The Midday Brief: Top Texas Headlines for March 30, 2011

Your afternoon reading:

• "Declaring that recent visits to Iowa, New Hampshire and North Carolina were successes, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Clute) says more trips to key primary battlegrounds are in the works, as well as national media appearances. In the letter to supporters Tuesday evening, Paul also referred to himself as a 'major potential presidential candidate.'" — Ron Paul plans more trips this spring to key presidential primary states, The Texas Indepenedent

• "An expected vote on a controversial bill to allow concealed-handgun licensees to legally carry their guns on college campuses will likely be approved tomorrow by a Senate committee, after a two-day delay." — Campus-gun bill vote delayed to Thursday, Postcards

• "Rob Kepple of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association told the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee that, under existing Fourth Amendment jurisprudence in Texas, it's 'not a viable policy' to use southbound checkpoints to 'bootstrap our way' into expanded asset seizures or to check immigration status." — More boondoggle than bonanza: Southbound checkpoints face Fourth Amendment challenges, Grits for Breakfast

• "Those who murder a child up through the age of 10 would face the death penalty in Texas under a bill approved by the Senate Wednesday. The measure by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, would raise the age of a child — from the current 6 to 10 years old — that would trigger a capital offense under the state's penal code. The legislation, approved on a 28-2 vote, now goes to the House." — Senate votes to make more child killers subject to death penalty, Trail Blazers

• "The second-ranking official in the State Department is leaving Foggy Bottom to return to academia, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Wednesday." — Former LBJ School Dean Jim Steinberg, Hillary Clinton’s No. 2 at State, steps down, Politico

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "House lawmakers are gearing up for a battle as emotional and time-consuming as voter ID when they take up legislation addressing another one of Gov. Rick Perry’s emergency items — abolishing sanctuary cities, which could hit the House floor as soon as next week." — House Lawmakers Prepare for Intense "Sanctuary Cities" Debate

• "A bill to improve how police conduct line-ups to solve crimes tentatively passed the Texas House today without opposition." — Eyewitness Identification Bill Tentatively Passes House

• "File this in the 'this hasn't happened yet?' category: The Texas Legislature has taken one big step toward banishing the 'R' word from state statutes." — "Retarded" Likely To Be Struck From Texas Statutes

• "The Senate today approved SB 331 by Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, which would ban the substance known as 'K2,' a type of incense that mimics marijuana when smoked." — Senate Passes K2 Ban

• "The Texas Senate passed a much-discussed piece of groundwater legislation, voting 28-3 to approve a bill stating that landowners in the state have a "vested ownership interest" in the groundwater beneath their land." — Senate Passes Groundwater Bill

• "The U.S. government announced today it is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information that leads to the arrest and possible conviction of the assailants who murdered a U.S. federal agent in Mexico last month." — U.S. Offers $5 Million Reward in ICE Murder Case