While We Were Out
Maybe it's the heat. Or redistricting. Or maybe Gov. Rick Perry's political hyperactivity is contagious. Whatever it is, candidates are popping up like it was Labor Day.
Full StoryMaybe it's the heat. Or redistricting. Or maybe Gov. Rick Perry's political hyperactivity is contagious. Whatever it is, candidates are popping up like it was Labor Day.
Full StoryThe daughter of a former Texas House speaker tops the latest round of campaign announcements.
Full StoryAn Austin judge ruled this week that the Texas Department of Public Safety overstepped its authority when it enacted tougher requirements for immigrants trying to obtain driver's licenses, giving immigrants' rights groups and some business leaders a glimmer of hope.
Full StoryAbout two dozen candidates and political action committees have more than $1 million in their accounts, some of them much more, according to our analysis of midyear filings with the Texas Ethics Commission.
Full StoryThe vise squeezing Texas schools since the Legislature voted to remove $4 billion in state funding is getting a little tighter.
Full StoryThe announcement of a new online university for Texas, Western Governors University Texas, has united members of the higher education community who have recently found themselves at odds over the future of the state's colleges and universities.
Full StoryThe insiders are more convinced that ever that Gov. Rick Perry will run for president.
Full StoryI was probably a bit of a free spirit, not particularly structured real well for life outside of a military regime. I would have not lasted at Texas Tech or the University of Texas. I would have hit the fraternity scene and lasted about one semester.
Rick Perry, in a 1989 interview with the Abilene Reporter-News, on his time at Texas A&M University.
I told him, I'm in Korea seeing miracles, and something needs to be done for our fellow Americans.
Dr. Stanley Jones, a Houston orthopedic surgeon and personal friend of the governor's, who encouraged him to use an experimental adult stem cell treatment in his back surgery.
Twenty years ago, I was pro-choice, not pro-abortion. I was pro-choice because I had concerns about the role of government. Here we are, you go to 2004, 5, 6, 7, 8, and I am actually stunned to find, in the 21st century, past the year 2000, that we are seeing abortion — which I really thought was rare — being used as a contraceptive. It's just birth control.
Comptroller and lieutenant governor hopeful Susan Combs on her evolving views on abortion.
This president is trying to engage in class warfare and shooting high-powered bullets at people who have corporate jets, but the bullets pass through those wealthy people and hit blue-collar workers who rely upon those wealthy individuals who risk the capital to create the jobs.
Gov. Rick Perry, in an interview with RealClearPolitics.
He ought to stay in Texas and keep building jobs there.
Ed Rollins, the campaign manager for presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, talking to Politico about Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
I, the Lord God of heaven, call upon the court to cease this prosecution against my pure, holy way.
Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs in a San Angelo courtroom.
Let's face it, with 2012 upon us in both countries, his mature, steady 'seen it all, done it all' demeanor should serve the two countries well.
South Texas native and former Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza on how he thinks recently confirmed Deputy Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne, President Obama's nominee to the post, will fare in the position during next year's presidential elections in both countries.
The Response, Gov. Rick Perry’s seven-hour prayer and fasting marathon, will take place as planned this Saturday at Reliant Stadium in Houston. The Freedom from Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based atheist-agnostic group, sued to stop the event, but a federal judge ruled that the plaintiffs didn’t have standing because they didn’t suffer a particular injury and were free to protest by not attending or praying.
Authorities arrested a private who had gone AWOL from Fort Campbell in Kentucky and stocked up on weapons and ammunition he planned to use in an attack on Fort Hood. Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo was also accused of planning an attack on a restaurant in Killeen. A clerk at Guns Galore alerted police to Abdo’s purchases. Authorities then found explosives and weapons in his motel room, along with al-Qaeda materials and bomb-making instructions. Federal and local authorities said he was working alone.
The legislative session may be over, but the redistricting plan lawmakers passed this session faces a lawsuit and will have to receive approval from the courts to become law. Several groups, including the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, have filed suit, citing insufficient minority representation. A case filed in Austin has been consolidated with five other cases, and a panel of federal judges in San Antonio will review the entire issue. The trial is on a fast track and is scheduled to begin Sept. 6.
