Superdelegates hold 'needed-to-nominate' key [1]
By Ramon Bracamontes, El Paso Times, 23 April 2008
EL PASO – Forty-two states, including Texas, have voted in the Democratic presidential primary race and the results remain the same – neither candidate has enough votes to win the party's nomination.
Macias gets trial date for disputed results [2]
By Roger Croteau, San Antonio Express-News, 23 April 2008
NEW BRAUNFELS – A visiting district judge set a May 19 trial date to hear state Rep. Nathan Macias' challenge of the results of the Republican primary last month.
Texas comptroller extends franchise tax deadline to June 16 [3]
By TERRENCE STUTZ, Dallas Morning News, 22 April 2008
AUSTIN – Texas businesses on Tuesday were given an extra month to pay the state’s new franchise tax by Comptroller Susan Combs, who cited the complexity of the tax in granting the additional time.
Perry warns against inaction on funds for road projects [4]
By Patrick Driscoll, San Antonio Express-News, 22 April 2008
AUSTIN – After a veto and last-minute deal-making a year ago to thwart legislative efforts to freeze private toll road leases, Gov. Rick Perry declared victory, saying there was no moratorium.
Gov. Perry sticks to privatization for toll roads [5]
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER, Dallas Morning News, 23 April 2008
AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry promised to keep fighting for private toll roads and his other transportation priorities Tuesday during his first major speech on the subject since the death in December of transportation commission chairman Ric Williamson
Eloisa Tamez opens her gates to border fence surveyors [6]
By Joey Gomez, Rio Grande Guardian, 22 April 2008
EL CALABOZ – One of the most recognizable figures opposed to the border wall on Tuesday opened the gates to her property so that U.S. Corps of Engineers staff could scope out where a fence might go.
Surveyors assess property in advance of fence construction [7]
By Kevin Sieff, Brownsville Herald, 22 April 2008
BROWNSVILLE – Federal surveyors conducted one of their final environmental assessments along the proposed path of the border fence on Tuesday afternoon. This time, surveyors assessed the property of one of the fence's most vocal opponents.
Fence foe's land is surveyed for first time [8]
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 23 April 2008
SAN BENITO – Representatives of the federal government surveyed the property of one of the border fence's fiercest opponents for the first time Tuesday.
Detention center for immigrant families looks much-reformed [9]
By Hernán Rozemberg, San Antonio Express-News, 23 April 2008
TAYLOR – After two turbulent years, the country's largest prison for detained immigrant families has been revamped to serve as a model for three more such centers the government hopes to open next year.
Detainee center gets 'family-friendly' makeover [10]
By Juan Castillo, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 23 April 2008
TAYLOR – The concertina wire is gone. So are the imposing steel doors in the booking area and the green and purple hospital-type scrubs issued to immigrants and their children.
Immigration detention center becomes more family friendly [11]
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 23 April 2008
TAYLOR – Pastel walls adorned with cartoon characters, porcelain instead of metal toilets in cells and other remodeling have softened the inside of a former prison where dozens of immigrant children and their families are detained.
Virtual fence on Mexican border to be replaced [12]
Waco Tribune-Herald, 22 April 2008
TUCSON, Ariz. – The government will replace its highly touted "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border with new towers, radars, cameras and computer software, scrapping the brand-new $20 million system because it doesn't work sufficiently, officials said.
Sect children shipping out by bus to far-flung state locales [13]
By Paul A. Anthony, San Angelo Standard-Times, 22 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – The hundreds of children removed from the YFZ Ranch are leaving San Angelo by the bus load after a court order approving their placement in shelters across the state.
YFZ Ranch children moved to foster homes across the state [14]
By Paul A. Anthony, San Angelo Standard-Times, 23 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – Scores of children boarded buses stocked with food and bottled water Tuesday at the San Angelo Coliseum and began journeys that will scatter the former Schleicher County residents to every corner of the state.
Ranch residents give up DNA [15]
By Matt Phinney, San Angelo Standard-Times, 23 April 2008
ELDORADO – By late morning, most of the people gathered outside the Memorial Building east of the courthouse in Eldorado were looking for a spot of shade.
