The Midday Brief: Dec. 10, 2010
Your afternoon reading: Texans in key House posts, pension bonuses and the red-light camera battle Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Ron_Paul_by_Gage_Skidmore001.jpg)
Your afternoon reading: Texans in key House posts, pension bonuses and the red-light camera battle Full Story
Already squeezed, Texas prisons are about to face a tough few months. Full Story
Over the last 12 years, the University of Texas has increased its merchandising royalties from $600,000 to, most recently, a one-year haul of more than $10.1 million. Not coincidentally, during that period the Longhorns excelled on the football field. This year, however, saw the team’s first losing season since 1997, ending without a bowl game. After enjoying the financial benefits of prolonged success, what will be the cost of failure? And how will it impact UT’s $3 billion capital campaign? Full Story
A decade after Hispanic farmers in Texas and other states sued the USDA, alleging discrimination in the awarding of loans and other federal benefits to minorities, the government has tendered a settlement offer. The plaintiffs think it's laughable. Full Story
State officials have denied incentive funding after the fact for Robert Rodriguez's film Machete, citing its allegedly unkind portrayal of Texas. Ironically, Gov. Rick Perry signed the bill creating the program into law at Rodriguez's Austin studio, with the director at his side. Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports. Full Story
James Ho said today that he's leaving the post he's held as Texas solicitor general since 2008. Full Story
Your afternoon reading: DREAM Act stalls in Senate, and fundraising season isn't over Full Story
Amid all the budget guesswork, cuts are beginning to crystallize. Full Story
The U.S. Border Patrol is restarting its controversial Alien Transfer and Exit Program, in which illegal border-crossers caught in Arizona are transported to Texas and deported to Mexico. Texas officials say the plan makes as little sense to them now as it did last year. Full Story
Six weeks after the drubbing their party took at the hands of voters, surviving Texas House Democrats find themselves at a crossroads — on style and substance, politics and policy. With massive budget cuts looming, will they effectively sit out the session and force Republicans in the majority to have all the blood on their hands? Will they participate just enough to soften the blow in the areas they care about the most: education and health care? Can they hold together a solid 51-vote bloc on key legislation? Where exactly should they go from here? And who will lead them? Full Story
In this week's TribCast, Evan, Ross, Elise and Ben discuss the difficult budget votes ahead, the weakened House Democratic Caucus and what redistricting means for 2012. Full Story
Today, leaders from journalism and First Amendment advocacy groups sent a letter to Tarleton State University challenging a controversial and restrictive open-records policy. Full Story
The baby blood battle continues with a second lawsuit against the Department of State Health Services for not only storing but allegedly selling, distributing and bartering baby blood samples. Full Story
Your afternoon reading: looming DREAM Act vote embroils senators, and a new report ranks public ed efficiency Full Story
Even as Texas schools face budget cuts, their spending per student is on the rise, according to a new report from Comptroller Susan Combs that rates district expenditures against student achievement. Full Story
The state budget ax — ever looming, and by now not unfamiliar — has swung again. Full Story
In his first competitive House race analysis for 2012, Nostradamus-on-the-Potomac Charlie Cook only lists two Texas congressional seats as potentially in play. One of them is not CD-17. Full Story
The budget shortfall — estimated to be as much as $28 billion — will require the Legislature to take a paring knife and possibly a machete to government agencies and programs. The largest single consumer of state dollars is public education, so it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which funding for teacher salaries, curricular materials and the like isn’t on the chopping block, especially if lawmakers want to make good on their promises of no new taxes. But where is that money going to come from? Full Story
A public hearing in Austin on Thursday will address a proposed rule allowing 36 states to ship their low-level radioactive waste to West Texas. As Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports, the rule has raised the eyebrows of environmentalists and the new governor of Vermont. Full Story
One in 10 Asian-Americans has hepatitis B, a rate that is 20 times higher than the rest of the population — and is surely pronounced in Houston, which has the fourth-largest Asian population of any U.S. metropolitan area. But state public health officials struggle to get funding for vaccinations and outreach. Full Story