On the latest Agenda Texas, from KUT News and the Tribune: What’s it like being a freshman lawmaker in the Texas Legislature? We talked to state Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, about her first session under the dome.
April 2013
Posted inState Government
The Evening Brief: April 5, 2013
Your evening reading: behind-the-scenes details of House budget debate emerging; A&M student body president vetoes “religious funding exemption” bill; Obama monitoring DA murder cases, White House says
Posted in
Health care
For Budget Vote, House Had a Women’s Health Negotiator
One lawmaker is getting much of the credit for restoring family planning funding to the House budget without the usual floor fight: state Rep. Sarah Davis, R-West University Place.
Posted inState Government
Slideshow: A Divide Over a Proposed El Paso Power Plant
This slideshow shows various images from a far east El Paso community where a proposed power plant near a colonia has spurred some residents to mobilize in opposition.
Posted in
Energy
Slideshow: A Divide Over a Proposed El Paso Power Plant
This slideshow shows various images from a far east El Paso community where a proposed power plant near a colonia has spurred some residents to mobilize in opposition.
Posted in
Economy
A House Less Susceptible to Political Stampedes
In 2011, state lawmakers fresh from a Tea Party election surge were hypersensitive to the opinions of and instructions from conservative activists. But as Thursday’s House budget debate showed, this session isn’t quite the same.
Posted in
Politics
TribLive: A Conversation With the Castro Brothers
Full video of my 4/2 TribLive conversation with San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro and U.S. Congressman Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Forensic Science Commission Reviews DPS Lab Trouble
The Texas Forensic Science Commission has concluded that the potential reversal of thousands of drug convictions by the Court of Criminal Appeals is due to a DPS employee’s incompetence, but that not all of the drug samples are necessarily compromised.
Posted in
Transportation
TribLive: A Conversation About Transportation
Full video of Aman Batheja’s 4/4 TribLive conversation with state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, and state Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman.
Posted in
Health care
Reluctance to Expansion of Health Care in Texas Has a Familiar Ring
If the state government’s resistance to expanding Medicaid sounds familiar, it’s because something like this happened when George W. Bush was governor, and conservatives were wary of the Children’s Health Insurance Program.