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The latest Rick Perry news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Back to Basics

    By Ross Ramsey

    As be begins his second decade as governor, Rick Perry's plan is to deal with the basics: to make sure the state is on a smooth economic path, to pass a balanced state budget, to coax the federal government into loosening its purse strings and tightening its security on the Mexican border. Full Story 

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    Credit: Justin Dehn

  • Gimme Shelter

    By Ross Ramsey

    Gov. Rick Perry’s focus on sanctuary cities — cities that don't allow their police officers to enforce federal immigration laws — could offer him safe passage through the contentious immigration debate. But it will be tricky. Full Story 

    House Speaker Joe Straus, Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • Who's Next?

    By Texas Tribune Staff

    Kay Bailey Hutchison’s announcement that she won't run again for her U.S. Senate seat wasn't entirely unexpected, but it still has the potential to overturn the state's political apple cart. To separate the would-bes from the could-bes in a 2012 race, we’ve created a guide to certain, likely and plausible candidates — as well a few who are plausible only to us here at the Trib. Full Story 

  • Capitol Insecurity

    By Ross Ramsey

    When Andrew Cuomo took office as governor of New York earlier this month, he ordered the removal of the security barricades limiting access to his state’s Capitol. “This Capitol has become a physical metaphor for the isolation and alienation of our people,” he said in his inauguration speech. He could easily have been talking about Texas. Full Story 

    Capitol visitors pass through metal detectors.
    Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller

  • Texplainer: What's an Emergency Item?

    By Ross Ramsey

    Ever hear something about Texas politics or policy and wonder what it is? Or read something that made you think, "I have no idea what that means"? We're here to help. From questions about why Rick Perry is within his legal right to shoot a coyote while jogging to what the heck "chubbing" is, Texplainer will answer your burning questions. Today: "What's a Legislative emergency item?" Full Story 

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  • Perry Pressed on "Sanctuary Cities"

    By Elise Hu

    Gov. Rick Perry wants an end to "sanctuary cities," but in a press conference Wednesday morning, he didn't name specific cities he wants Texas lawmakers to target. Nor did he address whether the Department of Public Safety's policy of state troopers not inquiring about the immigration status of people they pull over should be changed. Full Story 

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  • He Sells Sanctuary

    By Elise Hu

    Gov. Rick Perry has designated the elimination of "sanctuary city" policies as one of the 82nd legislative session's emergency items — but as the Tribune has noted repeatedly in the last year, the state's in no position to throw stones. Full Story 

    Perry Speaks on the First Day of Session 2011
    Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera

  • TribBlog: Doggett Pops Perry on Education

    By Evan Smith

    On the letters page of Wednesday's New York Times, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, slams Gov. Rick Perry for failing to take $830 million in federal money that Perry and other Republicans complained had strings attached but that Doggett says would have prevented "anti-education 'smoke and mirrors' budgeting" by the state. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: Case "Undetermined"

    By Aziza Musa

    The Texas Forensic Science Commission heard testimony from four fire experts today to gather evidence about the reliability of the arson investigation that led to the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham. Half said investigators got it right, and half said they were wrong. Full Story 

    John Bradley, left, is the new chair of the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Cameron Todd Willingham, right, was executed for setting a house fire that killed his three daughters.
    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • Now What?

    By Ross Ramsey

    Texas alternates election years with governing years, with legislative sessions set in the odd-numbered years after voters choose their leaders. There are variations, but it’s got a rhythm: Choose them, watch them govern, choose, watch. The elections behind us, it’s time to see what this particular bunch will do. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    Galbraith on why the Lege meets only every two years, Hu picks the year's best political moments on video, Ramsey on the personalities who mattered in 2010, Stiles on lobbyists with conflicts of interest and what the census means for redistricting, yours truly on the new Cameron Todd Willingham documentary, Grissom on cockfighting and Trillin on Sissy Farenthold: The best of our best from Dec. 23 to 27, 2010. Full Story 

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  • Face Time

    By Ross Ramsey

    2010 didn't turn out like it looked a year ago. Unexpected people showed up. The political environment bloomed red instead of blue. The Tea was strong. And big shots turned into paper tigers. Here are some of the political personalities who mattered. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • The Reformer

    By Calvin Trillin

    As a gift to Trib readers this holiday week, we're pleased to reprint Calvin Trillin's New Yorker profile of 1972 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Frances "Sissy" Farenthold — one of a dozen and a half articles and poems that will be published early next year in Trillin on Texas, a new anthology from the University of Texas Press. A staff writer at the magazine since 1963, Trillin has long seen the state as a rich source of material; elsewhere in the anthology are meditations on subjects ranging from Texas barebecue to the fictional film critic Joe Bob Briggs. He also considers Texas to be a part of his ancestral narrative, as several members of his family arrived in the United States by way of Galveston. "Yes, I do have a Texas connection," he writes in the introduction to the anthology, "but, as we'd say in the Midwest, where I grew up, not so's you'd know it." Full Story 

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  • A Sneak Preview of "Incendiary"

    By Evan Smith

    Filmmakers Steve Mims and Joe Bailey Jr. are putting the finishing touches on a new documentary about the Cameron Todd Willingham case that focuses almost entirely on forensics — on the science behind arson investigations like the one that led to the Corsicana man's arrest, conviction and execution following the death of his three small children in a 1991 house fire. Mims and Bailey aren't political activists; the former lectures in the University of Texas' Department of Radio-Television-Film, while the latter is a graduate of UT's law school. But they were so moved by an article about the Willingham case in The New Yorker that they decided to tackle one of the most controversial topics in the modern era of state's criminal justice system. Well in advance of the film's release, they've carved out this excerpt of about eight minutes exclusively for the Tribune. Full Story 

  • TribBlog: Perry Is DMN's Texan of the Year

    By Evan Smith

    The Dallas Morning News has named Rick Perry its 2010 Texan of the Year. In an editorial posted online Saturday afternoon, the newspaper labeled the recently re-elected governor a "peerless political brawler" whose "impact on Texas politics" is beyond dispute. Full Story 

    Rick Perry being interviewed by Evan Smith at Triblive in Austin
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich