Lead Stories

S.E.C. CHARGES WYLY BROTHERS WITH $550 MILLION FRAUD

Samuel and Charles Wyly, the billionaire brothers from Dallas who are large donors to philanthropies and to conservative causes, were charged Thursday with conducting an extensive securities fraud that the Securities and Exchange Commission said reaped $550 million in undisclosed gains. The brothers, who founded Sterling Software, a business software and services company that they sold for $4 billion in stock to the software company CA in 2000, were also charged with insider trading violations from which they profited by more than $31 million, the S.E.C. said

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SEVERAL FORMER SUPPORTERS OF HUTCHISON ARE BACKING WHITE IN TEXAS GOVERNOR'S RACE

More than a dozen prominent Dallas business and civic leaders, including several who supported Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican primary for governor, have signed a letter backing Democrat Bill White in his effort to unseat Republican Gov. Rick Perry in the Nov. 2 general election. "We believe that Texas is ready for a new governor and Bill will serve us well," said the letter, which White campaign spokeswoman Katy Bacon said is being circulated to area business and philanthropic leaders. The White campaign hopes to use the prestigious names to help the former Houston mayor cut into Perry's support among conservative business circles and illustrate his ability to reach across party lines. But Perry's camp also touts a hefty list of endorsements and strong support in the Texas business establishment.

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EPA REJECTS CHALLENGE TO CLIMATE RULES

The Environmental Protection Agency Thursday rejected an effort to keep it from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, saying that e-mails released in last fall’s “Climategate” scandal gave it no reason to reconsider the science of global warming. In a sternly written opinion, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said she didn’t agree with requests from the GOP attorneys general from Texas and Virginia, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative groups that questioned the underlying science linking humans to global warming and also warned of the potential economic burdens from new climate rules.

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BP DENIES TEXAS A CASH ADVANCE, GETS SCATHING RESPONSE

Oil giant BP Plc (BP.L) rejected a request from Texas for a $25 million cash advance to clean up shorelines sullied by the Gulf oil spill, and got a scathing response from top Texas officials, according to letters given to Reuters on Thursday. BP denied a July 5 request from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for a $25 million "block grant," similar to cash advances for clean up that BP gave to all other Gulf Coast states, the letter from BP to Abbott showed. While BP will not grant the cash advance, it promised to pay Texas for clean-up costs as they arise, and pledged $5 million for the Texas Coastal Protection Fund, which is meant for oil spill responses.

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National Stories

RANGEL CASE POSES TEST FOR DEMOCRATS AS ELECTIONS NEAR

In laying out 13 charges of ethical violations committed by Representative Charles B. Rangel, the House ethics committee set the stage for a rare public trial of the Democratic Congressman this fall, a potential embarrassment for the Democratic leadership during the election season. The unveiling of the charges Thursday came even as Mr. Rangel’s lawyers suggested they were trying to reach a settlement to avoid such a fate for Mr. Rangel, 80, a Harlem Democrat. Ethics committee members appeared somber on Thursday, expressing fondness for Mr. Rangel even as they issued the stinging report, which states that Mr. Rangel’s “actions reflected poorly on the institution of the House and, thereby, brought discredit to the House.”

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ECONOMISTS EXPECT SLOWER GROWTH IN SECOND HALF

Two steps forward, one step back. That describes the current thinking about a year into the putative economic recovery. On Friday, the government will release its report on the nation’s output for the second quarter, showing how much, if at all, the economy downshifted as the summer began.

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SPEAKER DEFENDS TROUBLED MAJORITY

Three months before what promise to be brutal House elections, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is again the Happy Campaigner, vowing to defend “every grain of sand” of what she’s built in Congress and predicting this August will prove kinder to her Democrats than a year ago. “They kept hope alive last August,” she said of rank-and-file lawmakers who weathered stormy town meetings and still came back to help her enact health care reform. “Last year, they had to defend a bill that wasn’t even settled upon,” Pelosi told POLITICO. Now, House Democrats are going home for the summer recess with a specific “portfolio of accomplishments” — and a gentle reminder from her that “all politics is personal.”

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IMMIGRATION ADVOCATES MISS JOHN MCCAIN

When the prospects for a reform bill turned bleak earlier this year, immigration advocates told themselves to be patient. John McCain would be back, just as soon as he fended off a conservative primary challenge in Arizona next month. But now, the onetime champion of comprehensive immigration reform appears nowhere near ready to rejoin Democrats in the fight, which left him alienated from his party and feeling abandoned by Hispanic voters during the bruising 2008 presidential election. Not a chance, McCain said, when asked about the expectations of immigration advocates that he might once again take up the cause.

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U.S. TAKES A TOUGHER TONE WITH CHINA

The Obama administration has adopted a tougher tone with China in recent weeks as part of a diplomatic balancing act in which the United States welcomes China's rise in some areas but also confronts Beijing when it butts up against American interests. Faced with a Chinese government increasingly intent on testing U.S. strength and capabilities, the United States unveiled a new policy that rejected China's claims to sovereignty over the whole South China Sea.

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FEW IN U.S. MOVE FOR NEW JOBS, FUELING FEAR THE ECONOMY MIGHT GET STUCK, TOO

The recession is claiming yet another victim: Americans' near-constitutional right to pick up and move to a better job. Labor mobility has nearly ground to a halt in the past two years, and policymakers are increasingly worried that the slowdown is not just a symptom of the nation's economic struggles but also a barrier to overcoming them.

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ACLU SLAMS OBAMA'S SECURITY POLICIES

The ACLU on Thursday excoriated President Obama for continuing the Bush administration's strictest national security policies, including indefinite detention, military commissions and a "targeted kill" program that authorizes the government to take out suspected terrorists anywhere. The American Civil Liberties Union warned Mr. Obama, in a report based on a review of his 18 months in office, that his administration was on course to institutionalize the policies of his predecessor. The ACLU was a fierce critic of President George W. Bush's war on terror.

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OIL LOBBYISTS SPILL INTO HALLS IN D.C.

Even before crude began gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the oil industry was waging an uphill fight against $36.5 billion in proposed taxes and new regulations on drilling techniques. But now the collision of election-year politics and the oil spill is fueling dozens of proposals to clamp down on drilling - and has inspired the industry to ramp up its defense game in the nation's capital. Since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, oil field services companies that had never hired lobbyists before signed up firms to press their interests, with some sending representatives on near-weekly trips to Washington.

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State Stories

CASEY: TAKE SCHOOL RATINGS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT

Today at 1 p.m. the State of Texas will tell us which schools are "exemplary" and which are "academically unacceptable" and which are two ratings in between. This will lead to jubilation at schools at one end of the spectrum and angst at the other. Many schools will literally banner their ratings. Like all advertising campaigns, this one should be taken with a healthy dose of iodized salt. Here is a consumer's guide to the ratings and the new device used to boost them, the Texas Projection Measure.

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SEC CHARGES BILLIONAIRE TEXAS BROTHERS WHO DONATE TO GOP WITH FRAUD

Sam and Charles Wyly, billionaire Texas brothers who gained prominence spending millions of dollars on conservative political causes, committed fraud by using secret overseas accounts to generate more than $550 million in profit through illegal stock trades, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Thursday. The Wylys, who have been generous contributors to the Republican Party and GOP candidates, have spent the past several years facing questions, including from a Senate investigative committee, about whether they hid millions of dollars in tax shelters abroad.

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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA TO VISIT HIGHLAND PARK ON AUGUST FUNDRAISING TRIP

President Barack Obama will be mining for money next month in Dallas, but he's not expected to make any public appearances. The Aug. 9 trip will be Obama's third to Texas since he took office, and his first to Dallas since the March 2008 primary. He will headline a dinner at the Highland Park home of plaintiffs lawyer Russell Budd and his wife, Dorothy, who hosted Vice President Joe Biden for a March 26 fundraiser.

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HOUSE PANEL OKS $882 MILLION FOR TRINITY RIVER PROJECT

The Trinity River flood control and parks project will cost a lot more than Dallas officials thought just three years ago. Congress authorized $459 million in 2007 for the Trinity River Floodway, a massive public works effort the city hopes will transform downtown Dallas and the river itself. On Thursday, a House committee approved a bill that includes $882 million, nearly twice the original amount.

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TEXAS SCHOOLS TO GET ACCOUNTABILITY RATINGS TODAY

Texas schools will find out how well they performed last year when state accountability ratings are released today. The Texas Education Agency plans to release the results at 1 p.m. The ratings are mostly based on passing rates on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam. Schools that continuously don’t perform well, receiving the state’s lowest rating — academically unacceptable — for four or more consecutive years, risk being sanctioned or closed by the state.

