Muskets, bayonets, Confederate war heroes. Just a sample of some of the cool stuff Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson keeps in his office. In our latest HuTube vlog episode, we get Patterson to give us a tour.
HuTube: Patterson’s Walk Down Memory Lane
Posted inState Government
HuTube: What’s Happening Yao
KPRC-TV in Houston took the “Why Yao” question straight to Gov. Rick Perry.
Posted in
Demographics
TribBlog: Advocacy Groups Say ‘No’ to More Border Fence
More than 30 religious, immigration and environmental advocacy groups sent a letter to Democratic U.S. Senate leaders Thursday calling on them to oppose a Republican measure to build more fencing on the southern border.
Posted inState Government
2010: South Texans for Perry [Updated]
If Gov. Rick Perry had any hurt feelings from the defection of Grand Prairie’s Republican mayor to the Bill White campaign last week, an announcement today might make up for it.
Posted in
Health care
TribBlog: Capitol CPR
Lawmakers and state employees are getting trained in CPR and defibrillator use today — almost a year after Rep. Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin, suffered a heart attack and collapsed in a Capitol elevator. He was saved by his colleague, Rep. John Zerwas, an anesthesiologist who resuscitated him with CPR.
Posted inState Government
Mr. President, Can’t We Have Federal Judges?
The Obama administration is taking heat from Texas Democrats in Congress over its slowness in filling the state’s vacant federal judgeships. Six are open, and a seventh will be next month — with no solution in sight. In his first 16 months in offfice, as Matt Largey of KUT News reports, the President has not nominated a single person to the federal bench in Texas.
Posted inState Government
The Brief: May 7, 2010
Cinco de Mayo isn’t the only celebration to happen in early May.
Posted in
Economy
Benefits and Drawbacks
The insurance plan for state employees will have a $140.4 million shortfall next year — and that’s the least of its problems. The projected shortfall for the two years after that is $880 million, and it will take another $476 million to replenish the legally required contingency fund. The Employee Retirement System and state leaders are surprisingly mellow about the red ink, saying growth in the cost of health benefits has actually stabilized at around 9 percent. But steady and large increases in costs threaten to erode the program, leaving policymakers to consider cuts in benefits, to negotiate lower prices or to find vast amounts of new money.
Posted in
State Government
Laura Bush on Midland
As part of a special report for KUT News, Texas Monthly editor Jake Silverstein talks to former first lady Laura Bush, whose memoir, “Spoken from the Heart,” hit bookstores this week.
