TribBlog: Holding Out for a TxDOT Hero
Lawmakers have said it before, and today they said it again: Sweeping top-down change is needed within the Texas Department of Transportation. Full Story
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The latest Texas Legislature news from The Texas Tribune.
Lawmakers have said it before, and today they said it again: Sweeping top-down change is needed within the Texas Department of Transportation. Full Story
State Sen. Jeff Wentworth calls new Texas State University System Chancellor Brian McCall a "Johnny-come-lately opportunist" and says he knows who should have gotten the job: state Sen. Jeff Wentworth. Full Story
Nobody's openly campaigning right now, but there's talk of who might succeed Joe Straus if he stumbles before January. Attribute the speculation to inertia: The House's top job was in play for at least four years before Straus won it 17 months ago, and members and the lobby and the press and other gawkers have been trained to study every new complaint, slight, reward and compliment for signs of a coup. While he appears to be on solid ground going into his second session behind the podium, don't erase the possibility of a contest. It's an uncertain environment: It's an election year, Straus is green and the Capitol is full of people who are constantly looking for a better deal than the one they've got. Full Story
Forecasters pegging a looming state budget shortfall at $18 billion don't have Gov. Rick Perry particularly worried. Full Story
Ramshaw on geriatric care in state prisons, with Miller's photo essay inside those walls; M. Smith interviews the state's newest Supreme Court justice, Debra Lehrmann; Aguilar finds fewer Mexicans seeking asylum in the U.S; Galbraith sorts out the politics of pollution and whether our air is dangerous to breathe; Thevenot discovers authorities writing tickets for misbehavior to elementary school kids; Philpott reports on early hearing about political redistricting; Kreighbaum examines fines levied against polluters and finds they're often smaller than the economic benefits of the infractions; and Stiles and Babalola spotlight some of our data projects from our first seven months online: The best of our best from May 31 to June 4, 2010. Full Story
In this week's TribCast, Ross, Evan, Ben and Reeve discuss the summer political fundraising season, TxDOT's audit, how population projections will impact into redistricting and the politics of pollution. Full Story
The state's tax on corporations could end up half a billion dollars shy of Comptroller Susan Combs' predictions, officials with her office say. Full Story
The Fort Hood shooter made his first courtroom appearance Tuesday, but a trial, the military court decided, won't happen until October. Full Story
With the rise of get-tough juvenile crime policies across Texas, the municipal courthouse has become the new principal’s office for students who fight, curse their teachers or are generally “disorderly” — even in elementary schools. Campus police in the Austin, Houston and Dallas ISDs, among others, write thousands of citations per year, with young students tickted egularly and minority students targeted disproportionately. Fines of $250 or $500 are not uncommon, court officials say. Full Story
The following are the answers to our special end-of-session quiz game, Sh*t My Texas Legislator Said. Full Story
Fresh off of asking for five percent cuts from state agencies and actually approving $1.2 billion of what was proposed, the state's top three leaders are asking for ten percent cuts in the amounts the agencies will be seeking next time the Legislature meets. Full Story
A majority of Texans believe the state is on the right track, while a plurality thinks the country is on the wrong track, according to a new University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. Full Story
The state Division of Workers' Compensation has uncovered "tens of millions of dollars in unnecessary medical care" in the last several years, but its commissioner failed to sanction the doctors involved, a key former employee told members of the Sunset Advisory Commission on Tuesday night. Full Story
A new Rasmussen Reports poll finds that 57 percent of Texans favor legalizing casino gambling as a means to draw down the coming budget shortfall, but only 21 percent support higher taxes. Full Story
More than two-thirds of Texans say their confidence in the state's public schools ranges from shaky to nonexistent, according to the new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll. A majority of Texans believe that crime, low academic standards, lack of parental involvement and not enough funding are "major" problems that public schools face — but two-thirds say "too much religion in the schools" is not a problem. Full Story
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
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
Jan Newton — who chairs the board of directors at the state's electric utility grid operator — is stepping down from that post, leaving the agency with interim officeholders and holes in key positions at the top of its organization chart. Full Story
Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, may be 50, but he's only been in the House for three sessions. He's part of a youth movement in the power corridors of the Legislature — one that's less about age than lack of seniority. Full Story
Lawmakers are pledging to take a closer look at the Texas Department of Insurance’s Division of Workers' Compensation in light of allegations by former employees that their higher-ups failed to sanction or remove dozens of doctors accused of overmedicating patients and overbilling insurers. The chairman of the House panel that oversees workers' compensation says he's planning a hearing on the matter this summer, and the chair of the Sunset Advisory Commission plans to question the division's commissioner at a public hearing next week. Full Story