Enlarge photo by: toddsmithrep.com

House Speaker Joe Straus, left, and state Rep. Todd Smith, R-Bedford.

The issue that nearly derailed the 2009 session could be back in 2011, according to the chairman of the House Elections Committee.

In the latest bout of the state's legal contretemps with the Environmental Protection Agency, Attorney General Greg Abbott announced today that Texas will challenge the federal agency's decision to disapprove its qualified facilities program.

Texas Republican convention-goers not only support Arizona-style immigration laws — some are proposing "laser beams" and "electric wire" to keep more immigrants from crossing the border illegally.

Your afternoon reading.

The Lone Star Project, a Democratic group, claims to have found Republican Stefani Carter's muse.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has suspended all new placements of foster children at the Daystar Residential Treatment Center outside of Houston, following a Texas Tribune/Houston Chronicle investigation that revealed workers forced young girls to fight each other in return for snacks.

Chad Clanton, a Waco-born Democratic consultant and well-known protege of James Carville, has joined the Bill White gubernatorial campaign to "work on a variety of projects ... on multiple media channels," says White spokeswoman Katy Bacon.

It's summertime in Texas, and things only got warmer this weekend in Dallas as the state Republican party whipped up clouds of hot, thick anti-Washington fervor.

On Saturday, the Libertarian Party of Texas chose Houston attorney Katherine Youngblood Glass to challenge Gov. Rick Perry and Bill White this November.

The humorist, singer, and sometime Democrat Kinky Friedman addressed delegates of the Libertarian Party of Texas yesterday. On his mind: what Debra Medina should have said to Glenn Beck, why the "Tea Party folks are like Barbara Jordan" and sex with horses.

Dave Carney, general consultant to Gov. Rick Perry, says he had nothing to do with efforts to get the Green Party's candidates on the Texas ballot.

The potential Green Party drain of votes away from the Democrats is probably pretty small.

Live-blogging from the biennial convention of the Republican Party of Texas.

Your afternoon reading.

Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison are together again, politically speaking. Hutchison told a crowd of Republican women in a packed ballroom at the downtown Dallas Hyatt that she's backing Perry for governor and that they should, too.