TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

An influential band of the 62,500 or so residents of Victoria, home of the University of Houston-Victoria — a smaller, more rural member of the University of Houston System, about 130 miles from the main campus — is leading a movement to part ways with the parent system.

The state’s two leading anti-abortion groups — Texas Right to Life and Texas Alliance for Life — agree on where life begins, but not on a law governing how it may come to an end.

At last Thursday's TribLive conversation, Evan Smith interviewed state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, and state Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, about the maps they and their colleagues will draw for the state's House, Senate and congressional districts.

The Ciudad Juárez mayor on why his city isn’t the most violent in Mexico, why negotiating with cartels would be giving in to the criminals’ demands and why, despite a cartel presence, there aren’t shootouts in the streets of El Paso.

The Big Men on Campus in the school known as the Texas Legislature have the unenviable job of finding money that might alleviate the massive cuts outlined in House Bill 1, the general appropriations bill for the next biennium.

A psychologist who examined 14 inmates now on Texas’ death row — and two others who were subsequently executed — and found them intellectually competent enough to face the death penalty has agreed never to perform such evaluations again.

The first House redistricting maps are out, creating one new Latino district, keeping the current number of black opportunity districts and pairing 16 incumbents in districts where they would face one of their colleagues in the 2012 elections.

In a Texas House Appropriations Committee hearing this week, natural gas producers fought back against suggestions that a major tax exemption they receive be rolled back.