It’s like finding out the last season of your favorite TV show was a dream sequence: Kay Bailey Hutchison was never really leaving the U.S. Senate after all.
The Decider
Posted in
State Government
2010: Shapleigh, Moreno Back Naomi Over Norma
State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, and former state Rep. Paul Moreno, D-El Paso, will endorse challenger Naomi Gonzalez over incumbent state Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, in the April 13 runoff that will decide the winner of the House District 76 seat, according to the El Paso Times.
Posted inState Government
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Hamilton on Tarleton State’s fuss over a play featuring a gay Jesus and how it never got to the stage, E. Smith and a gang of political types with unsolicited advice for Bill White, Stiles on Texans’ slothful approach to the census, Aguilar on immigrant detention policy and mentally ill inmates, Grissom on federal immigration reform, Rapoport on an effort to protect the state’s prepaid college tuition program, Stiles and E. Smith interview Houston Mayor Annise Parker on NASA and the economy and staying out of state politics, Hu on the final move in U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s long and very public fretting over whether to stay in office, Ramsey on Hutchison’s ripple through the political pond, Ramshaw on how federal health care legislation looks to Texas budget-writers, Garcia-Ditta on shrinking capacity at Texas mental hospitals, E. Smith has a conversation with former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, and Hamilton, Ramshaw and M. Smith on primary runoffs in Plano, San Antonio, and Central Texas. The best of our best from March 29 to April 2, 2010.
Posted inState Government
The Brief: April 2, 2010
Want to see some regulatory muscle in action? See Exhibit A: The Environmental Protection Agency.
Posted in
Congress
The Runoffs: CD-23
Cut through the routine Republican primary rhetoric about government spending and job creation and a narrative about the new and old guard emerges in the April 13 runoff in Texas’ 23rd congressional district.
Posted in
Environment
Something in the Air
The Clean Air Force of Central Texas is warning a five-county area that it’s in danger of failing to meet federal requirements for ground level ozone. New EPA standards that went into effect this past January, and this may be the most challenging ozone season in the region’s history. Julie Moody of KUT News filed this report.
Posted in
Health care
Admission Impossible
The wait to get into one of Texas’ 10 state mental hospitals — already long — may be about to get longer. Last month, as part of its attempt to comply with Gov. Rick Perry’s request that each state agency reduce its budget by 5 percent, the Department of State Health Services proposed eliminating 50 beds from four of the state’s 10 mental hospitals: San Antonio, Rusk, Terrell and North Texas Wichita. The state’s mental hospitals are already almost at full capacity, with nearly 2,500 self-admitted patients and allegedly criminal patients awaiting treatment so they can stand trial.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Sun on the Horizon
A small but growing number of state officials are warming to the idea of greater transparency and open access to raw government data, following a budding trend across the country. In the latest example, state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, wrote to numerous Texas agencies, urging them to post “high-value” databases online in open-standard formats.
