The Midday Brief: June 3, 2010

Your afternoon reading:

"BP said this morning that it has cut through the leaking pipe at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and hopes to cap the gushing crude within a few hours. Efforts to saw through the riser pipe faltered Wednesday when a diamond-wire saw jammed halfway through the pipe. Robots operated from the surface worked 12 hours to remove the stuck saw, then used shears to sever the rest of the pipe, creating a rougher cut than hoped for — but a complete cut all the same." — BP cuts pipe, hopes to cap leaking crude within hours, Houston Chronicle

As Congress investigated its role in the doomed Deep Horizon oil rig, Halliburton donated $17,000 to candidates running for federal office, giving money to several lawmakers on committees that have launched inquiries into the massive spill. — Halliburton campaign donations spike, Politico

"Five managers, including two from Spring, of a Houston-based company have been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly conspiring to unlawfully employ illegal immigrants, officials announced Wednesday." — Managers at Houston firm indicted in federal immigration case, Houston Chronicle

"Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, a man who rarely chastises anything Texan, has lashed out against the state's abysmal child hunger ranking." — Staples confronts state on child hunger problem, Trail Blazers

New in The Texas Tribune:

"Texas’ “geriatric” inmates (55 and older) make up just 7.3 percent of Texas’ 160,000-offender prison population, but they account for nearly a third of the system’s hospital costs. Prison doctors routinely offer up the oldest and sickest of them for medical parole, a way to get those who are too incapacitated to be a public threat and have just months to live out of medical beds that Texas’ quickly aging prison population needs. They’ve recommended parole for 4,000 such inmates within the last decade. But the state parole board has only agreed in a quarter of these cases, leaving the others to die in prison — and on the state’s dime." — Dying on the State's Dime

"Democrat Bill White's campaign has gone back to the drawing board and returned with a brand new take on Gov. Rick Perry." — Ads Infinitum: White Animates Perry

"The oil spill has so far bypassed Texas. But Houston could still see a big impact — in its courtrooms." — TribBlog: The Spillover Effect