Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst announced he will name the Senate's committees on Thursday or Friday of this week, with one exception. He wants the Senate Finance Committee to get going right away, and named that panel this afternoon. Full Story
The Senate's version of a starting state budget is, at $158.7 billion, $2.3 billion bigger than the House's, but still would chop overall state spending by $28.8 billion, or 15.4 percent, from current levels. Full Story
For the latest installment of our nonscientific survey of political and policy insiders on issues of the moment, we asked who will succeed Kay Bailey Hutchison in the U.S. Senate, who else might jump into the race, what factors are most likely to affect the outcome and what effect the political maneuvering will have on the legislative session. Full Story
If you were $10 billion in the hole, would you fork over $6 million for a chance at billions in savings? That’s the modest proposal that businessman and former chairman of the UT System regents is offering the state’s public education system. Full Story
Texas public schools are facing what could be $10 billion less in state financing — a stark prospect that could empty school buildings across the state as districts consolidate campuses to reduce costs. What should happen to these structures, which are built with taxpayer money? Full Story
Whatever budget lawmakers eventually approve will serve as the working blueprint for the state for the two years starting in September. But the budget released last week isn’t a blueprint — it’s a political document. It marks the shift from the theoretical rhetoric of the campaigns to the reality of government. Full Story
The budget draft filed last week provided the first glimpse at the kind of deep cuts that state agencies could see in the next biennium. As Matt Largey of KUT News reports, advocates are particularly worried about what the final budget could hold for the agency that protects children from abuse and neglect. Full Story
In the House, it's the nastiest, ugliest budget anybody's seen in a zillion years. In the Senate, they'll start on Monday with voter ID, the issue that froze the Legislature two years ago. Full Story
A proposal by the Obama administration that would grant Mexican truckers greater access to Texas roadways would be a boon for business in the state, supporters say, since three of the top five ports for trade between the U.S. and Mexico are Laredo, El Paso and Houston. But unions contend the plan would cost American jobs. “This cheap-labor program comes at too high a risk and at too large a cost to middle-class American workers who work long, hard hours to help maintain a safe commerce system in our nation,” says a spokesman for the Texas AFL-CIO. Full Story
Say it ain't O: A hypothetical 2012 matchup between Barack Obama and Rick Perry finds the two men tied in Texas — even though the president was soundly defeated here when he ran in 2008, at the height of his popularity, and even though the governor was handily reelected to a third full term in November. Full Story
The Trib staff on the sweeping cuts in the proposed House budget, Grissom on what's lost and not found at the Department of Public Safety, Galbraith on the wind power conundrum, Hamilton on higher ed's pessimistic budget outlook, Stiles and Swicegood debut an incredibly useful bill tracker app, Ramsey interviews Rick Perry on the cusp of his second decade as governor, Aguilar on a Mexican journalist's quest for asylum in the U.S., Ramshaw on life expectancy along the border, M. Smith on the obstacles school districts face in laying off teachers and yours truly talks gambling and the Rainy Day Fund with state Rep. Jim Pitts: The best of our best from January 17 to 21, 2011. Full Story
The asylum hearing for Mexican journalist Emilio Gutiérrez ended Friday afternoon in El Paso without a ruling from a U.S. immigration judge. Gutiérrez has been seeking asylum since June 2008, when he fled the small Chihuahua town of Ascensión after receiving death threats for his reporting on alleged corruption in the Mexican military. The hearing is scheduled to resume Feb. 4. Full Story
Texas officials have enough execution drugs to carry out the death sentences of two inmates scheduled for lethal injection in February. But they will have to find another sodium thiopental supplier or a different drug to use after March. Full Story
Members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission expressed concerns today about the progress — or lack thereof — in the case of convicted arsonist Cameron Todd Willingham before ending a yet another meeting without a decision about the evidence that was used to send the Corsicana man to the death chamber in 2004. Full Story
Your afternoon reading: a State Board of Education member's eligibility in question, a House member de-"TeaApproved," and Joe Barton for Senate? Full Story
Hey, Texplainer: Who becomes lieutenant governor if David Dewhurst resigns? Well, it's a little complicated. But the bottom line is, you don't get to decide. Full Story
Voting for incumbent Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, did not come without consequences for state Rep. Stefani Carter, R-Dallas. It cost her "TeaApproved" status from the North Texas Tea Party. Full Story