The day after the leading measure to fund state water projects stumbled in the House, legislators shifted their focus to a bill that some members hope will also include money for education.
April 2013
Posted inState Government
UT Regent Updates Lawsuit Disclosures
University of Texas System Regent Wallace Hall came under fire for failing to disclose all of the lawsuits in his background before he joined the board. Hall has since updated the filings, which were obtained through an open records request.
Posted inState Government
Agenda Texas: Tanking the Water Bill
On the latest Agenda Texas, from KUT News and the Tribune: The bill that was supposed to pay for Texas’ water plan suffered a setback in the House on Monday night, leaving state leaders with a narrow set of options.
Posted inState Government
The Evening Brief: April 30, 2013
Your evening reading: Straus says House will find way to fund water plan; state, federal lawmakers to probe West plant explosion; Obama says opposition to health care law will hurt Texans
Posted in
Demographics
TribLive: A Conversation With Gutierrez and Carter
On Monday, I interviewed two members of the U.S. House’s “Gang of Eight” — Reps. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and John Carter, R-Round Rock — about comprehensive immigration reform: why we need it, what it should include and whether the votes are there in Congress to pass it.
Posted in
State Government
Guest Column: Texas Should Leave Redistricting Alone
Republican leaders in Texas want the Legislature to take up redistricting this session. That’s a bad idea, writes Matt Angle, director of the Lone Star Project.
Posted in
Public Education
House Votes to Reduce State Exams in Lower Grades
UPDATED: A measure taking aim at the firm that develops the state’s standardized tests briefly stalled legislation reducing high-stakes exams for elementary and middle school students before it finally passed the Texas House on Tuesday.
Posted in
Health care
TribuneFest: A Conversation With Kyle Janek
At the Trib’s April 25 symposium on health care at the University of Texas at Austin, I talked with Kyle Janek, the executive commissioner of Texas Health and Human Services, about the prospects for leveraging federal dollars to reduce the number of uninsured Texans.
Posted in
Inside Intelligence
Inside Intelligence: About the Prosecution…
For this week’s nonscientific survey of insiders in government and politics in Texas, we asked about prosecutors being prosecuted, flawed prosecutions and whether and when to remind defendants of their rights.
Posted in
Energy
Straus: House Will Find Way to Fund Water
UPDATED: The morning after a major bill to authorize spending billions of dollars on state water projects faltered in the House, Speaker Joe Straus’ office released a statement saying he wouldn’t “let a technicality seal the debate.”