The day that universities have been waiting for — some eagerly, others with a healthy dose of dread — is finally here. The 2011 edition of U.S. News & World Report's influential (and often controversial) college rankings have finally been released. Full Story
The Justice Department has ended a six-year criminal probe of onetime U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, without filing charges. But as Andy Uhler of KUT News reports, that doesn’t mean the controversial former congressman is off the legal hook. Full Story
Rio Grande Valley officials are fighting to hold a special election in November to fill a seat on the Hidalgo County Commissioners' Court — even though the secretary of state and a district judge say they have no legal authority to do so. Full Story
Along the border, the beheadings and bombings carried out by drug cartels are drawing comparisons to murders by Muslim extremists — not surprising, given the war-like death toll of 8,100 so far this year in Mexico, including about 50 casualties last weekend. Yet diplomats from both sides reject the notion raised regularly by government officials and media outlets that Mexico is a "failed state." The horrors of some communities, they told a border security conference last week in El Paso, overshadow the fact that parts of the country remain stable and are thriving economically. Full Story
It's late August in Texas, which means triple-digit temperatures and air conditioners everywhere cranked to the max. No wonder that, on Monday, the state set an energy consumption record — for the second day in a row. Peter Babb of KUT News has this report. Full Story
On the same day the Texas Supreme Court denied Judge Sharon Keller's request for intervention in her sanction from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, she has filed a second request to appeal the commission's decision. Full Story
The commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection on why he believes the Texas-Mexico border is secure, why deportations of criminals have reached unprecedented levels, why trade between the U.S. and Mexico still thrives and what motivates most undocumented immigrants to enter this country illegally. Full Story
As anti-immigration sentiment continues to rise along with border violence, proposals to abolish the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship provision have ricocheted through the political noise machine as an antidote for the incidence of “anchor babies.” But as a practical matter, what would the removal of birthright citizenship mean for the country? Pierce the fog of rhetoric and you’ll quickly discover that nobody really knows — including the state and federal lawmakers yelling loudest for change. Full Story
Texas has the most acres of any state enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program, which seeks to prevent another Dust Bowl by paying farmers to plant grass instead of crops. But the program has fallen on hard times, and its participants worry they will, too. Full Story
Special education students in Texas are nearly twice as likely to be suspended as students in the general population, according to the Texas Education Agency — and though they make up just 10 percent of the overall enrollment, they account for 21 percent of expulsions. Full Story
Rick Perry and Bill White are starting to engage on a daily basis. The shape of their election fight is starting to solidify, ads are in the works on both sides and if you count third parties on the Democratic side, already running. Mark Barack Obama's fundraising visit to Texas and the campaign gyrations leading up to it in your diary as the public start of the 2010 general election for governor, get your pizza and wings, and settle in for the show. Full Story
Stiles on Bill White's donor-appointees, M. Smith on a form of meritless lawsuit that's still legal in Texas, Ramshaw on what federal health care reform means for the future of physician-owned specialty hospitals, Galbraith's interview with the chairman of the Public Utility Commission, Philpott on the latest flap over federal education funding, Grissom on the finally-in-compliance Dallas County Jail, Titus on the oiled pelicans of the BP spill, Hamilton's interview with the new chancellor of the Texas State University System, Ramsey on the political and legal definitions of residency, Hu on Barack Obama's visit to Austin and Aguilar on what the U.S. could be doing to aid Mexico: The best of our best from August 9 to 13, 2010. Full Story