Politics
The survivor
The Economist, 18 February 2010
What was supposed to be a showdown between two Republican heavies has turned into a rout. A year ago Mrs Hutchison was the most popular politician in Texas, a moderate serving her fourth term in the Senate.
4 seeking Republican nod for state House seat
By Miguel Liscano, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 18 February 2010
For 16 years, District 52 was in Republican hands. Four Republican candidates hope to return the House district in southeastern Williamson County back to the fold, after Democrat Diana Maldonado won the seat two years ago, amid a national Democratic tide.
Hutchison makes stop in Seguin
The Seguin Gazette-Enterprise, 19 February 2010
With the March 2 Republican gubernatorial primary falling on Texas Independence Day, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison continued her campaign asking Texans to declare their independence from a governor that she says refuses to clean up Austin and put the state first.
Primary Color: HD-127
By Reeve Hamilton,Texas Tribune, 19 February 2010
State Rep. Joe Crabb, R-Atascocita, has spent 18 years on stage in the Legislature ó plenty of time for an abundance of ambition to build up in the wings
GOP rivals for State House District 65 tangle over budget, immigration issues at forum
By DIANNE SOLÕS,The Dallas Morning News, 19 February 2010
Budget-balancing and immigration issues are fueling the campaign in State House District 65, where longtime incumbent Burt Solomons faces a challenge from former congressional candidate Mike Murphy.
Democratic candidates for Dallas County judge reach out to frequent primary voters via mailers, letters
By GROMER JEFFERS Jr.,The Dallas Morning News, 18 February 2010
Democratic candidates for Dallas County judge are targeting frequent primary voters in campaigns that rely on a worker who isn't deterred by rain or snow ñ the mailman.
White taps legal, business ties in bid for gov
By JAY ROOT, Associated Press, 18 February 2010
In the 30 years he's been raking in money as a lawyer and businessman, Bill White has also been assembling a cadre of rich, loyal and influential friends. Now their cash and support are giving him and the Democrats their best shot at winning the Texas governor's office since the days of Ann Richards in the early 1990s.
Friedman calls for ëpower to the people' in bid for ag commissioner
By STEVE CLARK, The Brownsville Herald, 18 February 2010
Friedman calls for ëpower to the people' in bid for ag commissioner
John Carona, the Last Republican
by Wick Allison, D Magazine, 17 February 2010
John Carona still has the bulk and rolling shoulders that he once used to plow through a defensive line for Bryan Adams High School.
Republican of the People.Can Debra Medina's grassroots rebellion dethrone Texas' Republican royalty?
By Bob Moser, Texas Observer, 18 February 2010
A member of Medinaís skeletal staff, the fourth in the party, is mired in Metroplex traffic. As usual, itís up to Medina to keep things on track. Sheís used to it. The first-time candidate has been running a shoestring campaign for a year nowófueled by little more than a wing, a prayer and a radical libertarian platform.
Government
More cases of military corruption connected to Iraq war
By Guillermo Contreras, San Antonio Express-News, 19 February 2010
Cases of U.S. military corruption in Iraq mounted this week as a former Army sergeant-turned-contractor pleaded guilty to charges that he paid more than $3 million in bribes, while one contracting official was charged with accepting more than $30,000 in kickbacks.
Council to vote on cell-phone ban
By Gustavo Reveles Acosta, El Paso Times, 19 February 2010
Using a cell phone while driving in El Paso could soon be prohibited and violators could be fined.
Trading Places
By Julian Aguilar, Texas Tribune, 19 February 2010
Texas, that famous bastion of conservatism, has quietly become a leading exporter to communist Cuba ó second only to Lousiana among the fifty states
The Old College Try
By Brian Thevenot, Texas Tribune, 19 February 2010
Alex Duran, a senior at Crockett High School in Austin, has already become the first in his family to attend college ó before ever graduating from high school
Eltife promotes smart spending
By Terri Hahn, Marshall News Messenger, 18 February 2010
State Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, spoke Wednesday afternoon to members of the Harrison County Manufacturers Council about stimulus spending, state budgets and other Texas issues.
