The Midday Brief: Top Texas Headlines for March 29, 2011

Your afternoon reading:

• "The death of a Houston lawmaker's husband early Monday, after a long illness, has cast some uncertainty over the House's plan to begin debating the budget on Friday and possibly go into the weekend to finish that work on the session's most important bill." — Houston Rep. Alma Allen's husband dies, Trail Blazers

• "Fiscal notes for two gambling bills in the Texas House were released today. They show the long-term potential for large tax benefits to the state from expanded gambling." — Gambling fiscal notes released, Postcards

• "The Texas Senate this afternoon voted unanimously to create a new state agency to oversee violent sexual predators who are ordered to locked behind bars after they serve their prison sentences to protect the public." — New sex-predator agency created, Postcards

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "Two death row inmates sued the state today, arguing that the decision to use a new lethal injection drug was made too secretly and too hastily." — Death Row Inmates Sue Over Lethal Injection Drug

• "Two sweeping bills to reward patient outcomes — as opposed to the current system that incentivizes overutilization — got a warm welcome in a Senate committee hearing this morning." — Health Payment Reform Bills Get Warm Reception

• "Texas hospital officials, anticipating a House budget vote later this week, warned this morning that the current proposal could mean funding cuts of up to 37 percent for some hospitals." — Texas Hospitals: Budget Cuts Are Too Deep

• "The child advocacy group Children’s Rights has successfully sued for better conditions for foster kids in more than a dozen states. Now the organization is turning its sights on Texas, saying it has left children stuck in long-term foster care. Children’s Rights filed a class-action lawsuit this morning alleging, on behalf of 12,000 abused and neglected children in long-term foster care, that the state hasn’t done enough to get kids in state custody into permanent homes." — Lawsuit: Texas Failing Foster Children