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Top Stories: Special Session Ends Early, But Gov. Abbott Could Call Another

Christopher Connelly
/
KERA News

The top local stories this morning from KERA News:

The special legislative session was scheduled to end today. Instead, state lawmakers went home early.

House members adjourned yesterday to force the Senate to accept their version of a contentious property tax bill. But the Senate rejected that ultimatum, and then also adjourned early.

Gov. Greg Abbott called lowering property taxed the top priority of the special session. Abbott now has to decide whether to call a second extra session if he wants to revive the issue.

Other stories this morning:

  • After five hours of debate last night, the Fort Worth city council voted not to join the legal fight against Senate Bill 4, the new state law targeting so-called “sanctuary cities.” Fort Worth is the only major Texas city not to join the lawsuit.
  • Texas has joined a coalition of states investigating the role pharmaceutical companies played in the opioid epidemic.  Some doctors are also debating the need to prescribe opioids at all.

You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM. 

Former KERA staffer Krystina Martinez was an assistant producer. She produced local content for Morning Edition and KERANews.org. She also produced The Friday Conversation, a weekly series of conversations with North Texas newsmakers. Krystina was also the backup newscaster for the Texas Standard.