The Love-Hate Relationship With Transparency
One Texan's transparency is another’s right to privacy, and people in politics generally find it easier to demand openness than to provide it.
Full StoryOne Texan's transparency is another’s right to privacy, and people in politics generally find it easier to demand openness than to provide it.
Full StoryA landmark water case pitting North Texas against Oklahoma goes to the U.S. Supreme Court next week. The Tarrant Regional Water District, which serves Fort Worth and the surrounding area, has sought more water from Oklahoma, but the Sooner State isn’t selling.
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In this edition of the Newsreel: A Senate committee approves an education bill cutting some current requirements for high school diplomas, the House wants to make texting and driving a crime, and the governor calls for tax cuts.
Full StoryFor this week’s nonscientific survey of insiders in government and politics, we asked about transportation and, more specifically, how to pay for expansion and maintenance of the state’s transportation infrastructure.
Full StoryCommittee meetings for the coming week.
Full StorySenator, I’m not going to stand here and be insulted. … I own up to my error.
Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, during a debate with Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, over an attempt to recall a disclosure bill the Senate passed Tuesday
Much of my presidency was defined by things that you didn’t necessarily want to have happen.
George W. Bush, in the Dallas Morning News
Why would you want to change?
Gov. Rick Perry, talking about re-election with WFAA-TV
I think background checks are certainly the way to go. Who can argue with wanting to make sure that we don't have people who are certified mentally ill or felons?
Former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, talking about gun laws on CBS "This Morning"
One thing that requires ongoing vigilance is the reality that the state of Texas is coming under a new assault, an assault far more dangerous than what the leader of North Korea threatened when he said he was going to add Austin, Texas, as one of the recipients of his nuclear weapons. The threat that we’re getting is the threat from the Obama administration and his political machine.
Attorney General Greg Abbott, on the Battleground Texas effort by Democrats, in the Waco Tribune-Herald
It would be a pleasant surprise to find another donor like that in my remaining lifetime. It is a matter of some concern that so many of our biggest donors are well past the age of Social Security.
Steve Munisteri, Texas GOP chairman, on the death of Bob Perry
Our campaign bumper sticker: If babies had guns, they wouldn’t be aborted.
U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Beaumont, on Twitter
A fertilizer plant in West caught fire and then exploded Wednesday night, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens more. The fatalities, according to early reports, included volunteer firefighters who were trying to control a fire at the West Fertilizer Co. plant when it exploded. The plant was located near a nursing home and an apartment complex in the community north of Waco.
Kim Lene Williams, in a confession to officials in Kaufman County, said her husband, former Justice of the Peace Eric Lyle Williams, shot and killed two prosecutors and one of their wives, while she drove him to and from the shootings. Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia were killed in their home; Mark Hasse was killed in January. Eric Williams had been found guilty of stealing computer monitors after a prosecution by the two men he later killed.
Three days after Gov. Rick Perry raised the possibility of new revenue streams — including the issuing of 100-year bonds — to fund transportation, members of Texas Tea Parties warned legislators against caving on conservative principles. Perry wasn't finished, though; after the Tea Partiers had their say, he unveiled a four-point, $1.6 billion business tax relief plan that includes an across-the-board rate reduction of the business franchise tax. Perry told lawmakers later in the week that he's not against them tapping the state's Rainy Day Fund so long as they leave $7 billion or so in that account, and also told them he is not opposed to lawmakers breaking the constitutional limit on growth in state spending.
Despite the governor’s continuing opposition to expanding Medicaid, a House panel considered legislation that would expand coverage to poor adults under the Affordable Care Act. Amid hours of testimony from advocates in support of Medicaid expansion this week, state Rep. John Zerwas, R-Simonton, described his proposal for an alternative program to provide health coverage for the poor and uninsured.
After a day of testimony in the Senate Education Committee, comprehensive legislation reducing state standardized tests and restructuring high school graduation requirements has now cleared its first hurdle in the upper chamber. That session included Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, slamming national media coverage that accused lawmakers of "dumbing down" the state's graduation standards.
A troubled cancer-fighting charity paid a tobacco lobbyist to represent its interests in the Legislature, even as it was winding down its operations and facing the wrath of lawmakers. Lobbyist Jay Maguire and the charity’s executive director, Jennifer Stevens, both said they saw no conflict in the arrangement. But some former board members said they were unaware of Maguire’s tobacco ties when he was hired.
Carolina de Onís is the new general counsel for the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. She’s a former regulator with 15 years of Wall Street experience; according to the agency.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is sending these five senators into the conference committee on the budget: Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands; Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen; Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock; Jane Nelson R-Flower Mound; and John Whitmire, D-Houston.
Speaker Joe Straus appointed former U.S. Rep. Pete Geren, D-Fort Worth, to the oversight committee of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Geren is president of the Sid Richardson Foundation and served for eight years at the U.S. Department of Defense.
Gov. Rick Perry appointed
• William Lucas of Center to the Finance Commission of Texas. Lucas is president and COO of Shelby Savings Bank.
• Manuel “Manny” Cavazos IV of Austin to chair the Credit Union Commission and named three others to that board, including Allyson “Missy” Morrow of San Benito, Barbara “Kay” Stewart of Daingerfield, and Vik Vad of Austin. Cavazos is a rancher, attorney and CPA. Morrow is CEO of the Harlingen Area Teachers’ Credit Union. Stewart is president and CEO of the North East Texas Credit Union. Vad is a real estate broker and president of Om Capital Management.
Deaths: Dr. Joe Thigpen of Haskell, father of Texas First Lady Anita Perry. He was 92.
Bob Perry, Houston homebuilder and a conservative mega-donor on both the state and federal levels for more than three decades. He was 80.