Your State

Texas Gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis would like to see small amounts of marijuana decriminalized in the state, she said in an interview Tuesday. Citing the overwhelming costs of incarceration, Davis questioned whether anything was really solved by throwing small-time users in jail.

Rep. Louie Gohmert rallied a fawning audience at a Tea Party gathering in South Carolina two weeks ago for his proposal for a massive expansion of federal taxes, a plan based on the right-wing myth that too many Americans lack “skin in the game.”

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.

Last week marked the 50th anniversary of LBJ's War on Poverty, which introduced major initiatives designed to help lift Americans out of poverty. President Obama marked the occasion by recommitting himself to fighting poverty, declaring that "our work is far from over."

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.