A federal court’s decision is the latest development in a bitter pre-election brawl between Republican state officials and Democratic county leaders.

The county told a state district court judge that the applications were already mailed out and any ruling would be moot.

The Texas attorney general filed a similar lawsuit earlier this week against Bexar County, which includes San Antonio.

Since 2019, accidental drug deaths have been rising in Texas, with the number tripling in Travis County.

A 31-year-old man accused of pulling another man more than twice his age down a North Star Mall escalator has been arrested.

In the state’s larger counties, voters can now elect people to the agencies that appraise property values.

University officials banned all students arrested from campus, except for “academic reasons.”

Next month, mentally ill individuals accused of committing minor crimes will be “diverted” to a new 25-bed facility instead of jail cells in Travis County.

The Travis County Sheriff’s Office has issued as Coordinated Law Enforcement Adult Rescue (CLEAR) Alert for a missing 33-year-old man.

Some environmental experts are skeptical that Texas can meet the new rules on particulate matter, which can cause serious respiratory problems.

The attorney general accused the judge of “recklessly disregarding legal precedent” after he attempted to end the long-running lawsuit from former staffers.

Suspecting the Washington-based hospital of providing gender-affirming care to Texas children, which is now banned in Texas, AG Ken Paxton issued investigative subpoenas demanding medical information.

A San Antonio man accused of killing his parents in Bexar County and four people in Austin last week is facing new charges.

A San Antonio man accused of killing six people, including his parents, in a series of attacks in Bexar County and Austin tried to escape custody at the Travis County Jail, according to authorities.

The Travis County district attorney still plans to pursue criminal charges in four cases. The officers whose cases are being dismissed will be allowed to return to duty.

The motion, filed Tuesday, comes a week after a judge in Burnet County allowed the 3-year-old whistleblower lawsuit to proceed.

Lawyers for employees fired by Paxton’s office after they reported him to the FBI say they plan to begin issuing subpoenas in the case.

The neighboring regions are projected to collectively grow from 5.2 million to 8.3 million people by 2050. But the state still lacks an overarching plan to address critical housing and transportation issues, experts said.

The ruling comes after dozens of school districts sued the Texas Education Agency, claiming the revised accountability system would hurt their ratings.

A woman awaiting trial in Austin for allegedly killing a professional cyclist in 2022 briefly escaped custody on Wednesday, according to media reports.

Online court records show that Mitchell Wasek, 28, was arrested on Tuesday in Travis County and charged with 28 state jail felony charges of invasive visual recording.

A Travis County resident died after swimming in Lake Lyndon B. Johnson and falling ill from an amebic meningitis infection.

A search is underway for a missing teen who didn’t resurface after a boat ran aground on Lake Austin, according to Austin-Travis County EMS officials.

More than 8 in 10 people charged by state troopers since they began helping Austin police have been people of color. In Southeast Austin, a neighborhood president calls it “outright racial profiling.”

The number of acres burned this year is dramatically lower compared to 2022. But a rash of new fires have put state and local officials on edge.

Texans are seeing record-breaking temperatures this summer. Tell us how the excessive heat is affecting your daily life or plans for the future and what questions we can answer about dealing with it.

Paxton’s top aide told senators that an agency-hired lawyer worked with the Travis County district attorney’s office to investigate a complaint by Nate Paul. County prosecutors dispute that.

The women, believed to be the first to testify about an abortion ban’s impact on their pregnancy since 1973, are seeking to clarify when a medical emergency justifies an abortion.

Gov. Greg Abbott has said he wants to pardon Perry, who was convicted by a Travis County jury last week.

A train derailed in Travis County on Monday morning, causing a small gravel spill and road closure.

Hamilton Pool in Travis County, which is known for its 50-foot waterfall which cascades into a natural swimming hole, is open for reservations through May. Reservations for dates in June 2023 and beyond are not available yet.

Chris Beard was arrested in December for allegedly strangling his fiancée. The university fired him last month.

A small plane reportedly lost power before it crashed onto a golf course in Lakeway on Sunday morning, according to Austin-Travis County EMS officials.

