The Dallas Morning News has named Rick Perry its 2010 Texan of the Year. In an editorial posted online Saturday afternoon, the newspaper labeled the recently re-elected governor a “peerless political brawler” whose “impact on Texas politics” is beyond dispute.
Evan Smith
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T-Squared
T-Squared: Dear Earl Weaver…
There’s no way to put lipstick on this particular Oriole: We screwed up, plain and simple, in writing that you are “in heaven.”
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Ramsey on what a GOP supermajority means, Ramshaw on a crime victim not eligible for crime victims’ compensation, M. Smith on grave matters and state regulation, Hamilton on the college pipeline at San Antonio’s Jefferson High, Hu on a senator’s anticlimactic return, Grissom on the coming closure of juvenile lockups, Aguilar on the return of residents to their drug-war-torn Mexican town, Galbraith on next session’s energy agenda, Philpott on the legal fight over federal health care reform and Stiles on the travel expenses of House members: The best of our best from Dec. 13 to 17, 2010.
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State Government
TribBlog: Kuempel Wins Father’s Seat
Republican John Kuempel, a 40-year-old metal salesman and University of Texas graduate, won tonight’s special election in House District 44 with 66 percent of the vote.
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State Government
TribBlog: Aaron Peña, R-Edinburg?
Speculation is growing that state Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, will soon switch parties, giving the Republicans the supermajority they were barely denied on Election Night.
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Congress
2012: Congressman for Life?
In his first competitive House race analysis for 2012, Nostradamus-on-the-Potomac Charlie Cook only lists two Texas congressional seats as potentially in play. One of them is not CD-17.
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Higher Education
A Conversation With Dan Branch
For the 18th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the Dallas Republican who chairs the House Higher Education Committee about the speaker’s race, how the shortfall runs smack into the ambitious plans of universities and why tying funding to outcomes is the best accountability that tax dollars can buy.
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Demographics
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
M. Smith and Butrymowicz of the Hechinger Institute on charter schools and public schools making nice in the Valley, Ramsey’s interview with House Speaker candidate Ken Paxton and column on the coming budget carnage, Hu on the Legislature’s disappearing white Democratic women, Grissom on the sheriff who busted Willie Nelson, Hamilton talks higher ed accountability with the chair of the Governor’s Business Council, Aguilar on the arrest of a cartel kingpin, Ramshaw on the explosive growth in the number of adult Texans with diabetes, Philpott on state incentive funding under fire and Galbraith on the greening of Houston: The best of our best from November 29 to December 3, 2010.
Posted inState Government
Branch: Calling it a Speaker’s Race is “Generous”
At this morning’s TribLive event, state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, speaks out on the challenge to his close friend and colleague, Speaker Joe Straus.
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T-Squared
T-Squared: Donor Ask, Donor Tell
Today marks the beginning of an effort to more openly and aggressively disclose when donors to The Texas Tribune are — for reasons entirely related to their place in the center of the news — the subjects of stories.
