At the request of Harris County prosecutors, a Houston judge dropped the indictments against Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina and his wife.The indictments were handed up yesterday by a Harris County grand jury. Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal told KHOU-TV he'd move to drop the charges because the evidence was too thin to take to court. That's what happened today. Now, the lawyer for Mrs. Medina, Terry Yates, is filing suit against two grand jury members who went public with their disgust over Rosenthal's decision. Yates wants them held in contempt for talking to reporters about a case that's still open. The jurors told the Houston Chronicle and the Quorum Report that they'll consider re-indicting the Medinas over the objections of the DA's office. The charges stem from a fire at the Medina's home in Spring last summer that investigators suspect was intentionally started. The grand jury accused Francisca Medina of arson and Justice Medina of tampering with evidence. Copies of the indictment and of Yates' contempt petition against the grand jurors are attached below.

The challenge to Democrat Wendy Davis' right to run for state office is headed back to North Texas, and a challenge to LaRhona Torry of Houston is on its way home, too.

The Texas Supreme Court rejected it without prejudice, saying the firefighters who want her off the ballot should take their case to the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth and not to the state's highest civil court.

That means the case is still alive, but in front of a different set of judges. Davis resigned from the Fort Worth City Council to run against Republican Sen. Kim Brimer of Fort Worth. The firefighters, who share a political consultant with Brimer, say she's not eligible. For more, look at our report from last week.

The Supremes did the same thing with a case out of Houston, where the challenger to Democratic Rep. Garnet Coleman was knocked out for failing to designate a campaign treasurer before paying her filing fee. LaRhona Torry, also a Democrat, is appealing that. The Supremes sent her back to Houston with a similar ruling; Start in the local appellate courts instead of in Austin.

Nancy Fisher, chief of staff to House Speaker Tom Craddick, is leaving that job at the end of February. Fisher, a legislative aide turned lobbyist, became Craddick's legislative director when he became Speaker in 2003 and was named chief of staff (he initially went without someone in that position). There have been rumors of her departure — most of them wrong or at best premature — for more than a year. Craddick hasn't indicated who might replace her when she leaves next month. Early speculation centered on former Rep. Terral Smith, an Austin Republican who's been lobbying for several years. Craddick's office won't comment on that; Smith didn't immediately return our calls. Here's the official announcement from the Speaker's office:

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Fisher announces she will be leaving Craddick's office (Austin) - Nancy Fisher, chief-of-staff to Speaker Tom Craddick (R - Midland), today announced that she will be leaving the Speaker's office. "It has been an honor to work with the Speaker in this capacity for the past five years," Fisher said. "I appreciate the trust he placed in me, and the opportunity to play a small role in bringing historic changes in public policy. While I will greatly miss working for the Speaker, the time has come for me to take some time off and pursue outside opportunities." Fisher joined Craddick's office in 2003 when he was elected Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. She initially acted as the legislative director and was then promoted to chief-of-staff in 2005. "Nancy has done an excellent job as my top advisor," Speaker Craddick said. "Nadine and I wish her all the best in this next chapter of her life, and we are incredibly grateful for her service and commitment to us." Fisher will be leaving the Speaker's office at the end of February.

He announced he won't run, but San Antonio lawyer Rene Barrientos didn't say it in time to get off the ballot. He won't campaign against Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, but he'll be on the ballot and voters will have a choice. Elsewhere, Texas Democrats are in court to keep one candidate off the ballot and another one on it.

Barrientos, a Democrat, dropped out right after the filing deadline, saying he'd decided he wasn't willing to run the mean-and-nasty campaign his consultants outlined as the only way to beat the incumbent. But there's a state law that says candidates can't get off the ballot in the 62 days before an election. The primary's relatively early this year — March 4 — and that deadline coincided with the filing date. After that date, a filed candidate stays on, whether he's alive, convicted, eligible, or unwilling.

