Politics
Cornyn memo says he's ahead but political climate volatile
By W. Gardner Selby, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 8 October 2008
AUSTIN – Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn's campaign told supporters Tuesday that while he's well ahead of little-known Democrat Rick Noriega according to an internal poll, the campaign is operating in a volatile political atmosphere.
Campaigns get big money as Dems look to make gains in Legislature
By ANTHONY SPANGLER, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 October 2008
FORT WORTH — Campaigns for Texas House and Senate seats are raising piles of cash going into the Nov. 4 election, with some local Democrats getting funds from groups trying to help the party regain control of the state House, according to campaign finance reports released Tuesday.
Democrats' fundraising surges, while speaker fights
Austin American-Statesman, 8 October 2008
AUSTIN – Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick has contributed more than $200,000 to the effort to keep a Republican majority, but Democrats have been fighting back in a number of races across the state, an Associated Press analysis shows.
Bill Clinton to stump for Bell in Houston campaign event
By ALAN BERNSTEIN, Houston Chronicle, 7 October 2008
HOUSTON – Former President Bill Clinton will help raise campaign money in Houston next week for state Senate candidate Chris Bell, seven months after Bell campaigned across Texas for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for president.
Court rejects state senator's lawsuit to disqualify rival
Houston Chronicle, 7 October 2008
FORT WORTH — An appeals court has stopped a Republican state senator's attempts to disqualify his Democratic opponent.
Maldonado raises much more money than Daniel
By Laylan Copelin, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 8 October 2008
AUSTIN – Texas Democrats are betting big money on winning a legislative seat in Williamson County.
Heflin reports twice the money of challenger Castro
By Enrique Rangel, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 8 October 2008
AUSTIN – The race for Texas House District 85 now bears a question mark.
Displaced Galveston residents can still vote
By Leigh Jones, Galveston County Daily News, 8 October 2008
GALVESTON — Galveston residents displaced from the island by Hurricane Ike will still be able to vote in the Nov. 4 election.
U.S. Representative 15
Victoria Advocate, 7 October 2008
VICTORIA – The general election is Nov. 4. To help the public learn more about the candidates, the Advocate is publishing profiles for the candidate in the contested races.
Tupper: Key healthcare issues discussed during Clinton's visit
By Ron Tupper, Rio Grande Guardian, 7 October 2008
McALLEN – At a news conference at McAllen Airport last Thursday, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senate candidate Rick Noriega spoke about the need for improved healthcare services for the growing South Texas region as well as support for a veterans’ hospital to serve the region’s large veterans’ population.
Chief justice
Houston Chronicle, 7 October 2008
HOUSTON – The Texas Supreme Court is the state's highest court for civil appeals. In the race for the chief justice position on this important court, the Houston Chronicle recommends Wallace Jefferson.
RECOMMENDATION Texas House District 93
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 October 2008
FORT WORTH – Republican Bill Burch, a candidate for Texas House in Arlington’s District 93, is a "cut spending" kind of guy.
RECOMMENDATION: Texas House District 61
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 October 2008
FORT WORTH – State Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, is an energetic, high-profile lawmaker who has been a significant player in the Texas Legislature, where he chairs the powerful House Regulated Industries Committee.
Government
Community to inspect border fence
By Kevin Sieff, Brownsville Herald, 7 October 2008
BROWNSVILLE — For more than a year, South Texas residents have complained about the federal government’s lack of transparency in its efforts to construction the border fence.
Proposal to standardize high school GPAs in Texas stirs controversy
By STELLA M. CHÁVEZ, Dallas Morning News, 8 October 2008
DALLAS – Texas school districts say a state proposal to standardize the way they calculate high school grade point averages will "dumb down" public education and discourage students from taking rigorous courses.
Texas considering standardizing GPA calculations
Waco Tribune-Herald, 8 October 2008
AUSTIN — A state agency is considering standardizing the way Texas high schools calculate grade point averages, a proposal that critics contend would encourage students to avoid rigorous courses.
Cost of new Texas computer program grows to $1B
By ROBERT T. GARRETT, Dallas Morning News, 7 October 2008
AUSTIN – A computer system for enrolling the needy in state aid programs will now cost $1 billion because it will take at least 12 years to roll out and the state now lets applicants call, fax or mail in their applications.
How the extreme right and left tried to stop the Wall Street bailout
BY JACK HUNTER, Charleston City Papter, 8 October 2008
CHARLESTON, S.C. – The crushing defeat and subsequent victory of the $700 billion economic bailout bill last week left both parties pointing fingers, claiming both the failure of conservatism and the triumph of liberalism depending on one's party or politics.
Garza: What now for Rio Grande Valley veterans?
By Treto Garza, Rio Grande Guardian, 7 October 2008
HARLINGEN – What now? Many veterans are asking what is going to happen now that Congress has failed to pass the South Texas veterans' hospital legislation.
Name lobbyists: Disallow cloudy government
El Paso Times, 8 October 208
EL PASO – Elected officials should be required to disclose all dealings with lobbyists so the citizens can make their own determinations on issues regarding possible conflicts of interest.
