The Midday Brief: Nov. 24, 2010

Your afternoon reading:

• "The latest question from the jury in former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's political money laundering trial elicited an instruction from the judge that could be a major blow to DeLay's defense." — A possible blow to DeLay, Texas Politics

• "Can Michael Quinn Sullivan raise $250,000 for a legislative race? Can he raise ten times that much for ten legislative races? I guarantee you Joe Straus can. All this bravado about primary opponents is just empty talk until the money is on the table." — Primary opponents: an empty threat?, BurkaBlog

• "Part of a statewide student hunger strike … members of the Coalition for Educational Opportunity DREAM Act have vowed to consume only liquids until U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, throws her support behind the DREAM Act." — Both sides dig in heels on day two of hunger strike over DREAM Act, The Monitor

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "The latest salvo in the speaker race is a slick internet video — by an unidentified creator — that argues the House should have a more conservative speaker than Joe Straus. And it suggests the fight to come, knocking over dominoes with the pictures of 'Republicans In Name Only' who could be targets in the GOP primaries two years from now." — A New Attack on Straus Targets the 2012 Primaries

• "The patient privacy advocate on why our electronic medical records are in grave danger, how they could be used to discriminate against us and what Facebook can teach health care professionals about informed consent." — Deborah Peel: The TT Interview