With American troops leaving Iraq and an eventual withdrawal from Afghanistan expected, advocates for tighter border security hope to bring military technology — and soldiers' expertise — to the border. Full Story
Credit:
Illustration by Todd Wiseman / Bobby Fiend
Gov. Rick Perry is proposing to bring a little Texas to Washington — with a “part-time citizen Congress” that doesn’t meet so often, and whose members earn only half of what they make now. Perry will also call for an end to lifetime appointments for federal judges, including members of the U.S. Supreme Court. Full Story
In a new web-only ad posted on YouTube, Gov. Rick Perry takes aim at congressional insider trading — the subject of a 60 Minutes segment last night. Full Story
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn confronted U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday about allegations of a Texas-based gun-walking operation similar to the controversial Fast and Furious operation in Arizona. Full Story
Credit:
Illustration by Spencer Selvidge / Ryan J. Reilly / Todd Wiseman
U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul's decision not to run for the U.S. Senate means he won't be testing one of the truisms of Texas politics: A seat in the Texas congressional delegation is a lousy launching pad for statewide office. Full Story
The GOP congressman from Lubbock on Gov. Rick Perry, cuts in direct payments that could be headed for Texas farmers, his hopes for the supercommittee and what the 2012 elections will say about Americans' view of the economy. Full Story
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has asked congressional colleagues to investigate whether federal officials ran a gun-walking program in Texas similar to the controversial and now defunct Fast and Furious operation. Full Story
Credit:
Illustration by Todd Wiseman / Bob Daemmrich
Proposed cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's budget could shutter the Kika de la Garza Subtropical Agricultural Research Center, where researchers work to ensure the safety of products that cross from Mexico to the U.S. Full Story
Aaronson interactively asks if stimulus funds created jobs in Texas, Aguilar on new voter registrar rules that could decrease voter turnout, Galbraith on a UT professor's debunking of climate change "myths," Grissom on an epic clash of El Paso political titans, Hamilton on the right's new higher ed guru, Murphy maps household data from the 2010 Census, Ramsey on a coming rules fight in the Texas Senate, Root and M. Smith on Rick Perry's performance at the New Hampshire debate and M. Smith talks public ed cuts with the state's Superintendent of the Year: The best of our best content from October 10-14, 2011. Full Story
Congress — including much of the Texas delegation — is poised to approve three trade agreements as soon as today that could boost the state’s exports. Full Story
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, attempted to turn up the heat Tuesday on Gov. Rick Perry by condemning a controversial proposal to offer Texas license plates with the image of the Confederate flag. Full Story
Texas’s congressional Republicans seized on new unemployment numbers to decry President Obama’s economic policies days after he stopped in Mesquite to sell his jobs plan. Full Story
A nonpartisan group of Texas lawyers, law professors and other legal advocates today called on the U.S. Senate to quickly fill judicial vacancies that are slowing down the justice system in Texas and nationwide. Full Story
Protesters gathered outside the Headliners Club in Austin to urge U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and Congress to pass the American Jobs Act. Boehner was in Austin to attend a reception with several GOP congressmen from Texas. Full Story
Rep. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, will run for Steve Ogden's Senate seat. Ogden isn't running, and Williamson County has become the 300-pound gorilla of that district in terms of population. Rep. Larry Gonzales, R-Round Rock, won't run. Full Story