Vol 33, Issue 11 Print Issue

C.J. Grisham, the founder of Open Carry Texas, (left) protests the SXSW Festival's no gun policy. A local Austin woman (right), who declined to give her name because she was concerned she would be harassed by gun rights activists, staged a counter-protest by taking off her shirt and shouting "More boobs, fewer guns" and "Boobs for peace" at passersby.
C.J. Grisham, the founder of Open Carry Texas, (left) protests the SXSW Festival's no gun policy. A local Austin woman (right), who declined to give her name because she was concerned she would be harassed by gun rights activists, staged a counter-protest by taking off her shirt and shouting "More boobs, fewer guns" and "Boobs for peace" at passersby.

More Flash Than Bang at Capitol Open-Carry Demonstration

Also, Texas intervenes in a land dispute between the feds and landowners along the Red River and the U.S. House votes to intervene in a challenge to President Obama's executive action on immigration.

The Week in the Rearview Mirror

Gov. Greg Abbott pushed back forcefully in response to President Barack Obama's suggestion last week that Texas leaders are uninterested in improving voter turnout because of things like the leadership's push for a voter ID law. "The fact is that voter fraud is rampant," Abbott said this week.

The Texas Supreme Court denied a request Monday aiming to rewrite the ballot language for an upcoming referendum that will determine how the city of Austin regulates vehicle-for-hire companies like Uber and Lyft.

A survey taken after Travis County state District Judge Julie Kocurek was shot last fall in the driveway of her Austin home found that hundreds of Texas judges have feared for their safety at least once in the last two years.

Texas A&M University jumped 38 spots in the 2017 U.S. News and World Report law school rankings released Wednesday, marking the biggest improvement among any graduate school in the state.

State agencies and the companies they contract with must use the E Verify system to screen for undocumented workers, Attorney General Ken Paxton said in an opinion Thursday.

The number of children sleeping in Child Protective Services offices shot up after an internal policy change at the agency limited child placements, according to state data released Thursday.

A federal judge on Thursday said the Texas Department of Public Safety hasn't yet offered a good enough reason to keep a civil rights lawsuit filed by the mother of Sandra Bland from moving forward.

A Collin County court tossed out an attempt to stop payments to the special prosecutors appointed to pursue the financial fraud case against Paxton on Thursday.

Two Houston congressmen are asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether unequal distribution of voting machines and polling locations in Harris County disenfranchised minority voters during the March 1 primary election.

After a new round of states voted Tuesday, Texas still had the second lowest voting-age participation rate of all that have held both Democratic and Republican primaries so far, behind only Louisiana.

Two state representatives — Bryan Hughes and David Simpson — are set to face off for an open position in the Texas senate after the third place candidate, Red Brown, said Monday he will not request a recount. Simpson edged Brown by 13 votes for the second spot in the runoff for the East Texas-based Senate District 1.

Disclosure: Texas A&M University, Uber and Lyft are corporate sponsors of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.

Political People and their Moves

Maj. Gen. John F. Nichols of Spring Branch was reappointed as Adjutant General of Texas by Gov. Greg Abbott for a term set to expire Feb. 1, 2018. The adjutant general is commander of the 24,283 soldiers and airmen of the Texas Military Department (TMD).

President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday five nominations to serve on the federal bench in Texas. They are:
•    Walter David Counts III, Western District
•    E. Scott Frost, Northern District
•    James Wesley Hendrix, Northern District
•    Irma Carrillo Ramirez, Northern District
•    Karen Gren Scholer, Eastern District

The Ted Cruz campaign announced the newest members of its national finance team.  As the GOP presidential field narrows, it’s notable here the presence of former backers of Govs. George W. Bush and Rick Perry as well as former Marco Rubio supporters.

•    Jim Dannenbaum, Houston
•    Carey Maguire, Dallas
•    Kit and Charlie Moncrief, Fort Worth
•    Marsland and Richard Moncrief, Fort Worth
•    Dan Brouillette, San Antonio
•    Reed Morian, Houston
•    Peggy and Dan Allen Hughes, San Antonio

Texas Right to Life is endorsing former state Rep. Wayne Christian in his runoff for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission. In a news release late Tuesday, the anti-abortion group said it has built a strong relationship over the years with the East Texas Republican, “fighting for the rights of preborn, elderly, and disabled Texans.”

Former Harris County GOP Chairman Jared Woodfill and former RPT Chairwoman Cathie Adams, who are looking to unseat Tom Mechler and Amy Clark as chair and vice chair at the May state party convention, picked up the support on Tuesday of Julie McCarty, president of the NE Tarrant County Tea Party.

The Texas Advocacy Project announced the addition of four new board members — Marci Braden of Frost Bank, Sheri Hunter of King & Spalding, fitness entrepreneur Shonnery Pettit and Alison Walgren of Deloitte Consulting. The nonprofit’s mission is to provide free legal services to survivors of domestic and dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.

The McGuire Woods Consulting firm announced a couple of new hires and a promotion on Tuesday. Amber Hausenfluck, who joined the firm in January 2015 as an assistant vice president of state government relations, was promoted to vice president. As to those hires: former Greg Abbott deputy press secretary Cait Meisenheimer was hired as assistant vice president and Chasity Tillis, former chief of staff to state Rep. Marisa Marquez, was brought on as a research assistant.

Disclosure: Frost Bank and Deloitte are corporate sponsors of The Texas Tribune. Dan Allen Hughes Jr. is a major donor to the Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.