The latest state government news from The Texas Tribune.
Forget about issues. The GOP primary for this Senate seat in Central Texas is all about honesty and integrity. Incumbent Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, says of his challenger, Ben Bius, "I can't remember the last time he said something truthful." Bius says of Ogden, "I can forgive a man a policy difference if he keeps his word." Full Story
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The Texas Attorney General's office is throwing its own punches at the attorney who sued the state over its storage of infant blood samples, saying all he wanted was the headlines. Full Story
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Republican candidate Milton Rister says he's got nothing to do with the speaker-bashing in an email making the rounds in Georgetown. Full Story
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As Texas education officials predicted when objecting to federal Race to the Top grant rules, the feds may now be moving to tie billions more in federal funds to the adoption of national curriculum standards, according to an Education Week report. Full Story
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Did it just get easier for governmental agencies in Texas to delay releasing public information? Full Story
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"[S]omeone who began working at age 10 on the family cattle ranch." Full Story
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Is this the year that independent-minded state Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, finally gets his comeuppance from conservatives? Full Story
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When they were sued last year for storing baby blood samples without parental consent, Texas health officials said they'd done it for medical research. They never said they turned over the blood spots to the federal government to help build a vast DNA database. A Texas Tribune review of nine years' worth of e-mails and internal documents on the Department of State Health Services’ newborn blood screening program, released after the state settled the case so quickly that it never reached the discovery phase, shows an effort to limit the public’s knowledge of the program. Full Story
For the third event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the mayor of San Antonio about the big issues facing the nation's seventh-largest city, how his early notions of the job squared with the reality of being in it, his age, his ethnicity, his party affiliation in a nonpartisan office and, of course, his future plans. Full Story
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Ron Paul wins the first big straw poll of the 2012 race for the GOP nomination. Full Story
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"[N]obody in the race — perhaps on the entire ballot — offers a more admirable life story." Full Story
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Ramsey on Flintstone truthers, Thevenot on the explosion of "dual-credit" enrollees and the potential sacking of teachers when student test scores don't measure up, Ramshaw on government-subsidized child care providers with troubled track records, Stiles's enhanced state employee salary app and new dangerous day care app, Aguilar on our commie trading partner and the cost of being undercounted in the next census, Philpott on the legal wrangling over gay divorce and how social media fanned the flames of Debra Medina's 9/11 flap, and our roundup of powderkeg party primaries: Hu in HD-20, M. Smith in CD-23, Ramsey in HD-98, Hamilton in HD-127, Grissom HD-76 and HD-78, and Rapoport in SBOE 5. The best of our best from February 15 to 19, 2010. Full Story
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Voters in Texas’ 15 largest counties cast more than twice as many ballots during the first three days of early voting for the March Primary as they did during the same span in 2006. Full Story
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Introducing the House Select Committee on Transportation Funding. Full Story
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Four plausible candidates are vying for the GOP nomination to succeed retiring state Rep. Joe Crabb, R-Atascocita, and each has a decent shot. The tough part for voters in this reliably Republican north Houston suburb is differentiating between them. Full Story
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More than 120 federally subsidized day care centers had their licenses denied or revoked by the state for violations of regulations and minimum standards in the last two years. Map their locations and drill down into the records by the provider name or action taken by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Full Story
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Texas, that famous bastion of conservatism, has become a leading exporter of agricultural products to communist Cuba — second only to Louisiana among the 50 states. Full Story
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"Their best-known and most effective candidate." Full Story
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State health officials have pulled guidelines allowing abortion facilities to use pre-recorded telephone messages to provide informed consent to patients off of their website. They said concerns raised by Rep. Frank Corte, who is seeking an AG opinion on the matter, "may have merit." Full Story
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Democratic Lt. Gov. candidate Linda Chavez-Thompson will be appearing in selected Texas TV markets starting on Friday, with this colorful new spot. Full Story