Politics
To Perry, 'Governor for life' sounds all right
By BUD KENNEDY, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 April 2008
FORT WORTH – With thunderclouds darkening and a windstorm swirling around a Fort Worth bookstore, seven-year Gov. Rick Perry declared last week that he sees no reason to quit so soon.
Black Hillary Clinton supporters cite peer pressure to back Barack Obama
By GROMER JEFFERS JR., Dallas Morning News, 21 April 2008
DALLAS – Lloyd Elam says he supports Hillary Rodham Clinton at his own risk.
Look who's bankrolling: Report unveils war chests
By Gary Martin, San Antonio Express-News, 18 April 2008
SAN ANTONIO – Congressional candidates in competitive Texas races got their first peek at their opponents' war chests this week when Federal Election Commission reports were made public.
State's high court just might be hearing Democratic footsteps
By Clay Robison, San Antonio Express-News, 20 April 2008
AUSTIN – It would be foolish to suggest that the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court is contemplating a breakup of its love affair with the Texas business community, but a recent development in a high-profile case indicates it may not be entirely immune to political outrage.
Nearly 2,000 cross party lines to vote
By Dan X. McGraw, Denton Record-Chronicle, 20 April 2008
DENTON – Wes and Glenda Crenshaw bleed conservative red, but with the Republican presidential nomination sealed up, the option of crossing over to vote in the Democratic primary was all too tempting for Wes.
Primaries could help Craddick keep post
El Paso Times, 21 April 2008
AUSTIN – Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick, who only months ago seemed to be hanging on to his powerful job by a thread, has emerged from the latest round of elections considerably strengthened. For now anyway.
State Rep. candidates juggle jobs, looming campaign
By Marcus Funk, Kaufman Herald, 18 April 2008
KAUFMAN – Although the general election is still seven months away, the bipartisan candidates for state representative are becoming more and more visible across Terrell and Kaufman County.
Cornyn rolling in dough for re-election bid
By AMAN BATHEJA, JOHN MORITZ, MARIA RECIO and ANNA M. TINSLEY, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 April 2008
FORT WORTH – U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is riding into the general election campaign on a cushion of cash.
Cornyn in Lubbock to rally support for victory campaign
By Joshua Hull, LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL, 20 April 2008
LUBBOCK – U.S. Sen. John Cornyn spent his Saturday in Lubbock rallying support for the 2008 Texas Victory campaign.
Vote by Mail, Go to Jail
By Steven Rosenfeld, Texas Observer, 18 April 2008
Willie Ray was a 69-year-old African-American city council member from Texarkana who wanted her granddaughter, Jamillah Johnson, to learn about civil rights and voting during the 2004 presidential election. The pair helped homebound senior citizens get absentee ballots and, once they were filled out, put them in the mail.
Unconventional Wisdom
Texas Observer, 18 April 2008
The man who is perhaps best positioned to appreciate the ironies piled up around the ongoing Texas Democratic prima-caucus is state party Chair Boyd Richie.
History Repeats Itself
Texas Observer, 18 April 2008
In 2002, a clique of radical Republicans backed by specific moneyed interests stormed the halls of power in Texas, winning every lever of state government.
Perry must have forgotten 2006 numbers
By Jaime Castillo, San Antonio Express-News, 19 April 2008
SAN ANTONIO – After the dust settles from this year's long, enthusiasm-sapping presidential race, Rick Perry apparently thinks Texans will be ready for more dynasty talk in 2010.
Democrat confusion: Leaders let us down
El Paso Times, 20 April 2008
EL PASO – El Paso's Democratic Party has let down a lot of voters, and, we fear, a lot of young, first-time voters who finally showed up at the polls.
Another run for Perry?
Dallas Morning News, 20 April 2008
DALLAS – So, Rick Perry wants to be governor again?
Government
Texas prosecutors bring different insights to death penalty debate
By DIANE JENNINGS, Dallas Morning News, 19 April 2008
DALLAS – Texas is the death penalty capital of America. In recent decades, the state has executed 405 men and women.
Walker County DA at ease with role in state 'death machine'
By DIANE JENNINGS, Dallas Morning News, 20 April 2008
HUNTSVILLE – David Weeks has sent eight men to death row.
Former Bexar County DA lost faith in capital punishment system
By DIANE JENNINGS, Dallas Morning News, 20 April 2008
SAN ANTONIO – Sam Millsap is embarrassed to admit he doesn't remember how many people his office sent to death row when he was district attorney here in the 1980s.