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4 DALLAS PROPOSALS TO HOUSE HOMELESS FAIL TO WIN STATE TAX CREDITS

Four proposed housing developments for the homeless failed to receive state tax credits needed to help finance the projects Thursday. Dallas officials were hopeful earlier this year when private developers applied to build a record number of complexes for the homeless. The projects would have moved the city much closer to its goal of creating 700 homes for that population. Tax credits, which can be sold to investors, are a main source of funding for low-income housing construction in Texas.

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LULAC APPLAUDS COURT RULING ON ARIZONA LAW, BRACES FOR FIGHT IN TEXAS

Dallas-area Hispanic rights activists expressed support Thursday for a decision temporarily halting key aspects of Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigration. Members of the North Texas district of the League of United Latin American Citizens said in a news conference that they would ask Texas lawmakers to approve a resolution blocking any attempts at what they called "hate legislation." "Understand that regardless of what happens in Arizona, this legislation will come to Texas," said Joe Cardenas III, state director of LULAC.

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3 DALLAS EXECS GIVE $1 MILLION EACH TO TARGET REID, OTHER DEMOCRATS

Dallas oilman Trevor Rees-Jones may not know Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, but he's betting $1 million that he can make the Nevada Democrat's political life more difficult these days. Rees-Jones is helping bankroll a group spearheaded by Karl Rove and funded largely by Texans to air TV spots attacking Reid and other Democrats. Virginia-based American Crossroads has raised $4.7 million – two-thirds of it from Texans – for a national effort. Three Dallas billionaires are providing much of the money.

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CLEAN-AIR PANEL MEETS IN ARLINGTON TO TACKLE REGION'S SMOG WOES

For the first time in four years, a regional effort to solve North Texas' stubborn smog problem launches this morning. Local officials, business people and environmental advocates will convene as the North Texas Clean Air Steering Committee. The committee will advise the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on how the state agency should cut pollution that leads to smog, or ozone. The state doesn't have to adopt the suggestions, as a previous steering committee found in 2006, when the environmental commission ignored more than a dozen locally generated ideas.

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HUTCHISON KEEPS UP EFFORT TO JAM CELL PHONE USE IN PRISONS

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said today that she would continue to push a proposal that would allow prisons to jam cell phones, despite a related bill passing the Senate Wednesday. The newly passed legislation, sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, would prohibit cell phone use in federal prisons and classify the devices as contraband. It somewhat overlaps Hutchison's proposed legislation - in that both try to stop inmates from making cell phone calls - but the Texas Republican said the bills could work together.

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TROY FRASER AND REAL ESTATE DISCLOSURE

The state legislator who bought two parcels in the Texas Hill Country resort of Horseshoe Bay and then sold one to Gov. Rick Perry in 2001 didn't disclose the transactions for several years on his annual financial disclosure statements. The Texas Observer reported in May, 2009 that state Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, in recent years had not disclosed any real estate interests, including the lot he continued to own in the Peninsula - where Perry bought his lot -- a Burnet County lot, and his homestead in Llano County.

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CHET EDWARDS' MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VA SPENDING BILL PASSES HOUSE

One of Rep. Chet Edwards' major pieces of legislative work this session passed the House late Wednesday. As chairman of the House Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations subpanel, Edwards authored and shepherded a $141 billion spending bill that funds military building, the VA and related agencies for fiscal year 2011. "This bill continues our historic commitment to America's veterans and military families, and sends a clear message that we deeply respect their service and sacrifice," said Edwards, a Waco Democrat. "These additional resources will provide our veterans with their benefits more quickly and improve access to important health care and other services."

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RICK PERRY LOOK-ALIKES BEING SOLICITED FOR CAMPAIGN

The casting call is out in Austin for actors who look like Rick Perry and would be willing to star in short, two-minute films that are being encouraged by Democrat Bill White's campaign. The web films are unlikely to want sharp, dynamic good-looking guys because one ad soliciting actors said they want someone who looks like the governor and "can combine that with a Steve Carrell-like cluelessness."

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SHOULD THE STATE PAY HOSPITALS THAT WON'T INDUCE LABOR?

More than four years ago, the Seton family of hospitals stopped inducing labor in women who wanted to have their babies before full term, a move its doctors say prevents expensive complications that can accompany early births. Trouble is, that decision also cost Seton millions of dollars — those women now have babies elsewhere — and so it wants the Legislature to staunch the balance-sheet bleeding by approving extra public financing for any hospital with such a policy. The issue raises sensitive questions about government management of both patient choice and the medical marketplace. While Seton asserts its competitors put mothers and babies at risk by allowing electively induced births before 39 weeks of pregnancy, its competitors counter that public officials have no business meddling in the private decisions of patients and their physicians.

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"INDICTED BUT NOT CONVICTED" IS A FORM OF PUNISHMENT

If convicted, one-term State Rep. Tara Rios Ybarra could be trading in her pantsuit for a jumpsuit. The South Padre Island Democrat was indicted last month and temporarily placed in federal custody for her alleged involvement in a Medicaid fraud scheme. (She had lost her bid for re-election in the March primary — due, at least in part, to a highly publicized intimate relationship with a campaign contributor.) She joins a good-sized list of Texas politicians also indicted on corruption charges who await their days of judgment with uncertainty.

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IMMIGRANT PROSECUTIONS ON THE RISE UNDER OBAMA

Despite grousing from congressmen and state officials in Arizona and Texas — notably Gov. Rick Perry — that the Obama administration has abdicated its role in the protecting the nation's borders from illegal immigration, the Department of Homeland Security’s largest investigative units this year each recorded their highest number of cases referred for prosecution since the Bush administration. The 4,145 cases referred for prosecution in March and April of 2010 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) marked the highest total since 2005, when DHS was created, according to a report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) also saw its largest spike since the Bush era in March and April, with 14,912 cases referred for prosecution — the highest since September and October of 2008.

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FEDERAL FUNDS TO HELP TEXAS BEEF UP DRUNKEN-DRIVING ENFORCEMENT

Drivers who imbibe be warned: Texas plans to step up enforcement of drunken-driving laws -- even though the effort won't include sobriety checkpoints like those used in many other states. On Thursday, the Texas Transportation Commission approved a $96 million safety plan that includes more than $40 million for preventing alcohol- and drug-influenced driving, including $18 million in new enforcement funds.

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TEXAS' ADDICTION TREATMENT PROVIDERS BRACE FOR FUNDING CUTS

Fewer Texans with drug and alcohol addictions will be getting publicly financed help because of a $7 million decrease in funding to treatment centers, providers say. In Tarrant County, Mental Health Mental Retardation may have to reduce admissions into its residential treatment program and end services it offers at the Tarrant County Jail, said Stevie Hansen, MHMR chief of addiction services. The agency will also likely run out of money for outpatient treatment services by May or June, she said.

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KENNEDY: LIQUOR AGENCY HAS MOMENT OF CLARITY ABOUT BAD POLICY

The Great Texas Booze Bust is over. Four years after Texas became a late-night-TV laughingstock for raiding hotel bars and arresting tourists for -- gasp! -- being drunk, state agents have ended their plainclothes patrols to bust drinkers. All it took to sidetrack the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission's SIPs crackdown ("Sales to Intoxicated Persons") was one badly botched bar raid last summer in Fort Worth.

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TEXAS LAWMAKERS TO PROCEED WITH THEIR ARIZONA-STYLE IMMIGRATION PLANS

As North Texas Hispanic leaders cheered a federal judge's decision Wednesday to block the most controversial parts of Arizona's immigration law, two Texas lawmakers said Thursday that they will move ahead with plans to file similar bills to cut the number of illegal workers here. "Although the federal government handles immigration matters ... if they aren't doing their job, if they aren't securing the border, then the states are not prohibited from doing exactly that," said state Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, a former Arlington mayor pro tem, who will file a bill similar to Arizona's.

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COMMITTEE CALLS FOR EDUCATIONAL EFFICIENCY

An advisory committee seeking to make Texas higher education more efficient recommended Thursday that the state make better use of online courses and “no-frills” education and tie state funds to course completion rather than enrollment. Other suggestions included pushing students to finish college in four years and requiring them to complete 10 percent of their degrees outside the classroom. Mandated last year by Gov. Rick Perry, the 20-member committee of business and education leaders presented a draft report to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board meeting in Austin. A final report will go to the governor's desk before Nov. 1.

