Government and Politics

Tomorrow is Election Day in the special election to determine the city council representative for Lubbock's District 4. So far, the Lubbock County Elections Office reports 1,880 voters have turned out in early voting. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Most survey results show the Texas Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico as extremely close. Houston Public Media’s Andrew Schneider reports that potentially creates an opening for a third-party candidate, Libertarian Ted Brown, to shape the outcome.

Data centers use water to cool their massive arrays of computer servers. A state agency sent out a survey to figure out how much, but less than a third of the companies responded.

Just ahead of closely contested midterms, Texas is about to get a new top voting official. Many locals there fear the frontrunner is a state lawmaker and pastor with no election experience.

There is bipartisan agreement that the country is not producing nearly enough sterile flies to combat the flesh-eating parasite, which threatens to wreak havoc on Texas' livestock industry.

Priorities for Republican leadership last legislative session have either been stuck in the courts or left to linger in the state rulemaking process.

Some North Texas communities have made efforts to stop – or at least slow – the growth of data centers, but legal challenges from developers are making it an uphill battle.

Repairs to vital infrastructure were abruptly put on hold with little explanation, impacting the park's most popular area.

A popular (and generous) repayment plan ends, two new plans begin and many borrowers will see new loan limits.

Development of large-scale data centers is booming across the Midwest and South. As some communities push back, local and state governments are trying to catch up on how to regulate the new development.

More than 130 cities, most with fewer than 10,000 residents, were blocked from increasing their property tax revenue because they had broken the law.