The Midday Brief: Jan. 27, 2012

Your afternoon reading:

• "Ron Paul, well known as a physician, congressman and libertarian, has also been a businessman who pursued a marketing strategy that included publishing provocative, racially charged newsletters to make money and spread his ideas, according to three people with direct knowledge of Paul’s businesses. … Numerous colleagues said he does not hold racist views. But people close to Paul’s operations said he was deeply involved in the company that produced the newsletters, Ron Paul & Associates, and closely monitored its operations, signing off on articles and speaking to staff members virtually every day." — Ron Paul signed off on racist newsletters in the 1990s, associates say, The Washington Post

• "A leading player in the state’s redistricting turmoil said this morning he’s hopeful that both sides are closing in on a settlement that will salvage Texas’ April 3 primary. … “I am confident that the parties are working in good faith and have enough time to craft a compromise that will assure that the April primaries go on as scheduled,” said state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, chairman of the House Mexican American Legislative Caucus, which is one of the parties suing the state." — Prospects brighten for settlement that could save April election, San Antonio Express-News

• "The Baby Boom of the 1950s has turned into a Senior Boom for prisons in the United States — a trend that is mushrooming prison health care costs because medical care for those older convicts is costing up to nine times more than for younger prisoners.  That’s the bottom line of a new study released this morning by Human Rights Watch, in what echoes the trend for several years in Texas prisons, the second-largest corrections system in the country." —Baby Boom leads to Senior Boom in prisons, Austin American-Statesman

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "The federal government has rejected Texas' request to delay implementation of a health reform rule that could force some insurers to give premium refunds to customers." — Feds Reject Texas' Request to Delay Insurance Reform

• "Up and down the Texas ballot, candidates are waiting to see whether the redrawn political maps give them any chance of winning. Careers, plans and schemes are in the balance." — Candidates Cool Heels While Waiting for Maps

• "In Texas, the largest cattle state, branding cows with a symbol like the 'Rocking R' is practically a cultural necessity. But state and federal regulators are keener on another form of identification — ear tags — that's easier to standardize. Cattlemen have some qualms about the changes — and they say branding isn't going away anytime soon." — Cattle ID Proposal Has Texas Ranchers' Attention