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INNOCENT PRISONER'S OUTBURST DELAYS RELEASE

A Houston man expected to be freed Thursday after being imprisoned 27 years for a rape he did not commit had to wait at least one more day after shouting from a holding cell and threatening bailiffs and jailers. Michael Anthony Green reacted "emotionally" to the reality of his release, said Bob Wicoff, his attorney. "He was threatening everybody and anybody, but nobody," Wicoff said. Wicoff said he did not hear Green, 45, threaten anyone specifically. Green blew up after he was put in handcuffs and leg irons for the walk to court, Wicoff said. He also said the jailer who handcuffed Green jerked his arm roughly and put the cuffs on too tight.

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PERRY WANTS FEDERAL DISASTER AID FOR 21 COUNTIES

Gov. Rick Perry is seeking a presidential disaster proclamation for 21 Texas counties hard-hit by flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Alex and Tropical Depression 2. A statement issued on Thursday by Perry's office says he's written to President Barack Obama to request federal disaster aid for the counties in west and south Texas. The presidential disaster declaration would send federal resources to help with recovery.

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JUDGE SHARON KELLER WANTS HER REBUKE VOIDED

Claiming that she was improperly reprimanded for her role in a botched execution-day appeal in 2007, Judge Sharon Keller asked the Texas Supreme Court on Thursday to throw out the rebuke and order all charges against her dismissed. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct issued a "public warning" to Keller on July 16, saying she failed to properly perform her duties when she closed the Court of Criminal Appeals clerk's office at 5 p.m. despite knowing that defense lawyers wanted to file an appeal in a pending execution.

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POLITIFACT: LETICIA VAN DE PUTTE SAYS BILL WHITE'S EFFORTS TO CUT DROPOUT RATE REPLICATED BY ALMOST EVERY TEXAS CITY -- HALF TRUE

State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte praised gubernatorial candidate Bill White, a fellow Democrat, for his efforts to get dropouts back into classrooms during a speech last month to her party's convention in Corpus Christi. He "went door to door in Houston luring and asking those dropouts to come back to school," she said June 25. "Those programs were so successful that almost every city in our state has replicated what Bill White started." We wondered whether the former mayor of Houston's education initiative had really become so widespread.

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ROVE, HUGHES TEAM UP FOR FUNDRAISER FOR PERRY

Call it the kiss-and-make-up event. Karl Rove and Karen Hughes, top advisers to former President George W. Bush, are among the named hosts of a Sept. 7 fundraiser for Gov. Rick Perry in Austin. Perry and the Bush crowd didn't have much use for each other earlier this year in the Republican primary, when Perry beat back a challenge from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Hughes was among a number of folks from the Bush world, including former President George H.W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney, who publicly endorsed Hutchison. Rove did not make a public endorsement, but he was widely known to have backed Hutchison as well.

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County Stories

BANDERA SHERIFF WAIVES ARRAIGNMENT, LOOKS FORWARD TO TRIAL

Indicted Bandera County Sheriff Weldon Tucker has no plans to resign, and he is confident a jury will conclude his use of a county motorboat wasn't criminal, his lawyer said Thursday. “We're going to fight it all the way,” Charles Grigson said of the abuse of official capacity charge filed July 21 against Tucker. Tucker, sheriff since 2006, was due to make his first court appearance Thursday, but waived formal arraignment.

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City Stories

AISD GETS OFFICIAL 'UNACCEPTABLE' RATING, WILL APPEAL

Even in the final moments before academic ratings became official Thursday, Abilene Independent School District Superintendent Heath Burns said he was working to convince top state education officials that Abilene ISD is not “academically unacceptable.” Despite his attempts, the official “unacceptable” rating stands. At 1 p.m. today, the Texas Education Agency publicly will post academic ratings for schools and districts throughout the state, but AISD officials released a sneak peek of some scores Thursday.

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CITY LOOKS AT RAISING TAXES, CUTTING SERVICES IN BUDGET CRISIS

Tax rates for El Paso residents will probably rise -- or services will be cut -- if police do not agree to more than $1 million in concessions. The police union will tally votes on whether to reopen its contract with the city this afternoon. After days of hearings and $3.5 million in cuts, the city's operating budget is still $1 million higher than it was last year.

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Lead Stories

FRASER FAILED TO DISCLOSE PERRY LAND DEAL

The lawmaker involved in a questionable land deal with Gov. Rick Perry failed to disclose ownership or sale of the property to the Texas Ethics Commission, an apparent violation of a state ethics rules, according to a review of his personal financial statements. State Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, didn’t list his September 2000 acquisition of the waterfront lot on Lake Lyndon B. Johnson in the disclosure form he filed for that year. He also didn't note a year later the fact that Perry purchased the property from him in 2001, the documents show. State law requires elected officials such as Fraser, a friend and political ally of the governor, to describe "any and all" interests they or their families have in real property. They also must disclose any proceeds they received when those interests are sold. Failure to file the forms on time can result in civil penalties levied by the commission, though Fraser will not face enforcement because the commission doesn't have the authority to levy fines for a 10-year-old violation.

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DNC PLAN TRIES TO TIE REPUBLICAN PARTY TO FRINGE 'TEA PARTY' ELEMENTS

Democratic leaders unveiled a plan Wednesday to link the Republican Party to some of the most extreme elements of the "tea party" movement, seeking to define all GOP candidates as outside the mainstream by highlighting such tea party talking points as ending Medicare and privatizing Social Security. With lawmakers preparing to head home to their districts to campaign during the August recess, Democratic leaders sought to demonstrate that all Republicans are cut from the same cloth as such tea party favorites as Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle and Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul.

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GREG ABBOTT ASKED IF STATE CAN DENY PLANNED PARENTHOOD FUNDING

Sen. Robert Deuell, R-Greenville, is seeking the attorney general's help in keeping state funding for contraception and women's health out of the hands of Planned Parenthood. In 2005, Deuell and other anti-abortion lawmakers set up a mechanism so that federal Medicaid money for family planning and women's wellness, such as cancer screening, would bypass Planned Parenthood because it is an abortion provider. PP has set up a separate entity that runs abortion clinics from private funding. It also operates, with taxpayer help, a number of clinics around Texas that have long provided other medical care for women. To many abortion opponents, Planned Parenthood's two entities are differences without distinction.

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FARM BUREAU TAKES A PASS ON THE GOVERNOR'S RACE FOR NOW

The Texas Farm Bureau's Ag Fund decided to put off a decision on whether to endorse in the governor's race until it meets again Sept. 20, said spokesman Gene Hall. The Farm Bureau endorsed U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the GOP primary for governor this year over incumbent Rick Perry. The conservative farm group is ticked off at Perry over a 2007 veto of eminent domain legislation. Perry and Democrat Bill White spoke to the Farm Bureau recently. White asked the group for its support. Perry just told them he looks forward to working with them next year after he's re-elected. The Republican-leaning group has never endorsed a Democrat for governor. But it also has never issued a no-endorsement in the governor's race. Stay tuned for September.

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National Stories

RULING AGAINST ARIZONA IS A WARNING FOR OTHER STATES

A federal judge in Arizona on Wednesday broadly vindicated the Obama administration’s high-stakes move to challenge that state’s tough immigration law and to assert the primary authority of the federal government over state lawmakers in immigration matters. The ruling by Judge Susan R. Bolton, in a lawsuit against Arizona brought on July 6 by the Justice Department, blocked central provisions of the law from taking effect while she finishes hearing the case.

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CONGRESS RETHINKS ITS BAN ON INTERNET GAMBLING

With pressure mounting on the federal government to find new revenues, Congress is considering legalizing, and taxing, an activity it banned just four years ago: Internet gambling. On Wednesday, the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill that would effectively legalize online poker and other nonsports betting, overturning a 2006 federal ban that critics say merely drove Web-based casinos offshore. The bill would direct the Treasury Department to license and regulate Internet gambling operations, while a companion measure, pending before another committee, would allow the Internal Revenue Service to tax such businesses.

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U.S. MILITARY SCRUTINIZES LEAKS FOR RISKS TO AFGHANS

The Pentagon is reviewing tens of thousands of classified battlefield reports made public this week about the war in Afghanistan to determine whether Afghan informants were identified and could be at risk of reprisals, American officials said Wednesday. A Pentagon spokesman, Col. David Lapan, said that a Pentagon assessment team had not yet drawn any conclusions, but that “in general, the naming of individuals could cause potential problems, both to their physical safety or willingness to continue support to coalition forces or the Afghan government.”

