In this week’s TribCast, Evan, Ross, Elise and Reeve consider the impact of Arizona’s tough immigration law on Texas, the upcoming special election in Central Texas, the debate over debates and Rick Perry’s run-in with a coyote.
Immigration
In-depth reporting on border issues, policies, communities, and the impact of immigration across the state, from The Texas Tribune.
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Demographics
HuTube: Border Cameras on TV
A multi-million-dollar plan gone bust? That’s how our television partner in Houston, KHOU-TV, describes the governor’s virtual border watch program, which has cost $4 million but has netted only a handful of arrests.
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Demographics
TribBlog: First Arizona, Now Texas?
ABC News reports that state Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Houston, will introduce a bill in the Texas Legislature similar to the controversial immigration measure passed into law in Arizona.
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Demographics
TribBlog: DHS Says Skies Too Crowded For Drones
Texas’ congested air space is preventing the deployment of unmanned aerial drones to the southern border, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
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Immigration
Raving Arizona
There’s been plenty of intense reaction across the country to new immigration laws passed in The Grand Canyon State. Ben Philpott, who covers public policy for KUT News and the Tribune, reports on how both sides are already looking ahead to future battlegrounds.
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Demographics
TribBlog: Lt. Gov. Dewhurst Dispatches from the Border
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst went to El Paso today, talked with state, local and federal police, took an aerial tour over the dangerous borderlands and pronounced that Mexico’s drug war is a “very serious threat” to all Texans — a threat the feds aren’t protecting you from.
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Demographics
Peace Bend?
Even as violence near the border rages and security becomes a more pressing issue, discussions about unifying Big Bend National Park with Mexico may be gaining momentum.
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
E. Smith interviews Gov. Rick Perry for the Trib and Newsweek, Philpott dissects the state’s budget mess in a weeklong series, Hamilton looks at whether Bill White is or was a trial lawyer, M. Smith finds experts all over the state anxiously watching a court case over who owns the water under our feet, Aguilar reports on the battle between Fort Stockton and Clayton Williams Jr. over water in West Texas, Ramshaw finds a population too disabled to get on by itself but not disabled enough to get state help and Miller spends a day with a young man and his mother coping with that situation, Ramsey peeks in on software that lets the government know whether its e-mail messages are getting read and who’s reading what, a highway commissioner reveals just how big a hole Texas has in its road budget, Grissom does the math on the state’s border cameras and learns they cost Texans about $153,800 per arrest, and E. Smith interviews Karen Hughes on the difference between corporate and political P.R. — and whether there’s such a thing as “Obama Derangement Syndrome.” The best of our best from April 19 to April 23, 2010.
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Demographics
TribBlog: Border Rep. to Congress: “We Are at the Tipping Point”
Border lawmakers are asking Congress for hundreds of millions of dollars for border security before “the violence unfolds across the Rio Grande.”
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Demographics
$153,800 Per Arrest
Gov. Rick Perry has invested $4 million in the Texas Border Watch Program over two years. Twenty-nine cameras have been installed on the 1,200-mile Texas-Mexico border, or one camera for every 41 miles of border. Internet viewers have helped police make a total of 26 arrests — that’s about $153,800 per arrest.