The Midday Brief: Jan. 25, 2012

Your afternoon reading:

• "TIME/CNN/ORC Florida poll shows Newt Gingrich rockets to second-place among likely GOP primary voters, picking up 16 points on Romney in just over one week." —Romney 36, Gingrich 34, Santorum 11, Paul 9 in new Time poll, Time

• "Univision's Jorge Ramos asked Mitt Romney today whether he considers himself Mexican-American. Romney's father, George, was born in Mexico. Romney laughed off the question, saying: 'I would love to be able to convince people of that, particularly in a Florida primary.'" — Mitt Romney, not a Mexican, Politico
  

• "A major goal of the University of Texas is to create an educational environment that reflects 'the basic demographic reality' of the state, as UT President William Powers Jr. puts it. Judged against that standard, the Austin flagship is making progress on some fronts, losing ground on another and holding its own on still others when it comes to the freshmen who enroll from Texas high schools. Overall, the university has a long way to go before the number of black and Hispanic students reflects the state's diversity." — UT reports mixed results on enrollment diversity, Austin American-Statesman

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "Nearly five years into a legal battle over the constitutionality of Texas' $5-per-patron strip club fee, the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to take up the adult entertainment industry's case against the state." — U.S. Supreme Court Won't Hear "Pole Tax" Case

• "One of the 'poor' U.S. Senate candidates in Texas claims to have caught up with one of the 'rich' ones, and both camps, incidentally, are getting outside help with television ads." — Campaign Roundup: The Week's Political News

• "Amid massive budget cuts, the state of Texas continues to reduce the number of family-planning contractors statewide, from 71 agencies in 2011 to 41 now. Use this interactive map to see which family-planning clinics received or lost federal funding." — Updated Map: Federally Funded Family-Planning Providers in Texas