The Week in the Rearview Mirror

The big announcement this week that the Texas A&M University System had been awarded a $176 million grant was greeted with enthusiasm throughout the state. The federal grant, along with millions from the state and private donors, will be used to build a facility that will develop and manufacture drugs that fight pandemic infections, as well as potential bioterrorism. A&M’s contract with the federal government will be in place for 25 years, giving the center the opportunity to attract additional public and private funding.

Historic furnishings were returned to the Texas Governor’s Mansion this week in preparation for the homecoming of Gov. Rick Perry and his wife in late July. The family moved out for a renovation of the historic house in 2007 and were prevented from coming back sooner by an arson attack in the summer of 2008. The furnishings had been removed in advance of the remodeling project and were protected from fire damage. Returning to the mansion: Sam Houston’s four-poster bed, Stephen F. Austin’s writing desk, as well as valuable art works and the Governor’s Memento Collection, an accumulation of gifts received by Texas governors over the years.

Lawmakers got an earful in hearings this week about the new public school standardized test, known as STAAR. Results for the test, which replaced the TAKS exam, were recently released and showed an unexpectedly large number of ninth graders failing the test in multiple areas. Officials concede that there’s always an adjustment period when a new test is introduced, and education officials have been given a four-year period to finalize the standards. But the results were so poor in algebra, biology, English and world geography that school districts are already allocating extra money for summer school. And the suspended rule that the test count toward 15 percent of a student’s final course grade continues to be a contentious issue. It’s unclear whether the rule will ever take effect.

The Obama administration’s announcement that it will consider issuing work permits to immigrants who entered the country as children has resulted in a flood of phone calls and contacts to attorneys and organizations specializing in immigration law. But without a process in place, it’s unclear to even those specialists what steps immigrants need to take. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security have said that it will take them up to two months to create an application process for eligible participants.

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t review a ruling that went in Time Warner Cable’s favor against the state of Texas. The state had appealed a lower court’s decision that it had discriminated against Time Warner when it allowed smaller cable television companies to use a statewide franchising system, but required Time Warner to also maintain municipal agreements with cities that had a population of 215,000 or more. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case, without comment.

Following the announcement of $2 billion in state funds earmarked for relieving road congestion, a Houston-area organization is publicizing the need to rework U.S. 290 in that city. Growth in the northwest quadrant of Houston has led to excessive backups that last throughout the day, and projections say it will get worse with continued population growth. The Houston-Galveston Area Council predicts that improvements to 290 will garner about $350 million of the funds, and will allow work that would have been spread over 20 years to be completed in five to six years.

Four species of salamanders are up for listing as endangered, and U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, announced that he would file legislation to stop any proposals to list the Central Texas salamander. His legislation would take the form of an amendment to an environment appropriations bill, and would specify that no funds could be spent to add the blind salamanders to the endangered list. Carter’s concern is that listing the salamanders would hinder development in Williamson, Travis and Bell counties by imposing specific rules on future building. Environmental groups protested that the area’s rapid growth warrants the protection of the salamander’s rapidly declining habitat.