The Midday Brief: April 30, 2010

Your afternoon reading:

• "Former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin shared the spotlight Thursday with Republican Gov. Rick Perry at a private fundraiser for Heroic Media, a nonprofit organization that advertises alternatives to abortion and hoped to raise $500,000 from the event." — Palin and Perry, together again. — Houston Chronicle

• "Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, wants new vehicles sold in the United States to be equipped with event data recorders to help federal authorities track the causes of highway accidents." — Delegation Watch: Jackson Lee wants congressional inquiry into oil rig explosion — Texas on the Potomac

• "Flies buzz everywhere and the stench is overwhelming as biologist Lyndsey Howell stops to analyze the remains of yet another endangered sea turtle washed up from the Gulf of Mexico." — Many endangered turtles dying on Texas Gulf Coast — Associated Press

• "Army prosecutors have sent a notice that they plan to seek the death penalty against Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, accused of the Fort Hood shootings, according to Hasan’s attorney, John Galligan." — Report: Military to seek death penalty against Hasan — Stars and Stripes

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "Judge Sharon Keller isn’t as meticulous on her personal finance reports as she is particular about court closing time, the Texas Ethics Commission found today."  — TribBlog: Sharon Keller Gets Record Ethics Fine

• "Billionaire oilman Clayton Williams Jr. is firing back at critics who claim his latest project — to pump trillions of gallons of water from the Edwards-Trinity Aquifer — will diminish the water supply in Pecos County and South Texas. And he's armed with the results of a $600,000 geological study that his allies say proves his case." — Is Claytie Williams All Wet?

• "Crossed signals between the U.S. Census Bureau and Rio Grande Valley legislators earlier this month raised concerns about the approach to counting the mostly rural, poverty-stricken colonias of South Texas. But state and federal lawmakers and local community organizations say they're working together to smooth over tensions." — Counting the Colonias