The Midday Brief: Oct. 6, 2011

Your afternoon reading:

• "The House of Representatives has blocked consideration of a resolution calling on Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) to apologize for not immediately 'doing away' with a rock bearing the controversial name of his family’s West Texas hunting camp, 'Niggerhead.'" — Rick Perry hunting camp resolution blocked by House, The Washington Post
  

• "Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) denied that a racial epithet was visible on a rock outside the hunting camp his family once leased in his first on-camera television interview since the Post reported its existence over the weekend. 'I think there were very much some strong inconsistencies and just misinformation in that story,' Perry told Fox News Channel reporter Juliet Huddy in an interview this morning. 'I know for a fact that in 1984, that rock was painted over. It was painted over very soon, my family did that.'" — Perry responds to hunting camp story, The Washington Post

• "The onetime name of Gov. Rick Perry’s Texas hunting camp is currently the most famous example of an egregious race-based place name, but it is not the only one." — Race-Based Names Dot the Landscape, The New York Times

• "Mitt Romney's campaign declined to confirm or deny a report that the GOP presidential candidate lobbied Nevada Republicans to hold a rule-breaking January presidential caucus." — Mitt Romney camp dodges Nevada calendar-tampering charge, Politico
  

• "Sen. Royce West said that after a week of answering the question of whether Rick Perry is racist -- which he's answered with a resounding no -- the Dallas Democrat said it was time to turn his attention to another issue along the racial divide.  His resounding no is sounding this time about whether the Texas Division of Motor Vehicles should authorize a license plate that commemorates the Confederacy and displays the rebel flag." — Royce West decries proposed Confederate license plate, Trail Blazers
  

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "In the next three months, if lawmakers don’t change the Medicare funding formula or approve yet another Band-Aid to hold it together, physician reimbursement rates will plunge nearly 30 percent. Use this Tribune interactive to understand the budget hole federal lawmakers have dug, Texas physicians’ response to the problem, and the cost of varied proposals to change how Medicare is funded." — Interactive: The Problem with Medicare Spending — and Proposals to Fix it