A Newsweek/Texas Tribune exclusive: The governor talks about the Tea Party, his beef with the federal government, health care reform, the state budget, redistricting, and whether he plans to run for the White House himself. Full Story
A Newsweek/Texas Tribune exclusive: The Governor of Texas talks about the Tea Party, his beef with the federal government, health care reform, Mexico, the state budget, redistricting, whether he's an insider or an outsider, what he thinks about the presidency of George W. Bush, and β while we're on the topic β whether he plans to run for the White House himself ... and his answer could not be more definitive. Full Story
Former gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina took her free market politics to the Texas Senate on Thursday, sharing a lively debate with lawmakers on the Health and Human Services Committee. Full Story
Depending on whom you ask, Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkinsβ repeated refusal to allow Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott into a local corruption investigation is either bold or stupid. Either way, itβs unusual. Abbott has offered prosecution assistance to local district attorneys 226 times since 2007, when lawmakers first gave him permission to do it. In all but 16 cases, heβs been invited in. And Watkins didn't decline politely. Full Story
Grissom on her two hours in JuΓ‘rez, Grissom, Ramshaw and Ramsey on four of the runoffs on Tuesday's ballot, Ramshaw on the religious experience that is voting for Dallas County's DA and an energy regulator's play for a job at the entity he regulates, Mulvaney on the Texas Senate's biggest spenders, Aguilar on whether β as U.S. officials claim β 90 percent of guns used in Mexican crimes really flow south from Texas, M. Smith on the continuing Texas Forensic Science Commission follies, Stiles on how inmates spend their money behind bars and how counties are responding at Census time, Hamilton on the creative accounting and semantic trickery that allows lawmakers to raise revenue without hiking taxes when there's a budget shortfall, and Hu on Austin's first-in-the-nation car-sharing program. The best of our best from April 5 to 9, 2010. Full Story
Only three states β Louisiana, New Mexico and Alaska β are returning the census form at lower rates than Texas. But two dozen Texas counties are outperforming the national average, according to our interactive map. Full Story
The uncertainty over the Congressional healthcare bill has incited fear among some small business associations in Texas. They gathered with U.S. Chamber of Commerce representatives on Tuesday to say they're worried about ripple effects from the national healthcare reform β and unintended consequences for small businesses. Full Story
Check out Census 2010's latest pitchman, Karl Rove. The man known as Bush's Brain draws on his appreciation for James Madison to sell the Census to those who haven't mailed in their forms yet. Full Story
The wait to get into one of Texas' 10 state mental hospitals β already long β may be about to get longer. Last month, as part of its attempt to comply with Gov. Rick Perryβs request that each state agency reduce its budget by 5 percent, the Department of State Health Services proposed eliminating 50 beds from four of the state's 10 mental hospitals: San Antonio, Rusk, Terrell and North Texas Wichita. The state's mental hospitals are already almost at full capacity, with nearly 2,500 self-admitted patients and allegedly criminal patients awaiting treatment so they can stand trial. Full Story
The debate over how much federal health care reform will cost Texas put the stateβs health and human services chief on the defensive on Wednesday, as he presented a budget estimate that is 20 times higher than federal projections. Full Story
Census Day isn't until tomorrow, but residents in some Texas cities and counties got a significant head start, according to the latest questionnaire response rates. Full Story
Is the health reform price tag in Texas $1.4 billion... or more like $24 billion? State Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, asks HHSC Commissioner Tom Suehs to explain why his agency's estimate is so much higher than a federal estimate. Full Story
State officials painted a grim picture of how much the federal health care reform will cost Texas, and cautioned lawmakers on Wednesday that the price tag will likely grow. Full Story
The former secretary of state talked foreign policy, partisan politics and the national debt at an event co-presented by the Tribune, the Center for Politics and Governance at UT's LBJ School of Public Affairs, and the LBJ Library. Full Story
The U.S. Census Bureau today updated its data on how many households had returned the decennial questionnaire. Texas is still seven percentage points behind the national rate β ahead of only Mississippi and Alaska. Full Story
The U.S. Census Bureau recently launched an interactive map that makes it easy to track participation in the decennial count of households. The map application, which relies on the Google Maps API, visualizes the participation rates by color β orange for higher rates, and blue for lower rates. Full Story