The latest Texas Legislature news from The Texas Tribune.
After shocking abuse was uncovered at Texas Youth Commission facilities in 2007, lawmakers successfully overhauled the state juvenile justice system. Three years later, advocates worry that budget woes will halt that progress. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TYC-population.png)
While the right and left don't agree on much, both sides stipulate that the state's budget mess is a multibillion-dollar problem. In the debut of our new video series, the executive director of the progressive Center for Public Policy Priorities, former state district judge Scott McCown, and the director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, former state Rep. Talmadge Heflin, debate the best way to dig us out of the hole — and how we got into it in the first place. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/mccownheflin_.png)
Tribune news partner WFAA-TV reports that state Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, and her husband are driving cars owned by a highway contractor doing millions of dollars in business with the state. All the while, Harper-Brown sits on the influential House Transportation Committee. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Screen_shot_2010-06-17_at_9.22.32_PM.png)
Is the boiling battle between Texas and the Environmental Protection Agency slowing to a simmer? Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/oilrefinerysmokestack.jpg)
Ramshaw and the Houston Chronicle's Terri Langford on incidents of abuse and mistreatment at residential treatment centers, M. Smith on the state Republican Party platform and 10th Amendment embracers, Galbraith on a pipeline project raising crude concerns and the most important word in water law, Ramsey on former officeholders who are now lobbyists and the possibility of a speaker's race, Grissom on a fight over solar power in Marfa, Hamilton and Aguilar on the TxDOT audit, Philpott on budget cuts affecting school districts and my conversation with Dallas County D.A. Craig Watkins: The best of our best from June 7-11, 2010. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TribWeekJune11-2010.jpg)
How many former state officeholders are registered to lobby in Austin? The answer: 65, or a little less than 5 percent of the 1,475 lobbyists on the rolls at the Texas Ethics Commission, according to a Texas Tribune analysis. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/lawmakers-and-lobbyists.png)
Lawmakers have said it before, and today they said it again: Sweeping top-down change is needed within the Texas Department of Transportation. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/roadphoto.jpg)
State Sen. Jeff Wentworth calls new Texas State University System Chancellor Brian McCall a "Johnny-come-lately opportunist" and says he knows who should have gotten the job: state Sen. Jeff Wentworth. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/jeff_wentworth.jpg)
Nobody's openly campaigning right now, but there's talk of who might succeed Joe Straus if he stumbles before January. Attribute the speculation to inertia: The House's top job was in play for at least four years before Straus won it 17 months ago, and members and the lobby and the press and other gawkers have been trained to study every new complaint, slight, reward and compliment for signs of a coup. While he appears to be on solid ground going into his second session behind the podium, don't erase the possibility of a contest. It's an uncertain environment: It's an election year, Straus is green and the Capitol is full of people who are constantly looking for a better deal than the one they've got. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/bba19f9a03cbce6e8eb448c4b7ea733b/BD%20INC%20Lege%20Straus%202010)
Forecasters pegging a looming state budget shortfall at $18 billion don't have Gov. Rick Perry particularly worried. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/3883060b1ee2344aa4fb7ccd0e4afa12/DONT%20USE%20Perry%20and%20White%20Split%202010)
Ramshaw on geriatric care in state prisons, with Miller's photo essay inside those walls; M. Smith interviews the state's newest Supreme Court justice, Debra Lehrmann; Aguilar finds fewer Mexicans seeking asylum in the U.S; Galbraith sorts out the politics of pollution and whether our air is dangerous to breathe; Thevenot discovers authorities writing tickets for misbehavior to elementary school kids; Philpott reports on early hearing about political redistricting; Kreighbaum examines fines levied against polluters and finds they're often smaller than the economic benefits of the infractions; and Stiles and Babalola spotlight some of our data projects from our first seven months online: The best of our best from May 31 to June 4, 2010. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/tribweek-june05-2010.jpg)
In this week's TribCast, Ross, Evan, Ben and Reeve discuss the summer political fundraising season, TxDOT's audit, how population projections will impact into redistricting and the politics of pollution. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TT-TribCast-002.png)
The state's tax on corporations could end up half a billion dollars shy of Comptroller Susan Combs' predictions, officials with her office say. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/bcdbc75316456ea3e99b88114b53a557/BD%20INC%20Susan%20Combs%2001%202009)
The Fort Hood shooter made his first courtroom appearance Tuesday, but a trial, the military court decided, won't happen until October. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/sheriff.jpg)
With the rise of get-tough juvenile crime policies across Texas, the municipal courthouse has become the new principal’s office for students who fight, curse their teachers or are generally “disorderly” — even in elementary schools. Campus police in the Austin, Houston and Dallas ISDs, among others, write thousands of citations per year, with young students tickted egularly and minority students targeted disproportionately. Fines of $250 or $500 are not uncommon, court officials say. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/schooldistrictcitation.jpg)
The following are the answers to our special end-of-session quiz game, Sh*t My Texas Legislator Said. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/341cdd68dcf9d9162f3f9bc2a7447c09/DO%20NOT%20USE%20Quote%20Match%2001%202011)
Fresh off of asking for five percent cuts from state agencies and actually approving $1.2 billion of what was proposed, the state's top three leaders are asking for ten percent cuts in the amounts the agencies will be seeking next time the Legislature meets. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/BudgetShortfall002.png)
A majority of Texans believe the state is on the right track, while a plurality thinks the country is on the wrong track, according to a new University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/MayPoll2010_001-1.png)
The state Division of Workers' Compensation has uncovered "tens of millions of dollars in unnecessary medical care" in the last several years, but its commissioner failed to sanction the doctors involved, a key former employee told members of the Sunset Advisory Commission on Tuesday night. Full Story
A new Rasmussen Reports poll finds that 57 percent of Texans favor legalizing casino gambling as a means to draw down the coming budget shortfall, but only 21 percent support higher taxes. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/gambling-cards-dice.jpg)