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News For January, 2011

  • How Do You Lose a 24-Foot Boat?

    By Brandi Grissom

    Or a $74,000 piece of radio equipment? Or more than 150 handguns and rifles? Those are just a few of the nearly 1,500 items that the Texas Department of Public Safety reported stolen or lost in the last decade. Some of the assets might still be in the possession of DPS or possibly were sold, but the agency’s inventory system is so poor that it's hard to know what's actually missing. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Transmission Accomplished

    By Kate Galbraith

    At the heart of Texas' wind-power boom lies a conundrum: Plenty of ranchers are eager to host wind turbines but few want to allow the unsightly high-voltage transmission lines needed to carry the power to distant cities. But state regulators are moving forward — and yesterday they approved a contentious project that runs through the Hill Country. Full Story 

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    Credit: Callie Richmond

  • Climbing the Ladder

    By Ross Ramsey

    What happens if Gov. Rick Perry or Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst decide to run for federal office and win, creating a vacancy — or two — in Texas? That sound you hear is a herd of GOP pols rushing to update their resumes. Full Story 

    Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst shakes hands with Gov. Rick Perry at the 2011 inauguration.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • T-Squared: Our New iPad/iPhone App!

    By Evan Smith

    Late yesterday afternoon, Apple's App Store kindly put our latest technological offering out to market: a brand new — and, naturally, free — iPad/iPhone app containing our news, blog posts, data applications and mutlimedia, our elected officials directory and our events listings. Full Story 

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  • On the Records: Charting the 2010 Campaigns

    By Matt Stiles

    The 2010 political campaigns are over, but looking back at the fundraising and spending that financed them is now fully possible thanks to records made public by the Texas Ethics Commission after Tuesday’s filing deadline. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Matt Stiles

  • TribBlog: Smitherman Takes On the EPA

    By Kate Galbraith

    During a meeting today of the Public Utility Commission, chairman Barry Smitherman said that the Environmental Protection Agency was attempting to "disarm the U.S. economy," with a raft of rules covering everything from fly-ash waste from coal plants to new rules on greenhouse gases. Full Story 

    PUC Commissioner

  • TribBlog: A Voter ID Emergency

    By Reeve Hamilton

    Today, Gov. Rick Perry added two more issues — voter ID legislation and a call for a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget — to his list of "emergency items" that state legislators can begin deliberating on right away. Full Story 

    House Speaker Joe Straus, Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • ICYMI: The Senate Two-Thirds Debate

    By Elise Hu

    In case you missed it, we mashed up Wednesday's speeches for and against the Texas Senate's hallowed "two-thirds rule," which senators ultimately preserved. Members voted to keep an exception to the rules that allows a simple majority to consider changes to voter identification laws. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: Can Texas Cut Medicaid Payments?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    In a case that could directly affect Texas' planned budget cuts, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether states have the legal right to reduce the rates they pay to health care providers who accept Medicaid patients. Full Story 

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    Credit: Supreme Court of the United States

  • Exile on Main Street

    By Julián Aguilar

    There are two paths to asylum in the United States. Mexican journalist Emilio Gutiérrez, whose life was threatened by the Mexican military, may have taken the wrong one. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • All UT, All The Time

    By Ian Crawford

    In a match made in Longhorn athletics heaven, the University of Texas and ESPN have struck a deal to launch a 24-hour TV network that’s all UT, all the time. As Ian Crawford of KUT News reports, it's a lucrative venture for UT, which says it'll use the network for more than just athletics. Full Story 

  • Budget Blues

    By Emily Ramshaw

    As House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, laid out the first grim round of proposed cuts on Wednesday, even some of his Republican colleagues couldn't stifle their objections. House Democrats went a step further, calling the cuts "akin to asking an anorexic person to lose more weight." Full Story 

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  • Growing Government

    By Erika Aguilar, KUT News

    In a move seemingly at odds with the state's budget woes, the Texas Facilities Commission voted Wednesday to consider expanding the Capitol complex in downtown Austin. But as Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports, the commission says it could actually save the state some money. Full Story 

  • A Plea For Fairness

    By Reeve Hamilton

    Every chancellor of a university system in Texas knows — down to the exact, excruciatingly precise percentage point — how much worse higher education fared than other agencies when their current budgets were cut. With the state facing a massive budget shortfall in the next biennium, the chancellors know they're in for another round. But this time they're adamant that they not bear a disproportionate share of the pain. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman