The Midday Brief: Top Texas Headlines for March 7, 2011

Your afternoon reading:

• "Gov. Rick Perry met with the House Republican Caucus for almost an hour Monday in an effort to slow the Legislature’s movement toward drawing money out of the state’s rainy day fund to close a budget gap." — In private meeting, Perry seeks to keep Republicans focused on budget-cutting, Postcards

• "With speculation growing that ESPN announcer Craig James will soon announce his campaign to replace Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a new survey shows the Celina Republican will have a tough time earning the support of West Texas voters." — Craig James polls worse than Obama in Lubbock, BurkaBlog

• "As the field of Texas candidate for Senate grows, Ted Cruz has drawn the first endorsement of a sitting U.S. senator: Mike Lee, a Utah freshman. Lee is the tea party darling who took down the extremely conservative but apparently not conservative enough Sen. Bob Bennett in the GOP primary last year, in one of the major upsets of 2010." — Ted Cruz gets Utah Sen. Mike Lee endorsement for Senate, Trail Blazers

• "Proposed education cuts to help the state's rapidly growing student population that struggles with English — on top of other program cuts to keep at-risk children from dropping out — will have consequences, some experts warn." — Experts warn cuts are recipe for failure, San Antonio Express-News

• "In a country caught in the clutches of a vicious drug war, people have decided it's better to fight than to fall victim to the violence, which has claimed about 35,000 people nationally." — To avoid falling victim of a vicious drug war, some resort to taking up arms, El Paso Times

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "The U.S. Supreme Court has given Texas death row inmate Hank Skinner another chance at getting DNA testing done on evidence he says could prove he did not kill his live-in girlfriend and her two sons in 1993." — U.S. Supreme Court Keeps Hank Skinner Alive, Again