The Midday Brief: April 29, 2011

Your afternoon reading:

• "Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said he is hopeful that he can muster the votes needed to get the 2012-13 budget to the Senate floor on Monday." — Ogden: Budget could hit Senate floor Monday, Postcards

• "State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said just a few minutes ago that she may let her important higher-education measure — Senate Bill 5 — die if a colleague persists in adding an amendment to it allowing concealed handguns in college and university buildings for the first time." — Higher-education bill may die, Postcards

• "Maybe it's a coincidence. A day after Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst accused several unnamed Democratic senators of 'trying to embarrass me and the Republicans' on the budget, Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, unloaded." — Zaffirini criticizes Senate budget, while Dewhurst blasts Ds for 'posturing,' Trail Blazers

• "As some lawmakers look high and low for money to ease cutbacks in education and human services, the House Ways and Means Committee has approved a tax break for big yachts." — Tough times or not, tax break for yachts steams ahead, Texas Politics

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "With fewer than five weeks left in the regular session, none of Gov. Rick Perry's emergency items — voter ID, sanctuary cities, sonograms for women getting abortions, a federal balanced budget amendment and eminent domain protection — have made it to his desk." — Where Are Perry's Emergency Items?

• "The Senate today passed a bill that would make it illegal to make 'bath salts,' a drug that can have effects similar to cocaine or amphetamines and can be bought legally online or in smoke shops." — Senate Approves "Bath Salts" Ban