Politics
Eyes of Texas on Senate seat
By Michael O’Brien, The Hill, 12 August 2008
WASHINGTON – A coterie of Texas Republicans have quietly lined up to succeed Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R), who has said she will leave office when her term ends in 2012, if not earlier.
Cornyn praises health care in Texas
By ALAN BERNSTEIN, Houston Chronicle, 12 August 2008
HOUSTON – U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, representing the state with the highest share of population without health insurance, said Tuesday that Texas is a national model for improving access to health care because it limited lawsuits against doctors.
Consultants finding top issue at the pumps - and in the polls
By Laylan Copelin, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 12 August 2008
AUSTIN – Socialite Paris Hilton and billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens aren't the only ones getting mileage out of high energy prices.
Government
Legislative panel gets earful about property tax frustrations
By Logan G. Carver, LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL, 13 August 2008
LUBBOCK – Apparently, some people don't like property taxes.
Legislator floats idea to help cover rising retiree benefit costs
By Robert Elder, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 13 August 2008
AUSTIN – City and county officials Tuesday welcomed the idea of a state-run investment fund that would help local governments pay for the mounting cost of retirees' health care.
Still no contract for Cameron County border fence
By Steve Sinclair, Valley Morning Star, 13 August 2008
HARLINGEN - There is no indication when construction will begin on the Cameron County segment of the border fence.
Texas Sen. Kim Brimer wants harsher penalties for rogue bus operators
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News, 12 August 2008
DALLAS – The only way to stop rogue operators like the owner of the bus that crashed in Sherman last week is to put them in jail, State Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, said Tuesday.
Lawmakers discuss requiring seat belts, tighter rules on buses
By GORDON DICKSON, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 13 August 2008
IRVING — Many of the 17 people killed in a motor coach crash Friday in Sherman would have survived if the bus had been equipped with seat belts, a state official testified Tuesday.
Applications for new bus companies put on hold
By JAMES PINKERTON and TERRI LANGFORD, Houston Chronicle, 12 August 2008
HOUSTON – Federal regulators froze all new bus company applications Tuesday as they scrambled to dispatch inspectors to Houston to review the records of drivers and companies following Friday's bus crash that left 17 dead in North Texas.
BUSES: Tough legislation with funding for enforcement needed to improve safety
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 13 August 2008
FORT WORTH – We’ve had it drummed into our heads for years: "Seat belts save lives."
Dispense with legal education muddle
By Michael A. Smith, Galveston County Daily News, 13 August 2008
GALVESTON – The Legislature needs to clear up a contradiction it created between the widely assumed intent of the Texas Open Meetings Act and the reality of the way school-district superintendents are picked.
Shapleigh: Insuring Greed
By Eliot Shapleigh, Rio Grande Guardian, 12 August 2008
EL PASO – Two weeks ago, I described Grover Norquist’s three-pronged attack on basic American values: tax cuts for the very wealthy; budget cuts that hurt hard-working American families; and starving government to the point where it is doomed to fail.
News
Texas Rangers looked into dozens of sex-abuse and bigamy charges involving polygamist sect
By ROBERT T. GARRETT, Dallas Morning News, 12 August 2008
AUSTIN — Texas Rangers were investigating 20 cases of sexual assault and some 50 bigamy cases against members of a polygamist sect last spring, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Official: More cases likely against Texas sect
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 13 August 2008
SAN ANTONIO – Texas Rangers are investigating roughly 20 alleged abuse cases and 50 alleged bigamy cases involving members of a polygamist sect, a Department of Public Safety spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday.
State official backs 2nd license for nuclear waste disposal firm
By Clay Robison, Houston Chronicle, 12 August 2008
AUSTIN — A Dallas-based company on Tuesday cleared another hurdle in its multimillion-dollar effort to operate a radioactive waste dump in West Texas.
Lufkin Biomass Plant to Break Ground in September
Tyler Morning Telegraph, 12 August 2008
LUFKIN – A 50-megawatt biomass plant in East Texas is expected to break ground in September after receiving an air permit from state environmental regulators.
People
Dorsey executed for 1994 Blockbuster murders
By Kristin Edwards, Huntsville Times, 13 August 2008
HUNTSVILLE – Leon David Dorsey, who was convicted of the April 4, 1994, shooting deaths of a 26-year-old male and a 20-year-old male at a Dallas Blockbuster video was executed Tuesday.
Violent Texas inmate executed for double slaying
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 13 August 2008
HUNTSVILLE – Convicted killer Leon David Dorsey IV quietly went to his death.
Flight attendant suing Osteen's wife takes the stand
By DALE LEZON, Houston Chronicle, 13 August 2008
HOUSTON – A Continental Airlines flight attendant who is suing Lakewood Church co-pastor Victoria Osteen, accusing her of attacking her on a plane, told a jury Tuesday she had once described Osteen and her husband, evangelist Joel Osteen, as the "devil" and their church a "cult," but has since changed her opinion.
Flight attendant says televangelist's wife 'out of control' on plane
Austin American-Statesman, 13 August 2008
HOUSTON — A flight attendant who is suing the wife of evangelist Joel Osteen, claiming that Victoria Osteen attacked her on a 2005 flight, said in court Tuesday that Victoria Osteen was "out of control" during the incident and should be held accountable for what she did.
Fundraiser now on Obama team
By Gromer Jeffers Jr., Dallas Morning News, 13 August 2008
DALLAS – Fred Baron's revelation that he paid relocation and housing expenses for John Edwards' former mistress put the Dallas lawyer in the national spotlight.