New redistricting maps have created an electoral scramble. Michael Williams, the former railroad commissioner who originally planned to run for Kay Bailey Hutchison's U.S. Senate seat, switched to the newly drawn Congressional District 33 in North Texas. Now he has announced that he will run in District 25, whose edges touch both Tarrant and Hays County. The incumbent in that district, Lloyd Doggett, has seen the boundaries on his district redrawn and is looking at a likely primary challenge from Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio.
After days of silence, Warren Jeffs, on trial for charges of child sexual assault, delivered a lengthy diatribe against the court proceedings. Jeffs, who has been representing himself at trial, objected to an FBI agent's testimony and then started defending polygamy as divine. The judge dismissed the jury while Jeffs read a statement from God, but warned him not to use threats. The judge eventually had Jeffs' microphones removed.
Accompanying the record-breaking heat in Texas these days is record-breaking electricity usage. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state's grid operator, reported record demand on its system and also declared a level-one energy emergency. ERCOT predicts continuing record usage and has asked consumers to conserve between the peak hours of 3 and 7 p.m. The council also began its own emergency procedure, bringing all available power plants online and tapping nearby grids for extra watts.
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new emissions standards for drilling operations, including first-of-their-kind standards for wells that have been fracked. Neighborhood activists in North Texas had previously raised red flags to no avail about the chemicals used in the fracking process, and one of the new rules would address the burn-off of those chemicals. Emissions standards would also be applied to compressor stations, storage tanks and other equipment used at production sites. The EPA and environmental groups claim that the industry can save about $30 million a year by adopting technologies to trap natural gas that is currently allowed to escape and then selling it.
Former Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Nate Crain will be the finance chairman for the Americans for Rick Perry Super PAC. That group isn't allowed to coordinate, talk to, or be seen with the candidate or his campaign. But they can spend money promoting him. Crain and his family have been supporting Perry for years. His wife, Dallas attorney Christina Melton Crain, was a Perry appointee to the Texas Board of Criminal Justice and has a prison in Gatesville named for her.
Former state district judge Charlie Baird launched an exploratory committee to consider a run for Travis County district attorney. He'd be running against incumbent Rosemary Lehmberg.
Gov. Rick Perry appointed seven members to the Continuing Advisory Committee for Special Education, which provides policy guidance with respect to special education and related services for children with disabilities in Texas. Gwyn Boyter of Austin is superintendent of the University of Texas-University Charter School. Susan "Stormi" Johnson of Palestine is a diagnostician and special education teacher in the Palestine Independent School District and Anderson County Juvenile Detention Center. Melissa Columbus Keller of Lakeway is an advocate for children with special needs. Geralda Morales-Whittemore of Brownsville is an assistant principal in the Brownsville Independent School District. Nagla Moussa of Plano is a teacher at the Art Workshop. Heather Pulido of Fort Worth is a paralegal at the law office of J. Frank Thompson. Myeshi Williams-Briley of Spring is an instructor at the Prairie View A&M University Office of Continuing Education and CEO of the Education, Support, Help and Intervention Therapy Center.
Perry appointed Raymond A. "Ray" Gill Jr. of Horseshoe Bay to the Lower Colorado River Authority. Gill owns R. Gill and Associates.
The governor also appointed:
• John Youngblood of Cameron as judge of the 20th Judicial District Court in Milam County. Youngblood is partner at Glaser and Youngblood, Attorneys at Law.
• Eleanor Kitzman of Austin as state commissioner of insurance, effective Aug. 15, 2011. Kitzman is the outgoing executive director of the South Carolina Budget and Control Board, and is past director of the South Carolina Department of Insurance. She was appointed to her current job by Gov. Nikki Haley.
• Darrell Brownlow of Floresville to the San Antonio River Authority Board of Directors. Brownlow is a principal at Intercoastal Inland Services.