Here are the top stories from our data visuals team in 2023
The Texas Tribune’s data visuals team helped contextualize many of the state’s major stories this year. Here’s a look at some of our most memorable work. Full Story
The Tribune is an authoritative source for providing user-friendly databases of public information. Our reporters and software engineers collaborate to present a full picture for readers, giving them the tools to be more thoughtful, productive and engaged citizens. We also use data to help tell other compelling stories about politics and policy in Texas.
The Texas Tribune’s data visuals team helped contextualize many of the state’s major stories this year. Here’s a look at some of our most memorable work. Full Story
A Texas Tribune analysis of hate crime data found that 82% of Texas law enforcement agencies that report to the FBI tracked no hate crimes last year. However, one suburban North Texas police agency is creating a new model of collecting hate crime data. Full Story
Hotter days and nights. More record highs. Climate change has shifted the entire range of Texas heat upwards. Full Story
Paxton has been seeking revenge on fellow Republicans who voted to impeach him earlier this year. Similarly, Abbott is looking to unseat GOP House members who voted against school vouchers. Full Story
Here’s how each representative voted on an amendment that removed school vouchers from the education bill on Friday. Full Story
Despite fishermen’s wishes to delay the season in hopes that oyster reefs recover from years of environmental stress, the state pushed ahead with a Nov. 1 start. Full Story
Tim Dunn’s public policy groups have helped ensure that tax hike language is attached to every school bond ballot measure in the state. Now he is using that language to cast doubt on a bond in his hometown of Midland. Full Story
For the first time in a generation, Texans were more likely to die of gunshot wounds than car crashes in 2021. Experts worry a lack of research on the issue has hampered the search for solutions. Full Story
With rural Texas relatively underserved by private schools, the potential for expansion could play a role in the debate over whether to let families use taxpayer money to pay for private education. Full Story
In 2012, around 100 Texans under 18 died of gunshot wounds. Last year, that number reached nearly 300. Full Story
The few private schools that offer special education for disabled students have strict conditions and are clustered in metropolitan areas. Full Story
While Fuentes’ unapologetic hate mongering has made him one of the nation’s best-known white supremacists, he was merely the latest in a long line of people who have been embraced by Defend Texas Liberty and its close allies. Full Story
The Texas Tribune’s database of Texas state employees’ compensation is updated to represent salaries as of October 1. It includes detailed data for the 113 agencies in state government and positions at each of those agencies. Full Story
The group has funded candidates and groups like the Texas GOP who have pushed fellow Republicans to take a harder line against things like illegal immigration and transgender people. Full Story
Commissioner of Education Mike Morath has repeatedly waived expansion requirements for charter school networks, allowing them to serve thousands more students, even when they don’t meet academic performance standards. Full Story
Gov. Greg Abbott called lawmakers back to Austin to try again to pass education savings accounts, which would let families use state funds to pay for their children’s private schooling. Teacher pay was not part of his agenda. Full Story
After spending two weeks listening to both sides make their case, Texas Senators voted to acquit Paxton on all 16 articles of impeachment. Because of this vote, Paxton will remain in office. Full Story
The average temperature in Texas this summer was 85.3 degrees, putting it behind only 2011 for summer misery. Full Story
Under rules previously adopted by the Texas Senate, the trial will feature crucial votes on dismissing articles of impeachment as well as testimony under oath, private deliberations by senator-jurors and votes conducted without debate or discussion. Full Story
The suspended attorney general has been ordered to appear in the Texas Senate chamber to answer to 16 allegations of misconduct that were approved by the House in May. Full Story
Weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic swept into Texas, a biologist found a dead bat covered in a white fungus — the state’s first official case of white-nose syndrome. Now, scientists are on a mission to understand how many bats have been lost. Full Story
The Texas Tribune’s database of Texas state employees’ compensation is updated to represent salaries as of July 1. It includes detailed data for the 113 agencies in state government and positions at each of those agencies. Full Story
With his election as Texas attorney general, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn planted the seeds of conservatism. Gov. Greg Abbott used his tenure to cultivate them into an aggressive strain of right-wing activism aimed at driving the nation’s courts and laws to the right. Full Story