Craddick's re-election likely, area rep says [1]

By AMAN BATHEJA, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 April 2008

FORT WORTH – Efforts to dethrone Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick appear to be sinking, according to a local state representative who has been critical of the Midland Republican.

Oliveira named an honorary co-chair of the Texas Democratic State Convention [2]

Rio Grande Guardian, 21 April 2008

AUSTIN – State Rep. René Oliveira, D-Brownsville, has been named one of the honorary co-chairs of the Texas Democratic State Convention, which takes place in Austin on June 5-7.

An elephant walk on the donkey wild side [3]

Denton Record-Chronicle, 21 April 2008

DENTON – An analysis of Denton County’s recent party primaries has revealed that something like 2,000 regular Republican voters skipped their own election to vote in the Democrats’, presumably to have some sort of say-so, no matter how small, in that party’s selection of a presidential candidate.

High court OKs executions; state court hasn't [4]

By JOHN MORITZ, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 April 2008

AUSTIN – Less than a week after upholding the constitutionality of lethal injections, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday gave Texas and two other states the go-ahead to resume executions after a seven-month hiatus.

Supreme Court lifts stay of execution for Texas death row inmate [5]

Dallas Morning News, 21 April 2008

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for Alabama, Mississippi and Texas to set new execution dates for three inmates who were granted last-minute reprieves by the justices last year.

GOP legislators to revive debate on immigration [6]

By Brandi Grissom, El Paso Times, 22 April 2008

AUSTIN – After multiple failures last year to clamp down on illegal immigration in Texas, conservative Republican legislators said Monday they would try again next year.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst might support giving locals right to bust sales tax cap for transit, transportation [7]

Dallas Morning News, 21 April 2008

DALLAS – Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said in an interview in Austin Monday that he is not opposed to giving local voters a chance to vote themselves higher sales taxes to pay for transportation or transit improvements.

Toll roads, higher gas taxes predicted [8]

By Patrick Driscoll, San Antonio Express-News, 21 April 2008

AUSTIN – When it comes to the big picture, two ranking members of the U.S. House Transportation Committee, one Republican and the other Democrat, were on the same page in separate speeches Monday.

U.S. Rep Johnson: Toll roads are here to stay [9]

By MICHAEL LINDENBERGER, Dallas Morning News, 21 April 2008

DALLAS – Toll roads are going to be part of North Texas' future – and the country's – whether drivers, or even lawmakers, like it or not.

Grant helps effort to save Stephen F. Austin papers [10]

Austin American Statesman, 22 April 2008

AUSTIN – Efforts to preserve and repair thousands of handwritten papers by Stephen F. Austin will get a boost from a federal grant from the National Park Service.

Texas lawmakers to discuss regulations for sexually-oriented businesses [11]

By RUDY BUSH, Dallas Morning News, 21 April 2008

DALLAS – The recent discovery that a 12-year-old girl danced nude for two weeks in a Dallas strip club last year is continuing to stir action from elected officials.

Texas moves to ease food stamp backlog [12]

By ROBERT T. GARRETT, Dallas Morning News, 22 April 2008

AUSTIN – The state, to relieve overworked eligibility screeners, will suspend for the rest of the year interviews its workers usually have to conduct with food stamp recipients every six months, officials said Monday.

Debatable Science Behind Expensive New Changes [13]

Tyler Morning Telegraph, 22 April 2008

TYLER – Simplistic solutions to complicated problems can make things worse, the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Kathleen Hartnett White says.

Don't be camera shy, Amarillo [14]

Amarillo Globe-News, 22 April 2008

AMARILLO – It is doubtful that the latest effort by Amarillo to use technology to enforce existing laws will spark the kind of debate that red-light cameras have in the past few months, but the difference between the two methods is negligible.

Judge urges case-by-case considerations; new count shows more children at coliseum [15]

By Paul A. Anthony, San Angelo Standard-Times, 22 April 2008

SAN ANGELO – A state district judge seemed to open the door Monday for adult women to be placed with their nursing children in foster situations, telling attorneys in the historic Schleicher County child-removal case to negotiate such provisions on a case-by-case basis.

DNA testing of YFZ children will take 0-50 days [16]

By Jayna Boyle, San Angelo Standard-Times, 22 April 2008

SAN ANGELO – DNA tests meant to help the court figure out lineage for the more than 400 children removed from the polygamist compound near Eldorado may take too long to be helpful.

Sect case may hinge on validity of calls [17]

By Gary Scharrer, San Antonio Express-News, 22 April 2008

AUSTIN – With evidence suggesting the anonymous calls that triggered a massive raid on a West Texas polygamist compound could have been a hoax, legal experts disagree on the effect a fabricated story could have on future criminal prosecutions.

Sect's home-schooling entirely legal [18]

By Peggy Fikac, San Antonio Express-News, 21 April 2008

AUSTIN – It didn't take much for the children from a West Texas polygamist sect to disappear from the public-school radar.

Officials begin collecting DNA from sect's children [19]

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 April 2008

SAN ANGELO – Using cotton swabs and cameras, lab technicians began taking DNA samples Monday from hundreds of children and mothers – many in long, pioneer-style dresses – in hopes of sorting out the tangled family relationships within the West Texas polygamist sect.

Sect attire reveals only modesty, conformity [20]

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 April 2008

FORT WORTH – For a society accustomed to the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, the images of the women from the polygamist compound near Eldorado are almost shocking in their understatement: Ankle-length dresses, makeup-less faces, hauntingly uniform hair.

Start spreadin' the news ... [21]

By BRAD HEM, Houston Chronicle, 21 April 2008

HOUSTON – Step aside, New York. Back off, California.

Texas passes New York on Fortune 500 list [22]

Dallas Morning News, 21 April 2008

DALLAS – Texas is king of the hill when it comes to corporate headquarters.

Judge right to extend Eldorado inquiry [23]

Dallas Morning News, 22 April 2008

DALLAS – What is the elevation where your feet are planted right this second?

Two-term state Rep. Russell Cummings dies at 82 [24]

By LYNWOOD ABRAM, Houston Chronicle, 21 April 2008

HOUSTON – Russell Cummings, who served two terms in the Texas House of Representatives from Harris County in the 1960s and had a role in enacting the state's open meetings and open beaches laws, died of cancer on Friday at his Waco home. He was 82.

State owes more than $900,000 in trooper case [25]

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 22 April 2008

AUSTIN – A Travis County judge on Monday ordered the State of Texas to pay more than $900,000 in connection with a black state trooper's lawsuit charging the Department of Public Safety with racial and sex discrimination and retaliation.

Doggett breaks leg in biking accident [26]

By Jason Embry, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 22 April 2008

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, broke his leg in a Sunday bicycling accident in the Austin area, his office said Monday.