The state's largest business group is opposing proposed recommendations to change up the review process for unscrupulous workers' comp doctors, a process at the center of the controversy over how the Division of Workers' Compensation operates. Full Story
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As lawmakers on the Sunset Advisory Commission prepare to publicly review the Division of Workers' Compensation on Tuesday, the Commissioner and his former physician fraud investigator are waging a war of words in their letters to lawmakers. Full Story
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Coming soon to a large pink state capitol building in this very state: A day-long seminar on slot machines and casinos and all that, especially as it pertains to the state budget. Full Story
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At this point, anti-incumbent sentiment in Texas appears to be dwarfed by party identification and opposition to the national Democratic Party. Full Story
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Your afternoon reading. Full Story
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The U.S. Supreme Court announced this morning that it will take up Texas death row inmate Hank Skinner's case. Full Story
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In the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, Republicans lead Democrats in every statewide race. Full Story
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It's not always the big transgressions that bedevil public people. It's the understandable ones. Full Story
For the 10th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the state senator from Austin about the budget shortfall, the road funding hole, why Barack Obama is unpopular in Texas and the prospect of Bill White beating Rick Perry. Full Story
Gov. Rick Perry leads his Democratic challenger, former Houston Mayor Bill White, 44 percent to 35 percent in the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, which was conducted May 14 to 20. Fifteen percent of the 800 registered voters surveyed are undecided about which of the gubernatorial candidates to support, while 7 percent prefer "someone else." Perry leads among men, women and Anglos. White leads among African-Americans and Hispanics. In five other statewide races polled, each Republican leads his Democratic opponent by a double-digit margin. Full Story
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Let's say you served time for a crime you didn't commit: How much is each year you lost really worth? A new law increases the state's payout to exonerees, but the process of getting compensated is its own form of punishment. Full Story
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Today the former San Antonio mayor, former HUD Secretary and recent social studies textbook reject publicly backed the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in a big, iconic state with a screwed-up Capitol culture and an incumbent governor who is occasionally the subject of unkind comments elsewhere in the country. No, not that candidate. Full Story
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Thevenot on the ideological backbiting at the internationally famous State Board of Education; Stiles, Narioka and Hamilton plumb employee salary data in Texas colleges and universities; Grissom looks at the problem of insufficient indigent defense; Cervantes on the push for "veterans courts" emphasizing treatment and counseling over punishment; Aguilar finds border congressmen asking the governor for a fair break on federal homeland security dollars; M. Smith on another BP rig in the Gulf; Ramshaw reports on nurse practitioners trying to get permission slips from doctors; Hu follows up with lawmakers poking at whistleblower allegations of trouble in the state's workers' compensation regulation; Hamilton stops in on Luke Hayes and his efforts to turn Texas into a political powerhouse for Obama; and Ramsey writes on generation changes at the Capitol and on political pranksters: The best of our best from May 17 to 21, 2010. Full Story
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You know that prayer that before today's State Board of Education meeting, which some found so inappropriate? It was read by arch-conservative Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond — but not written by her. In a gag on her detractors, she lifted the text from U.S. Supreme Court Justice and liberal icon Earl Warren. Full Story
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After a series of bombastic speeches, the State Board of Education just approved the social studies curriculum on a party line vote of 9-5, with Geraldine Miller, R-Dallas, absent. Full Story
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U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is pushing hard for the FAA to approve a second aerial drone to surveil the Texas-Mexico border — holding an Obama nominee hostage until Texas gets its way. Full Story
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The State Board of Education instructs students to "contrast" the intent of the Founding Fathers with the modern legal interpretation of the separation of church and state. Full Story
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At long last, Thomas Jefferson returns to the State Board of Education’s world history standards, where he had been excised to great controversy earlier. Full Story
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In a morning prayer to open the State Board of Education meeting, social conservative member Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, mixed worship with a constitutional argument against the separation of church and state — previewing the politically charged debate to come later today, as conservatives tackle their last big agenda item before approving the state social studies standards. Full Story
As the Division of Workers' Compensation heads into a public hearing at the Sunset Advisory Commission next week, Commissioner Rod Bordelon is blasting his former employees for their allegations reported by the Texas Tribune. Full Story
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