Perry Gives Up, Packs for Texas
Rick Perry's impulsive presidential campaign fell apart faster than a soggy taco shell. But he's not done with politics yet.
Full StoryRick Perry's impulsive presidential campaign fell apart faster than a soggy taco shell. But he's not done with politics yet.
Full StoryRick Perry's last attack might be successful and put a significant dent in Mitt Romney's run for president. If so, the Texas governor might have landed a successful punch after he was already out of the fight.
Full StoryRick Perry wasn't even winning in his home state when he got out of the presidential race.
Full StoryNow what? This week, we asked the insiders what Gov. Rick Perry's reentry into state politics will be like (and, it should be noted, collected these answers before the governor dropped out of the presidential race on Thursday morning).
Full StoryThe pipeline would have been a disaster for our climate, the quality of the air we breathe, and critical water resources across our country. It would have deepened our dependence on dirty oil from Canada’s tar sands, producing catastrophic levels of global warming pollution.
Full StoryNot only would Keystone XL have brought jobs to the United States, it would have bolstered our national security by bringing us almost one million barrels each day of secure, North American oil.
Full StoryI have concluded there is no viable path forward for me in this 2012 campaign. Today I am suspending my campaign and endorsing Newt Gingrich.
Rick Perry, dropping his presidential bid
Keep in mind that almost all of our nominees in the last 50 years have been on their second attempt at the White House, so Republican voters tend to like experienced candidates that they’ve seen for a long time.
Perry adviser Ray Sullivan, on the governor's future
Going into this, I think most of the Texas press thought that there was really a potential chance for Perry to make it to the nomination, or at least get close to it, just because he’d been kicking everybody’s ass down here for a decade.
Texas political reporter R.G. Ratcliffe, quoted by Politico
When he got started, I warned people not to underestimate Perry — he's a lot stupider than he looks.
Jim Hightower, who was Texas agriculture commissioner until Perry beat him in 1990, in the Los Angeles Times
He sure didn't tell me I was going to win.
Rick Perry, on God's hand in his bid for the presidency
I hope Ron Paul doesn’t get out until whoever our front runner is recognizes that the libertarian principles are the conscience of the Republican party.
U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, on Fox Business, adding that he doesn't agree with Paul on everything.
We've put a halt on everything. Contributions, everything, right now. We don't know who's running and what districts they're running in.
Mark Lehman, who runs the PACs for the Texas Association of Realtors, on redistricting
Texas Democrats settled a lawsuit over Republican funding of efforts to get the Green Party on the Texas ballot, but they won't reveal the details of the settlement. The deal came to light with this week's campaign finance filings; the Democrats reported receipt of a $210,000 check for "confidential litigation settlement." Their allegation was that Republican operatives schemed to get the Greens on the ballot to bleed votes from Democrats in close races.
El Paso, in the midst of a recall against its mayor and two City Council members, may have to change its election date for the second time. The city originally had to reschedule the May 12 election so that it wouldn’t conflict with a primary runoff date. Now that Texas has moved its primaries to April 3, El Paso’s April 14 election conflicts with that primary date. Until the federal courts lock down the state's primary date, officials in El Paso will have to wait to schedule theirs.
As college and universities opened their doors for the spring semester, students found themselves with a new requirement: Anyone under 30 enrolling or re-enrolling after a gap in attendance is now required to provide proof they've received a meningitis immunization in the last five years. Exceptions will be made for students who fill out a medical or conscience form, and schools have been granted a 10-day extension to allow time for everyone to comply.
Austin Energy has generated much publicity over the years for its environmentally conscious programs. But an analysis of the utility shows that the programs may not be financially viable enough to allow the utility to keep them in place without a significant rate hike. The report shows that costs have risen 24 percent between 2007 and 2010. Critics of the utility say that a system should be established to prioritize initiatives, while backers claim the utility needs to keep promoting green energy.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality announced $4.5 million in grants designed to encourage construction of natural gas vehicle fueling stations. The stations must be no more than three miles from interstate highways that connect Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth. Preferential treatment goes to stations that supply both liquefied and compressed natural gas at the same location.
The U.S. Border Patrol is ready to announce new and more comprehensive strategies in handling illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican border. Instead of returning people directly acrosse the border, offenders are more likely to be held in detention centers until they can be returned to a border crossing many miles away from where they were picked up. The intention is to separate them from the smugglers they’ve already paid to help them cross and prevent them from crossing again immediately.
Houston Independent School District is facing criticism and funding challenges as it tries to accommodate an unusually high number of gifted and talented students. The district has identified about 15.6 percent of its students as gifted and talented, far above the state average of 7.2 percent. Officials this summer discussed raising the district's standards to pare down the numbers but were shot down by district principals, who were concerned about scaling back the program.
Texas Parks and Wildlife’s shoot-to-kill policy for burros has come under fire again — this time with the help of the burros themselves. A group of protesters rode donkeys to the state Capitol to highlight the policy in Big Bend State Park that has seen about 130 burros killed since rangers resumed the practice in 2010. The Wild Burro Protection League dropped off more than 103,000 signatures protesting the practice; the state has argued that the burros are feral and upset the delicate ecosystem in Big Bend.
Don Green, most recently an aide to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, is the new chief financial officer at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. He's a budget wizard and also served on the board of the Employee Retirement System of Texas as an employee representative.
Speaker Joe Straus appointed Michael Blue and William "Billy" Freed to the Texas Emerging Technology Advisory Committee, which oversees the state fund of that name. Blue is managing partner of Ernst & Young's Austin office. Freed is a principal at Nueces Marketing partners in San Antonio.
Straus appointed state Reps. Angie Chen Button, R-Garland, and John Davis, R-Houston, to the Select Committee on Economic Development, a panel that's looking at the state's economic incentives and policies before the legislative session that starts a year from now.
ERCOT's board elected Craven Crowell and Judy Walsh as chair and vice chair, respectively. Crowell was chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority for eight years; Walsh is a former Public Utility Commissioner. ERCOT (the Electric Reliability Council of Texas) operates the electric grid that covers most of the state.
UT Southwestern Medical Center named Dr. John Warner the CEO for their hospitals. He's an interventional cardiologist and was the assistant veep for hospital planning.