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All Coverage

  • Nip & Tuck

    By Ross Ramsey

    There aren't any real surprises on Gov. Rick Perry's agenda for the special session starting next week, and not much controversy, either: He clearly wants to get lawmakers through this thing in a hurry. Full Story 

  • Veto Eve

    By Ross Ramsey

    We're entering the last days available to the governor to consider bills. Anything not vetoed by midnight on Father's Day will become law, with or without Rick Perry's signature. Full Story 

  • Something Special

    By Ross Ramsey

    There will be a special session to finish work left undone by the Legislature, but the final date hasn't been chosen, and Gov. Rick Perry has declined to say what's going to be on the agenda. Full Story 

  • Out With a Bang

    By Ross Ramsey

    The legislative session ended like a bad marriage, with the House walking out before the argument was over and the Senate, in a sulk, staying behind to break all the plates. Full Story 

  • End Games

    By Ross Ramsey

    It's down to fixing the differences between House bills and Senate bills and getting final sign-offs and sending them to the governor for signatures, vetoes, or approval without fingerprints (unsigned bills go into law automatically). Full Story 

  • Just Another Day at the Office

    By Ross Ramsey

    Remember the cartoons where the sheepdog and the coyote would meet at the time clock every morning, say hello, ask about the families, punch in, harass each other all day, then greet each other pleasantly as they punched out for the evening? Full Story 

  • Crunch Time

    By Ross Ramsey

    You get the feeling that this legislative session is just like the last one, run in reverse. Instead of starting with a whimper and closing with a bang, it started with a bang. It shows no signs of ending with one. Full Story 

  • Spending Theirs, Saving Ours

    By Ross Ramsey

    The Texas Senate approved a $182.2 billion budget that includes over $10 billion in federal stimulus money, avoids across-the-board cuts in state agencies, and leaves the state's $9.1 billion Rainy Day Fund untouched. Full Story 

  • Cutting the Strings

    By Ross Ramsey

    Texas can get $556 million in federal stimulus money without any permanent changes in its unemployment insurance program, according to an advisory letter from the U.S. Department of Labor. Full Story 

  • March Madness

    By Ross Ramsey

    Our bracket says Pitt will win the NCAA men's basketball championship. That doesn't mean it'll happen. And if it does happen, we won't be able to claim (honestly, anyway) that we knew it was gonna happen. We'll just have guessed right. [eds. note: After this was written, Pitt lost to Villanova, failed to make the Final Four, ruined our bracket, and painfully proved our point about predicting the future.] Full Story 

  • Perry: We're Not Gonna Take It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Gov. Rick Perry says the state should turn down $555 million in federal stimulus money tied to unemployment insurance, because the requirements are too strict, prompting some lawmakers to say they'll push to get enough support for the program to go around him. Full Story 

  • Up Next: The Ides of March

    By Ross Ramsey

    The "county fair" section of the legislative session — the part at the beginning that's taken up with glad-handing and rattlesnake roundup demonstrations and mariachis and pre-schoolers and city and county and association "days" at the Capitol — is coming to a close. Full Story 

  • Brother, Can You Spare $556 Million?

    By Ross Ramsey

    You're really out in the weeds when you find yourself listening to arguments about reform provisions for unemployment insurance, but that's the first of what might be a series of firefights over the federal stimulus money available to the state. Full Story 

  • One Decade at a Time

    By Ross Ramsey

    That noise you hear in the Senate and the House isn't just partisan barking — it's the early signal that, in two years, those lawmakers will be drawing political maps and spilling political blood. Full Story