The Brief: March 31, 2010

THE BIG CONVERSATION:

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison  is expected to announce today whether or not she will stay in Washington D.C. as Texas’ senior senator. A late-evening press release on Tuesday requested the media join Hutchison, and fellow U.S. Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas and Mitch McDonnell, R-Kentucky, at Landmark Aviation in San Antonio for an announcement.

Following her Primary Election loss to Gov. Rick Perry earlier this month, Hutchison stayed quiet on her plans, though she had said all along she wanted to stay in D.C. at least until the future of legislation on health care and cap-and-trade was determined. With one of those controversial bills now in the rearview, and mounting pressure from Texas Republicans to stay in office, Hutchison looks poised to finally tell Texans if she will serve until her term ends in 2013. U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, a San Antonio Democrat, has “crossed party lines” according to the San Antonio Express News, and asked that Hutchison remain in Washington, D.C., saying the senator has performed well for Texas during her tenure. Today’s announcement is slated for 10 a.m.

CULLED:

• In the wake of mounting criticism from the left and the right that he has left immigration off the to-do list this year, President Barack Obama fired back at critics on Tuesday and reaffirmed his commitment to overhaul the current system. The Dallas Morning News reports Obama press aides told reporters yesterday that any true reform would have to be accomplished through a true bi-partisan effort, and that it “can't just be President Obama and the Democratic Senate.” Things are likely to get rowdy however, following the recent outcry by immigration-reform advocates after an earlier report that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was planning a deportation surge. The Houston Chronicle is reporting the Fair Immigration Reform Movement has called for the resignation of ICE chief John Morton because he is “either incompetent or is systematically deceiving the President and the American public."
• The mystery over whether U.S. citizens were in fact that targets of a Mexican hit squad in the border town of Juarez earlier this year could soon be solved after initial reports that one of the men slain was purposely ordered murdered by an international prison gang. The Associated Press is reporting a suspect’s confession “appears to suggest that El Paso jail officer Arthur H. Redelfs was targeted in the March 13 shootings.” Redelfs, an employee with the El Paso County Sheriff’s department, was gunned down alongside his wife, Lesley Enriquez, within minutes of a separate attack that also left a Mexican national, Jorge Alberto Salcido, dead. Enriquez worked at the U.S. consulate’s office in Juarez, as did Salcido’s wife, fueling speculation that those ties could have spurred the duel attacks. Instead, authorities now suspect, Salcido was also gunned down because he and the slain couple drove similar vehicles.

MUST READ:

Hearing planned on proposed teaching - San Antonio Express-News

Census '10: El Paso leads all border counties in census form returns - El Paso Times

Pete Sessions sees November as first chance to overturn health care law - Dallas Morning News

Worse Than Colombia - Texas Tribune

Dewhurst Versus the First Amendment - Austin Chronicle