The Texas Youth Commission, Trans Texas Corridor, Jessica's Law, and Hallie Berry all gave bloggers something to scribble about.
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The State as Sex Offender
Bloggs continue to speculate about how big the sex abuse scandal at the Texas Youth Commission will get... who's to blame and who ultimately might be tainted by the ongoing investigation. Patricia Kilday Hart posts in the Burka Blog that Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, saw a recipe for disaster at TYC during hearings last summer.
Alex Winslow posits on the Burnt Orange Report that the scandal plagued TYC is a major meltdown in state government. Grits for Breakfast has a post about alleged threats from the acting executive director of TYC to fire agency employees.
In response to the almost daily horror stories coming out of TYC, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick appointed a Joint Select Committee to investigate the wrong-doings. Rep. Aaron Peña, D- Edinburg, is a member of that group along with Hinojosa, according to a post on Lone Star Rising.
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The State as Sex Offender Prosecutor
The House passed HB 8, or Jessica's Law, Monday evening. Thirty-six amendments were offered from the floor during the debate. Capitol Annex live-blogged during the discussion and had the aftermath. Grits for Breakfast examined the substitute bill that was passed as offered up by Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown.
The normally tongue-in-cheek to Billy Clyde's Political Hot Tub had an interesting and thoughtful post with regard to get tougher on sex offender's legislation proposed by Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball. BCPHT reports on the usually very reserved Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, and respects his level-headiness during the debate.
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Three Little Letters
Inside the Texas Capitol muses about what it and others are apparently calling Gov. Rick Perry's three Letter Session... three letters as in "TYC", "TXU" and "HPV". The Texas Youth Commission, Texas Electric Utility and the human papillomavirus have all turned into heat-seeking missiles coming right back to the Governor, according to this post.
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Coal Snap
Protestors returned to the streets of Austin on Monday as details of the sale of TXU continue to cause controversy and raise more questions that answers. Meanwhile, Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, filed legislation that would place a moratorium on the construction of coal-burning electric plants. The bill calls for a two-year hold on coal plants and bring Perry's executive order fast-tracking the regulatory red tape for constructing them.
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Trans-Corona
Eye on Williamson County points its eye on last week's Senate Transpiration Committee hearings and the argument for privatization of the state highway system due to neglect.
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CHIP Off The Block
Rep. John Davis, R-Houston, takes some heat from the right on a Lone Star Times blog for filing HB 2049 that will put more kids on the Children's Health Insurance Program roll. LST says Davis is changing his spots and voting for bigger government and shedding fiscal conservatism.
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Observing Redistricting
The Texas Observer gets into the symposium on Texas Congressional redistricting at the University of Texas Law School last week with a couple of interesting posts.
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Harris County's Merry-Go Round
Outgoing Harris County Judge Robert Eckels is taking his share of some white hot heat from the bloggers. Eckels is leaving his job at the court house for a lobbying gig. The Houstonist says Eckels' appointed replacement will be former House member Ed Emmett, who already plans to be a candidate next year to serve the remainder of the term.
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Bush Library Paper Trail
The Burka Blog has an update on the George W. Bush Library's search for a home and why some in the Southern Methodist University community are uneasy about W's library ending up there.
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Alamo Recalled (Hey, It's Your Duty)
Texas celebrates its Independence Day and remembers the Alamo in March. As the Island Floats posts it is a good idea to re-read Alamo correspondence from William Travis and James Bowie to William Fannin on the first day of the fateful siege.
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Coming Soon: Tulia, The Movie
The arrest, conviction and ultimate release on drug charges of several Tulia African-American residents is coming to the silver screen. Grits for Breakfast says actress Hallie Berry is slated for a role in the upcoming movie about the fight for freedom by the victims of a rogue cop and a skewed system.
This edition of Out There was compiled and written by Kevin Kennedy of Austin. We cherry-pick the state's political blogs each week, looking for news, info, gossip, and new jokes. The opinions here belong (mostly) to the bloggers, and we're including their links so you can hunt them down if you wish. Our blogroll the list of Texas blogs we watch is on our links page, and if you know of a Texas political blog that ought to be on it, just shoot us a note. Please send comments, suggestions, gripes or retorts to Texas Weekly editor Ross Ramsey.