The Evening Brief: April 25, 2012

New in The Texas Tribune:

• Ted Cruz Gains Ground on David Dewhurst, Poll Finds: "Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's lead against former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate has decreased to 12 percentage points, according to a new poll released today."

• Gilberto Hinojosa: The TT Interview: The former county judge is running to lead a political party that hasn't won a statewide election in nearly two decades. He talked with the Tribune about why he's running for chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, what would pull the Democrats out of the doldrums and what he really thinks of the Republicans.

• Commercial Benefits of University Research Touted at Hearing: "Two House committees held a joint hearing to explore how scientific research at universities can be commercialized for the benefit of businesses and the state economy. They heard testimony from the state's leading research universities."

Culled:

• Justices Seem Sympathetic to Central Part of Arizona Law (The New York Times): "Justices across the ideological spectrum appeared inclined to uphold a controversial part of Arizona’s aggressive 2010 immigration law, based on their questions on Wednesday at a Supreme Court argument."

• Freshman Republican from Texas reports TSA altercation (Politico): "Last week, a TSA agent at San Antonio International Airport patted down Francisco 'Quico' Canseco, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee. The agent, Canseco told POLITICO, was so aggressive in his pat-down that Canseco ended up batting the agent’s hand away. 'As he was moving up my leg, he moved his hand aggressively up to my crotch and he hurt me,' Canseco said. 'The natural reaction is when someone goes for your crotch and it hurts, you’re going to pull back — and my right arm came down and moved away his hand briskly.'"

• Christian evangelical leaders endorse Leppert for Senate (The Dallas Morning News): "A group of conservative evangelical pastors is endorsing Republican Senate hopeful Tom Leppert. Among them are Dallas First Baptist Church senior pastor Robert Jeffress, who made national headlines when he called Mitt Romney's Mormon faith "a cult", Rev. Jerry Carlisle of First Baptist Church of Plano and Rev. James Denison, formerly pastor of Park Cities Baptist and now head of the Center For Informed Faith."

• Newt Gingrich to drop out of race on Tuesday (Politico): "Following his five-state shutout this week, Newt Gingrich will suspend his yearlong campaign for president on Tuesday, multiple sources close to the campaign confirmed. He will return to the Washington area, where he has lived since leaving office, to make the announcement official, they said. Despite an acrimonious relationship during the campaign with presumptive nominee Mitt Romney, the sources close to the former House speaker said Gingrich was 'very likely' to endorse Romney on Tuesday. But it remains to be seen just how hard Gingrich will campaign for him."

• UT System chancellor cancels Julio César Chávez Jr. fight citing security reasons (El Paso Times): "The Julio César Chávez Jr. and Andy Lee WBC world middleweight championship fight scheduled for June 16 in Sun Bowl Stadium has been blocked by the University of Texas System's chancellor's office. … State Sen. José Rodríguez said in a statement, 'I strongly oppose the decision by the UT System to cancel this fight, especially without consulting local officials regarding any potential threat. This is just one more example of what happens when our state leaders disregard the facts by falsely calling border communities "war zones" without any evidence to support their claims.'"