Preliminary data indicates Texas home insurers earned a 22% profit on premiums collected last year, according to the Houston Chronicle. It was the best year insurers have had in two decades and follows several years of double-digit rate increases and flat or slightly negative returns for insurers due to increased natural disasters.
Insurance rates increased statewide by an average of 4.3% last year, according to the Texas Department of Insurance, which was significantly lower than the rate increases of preceding years. Homeowners were still paying about 80% more for home insurance in 2025 than they paid in 2020.
Texas Department of Insurance Commissioner Amanda Crawford said given the profits Texas insurers reaped last year, they should “strongly consider whether or not a rate decrease might be in order.” However, insurers can change their rates without getting state approval.
Rates in Texas are among the highest in the country.
Paxton may have violated Texas election law
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who created a tip line for the public to report suspected voter fraud, may have violated the law by voting in six elections using an address where he has not lived for two years, The Texas Tribune reported.
The attorney general’s election guidance includes a warning that “it is illegal to misrepresent your residence on election records or to establish a residence for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election.” It further states, “You must register to vote using the address where you reside.”
Paxton appears to have used an address where he didn’t live while voting, according to election records obtained by Pro Publica and The Texas Tribune. When his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce last year, she said Paxton had moved out of their Collin County home a year earlier, but Ken Paxton has continued to use that address when voting. He has been linked to a home in a gated community in neighboring Denton County since February.
Neither Ken Paxton nor Angela Paxton responded to requests for comment. Ken Paxton is the GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate in the November general election.
Talarico far outpaces opponent in fundraising
State Rep. James Talarico continues to dominate fundraising in the U.S. Senate race, raising $30 million in the second quarter, according to The Dallas Morning News. Meanwhile, Paxton reported his strongest fundraising quarter so far, with his campaign saying most donations came after the attorney general ousted Sen. John Cornyn in a late-May runoff.
“We are uniting Texans onto one team to change this broken, corrupt political system and bring down costs for working families,” Talarico said in a statement.
The Paxton campaign said its increased fundraising success reflects donor enthusiasm to “send a proven conservative fighter” to the U.S. Senate.
Appeals court rejects bid to revive Texas Dream Act
In a 2-1 decision, the 5th U.S. Circuit of Appeals rejected an appeal of a 2025 ruling that struck down the decades-old Texas Dream Act, which allowed Texas students without legal status to pay in-state college tuition, the Texas Standard reported.
Until the Texas Dream Act was overturned last summer, students without legal status qualified for in-state tuition if they lived in Texas for at least three years and graduated from a Texas high school or earned a GED. About 57,000 students without legal status were enrolled in Texas colleges in 2022.
The appeals court decision means affected students will continue to pay out-of-state tuition rates at Texas public colleges and universities.
State launches Texas Classroom Commission
A new teacher-led initiative, aimed at “putting Texas educators at the center of shaping the future of public education,” was launched last week. The Texas Classroom Commission will be led by Courtney Boswell MacDonald of Kerrville, a former teacher and current chair of the State Board for Educator Certification.
“The Texas Classroom Commission will bring together exemplary public-school educators to identify innovative solutions that help students succeed, improve the learning environment in classrooms, and strengthen our schools,” Gov. Greg Abbott said.
The commission will consist of current and retired public school classroom teachers. It will deliver recommendations to the Texas Legislature before the start of the 90th legislative session in January.
Historically strong El Niño likely coming this fall
El Niño, one of the planet’s most powerful climate patterns, is quickly gaining strength and has an 81% chance of reaching historic strength this fall, the Austin American-Statesman reported. That could mean cooler, wetter weather in Texas, according to meteorologist Mary Wasson.
During the last super El Niño event, in 2015-2016, Central Texas, in particular, experienced two of its largest floods. However, a strengthening El Niño typically reduces the threat of tropical storms and hurricanes impacting the Texas Gulf Coast.
Above-normal rainfall is favored in West Texas this fall, with wetter conditions expanding statewide by December, Wasson wrote.
Texas’ ACA enrollment shrinks by 4% after tax credit expires
The number of Texans who paid for their first month of Affordable Care Act coverage dropped 4%, The Tribune reported. It was the state’s first year-over-year decline since 2019. The decrease comes after a pandemic-era subsidy of ACA premiums expired at the end of last year.
The enrollment decline was less steep in Texas than most other states, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The state’s ACA population fell from 3.42 million in 2025 to 3.28 million in 2026 after the tax credit expire and premiums rose.
“We saw record growth in ACA enrollment when there was an enhanced premium tax credit,” said Justin Lo, a senior researcher for national health policy group KFF. “This is the first time we’ve seen a decrease in enrollment.”
Researchers to launch Texas wine grapes into space
Researchers at Texas A&M AgriLife are getting ready to launch Texas wine grape seeds into space, the Texas Standard reported. The plants will be placed on TAMU-SPIRIT-1, an orbital research platform that will be flown above the International Space Station.
The grape seeds will orbit the Earth for six months before returning to be planted and examined.
Adrej Svyantek, an assistant professor and viticulture specialist at AgriLife, said the experiment could reveal what happens to the seeds when they are exposed to cosmic radiation. That could help guide which crops are grown aboard space platforms when long-term human occupation in space increases.
Gary Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Cedar Park. Email: gborders@texaspress.com.
