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This talking trick apparently works more than once.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is getting a big bounce from talking for 21 hours about his problems with Obamacare, just as state Sen. Wendy Davis got a boost from her June filibuster on abortion and women’s health.

Davis is riding her bottle rocket into the governor’s race. The short-form analysis of her leap into the spotlight is that it delighted the Democrats on her side and left Republicans seething, both at her and, to a lesser extent, at the leaders who turned on that spotlight in the first place.

For Cruz, the analysis is a little more nuanced, mainly because the Republican Party is a little more nuanced right now. He delighted the people who chose him in 2012 over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst — the rowdies who dominated that Republican primary and especially the July runoff. The populist wing of the party seems to like Cruz as much as it hates Washington. But “Washington” in this context comprises both Republicans and Democrats, and those guys are chafing at the new guy’s ability to command attention and hijack the debate.

That’s why journalists find it relatively easy to find establishment Republicans ready to cut Cruz down to size. Both sides of this argument have some real talent, and it would be silly to try to handicap the outcome — in Washington.

It’s easier here. Populists toss candidates into office for the same reasons teenagers egg houses — to make a point, to mess things up, to express frustration and dissatisfaction. And to have fun making the people with starched clothes angry.

They might get tired of the state’s junior senator eventually, but not yet. The fact that the establishment dislikes his tactics and is so vocal about it, and that the media is tracking that disdain so closely — all of that works for him.

He might be in real political trouble when this is all over, but it could work the other way, too: Everybody else might be in real trouble.

The next five months will provide some clues. The Republican races at the top of the Texas ballot are crowded and competitive. Money is being invested in polling, giving those candidates a better look into what works and what doesn’t work than the rest of us have available. The advertising will follow soon, and from those messages and dozens of town halls and interviews and news stories, voters will be able to see what the pros think of the current environment.

If you see a lot of smart people acting like Cruz between now and March, you’ll have a pretty good indication that what he’s doing right now is working.

Dewhurst got “Cruzed” last year — the voguish term for what happens to a traditional Republican when a populist conservative runs to their political right and inveighs against the traditionalists. Variations on that strategy are already showing up this year, including in the lieutenant governor’s race that features Dewhurst and three other current Republican officeholders.

If Cruz is turning voters off, that will be apparent right away, too. Candidates will run away from what he’s doing.

If that happens, getting “Cruzed” could mean something else entirely.  

Enlarge Shannan Muskopf

Editor's Note: This is an updated version of a story that first appeared in Texas Weekly. 

After nearly a year of negotiations, the state has finally secured a waiver from No Child Left Behind, the Texas Education Agency announced Monday. 

With the reprieve, only the lowest-performing 15 percent of schools will be subject to a series of federally prescribed interventions, instead of what would have been nearly all of the state's school districts next year because of a failure to meet the law's requirement that 100 percent of their students pass reading and math exams by 2014. Struggling school districts will also no longer be required to set aside 20 percent of their funding for remedial tutoring services.

“The underlying message throughout our negotiations with the federal government has been Texans know what’s best for Texas schools,” TEA commissioner Michael L. Williams said in a statement. “I believe our school districts will appreciate the additional flexibility this waiver provides while also adhering to our strong principles on effective public education.”

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a letter to the agency that he had granted the waiver for the 2013-14 school year with the condition that Texas continue development of a new teacher evaluation system. The Obama administration has pushed for student achievement on standardized tests to be included as a review of teacher performance, while the agency has said it does not have the authority to require districts to use a specific evaluation measure.

In the final waiver approved by Duncan, the TEA agreed to continue to solicit input about how best to include student growth in  evaluations, including the possibility of weighing performance on statewide tests at 20 percent of a teacher's assessment. It also has yet to decide what factors it will use to determine the bottom 15 percent of school districts.

During a Monday conference call with reporters, Williams said that the state would pilot the new evaluation system in about 40 districts statewide during the 2014-15 school year. He would then "invite, encourage, cajole" the remaining districts to adopt it for the following year. 

When asked whether he would push for the authority to require districts to use the state-developed system during the next legislative session, Williams left the option open. He said the agency had not yet focused on a legislative agenda.

Texas decided to ask for the waiver of the nearly a year ago and had been one of just nine states still waiting for a reprieve from the federal education law.

The delay was the result of ongoing negotiations over the state's approach to evaluating teacher performance. The stalemate over including student achievement on standardized tests as a component of the evaluations led Texas officials to submit a revised application. But even language included in the updated application said school district participation in a new evaluation system, which is still under development, would be voluntary. 