News
County’s 15th Ike victim found
By Sara Foley, Galvesto County Daily News, 8 October 2008
PORT BOLIVAR — Search crews found the body of another unidentified Hurricane Ike victim Monday night on the marshy island where four other bodies were found since the storm.
Fifth Hurricane Ike victim found on Goat Island
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 October 2008
GALVESTON — An animal control officer stumbled across the body of a Hurricane Ike victim on an island near where the storm slammed ashore last month, bringing the Texas death toll to 37.
Expert: Texas levees need upgrades
Bryan-College Station Eagle, 8 October 2008
TEXAS CITY – When Hurricane Ike was on its trajectory for the petrochemical industry clustered here, the storm had the makings of an environmental nightmare unlike anything in U.S. history.
UTMB avoids massive round of layoffs
By Laura Elder, Galveston County Daily News, 8 October 2008
GALVESTON — University of Texas Medical Branch officials were primed to lay off 4,000 people — some who already had lost their homes to Hurricane Ike — until island leaders intervened and Texas lawmakers pledged support, officials say.
Phone calls to lawmakers save jobs at UTMB
By HARVEY RICE, Houston Chronicle, 7 October 2008
GALVESTON — The largest employer in storm-battered Galveston was prepared to announce that it would lay off 4,000 employees Tuesday, but plans by the University of Texas Medical Branch were thwarted by a flurry of phone calls to state and federal lawmakers.
Lawmakers promise money to save 4,000 UTMB jobs
Waco Tribune-Herald, 8 October 2008
GALVESTON — The University of Texas Medical Branch reversed course Tuesday on a planned layoff of 4,000 employees when lawmakers promised money to help the academic medical center deal with Hurricane Ike-related losses.
State's pensioners not as hard hit as others
By Enrique Rangel, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 7 October 2008
AUSTIN – As with most retired teachers in Texas, Kelley Rogers' main source of income is his pension, which is managed by the state's Teachers Retirement System.
Charter bus registration followed a twisted path
By TERRI LANGFORD, Houston Chronicle, 7 October 2008
WASHINGTON — Hours before a Houston charter bus returning from Mexico crashed near Victoria, it sailed through customs in Laredo, its passengers and driver checked for proper immigration documents.
Many Mexican buses not inspected, hearing panel told
By TERRI LANGFORD, Houston Chronicle, 7 October 2008
WASHINGTON — Buses entering Texas from Mexico undergo a haphazard border inspection system, according to state and federal officials called to testify today about how a Houston charter bus that crashed near Victoria got into the United States in the first place.
Safety officers not on duty when bus entered U.S.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 October 2008
WASHINGTON — A federal transportation investigator said Tuesday that no Texas or U.S. motor safety officers were on duty when an unsafe bus crossed the border hours before a fatal crash.
City of Waco countersues archaeological firm in Texas Ranger Museum project
By J.B. Smith, Waco Tribune-Herald, 8 October 2008
WACO – The city of Waco is countersuing an archaeological firm, blaming American Archaeology Group for allowing the city to expand the Texas Ranger Museum into an unmarked cemetery.
Council members at work in Washington
By Mason W. Canales, Killeen Daily Herald, 7 October 2008
KILLEEN – Killeen and Harker Heights will not have City Council workshops this week because members of both councils are in Washington D.C. at the Annual National Convention for the Association of the Untied States Army.
Texas Tech should be tier-one school
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 7 October 2008
LUBBOCK – Texas needs at least one more national research university, according to Bill Powers, president of the University of Texas-Austin, one of only two such tier one public higher education entities in the state.
People
Former Supreme Court justice O'Connor among inductees to Texas Women's Hall of Fame
By BRITNEY TABOR, Denton Record-Chronicle, 7 October 2008
DENTON – Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was one of five women inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame's 15th class on Tuesday.
O'Connor and four others inducted into Hall of Fame
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 October 2008
DENTON — Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and four other women were inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame on Tuesday.
Dallas science teacher, trying to solve theft, fingerprints students
By CRAIG CIVALE, WFAA-TV, 7 October 2008
DALLAS – Was it a scare tactic or something more?
Witnesses ask why bar open after curfew
By Chris Paschenko, Galveston County Daily News, 8 October 2008
GALVESTON — The city’s curfew does not require hotel bars to close at midnight, a representative of the San Luis hotel said.
Internal police department probe could expand
By Sara Foley, Galveston County Daily News, 8 October 2008
GALVESTON — Police are continuing an internal investigation into officers’ actions during a hotel bar riot, but the district attorney’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice could join in on the probe, Police Chief Charles Wiley said.
Gonzales recognized for legal and legislative work in statewide publications
By A.J. Anderson and Steve Taylor, Rio Grande Guardian, 7 October 2008
McALLEN – State Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D- McAllen, has received recognition in two statewide publications for outstanding work and professional achievement, bringing credit to herself and her law firm.
