The Midday Brief: March 8, 2010

Your afternoon reading:

"Unfair Park tried repeatedly to ask Watkins about the expenditures from his campaign funds, but he didn't respond to written questions and several phone calls, except to assert through a spokesman -- his cousin -- that he has done nothing wrong." — Family Affair: District Attorney Craig Watkins's Family Rolling in Dough From His Campaign Fund — Dallas Observer

"One in three black boys born in 2001 is likely to wind up incarcerated in his lifetime, compared with one in 17 for whites." — Houston's cradle to prison pipeline — The Dallas Morning News

"Though he's a conservative, Isett made a plea for lawmakers to consider tightening the state's constitutional spending cap, so they can be more compassionate in crunch times." — Lame duck budget writer: It's not as bad as '03 —

"National Democrats have done a good job of spinning the myth that Democrats are resurgent in Texas. In fact, the D’s success has been limited to one area, the Texas House of Representatives." — Perry's case against Bill White — Burkablog

"It’s an interesting strategy: Separate politics from actual political issues. But it’s one that the Republican Party is adopting nationally (see Congress; hear Rush Limbaugh and Fox News)." — Reality-Free Republicanism — Texas Observer

New in The Texas Tribune:

"If the Texas approach to security spending seems diffuse and decentralized, so is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s methodology for distributing and overseeing the billions that have been spent since Sept. 11." — Potties, Pickups and Preparedness

"Too many of the agency and department heads, even in the Reagan administration, fell in love with their agency or department and became captured by the permanent bureaucracy." — George W. Bush Was No Ronald Reagan

"Last week The Rothenberg Political Report, a non-partisan newsletter in DC, moved the Texas governor's race from 'Clear Advantage' Perry to 'Narrow Advantage.'" — More of DC Rates Perry as Vulnerable