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  • TribBlog: History Hearings Off to Hot Start

    by Brian Thevenot

    Public testimony on the state's social studies curriculum has started here State Board of Education meeting. It's easy to tell from the banks of cameras and scribes, college students with bright yellow "Save Our History" t-shirts on and people from civil rights and conservative groups itching to testify. Full Story 

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    Photo credit:  Caleb Bryant Miller

  • Census and Sensibility

    by Reeve Hamilton

    "You want a good count both because you want to have your representation and because you want to get the resources your community needs," says demographer Steve Murdock. Full Story 

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    Photo credit:  Reeve Hamilton

  • Bamboozled by the Establishment

    by Tom Pauken

    The big-government crowd in Washington and elsewhere are bankrupting our country. And Republicans are just as culpable as Democrats in treating our taxpayer dollars as “other people’s money” to be spent as they and the special interests decide. Full Story 

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  • The Revision Thing

    by Brian Thevenot and Niran Babalola

    Two months after their controversial meetings about proposed changes to the social studies curriculum, State Board of Education members meet today to resume their deliberations. To help you follow along as the SBOE's ideological blocs scrap over a flood of amendments, we've produced this annotated version of the high school history standards. Full Story 

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    Photo credit:  Jacob Villanueva

  • TribBlog: Leaders OK Capitol Security Upgrades

    by Brandi Grissom

    The big three state leaders approved seven new security measures for the Capitol, and none of them are X-ray machines or metal detectors that the director of the top Texas police agency said are critical to keep the pink dome safe from armed intruders. Full Story 

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    Photo credit:  Caleb Bryant Miller

  • DNA Destruction

    by Emily Ramshaw

    In the weeks before state health officials incinerated more than 5 million baby blood samples that they stored without consent, privacy advocates, parents and legislators reached a last-ditch accord to save them but couldn’t convince the Department of State Health Services to sign on. A Texas Tribune investigation found that the agency had turned hundreds of such samples over to a federal Armed Forces lab to build a DNA database — and hadn’t been upfront about it with lawmakers or the public. Full Story 

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  • Potties, Pickups and Preparedness

    by Brandi Grissom

    Local governments, Native American tribes and nonprofit groups in Texas hauled in more than $298 million in federal homeland security grants from 2003 through 2008 and made more than 30,000 purchases, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of a Texas Department of Public Safety database. Much of the money has gone to improve local emergency response and to beef up police and fire departments — critical safety measures that taxpayers might not have been able to afford without assistance from Washington. But it's unclear how some of the expenditures have made the state, or the nation, more resistant to terror attacks. Full Story 

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  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    by Evan Smith

    Our obsessive-compulsive election day and next day coverage: frenetically updated county-by-county maps and up-to-the-minute returns in every race on the ballot, Hu's awesome crowdsourced liveblog, Ramshaw on the twenty surprise outcomes, Aguilar on recount possibilities and dead incumbents, M. Smith on how judicial races turned out, Rapoport on changes at the SBOE and who was elected before the first vote was cast, Thevenot on whether the GOP has a problem with Hispanics, Hamilton on how the Tea Party fared, Grissom and Ramshaw on the legislative and congressional mop-up, Ramsey on what happens now, Stiles on how much candidates spent per vote; and my post-primary debrief with Rick Perry's pollster and George W. Bush's former strategist. The best of our best from March 1 to 5, 2010. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: Relieving Driver Debt

    by Brandi Grissom

    Today, the Texas Department of Public Safety released it's proposed new rules that would make it easier for poor Texans with traffic tickets to get right with the law. Full Story 

    DPS Highway Patrol Patch
    Photo credit:  Texas Department of Public Safety

  • TribBlog: Insurance Department Could Ban Discretionary Clauses

    by Emily Ramshaw

    The Texas Department of Insurance has drafted rules that would ban health insurance policies from including so-called “discretionary clauses.” Those are the rules that many patients hate, which allow their health insurers to decide exactly what they cover and what they don’t — and give the insurers a degree of protection from litigation. Full Story 

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  • 2010: Sibley, Standing By

    by Ross Ramsey

    Former state Sen. David Sibley, R-Waco, is talking to people about getting back into the Legislature when Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco, gets out. But he's not out yet, and there are two exits. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: Texas Unemployment Rises

    by Ross Ramsey

    More than 1 million Texans were unemployed in January, according to new numbers from the Texas Workforce Commission. Unemployment in the state hit 8.6 percent in January, up from 8 percent the month before and 6.8 percent in January 2009. The comparable national rate was 10.6 percent. Full Story 

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  • The Elefante in the Room

    by Brian Thevenot

    Railroad Commission Chairman Victor Carrillo, a seven-year incumbent with a background in the industry he regulates, got trounced in the GOP primary on Tuesday by an unknown, David Porter, who spent little money on the race. He's not the only one who thinks his Hispanic surname cost him his job. Full Story 

    Victor Carillo, David Porter