Hey, Governor, you couldn’t have served up that bit of Texas color in your Newsweek interview?
Austin
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
E. Smith interviews Gov. Rick Perry for the Trib and Newsweek, Philpott dissects the state’s budget mess in a weeklong series, Hamilton looks at whether Bill White is or was a trial lawyer, M. Smith finds experts all over the state anxiously watching a court case over who owns the water under our feet, Aguilar reports on the battle between Fort Stockton and Clayton Williams Jr. over water in West Texas, Ramshaw finds a population too disabled to get on by itself but not disabled enough to get state help and Miller spends a day with a young man and his mother coping with that situation, Ramsey peeks in on software that lets the government know whether its e-mail messages are getting read and who’s reading what, a highway commissioner reveals just how big a hole Texas has in its road budget, Grissom does the math on the state’s border cameras and learns they cost Texans about $153,800 per arrest, and E. Smith interviews Karen Hughes on the difference between corporate and political P.R. — and whether there’s such a thing as “Obama Derangement Syndrome.” The best of our best from April 19 to April 23, 2010.
T-Squared: Why We Publish Government Employee Salaries
Because they’re already public. Because we’re about transparency, open government, and greater access to information. Because you have a right to know how your tax dollars are being spent. Etc.
Borrow and Mend
New federal student loan reforms, passed along with controversial health care reform legislation, will shore up Pell Grants for tens of thousands of college students in Texas — and save the feds a projected $68 billion by cutting private banks out of financial aid.
Rick Perry on George W. Bush
“I think George W. Bush will go down as a very, very good president. Approaching great? I don’t know yet…”
T-Squared: Elections, Overtime Edition
Thrills! Spills! Live Runoff coverage tonight!
There Will Be Blood
Perhaps it was inevitable: In the closing days of the run-up to runoff day, two of the Central Texas races — in House districts 47 and 52 — have turned ugly. Ben Philpott filed this report for KUT News and the Tribune.
The Inquisition
Ninety minutes of back-and-forth on Wednesday between a House committee and representatives of the Texas Forensic Science Commission — but not its chairman — covered the besieged agency’s nonexistent enforcement power, lack of written procedural guidelines, and public records policy. Oh, and the late Cameron Todd Willingham.
HuTube: Inside TribLive
We have a busy month of TribLive events ahead, featuring lengthy chats with the likes of Karen Hughes, Deirdre Delisi, and Francicso Cigarroa. To mark the occassion(s), our latest HuTube vlog entry features footage of our dress rehearsal for the very first TribLive.
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.