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OBAMA TRUMPETS DEMOCRATS’ SMALL-BUSINESS BONA FIDES

At the core of some of the major policy fights in Washington these days is a ferocious competition between Republicans and Democrats over which party is the champion of America’s small businesses — a mantle that each side views as crucial to shaping economic policy and winning the November elections. The battle was on full display on Wednesday as Senate Democrats pushed ahead with efforts to pass a bill that would increase lending to small businesses and provide tax breaks, and President Obama visited the Tastee Sub Shop in Edison, N.J., where he ordered a “super sub with everything,” to highlight his party’s small-business agenda.

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OMB NOMINEE GOT $900,000 AFTER CITIGROUP BAILOUT

President Obama's choice to be the government's chief budget officer received a bonus of more than $900,000 from Citigroup Inc. last year -- after the Wall Street firm for which he worked received a massive taxpayer bailout. The money was paid to Jacob Lew in January 2009, about two weeks before he joined the State Department as deputy secretary of state, according to a newly filed ethics form. The payout came on top of the already hefty $1.1 million Citigroup compensation package for 2008 that he reported last year.

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WHITE HOUSE PROPOSAL WOULD EASE FBI ACCESS TO RECORDS OF INTERNET ACTIVITY

The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation. The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history.

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A CROSSROADS FOR THE U.S. ECONOMY

The U.S. economy is out of the ditch. But is there enough gas left in the engine to reach highway speed? The recovery faces a crucial test over the next couple of months: Either it will pick up vital momentum from increased consumer spending and investment or stall out, dipping into a period of anemic growth -- or perhaps even another recession.

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THE BARACK OBAMA-NANCY PELOSI EVENT

President Barack Obama’s endless summer of fundraising is heating up — with the addition of a big-money August house party to help out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s imperiled Democrats, POLITICO has learned. Obama plans to headline an Aug. 16 fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Los Angeles — the first such appearance by the president on behalf of Pelosi since White House press secretary Robert Gibbs rankled House Democrats by suggesting they could lose their majority.

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THE CASH-FOR-SPEAKER PROGRAM

To the House minority leader, “Speaker” Boehner seems to have a nice ring to it. So much so that months before any midterm votes are cast, John Boehner of Ohio is putting his own face on the GOP’s drive to take back the House by quietly launching a “Boehner for Speaker” committee that aims to boost the party’s lagging fundraising, in part by introducing him as a “regular guy” from Ohio. But while the effort plays up Boehner’s modest roots, the going rate to participate is pricey...

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NEGIN: RENEWABLE ENERGY WOULD CREATE MORE JOBS THAN NUCLEAR POWER

If Christine Todd Whitman were really serious about promoting jobs in the energy industry, she would be talking about wind and other renewable energy resources, not nuclear power. Her July 9 op-ed, co-written with Florida State Rep. Juan C. Zapata, overstated the benefits of nuclear power and mentioned none of its drawbacks. Whitman claims that constructing new nuclear plants has the potential to create "as many as 70,000 jobs," but how long would that take? According to Whitman's own figures, building one new reactor would produce as many as 2,400 construction jobs, and, once built, would employ 800 workers. To generate those 70,000 jobs — 75 percent of them temporary — the industry would have to build 22 new reactors. Given the lack of a trained labor force, constraints on the availability of key manufacturing components, and Wall Street's reluctance to finance them, building 22 reactors would take at least two decades to accomplish even under the rosiest scenario.

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LEUBSDORF: CAN PAWLENTY SEPARATE HIMSELF FROM GOP FIELD?

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty acknowledges that his views won't differ much from those of other likely 2012 GOP presidential hopefuls. Given that, he told a group of reporters, the way to persuade traditional "swing voters" is "to have a messenger that has walked in their shoes a bit" and has the credibility to show how to "use conservative values and approaches to address their concerns." For the 49-year-old Pawlenty, that means taking advantage of his blue-collar background as the son of a St. Paul truck driver and the only one of five children to attend college and his success in applying conservative principles to govern his traditionally liberal state the past seven years.

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State Stories

DAVIS: HOW MUCH IS THAT PUPPY IN THE (SHELTER) WINDOW?

When I was a kid, I used to badger my parents to take me to pet stores so I could see the puppies. Even the local mall had a storefront where kids would press their faces against the glass to wave at the tiny breed of the day. We loved it, and the puppies enjoyed the attention. But as I grew older, I began to ponder the plight of the pet store puppy. I was an adolescent investigator, making mental notes on their environment. Sometimes, I would find healthy, responsive dogs in clean cages. Usually not. Eventually, I just couldn't look any more. Many puppy purchases over the years have probably been spurred by the desire to rescue the selected animal from its predicament.

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CAMPAIGN CASH: WHO'S IN THE MONEY?

Money doesn't buy seats in the Legislature – well, not directly, anyway. On July 15, candidates for the Nov. 2 election had to file their semiannual campaign finance reports. As the first major financial disclosures of the post-primary season, these reports are often seen as an indicator of a candidate's ability to fund and organize a real campaign. With no Green Party of Texas legislative candidates on the Travis County ballot and the Libertarian Party of Texas keeping its campaigns cash-free, the money race comes down to the Democrats and Republicans.

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WHO TO BLAME FOR FAULTY FIRE SCIENCE?

Members of the state's Forensic Science Commission have concluded that fire investigators relied on flawed and outdated science when they fingered arson as the cause of the 1991 fire that destroyed Cameron Todd Willingham's home and killed his three young children. Still, members of the commission concluded that reliance on bad science did not mean the investigators were negligent. Willingham was executed in 2004 for the alleged arson murders. In 2006, the New York-based Innocence Project asked the nascent FSC to review the work of arson investigators in the convictions of both Willingham and Ernest Willis, whose conviction for arson in a separate case was ultimately overturned.

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WDP, LABOR DEPARTMENT FORM PARTNERSHIP FOR WORKERS

On July 15, the Workers Defense Project and the U.S. Depart­ment of Labor announced a "strategic alliance" intended to reinforce efforts to improve conditions for Texas workers, particularly in the construction industry. According to press releases issued by the WDP and the DOL (Wage and Hour Division and Occupational Safety & Health Administration), the primary purpose of the collaboration is to address issues like the recovery of unpaid wages and enforcing work-site safety regulations covered by federal law. "Through this alliance we will leverage our efforts to reach more workers and systematically impact the construction industry," said WDP Director Cristina Tzin­tzún.

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POLITIFACT: LETICIA VAN DE PUTTE SAYS BILL WHITE'S EFFORTS TO CUT DROPOUT RATE REPLICATED BY ALMOST EVERY TEXAS CITY - HALF TRUE

State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte praised gubernatorial candidate Bill White, a fellow Democrat, for his efforts to get dropouts back into classrooms during a speech last month to her party's convention in Corpus Christi. He "went door to door in Houston luring and asking those dropouts to come back to school," she said June 25. "Those programs were so successful that almost every city in our state has replicated what Bill White started." We wondered whether the former mayor of Houston's education initiative had really become so widespread.

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AAS: BIRDWELL DENIES VOTING TWICE IN 2004 ELECTION

State Sen. Brian Birdwell told the Texas Tribune on Wednesday that he didn't vote twice in the 2004 elections and disputed the Texas and Virginia records that say he did. Birdwell's voting records were the subject of a report Wednesday by the Texas Tribune that was reprinted by the American-Statesman. Birdwell, R-Granbury, said that errant record-keeping in Tarrant County might explain how Texas and Virginia both listed him as having voted on Nov. 2, 2004. "Let me be crystal clear: I have never, ever voted twice in the same election, and that charge is particularly offensive to a soldier who holds the voting process as honored and sacred," Birdwell said in a statement to the Tribune. "Basically, this news story would have people believe that on Election Day in 2004, I voted in Virginia, then got on a plane and flew to Texas so I could cast a second vote for George W. Bush. I did not."

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DMN: WHITE, PERRY NEED TO ADDRESS COLLEGE GRAD RATES

The story that broke last week about the U.S. trailing other nations in college graduation rates may seem like one of those pieces you've read before. After all, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman beat the drum hard a few years back about India and China catching up with us in engineering. Nevertheless, the College Board's report about the U.S. falling to 12th in worldwide graduation rates has tremendous relevance here in Texas. As it turns out, not only is the U.S. lagging, but Texas ranks 40th among the 50 states plus the District of Columbia in the number of 25- to 34-year-olds who hold an associate degree or higher. In fact, only 27.4 percent of Texans in that critical age range have earned a post-secondary degree, placing our state well behind the national average of 41.6 percent and far closer to the bottom of the scale than the top.