A days-long power outage and a misleading social media post led to hundreds of people fighting over food at an H-E-B on the Southeast Side of Austin, according to Travis County Constable George Morales III.

Close to 325,000 electricity customers statewide lacked power Thursday evening. Austin’s main power provider said it can no longer promise full restoration by 6 p.m. Friday.

Areli Escobar was sentenced to death in 2011 for an Austin murder, but even prosecutors now agree his conviction relied heavily on faulty DNA testing by the discredited Travis County crime lab.

Watson, a former state senator who was Austin’s mayor from 1997 to 2001, pitched himself as a back-to-basics candidate who could ease the city’s growing affordability crisis.

For some local relief programs, a lack of staffing, political support and effective community outreach got in the way of spending federal funds to prevent evictions, a new report found. More than $30 million went unspent and had to be returned.

The Court of Criminal Appeals scuttled nearly 450 cases, saying migrants arrested for trespassing in Kinney County can’t ask Austin judges to hear their appeals.

A Central Texas man was arrested after a dead woman was found buried underneath a burn pit, according to authorities.

Although there are laws on the books preventing certain people from possessing guns, there are few places in the state where the criminal justice system has programs to hand over firearms to law enforcement — leaving survivors at a heightened risk for gun violence.

A Hays County commissioner who was charged with driving while intoxicated after crashing into a vehicle in Austin last year has been sentenced to nine months of community supervision in the case, Travis County court records show.

A former Texas sheriff's deputy has been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for killing his ex-wife, teenage stepdaughter and the stepdaughter's boyfriend.

Another Texas lake is now considered “fully infested” with zebra mussels.

The minimum wage in Travis County will soon be $20 an hour.

While there are currently 780 confirmed monkeypox cases statewide, Texas cities are bracing for an increase in infections.

A woman convicted in 2016 of murdering her husband during a road rage incident provided false payroll information over a seven-year period in order to avoid more than $9 million in payments, Texas Department of Insurance officials confirmed Thursday.

Austin Public Health (APH) confirmed six monkeypox cases and seven presumptive cases on Wednesday.

Daniel Alexander was enslaved when he founded a farm before the Civil War. 175 years later, his family is fighting to keep it intact as Texas plans to expand U.S. Highway 183.

A San Antonio man who pleaded guilty to setting fire to a political party office in Austin will spend six years in prison for the crime.

A suspect was charged in the murder of a man whose body was found by deputies last month, according to the Hay’s County Sheriff’s Office.

Casar won the Democratic primary for Texas’ 35th Congressional District in a landslide victory last month and is expected to win the general election in November.

Months after the problems became apparent, migrants are still being kept in prison in violation of state laws under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security crackdown.

One of Texas’ most creepy crawlies is the redheaded centipede.

Abbott’s move is the latest in a long clash between Texas Republicans and Austin-area officials over policing — and comes as the push for reform in the Texas capital enters a more complex and uncertain chapter.

Indictments released Tuesday accuse 19 officers of using deadly weapons to injure 11 demonstrators during protests against racial injustice and police violence two years ago.

Defense attorneys for eight of 19 indicted APD officers say they were following orders when they used force against 2020 protesters. So far, there are 14 lawsuits against the city for injuries suffered during those confrontations.

Justin Berry is among 19 Austin law enforcement officers indicted and accused of using excessive force on anti-police brutality protesters in 2020.

Casar has impressive progressive endorsements, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders. But he also is tied to some of Austin’s most progressive policies, which have attracted powerful enemies and turned off some moderate Democrats.

A Pflugerville woman who disappeared late last month was likely killed by her boyfriend, who is currently on the run, according to the Travis County Sheriff’s Office.

Update:

With less than a month left to vote by mail in the March primary election, hundreds of applications for mail-in ballots are being rejected as both Texas voters and local election officials decipher new ID requirements enacted by Republican lawmakers.

Last week, the Travis County district attorney’s office gave Paxton four days to turn over communications requested by the state’s largest newspapers or face a lawsuit.

A legal defense group is asking Travis County courts to throw out the arrests of hundreds of migrants swept up in the governor’s border initiative. The case is expected to draw in the Texas attorney general and address whether Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan is unconstitutional.

