosion beneath the fence is "massive." The U.S. Border Patrol is building its own fence on top of a levee system about a mile north of the Fisher wall. Officials say that project continues, but it is unclear who will take over management of the Fisher wall long term.

In this June 19 photo, erosion can be seen along the privately funded border wall that was built on the banks of the Rio Grande in Mission. People dont appreciate the power of the Rio Grande when it does indeed wake up, said Jude Benavides, who specializes in floodplain mapping in the Lower Rio Grande Valley at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. This unnecessary wall must be taken down.A section of Trumps border wall is seen on June 19, 2020 in Mission. This section of the border wall will be built north of the privately funded wall. Vernica G. Crdenas for The Texas Tribune/ProPublicaThe privately funded border wall is seen from the area where Trumps border wall will be built on June 19, 2020 in Mission.

The masks Rivera posted photos of were face masks with earloops that don’t fit securely around the head, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends. The investigator’s visit had led him to wonder if repackaging masks for sale to unsuspecting customers was not kosher. The agency shared a photo of a packaged mask SKYOU attempted to sell, which is identical to a photo Rivera shared, only with the medical disclaimer removed. He said Mulligan caused “a very large scene” with officials at the agency’s Austin headquarters after SKYOU masks were rejected. In the end, Mulligan told me all the effort and expense of repackaging the masks was a waste.

Corado said she struggled with and did not complete an online application for the Small Business Administrations Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. That has particularly affected very small businesses and those owned by people of color. The key to recovery in many towns in Texas and across the country is small businesses, local leaders and experts say. We should do what we can to aid those small businesses, but not on a first-come, first-served basis. Local governments are now setting aside some of the federal COVID-19 relief funds for small businesses in the form of grants.