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DEWHURST: NEW FEDERAL HEALTH CARE LAW WILL BUST TEXAS' BUDGET

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst warned this morning that the new federal health care legislation will bust Texas’ budget – saddling state taxpayers with $27 billion in extra costs over the next decade. “That’s an astounding number for us,” Dewhurst told the Texas State Society over breakfast, including a half-dozen members of Congress. “We’re on the hook for all those folks we’ve been trying to get to sign up for Medicaid.” Doubling the state’s Medicaid rolls, he said, will mean that health care claims an ever-bigger share of the state budget. And that segment has already grown from one-quarter of the budget to one-third in the last seven years. “Arguably, we have to crowd out public education or higher education to pay for this, or raise taxes,” Dewhurst said. “… Those are unsustainable numbers. Totally unsustainable.”

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HUTCHISON ON THE FRONT LINES OF GOP'S EFFORTS AGAINST LATEST ENERGY BILL

Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison joined Republican leaders today in opposing Democrats' $15 billion energy bill, only a day after the majority party released the proposed legislation. As part of a parade of grievances against Democrats' energy policy, Hutchison criticized plans to remove the $75 million oil liability cap and the Obama administration's current six-month deepwater drilling moratorium. "All of the energy prices are going to go up if we don't start doing something about this moratorium," she said at a Capitol Hill news conference. "The administration needs to get their attention to put the regulations in place, make sure it is safe, but go forward." Hutchison said the moratorium was destroying jobs along the Gulf Coast and that it would ultimately force oil rigs to move elsewhere.

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DROUGHT HELPED CLEAN TEXAS BEACHES

Pollution along the Texas coastline improved during the state's two-year drought, leaving its beaches cleaner than in other states. Gulf Coast beaches were closed or subject to public advisories for 231 days last year because of contamination and pollution, according to an annual environmental report released Wednesday. The analysis of the nation's beaches by the National Resources Defense Council, an environmental action group, said beach closings and advisories nationwide last year were at their sixth-highest level in the 20 years it has tracked the information. But Texas saw a 27 percent drop in closings and public advisories, falling from 318 in 2008. Experts believe the plunge was a result of the two-year drought that limited storm-water runoff.

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DNA CLEARS HOUSTON MAN 27 YEARS AFTER CONVICTION

A Houston man is expected to be freed this week after serving more than 27 years in prison — the longest time behind bars of any Texan who has been exonerated - for a rape prosecutors now say he did not commit. Michael Anthony Green, 45, is expected to be in court today, when his attorney, Bob Wicoff, will ask that he be released on bail while the case moves forward. If freed, Green would be the eighth local man let out of prison in recent years, and the second in a week, after serving time for a crime he did not commit. "He is innocent," Wicoff said. "We've got the bad guys, too. We've pegged the bad guys."

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ENGINEER LAUNCHES EFFORT TO BRING SHUTTLE TO AGGIELAND

A surprise bidder has emerged for a space shuttle once the vehicles are retired: College Station. The Aggie engineer championing his alma mater says the coastal location of Space Center Houston, which has run a more public bid, would put an irreplaceable shuttle at too great a risk from hurricanes. "None of us involved in this want to see the shuttle on the nightly news with a bunch of debris floating around it," said Zachary Cummings, an ocean engineer and entrepreneur.

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IMMIGRATION RULING TRIGGERS PREDICTABLE REACTIONS

Today's federal court ruling stopping the controversial parts of an immigration law from taking effect tomorrow triggered predictable reactions in Texas. Those who support Arizona's attempt to take a hard stand against illegal immigration blasted the court ruling. Those who oppose the law praised the ruling. Here is the response from Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, who plans to file immigration-related legislation in Texas.

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AFTER THE BP SPILL, WILL TEXAS TIGHTEN LIABILITY LAWS?

Nelson Roach, a Baylor graduate who served last year as the president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, has been practicing with his Daingerfield-based firm, Nix, Patterson and Roach, since 1987. Over that time, he has watched Texas's tort system come under fire from both the Legislature and the courts — to the point, he believes, where Texas-style tort reform has ended up coddling large, misbehaving companies at the expense of ordinary workers. Roach will present his concerns at a hearing today of the House Business and Industry and the Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence committees. Representatives of business groups, which prefer minimal liability, also will testify, as will some labor and environmental groups. The hearing will address a variety of issues, given that the workers' compensation division of the Texas Department of Insurance is undergoing the sunset review process in the next legislature. But chief among the issues will be a 2007 Texas Supreme Court case.

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STATE PROPOSES NEW RULES FOR DRILLERS

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality proposed new rules Wednesday for oil and gas drilling permits to beef up regulations and better protect air quality in the Barnett Shale region in North Texas. The agency is proposing to change the air emission limits on drilling sites that would focus more on toxic chemicals most associated with natural gas drilling, including benzene and toluene, as well as require gas producers to sample natural gas compressor engines more stringently to make sure they are running properly, agency officials said. "The tremendous expansion of drilling in the Barnett Shale, in and around urban areas, required our agency to take a closer look at the potential impacts and protective measures that could be instituted to protect the public health around these operations," agency Chairman Bryan Shaw said.

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TEXAS LAWMAKERS SAY FEDERAL POLICY NEEDED ON IMMIGRATION

Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Democratic Rep. Charlie Gonzalez of San Antonio, both Texas congressional delegation members heavily involved in immigration reform, had similar reactions to the court ruling over Arizona's immigration law, saying there's a greater need than ever for a comprehensive federal policy. But they parted ways on whether the Justice Department should have challenged the law in the first place and how to make border security part of the solution. "What I would hope it would do is shine a bright light on how the federal government isn't doing its job," Cornyn told reporters about the preliminary injunction against the most controversial part of the Arizona law, the questioning of an individual's resident status.

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2 OF STATE'S TOP GUNS TO REMAKE STATE TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT

Two of the state's best-known governmental troubleshooters are setting up shop in Austin to revamp the often-criticized Texas Department of Transportation. "Our mission is pretty straightforward: to modernize this agency and maximize efficiency and do all we can to secure transportation infrastructure in this state," Jay Kimbrough told members of the Texas Transportation Commission during a workshop Wednesday. Kimbrough, a longtime adviser to Gov. Rick Perry who helped reform the Texas Youth Commission and the biodefense program at Texas A&M University, will receive over $303,000 for 14 months revamping the agency. He's working under contract with A&M's Texas Transportation Institute, officials said.

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2 BARNETT SHALE EXECS AMONG THE HIGHEST PAID

Two familiar names in North Texas' muscular natural gas industry landed on a prestigious list compiled by The Wall Street Journal. Making the chart of the 25 highest-paid U.S. business executives from 2000 through 2009 were Bob Simpson, a co-founder and former CEO of XTO Energy, and Aubrey McClendon, chairman and CEO of Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy. Fort Worth-based XTO was recently acquired by Exxon Mobil Corp., while Chesapeake has a large Fort Worth regional office for its Barnett Shale operations. The plain-talking, media-shy Simpson was No. 22 on the Journal list in pay, with realized compensation of $350.6 million for the decade. But he ranked No. 1 among the elite group in a category that most investors would consider much more important -- the return on investment to his company's shareholders during the decade.

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RANGE TO PLOW $210 MILLION MORE INTO MARCELLUS SHALE GAS VENTURES

Range Resources Corp., expressing a desire for "seizing opportunities" in the Marcellus Shale natural gas field in the Appalachians, plans an additional $210 million in capital expenditures there this year. With the spending boost, the Fort Worth-based natural gas and oil producer said it expects to double its net production in the field, from the equivalent of 200 million to 210 million cubic feet of natural gas per day by year's end to 400 million to 420 million cubic feet by the end of 2011. The updated projection, for the Marcellus Shale alone, would approach nearly 90 percent of Range's production from all its operations during the most recent quarter, which was a company record.

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PERRY SAYS HE AWAITS OBAMA RESPONSE ON BORDER SUMMIT

Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday that he's waiting for President Barack Obama to respond to his invitation for a sit-down meeting on border-security issues. During a campaign visit to San Antonio, the governor reiterated his recent call for a one-hour border summit on August 9, the day Obama is scheduled to make an Austin fundraising stop. Perry said he has not yet heard from the president. “The ball's in his court,” Perry said. “Wherever, whenever, I would sit down with him and discuss this while he's in Texas.” Perry jokingly added, “He's in Austin. I'm there that day. I checked my schedule.”

