Watch highlights from Gov. Rick Perry’s interview with Evan Smith on Friday. In the clips, Perry discusses whether Texas is a sanctuary state, and the effectiveness of abstinence education.
Demographics
Explore population trends, diversity, and data shaping Texas communities, politics, and policy.
Calderón’s Goal
The president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, played a little soccer this week in Ciudad Juárez, but his real game was creating hope in a place where none exists.
The Mayor of Mayhem
“The scourge of drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, robbery and violence has dismantled our economy, has eroded our tranquility and has stained our social structures with blood,” said Ciudad Juárez’s new mayor, Héctor “Teto” Murguía, at his inauguration Sunday. “This economic and social disaster deserves a desperate cry for help and solidarity.”
ICE Under Fire
A year after Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced it would reform immigration detention, advocacy groups say the agency has fallen short on a few key counts: addressing alleged human rights violations and expanding alternatives to incarceration.
TribBlog: Search for a Body on Falcon Lake
The office of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar has offered to help Mexican authorities in the search for a U.S. man officials say was shot and killed on Falcon Lake in South Texas.
2010: The Wages of Sin
If the state needs money to balance its budget, it should look first to sin taxes on gambling, alcohol and marijuana.
Crime, Guns and Money
When the state’s concealed handgun statute was approved 15 years ago, lawmakers argued it would help citizens defend themselves — but residents of low-income, largely Democratic nieghborhoods aren’t applying for gun permits as often as those in wealthier, more-conservative areas, according to a Texas Tribune/San Antonio Express-News analysis.
Ads Infinitum: Rick Perry’s “Border”
Rick Perry’s campaign has released a new ad on the topic of border security that pivots off of the letter the governor hand-delivered to Barack Obama during their brief tarmac meeting in Austin.
TribBlog: Murder at Falcon Lake
Law enforcement agencies are again warning patrons of Falcon Lake in South Texas to stay on the U.S. side of the popular fishing spot. The warning follows the fatal shooting of a U.S. man by Mexican pirates who allegedly attacked him after he traveled into Guerrero Viejo, Tamaulipas, on his Jet Ski.
TribBlog: Immigration Enforcement Program Expands Statewide
Secure Communities, a controversial government program that identifies immigrants in custody in local jails, is now active in every county in Texas, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced today.

