After Gov. Rick Perry and Democrat Bill White each addressed a Texas Farm Bureau conference in San Marcos, Perry spoke with reporters about his relationship with the group, which Farm Bureau spokesman Gene Hall has described as “strained” after Perry vetoed an eminent domain bill in 2007. The group endorsed Perry’s rival, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, in the Republican primary this spring, but its general election endorsement is still up for grabs.
Elise Hu
Elise Hu was a political reporter at the Tribune, focusing on multimedia projects, from 2009 to 2011. She previously worked as the state political reporter for Austin's ABC affiliate, KVUE-TV, from 2006 to 2009. She was recognized by the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters three years in a row for her beat reporting on state politics and was named Best TV Reporter Who Can Write by The Austin Chronicle. Before arriving in Austin, she held reporting positions at television stations in Waco; Greenville, S.C.; and Columbia, Mo. She's an evangelist for social media and multimedia journalism — her Political Junkie blog was listed as one of WashingtonPost.com's top Texas political blogs. A native of Plano, she has a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri.
Posted inState Government
Making Nice
A brief meeting in a judge’s chambers Wednesday cut short a brewing turf war between HillCo Partners and two former lobbyists it had sued after they quit and took a stable of clients with them.
Posted inState Government
The Weekly Tribcast: Episode 36
Topics in this week’s TribCast include the Green Party’s ballot access battle, lobbyists suing lobbyists and whether the Farm Bureau will sway any voters in the race for Texas governor.
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TribBlog: It’s Over, Says HillCo
HillCo Partners dropped its lawsuit against Brandon Aghamalian and Snapper Carr this afternoon — the surprise result of a hearing scheduled today to address HillCo’s request for a temporary restraining order.
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State Government
After Sunset
Sunset Advisory Commissioners unanimously approved a series of changes to the troubled Division of Workers’ Compensation at the Texas Department of Insurance on Tuesday, but not before aggressively rewriting the Sunset staff’s original recommendations to improve the division’s medical quality review process.
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State Government
Sunset Finishes Workers’ Comp Fixes
State lawmakers on the Sunset Advisory Commission make final remarks after the panel unanimously approves changes to the Division of Workers’ Compensation’s medical quality review process.
Posted inState Government
HuTube: White Takes the Perry Challenge
The Bill White campaign took seriously Gov. Rick Perry’s challenge last week to find “anybody who can outwork” him.
Posted inState Government
Multimedia Independence Day
Since our November 2009 launch, we’ve produced hundreds of video and audio stories, and our photographers have captured thousands of images of the Texas political universe. Now, all that content finally has a home. The navigation bar under our logo now hosts the “Multimedia” tab, and what better way to introduce this new hub than with a video?
Posted inState Government
Perry: I Work 24/7
In the face of criticism from his opponent, Gov. Rick Perry said he works 24/7 — despite his official schedule showing he worked about seven hours a week in the first half of this year.
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State Government
Sunset Grill
Physician fraud investigators inside the troubled Division of Workers’ Compensation say state examiners failed to uncover serious problems there — and then recommended changes that would take key decisions away from trained physicians and give them to bureaucrats.