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County Stories

REHIRED SAN MARCOS OFFICER BARRED FROM COURT CASES, HAYS DA SAYS

A San Marcos police officer who was terminated for not being truthful and for a use-of-force violation won his job back after an appeal, but Hays County District Attorney Sherri Tibbe has effectively barred him from performing his police duties, according to a county memo. Officer Paul Stephens was indefinitely suspended in October over an incident in which he used a baton against a woman who was not resisting and was not a physical threat, according to police records. He later made a false statement about the encounter in his report, the records say. However, an independent arbitrator ruled in June that the charges of dishonesty and excessive force could not be substantiated, and Police Chief Howard Williams was bound by law to reinstate him.

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City Stories

FORMULA ONE MOVES ON TO STEP TWO

ith the first U.S. Grand Prix in Austin penciled in for June 2012, Austinites already knew the when – now they know the where and the who. On July 27, Full Throttle Promotions formally announced that the new dedicated Formula One track will be built in Southeast Austin and introduced its big backer – Billy Joe "Red" McCombs. Probably best known locally as the donor behind UT's McCombs School of Business, McCombs started his career in auto sales but made his real fortune in oil and as co-founder of Clear Channel Communications.

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DOWNTOWN CHARTER SCHOOL COULD BE FORCED TO MOVE

With less than a month before school starts, a charter school with an emphasis on media arts and civics education now needs a new place to teach its students. School officials last spring spent $100,000 in renovations on its downtown campus, the entire fifth floor of an office building at 11th Street and San Jacinto Boulevard. It's a sprawling glass-walled space with desks and computers positioned so that students get views of the Capitol a block away. But the 303 Office Condominiums Owners Association, which has control over how the building is operated, has filed for an injunction to keep iSchool from opening. In court filings, the association said housing a school there could cause insurance rates to go up and will be a nuisance to other businesses in the building. To date, there have been no insurance premium increases attributable to the school, according to court documents.

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COUNCIL REMAINS DIVIDED ON SANDERS SETTLEMENT

On the day before their scheduled vote, Austin City Council members remained divided Wednesday on whether to support a controversial $750,000 settlement with the family of a man fatally shot by a police officer. At least three council members — Randi Shade, Laura Morrison and Chris Riley — appeared persuadable on a day that brought more conversation about ending a federal lawsuit brought by the family of Nathaniel Sanders II. Council members circulated an e-mail from a retired assistant city attorney who had represented the city in the suit, urging them to reject the proposal. "I clearly believe the officer will win and I have tried a ton of these kind of cases," wrote former city lawyer Fred Hawkins, who left in December. He added that should they decide to settle, "the amount is too high."

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HIGHER TAXES AND FEES ON TABLE - BOOST IN SALES TAX REVENUE MEANS SOME PLANNED CUTS WON'T BE MADE, OTHER SERVICES CAN BE EXPANDED.

The City of Austin would hire 88 more police officers, firefighters and paramedics under the less-bleak-than-expected 2010-11 budget that officials proposed Wednesday. Programs that were in danger of being axed, such as library hours, a police cadet class and the Trail of Lights, would be spared because of higher-than-predicted sales tax revenue, budget writers told the City Council. But those programs and added services would come at a cost to taxpayers. The owner of a median-value home of $184,484 would pay $843 in city property taxes next year, an increase of $52 or 6.6 percent from this year. Utility bills for services such as water and electricity would increase a total of $4.94 a month for the average customer.

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HERMAN: AUSTIN NUT LADY TOPPLES CORPORATE GIANT WITH DETERMINATION, FAITH IN AMERICA: IT'S GR-R-REAT!

A local nut lady from Transylvania has fended off a big corporation in a trademark battle that became a capital case. (Journalism 101: When pertinent, work Transylvania into a story as often as possible.) Cipi Ilai, born in Transylvania, moved with her husband and children from Israel to Los Angeles in 1980. "I fell in love with America," she told me in her old-country-accented English. The family wound up in Austin in 1990. In 1993, the Ilais opened Austinuts, selling nuts they dry roast, and other gift food items. Business went well (32 employees, a second store in Dallas and a roasting plant in Manor), and the company in 2003 applied for a trademark on the word Austinuts.

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TWO STORES IN DRY FAR NORTH DALLAS GET OK TO SELL ALCOHOL IN ERROR

Far North Dallas has long been bone dry when it comes to retail alcohol sales. But because of a bureaucratic goof by the city and Collin County, two oases have emerged in recent months where you can buy chilled beer or choose from a variety of wines without driving to Plano or Addison. Near Frankford and Preston roads – in what is supposed to be dry Dallas – the Tom Thumb grocery and Walgreens drugstore are well stocked with alcohol. That has delighted some residents, even as it has infuriated opponents of a November referendum to expand alcohol sales in Dallas. And it's irritated nearby business owners who say they are being forced to compete on an unlevel playing field. According to Dallas' wet/dry lines, the two stores shouldn't be selling alcohol of any kind. Yet, they were able to secure permits from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission because someone – no one can say exactly who – realized a map kept by Collin County inaccurately listed that area as wet.

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HPD'S NEW MUNICIPAL COURT POLICY WINS FEW FANS

In an effort to slash $4 million in Houston police overtime, officers have been ordered to ignore subpoenas for morning appearances in municipal court, a policy change that has infuriated citizens, riled defense attorneys and angered police union officials. Houston police have been ordered by Police Chief Charles McClelland to appear in court at 1 p.m., even if they have been subpoenaed to a trial at 8 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. by the seven municipal courts that hear jury trials. Citizens who show up for their trials are not allowed to leave the courtroom — except for restroom breaks or to put money in parking meters — resulting in a wait of up to five hours before their cases begin. The new policy does not affect four courts where juries are not used.

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Lead Stories

TEXAS SENATOR'S VOTING, RESIDENCY QUESTIONED

The newest member of the Texas Senate, Brian Douglas Birdwell, voted in the November 2004 presidential election twice, choosing between George W. Bush and John Kerry in Tarrant County, Texas, and again in Prince William County, Virginia, according to election records in the two states. Voting in the same election twice is a third-degree felony in Texas.

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CASEY: OF SCIENCE, WITCHES AND ARSON TRIALS

If she did rise up gasping, she was obviously a witch and was hanged. Science progresses. Members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission disclosed they are wrestling with the issue of scientific progress in their investigation of the case of Todd Willingham, the Corsicana man executed for murdering his two daughters and a stepdaughter by arson. Members said they unanimously agree with experts who have found that testimony given by a Corsicana arson investigator and by an expert from the State Fire Marshal's Office is contradicted by today's science.

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WITH TEXAS BUDGET CRISIS, ODDS MAY BE IN GAMBLING'S FAVOR

Horse racing backers have put their money on a different kind of race this season, betting millions on candidates with some hope of expanding gambling at Texas tracks. The state's scramble for new revenue to fill its expected $18 billion budget hole has given gaming interests their best chance in a decade to overcome legislative opposition. And that's drawn an interesting mix of donors trying to bankroll election day winners. "This is the do-or-die session," said Mike Lavigne, spokesman for Texans for Economic Development, a political committee of 14 track owners that has raised $540,000 in the last year.

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TEXAS BATTLES HEALTH LAW EVEN AS IT FOLLOWS IT

AUSTIN, Tex. — There are more uninsured residents of Texas — 6.1 million and counting — than there are people in 33 states. The state’s elected officials might be expected, therefore, to cheer a federal health care law that is likely to deliver billions of dollars from Washington to Austin and cover millions of low-income Texans. Instead, the Republican political leadership has greeted the law and its anticipated costs with open hostility, leaving policy makers to move forward with a complex set of changes even as the governor, attorney general and ranking legislators rage against it.

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National Stories

PITTS: OUTRAGE MACHINE SHOOTS, MISSES

...You are familiar with that machine if you have access to the Internet or Fox News. As the name implies, it exists to stoke and maintain a state of perpetual apoplexy on the political right by feeding it a never-ending stream of perceived sins against conservative orthodoxy. While the machine will use any available fuel (health care, immigration, Muslims) to manufacture fury, it has a special fondness for race. Specifically, for stories that depict the God-fearing white conservative as a victim of oppression.

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ON THE SURFACE, GULF OIL SPILL IS VANISHING FAST; CONCERNS STAY

The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be dissolving far more rapidly than anyone expected, a piece of good news that raises tricky new questions about how fast the government should scale back its response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The immense patches of surface oil that covered thousands of square miles of the gulf after the April 20 oil rig explosion are largely gone, though sightings of tar balls and emulsified oil continue here and there.

