The Midday Brief: July 1, 2010

Your afternoon reading:

"Barack Obama's latest call for immigration reform fell flat today with one of his Texas critics. For over a year, Sen. John Cornyn has rapped the president for giving no more than lip service to an issue he promised to tackle during his first year in office." — Texas Sen. John Cornyn rips Obama after immigration reform speech, The Dallas Morning News

"Sen. John Cornyn pinned Democrats with the failure of a plan to extend jobless aid for millions of unemployed workers, only a day after Democrats fell a vote short of pushing through their version of the legislation." — Cornyn blames Democrats for failure to extend unemployment benefits, Trail Blazers

"Two Plano school principals violated the Constitution when they confiscated Christian-themed materials, including candy cane pens, that students planned to hand out at school, an appeals court has ruled." — Appeals court rules against Plano ISD in Christian candy cane case, The Dallas Morning News

"Jonathon McClellan, the Central Texas regional field director for Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign, had his head shaved Wednesday because he raised fewer dollars in 24 hours than Perry Political Director David White." — Perry staffer loses his hair in fundraising challenge, First Reading

New in The Texas Tribune:

"As lawmakers on the Sunset Advisory Commission prepare to vote on changes to the troubled Division of Workers' Compensation, physician fraud investigators inside the agency say Sunset reviewers failed to uncover serious problems there — and then recommended changes that would take key decisions away from trained physicians and give them to bureaucrats." — Sunset Commission to Vote on Workers' Comp Changes

"When former Gov. Dolph Briscoe Jr. died Sunday after a long illness, Gov. Rick Perry reached out to the U.S. government, asking for flags to be flown at half-mast at federal buildings in Texas. The response, Perry's office says, was a resounding no." — Feds To Perry: No U.S. Flags at Half-Staff

"The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has voted not to allow higher levels of E. coli bacteria in the state's water sources, despite staff concerns that the current rules are unnecessarily stringent." — TCEQ Votes Not To Relax E. Coli Rules