The Travis County district attorney, a Democrat, says the Republican attorney general has four days to provide communications, multiple Texas news outlets first reported.

A Travis County judge Thursday tossed out the trespassing charge of an Ecuadorian man who said he came to the United States seeking asylum. His lawyers argued that the governor’s directive to arrest migrants on state charges unconstitutionally usurps federal immigration law.

Texas Republicans last year enacted new identification requirements for voting by mail as part of sweeping legislation that further restricted the state’s voting process and narrowed local control of elections.

It’s unclear whether the local mandate, which requires businesses to post signs outlining their safety guidelines, is in conflict with Gov. Greg Abbott’s previous pandemic orders.

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct had admonished Eckhardt in 2020 for her actions as Travis County judge.

A search is underway after a 76-year-old man disappeared in Bastrop County, according to the Travis County Sheriff’s Office.

The effort to charge Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir came at a time when many Texas Republicans questioned the integrity of last year’s election despite there being no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

The Austin Democrat, who has served in Congress since 1995, currently represents the 35th District, which stretches down to San Antonio. He will run in the newly created 37th District located in Travis County.

The Travis County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after a newborn child was found dead in a shallow grave near a creek south of Austin.

With the U.S. Food and Drug administration’s full approval of the Pfizer vaccine, Texas is in uncharted territory when it comes to COVID-19 vaccinations.

Back-and-forth legal rulings have left some school districts with the choice of flouting Abbott and mandating masks — or waiting for the dust to settle.

In the face of skyrocketing hospitalizations, the heads of cities, counties and school districts have grown desperate for ways to contain the virus.

Here’s what to do if you lose your COVID-19 vaccine card.

Officials in Dallas, Harris and Travis counties want residents to take stronger precautions as the delta variant drives an increase in coronavirus infections across Texas.

The city’s return to Stage 3 risk-based guidelines marks the first time a major Texas city has reversed direction in the trend toward normalcy. But others are also reporting surges in cases.

State officials have added 59 deaths to the toll wrought by the February cold wave and the ensuing collapse of the Texas electric power grid.

Army Sgt. Daniel Perry shot and killed Foster, who was legally armed, after an altercation during a protest against police brutality last summer, police said. Perry argues it was in self defense.

A former Texas sheriff’s deputy has been indicted on capital murder charges in the April shooting of his ex-wife, teenage stepdaughter and the stepdaughter's boyfriend.

Due to falling rocks, Travis County Parks officials will not be allowing swimming at Hamilton Pool Preserve for the foreseeable future.

Officials in Travis and Harris counties — both early adopters of pandemic restrictions — rolled some back Tuesday in an effort to allow vaccinated residents to return to pre-pandemic living.

A person drowned after falling off of a raft in the Colorado River in East Austin on Sunday, according to Travis County EMS officials.

The Texas Department of Public Safety and Travis County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday “that there is not enough evidence to support” an allegation that a lobbyist used a date rape drug on a Capitol staffer and that “no crime occurred in this instance.”

Hamilton Pool Preserve has reopened reservations through May after being closed for most of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A former deputy for the Travis County Sheriff’s Office who is accused of fatally shooting three people in Austin has been arrested after an hours-long manhunt, according to police.

Police in Texas say a former sheriff’s deputy accused of killing his wife, teenager daughter and another man in a weekend shooting has been booked on a capital murder charge.

An Austin court on Thursday dismissed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s appeal challenging Travis County and Austin’s New Years holiday curfew, months after it ended — in a perhaps symbolic win for local officials.

Officials say a former Texas sheriff has been charged for the second time with evidence tampering in an investigation into the death in custody of a Black man that was filmed by a police reality TV series.

Paxton sued the local officials for refusing to end the mandate after Gov. District Judge Lora Livingston has yet to issue a final ruling on the merits of the case, meaning Austin and Travis officials may later be told to comply with state officials. Ad“I've been doing everything that I can to protect the health and safety of people in Travis County,” Brown said in an interview. However, this was not the case in Travis County where officials said they would continue to require public mask use. Therefore, masks remained required in Travis County in the meantime.

