In 2011, political mapmakers will take the latest census numbers (Texas is expected to have a population of more than 25 million) and use them to draw new congressional and legislative districts. The last time this was done, in 2003, Republican mappers took control of the U.S. House by peeling away seats from the Democrats. This time, Texas is poised to add up to four seats to its congressional delegation — and early numbers indicate bad news ahead for West Texas and other areas that haven’t kept up with the state’s phenomenal growth.
Demographics
Explore population trends, diversity, and data shaping Texas communities, politics, and policy.
Posted in
Demographics
TribBlog: Cornyn Urges Border Talk
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn wants to join the Mexico discussion and is urging fellow U.S. senators to lend him an ear.
Posted in
Demographics
On the Records: Texas’ Suburban Growth
Seven Texas counties — Rockwall, Williamson, Collin, Hays, Fort Bend, Montgomery and Denton — are listed among the nation’s 30 fastest growing areas, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released today. They also voted for John McCain in the 2008 presidential race.
Posted in
Demographics
Who’s in Charge?
When high-ranking officials in the Obama administration travel to Mexico today to discuss that country’s role in combating border violence, one key member of the team will be missing: the commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection division of the Department of Homeland Security, whose nomination has languished in the U.S. Senate since September.
Posted in
Demographics
Spillover Politics
Leaders from one end of the Texas-Mexico border to the other want Gov. Rick Perry to tone down the scary rhetoric and get real about solving problems in their hometowns. And, by the way, they would like to be consulted about security plans that affect their communities. “We know what’s going on on the border,” says Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas. “Our needs were not taken into consideration.”
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Grissom on the 1.2 million Texans who’ve lost their licenses under the Driver Responsibility Act and the impenetrable black box that is the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Ramshaw and Kraft on nurses with substance abuse problems and rehabilitation that can get them back to work, M. Smith finds it’s not easy being Rick Green, Stiles on counting Texans (and everybody else), Rapoport on the State Board of Education’s war with itself and the runoff in SBOE District 10, Thevenot’s revealing interview with a big-city superintendent on closing bad schools, Aguilar on the tensions over water on the Texas-Mexico border, Hamilton on the new Coffee Party, Hu on Kesha Rogers and why her party doesn’t want her, Philpott on the runoff in HD-47, Ramsey on Bill White and the politics of taxes, and E. Smith’s conversation with Game Change authors Mark Halperin and John Heleimann: The best of our best from March 15 to 19.
Posted in
Demographics
TribBlog: The Drone! The Drone! (Maybe)
The federal government seems to be warming to Gov. Rick Perry’s demands for an unmanned drone on the Texas-Mexico border.
Posted in
Demographics
A Border Runs Through It
At the heart of America’s symbiotic relationship with Mexico is a long-standing and sometimes tense agreement over an issue more far-reaching than homeland security and immigration: water.
Posted in
Demographics
TribBlog: Border Politics, Now from White
I suppose if you’re a Texas politician this week you just have to make hay out of the situation on the border. Today, it was Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White’s turn.
Posted in
Demographics
TribBlog: Perry Sends Choppers to the Border
Revealing more details about the first phase of the border spillover prevention plan that he activated Tuesday, Gov. Rick Perry today announced he is sending two helicopters to the Texas-Mexico border, an OH-58 Kiowa and a UH-72 Lakota. The exact locations of the choppers, however, will not be released for security purposes.