Republican Gov. Rick Perry is six points ahead of Democrat Bill White in the new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll. Other numbers in that survey indicate voters might be willing to vote for a new governor but that White hasn't made the sale: 22 percent are undecided, 5 percent would vote for Libertarian Kathie Glass and — this is sort of interesting — 31 percent say they identify with the Tea Party. White got 33 percent in the poll to Perry's 39 percent — a number of some significance, since it was Perry's final percentage in 2006's four-way race for governor. (Sep 20)

First out of the gate among the big-city newspaper endorsers, the Houston Chronicle today threw its support behind favorite son Bill White, Houston's former mayor, in the gubernatorial square-off against incumbent Rick Perry. (Sep 19)

Last night, Anderson Cooper used our TribLive footage to go all oh-no-you-didn't on state Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball. (Sep 18)

Ramsey on the fourth University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll (with insights into the statewide races, issues, the budget, and Texans' view of the national scene), Hamilton and Thevenot in Galveston on the anniversary of Hurricane Ike, Ramshaw on secret hearings that separate children from their guardians, Hu on what former state Rep. Bill Zedler did for doctor-donors who were under investigation, Aguilar on the troubles around Mexico's bicentennial, Galbraith talks coal and wind with the head of the Sierra Club, E. Smith interviews state Rep. Debbie Riddle about tourism babies and godless liberals, Grissom on why complaints about city jails go unaddressed, Philpott on the debate that will apparently never happen and Stiles continues to put the major-party gubernatorial candidates on the map: The best of our best from September 13 to 17, 2010. (Sep 18)

The Texas Forensic Science Commission has delayed its decision on the Cameron Todd Willingham case one more time — and now, it's scheduled for after the Nov. 2 election. (Sep 17)

This week, the usual TribCast crew — Elise, Ben, Ross and Evan — took to the Austin City Limits stage in the studios of public television station KLRU to tape what was the first (and hopefully won't be the last) live TribCast. Our topics: the UT/TT poll, including the governor's race results; the size of the Tea Party in Texas; budgetary gloom and doom; and that Rick Perry ad shot in enemy territory. (Sep 17)

Your afternoon reading. (Sep 17)

Republican state representatives and House candidates have pledged $200,000 to the Republican Party of Texas in the last week. (Sep 17)

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, released a new ad today letting voters know he's so conservative that he says 'no' to President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but yes to protecting gun rights. (Sep 17)

Already one to watch, the race for House District 96 just became one to watch intently. (Sep 17)

The executive director of the Sierra Club on the perils of coal ash, why wind is a good thing, the priorities of state environmental-quality officials and how Texas oil companies are working to roll back California's global warming regulation. (Sep 17)

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice oversees most state jails. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards presides over county jails. But the 350 city jails across Texas are wholly unregulated. The jail commission receives dozens of complaints about the conditions inside municipal lockups — most commonly about sanitation, food, supervision and medical care — but they have no power to investigate. While critics are calling on state lawmakers to implement at least minimum standards, city officials worry that expensive new rules could result in the closure of their jails, which would mean that already overflowing county jails would get even more crowded. (Sep 17)

For the 12th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the GOP state representative from Tomball about what she really said on CNN, whether "tourism" babies are a threat to national security, why an Arizona-style immigration law would be right for Texas and whether she'll back Joe Straus for speaker. (Sep 17)

Texas has fired off another volley of legal challenges against federal environmental regulators. (Sep 16)

Your afternoon reading. (Sep 16)

Six points separate Rick Perry and Bill White, but that's not all there is to it: The pattern of partisan preferences evident in the latest polling suggests that the Republican Party still holds a substantial baseline advantage over the Democrats in Texas. (Sep 16)

Republican Bill Flores launched his third television ad in his general election bid to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco. (Sep 16)

In a rare campaign trail policy announcement on Wednesday, Gov. Rick Perry threw his support behind an effort to pass more extensive tort reform legislation. (Sep 16)

Is that Dallas-Fort Worth ethics bug becoming a chronic ailment? (Sep 16)

In the closing days of his last term in the Texas House, former state Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, used his legislative authority to obtain confidential records from the Texas Medical Board, The Texas Tribune has learned. His reason? To defend doctors who he believes were wrongly the subjects of misconduct investigations by the board, which licenses the state's physicians. (Sep 16)