The Evening Brief: May 1, 2012

New in The Texas Tribune:

• Texas Schools Chief Stepping Down: "Texas Education Agency Commissioner Robert Scott is leaving the post Gov. Rick Perry appointed him to in 2007. Under Scott's tenure, Texas was often at the center of national conversations on education, skirmishing with the Obama administration over Race to the Top and making deep reductions to public education funding."

• Judge's Reversal Gives State Go-Ahead to Exclude Planned Parenthood Clinics: "A federal judge's ruling this morning means that the state may begin removing Planned Parenthood and other so-called abortion 'affiliates' from the Women's Health Program, despite a district judge's Monday ruling to the contrary."

• On the Records: Feds Award $61 Million for Texas Health Centers: "The federal government awarded Texas $61 million today for new and improved community health centers across the state."

Culled:

• RRC candidate uses peeing on a fence to illustrate point in new ad (The Dallas Morning News): "In a new web ad, Republican Railroad Commission candidate Roland Sledge uses, shall we say, a rather shocking message. His theme is that as a veteran of the oil and gas industry, which the RRC regulates, that he knows more than politicians. He, shall we say, streams an old Will Rogers saying about how some people learn. It includes the notion that some folks learn how not to do something by peeing on an electric fence."

• Texas wind farms' impact on climate causes stir (USA Today): "A small scientific study linking Texas wind farms to higher surface temperatures has led to dramatic media headlines about wind farms causing climate change. Yet its lead author doesn't say that nor does earlier research."