Video

Amendments, Emotion Dominate Texas Voter ID Debate

By Justin Dehn March 23, 2011

House Democrats unsuccessfully fired off a half-dozen points of order challenging several provisions in the voter ID bill all in an effort to halt or alter the controversial legislation. Republicans expressed exasperation at the Democrats' attempts to stall the legislation. Full Story

Classrooms A Priority

By Justin Dehn March 23, 2011

Republican senators say the state's budget shortfall will mean educations cuts, but they said schools should focus first on eliminating non-classroom expenses and keeping as many teachers as possible. Full Story

Marc Mauer: The TT Interview

By Brandi Grissom March 23, 2011

The Tribune sat down recently with national criminal justice expert Marc Mauer, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based reform advocacy group The Sentencing Project, to get his advice about how Texas can continue on its so-called 'right on crime' path even as lawmakers slice millions from the state budget. Mauer, who was in Austin for the Barbara Jordan Symposium at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs, talked about how other states have handled controversial prison closings, how others have reduced criminal justice costs and how the Right On Crime Movement — with support from conservative leaders like Grover Norquist and Newt Gingrich — might give lawmakers the political freedom to be more than tough when it comes to crime. Full Story