The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has nearly doubled its number of administrative enforcement actions against polluters in the last five years — yet critics charge the agency still levies penalties too small to act as a deterrent.
Andrew Kreighbaum
Posted inState Government
Bombs Away!
In November 2007, when the presidential campaign of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Surfside, raised more than $4.2 million in a single day, the grassroots-fueled “money bomb” became part of the national political conversation. But while the tactic was in greater use this cycle, the underwhelming showing of candidates who employed it reveals its limitations.
Posted in
Health care
TribBlog: Perry Rejects New Pool for High-Risk Patients
Texas will not commit to creating temporary health care pools for high-risk patients.
Posted in
Higher Education
Borrow and Mend
New federal student loan reforms, passed along with controversial health care reform legislation, will shore up Pell Grants for tens of thousands of college students in Texas — and save the feds a projected $68 billion by cutting private banks out of financial aid.
Posted in
Economy
TribBlog: Coming To A State Park Near You…
The sound of clanging and banging construction equipment may interrupt the tranquil noises of nature for Texas campers this spring and summer.
Posted in
Higher Education
TribBlog: More FBS Ambitions
UT-San Antonio isn’t the only Texas university looking to make a jump to FBS football competition.
Posted in
Higher Education
A Whole New Ball Game
The University of Texas at San Antonio hopes the fastest route to tier-one status is straight down the middle of the football field.
Posted inState Government
2010: Home Field Disadvantage
Among the major gubernatorial hopefuls Tuesday night, only incumbent Rick Perry and former Houston mayor Bill White were able to win the counties where they claim residence.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Primary Color: Supreme Court Place 3
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.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Primary Color: The Final Five
This is the final day of early voting — a period in which many more energized and engaged Texans cast ballots for their favorite candidates than their counterparts did in 2006. During the last two weeks, we’ve published fifteen installments in our Primary Color series, analyzing the marquee contested party primaries for Texas House and Senate seats, for Congressional seats, and for slots on the State Board of Education and the Texas Supreme Court. Today we present the last five of our stories. Brian Thevenot reports on the face-off between very different GOP insiders to take on state Rep. Diana Maldonado, D-Round Rock, in House District 52. Julian Aguilar looks at the ideological purity test in HD-43, where incumbent Tara Rios Ybarra, D-South Padre Island, has been called a “closet Republican” by her Democratic challenger. Reeve Hamilton explains how Democrats have to choose between an Agriculture Commissioner candidate with ranching experience and one who’s the consummate promoter. Andrew Kreighbaum weighs in on the six-way free-for-all to succeed retiring Supreme Court Justice Harriet O’Neill in Place 3. And Ross Ramsey contemplates the potential karmic payback of state Rep. Chuck Hopson, of Jacksonville, who quit the Democratic party and filed for reelection as a Republican, only to find two GOP primary opponents lying in wait.
