The Midday Brief: Aug. 2, 2010

Your afternoon reading:

"Federal officials today are in North Texas, one of the nation’s gas-drilling hotspots, to gather public opinions on possible new air-pollution rules for the oil and gas industry." — Federal officials seek public opinion on possible new air-pollution rules for oil, gas industry, The Dallas Morning News

"BP will begin the first phase of its plan to permanently shut in the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico later today by starting to inject low volumes of oil into the top of the well, BP Vice President Kent Wells said in a conference call this morning." — Static kill to start Tuesday, Houston Chronicle

"The number of juveniles sent to youth prisons from Texas' largest counties dramatically declined after 2007 — when the Legislature implemented reforms at the Texas Youth Commission in the wake of a sex abuse scandal — demonstrating the remarkable extent to which state and local decisionmaking drives incarceration policy as much or more than crime rates." — Texas' largest counties sending fewer to TYC, Grits for Breakfast

"Completing our tour of the SBOE candidates, I bring you an interview with Judy Jennings, who is running for the open District 10 seat that the uber wingnut Cynthia Dunbar has vacated." — Interview with Judy Jennings, Off the Kuff

New in The Texas Tribune:

"The American Academy of Pediatrics recently said that children should not be kept out of school if they get head lice — the opposite of what Texas law requires." — Doctors Say Lice Laws Aren't Good for Kids