Six Republicans — five judges from across the state and a former House member with no judicial experience — are touting their conservative credentials as they run for that rare thing in Texas politics: an open seat on the Supreme Court. Full Story
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Facebook is opening up a satellite office in Austin — the first one in Texas for the California-based social media giant. The move, which will create 200 jobs, was sealed with $1.4 million from Gov. Rick Perry's Texas Enterprise Fund. The governor on Thursday also announced 100 new jobs for the small town of Cuero, thanks again to the TEF. Ben Philpott, who's covering the 2010 elections for KUT News and the Tribune and KUT News, reports on how the job-creating fund can be a pretty effective campaign tool as well. Full Story
Eleven employees in the state's treasury division got $360,000 in bonuses last year. Full Story
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About three-fourths of the Higher Education Coordinating Board's budget is student financial aid, a large portion of which the board proposes to cut in a mandated 5-percent reduction plan for all state agencies. Full Story
Your afternoon reading. Full Story
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Empower Texans, a group of conservative GOPers led by Michael Quinn Sullivan, posted an ad on YouTube yesterday attacking El Paso Republican primary candidate Jay Kleberg for his 2008 vote for President Barack Obama. Full Story
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The Texas Enterprise Fund will dole out money to the social networking site for new operations in Austin. Full Story
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Kay, Rick, and Debra sitting at a table . . . F-I-G-H-T . . . oh, nevermind. But they were together in Houston last night for the sold-out “Showdown in the Bayou City.” Full Story
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Rose Vela is no stranger to challenging establishment-backed judicial candidates — and unlike most who run upstart campaigns, she wins. But this year she's taking on Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, the appointee of a governor with the most formidable political machine in recent Texas history. Full Story
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Sensible people in the Metroplex may have given up long ago on Southwest Parkway and State Highway 161, two huge projects first proposed back in the 1960s. Now they're toll roads — one incomplete, one not yet started — and the money to build them may finally be available. There is, of course, a catch. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry today accepted the endorsement of Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minutemen Project that the governor back in 2005 said he had "no desire" to see in Texas. Full Story
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Country music legend Willie Nelson's voice in your radio ad: $5,000. Willie Nelson's friendship: Priceless. Full Story
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In an unexpected reversal, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has thrown out Charles Dean Hood's death sentence on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court appeal and national media attention. Full Story
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Your afternoon reading. Full Story
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New numbers from Rasmussen have Gov. Rick Perry teetering on the brink of an outright victory with 48 percent. Full Story
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It’s Christmas every day for political junkies in these last moments leading up to the March 2 primary. Full Story
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Three of the biggest social services messes of Rick Perry's ten-year tenure — the sexual abuse scandal at the Texas Youth Commission, fight clubs at state institutions for the disabled and deaths of children on Child Protective Services’ watch — have been noticeably absent from the campaign trail. Is it because Texans don't hold him accountable for these tragedies? Or because his opponents think GOP primary voters simply don't care? Full Story
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Embattled state Rep. Ismael “Kino” Flores is quitting, and two Democrats are vying to replace him in one of the state's poorest and least-educated districts — where old-school border politics rule, where no Republicans bothered to file for the general election. After all, this is the Rio Grande Valley. Full Story
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"Teachers should be chasing us around," the Texas high school senior told the official from the U.S. Department of Education. "We shouldn't be chasing them. But that doesn't always happen here." Full Story
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Through the close of business on Monday, 119,195 Texans had voted early in the big counties, a 98 percent increase over four years ago. GOP primary voting was up 146 percent, to 86,179; Democratic primary voting was up a mere 52 percent, to 33,016. Full Story
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