The Midday Brief: Top Texas Headlines for Feb. 7, 2011

Your afternoon reading:

• "Texas could see an increase in lawsuits when blind children are refused admission to the School for the Blind and Visually Impaired as a result of cuts in the proposed state budget." — Texas could be sued for education cuts, The Associated Press

• "The city watering restrictions that have been in effect since Saturday should be lifted at 10 p.m., city officials said." — Water shortage grips city; restrictions should be lifted at 10 p.m., officials say, El Paso Times

• "State social services czar Tom Suehs says the Legislature should work on reducing Texas' nation-leading share of its people lacking health insurance, no matter what the federal courts decide about the federal health care overhaul." — Suehs: No matter the fate of federal health bill, Texas should tackle its uninsured problem, Trail Blazers

• "A Texas Senate committee will begin considering an anti-abortion measure this week that, if passed, would be one of the strongest in the nation. The bill mandates that pregnant women be shown an ultrasound of the fetus at least two hours before an abortion." — Senate panel to consider abortion law requiring women to view sonograms, Austin American-Statesman

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "With just 56 students, Marathon ISD is one of the state's smallest. But its fate is critical to the West Texas town's survival. And if what is happening here works, it could serve as a model for other towns looking to shield their way of life from the death knell of school closures." — In West Texas, a Town's Fate Tied to Its School

• "Everyone has an opinion about the budget shortfall: how big it is, what cuts we should make to confront it, whether new taxes — or new revenue of any kind — can be employed as a stop-gap. We asked three big thinkers in the Capitol community to tell us what they'd do if they had the power to take on the shortfall themselves." — What They'd Do About the Budget Shortfall

• "'Sexting' — sending or receiving pornographic images via cell phones — should be a criminal offense for teenagers, say Attorney General Greg Abbott and Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin." — Watson Files Bill to Make Sexting Illegal