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18 STATES AND DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ARE FINALISTS FOR EDUCATION GRANTS

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia were named as finalists on Tuesday in the second round of a national competition for $3.4 billion in federal financing to support an overhaul of education policies. The much-anticipated decision by the federal Education Department eliminated almost half of the 35 states that entered the competition, called Race to the Top.

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SPILL BILLS HIGHLIGHT REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION

House and Senate Democratic leaders Tuesday rolled out their big “spill bills” — the main legislative responses to the Gulf oil spill. The proposals are packed with aggressive offshore drilling reforms that Republicans have long fought and were immediately met with fierce pushback from the GOP and the oil industry. That could make it tough to get the bills passed, especially in the Senate, where a handful of oil-state Democrats may cross the aisle to vote against the package.

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RANGEL SAID TO SEEK SETTLEMENT TO AVERT HEARING IN ETHICS CASE

U.S. Representative Charles Rangel said he is trying to settle a House ethics complaint against him, a move that would avert the release of the details of the case stemming from a two-year probe of his personal finances and fundraising. Rangel confirmed to reporters yesterday that his lawyers were in discussions with staff lawyers for the House ethics committee, which has scheduled a hearing tomorrow where the specific of the allegations against the New York Democrat would be revealed.

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HOUSE DEMS MULL BREAK ON OBAMA’S TAX PLEDGE

House Democrats are casting doubt on one of President Obama’s top campaign promises by hedging on whether to permanently extend the tax cuts on families making less than $250,000 annually and individuals making less than $200,000. The tax breaks — passed nearly a decade ago at the urging of President George W. Bush and Republicans in Congress — are set to expire at the end of the year.

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State Stories

TEXANS JUMP INTO ORGAN DONOR POOL

Though Texas has the nation's lowest percentage of registered organ and tissue donors, several recent initiatives have more than doubled the state's donor rolls this year. The number enrolled in the Glenda Dawson Donate Life Texas Registry has ballooned since Jan. 1, when state law required Department of Public Safety clerks to ask all driver's license and ID card applicants whether they would like to register as organ donors. Since then, nearly 70,000 donors a month have joined the pool.

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CANDIDATES COOL ON SCHOOL CHARTER INVESTMENT IDEA

Although the State Board of Education voted 7-6 last week to proceed with a plan that would allow the board to make a small real estate investment in charter schools, don't count on that happening. The board action is contingent on either approval of the Texas Legislature or a green light from the state attorney general. It probably will take months for Attorney General Greg Abbott to rule. And, by then, board elections will result in new members who lean strongly against the idea.

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HC: POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS IN TWO CASES HERE EQUAL A GOOD WEEK FOR TEXAS JUSTICE.

In two very different venues in Houston last week, progress was made in addressing an endemic stain on Texas justice: the wrongful conviction of innocent people. In an emotional courtroom scene, a teary-eyed state District Judge Joan Campbell announced she would recommend the release of 39-year-old Allen Wayne Porter, who has served 19 years of a life sentence in state prison for participation in a 1990 robbery-rape in southwest Houston.

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REPORT: TEXAS TEEN BIRTH RATE THIRD HIGHEST

Texas has the third-highest rate of teenage births in the country, an improvement over last year's worst-in-the-nation ranking, according to the annual Kids Count report released on Tuesday. The report, conducted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, found that 64 babies are born for every 1,000 girls ages 15 through 19 in Texas, earning the state a ranking of 48. The national rate is 43 births per 1,000 teens.

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BOTH SIDES MAKE CASES AT LUBBOCK RALLY AGAINST ARIZONA IMMIGRATION LAW

A Lubbock grassroots organization on Tuesday night hosted a candlelight vigil in protest of Arizona’s immigration law that will go in effect later this week. Lubbock residents and members of Citizens in United Discourse Against Discrimination (CIUDAD) gathered in Higginbotham Park to display their disapproval of the controversial issue that has topped headlines across the nation.

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MAN WHO HELPED PUT GREENS ON TEXAS BALLOT WAS WORKING AT SAME TIME FOR PERRY CAMP

A local Republican operative who helped put the Green Party on the Texas ballot was working at the time for Gov. Rick Perry's re-election campaign. Perry spokesman Mark Miner said Tuesday, as he has before, that the governor's campaign was not involved in the Green Party petition drive. But finance reports show that the campaign paid Stuart Moss for mileage while he was doing political research for the Perry camp in November, the same time he was helping the Green Party field candidates. Miner said Moss' work was related to the GOP primary, not the Green Party.

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POLYGAMIST'S CONVICTION IS OVERTURNED IN UTAH

The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed the 2007 conviction of Warren Jeffs, a self-proclaimed prophet and polygamist who was found guilty of being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old child bride. The court agreed with defense lawyers that the judge erroneously told the jury that Jeffs could be convicted if he knew unwanted sex would result from the marriage he presided over between the girl and her 19-year-old cousin. The unanimous ruling makes it unlikely that Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, can be tried again in Utah, state Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said in a telephone interview.

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DMN: TEXAS SHOULD HELP CHARTER SCHOOLS WITH FACILITY COSTS

Social conservatives on the State Board of Education have gotten banged around considerably – justifiably, in our view – in recent years for their questionable decisions about Texas' history standards, science goals and student textbooks. But this time, they have it right. Many social conservatives on the elected 15-member board want to give charter schools access to the state's primary school fund to help the independent public schools build or purchase facilities.

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DMN: OFFICIAL 'OOPS' IN THE WILLINGHAM CASE?

The Texas Forensic Science Commission appears to be steering toward a vague zone in the Cameron Todd Willingham case, a direction that would fail to address exactly how wrong arson investigators may have been in making a case that sent him to the death chamber.

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E-TEXTBOOKS MORE POPULAR IN TEXAS SCHOOLS, BUT SHIFT WILL TAKE SOME GETTING USED TO

When Kristin Bratsch couldn't find the textbook she needed, she decided to try an electronic version, a series of PDF files that she downloaded onto her computer. After completing the course Concepts of Fitness and Wellness, Bratsch, a student at Collin County Community College's McKinney campus, had mixed feelings about the e-textbook. She said following along in it while watching video lectures was difficult, in contrast to a regular textbook that she could flip through. But she did like how easy it was to locate exact information by using the "find" feature in Adobe Reader.

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KENNEDY: BILL WHITE SHOULD TALK ABOUT IMMIGRATION BEFORE HE'S QUESTIONED ABOUT IT

Houston Democrat Bill White talked about education and ethics Tuesday, and the governor's $1.1 million rented mansion. But the coffee drinkers at a Fort Worth country club wanted to know more about White's home -- specifically, whether his city is a haven for illegal immigration. In a week when Arizona law officers will start checking detainees' residency, it figures that the "Country Club Friends" gathering at Colonial Country Club would ask about the chain e-mails calling Houston a "sanctuary city." White didn't blink.

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NEIGHBORS 'CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC' ABOUT SITE FOR F1 TRACK

Cathy Olive, president of the Elroy Preservation Association, has lived in Del Valle for 28 years. She runs a petting zoo company called Traveling Zoo, with ponies, goats and chicks that call her 7-acre property home. She also lives across the street from the future site of the Formula One racetrack, but she's hesitant to wholeheartedly welcome her new neighbor — yet. "I'm being cautiously optimistic after the meeting last night," Olive said.

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RED MCCOMBS NAMED KEY F1 INVESTOR

The Fabulous Thunderbirds' classic "Tuff Enough" had just finished blaring over the sound system in a ballroom at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center on the University of Texas campus when Red McCombs was introduced as the key investor in the effort to bring Formula One racing and the U.S. Grand Prix to Austin by 2012.

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AAS: SCIENCE - LIKE DEATH - HAS ITS LIMITS

It is a finding that is at once exculpatory of individuals and damning of a system. In a preliminary determination reached Friday, the Texas Forensic Science Commission said arson investigators used flawed — or at least now-outdated — science in their review of a 1991 Corsicana fire that killed three children and led to capital murder charges against Cameron Todd Willingham, their father. Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, the commission chairman, said at the meeting that investigators cannot be second-guessed for adhering to standards in place at the time of the crime.

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SWOLLEN RIVER SPOKE VOLUMES ON IMMIGRATION

The river has lessons to teach us, if only we'll listen. Rio Grande Valley Bureau reporter Lynn Brezosky reported last week that massive flooding hadn't stopped some people from trying to enter the United States illegally in shabby boats and inner tubes. Five were caught trying to cross in a boat that had a broken motor and was swept downstream.

