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News For December, 2010

  • Saved by the Bell

    By Morgan Smith, The Texas Tribune, and Sarah Butrymowicz, The Hechinger Report

    Public schools have long had a strained relationship with their charter cousins, which battle them for students and money and boast loudly about their relative success. But in the Rio Grande Valley, a federal grant has the largest public school district partnering with Teach For America and a network of charter schools to create a teacher training center with hopes of luring quality educators to one of Texas' most poverty stricken regions — and keeping them there. In the process, the competitive tension is being replaced by a spirit of constructive collaboration. Full Story 

    PSJA Southwest High School english teacher, Cindie Rivera, talks to small groups on Greek and Roman mythology in her classroom at PSJA Southwest High School in Pharr, Texas Tuesday November, 23, 2010.
    Credit: Joel Martinez

  • The Efficiency Experts

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    "Efficiency" is the buzzword heading into the 2011 legislative session. Lawmakers say they want to make sure the dollars spent on K-12 education are being spent as efficiently as possible — and that anything deemed inefficient could end up the chopping block. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Single White Female

    By Elise Hu

    The force of the GOP wave in November was so strong that black Republicans and Latino Republicans outnumber the Texas House's new endangered species: the white Democratic woman. And if the 16-vote victory of state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, doesn't survive a recount, the species will be extinct. Full Story 

    State Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin and state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • Landing or Launching?

    By Ross Ramsey

    There are lily pads and launch pads in Texas government, and the Railroad Commission is a launch pad. Being a railroad commissioner is less an end than a means — a way to propel yourself into a better, higher-profile and more powerful job. Which is why a serious reform effort is afoot. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman/Bob Daemmrich

  • Ken Paxton: The TT Interview

    By Ross Ramsey

    The Republican state representative from McKinney on why he's running for speaker, why Joe Straus is "the most controversial Republican elected official ... that maybe has ever happened," the role of outside groups in what has historically been a forum for the most inside of insider politics and whether he thinks he can really win. Full Story 

    State Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney

  • A Man of Conviction?

    By Brandi Grissom

    Harris County District Judge Kevin Fine is set to hold a hearing Monday in the case of John Edward Green, who is charged with fatally shooting a Houston woman during a robbery in June 2008. Green’s attorneys and capital punishment opponents want Fine to find that prosecutors can’t seek the death penalty because the way we administer it in Texas is unconstitutional. “The current system is profoundly and fundamentally flawed from top to bottom,” says Andrea Keilen, executive director of the Texas Defender Service. Prosecutors counter that the ruling should be made by higher courts, not a trial judge. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Chamber of Secrets

    By Elise Hu

    It's orientation week for the largest incoming class of House members since the early '70s. Before their work begins in January, they're learning how things work in the pink building — and drawing balls to see who gets the most seniority. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: Big 12 Spenders

    By Reeve Hamilton

    Texas universities are likely facing massive budget cuts in the upcoming legislative session — so how are they spending the money they have now, and is there even any room for cuts? A new report offers some clues. Full Story 

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    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • TribBlog: Warren Jeffs On Texas Soil

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Warren Jeffs has made it to Texas. The embattled leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — the polygamous Mormon breakaway sect whose Eldorado ranch was raided by child welfare officials in 2008 — will stand trial in San Angelo for allegedly sexually assaulting a child. Full Story 

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    Credit: Texas Attorney General's Office

  • In the Jailhouse Now

    By Brandi Grissom

    When country music icon Willie Nelson got arrested for marijuana possession last week, he wasn’t the only Texas legend who figured in the story. Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West, who put Willie in the local pokey, is a reigning symbol of the years-long fight over border security and immigration. Full Story 

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    Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre