The Midday Brief: April 6, 2010

Your afternoon reading:

• “Campaigning in North Texas, the governor this morning unveiled a new political ad that's appearing in an odd place: On NASCAR star Bobby Labonte's No. 71 Chevrolet Impala.” — Rick Perry teams up with NASCAR's Bobby Labonte — Trail Blazers

• “Duvy Torres, a teacher at Benito Martinez Elementary in Fort Hancock, Texas, said her students "constantly" recount tales of murder, fear and intimidation suffered by their relatives in El Porvenir, Mexico, a town of roughly 10,000 just across the border.” — Journals of Texas Students Reveal Horrors Across the Border — FoxNews.com

• “Each week, the staff of the prison watchdog group Just Detention International receives about 30 letters from inmates who say they've been sexually assaulted in prisons across the country.” — Texas has worst record of prison sex abuse — Houston Chronicle

• “According to McClatchy Newspapers reporter Steven Thomma, the state board's debate is just one part of a multi-pronged campaign by the right to rewrite history.” — Is Dick Armey rewriting history? — PoliTex

New in The Texas Tribune:

• “She's back! This morning, former Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina sat for a lengthy interview with BBC presenter Stephen Sackur.” — TribBlog: The Return of Debra Medina — The Texas Tribune

• “Three sources close to the campaign of Democratic state Rep. Norma Chavez in Austin and El Paso today are reporting that some of her closest local campaign staffers are abandoning ship just a week before the April 13 election.” —2010: Trouble in the Chavez Camp — The Texas Tribune

• “Primary runoffs attract notoriously low numbers of voters, especially when there's not a hot top-of-ticket race to swell turnout. In a downballot statewide race like that between Debra Lehrmann and Rick Green for an open seat on the Supreme Court, that means the winner could be decided by chance — whose name comes first, or whose name sounds the friendliest.” — 2010: Lubbock or Leave It — The Texas Tribune