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Texas is in the midst of a teacher shortage that could get even worse this year.

Driving the news: Classes resumed this week at some school districts, including Plano and Lewisville. Dallas ISD returns to school next week.

Beto O'Rourke (D) on Wednesday snapped back at a heckler who laughed as the Texas gubernatorial candidate described the weapon used to murder 19 children and two teachers in the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting earlier this year.

What he said: “It may be funny to you, motherf--ker, but it’s not funny to me, OK?” O’Rourke told the heckler. The crowd applauded.

Homelessness is a complex problem without simple solutions, but there are a few things everyone can do to help. 

Speak up: Attend budget town hall meetings and voice support for municipal spending to close encampments and advocate for measures to move people into shelter and housing.

Signs of rising homelessness pepper the city: a sleeping bag at a train station, a cardboard shanty under a highway, a tent tucked into the brush, a car stuffed with belongings and towels covering the windows. 

Driving the news: Dallas leaders are prioritizing cleaning up debris around campsites, closing more encampments and getting people into housing. 

Dallas closed one of the largest tent encampments ever seen in the city in 2016, after outreach workers spent months meeting the hundreds of people who lived there to move them into shelters, housing or other programs.

• It was a turning point for how the city handles homelessness. 

President Biden on Wednesday commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the abduction of American journalist and Marine Corps veteran Austin Tice, reiterating calls for the Syrian government to release him.

Why it matters: Tice, who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012, is one of the longest-held and most high-profile American hostages.

A Dallas grand jury has indicted a 37-year-old man for committing aggravated assault after he allegedly shot three Asian women in a Dallas Koreatown hair salon in what police have labeled a hate crime.

Driving the news: Jeremy Smith intentionally targeted the women "because of his bias or prejudice against Asian Americans," according to the Dallas County district attorney’s office.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced new school safety protocols for the Uvalde school district Wednesday, months after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School took the lives of 19 children and two adults.

Why it matters: As the new academic year approaches, the measures are intended to ensure students, parents and faculty feel secure as they return to school following the May shooting, Abbott said in a news release.