Texas lawmakers oppose limiting payments to doctor-owned hospitals
El Paso Times, 20 April 2008
EL PASO – Several Texas lawmakers are fighting a proposal to slice the price tag of the multibillion-dollar farm bill by curbing Medicare payments to physician-owned hospitals.
Texas wants 'pole tax' funds
Bryan-College Station Eagle, 19 April 2008
AUSTIN – Texas still expects strip clubs to pay the "pole tax" while the state appeals a judge's ruling that the fee is unconstitutional.
Amateurs use video cameras to watch the border for illegals
Waco Tribune-Herald, 19 April 2008
TUCSON, Ariz. — At least a couple of times a week, Ernie Kubr gets off the night shift and fires up his computer at his home in Nebraska so that he can watch for illegal immigrants trying to slip across the Arizona desert 1,400 miles away.
Marin: 18 feet concrete levee wall would violate treaty with Mexico
By Steve Taylor, Rio Grande Guardian, 21 April 2008
WESLACO – The Department of Homeland Security cannot build an 18-feet concrete wall inside the Hidalgo County floodways without violating a 1970 treaty with Mexico, says International Boundary and Water Commissioner Carlos Marin.
Wood: Cameron County needs to join TBC's lawsuit against border fence
By Steve Taylor, Rio Grande Guardian, 20 April 2008
WESLACO – Cameron County Commissioner John Wood says he would like to see his county join the Texas Border Coalition’s lawsuit against the federal government to stop construction of a border fence.
Tollway agency approves deal with TxDOT on Highway 161
By MICHAEL LINDENBERGER, Dallas Morning News, 20 April 2008
DALLAS – The North Texas Tollway Authority on Sunday unanimously approved a deal with the Texas Department of Transportation that sets the value of the State Highway 161 toll road at about $1.1 billion.
Deal will allow work to begin on Texas 161 toll road
By GORDON DICKSON, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 April 2008
FORT WORTH – The Texas Department of Transportation and North Texas Tollway Authority have reached a deal for Texas 161 in Grand Prairie, ending a tense week of negotiations and greatly improving the odds that the toll road will be partly open for the Dallas' Cowboys' planned 2009 move to Arlington.
Hidalgo County's share of Texas Mobility Fund shrinks from $88 million to $3 million
By Steve Taylor, Rio Grande Guardian, 19 April 2008
WESLACO – The Texas Department of Transportation has informed Hidalgo County Metropolitan Planning Organization that its share of Texas Mobility Fund money has shrunk from $88 million to $3 million.
Texas educators split over teaching English basics
By GARY SCHARRER, Houston Chronicle, 20 April 2008
AUSTIN — The inability of many Texas students to write and speak good English is like a dreadful disease requiring aggressive treatment, say some education advocates who want to use different teaching approaches.
Shapleigh calls for inquiry into possible discrimination at Asarco
By Adriana M. Chávez, El Paso Times, 19 April 2008
EL PASO – State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, announced Friday that he has asked Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials to look into whether Hispanic employees of Asarco were discriminated against during OSHA physicals.
Texas universities need more state money, Yudof says
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 20 April 2008
AUSTIN – Mark Yudof promises to arrive "bright and early, or at least one or the other," when he begins his new job as president of the University of California system June 16. He's been chancellor of the University of Texas System since August 2002.
TYC and costs of shortchanging children
By Dave McNeely, Waco Tribune-Herald, 20 April 2008
AUSTIN — The Texas Youth Commission has been embroiled in a years-long scandal that has included sexual improprieties with detainees on the part of TYC staff.
'Top 10 percent' solution
By Carlos Sanchez, Waco Tribune-Herald, 20 April 2008
WACO – I received an interesting e-mail a couple of weeks ago from University of Texas president William Powers Jr.
Border mayors fight fence
Waco Tribune-Herald, 19 April 2008
WACO – President Bush surely knows how vigorously his fellow Texans along the state’s 1,254-mile Mexican border oppose a border fence.
No bridges to nowhere in my district
By Michael McCaul, Austin American-Statesman, 18 April 2008
AUSTIN – As a former Federal Prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice and a current member of the House Ethics Committee, holding all elected officials to the highest ethical standards is not new to me.
