Politics
Brimer urged to forfeit $357,000
By JAY ROOT, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 April 2008
AUSTIN – Democrats are calling on state Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, to relinquish more than $300,000 from his campaign account after the sale of a luxury condo he once rented in Austin – with donated political money – from his wife.
District 55 GOP nominee to be decided
By Justin Cox, Killeen Daily Herald, 8 April 2008
KILLEEN – The battle for the Republican nomination for the Texas House District 55 seat will be decided today.
No final count in Democratic county caucuses
By Marty Schladen, Galveston Daily News, 8 April 2008
GALVESTON – Still wondering what the final outcome of Texas’ county Democratic conventions was? More than a week after they ended, so is every other political junkie in the state.
Runoffs lack glamour, but voters still needed
San Antonio Express-News, 7 April 2008
SAN ANTONIO – When big-spending presidential candidates are generating excitement, even casual voters are attracted to the polls.
Voter numbers: Good turnout necessary for clout
El Paso Times, 8 April 2008
EL PASO – Today's runoff elections will show if El Pasoans really have taken voting to heart, or not.
Finishing the job
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 April 2008
FORT WORTH – Voters didn't quite finish the job during the March primary, so there is still work to do today for both Republicans and Democrats.
Heated DA race is highlight of runoff
Austin American-Statesman, 7 April 2008
AUSTIN – The March 4 Texas primaries finally end with today’s runoff election. The delegate count in the Democratic presidential race is still being contested, but at least the voting will be over tonight.
Our recommendations for runoffs
Dallas Morning News, 8 April 2008
DALLAS – Texas voters have one more chance to shape their party ballots for the November election, with today's runoff races for primary contests in which no one has yet attracted a majority.
We recommend
Houston Chronicle, 7 April 2008
HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle makes the following recommendations in today's Republican and Democratic primary runoffs:
Government
Privatization of Texas lottery may get 2nd look in 2009
By JOHN MORITZ, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 7 April 2008
AUSTIN – Texans could buy lottery tickets at the checkout lines in supermarkets and big-box department stores, at coffee shops and cabarets.
Christmas Mountain talks move to Washington
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 8 April 2008
AUSTIN – The Christmas Mountains saga moved Monday from Texas to Washington, D.C.
Tollway authority offers $548 million for Texas 161
By GORDON DICKSON, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 April 2008
PLANO – Months of bitter haggling over the value of Texas 161 may be nearing an end after the North Texas Tollway Authority offered Monday to pay $548 million to complete and keep the toll road leading to the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington.
NTTA: State Highway 161 contract worth $298 million upfront
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER, Dallas Morning News, 7 April 2008
DALLAS – The North Texas Tollway Authority on Monday approved a "final and best offer" to build State Highway 161 as a toll road in Dallas County.
Health care plan for low-income adults won't start this year after all
By Corrie MacLaggan, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 8 April 2008
AUSTIN – Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins is backing off a plan to provide health care to thousands of low-income, uninsured Texas adults by the fall.
Rep wants state official to take action on Medicare
By Brandi Grissom, El Paso Times, 8 April 2008
AUSTIN – State Rep. Chente Quintanilla is disappointed that Texas' top health official isn't taking a stand against a pending federal cut to Medicare payments for doctors, he said Monday.
Charter schools owe $149,000
By Zahira Torres, El Paso Times, 8 April 2008
EL PASO – Four charter schools that operate in El Paso have account balances that contribute to more than $26 million owed to the Texas Education Agency, officials said.
Waiving of environmental laws leaves border officials scrambling
By Carlos Guerra, San Antonio Express-News, 8 April 2008
SAN ANTONIO – When it was just talk-radio bluster, many South Texans dismissed the notion of walling off 2,100 miles of the border as folly.
Starting over with state’s young offenders
Austin American-Statesman, 7 April 2008
AUSTIN – Legislative leaders are seriously considering whether to abolish the Texas Youth Commission.
News
401 children taken in State overwhelmed with paperwork in sect removal
By Paul A. Anthony, San Angelo Standard-Times, 7 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – Courthouses in Tom Green and Schleicher counties are bracing for a crush of paperwork after the state officially took custody of more than 400 children removed from the secretive Mormon splinter sect compound northeast of Eldorado.
401 children removed from Eldorado-area ranch, taken into state custody
By Paul A. Anthony, San Angelo Standard-Times 7 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – The state's Child Protective Services agency has removed 401 children from the polygamist sect near Eldorado, and officials are now looking for another shelter area, a CPS spokeswoman said.
