Texas Gov. Rick Perry to run for re-election in 2010 [1]

By GROMER JEFFERS JR. and CHRISTY HOPPE, Dallas Morning News, 17 April 2008

DALLAS – Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that he will run for re-election in 2010, possibly setting up a bruising primary battle with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

Perry says he'll run for re-election in 2010 [2]

By R.G. Ratcliffe, San Antonio Express-News, 17 April 2008

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday he will seek re-election in 2010 to an unprecedented third full term, but some saw it as political posturing designed to keep him from becoming a lame duck before the next legislative session.

Perry announces intention to run again in 2010 [3]

By AMAN BATHEJA and JAY ROOT, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 18 April 2008

FORT WORTH – Gov. Rick Perry shook up Texas politics Thursday after abruptly declaring that he plans to seek an unprecedented third four-year term, which could give him a total of 14 years in office and complicate the future of several ambitious Republicans.

Gov. Perry says he's running a third time in 2010 [4]

By W. Gardner Selby, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 18 April 2008

AUSTIN – About 20 months before candidates must declare for the 2010 elections, Gov. Rick Perry gave Texas politics an unexpected stir Thursday by saying he intends to seek a third four-year term.

Gov. Perry will seek re-election [5]

El Paso Times, 18 April 2008

AUSTIN – Republican Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that he will run for an unprecedented third four-year term as Texas governor in 2010.

Perry's plans trigger political repercussions [6]

Waco Tribune-Herald, 18 April 2008

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry now says he wants a record 14 years in the state's highest office, but he might have to fight some of the biggest names in his Republican Party to keep his job that long.

State Republican Party chair campaigns for private property rights [7]

By Kathleen Thurber, Midland Reporter-Telegram, 18 April 2008

MIDLAND – When legislators and government officials are elected in November, the state's Republican Party chair said she wants voters to keep private property rights in mind.

Quick Take: Texans may not want a governor to hang around that long [8]

By Wayne Slater, Dallas Morning News, 17 April 2008

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry’s informal declaration that he will run again in 2010 raises a question: Is there a limit to how many years Texans want their governors around?

Caucuses box out ballot box [9]

Amarillo Globe-News, 18 April 2008

AMARILLO – The problems with the Texas Democratic Party caucuses continue, and reveal why the system needs tinkering. TDP officials said this week that at least 50 delegate challenges were filed by the Monday deadline.

Feds begin buying land for border fence [10]

Austin American-Statesman, 18 April 2008

BROWNSVILLE – Every morning, well before dawn, 80-year-old Jose Benavidez opens the gate and leads his three cows and one bull out of a small fenced pasture where they drink and spend the night.

TRLA stands ready to help border landowners with fence issues [11]

By Joey Gomez, Rio Grande Guardian, 17 April 2008

WESLACO – Texas RioGrande Legal Aid says it backs border landowners who are being approached by the federal government seeking to buy their land for a proposed border fence Thursday.

Dewhurst, legislators to meet in Dallas to ease Highway 161 deadlock [12]

By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER, Dallas Morning News, 17 April 2008

DALLAS – Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and other key legislators are expected to meet behind closed doors in Dallas today to end a deadlock over State Highway 161 that has threatened to derail plans to toll the highway, a development that could cost North Texas more than $1.2 billion in road funds.

Strip clubs might have to pay disputed fee during appeal [13]

By CHRISTY HOPPE, Dallas Morning News, 18 April 2008

AUSTIN – Strip clubs still might have to pay a special state fee that was struck down as unconstitutional only three weeks ago, and the bills are due Monday.

Texas lawmakers to hold hearing on strip clubs in Dallas [14]

By DAVE LEVINTHAL, Dallas Morning News, 17 April 2008

DALLAS – The Texas House of Representatives' Committee on Licensing and Administrative Procedures will conduct a public hearing about sexually oriented business regulations and alcohol licenses at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Dallas City Hall's council chambers.

Who cares? [15]

Lufkin Daily News, 17 April 2008

LUFKIN – When the Associated Press asked Texas Gov. Rick Perry what he thought about the fact that more than 800 employees at 13 large "state schools" had been suspended or fired in a four-year span, he decided to take the "glass half full" view of things.

The executions and the questions shall continue [16]

Austin American-Statesman, 17 April 2008

AUSTIN – Virginia’s governor wasted no time in restarting his state’s execution machine once the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that injecting inmates with a three-drug lethal cocktail does not violate the constitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. Texas will soon follow suit.

Youth prisons need major changes now [17]

Beaumont Enterprise, 18 April 2008

BEAUMONT – As the Texas Youth Commission struggles to get back on track, its new conservator is making lots of changes.

Lucio: Texas Health Insurance Risk Pool needs expansion and publicity [18]

By Eddie Lucio, Jr., Rio Grande Guardian, 17 April 2008

The Senate Committee on State Affairs, on which I serve, is reviewing a program sponsored for medically uninsurable Texans that should be better publicized and expanded.

