At the Texas Legislative Conference in New Braunfels on Friday, newbie political candidate George P. Bush was smooth, cautious and unremarkable. His aim was to get used to the spotlight without making a bad impression, and he got the job done.

At a conference in Dallas, former President George W. Bush urged the nation’s leaders to debate immigration reform with compassion and kindness.

The nephew of former President George W. Bush is focusing on outreach for Hispanic Republicans through his new PAC.

John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas' state climatologist since 2000, has seen his duties explode in the last 18 months amid public clamor for information on the drought. 

Former President George W. Bush will take his first post-White House trip to Africa to help combat cervical and breast cancer among women. Meanwhile, his home state is struggling to provide the same services to low-income women.

In the array of governors who turned to national politics — a collection that includes four of the last six presidents — Rick Perry looks a lot more like Sarah Palin than like George W. Bush. And not just in his politics.

Before he uttered the now famous "oops" in Thursday's presidential debate, one of the federal agencies Gov. Rick Perry said he wanted to eliminate was the Department of Education. But what exactly would that mean?

The French photographer on why he documented the construction of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and what he learned as he trekked through four states photographing the multi-billion dollar effort.

Gov. Rick Perry has at times been inconsistent in applying his states' rights beliefs, raising questions even among Republicans about whether his stance is as much campaign positioning as a philosophical commitment.

Tan on coming prison school cuts and online sales taxes, Root on Rick Perry's support for tax increases when he was a lawmaker, Ramshaw and Serafini on what "Perrycare" would entail, yours truly on the differences between Perry and George W. Bush, Philpott on the passions of the Paulites, Murphy and Seger unveil the Trib's Texas Public Schools Database, Hamilton on UT's answer to calls for improvements in higher ed, Galbraith on predictions that the record heat in Texas will be a long-term problem and Aguilar on the legal shootout over gun sales in Texas: The best of our best content from Aug. 22 to 26, 2011.

Now that Rick Perry has officially entered the race for president, he'll soon start to set himself apart from the rest of the GOP field. But first, Ben Philpott of KUT News has a look back at how Perry compares with the the other Texans who have made a run for the White House.

The U.S. Senate has unanimously confirmed Deputy Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne’s nomination.

David Dewhurst might be the safest bet for the U.S. Senate since former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. But nothing is guaranteed in politics. Just ask Crist.

If Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst moves into another job — and he’s got two ways to do that — the 31 senators will elect one of their own to serve the rest of his four-year term.

Like the swaggering rooster who believes the sun came up because of all that crowing, he takes credit for the good things that happened on his watch when they would have happened anyway — but the real problem is what he hasn't done.

There’s a sort of collective disbelief within the Texas political establishment about Republican Gov. Rick Perry testing the uncertain waters of a presidential campaign. But if critics have learned nothing else about Perry, they should know this: Underestimate him at your peril.

At a recent forum titled "Improving Productivity in Public Education," former U.S. Secretaries of Education Rod Paige and Margaret Spellings under George W. Bush took time to discuss the state's looming budget cuts, the Bush legacy, the Obama administration and what they believe needs to change in public education. 

Are families out of bounds in politics? A newspaper columnist's recent unflattering piece on Anita Perry has what passes for a Royal Court at the Capitol debating that question.