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News For September, 2010

  • Battle Lines: Panhandle Power

    By Kate Galbraith

    While West Texas has become the nation's wind-power hub, the Panhandle's ferocious winds go largely untapped. That could change with a slew of proposed transmission line projects that could, in turn, enable forests of turbines — if landowners can be soothed. Part three of a three-part series. Full Story 

    New turbines tower over an old windmill at the Whirlwind wind farm, near Floydada
    Credit: Kate Galbraith

  • Getting Away With Murder

    By Brandi Grissom

    Tow truck driver Steven Hardin was shot and killed in April 1998 by Houston firefighter Barry Crawford during a dispute over a parking space. At the end of a high-profile trial, a jury found Crawford guilty of first-degree murder but sentenced him only to probation. A judge required the convicted killer to comply with various terms, including the payment of child support to the victim's family, but he failed to do all he was ordered. Nonetheless, a few months ago, he was released from his probation, leaving Hardin's mother with no recourse but to lobby for a change in state law. Full Story 

    Steven Hardin's parents, photographed near his burial plot.
    Credit: Callie Richmond

  • Greg Abbott vs. Google

    By Nathan Bernier, KUT News

    The Texas Attorney General is investigating suspicions that the Internet giant is gaming search results to harm competitors. Nathan Bernier of KUT News reports. Full Story 

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    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • Charles Miller: The TT Interview

    By Reeve Hamilton

    The former chairman of the UT System Board of Regents on why demography is destiny, why higher education isn't necessarily the key determinant of the state’s economic future, why Texas doesn't need more tier-one schools and how colleges abuse the financial aid system. Full Story 

    Charles Miller, chairman of the University of Texas Board of Regents, conducts a regular meeting on August 6, 2003 in San Antonio.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • Counting Convicts

    By Julián Aguilar

    Almost 157,000 inmates in the Texas prison system were counted by the U.S. Census Bureau as living where they're incarcerated and not as residents of their home counties — a policy that some opponents argue has dire political and economic consequences. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Battle Lines: Electrifying the Hill Country

    By Kate Galbraith

    The epicenter of the fight over the state's wind power transmission lines is the Hill Country, where landowners are spending lots of money and time to keep the lines from being built. They're trotting out every conceivable argument, and they may just succeed. Part two of a three-part series. Full Story 

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    Credit: Jim Nix

  • Accountability U.

    By Reeve Hamilton

    Like a conglomerate auditing balance sheets, the Texas A&M University System has for six months been dissecting the financial contribution of every faculty member on its 11 campuses around the state, subtracting the salary of each from the tuition and research money he or she brings in. The resulting metrics present in stark detail exactly where the system gets the most and least bang for its payroll buck — and have raised the hackles of professors at all levels, who liken the approach to grading assembly-line workers on widget production. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • 2010: Poll-Land

    By Ross Ramsey

    A new political survey says Gov. Rick Perry is beating Democrat Bill White in the governor's race, but also shows the incumbent is unpopular with half of likely Texas voters and that the same percentage of voters support a two-term limit for governors. Full Story 

    This plot of polls in the Texas governor's race shows more variance when multiple surveys are performed around the same time.
    Credit: James Henson/UT

  • On the Records: Mapping Foreign Investment

    By Matt Stiles

    Texas.gov, the state's clearinghouse for services like driver's license renewals and vehicle registrations, has launched a new page featuring numerous raw government data sets — including a list of foreign companies doing business here. Full Story 

    Larger bubbles represent more companies from those countries doing business in Texas.
    Credit: Graphic by Google Fusion Tables

  • Coal Hard Cash

    By Nathan Bernier, KUT News

    On Monday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced more than half a billion dollars in funding for "clean coal" projects across the country. As Nathan Bernier of KUT News reports, a sizable chunk of that federal spending will land right here in Texas. Full Story 

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