Unless Gov. Rick Perry eases up on his refusal to square off with Bill White, this may be the closest Texas gets to a gubernatorial showdown.
July 2010
The Brief: July 30, 2010
State public school ratings will be issued this afternoon โ with one Texas-sized asterisk.
Birthing Control [Updated]
Should lawmakers pay hospitals more for refusing to induce early labor, which reduces neonatal costs and harm to mothers? Or should the state be kept out of the private decisions of patients and their physicians?
Pols in Purgatory
State Rep. Tara Rios Ybarra, D-South Padre Island, who is awaiting prosecution on corruption charges, is the latest Texas elected official under indictment but not yet convicted to languish in career-crippling limbo.
Barack the Enforcer
Despite grousing from congressmen and state officials in Arizona and Texas โ notably Gov. Rick Perry โ that the Obama administration has abdicated its role in the protecting the nation’s borders from illegal immigration, the Department of Homeland Securityโs largest investigative units this year each recorded their highest monthly number of cases referred for prosecution since the Bush administration, according to a report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
HuTube: Birdwell Flap on Waco TV
Watch to see how our story questioning the eligibility of state Sen. Brian Birdwell played on TV news in Waco, part of his district.
TribBlog: More Calls for Innocence Commission
Michael Anthony Green was supposed to be freed today after serving 27 years for a rape he didn’t commit. The exoneration is the second in two weeks to come from Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos’ Post Conviction Review Section. State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said the findings give more credence to his argument that Texas needs a state innocence commission.
TribBlog: Contemplating Workers’ Comp
A House hearing this morning on third-party liability reflected concerns over whether benefits in Texas were adequate in the case of serious workplace injuries.
TribBlog: Whooping Cranes Going to Court
The Endangered Species Act lawsuit over the last remaining naturally migrating flock of whooping cranes will move forward, a federal district judge ruled Wednesday.



