Hadassah Schloss was appointed to the newly created job of director of open government at the Texas General Land Office. This is a promotion for Schloss, who was serving as GLO Open Records Coordinator. She previously was at the Office of the Attorney General, where she handled a wide array of open records duties.

HHSC Deputy Chief Counsel Karen Ray is now interim chief counsel for the agency, replacing Jack Stick, who resigned in December.

The Travis County DA's public integrity unit won't prosecute Attorney General Ken Paxton. The unit had conducted an investigation keying off Paxton's violation of state securities laws but found no "additional criminal activity over which our office has venue." It forwarded a portion of its investigation to prosecutors in Collin and Dallas counties.

Two Republicans — Carolyn Cerny Bilski and Leighton Schubert — will compete Feb. 17 in the special runoff election in HD-13. Early voting runs Feb. 9-13. Gov. Greg Abbott announced the date this week, which coincides with three other runoff elections in SD-26, HD-17 and HD-123.

Disclosure: The Texas Department of Health and Human Services is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. The Texas General Land Office was a corporate sponsor of the Tribune in 2011. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.