Allies of the billionaire oilman are brandishing a study purporting to show that his proposed pumping of the Edwards-Trinity Aquifer will do no harm. Environmentalists and elected officials in the Rio Grande Valley still think he’s a water profiteer with their worst interests at heart.
Rio Grande Valley
The Rio Grande Valley sits along the Texas-Mexico border, where agriculture, trade and a rapidly growing tech sector shape daily life. The region includes communities such as McAllen, Brownsville and Harlingen. The communities are on the front lines of some of the stateโs most consequential immigration and border-policy debates.
TribBlog: First Arizona, Now Texas?
ABC News reports that state Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Houston, will introduce a bill in the Texas Legislature similar to the controversial immigration measure passed into law in Arizona.
TribBlog: DHS Says Skies Too Crowded For Drones
Texasโ congested air space is preventing the deployment of unmanned aerial drones to the southern border, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
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. โ and whether there’s such a thing as “Obama Derangement Syndrome.” The best of our best from April 19 to April 23, 2010.
TribBlog: Claytie Responds [Updated]
An attorney for Clayton Williams Jr.’s Fort Stockton Holdings details how the company plans to mine even more water out of the Rio Grande watershed than the billions of gallons it already takes out.
Fort Stockton vs. Claytie
A West Texas town is challenging an oil tycoon and former GOP gubernatorial nominee over the depletion of its municipal water source. Whether David defeats Goliath is up to an 11-member groundwater conservation district.
TribBlog: Border Rep. to Congress: “We Are at the Tipping Point”
Border lawmakers are asking Congress for hundreds of millions of dollars for border security before “the violence unfolds across the Rio Grande.”
A Border Runs Through It
At the heart of America’s symbiotic relationship with Mexico is a long-standing and sometimes tense agreement over an issue more far-reaching than homeland security and immigration: water.
2010: What’s the Deal with Recounts?
Some losing candidates in today’s primary election could have one last chance to win โ provided they meet one of three criteria.
TribBlog: Early Voting Totals
Early voting totals in Texas’ largest counties nearly doubled, with the GOP race leading the charge.

