Your afternoon reading: Hutchison to retire; Pitts on the budget; Berman targets Sharia law
The Midday Brief: Jan. 13, 2011
Posted in
State Government
Pitts: “There Will Be Less State Employees”
In our TribLive conversation this morning, state Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, spoke frankly about the certainty that state employees would be cut as part of the Legislature’s solution to the budget shortfall — and he said furloughs for employees who aren’t cut may be ordered as well.
Posted inState Government
TribBlog: KBH Won’t Seek Re-Election
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Dallas, issued a letter to supporters announcing that she will not be seeking re-election in 2012.
Posted in
Economy
TribBlog: Pitts Says Expect Big Budget Cuts
Trib CEO Evan Smith spent the morning interviewing House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, at a TribLive event. And Pitts made some news. Here are a few headlines.
Posted inState Government
The Brief: Jan. 13, 2011
The Legislature quieted down Wednesday, but changes to state government were afoot.
Posted in
Demographics
Molly Molloy: The TT Interview
The New Mexico State University librarian and professor on why she painstakingly keeps a daily tally of the killings in Juárez, which surpassed 3,100 in 2010.
Posted in
Health care
Losing Dependence
Federal health care reform’s biggest benefit for young adults — a mandate that insurance providers cover dependents until they reach age 26 — won’t apply to thousands of 25-year-old Texans for one simple reason: Their parents work for the state. The federal rule, which went into effect in late September, required all insurance providers to extend their cap to 26 at the start of their next “plan year.” For many private providers, that began Jan. 1. But the Texas Employees Retirement System plan year doesn’t begin until next September, meaning 5,500 25-year-olds will miss out.
Posted in
Energy
Permitting Paralysis?
The politics and rhetoric of the Environmental Protection Agency’s multi-front battle with Texas make for a grand spectacle. Behind the scenes, however, there are signs that big industrial plants are trying to move past the stalemate on their own, talking with federal regulators and, in some cases, preparing to meet the demands of the agency.
Posted in
Demographics
The Weekly TribCast: Episode 62
In our session kickoff edition of the TribCast, Ross, Elise, Ben and Reeve discuss the state’s budget morass, so-called “sanctuary city” legislation and their impressions of the newly sworn-in Texas Legislature.
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: Fake Pot Ban Could Go Statewide
State Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, announced Wednesday she had filed legislation to make the sale, manufacture and possession of fake marijuana, commonly referred to as K2, illegal. The bill, SB 331, would outlaw six synthetic compounds that mimic the effects of THC, or Tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana.