It's an awkward position for the state, said Linda Bridges, the president of the Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers, before the waiver was announced. 

"I think they are somewhat in a difficult position with the waiver. Either the commissioner is going to have to ignore legislative intent and look at that as a major factor, or he's going to have to be very clear about that issue being a factor and then look at other multiple measures of evaluation," she said. 

During the most recent legislative session, efforts to emphasize student achievement as a part of teacher evaluations stalled. Senate Education Chairman Dan Patrick, R-Houston, was forced to drop a section from a bill that would have opened the door to tying students’ standardized tests scores to teacher performance because of concerns over whether the tests could accurately reflect student learning.

Such proposals have also faced questions about evaluating teachers whose students aren’t required to take annual standardized tests. Texas students begin taking state standardized exams in third grade. Before they reach high school, they are tested each year in reading and math but less frequently in subjects like science, writing and social studies.

The possibility of a new conversation over including student achievement in teacher evaluations comes as good news, however, for teacher-quality advocates who have argued that it is essential to providing meaningful feedback to educators.

John Fitzpatrick, the executive director of Educate Texas, the organization that launched the Texas Teaching Commission in the hopes of encouraging reforms, said support for the policy lagged during the legislative session because it was overshadowed by more urgent topics.

“We look forward to having this issue really get a full consideration because it was not a majority priority or a high visibility topic this session,” he said.

Without the federal waiver, nearly all of the state's school districts would have been subject to sanctions next year, including forced restructuring, for failing to meet the law's requirement that 100 percent of their students pass reading and math exams. When the state applied for the waiver last September — one of Williams' first acts after he was appointed — it did so without agreeing to conditions Duncan had attached to waivers offered to other states.

Before the waiver was announced, Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe said the state must maintain as much flexibility for school districts as possible in its agreement with the federal government. She said additional details of conversations with the education department have been kept confidential.

"I think they are dealing with us in good faith," she said. "We took a different route on our waiver than other states, and that has just taken them a little more time to figure out how to handle it."

Enlarge Illustration by Jacob Villanueva

One year after President Obama’s decision to allow undocumented-immigrant youths to apply for renewable work permits and a two-year reprieve from deportation proceedings, Texas — perhaps due to its immigration policies — beats the national average of approved applicants.

At the same time, the Pew Research Center says that the number of undocumented immigrants in Texas has remained steady, or possibly increased, while the rest of the country saw a dip in overall illegal immigration the past few years.

Analysts argue that trend could also be attributed to the state’s middle-of-the-road polices on immigration enforcement.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy was implemented in August 2012. Since then, approximately 91,000 of the state’s 165,000 eligible immigrants (about 55 percent) have applied and been accepted for processing, according to data from the U.S. Citizen Immigration Services obtained by the D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute. Throughout the country, about 538,000 applications have been accepted out of a possible 1,089,000, or about 49 percent.

Taken together, California and Texas are home to 44 percent of the country’s DACA-eligible immigrants. Randy Capps, a senior analyst and demographer with the MPI, said geography is one reason for that. About 59 percent of the country’s eligible applicants are from Mexico, and Mexicans also have the highest application rate, about 64 percent.

But Texas’ policy of requiring applicants for driver’s licenses to prove legal status also comes in to play, Capps said. Although DACA holders are technically not legal residents, the Texas Department of Public Safety allows them to obtain driver’s licenses. DPS guidelines indicate that people who can supply the proper documents are granted “deferred action status” are allowed licenses or IDs that must be renewed annually.

“That is an incentive right there," he said. “And that’s the case with most states.”

An immigrant-friendly measure signed by Gov. Rick Perry could also be a reason the number of DACA applicants in Texas isn’t as high as earlier predicted. Certain states allow DACA holders to attend colleges and pay in-state tuition. But Texas has allowed that since 2001. If Texas' policies were more like those in North Carolina and Georgia, which have stricter higher-education rules and rank seventh and ninth, respectively, in the number of DACA applicants, the number of immigrants from Texas seeking the reprieve and work permits might actually be higher.

Texas is higher in the total number of undocumented immigrant residents. New data from the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project shows Texas had about 1.7 million unauthorized immigrants in 2012, and did not experience declines in unauthorized immigration during 2007-11, a period of declines in those numbers in the rest of the country.

“There was a limited impact of the recession in Texas,” Capps said, specifically citing the plummet in the construction industry in other parts of the country. “Los Angeles, Phoenix, Miami, the Atlanta metro area — they were all devastated. You didn’t see that type of bust in Texas.”

