The Midday Brief: Sept. 30, 2010
Your afternoon reading. Full Story
Your afternoon reading. Full Story
The puns — slinging mud, flinging dirt — write themselves in this year's agriculture commissioner's race. Full Story
The executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition on how criminal justice austerity measures demanded by state leaders would affect Texas prisons, poor people accused of crimes and the counties responsible for overseeing overcrowded jails. Full Story
In a year that appears to be custom-made for GOP statewide candidates, the last thing Todd Staples wanted was for Hank Gilbert to make the race for agriculture commissioner interesting, let alone turn it into a minor spectacle. "I have an opponent who is a pathological political liar," says Staples, the Republican incumbent, citing a list of transgressions. "This guy is likely the most unfit person to run for office in recent Texas history." Gilbert says things are going just the way he'd hoped. "I like where we are," the Democratic challenger says. "I like that we've gotten under his skin a little bit." Full Story
Each year in the United States, idling trucks and cars burn several billion gallons of fuel, emitting various pollutants without driving a single mile. The Texas Legislature passed legislation in 2005 limiting big trucks to five minutes of idling time, but local governments aren't obligated to enforce the law, and the debate over exemptions continues to roil. Full Story
Our topics this week include the renewed debate over concealed handguns on campus, the advantages of not debating or talking to the press and the hotly contested battle between Congressman Chet Edwards and Republican Bill Flores in CD-17. Full Story
The CD-17 congressman touts his record of creating and protecting jobs in two spots airing in select media markets. Full Story
Texas air-pollution regulators today approved a crucial environmental permit for a large and controversial coal plant in Matagorda County. Full Story
A judge in Nueces County today dismissed a criminal indictment against Texas Commission on Jail Standards Executive Director Adan Muñoz, who was charged in connection with his release of information about a jailhouse suicide. Open government advocates have called the indictment outrageous. Full Story
In the shadow of a projected $21 billion budget shortfall, lawmakers told juvenile justice agencies that they must start budgeting like a cash-strapped family. Full Story
A new ad from the Bill Flores campaign spotlights incumbent Democrat Chet Edwards' "False" PolitiFact rating. Full Story
Your afternoon reading. Full Story
Secure Communities, a controversial government program that identifies immigrants in custody in local jails, is now active in every county in Texas, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced today. Full Story
It didn't take long for politics to surface after Tuesday's shooting at the University of Texas. Full Story
Caleb Bryant Miller, a Daily Texan photographer and frequent contributor to The Texas Tribune, was home preparing for a history test news when broke of a shooting on the campus of the University of Texas, where he's enrolled as a second-semester senior. He ditched his books, grabbed his telephoto lens, hopped on his bike and headed to the Forty Acres to capture images of a tragic and frightening day. Full Story
The Innocence Project of Texas will launch a campaign today not only to exonerate Sonia Cacy, a woman who experts say was wrongly convicted of setting fire to her uncle, but also to overhaul of the use of "junk science" in the prosecution of criminal cases. Full Story
Double-billing taxpayers for travel expenses, driving a luxury car owned by a state transportation contractor and repeatedly failing to pay taxes won’t put a lawmaker in good standing with the ethics police, as state Reps. Charles “Doc” Anderson, R-Waco; Joe Driver, R-Garland; and Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, are finding. The three hope the headlines dogging their re-election bids won’t follow them to the polls, while their Democratic opponents are reveling in their misery at every campaign stop. Yet whether a scandal forces an incumbent from office depends on the scenario. Full Story
Bill Flores is the latest in a line of Republicans to try to dislodge U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, from the country’s most Republican district held by a Democrat. But this time, he swears, it’s going to come out differently. The pundit class thinks he may be right. Full Story
The Trib was named a finalist this morning for two Online Journalism Awards — truly a top honor in our little slice of the media biz. Full Story
Your afternoon reading. Full Story