The Midday Brief: April 27, 2011

Your afternoon reading:

• "The Senate's chief budget writer says recent criticism of a rainy-day money "backstop" in the Senate budget is an impediment, but won't deter his effort to persuade colleagues to embrace his committee's two-year, $176.5 billion budget in a private huddle on Wednesday afternoon." — Ogden says rainy-day-money critics are an obstacle as he faces sales test, Trail Blazers

• "More than 60,000 Houstonians are living in state prisons and were not counted as part of Houston's population, Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, complained to House Redistricting Chair Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton." — Counting Houston inmates would change map, Texas Politics

• "Rep. Mike 'Tuffy' Hamilton, R-Mauriceville, who chairs the Licensing and Administrative Procedures committee, said he is close to having enough votes to pass his ever-morphing gambling bill." — House chairman says he’s close to getting enough votes for gambling, Postcards

• "The Texas branch of FreedomWorks has thrust itself into the debate over controversial higher education policies pushed by Gov. Rick Perry and allies. An online petition titled, 'Higher Education Reform for Texas NOW!' has drawn about 1,500 signatures so far, on the group’s website." — Armey, FreedomWorks back Perry in higher ed reform controversy, The Texas Independent

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "Sen. Jeff Wentworth surprised his colleagues and brought the Senate to a standstill today when he tried to tack his controversial campus carry bill onto another measure." — Wentworth Surprises Senate With Campus Carry

• "State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, has checked out the birth certificate President Barack Obama released this morning — and he's not satisfied." — Berman Not Satisfied With Obama's Birth Certificate

• "At a board meeting of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board on Wednesday, Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes said that $10,000 bachelor's degrees — books included — as proposed by Gov. Rick Perry are 'entirely feasible.'" — Raymund Paredes: $10,000 Degrees "Entirely Feasible"