Kyle McClenagan | Houston Public Media

The Houston synagogue, the oldest Jewish congregation in Texas, and an affiliated school were closed Wednesday based on guidance from the Houston Police Department.

Every year for the past several decades, the Texas Department of Transportation has spent tens of thousands of dollars annually to plant nearly 30,000 pounds of bluebonnets and other wildflowers along roadways.

The Texas Department of Transportation plants more than 5,000 species of wildflowers and native grasses, including bluebonnets, along the state’s highways.

According to the Austin Police Department, a deleted suicide note from Nov. 25 was discovered on Brianna Aguilera’s phone, which was found in a wooded area near a tailgate she had reportedly attended last weekend.

The new race and gender policy has garnered condemnation from educational rights advocates, including the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which sent a letter to the board of regents earlier this week arguing that the policy amounted to censorship.

Sen. Ted Cruz and Reps. Dan Crenshaw and Chip Roy were among those to speak on the first day of the Texas Youth Summit, an annual Houston-area conference for young conservatives.

Representatives with the Texas Civil Rights Project say they submitted humanitarian parole applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for the girl's parents and her older sister, accompanied by letters from several lawmakers. According to the group, the agency has not yet responded.

"Republicans think they can walk all over us," Alvarado said in a post on social media Friday afternoon. "Today I'm going to kick back ... Going to be a long night."

In anticipation of potentially severe weather in Southeast Texas late Thursday through early Saturday, Gov. Greg Abbott has activated the state’s emergency resources.

Andrew Taake, 36, was released from a federal prison in Colorado on Jan. 20, despite a request from the Harris County DA’s Office to hold him on a pending state warrant from 2016.