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Have you seen U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman? The suburban Houston Republican and fierce conservative is mounting a long-shot challenge from the right against Senate minority whip John Cornyn but has made virtually no public appearances in Texas as questions mount about his campaign finances. Now, he's stopped showing up for his day job, too.

A South Texas police chief said Monday that two Mexican citizens who were arrested at the border used account information stolen during the Target security breach to buy tens of thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise. But a federal official said later there currently was no connection between the arrests and the retailer's credit card data theft.

Lady Theresa Thombs, the Republican candidate for the Texas State Board of Education who rails against evolution, “socialist higher education” and “Devil worshipers,” today shared a Facebook post calling for “Straight Pride.”

The stats from Wendy's report are impressive: 85 percent of her 84,704 individual donations were under $50, as over 71,843 people supported her campaign. She has donors from all 254 counties in Texas, and in-state money makes up 70 percent of her haul. Burnt Orange Report reacts to this news...in GIF form.

The longstanding "honored tradition" in the Texas Senate known as the two-thirds rule will be nothing more than a memory in the event that any of the four Republicans running for Lieutenant Governor take charge of the chamber in 2015. Last summer, the lack of the two-thirds rule in the Senate was the only way sweeping anti-choice legislation was able to pass at all during a couple special called sessions — which don't require the two-thirds rule.

Parkdale Mall in Beaumont is clarifying its ban on all guns in response to an incident where Derrick Poe was charged with disorderly conduct for slinging an AR-15 across his back.

A survey cited that lack of awareness of the new health plan is the main barrier to access, not the technical glitches that were so prevalent in the first month of the ACA's rollout. Texas – a state that would gain the most from the program, with 6 million uninsured – is the focus of a new push by Get Covered America.

At a debate in Fort Worth on Monday, a Republican candidate for the Texas state board of education warned that the board is currently “using your tax dollars to brainwash our children into socialist issues and ideas.”

In a newsletter to donors, Denton Co., Texas, Republican Chair Dianne Edmondson referred to Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis as 'Abortion Barbie' and felt the need to reference running mate Leticia Van De Putte's hispanic heritage. A bit more sensitivity training may be in order.

Erick Munoz awoke to his son’s cries in the wee hours of November 26, sure that he’d heard his wife, Marlise, get up to grab 14-month-old Mateo a bottle. When he got up to investigate, he found Marlise collapsed on the floor of their North Texas home, with no heartbeat and not breathing. A paramedic, Erick Munoz tried to resuscitate his wife and called for an ambulance.

Not only does Texas not compensate prisoners for mandated labor done while incarcerated, the state accesses the accounts of prisoners, garnishing funds for a variety of costs the state doesn't cover while prisoners serve out their sentences.

Here's how democracy works in Texas: Over 19,000 Texans wrote to the Department of State Health Services during the public comment period asking for existing clinics to be exempt from the new ambulatory surgical center regulations. Only 265 requested a strict version of HB 2 rules. Last week the Texas Health and Human Services Commission released the final rules for the abortion restrictions passed this summer, and unsurprisingly, they reflect the least compassionate interpretation of the law.