DNA sampling of ranch parents starts in Eldorado [16]
By Matt Phinney, San Angelo Standard-Times, 22 April 2008
ELDORADO – Only a few people from the YFZ Ranch had appeared for DNA testing by 10:30 a.m. at the collection point near the Schleicher County Courthouse.
Subpoenas to help see whether sect's $100M trust was drained to fund YFZ Ranch, improvements [17]
By TRISH CHOATE, San Angelo Standard-Times, 22 April 2008
WASHINGTON – While many have wondered how a Mormon splinter sect financed its multimillion-dollar development near Eldorado, one man thinks he knows the answer.
Many children from sect will end up in S.A. [18]
By Nancy Martinez and Janet Elliott, San Antonio Express-News, 23 April 2008
SAN ANTONIO – Texas officials on Tuesday began moving children taken from a polygamist sect's West Texas ranch to foster group homes and emergency youth shelters across the state — most of them in San Antonio.
Raid on Texas polygamists shows conflict between protecting rights, preventing abuse [19]
By CHRISTY HOPPE and ROBERT T. GARRETT, Dallas Morning News, 22 April 2008
AUSTIN – State law provides for all children to be removed from a home if there's suspicion that one of them might have been abused, and that is what happened to the 437 children according to new count of the Yearning for Zion polygamist ranch.
Sect parents submit to DNA tests to get children back [20]
By LISA SANDBERG, Houston Chronicle, 22 April 2008
ELDORADO – Accusing the state of using excessive tactics and seizing their children, a handful of male followers of a West Texas polygamous sect submitted to DNA testing this morning in an effort to win back their children.
Polygamist sect children being bused to South Texas [21]
By RICHARD STEWART and RENÉE C. LEE, Houston Chronicle, 23 April 2008
HOUSTON – Some of the 437 children from a polygamist compound in arid West Texas soon may be bound for group homes in green, tree-shaded locations in Harris, Montgomery and Brazoria counties.
Polygamist sect kids leave shelter for foster care, for now [22]
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – Kept together at large west Texas sites for two weeks, the first of more than 400 children taken from a polygamist compound boarded buses Tuesday bound for group homes and other faraway foster care facilities.
Texas attorney general calls for stricter sexually oriented business laws [23]
By RUDY BUSH, Dallas Morning News, 22 April 2008
DALLAS – The state needs more robust laws to quickly shut down strip clubs and bars where minors are found performing, Attorney General Greg Abbott said today.
Tougher laws would target strip clubs employing minors [24]
Houston Chronicle, 22 April 2008
DALLAS – Tougher laws would help Texas quickly shut down strip clubs and bars where minors are found performing, state Attorney General Greg Abbott said on Tuesday.
Polygamists spin it their way [25]
By Ty Meighan, San Angelo Standard-Times, 23 April 2008
SAN ANGELO – For nearly four years, members of the polygamist sect near Eldorado lived in secrecy.
Two acquited of bribery in VitaPro prison food scandal [26]
By Mike Ward, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 23 April 2008
AUSTIN – Former Texas prisons chief Andy Collins and Canadian entrepreneur Yank Barry were acquitted by a Houston federal judge Tuesday of bribery charges stemming from a headline-grabbing VitaPro prison food scandal a decade ago.
Pair cleared of federal bribery charges involving VitaPro [27]
Waco Tribune-Herald, 23 April 2008
HOUSTON – A former Texas prisons director and a Canadian businessman were acquitted in a two-hour trial of 10-year-old federal bribery charges relating to VitaPro, a soy-based meat substitute considered for state inmate meals.
AT&T exec gets Perry mention as possible UT chancellor [28]
By Gary Scharrer, San Antonio Express-News, 23 April 2008
AUSTIN – John Montford, a former state senator who's now an AT&T executive, would make a good University of Texas System chancellor, Gov. Rick Perry told several San Antonio legislators Monday.
In Bob Bullock, the Genius of Power, and How He Helped Make Bush [29]
by Lucius Lomax, The Newspaper Tree, 4/18/8
By background and by upbringing Bob Bullock and his protégé couldn’t have been more different. Bullock was self-made power, not self-made money, as opposed to George W. Bush, who was born with both. But they saw something in each other.