Something like this happened two years ago when Dr. Henry Boehm Jr. decided too late to take his name off the Democratic ballot in another Senate race. He didn't campaign, but beat the Democrat who wanted the job (by about 1.5 percentage points). After the primary, Boehm took his name off the ballot. The Democrats weren't allowed to replace him, and Glenn Hegar Jr., a Republican, went on to beat the Libertarian in the race and become a new state senator.

Barrientos wasn't available for comment. Zaffirini says she'll just do what she was going to do anyway: "As far as I'm concerned, his name is on the ballot, and my campaign will continue. Our advertising is produced, our team is in place, and we're conducting business as usual."

• Texas Democrats won one lawsuit keeping a candidate off the ballot and are involved in another legal action to keep a candidate on board. Presidential contender Dennis Kucinich went to court over an oath the state's Democrats require of their presidential candidates; they have to agree to support the party nominee even if they lose. Kucinich wouldn't sign that "loyalty oath," but a federal judge in Austin says it's legal. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to take the case, so the Ohio Democrat has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to have a look.

Meanwhile, the Texas Democratic Party is asking a Midland judge to affirm Midland Democrat Bill Dingus' right to run against House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland. Republicans in West Texas have raised questions about whether Dingus resigned from the Midland City Council in a way that allows him to run. The Democrats say he did and want a court to put the Good Housekeeping Seal on their version.

A Fort Worth Appeals court will decide whether Wendy Davis is eligible to run for Texas Senate.

The Democrat and former city councilwoman is running against Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth. But a group of firefighters whose association shares a political consultant with Brimer has challenged her eligibility, saying she was still officially a councilmember when she filed for the state office and is therefore ineligible.

The Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth agreed to hear the case next Wednesday. Davis wasn't immediately available for comment.

A copy of the court order is available here.

Mark Brown, the director of the legal division at the Texas Legislative Council, is retiring at the end of February. TLC's the Legislature's in-house law firm, and he's one of the most respected folks over there, leading a staff of 46 attorneys. He also served as the agency's interim director before the current director, Milton Rister, was hired. Brown's replacement hasn't been named.

Former Rep. Wilhelmina Delco, D-Austin, is House Speaker Tom Craddick's newest appointee to the Texas Ethics Commission. She served 20 years in the House — more than half of them as head of the Higher Education Committee — and was Speaker Pro Tempore for two years.

Former Rep. Joe Nixon signed on as a senior fellow in the Center for Economic Freedom at the Austin-based Texas Public Policy Foundation. That's an addition to — not a replacement of — his Houston law practice.

TPPF also started a new Center for Natural Resources. It'll be directed by Kathleen Hartnett White, late of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, who'll join the foundation's staff.

Kinnan Golemon is opening his own environmental law and regulation practice after 34 years at Austin-based Brown McCarroll. But he'll keep his offices there and continue to work for some of the same clients he's been working for.

Terri Burke, the former editor of the Abilene Reporter-News and a reporter and/or editor at a number of other papers, is the new executive director of the ACLU of Texas. she's succeeding Will Harrell, who left last year to become the ombudsman at the Texas Youth Commission.

The Texas Council of Community MHMR Centers named Danette Castle of Lubbock their executive director. She was CEO of the Lubbock Regional MHMR Center.

Mike Grable is ERCOT's new vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary. He's been the assistant general counsel there and worked at the state's Public Utility Commission before that.

Deaths: Betty Bivins Lovell, mother of former Sen. Teel Bivins, R-Amarillo. She was 88.

Dennis Kucinich won't be on the Democratic primary ballot in Texas. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his case against the state party's "loyalty oath."Kucinich refused to swear he'd vote for the Party's nominee in November, a condition the Texas Democratic Party puts on its presidential candidates. It's a symbolic thing, since nobody — including candidates for president — has to share their actual ballot to prove how they voted. But Kucinich refused on principle. The party then turned him away and a federal judge in Austin ruled that the Democrats were within their rights. The Ohio congressman appealed all the way up to the Supremes, but they refused, without comment, to hear his complaint.