Former Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Ted Cruz's opponent in the bitter GOP primary fight in 2012 for the U.S. Senate, chose to endorse Cruz for president last Friday.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday endorsed Cruz for president, lending his support to a former Republican presidential rival a week before his state's primary.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry may have stumped for Cruz for president, but there's no record he voted in this year's Republican primary in Texas. Perry's former campaign manager insisted that Perry filled out the ballot and mailed it in. His failure to vote in this year's Texas primary could lead to more speculation that he is interested in running as an independent candidate for president.

State lawmakers are considering whether to tighten eminent domain laws to help landowners battling pipeline companies, electric utilities, public agencies or other entities seeking to condemn land their land for public use. The discussion comes as property rights skirmishes persist across Texas, including Big Bend-area landowners’ long-shot effort to thwart the Trans-Pecos natural gas pipeline through the largely untouched region.

Texas lags most other states in preparing high schoolers for college and needs to update its readiness standards, Higher Education Coordinating Board Commissioner Raymund Paredes told state senators at a hearing on Tuesday.

Texas Tech University plans to ban guns in its recreation center, chapel and some dorms but won't prevent students with concealed handgun licenses from carrying in classrooms, according to an operating policy issued Tuesday.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday stayed the execution of a Dallas accountant who shot and killed his two daughters in 2001. John Battaglia's lawyers argue he is not mentally competent enough to be put to death.

Records related to the mental health of state Rep. Susan King, R-Abilene, will remain sealed at least until Nov. 21, punting a potentially thorny issue for the Texas Senate candidate until after the election. King is facing Austin ophthalmologist Dawn Buckingham in a May 24 runoff for the GOP nomination to succeed Horseshoe Bay Republican Troy Fraser.

Texas women will be able to obtain medical abortions later into their pregnancies under newly approved changes by the federal Food and Drug Administration. New rules will increase the number of days women can take medication to induce abortions from 49 days of gestation to 70 days. Doctors in many states already followed common, evidence-based protocols that strayed from the FDA’s previous label for the drug, but Texas doctors were prohibited from doing so by state law.

The national union that represents more than 16,000 agents of the United States Border Patrol issued its first-ever endorsement of a presidential candidate on Wednesday by throwing its support behind Republican Donald Trump.

State insurance regulators would need a big infusion of cash to handle injured worker fraud investigations if the Texas Legislature puts an end to the controversial funding deal between Travis County and the largest provider of workers’ compensation insurance, officials said Wednesday. Testifying before the committee at the Capitol Wednesday, state regulators said a fix would also require financial help from state lawmakers.

If Texas decided to pay off construction debt on nearly all of its toll roads tomorrow, the price tag would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 billion, according to a preliminary report. While the department is required to produce a plan for completely removing tolls, House Transportation Chairman Joe Pickett said his emphasis was on explaining what eliminating these tolls would actually look like for Texas.

Bernie Tiede — who in 1996 killed his elderly companion, Marjorie Nugent, and inspired a Richard Linklater dark comedy — could learn in just a few weeks whether he'll remain free, return to a life sentence or land somewhere in between.

State Rep. John Zerwas, the chairman of the Texas House of Representatives' Higher Education Committee said Thursday that he "would not have any concern" if the Top 10 Percent Rule governing college admissions in the state were eliminated. He stopped short of calling for a full repeal of the law but said the Legislature should at least consider tweaking it in the near future.

Disclosure: Texas Tech University is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. Richard Linklater is a major donor to The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Texas Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.