State Highway 161 planning is a mess
Dallas Morning News, 19 April 2008
DALLAS – They’ll never admit it, but state lawmakers are just fine with shifting the way Texas pays for roads — from fuel taxes to tolls. Otherwise, they would boost the gas tax a few nickels to keep up with construction demands.
News
Quality of education received by YFZ Ranch children unknown
By Maribel Salazar, San Angelo Standard-Times, 21 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – With limits in the laws, no state oversight existed for the education provided to the hundreds of children living until early this month at the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado, home of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Texas.
DNA downtime to let lawyers do prep work
By Jayna Boyle, San Angelo Standard-Times, 20 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – Getting back DNA test results in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints child custody case will take 30 days, and attorneys likely will spend that time meeting with their clients and gathering more information before the next round of hearings.
Haven: Homes on 1,700-acre ranch let sect keep outside world at bay
By MATT PHINNEY, San Angelo Standard-Times, 19 April 2008
YFZ RANCH – To the families who live here, it's a place without worry.
'Sarah' real or imagined?
By Rick Smith, San Angelo Standard-Times, 20 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – "Sarah" may or may not exist.
Men of FLDS frustrated with session, ruling
By Jayna Boyle, San Angelo Standard-Times, 19 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – The apprehension on the faces of a group of men from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was evident Friday in the City Auditorium.
A day in court: Highlights of the FLDS custody hearing
By Trish Choate, San Angelo Standard-Times, 19 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – Modestly dressed men and women from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints listened quietly as intimate details of their lives marched forth matter-of-factly in Day 2 of testimony in a hearing to set temporary custody for 416 of their children.
JUDGE: State will keep sect children, DNA tests to be taken
By PAUL A. ANTHONY, San Angelo Standard-Times, 19 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – More than 400 children removed from a polygamist compound in Schleicher County will remain in state custody for the time being, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther ruled Friday.
Courthouse site of much drama in FLDS case
By Trish Choate, San Angelo Standard-Times, 18 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – Objections, debate and testimony circulated around San Angelo about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints while a custody hearing stuttered on.
Sect members likely to consider further legal action, attorney says
By BILL HANNA and JOHN MORITZ, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 Apirl 2008
ELDORADO – The attorney for the polygamist group that has seen all 416 children removed from its West Texas compound said Saturday that the sect's followers may pursue more legal action after a judge's ruling Friday that keeps the kids in state custody.
Sect has kicked out some 2,000 teen boys
By JACK DOUGLAS JR., Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 April 2008
FORT WORTH – Forced marriages. Underage sex. Teenage mothers.
Kids in polygamous sect to stay in state's custody for now
By BILL HANNA, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – A district judge ruled Friday that the state will keep temporary custody of 416 children removed from a polygamous sect's West Texas compound.
Colorado woman called 'person of interest' in YFZ Ranch investigation
By JOHN MORITZ, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 18 April 2008
AUSTIN – Texas law enforcement officials confirmed Friday that they are investigating a 33-year-old Colorado woman in connection with telephone calls that prompted this month's seizure of more than 400 children from a polygamist compound near San Angelo.
Polygamist sect kept money flowing into Texas compound
By John MacCormack, San Antonio Express-News, 20 April 2008
ELDORADO – After more than a century as Schleicher County's only settlement, tiny, unpretentious Eldorado four years ago suddenly found itself with an improbable new neighbor rising swiftly from empty brush a few miles from town.
Sect's roots run deep
By Roma Khanna, Houston Chronicle, 20 April 2008
COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – Annie Jessop lay sleeping outdoors, hoping to escape the summer heat in the stone home she shared with 40 others, when authorities raided this polygamist enclave in 1953 to investigate "open and notorious cohabitation."
How the sect built a fortune and home
By JOHN MacCORMACK, San Antonio Express-news, 20 April 2008
ELDORADO — After more than a century as Schleicher County's only settlement, tiny, unpretentious Eldorado found itself with an improbable new neighbor rising swiftly from the empty brush a few miles from town four years ago.
Judge: Sect kids stay with CPS
By Lisa Sandberg and Terri Langford, Houston Chronicle, 18 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – Texas Child Protective Services will keep all 416 children seized from a West Texas polygamist ranch for at least six more weeks after a judge sided with the agency that enough evidence proved they were at risk of abuse.
Sect members less mature than outsiders, psychiatrist testifies
By LISA SANDBERG and TERRI LANGFORD, Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, 18 April 2008
SAN ANGELO — A Houston child psychiatrist testified today in the custody hearing for 416 children from a polygamist sect that the group's sheltered environment makes members more immature than children in the outside world.
