The Midday Brief: Nov. 26, 2010
Your afternoon reading: politics and the DeLay conviction, a new NRA legal battle, and earmark concerns for Dallas Full Story
Your afternoon reading: politics and the DeLay conviction, a new NRA legal battle, and earmark concerns for Dallas Full Story
He lost this battle, but Tom DeLay may have already won the war. Full Story
One hundred miles from the nearest major city, where there was nothing but flat earth seven months ago, a 145,000-square-foot facility has sprung up on the Texas A&M Health Science Center campus. Starting in January, its cavernous rooms will be filled with racks of tobacco-like plants expected to produce as many influenza vaccines in a single month as a traditional lab does in one year, at a fraction of the cost. Dr. Brett Giroir, the vice chancellor for research at the Texas A&M University System, calls it the most exciting project of its kind in the world, the potential savior of the next pandemic. And, he says, “it’s in Bryan. Go figure.” Full Story
Yes, a jury convicted the former U.S. House majority leader of money laundering. But his maps — the ones that upended the careers of Democrats and helped the GOP take over Congress — are still in place. No amount of jail time can change that. Full Story
The prospect of unabashedly Republican Texas becoming communist Cuba's leading U.S. trade partner seemed almost too good to be true. And, indeed, the relationship between two very different kind of red states hasn’t quite lived up to expectations. Full Story
Tom DeLay, the former U.S. House majority leader from Sugar Land, was convicted on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering this afternoon. Full Story
Jurors in the money laundering trial of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay continued working on Wednesday. Full Story
Remember the ABCs? Anybody But Craddick? Not you've got ABS folks, who don't like Republican House Speaker Joe Straus. Full Story
Your afternoon reading: Possible bad news for Tom DeLay, more speaker's race intrigue and DREAM Act hunger strikes Full Story
The latest salvo in the speaker race is a slick internet video 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: Keffer, Truitt, Geren, Solomons, Eissler, Cook... Full Story
Expecting a slowdown in political drama this week? Not so fast. Full Story
The jury in the money laundering trial of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, continues to deliberate — and is asking some questions of visiting District Judge Pat Priest. Full Story
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. Full Story
Penny-pinchers at the State Board of Education opted to incorporate changes to the high school science curriculum via lower-cost electronic supplements to existing textbooks instead of spending up to $500 million to have new ones printed. Trouble is, many schools lack the technological capability to use them. Full Story
In this Thanksgiving week TribCast, Evan, Ross, Elise and Ben discuss speaker politics, the 2012 Senate race and the latest Texas job numbers. Full Story
Disability advocates want Texas lawmakers to put the term "retarded" in the "word graveyard" with other derogatory terms. Full Story
Members of the Texas House General Investigating and Ethics Committee heard testimony today on whether or not a lawmaker used redistricting to threaten a member into supporting Speaker Joe Straus. Their conclusion: We can't tell. Full Story
Your afternoon reading: No help for the Tom DeLay jury, and the speaker's race threat source is revealed Full Story
In a House Ethics Committee meeting Tuesday, state Rep. Chuck Hopson, R-Jacksonville, revealed that state Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, is the man behind an alleged threat that lawmakers who fail to support Speaker Joe Straus for re-election could face retribution through redistricting. Hopson named Phillips before the panel went into a closed executive session to discuss the allegation. Full Story
Speaker's race got you a little lost? We're here to help. Full Story