The Midday Brief: January 19, 2010
Your afternoon reading. Full Story
The latest demographics news from The Texas Tribune.
Your afternoon reading. Full Story
In Texas, they earn 35 percent less than their Anglo counterparts — a disparity that's bigger here than elsewhere. Is it because of education, age, discrimination, or some combination of the above? Full Story
As El Paso begins to wear the new off its hard-fought medical school, another Texas border community is starting on the long road to establishing its own. University of Texas System officials are evaluating how long it will take and how much it could cost to train the next generation of doctors in the Rio Grande Valley. Full Story
The GOP challengers to Rick Perry released new border policy initiatives this week. Ben Philpott, who's covering the governor's race for KUT News and the Tribune, filed this report. Full Story
Two days before they take the stage to debate in Dallas, Republican gubernatorial candidates are rolling out their plans for what will assuredly be a featured topic. Full Story
Just because the Republican debates will make for good television, don’t forget the joys of a live show. Today, the State Board of Education is coming to town Full Story
U.S. and Mexican authorities can still put aside their differences long enough to link the two countries together. Full Story
Ramshaw's four-parter on the rural health care condundrum and depressing take-out on sexual abuse in youth lock-ups. Ramsey on filing day follies and the untimely death of a Democratic mainstay. Aguilar on the U.S. government's detention center mea culpa. Grissom on alien deportations in the name of making our streets safer. Rapoport on the organization and association endorsement dance. Hamilton on whether coattails exist. Hu and Philpott's multimedia profile of Linda Chavez-Thompson. And Philpott on big gubernatorial campaign bucks and even bigger candidate angst over the ways journalists are using social and new media to cover them. The best of our best from January 4 to January 8, 2010. Full Story
Immigration advocates say the feds are deporting thousands of illegal aliens who are minor offenders and some who've committed no crimes at all. But federal officials and local law enforcement argue that they're simply making Texas streets safer. Full Story
For the last year and a half, Tom Barry visited immigrant detention centers in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Here's what he found. Full Story
The U.S. government is imposing greater restrictions than necessary on most aliens held in custody for immigration violations, according to a charge made by ... the U.S. government. Full Story
The State Preservation Board today approved installation of a Texas Tejano Monument on the south lawn of the Capitol. The project has already taken nearly a decade. Full Story
She was born into a family of eight children near Lubbock, worked on cotton fields in her teens and later became a Hispanic labor leader. Now she's running for lieutenant governor. We've packaged resources (in various media platforms) on the latest entrant to the race. Full Story
The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the Texas Department of Public Safety does not have to halt its policy that prevents some legal U.S. residents from getting driver's licenses. Full Story
Roll your own political videos ... interactive travel maps of your federal and state legislators ... scary movies, to keep the kids out of the border's scary drug wars ... puttting dropouts back in class ... rates squeezing families out of home health care ... how many lobby and trade associations do teachers in Texas need? ... enjoying the silence before an expected two-month siege of political advertising ... the dean of Texas political writers gets shut out of the gubernatorial debates ... and we have an interactive database of the state's best and worst public schools. The best of our best for a short news week, from December 19 to 26, 2009. Full Story
Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster might have to change his tune about his idyllic border home after this week. Foster was having lunch Tuesday with Mexican officials across the border in Piedras Negras when a gunmen started spraying the place with bullets. Full Story
We added more people this year than any other state — more than Florida, Arizona, California, Nevada and Colorado combined. Full Story
The El Paso Brut Sun Bowl has sold out more quickly than ever in its 76-year history, officials said today. The sellout comes less than a week after the Oklahoma City daily The Oklahoman, ran a story about how the raging violence in Juarez was keeping many Sooner fans from buying tickets Full Story
U.S. Border Patrol agents launched Operation Detour to shock kids away from Mexican drug cartel recruiters. Now they're expanding the program across the entire southwest border. Full Story
Latinos are expected to become the majority demographic group in Texas by 2015, according to some estimates. But they're still not voting in big numbers at the ballot box. Full Story