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In this edition of the Texas Weekly Newsreel: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz talks and talks, state Rep. Bill Callegari won't seek another term, Judge Ken Anderson resigns and a poetry reading.

You can view the video at: https://trib.it/1asDfsy

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This week, we asked the insiders in government and politics about college sports and college athletes, starting off with the big question — should college athletes be paid to play? — and finding a 49 percent to 49 percent split in the answer.

A 61 percent majority said student athletes should not be allowed to earn outside income from endorsements, signing memorabilia and the like. But they were even-handed, too, with 60 percent saying the colleges should not be allowed to use players’ names and faces in their own marketing without compensating the players for it.

Finally, we asked whether student athletes should continue to offered college scholarships if they were also allowed to be paid for playing. Slightly more than half of our insiders said they should be.

We collected comments along the way and have attached a full set. Here’s a sampling of what the insiders said:

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

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Should college athletes be paid to play?

• "Why pretend any longer that college sports are for student athletes. It is professional."

• "You mean in addition to free tuition, room, board, trainers, tutors, and athletic clothing?"

• "They are being paid with full-ride scholarships and amenities that the typical college student can only dream about. And they're receiving an education that will serve them long after their knees won't."

• "You mean above-the-board?"

• "College sports should remain amateur and unpaid -- to paraphrase the Little Prince, what the NCAA says they are, they should be really -- a program that allows kids to participate in sports while pursuing an academic degree."

• "They make the School tons of money."

• "I would feel a lot more justified in booing teenagers if I knew they were at least drawing a paycheck."

• "College is about education, not sports."

• "The NCAA and its universities have created a modern form of slavery and no one is outraged by it. The student athlete sacrifices his body; gets to live with long-term health issues; and as a whole make billions of dollars for a select group of men and institutions. And what do they get? Nada! There is something morally wrong with this picture."

• "They basically are getting paid, anybody priced Baylor lately?"

• "A really big business where everyone does very well except the people actually doing the work."

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Should college players be allowed to earn outside income from endorsements, selling signatures, and the like?

• "I think they should but if they are on scholarship then whatever they earn should supplant scholarship money."

• "Yes. Split with universities for as long as student athlete wears the uniform. Put in escrow for use when degree is obtained."

• "But they should have to split it with the university and the NCAA and the broadcast carriers who give them the brand and the opportunity and platform to make money."

• "As long as controls are in place to ensure outcomes are not being paid for, then there is no reason to get in the way of this."

• "No. If a kid wants to become a professional, he should go pro."

• "That money should go to the scholarships for others not involved in athletics"

• "If the school is allowed to sell their jersey, if the NCAA is allowed to sell their likeness in perpetuity, then they ought to be able to share in those riches."

• "Yes. If someone wants to pay you for your signature on a jersey, go for it!"

• "YES! The question should be: Why shouldn't players be allowed to earn outside income from endorsements, etc."

• "Really? Please. These young men and women need to be grateful for the opportunity they are given as an athlete. Should professional athletes start getting a share of the TV revenue that their leagues get and a cut of the profit the team owners get? Not!"

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

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Should colleges — public or private — be allowed to use players names and faces in their own advertising and product deals without compensating the players?

• "Players should not be treated as a commodity but as a partner in generating profit for the school."

• "Will the colleges let me sell items with their brand without compensation? Ok then."

• "Of course they should. These athletes are getting plenty in return for their playing time."

• "No, but that doesn't mean the players should be compensated. Amateur is amateur."

• "Again, players have been treated as personal property by these institutions. Use them, abuse them, make as much money as possible from them, and then dispose of them for the next great thing."

• "This is not about the individual. Whatever happened to Big Team Little Me? Perhaps this is a reflection of our self-centered culture."

• "Yes, because the players ARE being compensated--they get to graduate debt-free. How many college students can say that?"

• "That's the deal. Even if they're not paid (and I think they should be), colleges use sports for fundraising, and nothing brings in the money like an All-American."

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

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If student-athletes were paid, should they also be offered scholarships in addition to that pay?

• "The scholarships are the pay. Other students in more valued fields do not receive pay for significant work, like research related studies"

• "The schools make a lot of money off of their participation and work."

• "Most students are offered scholarships in some form or fashion. But, only a few students generate revenue. When the math club starts selling out stadiums, pay them on top of their scholarships too."

• "Non-student athletes are given scholarships and fellowship stipends regularly... bet you didn't even know that... why should a student-athlete be treated differently."