DNA tests to determine parentage in polygamist sect
By RUTH RENDON, Houston Chronicle, 20 April 2008
HOUSTON – Samples of DNA will be collected starting Monday from every adult and child who lived on the polygamist ranch in West Texas.
YFZ Ranch kids to stay in state custody
By KAREN BROOKS, Dallas Morning News, 19 April 2008
SAN ANGELO — The 416 children removed from the polygamist compound near Eldorado will stay in state custody for now, a judge ruled Friday night following a two-day hearing.
West Texas judge in polygamist ranch case rules with sense of humor
By KAREN BROOKS, Dallas Morning News, 19 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – Laughter rippled across the crowd in the courtroom as District Judge Barbara Walther admonished yet another hapless attorney.
Colorado woman may be caller who sparked CPS sweep, officials say
By ROBERT T. GARRETT, Dallas Morning News, 19 April 2008
AUSTIN – Texas Rangers are pursuing the possibility that the pleas of a 16-year-old girl named Sarah, which triggered the massive child protection raid in West Texas, actually came from a Colorado woman with a history of filing false reports, officials said Friday.
7 area residents help sect children
By JANET PHELPS, Bryan-College Station Eagle, 20 April 2008
COLLEGE STATION – When local attorney John Quinn got an e-mail last week asking for volunteers in an enormous child abuse case unfolding in West Texas, he didn't hesitate to respond.
State forges action plan
San Angelo Standard-Times, 20 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – When 51st District Judge Barbara Walther decided Friday evening that the 416 children from the YFZ Ranch will not be allowed to return to the compound, she said it was just the beginning.
Texas officials interview Colo. woman in polygamist probe
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 18 April 2008
DENVER – A Colorado Springs woman is being investigated as a "person of interest" in connection with telephone calls made to a Texas crisis center before authorities there raided a polygamist retreat, officials said Friday.
Silent, secretive sect unleashes public relations campaign
Waco Tribune-Herald, 19 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – Before authorities raided their west Texas retreat, members of a secretive polygamous church spent decades holding as tightly to their intense privacy as the Scriptures guiding their way of life.
Texas law enforcement travels to Colo. in polygamist probe
San Angelo Standard-Times, 18 April 2008
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Texas authorities investigated a Colorado Springs woman's possible connection to a Texas polygamist compound raided this month, Colorado Springs police confirmed Friday.
Judge kept chaotic Texas polygamist abuse case on track
Waco Tribune-Herald, 19 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – Most of the cases that come across Judge Barbara Walther's bench are quiet affairs: divorces, drunken-driving violations, the kind of small-time disputes that sprout in places where land and livestock are more plentiful than people.
Refugees fill jobs in Cactus, Texas, after immigration sweep
By DAVID McLEMORE, Dallas Morning News, 19 April 2008
DALLAS – Sixteen months ago, federal agents swept into the Panhandle town of Cactus, Texas, in Moore County as part of a massive raid of Swift & Co. beef processing plants across the country.
Houston Shipley raid first in broad crackdown
By JAMES PINKERTON, Houston Chronicle, 21 April 2008
HOUSTON – Families are in hiding. Immigrants are lining up lawyers in case of arrest. Business leaders are nervous, and activists are outraged.
Survey: Morale low for Texas teachers
By TERRENCE STUTZ , Dallas Morning News, 19 April 2008
AUSTIN – More than one in four Texas teachers moonlight at second jobs to make ends meet, putting in an extra 12 hours of work a week outside their classrooms, according to a survey released Friday by the Texas State Teachers Association.
Survey: Morale low for Texas teachers weighing new jobs
Waco Tribune-Herald, 19 April 2008
AUSTIN – More than one in four Texas teachers moonlight at a second job to make ends meet, and 44 percent are seriously thinking of finding another career, according to a survey by the Texas State Teachers Association.
Other states woo California teachers amid wave of pink slips
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 April 2008
SAN DIEGO – Precious Jackson has two years of teaching under her belt and two school teacher-of-the-year awards to show for it. She also has a pink slip.
Pedernales co-op paid for executives' trips to New Mexico homes
By Claudia Grisales, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 20 April 2008
DURAN, N.M. — A few yards from the only stop sign in Duran, N.M., Brahaim Hindi and his son, Milo, reminisce about all the land their Lebanese immigrant family once owned in the town of 25 people, including two children.
