The Midday Brief: Oct. 25, 2010

Your afternoon reading:

• "Add cost-of-living adjustments to the increasingly heated Social Security dispute between Chet Edwards and Bill Flores." — Cost-of-living adjustments become new front in Edwards-Flores Social Security tangle, Trail Blazers

• "Houston tea party spin-off King Street Patriots will grant the Texas Democratic Party access to its financial records, forestalling an injunction hearing that had been set for Monday afternoon in Austin, according to TDP." — Texas Democrats: King Street Patriots to turn over financial records, The Texas Independent

• "Dallas-area voters wondering whether their vote for governor will make any difference to them need look no further than the roads they drive to work each day — or in their wallets." — Rick Perry, Bill White would take different roads to highway spending, The Dallas Morning News

• "Tom DeLay might not be facing conspiracy charges in Austin had it not been for a publicist who gave out the wrong document, the IRS, Newt Gingrich and DeLay's own fateful decision to meet with prosecutors to try to avoid indictment." — Flukes, coincidences led to DeLay's fall from power, Austin American-Statesman

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "Republican Gov. Rick Perry's newest ad features the widow of a slain Houston police officer who implies that then-Mayor Bill White's policies led to her husband's death." — Rick Perry Ad on Murdered Houston Officer

• "Mentally ill offenders and nonviolent criminals are crowding local jails to the point that the facilities could become health hazards and counties are struggling with the cost of housing and caring for the burgeoning population, according to a new report from the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition." — Crowded Jails Becoming Health Hazards