Capitol staffers report that they’re being evacuated. Staffers say state troopers notified them that there was a possible bomb threat about 30 minutes ago.
Texas Legislature
Posted in
Economy
Face-Off: The Shortfall
While the right and left don’t agree on much, both sides stipulate that the state’s budget mess is a multibillion-dollar problem. In the debut of our new video series, the executive director of the progressive Center for Public Policy Priorities, former state district judge Scott McCown, and the director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, former state Rep. Talmadge Heflin, debate the best way to dig us out of the hole — and how we got into it in the first place.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Cuts That Cost
After shocking abuse was uncovered at Texas Youth Commission facilities in 2007, lawmakers successfully overhauled the state juvenile justice system. Three years later, advocates worry that budget woes will halt that progress.
Posted in
Economy
Scott McCown vs. Talmadge Heflin
The executive director of the progressive Center for Public Policy Priorities and the director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, debate the best way to dig out of Texas’ multi-billion-dollar budget shortfall.
Posted in
State Government
2010: WFAA: Harper-Brown Under Ethics Cloud
Tribune news partner WFAA-TV reports that state Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, and her husband are driving cars owned by a highway contractor doing millions of dollars in business with the state. All the while, Harper-Brown sits on the influential House Transportation Committee.
Posted in
State Government
The Brief: June 17, 2010
Is the boiling battle between Texas and the Environmental Protection Agency slowing to a simmer?
Posted in
Economy
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Ramshaw and the Houston Chronicle’s Terri Langford on incidents of abuse and mistreatment at residential treatment centers, M. Smith on the state Republican Party platform and 10th Amendment embracers, Galbraith on a pipeline project raising crude concerns and the most important word in water law, Ramsey on former officeholders who are now lobbyists and the possibility of a speaker’s race, Grissom on a fight over solar power in Marfa, Hamilton and Aguilar on the TxDOT audit, Philpott on budget cuts affecting school districts and my conversation with Dallas County D.A. Craig Watkins: The best of our best from June 7-11, 2010.
Posted in
State Government
The Ex Files
How many former state officeholders are registered to lobby in Austin? The answer: 65, or a little less than 5 percent of the 1,475 lobbyists on the rolls at the Texas Ethics Commission, according to a Texas Tribune analysis.
Posted in
Economy
TribBlog: Holding Out for a TxDOT Hero
Lawmakers have said it before, and today they said it again: Sweeping top-down change is needed within the Texas Department of Transportation.
Posted in
Higher Education
TribBlog: No Fury Like A Wentworth Scorned
State Sen. Jeff Wentworth calls new Texas State University System Chancellor Brian McCall a “Johnny-come-lately opportunist” and says he knows who should have gotten the job: state Sen. Jeff Wentworth.
