Will They Stay or Will They Go?
A perfect time for speculation: The legislative session isn't quite over, and the political season hasn't quite begun.
Full StoryA perfect time for speculation: The legislative session isn't quite over, and the political season hasn't quite begun.
Full StoryWhile members of the Legislature are eyeing Memorial Day and Sine Die with increasing anticipation, a growing field of candidates looking toward 2014 has emerged, including four — so far — in Austin's House District 50, an open seat.
Full StoryThey are uncontested pieces of legislation that seemingly pass without much consideration. But the lawmakers, staff and various groups who have a hand in local and uncontested bills say the measures are "well vetted."
Full StoryFor this week's nonscientic survey of insiders in politics and government, we asked for predictions about which proposals will survive the legislative session, which ones won't and about how top state officeholders will fare in the elections that follow.
Full StoryIn this edition of the Newsreel: Will lawmakers finish the budget? Will the governor call for a special session? And when this is over, who will be running for office in 2014?
Full StoryKey dates and events for the coming week.
Full StoryThat was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That’s not how we go about selecting cases for further review. The IRS would like to apologize for that.
Lois Lerner of the IRS on the agency's targeting of Tea Party groups during the 2012 election year, quoted by the Associated Press
I know you all get tired of being hammered by the charlatans and peacocks but the fight is being won...
"RP" — later identified as Gov. Rick Perry — in an email to four of UT's regents
This type of discussion is pretty common in the House. When someone asks you, “Did the rape guy win?” and you have to ask which one, that’s a bad sign.
Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood, talking to the New York Times about Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" comments during last year's elections
It's a chicken-and-egg question. Eventually, someone has to step forward and say, 'Either I'm going to be the chicken or the egg.
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, on Democrats' decisions on when a statewide campaign is viable
Democrats worship abortion with same fervor the Canaanites worshipped Molech.
U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Friendswood, on Twitter, in response to the Kermitt Gosnell abortion doctor verdict on Monday
The attorney general will not cast aspersions on my asparagus.
U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, after Attorney General Eric Holder suggested his facts were wrong
The cause of a fertilizer plant explosion in West that killed 15 people on April 17 has been ruled “undetermined,” officials announced at a press conference in the town's high school parking lot. While an investigation into what triggered the blaze is ongoing, investigators’ examination of the scene has concluded. Because they cannot rule out an intentionally set fire, the matter is still considered a criminal investigation.
With exoneree Michael Morton by his side, Gov. Rick Perry signed a measure that aims to avoid wrongful convictions by preventing prosecutors from suppressing evidence. Morton was convicted in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife. He was exonerated in 2011 after DNA testing connected another man to the brutal crime. In their investigation, Morton's lawyers discovered that the prosecutor in the original case had withheld critical evidence that could have pointed to the real killer and spared Morton the quarter-century he spent behind bars.
The Texas Railroad Commission won’t get a new name or a new set of rules and regs, either; for the second session in a row, lawmakers trying to pass an RRC sunset bill got stuck. The Senate passed a bill, but after intense lobbying by the three commissioners, Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, said he couldn’t get it out of the House. Among the provisions that fail with the bill are a name change, a resign-to-run restriction on commissioners using the post as a political springboard and restrictions on campaign contributions.
Term limits for governors and other statewide officeholders flew through the Senate but died in the House, apparently killing that issue for the session. Had it passed there, the issue would have been on the November ballot for voters to finally decide. Rick Perry, governor since 2000, has said he’s considering another reelection bid in 2014 and will announce his plans after the legislative session. The proposal wouldn’t have been retroactive.
Regents of the state's public university systems would be required to attend training — including ethics training — before being allowed to vote on budgetary or personnel matters, under legislation on its way to the governor. SB 15, authored by Senate Higher Education Chairman Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, was filed amid concerns about what he called "micromanagement" at the University of Texas System. Laying out the bill in the lower chamber, House Higher Education Chairman Dan Branch, R-Dallas, called it the "higher ed governance clean up bill." Still to come: Confirmation hearings on the governor’s three latest picks to join the board of regents at the University of Texas.
Eleanor Kitzman’s tenure as Texas insurance commissioner will probably end this month, according to Senate Nominations Chairman Glenn Hegar, R-Katy. He set the agenda for what he thinks will be his last committee meeting without adding her name to the list of people under consideration. Failing to win the Senate’s blessing during the regular legislative session would force her out of that major regulatory post when the session ends May 27.
U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Rockwall, says he will seek another term in 2014. He is 90, and the oldest member of Congress.
Republican Konni Burton of Colleyville will run for the Texas Senate in SD-10, where Democrat Wendy Davis of Fort Worth is the incumbent. Burton is a member of the Tea Party Caucus Advisory Committee, a group that meets with Republican lawmakers during the session. Among her first endorsers: Freshman Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford.
Travis Brock is the new executive director of the Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee. He’s been working on political campaigns in Nevada for the past six years.
Cheryl MacBride, deputy director of services at the Texas Department of Public Safety, was reelected to the Employee Retirement System board of directors.
Charged: Phillip Monroe Ballard, accused of trying to hire someone to kill U.S. District Judge John McBryde of Fort Worth. Ballard, 71, was facing tax charges when he tried to hire what turned out to be an FBI agent posing as a killer.
Deaths: Billie Sol Estes, a legendary West Texas con man who went to prison for selling non-existent fertilizer tanks in the early 1960s and returned to prison in the late 1970s on convictions for mail fraud and federal tax charges. He was 88.