The Midday Brief: Aug. 23, 2010

Your afternoon reading:

"The race hasn’t budged since the last poll (July 14, Perry 50, White 41). What is significant is that White has spent buckets of money since the last poll and he hasn’t moved any numbers. Probably most Texans know how they are going to vote in this race." — Rasmussen: Perry 49%, White 41%

"The state will collect about a half billion dollars less from the revised business franchise tax this year than Comptroller Susan Combs estimated last November, a top aide to Combs testified today." — Combs aide: Franchise tax take off half a bill, Trail Blazers

"Gov. Rick Perry's decision not to meet with newspaper editorial boards this election cycle apparently also extends to education groups." — Perry declines education survey, Texas Politics

"Neither of the two BP "company men" on board the Deepwater Horizon at the time of a deadly April 20 well blowout has appeared at federal investigative hearings into the accident. But at a fourth round of hearings today in Houston, Shaun Clark, an attorney for BP's Robert Kaluza, spoke up for the first time." — BP "company man" unfamiliar with processes on Deepwater Horizon?, Houston Chronicle

New in The Texas Tribune:

"Republican Gov. Rick Perry maintains an 8-point lead over Democratic challenger Bill White, according to the latest statewide poll by Rasmussen Reports." — 2010: Rasmussen: Perry 49, White 41

"The Texas commission charged with aiding economies hit by military base closures will spend millions for a vaccine plant in Bryan-College Station — even though the region’s military base closed nearly five decades ago. Project GreenVax, which will be housed on the Texas A&M Health Science Center campus, beat out grant applications from communities that had far more recent base closures." — TMPC Gives Base Closure Grant to A&M Vaccine Plant

"Students are heading back to school this week, and some of them will begin learning about the birds and the bees. The Texas Education Code requires that abstinence be the focus of any sex education curriculum — but as Nathan Bernier of KUT News reports, there are some changes this year to how sex ed is being taught." — Some Texas Schools Modify Sex Education