Your afternoon reading: Supreme Court says Hank Skinner can sue; Perry makes Rainy Day plea; bad news for Craig James
March 2011
Posted in
Demographics
New Day Rising: Steve Murdock on the Coming Hispanic Majority
At the Tribune’s New Day Rising symposium on Feb. 28, former state demographer and former U.S. Census Bureau director Steve Murdock talked extensively about demographic change in Texas.
Posted inState Government
U.S. Supreme Court Keeps Hank Skinner Alive, Again [Updated]
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.
Posted inState Government
The Brief: Top Texas News for March 7, 2011
Today, Gov. Rick Perry will try to put the brakes on House Republicans, who appear readier than ever to tap the Rainy Day Fund.
Posted in
Health care
House Fights on Familiar Ground: The Rules
In the House, what starts with substance — abortion sonogram legislation, in this case — often ends with procedure.
Posted in
Inside Intelligence
Inside Intelligence: The Consequences of Public Ed Cuts Will Be…
For the latest installment of our nonscientific survey of political and policy insiders, we asked what it would mean to make deep cuts to public education, as proposed by the House, the Senate and the governor.
Posted inState Government
A Short History of the Rainy Day Fund
A House committee may vote this week to spend more than $4 billion of the state’s Rainy Day Fund to help close the state’s current budget gap. As the fight heats up over whether to draw from the $9.4 billion fund, Matt Largey of KUT News takes a look at where all that money came from anyway.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
State Would Require Jails to Pay for Inspections
To keep critical jail inspections going even as they cut funding to the agency that provides them, lawmakers are proposing that the counties pay for them.
Posted inState Government
Up and Running
Legislative sessions lag along and then, suddenly, seem to catch traction and start. Plenty of people have been busy, but now, with 12 weeks left in the regular session, lots of people are getting busy.
Posted in
Health care
Fighting the Fear That Saving a Life Means Losing Your Soul
With the number of Hispanics in Texas continuing to swell, the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance is embarking on a campaign to change cultural and religious resistance to organ donation.