State government

"Gilbert is far more knowledgeable about agriculture issues and state government than Friedman."

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"Earle has the better insight into the levers of power in government," says the Morning News. "Chavez-Thompson is undoubtedly the best Democratic candidate in the race," says the Express-News.

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It seems the social conservatives on the State Board of Education may be on their way to getting more ink than any other politicians in modern Texas history, a cause that will be helped in this Sunday's printing of The New York Times Magazine.

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The Texas Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of a $5 tax on admission to the state's strip clubs — a measure lawmakers implemented in 2007 to raise money for sexual assault prevention and low-income health insurance.

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Texas kids are poorer, hungrier and more often uninsured than kids in almost any other state, according to the Center for Public Policy Priorities. 

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The primary matchup between perennial opponents state Rep. Al Edwards, D-Houston, and former state Rep. Borris Miles is going where most haven't publicly gone before: the urinal.

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The Dallas mayor left a hugely successful private sector career to lead the country’s ninth-largest city through an economic meltdown and the aftermath of a City Hall corruption scandal. And he doesn’t regret a minute of it. Here, he talks about fighting a sky-high crime rate, how he keeps party politics from his office, and every urban area's Achilles' heel: education.

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The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has released its best bets for how to meet the 5 percent budget reduction requested by Gov. Rick Perry and other state leaders.

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How will lawmakers deal with a budget shortfall of at least $11 billion — and maybe several billion more — in the next legislative session? In all likelihood, by doing what they did in 2003, when things were almost this bad.

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Immunization advocates want to expand our vaccination database, but the well-educated, middle-class parents who oppose them are organized and driven — and could force lawmakers to take sides in the tussle between personal freedom and public health.

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Getting a look at correspondence, documents, reports, etc. related to death row inmate Hank Skinner's case is proving more difficult than I imagined.

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On the same day she publicly announced that she would drop her reelection bid and plead guilty in federal court to making false statements on an income tax return, State Rep. Terri Hodge, D-Dallas, wrote a letter to her House colleagues to say good-bye and apologize.

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State troopers turned in hundreds of error-riddled crash reports in 2007 and 2008, according to an internal audit by the Department of Public Safety.

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Advocates for vaccination records say a complete registry of shots would help the state navigate major health crises. Opponents say it would jeopardize patient privacy. Lawmakers like the potential cost savings, but they still aren’t sure where they stand.

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In their first and probably only televised debate, Bill White sounded experienced, as you'd expect of a three-term mayor of Houston, while wealthy hair care magnate Farouk Shami was more passionate, more animated, and much more prone to political mistakes.

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"It's hard to see him in any statewide office, really, but his talent for folksy one-liners could at least be useful in the important role of promoting Texas farm and ranch products"

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The Texas Ethics Commission and the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts are opening up more of their data to the public at no charge.

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The federal push for accountability at "persistently low-achieving" schools across Texas is running smack into the hard, slow work of improvement at the local level.

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The Obama administration — which is one of the ways Mark Sanford and Rick Perry are not alike.

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Thevenot on the abysmally low community college graduation rate and higher ed's coming budgetary winter. Ramshaw on Terri Hodge's guilty plea and hasty exit. Grissom on the Department of Public Safety's use of dreaded federal stimulus funds to plug a hole in the state's border security budget. Hu on the first of the intraparty face-offs in our Primary Color series. Ramsey and Stiles on the congressional candidates with the most money on hand. Ramsey on whether Farouk Shami's accent and name are an obstacle to his election. Aguilar on the fever-tick epidemic overwhelming South Texas. Rapoport on TxDOT's hard road and the State Board of Education's lack of finance expertise. Philpott on how Barack Obama's budget will impact Texas. M. Smith on whether lawyers giving to judges is a good thing. Hamilton on the latest transportation innovations on the drawing board. The best of our best from February 1 to 5, 2010.

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