FLDS hearing lurches through 11 hours of uncertainty in San Angelo courtroom [19]

By Paul Anthony, San Angelo Standard-Times, 18 April 2008

SAN ANGELO – Girls at the YFZ Ranch were forced into marriage and gave birth as young as 13, a Child Protective Services investigator testified in perhaps the most groundbreaking moment of a sometimes-dramatic but mainly tedious opening to the state's largest custody hearing.

Normal day in nearby town [20]

By Jayna Boyle, San Angelo Standard-Times, 18 April 2008

ELDORADO – While the national media turned its attention to the child custody hearing involving the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, this community nearest the sect's ranch was focused on an afternoon T-ball game.

13-year-old may have child, CPS worker says [21]

By BILL HANNA, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 18 April 2008

SAN ANGELO – A girl as young as 13 may have given birth at a polygamous sect's compound, a child welfare worker testified Thursday night at a marathon custody hearing for 416 children removed from the ranch.

Judge is seen as up to task of handling unwieldy case [22]

By Janet Elliott, San Antonio Express-News, 18 April 2008

AUSTIN – The judge at the center of what may be the largest child custody case in U.S. history is described by those who know her as organized, thorough and knowledgeable.

Hearing starts on kids taken from polygamist sect [23]

By Terri Langford and Lisa Sandberg, San Antonio Ex press-News, 18 April 2008

SAN ANGELO – It was almost like a bad lawyer joke. What happens when scores of attorneys, many accustomed to the hard and fast rules of criminal or civil procedure, not the laid-back feel of family law, volunteer for the state's largest-ever child custody case?

Child welfare hearing for polygamist sect's families under way in San Angelo [24]

By KAREN BROOKS, Dallas Morning News, 17 April 2008

SAN ANGELO – It's been a slow and grinding start to the marathon child-welfare hearings in San Angelo this morning, as hundreds of lawyers began the day with typical objections, filings, and questions – against a backdrop of a logistical nightmare for this Tom Green County district court.

CPS says sexual abuse encouraged at polygamist ranch on first day of custody hearing [25]

By KAREN BROOKS, Dallas Morning News, 18 April 2008

SAN ANGELO – Authorities decided to remove 416 children from the polygamist Yearning For Zion ranch in Eldorado after child-welfare officials discovered a "pervasive belief" among them "that underage marriage and children having children was what they were supposed to do," a child-welfare supervisor testified Thursday.

Multiple marriage is secret shared by thousands in West [26]

San Antonio Express-News, 18 April 2008

SALT LAKE CITY – The neighbors knew Anne Wilde as a divorcee with three children, but she had a secret: She was married to a polygamist who divided his time among his various wives, visiting her once a week.

Court tries to untangle polygamists' family ties [27]

Austin American-Statesman, 18 April 2008

SAN ANGELO – If the 416-child custody case involving a West Texas polygamist sect continues the way it proceeded Thursday, some of the subjects might not be children by the time it's over.

Senators slam FAA chief on airline safety, maintenance issue [28]

Waco Tribune-Herald, 18 April 2008

WASHINGTON – The nation's top aviation regulator on Thursday faced another fiery round of questioning from lawmakers worried that his agency may be quicker to fix problems of public relations than those of public safety.

Airline executives and regulators often switch places [29]

Waco Tribune-Herald, 18 April 2008

WASHINGTON – What the airline industry wants from Washington it often gets, and no wonder.

UT sites considered for medical school [30]

By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 18 April 2008

AUSTIN – Three parcels on the University of Texas campus have emerged as possible locations for a medical school in Austin because of their proximity to the University Medical Center at Brackenridge.

Harris County has top carbon footprint in nation [31]

By ERIC BERGER, Houston Chronicle, 18 April 2008

HOUSTON – When it comes to carbon dioxide, Harris County is king.

Caddo Lake plant battle gets growing [32]

By RANDY ROSS, Longview News-Journal, 18 April 2008

KARNACK – The battle to eliminate an invasive species from Caddo Lake is under way, and the lake's fighters have a new weapon.

North Texans energized, moved by Pope Benedict's Mass at D.C. ballpark [33]

By SAM HODGES, Dallas Morning News, 17 April 2008

WASHINGTON – Omar Aguilar, his wife and his two young daughters drove straight from Dallas – more than 1,300 miles – to attend Thursday's Mass with Pope Benedict XVI at the new Nationals Park baseball stadium.

Jenna Bush wedding is part of lively, varied history [34]

Waco Tribune-Herald, 18 April 2008

NEW YORK – Tricia Nixon was risque in a sleeveless gown at her Rose Garden wedding. Luci Baines Johnson, at age 19 a fresh convert to Catholicism, opted for a church ceremony but had a White House reception with a 13-tier cake.