State Board of Education's Cultural Warriors in Trouble
By Patrick Williams, Dallas Observer, 18 February 2010
Oh, no, no, no. This can't be correct. Could it really be that the young Earthers, the intelligent designers and assorted Christian right-wing whackjobs who have made the Texas State Board of Education such a reliable source of amusement could be facing...extinction?
NRG, Texas Utility End Project Dispute
BY CASSANDRA SWEET, The Wall Street Journal, 18 February 2010
A nuclear-power venture owned by NRG Energy Inc., Toshiba Corp. and a Texas utility resolved a legal dispute Wednesday that would allow one of the first U.S. nuclear-power projects in decades to proceed.
Texas Tech readies for budget cuts
By Matthew Mcgowan, LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL, 18 February 2010
Faculty travel, equipment upgrades and new employee hiring all sit atop the list of possible cuts to the Texas Tech system's budget if the state follows through with projected funding reductions.
Who owns groundwater in the aquifer?
By Colin McDonald, San Antonio Express-News, 18 february 2010
The ownership and control of groundwater pumping rights in Texas is now in the hands of the state Supreme Court.
Water district has right to sue Oklahoma, attorney general says
BY BILL HANNA, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 18 February 2010
Tarrant Regional Water District's three-year legal battle with the state of Oklahoma took a new turn Wednesday as Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott waded into the water fight by filing a brief in support of the district.
News
Border research: Group officials may provide money for El Paso
By Diana Washington Valdez, El Paso Times, 19 February 2010
Officials of the National Institutes of Health came to the border to learn about the unusual research that's taking place.
Drug sting reveals murder plot
By Stephanie Sanchez, El Paso Times, 19 February 2010
Two men were arrested after a murder-for-hire plot was discovered during an undercover drug sting, sheriff's officials said Thursday.
Man who crashed plane into Austin building targeted IRS offices
The Dallas Morning News, 19 February 2010
A software engineer furious with the Internal Revenue Service launched a suicide attack on the agency Thursday by crashing his plane into an office building housing IRS workers, renewing concerns about the lack of security measures to prevent individuals or terrorist groups from using small planes as weapons.
Plane hits Northwest Austin office building
By Tony Plohetski, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 19 February 2010
In what authorities describe as an apparent intentional act, a pilot flew a single-engine plane Thursday into a Northwest Austin office building that houses Internal Revenue Service offices, igniting a huge explosion, jolting terrified employees to the floor and triggering a massive federal investigation.
Targetting smugglers: US-Mexico program may soon start in El Paso
By Adriana GÛmez LicÛn, El Paso Times, 19 February 2010
A pilot program in which U.S. Border Patrol agents work in Mexico and Mexican federal police work in the U.S. and share intelligence to catch drug and human smugglers may soon start in El Paso.
Democratic county judge candidate also communist with a small "c"
By MARK GLOVER, The Big Bend Sentinel
Lineaus Hooper Lorette stands on the wood floor of his old adobe home on the south side of Marfa and nods to an acrylic collage he commissioned - a trio of civil rights workers gunned down in Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1964. He names them one by one as his face saddens.
Ex-Laredo cop escorted fake cocaine load
By Lynn Brezosky, San Antonio Express-News, 18 February 2010
A former Laredo police officer and another Laredo man pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring to have the officer escort carloads of what he thought was cocaine through Laredo.
People
Pilot spent months on diatribe that became his suicide note
By JAMES DREW and TERRENCE STUTZ, The Dallas Morning News, 18 February 2010
Why Andrew Joseph Stack III flew his plane into an office building isn't a mystery.
Dick Armey, at CPAC, calls Obama a self-righteous ideologue
By Todd J. Gillman, 18 February 2010
Dick Armey, the former House majority leader and Republican congressman from suburban Dallas - and moving force in the Tea Party movement - issued a scathing critique this morning of President Barack Obama.