Bigger Than Life

Former Gov. Ann Richards, an iconic Texas Democrat known for her lashing wit, her crown of white hair, and her sheer charisma, succumbed to the esophageal cancer her doctors discovered  earlier this year. She was 73.

Rep. Gene Seaman and his wife have houses in Austin and Corpus and have homestead and elderly tax exemptions on both of them. Rep. Rob Eissler pays rent from campaign funds for a condo in Austin he purchased years before he became a legislator to house his sons while they were students at the University of Texas. Sen. Kim Brimer and Rep. Vicki Truitt each use campaign funds to rent Austin living spaces from their spouses.

This is your last weekend to watch television without sorting through shouting, finger-pointing, and showboating from politicians.

Though their agency went through the “exercise” of writing a shrunken budget, the board at the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department is unanimously backing an $84 million annual increase in state funding.

A huge tax refund to Texas Instruments has rekindled questions about the conflicts that arise when tax consultants make political contributions to the tax collectors who decide their cases.

A state sales tax refund to “a large direct pay taxpayer” will cost the City of Stafford over $2.5 million — a stunning bit of news for a municipality with an annual budget of about $20 million.

Political hacks all over the state are huddling over computers loaded with mapping software, finishing their federal court filings on congressional redistricting.

Tom DeLay can’t get off the ballot.

Texas and other states can redraw their political maps when they want to, according to the U.S. Supreme Court, but they can’t dilute the strength of minority voters just to protect an incumbent those voters oppose.