A new rule from the Texas Ethics Commission, written in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Citizens United case, says corporations can spend money in elections but have to disclose where that money comes from. Current law still prohibits corporations and labor unions from donating directly to candidates. Watchdog groups say the rule might not cover trade associations and “political ‘front’ groups” to disclose donors. They're thinking of (some of them, anyhow) of outfits like the Texas Association of Business, which famously teamed with then-U.S. House Majority Leader Tom Delay’s political action committee to run ads against Democrats to help wrest the state House from Democratic control in 2002.

The U.S. Supreme Court isn’t getting involved in the case of Charles Dean Hood, a Texas man sentenced to death in 1990 on double-murder charges. During Hood’s trial, the judge and the prosecutor had a romantic relationship, which they admitted under testimony last year. After issuing a reprieve the day before Hood was scheduled to die in 2008, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new sentencing trial, but left the conviction intact. In addition to Hood’s case, the nation's high court also declined to hear four other death row cases from the state.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has more power than usual over school finances at the moment. If it decides to allow Valero Energy Corp. a property tax exemption for pollution control equipment called “hydrotreaters” that remove sulfur from gas and diesel to reduce emissions, the commission could deprive schools in some districts of nearly 85 percent of their funding. Currently, state officials oppose applying the exemption to the hydrotreaters, because they do not reduce emissions on-site.

Former GOP gubernatorial candidate and oilman Clayton Williams Jr. made headlines after unsettling parts of the West Texas community. His company, Fort Stockton Holdings, applied for a permit to slurp up to 15 trillion gallons of water from the Rio Grande watershed in Pecos County. He hopes to sell the water for municipal use outside of Pecos County. FSH already has a permit to draw the same amount for irrigation purposes, but an attorney for Williams says that for every gallon pumped with the new permit, an equal amount would remain untouched by the other.

The Mexican American Legislative Caucus teamed up with the Legislative Study Group, the House Black Caucus and Senate Hispanic Caucus for a State Board of Education special hearing. The groups are united in their opposition to the now-famous curriculum debated by the SBOE, which many groups allege leave out key historical figures.

Gov. Rick Perry made a list of the country’s 10 worst governors assembled by a liberal watchdog group. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said Perry made the list for, among other things, disregarding campaign finance laws and avoiding transparency. Perry’s office was unfazed by the remarks, saying Texas ranks first in online transparency.

The Texas Capitol building is getting a facelift, starting with the House of Representative’s chamber. Workers will begin painting the West Side chamber this week, which will close the area until Thanksgiving. Plans also include painting the statehouse’s dome to match the pink granite of the main building.

With the dust settling from last week’s runoffs, two Democratic congressmen have the GOP mustering at their gates. Republicans’ best shot at winning congressional seats in Texas are CD-23 and CD-17, currently held by Democrats Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio and Chet Edwards of Waco, respectively.

Rodriguez’s district is heavily Hispanic, but contains pockets of Republican strongholds in North Bexar County. Edwards’ district is the most Republican held by Democrat in Congress, but he’s held that seat through thick and thin since 1992.

Canseco’s victory last week prompted Cook’s Political Report to shift its rating of the 23rd district from “likely Democratic” to “lean Democratic.” Dave Wasserman, the publication’s House analyst, explains: “Republicans finally got the candidate they wanted here … I don’t base that alone on his ethnicity, he has a pretty solid business background and he has run here before in South Texas.”

“This district deceptively dangerous for Democrats because it took a very high Hispanic turnout to produce a very narrow win for Barack Obama in 2008,” Wasserman said, “I predict that the Hispanic share of the electorate will go down in 2010.”

CD-17, which Cook’s consistently rates “Lean Democratic,” is growing more and more Republican each year, and in an election cycle likely to be rough on Democrats, Wasserman predicts Edwards will face a tough fight to keep his seat. The National Republican Congressional Committee has long had Edwards in its sights: “Pete Sessions, the chair of the NRCC, considers it his unfinished business to defeat Chet Edwards,” Wasserman said.

U.S. Census workers will soon spread out across Texas neighborhoods, going door-to-door to count the millions who didn’t fill out their 2010 questionnaires. This week marked the deadline to respond via mail, and Texas once again fell below the national participation average.

Sixty-eight percent of Texans mailed back forms, compared to 71 percent nationally. That means Texas could again lose out on millions, or perhaps billions, in monies for transportation, schools and health and human services programs.

Had every household in the country responded, $1.5 billion in taxpayer money could have been put to other use. That’s how much the bureau estimated it would cost to do a complete door-to-door count. Some of Texas’ hardest to count areas, the impoverished areas near the border known as colonias, were of particular concern in the early stages of the U.S. Census Bureau’s campaign to raise awareness about the decennial count. But Census Director Robert Groves admitted to the Rio Grande Guardian that despite its best efforts, the department fell short of its outreach goals in the area.