The Midday Brief: Nov. 30, 2010

Your afternoon reading:

• "The Senate defeated an amendment for a two-year moratorium on earmarks in the food safety bill sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) by a margin of 39-56. Seven Republicans voted against the ban, and seven Democrats voted for the ban." — Earmark moratorium goes down in food safety bill, The Texas Independent

• "Several Texas conservatives are vowing to make Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) pay for her primary challenge to popular Republican Gov. Rick Perry." — Texas conservatives target Hutchison, The Hill

• "With [Jim] Dunnam gone, the Democrats don’t have an obvious leader. He leaves a large void because he knew the rules backwards and forwards and could employ them effectively in debate. And he loved the game. There is no obvious successor." — Oliveira steps up, BurkaBlog

• "With tea party fervor running high and conservative lawmakers priming their budget-cutting chainsaws, it’s hard to imagine a serious discussion in 2011 of imposing a state income tax in Texas, despite an estimated budget shortfall of $20 billion or more. Nevertheless, state Rep. Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth) filed legislation that would tax the incomes of people earning more than $150,000 per year, and potentially raise billions of dollars per year for public education." — State Rep. Burnam proposes state income tax for Texans, The Texas Independent

• "An attorney for convicted Austin child-killer Raul Meza has asked that five members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles be cited for contempt for failing to follow an earlier court decision in his case." — Parole board targeted for contempt citation, Postcards

New in The Texas Tribune:

• The newly christened executive director of the Texas Legislative Council on how the upcoming session is going to be 'really, really difficult,' how technology has changed her job, whether redistricting maps can get drawn and agreed upon by June and how she keeps politics from impacting her work. — Debbie Irvine: The TT Interview