Windmilling — the art of fixing old water windmills — is difficult and dangerous work, and now it faces competition from solar pumps. But long-time windmillers in the Panhandle wouldn't trade their job for any other.

Despite the record dry stretch, most Texans are still far from running out of water. But the drought's economic impact is beginning to extend beyond agriculture and into tourism, real estate and other staples of urban economies.

An amendment to the Texas Constitution on the ballot next month will lower property taxes for landowners who practice good water stewardship. It received unanimous backing in the Legislature.

Hamilton on efforts to boost faculty productivity, Grissom on newly uncovered evidence in an old murder case, Galbraith on a wind-powered construction boom, Dehn unfurls the new Texas Tribune Weekend Insider, Aguilar on this year's record number of deportations, Ramshaw and Tan on budget cuts and cervical cancer screenings, M. Smith on local control over student grades, Root and Ramshaw on Rick Perry's latest debate performance, Philpott on an issue that didn't get its due in that debate and Titus and Murphy on fundraising and spending in congressional races: The best of our best content from October 17 to 21, 2011.

You won't hear about the water problems out West during the GOP presidential debate, but as Ben Philpott reports for KUT News and the Texas Tribune, the problems are there — and the next President could play a role in the solutions.

State Senate committees will soon begin studying the impact of drought on power generation, agriculture and the economy, along with how to improve Texas' response to wildfires, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst announced today.

The deputy executive administrator of the Texas Water Development Board on overseeing the 295-page water plan, what the state should spend to fully ensure it has adequate water supplies and what scares her about the future. 

Murphy, Ramshaw and Root on Rick Perry and race, Philpott on Perry's vague economic plans, Tan and Wiseman on Barack Obama's foray into Texas to defend his jobs plan, Aguilar on Perry's proposal to send U.S. troops to Mexico, Ramshaw on efforts to leash rising health care costs, M. Smith on upcoming legal challenges to the state's school finance system, Aaronson interactively explores Medicare spending proposals, Galbraith on efforts to pass — and to oppose — a $6 billion water program, Grissom on the release of a man wrongly convicted of murder and Hamilton on efforts to let the public write some legislation: The best of our best content from October 3 to 7, 2011.

The Texas Water Development Board's just-released 295-page report says that if Texas does not spend tens of billions more on water infrastructure, a drought as bad as that of the 1950s could cost Texans $116 billion per year by 2060.

The Texas Tech climate scientist and author of A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions on why why working in Texas, a state full of both prominent climate skeptics and extreme weather, is an "opportunity."

The drought and extreme heat are taking their toll on school districts across Texas. Costly problems include cracks in building foundations, increased maintenance costs and loss of vegetation.

If the drought continues well into next spring and summer, the electric grid could lose "potentially several thousand megawatts," according to an ERCOT official. That's roughly equivalent to several coal plants.

Fearing that this drought could reduce lake levels lower than ever before, the Lower Colorado River Authority's board will meet next week to discuss reducing or ending its water sales to downriver farmers next year.

Odessa, running seriously low on water, is looking to the example set in El Paso, a desert city that has poured money into a desalination plant and invested in conservation.

As the worst one-year drought in Texas history wears on, officials at some military installations around the state have banned the use of tracer fire and other pyrotechnics. 

Over the past year, Texas has battled wildfires that cover an area larger than the state of Connecticut. It's straining the budgets of both state and local firefighting units, and as the prospect of a multiyear drought looms, wildfire season is in no way over.

The Texas commissioner of agriculture on the "catastrophic" devastation he's seen from the worst one-year drought in recorded Texas history, what the feds and state are doing and what needs to happen to cope with a potential multiyear drought. 

As the Central Texas utility struggles to retain electric customers, its new general manager, Becky Motal, announced that four senior positions have been eliminated and said staff reductions "may be necessary."