News from around the state

Austin American-Statesman: Economic development money in Legislature’s cross hairs
The state’s budget woes are putting economic development funds in the Legislature’s cross hairs.

Texas Tribune: Why Put These Issues on the Emergency List?
Abortion politics is back on center stage in Texas, with Gov. Rick Perry putting legislation that failed twice in the last four years on his list of top priorities for the Texas Legislature.

Austin American-Statesman: Dems left longing for dreaded bill from ’09 session
The inevitability of 2011 approval of a voter ID bill in Texas was cast in stone on Election Day 2010 when the GOP won its first-ever supermajority in the Texas House, the chamber where the measure died in 2009 when outnumbered Democrats talked it to death.

El Paso Times: Photo ID: It won’t hinder voting process
New legislation requiring Texas voters to produce a photo ID at the ballot box was a sure thing since Republicans took overwhelming control of the Texas Legislature this session.

BurkaBlog: Sen. Patrick on the Tea Party and social conservatism
Last week, having read Wayne Slater’s commentary in the Dallas Morning News that the governor’s emergency issue were Tea Party issues, I questioned the inclusion of the sonogram bill as a Tea Party issue.

Texas Tribune: Insiders on Voter ID and Other Emergency Issues
This week, we asked our insiders about voter fraud — which was simultaneously being cussed and discussed in the Texas Senate debate over photo voter ID — to see whether they think it’s a real problem (14 percent), a political issue (71 percent) or both (16 percent).

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Straus picks will tell if area reps pay for opposition
AUSTIN – By the time you read this Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the presiding officer of the Texas Senate, may have already appointed or re-appointed all 31 members to an average of four committees each

Dallas Morning News: Hispanic surge, metro area growth could reshape Texas’ political future
When the first Texas numbers gush from the U.S. Census Bureau over the next few weeks, they’ll show a state more diverse and more divided than ever.

Texas Tribune: A Conversation With Michael Williams
For our latest TribLive conversation, I sat down with the soon-to-be-ex railroad commissioner and declared 2012 U.S. Senate candidate to talk about why he’s qualified to serve, what he thinks of his potential primary opponents and a range of issues that he’d face if he were in D.C. today.

The Hill: Republican candidate hopes early start nets him Hutchison’s Senate seat
Texas Republican Michael Williams hopes his early entry into the race for retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s (R-Texas) seat will give him momentum in the crowded primary field.

Dallas Morning News: Dallas mayor faces dilemma as he’s caught between the office he has and the lure of a Senate campaign
Tom Leppert must decide whether to resign as mayor before his term ends in June, a decision that could shape his political future and radically change the face of Dallas, even if only for a few months.

The Battalion: Senator candidate visits Aggieland
Red, white and blue flew in front of Victor’s Shoe and Boot Repair on Texas Avenue. Supporters arrived to the parking lot to see Elizabeth Ames Jones, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate.

San Angelo Standard-Times: West Texas reps not interested in filling KBH shoes
WASHINGTON — A “Texan wanted” sign is going up in the U.S. Senate, but West Texas lawmakers aren’t interested.

Wichita Falls Times Record News: North Texas delegation wants no part of Senate
WASHINGTON — A “Texan wanted” sign is going up in the U.S. Senate, but North Texas lawmakers aren’t interested.

San Antonio Express-News: Is it raining yet? Even some Republicans think it might be
AUSTIN — Even among some Republicans, the rainy-day fund doesn’t look quite as off-limits as GOP Gov. Rick Perry made it sound just a few weeks ago.

Houston Chronicle: Yes, voters despise taxes — and soon budget cuts
They say politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose.

Dallas Morning News: Texas slips in per-pupil education spending among states
AUSTIN — Texas has dropped sharply below the national average in per-pupil spending over the past decade, a new comparison shows, and could plummet further as lawmakers consider changes that would deprive schools of up to $5 billion a year.

Houston Chronicle: Furloughs, pay cuts for teachers urged as option
AUSTIN — School districts should be allowed to give teachers unpaid furloughs and cut their salaries to help deal with a funding shortfall that one estimate says could cost 100,000 jobs, a leading state senator says.

McAllen Monitor: Teach for America’s future uncertain in state, Valley
A new education study will land on Texas lawmakers’ desks today to determine if Teach For America, which places nearly 200 top college graduates in Rio Grande Valley schools each year, is worth taxpayers’ investment.

Dallas Morning News: Dallas ISD building new schools despite changed landscape since voters approved them
Backhoes, bulldozers and construction crews across Dallas are busy building schools at breakneck speed to open 14 campuses in the coming years — all funded by a $1.3 billion bond package approved in 2008.

Wichita Falls Times Record News: Cuts costly for ‘all of us’
School districts across North Texas are bracing for cuts as the state Legislature hammers out the budget.

Bryan-College Station Eagle: Loftin: Cuts can’t keep A&M down
Texas A&M could face a $61 million reduction in state formula funding for the two-year period that begins in September, in addition to a $13 million cut in the Competitive Knowledge Fund and $12 million in financial aid mostly for the neediest students, Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin said Friday.

McAllen Monitor: Looming cuts have UTB-TSC weighing choices
Nothing illustrates the quandary Alan Artibise finds himself in these days better than UTB-TSC’s office of development — specifically, what to do with the office and its budget.

El Paso Times: Hughes and Reyes: Lawmakers must ‘Make Education a Priority’ in Texas
Faced with a $27 billion budget shortfall, our state legislators are challenged with difficult decisions this session. As they consider legislation, it is critical that they make education a priority.

