Reporting Texas
News and features from UT-Austin's School of Journalism
byMadeline de Figueiredo and Rebecca Butler
The Local Food for Schools initiative was set to distribute $660 million to state agencies in fiscal 2025, aiming to help schools and child care facilities buy locally grown food in 40 states. The end of the Local Food for Schools program eliminates more than $600,000 that the Austin school district used over the past two years to buy high-quality products like pasture-raised beef, organic yogurt and fresh produce from across the state.
byMeredith McKelvey
A 16-year-old boy and his older siblings, both in their early 20s, were detained with more than 40 others during a law enforcement raid at a party in Hays County. According to a press statement, the raid was the result of a federal investigation into a Venezuelan gang that has become a target of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
The siblings’ mother told Reporting Texas that the authorities are wrong.
“I want the public to know that my children are not linked to any gang, as the government is saying,” the mother said.
The siblings remain detained at an undisclosed location.
byShunya Carroll
Maria Maria hit each choreographed step like an athlete. Her routine elevated classic New York voguing to a gymnast’s floor routine. The four to the floor pop medley was almost drowned out by the crowd’s cheering.
This wasn’t a national stadium tour. It was Draggieland.
The biggest drag show in College Station prevailed Thursday over Texas A&M University’s attempt to ban drag performances on campus.
byMadeline de Figueiredo
Thomas Greenwell wakes up each morning and gets ready twice — he goes through the motions of brushing teeth twice, doing hair twice and getting dressed twice — once for himself and once for his client, Edgar. But Greenwell doesn’t know how much longer he will be able to afford to take care of Edgar as a community-based care provider under Medicaid. “The attendant care wages are not sustainable at all,” he says. The Legislature will revisit attendant wages in this spring’s legislative session as caregivers and advocacy groups push for more competitive and livable wages.