The Midday Brief: Aug. 1, 2011

Your afternoon reading:

• "Although still trailing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Gov. Rick Perry has scored his largest share of respondents in a national Republican primary poll since he announced he was considering a presidential run." — Perry now at 18 percent in Rasmussen poll, Trail Blazers

• "Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is 'poised to enter' the presidential race and is holding a high-level strategy session with a small group of top supporters this week, according to an e-mail sent by his 2010 gubernatorial campaign co-chairman." — Top fundraiser: Perry ‘poised to enter’ presidential race, The Fix

• "Another super PAC has been formed by a supporter of Gov. Rick Perry’s potential presidential bid, this one highlighting his support for military veterans in the context of an overall message of job creation." — Another pro-Perry super PAC focuses on veterans, Texas Politics

• "A spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry would not directly say today whether Perry thinks members of Congress should vote for the debt-ceiling deal reached between Republicans and President Barack Obama." — Perry not endorsing debt-ceiling deal, Postcards

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "Throughout August, The Texas Tribune will feature 31 ways Texans' lives will change come Sept. 1, the date most bills passed by the Legislature — including the dramatically reduced budget — take effect. DAY 1: Thousands of Texas teachers will not have jobs to return to in the fall, the result of a school finance plan that cut $4 billion from districts statewide." — 31 Days, 31 Ways: Thousands of Texas Teachers Losing Jobs
  

• "Forests of enormous electric wind turbines now rise across West Texas — a far cry from the smaller, water-pumping windmills that covered the land a century ago. In Lubbock, a museum called the American Wind Power Center traces this change, juxtaposing old and new." — In Lubbock, the Evolution of Wind is on Display