The Midday Brief: Top Texas Headlines for March 28, 2011

Your afternoon reading:

• "This session’s budget crunch has turned into a twisted episode of 'The Biggest Loser,' the reality television show in which overweight contestants compete to see who can lose the most weight. … But as the House prepares to vote on a bare bones available-revenue-only proposal next week, there’s another, more often overlooked contestant on the show — Texas’ 154,000 state employees, many of whom could face effective wage cuts of up to 40 percent under current Texas budget plans." — R.G.’s Take: What the Lean House Budget Bill Means for State Employees, BurkaBlog

• "Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, is recommending that senators keep open the Central Unit in Sugar Land — at least through budget negotiations." — Keep one prison unit? Close another? Recommendations not always what they seem, Texas Politics

• "An effort to make voting easier for military personnel is likely to change Texas campaigns and elections more than any other event since early voting replaced restrictive 'absentee' ballots in the late 1980s." — Military voting law to change elections, San Antonio Express-News

• "One Bradley's loss may be another one's gain. It looks like speak-his-mind prosecutor John Bradley's appointment as head of the Forensic Science Commission will end with this legislative session. But Bradley's brother, the equally blunt David Bradley, may benefit if Senate Democrats also block State Board of Education Chairwoman Gail Lowe's appointment." — A tale of two Bradleys, San Antonio Express-News

• "Texas Rep. John Culberson says illegal immigrants apprehended by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency have an 84 percent chance of not being prosecuted." — Rep. John Culberson: 84 percent of illegal immigrants apprehended are never prosecuted, Texas on the Potomac

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "Rural hospitals are one step closer to being able to directly hire doctors — something they say is necessary to attract new doctors to rural areas, but is not currently allowed by Texas law." — Senate Committee Endorses Rural Hospital Hiring Doctors

• "For those who frequent the Texas Capitol but don’t feel like sacrificing the time it takes to get a concealed handgun license, there may soon be a special pass allowing them to bypass the building’s metal detectors at Capitol entrances." — Capitol Access Pass Moving Right Along