• "How about a guaranteed four-year scholarship, so that the kid can at least get an education - even if they tear an ACL."

• "Someone on a scholarship can also be on work study. Why shouldn't athletes?"

Our thanks to this week's participants: Gene Acuna, Cathie Adams, Brandon Aghamalian, Jenny Aghamalian, Victor Alcorta, Clyde Alexander, George Allen, Jay Arnold, Louis Bacarisse, Charles Bailey, Dave Beckwith, Andrew Biar, Allen Blakemore, Tom Blanton, Chris Britton, David Cabrales, Lydia Camarillo, Kerry Cammack, Snapper Carr, Janis Carter, Corbin Casteel, William Chapman, Kevin Cooper, Addie Mae Crimmins, Beth Cubriel, Randy Cubriel, Denise Davis, Hector De Leon, June Deadrick, Nora Del Bosque, Tom Duffy, Jeff Eller, Jack Erskine, John Esparza, Jon Fisher, Wil Galloway, Norman Garza, Dominic Giarratani, Bruce Gibson, Kinnan Golemon, Daniel Gonzalez, Jim Grace, Thomas Graham, Kathy Grant, John Greytok, Clint Hackney, Wayne Hamilton, Bill Hammond, John Heasley, Ken Hodges, Deborah Ingersoll, Cal Jillson, Bill Jones, Mark Jones, Robert Jones, Lisa Kaufman, Robert Kepple, Richard Khouri, Tom Kleinworth, Dale Laine, Nick Lampson, Pete Laney, Dick Lavine, James LeBas, Luke Legate, Ruben Longoria, Vilma Luna, Matt Mackowiak, Luke Marchant, Dan McClung, Mike McKinney, Robert Miller, Bee Moorhead, Mike Moses, Nelson Nease, Pat Nugent, Todd Olsen, Nef Partida, Gardner Pate, Robert Peeler, Jerry Philips, Wayne Pierce, Richard Pineda, Allen Place, Gary Polland, Jay Propes, Bill Ratliff, Brian Rawson, Karen Reagan, Tim Reeves, Patrick Reinhart, David Reynolds, Boyd Richie, Kim Ross, Grant Ruckel, Jason Sabo, Andy Sansom, Jim Sartwelle, Stan Schlueter, Bruce Scott, Robert Scott, Christopher Shields, Jason Skaggs, Brian Sledge, Ed Small, Todd Smith, Larry Soward, Leonard Spearman, Dennis Speight, Tom Spilman, Jason Stanford, Bill Stevens, Bob Strauser, Colin Strother, Charles Stuart, Michael Quinn Sullivan, Sherry Sylvester, Jay Thompson, Russ Tidwell, Trey Trainor, Vicki Truitt, Ware Wendell, David White, Darren Whitehurst, Seth Winick, Peck Young, Angelo Zottarelli.

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

Saturday, Sept. 28

• Fundraiser and birthday celebration for Sen. Carlos Uresti; St. Anthony Wyndham Hotel, San Antonio (7-11 p.m.)

Tuesday, Oct. 1

• Debate featuring candidates for lieutenant governor; Sosa Community Center, Houston (7 p.m.)
• Fundraiser for agriculture commissioner candidate Eric Opiela; Paloma Blanca, San Antonio (5:30-7 p.m.)

Thursday, Oct. 3

• Debate featuring candidates for lieutenant governor; Grace Community Church, Houston (7 p.m.)

The most violent prisons in the Texas state system share a common factor: They house a high proportion of mentally ill inmates. The Texas Tribune analyzed violent-incident data from 99 state prisons from 2006 to 2012, and found far more incident reports at facilities housing high numbers of mentally ill, violent offenders than at other prisons. Among the five units with the highest number of reports are the state’s three psychiatric facilities. In addition, the William P. Clements Unit, which is not a psychiatric facility, but houses 1,800 mentally ill inmates among a population of 3,500, is in that group, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice data.

Five months after an explosion at West Fertilizer Co., West continues to rebuild and its residents are on the slow and difficult road to recovery. And in Austin, state agencies are starting to implement recommendations to help ensure safe practices at facilities that hold such potentially dangerous materials. For example, State Fire Marshal Chris Connealy said that his office is compiling a list of all the facilities in Texas that store 10,000 pounds or more of ammonium nitrate. That information is scheduled to go online in November in the form of a searchable public database.