Austin and Travis County officials can continue enforcing their mask mandates after a district judge delayed action on the Texas attorney general’s request to immediately stop the mandates. That means city and county officials can continue to require masks until at least March 26, when District Judge Lora Livingston will hold a trial. "I told Travis County and the City of Austin to comply with state mask law. Travis County Judge Andy Brown counts the two-week delay as a win. The pandemic has especially impacted Texans of color — including in El Paso where Paxton previously blocked a county judge from ordering non-essential businesses to shut down.

AUSTIN, Texas – Acting on his threat, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Austin and Travis County officials on Thursday over their decision to continue requiring mask-wearing in public. “Judge Brown and I will fight to defend and enforce our local health officials’ rules for as long as possible using all the power and tools available to us," Adler said in a statement. State officials reported that 4,053 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases Thursday raised the Texas pandemic total past the 2.7 million level to 2,704,344. Of those, the Texas Department of State Health Services estimated that 121,882 cases were active Thursday and 4,406 hospitalizations Wednesday, the latest data available. AdThe state reported 231 new COVID-19 fatalities in Texas on Thursday, taking the state's pandemic death toll past 45,000 to 45,106.

A COVID-19 safety sign in Austin on June 24, 2020. Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas TribuneTexas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Travis County and Austin officials in an effort to force them to rescind their local mask orders, he announced Thursday. "I told Travis County & The City of Austin to comply with state mask law," Paxton tweeted. There have been more than 2,200 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Travis County in the past two weeks. Travis County Judge Andy Brown, who presides over the county government, said the authority to impose the local mask mandate comes from the county health authority, not from Brown’s emergency powers. Paxton’s office successfully defeated an effort by Travis and Austin officials to restrict in-person dining at restaurants around New Year’s.

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is threatening to sue Travis County and the City of Austin if officials don’t back down on local orders that continue to require masks despite Gov. Austin and Travis County public health leaders recently announced they would continue to require masks, even though Abbott forbade local authorities from superseding his order. It does not rest with jurisdictions like the city of Austin or Travis County or their local health authorities,” Paxton wrote in a statement Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/IP9UpZPplh — Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) March 10, 2021“Otherwise, on behalf of the state of Texas,” Paxton wrote, “I will sue you.”Paxton’s office successfully challenged Austin and Travis officials’ attempts to restrict holiday restaurant operations around New Year’s. Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas woman convicted of murder in the 2003 choking death of a boy she was babysitting was released from prison on bond after a judge said new evidence shows she didn’t intentionally hurt the child. Travis County District Judge Karen Sage ordered Rosa Jimenez released on bond Wednesday, citing “clear and convincing evidence.” The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will make the ultimate decision on whether to overturn Jimenez’s conviction or grant a new trial. Jimenez has served 15 years in prison in the death of 21-month-old Bryan Gutierrez, who choked on a wad of paper towels while in Jimenez’s care. Ad“Justice delayed is justice denied, and I am deeply sorry for that,” Sage said in her decision. The Innocence Project, which is representing Jimenez, said Jimenez has advanced kidney disease that makes her particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, which has ravaged prisons throughout the U.S.Jimenez was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

SAN ANTONIO – Editor’s note: This story was published through a partnership between the San Antonio Business Journal and KSAT. Bexar County saw the greatest percentage increase in home sales of the four largest Texas counties last year, according to the latest multiple listing system report from the San Antonio Board of Realtors. Bexar County saw a 11.2% increase in home sales in 2020 — 27,855 homes last year compared to 24,936 in 2019. Travis County saw a 3.2% increase; Harris County saw a 6.7% increase; and Dallas County saw a 4% increase. Read more on this story at the San Antonio Business Journal.

In a further blow to the state, Texas’ Third Court of Appeals swiftly rejected an appeal later that night. Friday’s Supreme Court order, however, directs the lower court to block enforcement of the orders, pending any further appeal. Abbott, that allows for dine-in restaurant service and bars local officials from enacting more restrictive rules. Abbott and Paxton have sparred with other local officials who pushed aggressive measures meant to tamp down on the virus’ spread. Samaniego ordered a curfew similar to that in Austin and Travis County for Christmas and New Year’s Eve.