Gov. Greg Abbott has appointed Phil Grant to serve as the judge for the 9th Judicial District Court in Montgomery County until the November election. Grant won the Republican primary runoff for the seat in late May and faces no major party opposition in the fall.
Abbott named six people to the Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities, which makes recommendations on disability programs and policies. He appointed Nancy Miloy Clemmer of Austin and Richard Martinez of San Antonio; and reappointed Aaron W. Bangor of Austin, Heather C. Griffith-Dhanjal of Fort Worth, Phoene “Faye” Kuo of Austin and Marco A. Treviño of Edinburg to serve on the committee through February 2018.
Abbott reappointed David Fleeger of Austin to the Texas Health Services Authority Board of Directors and named him presiding. The governor also appointed David “Dave” Allen of San Antonio, Paula Anthony-McMann of Tyler, Brandon Charles of Coppell, Mark S. Lane of Lampasas, Andrew Lombardo of Harlingen and Deborah “Debbie” Marino of San Antonio; and reappointed Frederick “Fred” Buckwold of Houston, Shannon Calhoun of Goliad, Matthew “Matt” Hamlin of Argyle, William “Bill” Phillips Jr. of San Antonio and Stephen “Steve” Yurco of Austin. All of the above were named to terms to expire June 15, 2017.
House Speaker Joe Straus appointed state Rep. Lyle Larson of San Antonio co-chairman of the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas Advisory Committee and state Rep. Dade Phelan of Beaumont to serve on the body. The committee oversees the implementation of House Bill 4, passed in 2013 to create a fund to distribute loans for water supply and conservation projects.
Jon McClellan, a longtime staffer for Ted Cruz, has joined the Austin consulting firm Public Blueprint as director of outreach, the firm announced Tuesday morning. McClellan has worked for Cruz since his 2012 bid for the U.S. Senate, most recently serving as regional political director for his presidential campaign.
The public radio project Texas Station Collaborative has hired Rachel Osier Lindley to serve as its statewide coordinating editor. Lindley was previously news director of WBHM in Birmingham, Ala. The collaborative, billed as “a first-of-its-kind public radio initiative created to expand and enhance news coverage of Texas,” will be housed at KERA in North Texas.
A Texan, Brad Parscale of San Antonio, was announced this week as the Donald Trump campaign’s digital director. He and his company, Giles-Parscale, have "served the Trump Organization in building its digital platform globally,” the campaign noted yesterday.