The Midday Brief: Top Texas Headlines for Feb. 21, 2011
Your afternoon reading: Advanced Placement incentives, the budget shortfall and 1987, and one House member's immigration solution Full Story
Your afternoon reading: Advanced Placement incentives, the budget shortfall and 1987, and one House member's immigration solution Full Story
At last Wednesday's TribLive conversation, first-term House members Stefani Carter, R-Dallas, Cindy Burkett, R-Mesquite, and Rodney Anderson, R-Grand Prairie, talked about whether the Legislature should dip into the Rainy Day Fund to reduce the size of the projected budget shortfall. Full Story
At last Wednesday's TribLive conversation, first-term House member Cindy Burkett, R-Mesquite, explained why she voted against Speaker Joe Straus. Stefani Carter, R-Dallas, talked about losing the North Texas Tea Party's "approved" status after she voted for Straus. And Rodney Anderson, R-Grand Prairie, weighed in on his own vote for Straus. Full Story
At last Wednesday's TribLive conversation, first-term House members Stefani Carter, R-Dallas, Cindy Burkett, R-Mesquite, and Rodney Anderson, R-Grand Prairie, explained why they think deep cuts to public education are possible. Full Story
As the trend goes, and as the newest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll confirms, Texans want it both ways with budget cuts. Full Story
Cutting $10 billion public education funding could push more than two-dozen school districts from the group that receives state financing into the group that writes checks to the state to even things out between richer and poorer districts. Full Story
For the latest installment of our nonscientific survey of political and policy insiders on issues of the moment, we asked whether public education is sufficiently funded in Texas — and how deep the coming cuts are likely to be. Full Story
The power failures earlier this month have called into question one of Texas' most basic tenets: that we do everything, including deregulation, better than anyone else. Full Story
By more than 2 to 1, Texas voters believe lawmakers should solve the state's shortfall by cutting the budget, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, but they're divided on specific cuts. Full Story
The state's explosive growth during the past decade was fueled by a boom in its minority population, which accounted for 89 percent of the total, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Hispanics alone accounted for 65 percent of the state's growth over the last ten years. Full Story