State takes 401 children into legal custody
By BILL HANNA, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 April 2008
ELDORADO – State officials have taken temporary legal custody of 401 children removed from a secretive polygamous sect's compound near Eldorado and are scrambling to place them in foster homes.
CPS takes custody of 401 children from Texas polygamist compound
By EMILY RAMSHAW and PAUL MEYER, Dallas Morning News, 7 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – More than 400 children removed by investigators from a West Texas polygamist compound are in state legal custody in an unprecedented child welfare case that grows more complex by the day.
CPS calls polygamist sect its largest case ever
By JANET ELLIOTT, Houston Chronicle, 7 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – Some 400 children who wore pioneer clothing and lived an austere, isolated life with adults at a West Texas polygamist retreat are now part of the largest child welfare operation in Texas history.
Hundreds caught up in polygamist investigation
Austin American-Statesman, 8 April 2008
ELDORADO – More than 400 children, mostly girls in pioneer dresses, have been swept into state custody from a polygamist sect in what authorities described Monday as the largest child welfare operation in Texas history.
400 Children Removed From Sect's Texas Ranch/Abuse Fears Prompt Raid on Compound
By Peter Slevin, Washington Post Staff Writer, 4/8/8
CHICAGO, April 7 -- Texas authorities investigating allegations of abuse and the forced marriage of young teenagers to much older men have taken more than 400 children into custody from a remote ranch owned by a polygamist religious sect, authorities said Monday.
Focus of a Raid in Texas Was Living Out of State
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL and GRETEL C. KOVACH, The New York Times, 4/8/8
ELDORADO, Tex. — A 50-year-old man sought for arrest on a sexual abuse complaint that Texas authorities said had led them to raid a polygamist compound here is not in hiding but living in Arizona with three women and their 22 children and disavows any role in the case, his probation officer said Monday.
UT sued for considering race in admissions
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 8 April 2008
AUSTIN – The University of Texas is violating the Constitution and civil rights laws by considering race and ethnicity in deciding whether to admit undergraduates, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court Monday by a white student whose application was rejected.
White teen sues UT over admissions policy
By JEANNIE KEVER, Houston Chronicle, 7 April 2008
HOUSTON – An 18-year-old Sugar Land student sued the University of Texas at Austin on Monday, challenging the school's use of racial preferences in its admissions policy.
Federal lawsuit filed over UT race-based admissions policies
Waco Tribune-Herald, 7 April 2008
AUSTIN – A legal group that fights racial preferences in schools filed a federal lawsuit Monday against the University of Texas at Austin, claiming its undergraduate admissions policies violate the Constitution and federal law.
FAA removes senior regulator in Texas after Southwest Airlines controversy
By DAVE MICHAELS, Dallas Morning News, 7 April 2008
WASHINGTON – The Federal Aviation Administration removed its top regulator for flight safety in Texas, a step that could signal a shake-up after a breakdown in its oversight of Southwest Airlines.
FAA official who oversaw Southwest reassigned
Waco Tribune-Herald, 7 April 2008
DALLAS – A Federal Aviation Administration official who was criticized last week for the agency's handling of missed inspections at Southwest Airlines Co. has been reassigned, an agency spokeswoman said.
H-E-B becomes city's largest wind energy customer
By Melissa Moroe, San Antonio Express-News, 7 April 2008
SAN ANTONIO – The city's environment just got a boost from San Antonio-based H-E-B, which said today it has become the largest corporate partner of wind energy use.
Texas Electric Deregulation Has Been Plus For Citizens
Tyler Morning Telegraph, 8 April 2008
TYLER – As Texas temperatures rise, consumers can expect both gasoline prices and electricity prices to rise, as well.
People
Texan pledges millions to Israeli causes
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 7 April 2008
JERUSALEM – San Antonio televangelist John Hagee announced donations of $6 million to Israeli causes Sunday and said that Israel must remain in control of all of Jerusalem.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries asks for IRS audit
Waco Tribune-Herald, 7 April 2008
DALLAS – A Christian television ministry targeted by a Senate committee investigation into possible financial wrongdoing has asked the Internal Revenue Service to audit its finances.
Grand jury considers Kay Bailey Hutchison stalking case
By SCOTT GOLDSTEIN, Dallas Morning News, 7 April 2008
DALLAS – A Dallas County grand jury was scheduled Monday to consider the case against a man accused of threatening Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, according to court records.