In an ongoing effort to restore Texans’ faith in the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, state leaders appointed new members to the committee that oversees it. Gov. Rick Perry appointed Angelos Angelou of Austin, founder and principal executive of Angelou Economics; Gerry Geistweidt, a Mason attorney; and Dr. William Rice of Austin, senior vice president of clinical innovation for St. David’s Healthcare and the Central and West Texas Division of the Hospital Corporation of America. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst appointed Houston businessman Ned Holmes; Dr. Craig Rosenfeld of Dallas, chief executive of Collaborative Medical Development; and Amy Mitchell, an attorney at Fulbright and Jaworski and a cancer survivor. A spokesman for House Speaker Joe Straus said the speaker plans to name his three appointees soon. 

Williamson County state district Judge Ken Anderson, who oversaw the wrongful murder conviction of Michael Morton in 1987, submitted a letter to the governor resigning his position effective immediately. Anderson is facing both civil and criminal court proceedings for his role in prosecuting Morton for the 1986 murder of his wife, Christine Morton. Attorneys for Morton allege that Anderson withheld critical evidence that pointed to Morton's innocence and that he lied to the judge about the existence of that evidence. Morton was sentenced to life in prison and spent nearly 25 years behind bars before DNA testing revealed that he was innocent and connected another man to his wife's killing. He was released from prison in 2011.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is offering another way for potential voters to obtain a photo ID needed to vote. Twenty-five mobile locations will begin processing the election identification certificates next week. The documents, which are free for applicants who meet voter requirements and show proof of identity and citizenship, are also available at driver's license offices. The announcement follows a DPS decision two weeks ago to extend the hours of about 50 driver’s license offices to include Saturdays to encourage more citizens to apply for the documents.

Amid widespread reports that she will run for Texas governor, state Sen. Wendy Davis released details about the announcement of her future plans next week. She will make the announcement at 3 p.m. on Oct. 3 in the auditorium where she received her high school diploma in 1981 — the Wiley G. Thomas Coliseum in Haltom City — mirroring the opening event of Kay Bailey Hutchison’s gubernatorial campaign in 2010. 

Gov. Rick Perry appointed:

• Jeff Brown to the open spot on the Texas Supreme Court, elevating a justice from Houston’s 14th Court of Appeals to the state’s highest civil court. Brown will take Justice Nathan Hecht’s place on the high court. The governor promoted Hecht to chief justice after Wallace Jefferson announced plans to resign from the court at the end of the month. Brown is a former state district judge and a private practice attorney before that. He served as a law clerk at the Texas Supreme Court, working for Justices Jack Hightower and Greg Abbott. Both Hecht and Brown will be on the ballot in 2014.

• Devon Anderson of Bellaire as Harris County District Attorney until after next year's election, replacing her husband, Mike Anderson, who succombed to cancer last month. Anderson is a criminal defense attorney, a former district judge and a former assistant Harris County DA. 

• Kem Thompson Frost of Katy to chief justice on Houston’s 14th Court of Appeals, where she has served as a justice since 1999.

State Reps. Tryon Lewis, R-Odessa, and Bill Callegari, R-Katy, won’t seek reelection in 2014, becoming the latest members of the current House to say they won’t be back. Ten of the dropouts are Republicans. Two — including Mark Strama, who resigned this summer and will be replaced in a special election in November — are Democrats. Republican Reps. Dan Branch of Dallas, Stefani Carter of Dallas, Brandon Creighton of Conroe, Harvey Hilderbran of Kerrville and Van Taylor of Plano are all seeking other offices. Others aren’t running for anything: John Davis, R-Houston; Craig Eiland, D-Galveston; Rob Orr, R-Burleson; and Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie.

Comptroller candidate Glenn Hegar picked up endorsements from five Republican Tarrant County state representatives: Giovanni Capriglione, Craig Goldman, Stephanie Klick, Matt Krause, and Bill Zedler.

Wayne Christian, running for railroad commissioner in a crowded GOP primary, won endorsements from Tim Lambert, a former national Republican committeeman and the current president of the Texas Home School Coalition, and from three leaders of Concerned Women for America: Michelle Smith, Carol Everett and Ann Hettinger.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison was named honorary chairman of the Independent Bankers Association of Texas Education Foundation, that trade group’s philanthropic arm.

The Republican Party of Texas will conduct a 2016 presidential straw poll of paid attendees at its 2014 state convention. The same idea was considered and then abandoned by the party in 2011. Their list is interesting. In addition to the local kids who might be running for president — Ted Cruz and Rick Perry — the RPT is inviting Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, John Kasich, Steve King, Rand Paul, Mike Pence, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Rick Santorum, and Scott Walker.