The Midday Brief: March 19, 2010

Your afternoon reading:

"Most of the state's 12 Democrats, including Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas, say they'll vote yes." — Two more Texas Democrats move closer to supporting health care bill — TRAILBLAZERS

"We know politics makes strange bedfellows, but did Democrat Sharp really make a play for Rove? If so, we wonder, how did either one — both of them are chatty — keep it on the down low?" — This Karl Rove statements defies truth-testing — Postcards

"It'd be interesting to examine side-by-side staffing ratios under both the old staffing plan and the new one at each unit to see the extent to which improved staffing really results from artificially reducing denominators." — Are TDCJ staffing gains partly illusion? — Grits for Breakfast

"As horrible as the church attacks were, no one was injured in the fires. Joe Stack killed someone." — Where's the Outrage? — Texas Observer

New in The Texas Tribune:

"I’m a teacher. I teach my kids at home," he says. "Does that make me weird? No." — The Runoffs: SBOE District 10

"The majority of water delivered to the U.S. comes from two main tributaries that feed into the Rio Grande: the Conchos, which enters the river in Presidio and in Ojinaga, Mexico; and the Salado, which enters the Rio Grande at the Falcon Dam reservoir, which sits on the Starr/Zapata county line south of Laredo." — A Border Runs Through It