The Midday Brief: Top Texas Headlines for April 11, 2011

Your afternoon reading:

• "Personal information of about 3.5 million Texans — including names, mailing addresses and Social Security numbers — was posted on a publicly accessible server at the state comptroller's office, much of it for more than a year, Comptroller Susan Combs said." — Oops. Info of 3.5 million Texans was publicly accessible, Texas Politics

• "Why has Dewhurst perhaps cooled on the idea of running for the Senate? I can think of several reasons. One is that he would have to wait as much as twelve years — two terms — to attain a position of influence. That’s a long time for someone who is in his mid-sixties. Another is that Dewhurst sees himself as an executive, not as a somebody who aspires to engage in debate and go to committee meetings." — Dewhurst on KXAN: looking at governor’s race in 2014, BurkaBlog

• "Some House budget-writers appeared thrilled when Rep. Rob Orr, R-Burleson, outlined a proposed constitutional amendment (House Joint Resolution 109) and accompanying legislation (House Bill 2646) to add $200 million a year into public schools without raising taxes. But they may be in for a fight from elected officials who oversee the state's public school trust fund, which would be the focus of the legislation." — Some budget-writers thrilled with school funding proposal; land commissioner, SBOE member not so much, Texas Politics

• "A steep cut in spending on a program that encourages low-income motorists in North Texas and three other urban areas to sell or fix their fumes-belching 'clunkers' didn't sit too well with Dallas-area Senate budget writers on Monday." — 'Clunker' retirement program: urban dwellers help certify budget's balanced, Trail Blazers

• "First Lady Michelle Obama is heading to Texas on Wednesday with the vice president's wife, Dr. Jill Biden, as part of a two-day tour to spotlight initiatives that support service members and their families." — Michelle Obama to Texas; Jessica Simpson joins her support-the-troops tour in Denver, Trail Blazers

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "There’s a widely held belief around the Capitol that lawmakers balanced a troublesome budget in 2003 with a convenient underestimation of how many people would need to be served. So why not do that on purpose, and out in the open?" — Is an Incomplete Budget Better Than a Shrunken One?