Pedernales couldn't attract much business for software company
By Claudia Grisales, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 20 April 2008
AUSTIN – It was Bennie Fuelberg's last pitch for Envision Software Utility Corp., his controversial acquisition.
Co-op's software subsidiary a costly choice
By Claudia Grisales, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 20 April 2008
AUSTIN – For years, Pedernales Electric Cooperative officials have defended the co-op's investment in a money-losing New Mexico software firm as a prudent move.
Austin senator expects city to get a medical school
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 19 April 2008
AUSTIN – Charles Barnett, president and CEO of the Seton Family of Hospitals, put it this way: The question is not whether Austin will get a medical school, but when. State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, said he thinks the city will get one "in the near future."
Texas unemployment rises
Odessa American, 18 April 2008
DALLAS – While statewide unemployment rose in March, Odessa continued to see its unemployment rate decline with both cities posting the lowest number in the state.
Jailers group pushing for standards, licenses
By RICHARD ABSHIRE, Dallas Morning News, 19 April 2008
MESQUITE – Almost anyone can be a jailer in a city jail in Texas.
State prison guard shortage 'critical'
By LISA SANDBERG, Houston Chronicle, 19 April 2008
AUSTIN — The Neal prison in Amarillo has so few guards working these days that Dorothy Barfoot, a correctional officer, often finds herself working alone in a dorm with 80 to 100 male felons. Sometimes she gets so scared her knees shake.
State should keep children for now
San Angelo Standard-Times, 20 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – District Judge Barbara Walther made the right decision when she ordered all 416 children at a polygamist YFZ Ranch near Eldorado to remain in state custody for 60 days.
Children of God, wards of the state
Denton Record-Chronicle, 20 April 2008
DENTON – “We’re a peaceful people, and we love our children dearly.”
Wards of the state
Houston Chronicle, 18 April 2008
HOUSTON – The central mystery of the raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ranch now symbolizes the main problem facing the legal system: Who is the victim?
State faces huge mess
Amarillo Globe-News, 20 April 2008
AMARILLO – Texas has a huge mess on its hands.
Nuclear is the right choice for Texas
By Bernard Weinstein, Waco Tribune-Herald, 19 April 2008
WACO – Several Texas utilities are proposing to construct new nuclear power plants to help meet the state’s future electricity needs, estimated by ERCOT to be as much as 48,000 additional megawatts a decade from now.
Allowing Driver's Licenses To Illegals Irresponsible
Tyler Morning Telegraph, 19 April 2008
TYLER – Action by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to shut down a fake driver's license operation in Houston this week is a noteworthy development.
People
Vo Violations Incite Vietnamese Constituent Emotions
By Cao Ngoâ Laïc, Saigon Tex News, 4/19/8
Hubert Vo, who came to this country at the age of 19 with nothing but the shirt on his back, became a self-made millionaire before he was 40, and was elected to the Legislature by a margin of 16 votes four years ago becoming the first Vietnam-born member of that body.
Should Alamo survivor be moved to Texas State Cemetery?
By Marjon Rostami, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 21 April 2008
AUSTIN – A descendent of Alamo survivor Susanna Dickinson is trying to have her remains moved five blocks from the city-run Oakwood Cemetery in East Austin to the Texas State Cemetery, the final home for some of the state's most notable sons and daughters, including former Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock and former U.S. Reps. Barbara Jordan and Jake Pickle.
Alamo survivor's descendant wants remains moved
Waco Tribune-Herald, 19 April 2008
AUSTIN – A descendant of Alamo survivor Susanna Dickinson wants to have her remains moved to Texas State Cemetery, the burial place of many notable Texans.
Low-key, outdoor wedding in Crawford for a president's daughter
By ANNA M. TINSLEY, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 April 2008
FORT WORTH – As one of the biggest events to hit Crawford looms – the wedding of President Bush's daughter Jenna – area residents say they are trying to respect the first daughter's wishes for a private wedding.
From Dallas to D.C., Alphonso Jackson was at center of controversies
By RANDY LEE LOFTIS, Dallas Morning News, 19 April 2008
DALLAS – The scene was a nondescript conference room in Dallas City Hall; the topic, how to renovate some low-income apartments – the setup, it would seem, for another sleep-inducing government meeting.
Tom Craddick's Good Fortune
Texas Observer, 18 April 2008
American families are being hammered by plunging real estate values and soaring oil prices.