The Midday Brief: Top Texas Headlines for March 21, 2011

New in The Texas Tribune:

• From the Tribune's @nachoaguilar on Twitter, reporting on the House floor voter ID debate: Rep. Armando Martinez's point of order over bill wording ("days" vs. "business days") has been sustained. The bill will be sent back to committee, and debate on the issue has ended for the day.

• "The former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, South Texas native Antonio Garza, said he thinks his successor’s resignation this weekend was the right move if he felt he was no longer up to task." — Garza: Pascual Made the "Right Decision"

• "For the latest installment of our nonscientific survey of political and policy insiders, we asked whether the full Legislature will go along with a deal to tap the Rainy Day Fund and about how the budget process will finally work out." — Inside Intelligence: The Rainy Day Fund Deal Will...

Your afternoon reading:

• "Senators on Monday mulled how to apportion $400 million available in the proposed budget to reconstitute some programs that had been zeroed-out in the initial version." — Shapiro offers $1.5M for new education start-up, Postcards

• "A House committee passed a host of homeowners association bills this morning, as members showed an increasing readiness to tackle HOA concerns." — House committee passes first batch of HOA bills, Trail Blazers

• "Most of the education bills getting Texas lawmakers' attention this session center on school funding. But there are dozens of other bills that propose changes in how school districts operate day-to-day and what children do at school." — Texas Legislature considering education issues other than funding, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

• "No one in the history of Texas has won election to the United States Senate immediately after serving as a mayor. But Tom Leppert, the 56-year-old former mayor of Dallas, likes his odds." — Tom Leppert: Once a Mayor — National Review

• "Don't be surprised if after the Texas Legislature takes on redistricting, the state senatorial districts of Republicans Robert Duncan of Lubbock and Kel Seliger of Amarillo stretch much farther east and south of where they are now." — Larger districts might mean distant leaders, Amarillo Globe-News