New York Times: A $60 Million Palace for Texas High School Football
ALLEN, Tex. — From his office window, Steve Williams surveyed the chaos of construction. His view consisted of rocks and dirt beneath bulldozers and cranes, but where others might see excess, he saw something brazen, bold and gloriously Texan.

Associated Press (Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel): Texas may eliminate steroid testing program
When Texas began testing tens of thousands of high school athletes for steroids, the goal was to stop teens from taking dangerous performance-enhancing drugs. The death of a 17-year-old baseball player in a Dallas suburb had drawn national attention to the hazard.

Texas Tribune: As State Fights Reform, Some Seek to Implement It
One House Republican wants to create the state health insurance exchange required by the federal health care reform law for fear the feds will do it for Texas.

Houston Chronicle: State highway fund crisis: Are we there yet?
AUSTIN — Texas soon will be shelling out more per year to pay back money it borrowed for road construction than it spends from its quickly vanishing pile of cash to build new highways.

Houston Chronicle: Light rail expansion on the line
WASHINGTON — Republican conservatives on Capitol Hill are threatening to chuck a federal mass transit program that promises at least $900 million for Houston Metro — a move that could dramatically curtail plans to expand light rail with the Southeast and North lines.

Austin American-Statesman: Is Interstate 35-Texas 130 swap proposal kooky or ingenious?
So a state report last week suggested that Interstate 35 and the Texas 130 tollway swap names and roles and, to some degree, tolls.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Texas budget plan would end program that gets polluting vehicles off road
AUSTIN — A 9-year-old program credited with curbing pollution in the Metroplex by taking thousands of clunkers off the road would be dismantled under a draft state budget, but motorists in the region would apparently continue paying the inspection surcharge that finances the program, local officials say.

Lufkin Daily News: Two organizations claim big money influences Gohmert, others in Clean Air Act votes
Two national entities took a stand against the 123 members of Congress wanting to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from updating Clean Air Act standards.

Los Angeles Times: Oil pipeline plan riles up East Texans
PORT ARTHUR — Texas has rarely met an oil facility it didn’t like.

San Antonio Express-News: At TCEQ, it’s full steam ahead
If anyone ever doubted that environmental regulators in Texas favor polluters over reasonable oversight, recent events should clear things up.

Lisa P. Jackson (El Paso Times): EPA notes city’s work on clean air, energy
The first job of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is to safeguard Americans from health threats like toxic chemicals, contaminated water and pollution in the air we breathe.

Abilene Reporter-News: Solar industry heats up worldwide but Texas playing catch-up
The 50-megawatt solar thermal power plant will be built on Indian soil, half the world away from Texas.

KHOU: Galveston dad wants ‘bath salts’ banned after son’s death
GALVESTON COUNTY, Texas—A Galveston man hopes to get a legal cocaine substitute banned after it reportedly led to his son’s suicide.

Texas Tribune: Texas Study Stresses Economic Progress Through Art
Disclosure: My great-grandfather was in the movie business.

McAllen Monitor: McAllen turns to state Legislature for help with water district
McALLEN — The long-running family feud between McAllen and a local water district appears headed to Austin — again.

Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel: Christian: We need Burmese to fill jobs
State Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center, said he doesn’t believe the Burmese refugees being brought to East Texas to work in poultry processing plants are taking jobs away from local residents.

Austin American-Statesman: Have changes that helped get things done led to legal problems for Austin council?
In May 1997, voters ended one of Austin’s most strife-ridden political eras by electing a relatively like-minded City Council majority led by a mayor promising to bring the warring factions together.

Grits for Breakfast: TDCJ reduced spending on prisoner food 13.5% since 2009
Here’s a little-discussed budget cut that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has already implemented over the last couple of years which I was unaware of before seeing it in the recently released analyses of the proposed House and Senate Budgets (available from LBB):

AP: Bryan-College Station Eagle: Texas authorities struggling to stop human trafficking
CORPUS CHRISTI — Authorities know that thousands of men, women and children are trafficked into Texas. Proving it in a court of law is another matter.

AP: Bryan-College Station Eagle: Texas marks 150th anniversary of secession
HUNTSVILLE — Sam Houston tried to tell Texans secession and joining the Confederacy wouldn’t work.

Galveston County Daily News: ‘We’re just tired of the fight’
GALVESTON — Jeff Collins and his wife might leave the island if things don’t change. Frustrated with a federal housing program and living in a battered home, they might shutter their local linen business, cross the causeway and move away.

San Angelo Standard-Times: Jeffs’ pre-trial hearing scheduled for today
SAN ANGELO, Texas — Warren Jeffs, the leader of the FLDS, is scheduled for a pretrial hearing today as his trial date for sexual assault is less than a month from now.

Victoria Advocate: Co-publishers to lead Advocate as third generation takes reins
For the first time in 31 years, the Victoria Advocate has a new publisher.

CNN: Bush takes swing at former press secretary
Washington (CNN) – Former President George W. Bush is landing a stinging jab at his former longtime aide and press secretary, Scott McClellan, saying the man who served as the public face of his administration for three years was irrelevant.

San Antonio Express-News: A $561 million pot of gold?
In an informational session Saturday that was part pep rally and part devotional, about 500 descendants of Spanish and Mexican land grantees met in San Antonio to hear proposed legislation that could bring them a form of justice their families have long sought:

San Antonio Express-News: Land grant heirs to meet in SA
Upward of 500 direct descendants of Spanish and Mexican land grantees — whose Tejano ancestors settled in what is now Texas between 1750 and 1850 — are meeting in San Antonio today.

New York Times: Bush Says He’s Done With Politics
President George W. Bush says he has left politics for good and has no plans to raise money and work for Republican candidates.