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BRISCHETTO: DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS SPELL TROUBLE FOR GOP

After a stunning victory in 2008, recent polls on the midterm elections have Democrats and President Barack Obama concerned they will lose their legislative majority. The GOP will need a net gain of 39 seats to take control and pollsters say Democrats in 60 districts are at risk. Just saying “no” to the Obama agenda may be enough for Republicans to make significant gains this year, but it will not work as a strategy to achieve a majority beyond November, according to a recent study by Ruy Teixeira

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PERRY SAYS HE AWAITS OBAMA RESPONSE ON BORDER SUMMIT

Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday that he's waiting for President Barack Obama to respond to his invitation for a sit-down meeting on border-security issues. During a campaign visit to San Antonio, the governor reiterated his recent call for a one-hour border summit on August 9, the day Obama is scheduled to make an Austin fundraising stop. Perry said he has not yet heard from the president.

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GAS DRILLING COMPANIES CLAIM TO USE SAFER CHEMICALS

In Texas and across the country, controversy is escalating over the practice of "fracking," which involves shooting water, sand and chemicals far underground to retrieve natural gas. So some companies have responded by using less dangerous chemicals, and fewer of them.

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County Stories

HARRIS LEADERS OK REVISED PUBLIC DEFENDER PLAN

Harris County commissioners on Tuesday approved a reworked $4.1 million grant application to start a public defender office, a plan supported by a majority of the district judges. County leaders will learn Aug. 25 if their program will receive state funding to help with initial costs. If the grant is approved, the revised plan for a hybrid defender system to begin operation next February would utilize a mix of private lawyers appointed by judges and attorneys working for the public defender office. So far, 20 of the 22 district judges say they will use public defenders for cases in their courtrooms.

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City Stories

LAYOFF TALK PORTENDS STORM ON ISLE

A brawl over proposed police and firefighter layoffs is looming as Galveston officials wrestle with a projected $5 million budget shortfall while the city's recovery from Hurricane Ike is hampered by a national economic downturn. The population drop after the storm left the city with the highest police to population ratio in Texas, City Manager Steve LeBlanc says. He's using that data to support slashing public safety jobs during upcoming union contract negotiations.

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Lead Stories

WHITE EDGES PERRY IN SUPPORT FROM BORDER SHERIFFS

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White cut sharply into Gov. Rick Perry's endorsements from border sheriffs Monday, but stumbled by claiming support from two who are backing the incumbent. Perry has enjoyed broad support since 2005 from the 18 members of the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition, in part because he has steered millions of dollars in state and federal funding to the coalition and their individual departments. Perry gave the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition $2 million to run his ill-fated border camera project.

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WHITE ASSAILS LAND DEALS THAT HELPED MAKE PERRY A MILLIONAIRE

Democratic candidate for governor Bill White questioned Monday whether Gov. Rick Perry acted ethically when he bought and sold a Hill Country lake lot that enhanced his investment by almost $500,000. Perry again defended the transactions as properly handled and disclosed. White told a conference of Texas sheriffs that one of them would be under criminal investigation if he or she relied on the kind of professional courtesies and personal favors from friends and campaign donors that Perry did in the land sale. "There would be federal investigators all over that sheriff very quickly," White said.

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OBAMA ASSAILS REPUBLICANS ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE

President Obama on Monday sought political advantage from the expected defeat of a campaign finance measure that he has championed by pre-emptively attacking its Republican opponents for “nothing less than a vote to allow corporate and special-interest takeovers of our elections.” Mr. Obama’s statement to reporters at the White House was added to his daily schedule after it became clear that the Senate would vote Tuesday on whether to take up a bill that would require corporations, unions and other special interests to disclose the donors that bankroll their political advertisements. The legislation would also ban campaign spending by foreign-controlled corporations.

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AMONG HOUSE DEMOCRATS IN RUST BELT, A SENSE OF ABANDONMENT OVER ENERGY BILL

When Democratic Rep. John Boccieri went home to Ohio early this year to talk with voters in his Canton-based district, he figured he would have to do battle with at least some constituents over his support for health-care reform. And the economic stimulus. And the auto company bailouts. But at a meeting with business leaders, he had to come up with fast answers on something completely different: Why, the businessmen wanted to know, had Boccieri voted for a bill last summer to cap carbon emissions, which they feared would drive up their energy bills in the middle of a recession?

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National Stories

BP PREPARES EFFORT TO SEAL WELL FOR GOOD

BP may land the first blow of a planned one-two punch to seal its troubled Gulf of Mexico oil well for good within a week, the head of the federal spill response said Monday. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the company likely will begin a procedure called a static kill of the Macondo well by next Monday. This will involve pumping heavy drilling mud through a line in the damaged blowout preventer to push oil back into the reservoir 13,000 feet beneath the sea floor. The mud will be followed by cement. About five days later BP should be able to intercept the bottom of the Macondo well from a relief well that is being drilled next to it, and begin in pumping mud and cement in to seal the well from below.

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DOCUMENT LEAK MAY HURT EFFORTS TO BUILD WAR SUPPORT

The disclosure of a six-year archive of classified military documents increased pressure on President Obama to defend his military strategy as Congress prepares to deliberate financing of the Afghanistan war. The disclosures, with their detailed account of a war faring even more poorly than two administrations had portrayed, landed at a crucial moment. Because of difficulties on the ground and mounting casualties in the war, the debate over the American presence in Afghanistan has begun earlier than expected. Inside the administration, more officials are privately questioning the policy.

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POSTING RECORD LOSS, BP CONFIRMS NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE

BP named Robert Dudley as its next chief executive Tuesday and reported a record $17 billion loss in the second quarter as the company set aside billions of dollars to deal with the aftermath of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP set aside $32.2 billion for costs related to the spill, including $20 billion for an escrow fund announced earlier. To help cover the costs, the company plans to sell assets worth $30 billion over the next 18 months. The sales would leave BP with a smaller exploration and production operation, it said.

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WHITE HOUSE BLASTS WIKILEAKS FOR DOCUMENTS LEAK

The White House on Monday heaped criticism on government transparency advocate Wikileaks for publishing a huge database of secret field reports from the U.S. military in Afghanistan. "Besides being against the law, [it] has a potential to be very harmful to those that are in our military, those that are cooperating with our military, and those that are working to keep us safe," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said of the publication.

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PAWLENTY OPENS UP ON POLITICS, 2012 GOP BID

Sounding very much like a presidential candidate-in-waiting, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty spoke Monday in Washington on foreign policy, repealing the Obama health care law, the economy — and some of his potential Republican rivals in 2012. The Obama administration "needs to do a better job of explaining why" we need to be in Afghanistan, Mr. Pawlenty said on the Washington visit, just off a plane from a Middle East trip that included talks with Afghanistan commander Gen. David H. Petraeus and wounded troops from his home state.

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IS WIKILEAKS THE PENTAGON PAPERS, PART 2? PARALLELS, AND DIFFERENCES, EXIST.

A voluminous cache of secret documents is leaked, shedding new light on official statements and drawing into question some of the rationale for America's involvement in a murky, distant and long-running war. That would accurately describe the publication in 1971 of the Pentagon Papers, the Defense Department's secret history of the Vietnam War that revealed a "credibility gap" between the Johnson administration's public statements and its private actions.

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State Stories

BILL WHITE BLASTS RICK PERRY'S HORSESHOE BAY LAND DEAL

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White today continued his streak of hammering GOP Gov. Rick Perry publicly, this time questioning whether the governor acted with integrity during a land deal several years ago in Horseshoe Bay. Addressing a Sheriffs' Association of Texas conference, White asked law-enforcement officials how long they thought it would take for them to be under investigation if they made a large sum of money buying a piece of land for less than market price and selling it for more. "Ask yourself that question," White told a ballroom full of attendees of the convention, which attracted more than 1,500 cowboy-hatted sheriffs and other law-enforcement officials.

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TEA: AUSTIN SCHOOL DISTRICT WRONG TO FIRE DIVERSITY DIRECTOR

The Austin school board was wrong when it terminated a contract employee as part of job cuts the district has made in recent months, according to a finding issued this month by a certified hearing examiner for the Texas Education Agency. Trustees in April approved an administrative recommendation to terminate Margarita Decierdo , who was in the second year of her three-year contract. The move was part of a broader effort to close a projected gap in the proposed $718 million 2010-11 budget by cutting jobs as the district eliminated programs or departments. In all, the district put 113 jobs on the chopping block, including 30 vacant positions. Some employees found other jobs within the district; others resigned. Decierdo was hired in 2008 as the district's director of diversity and intercultural relations. Her position was one of 36 contract jobs identified for elimination, though Decierdo was the only one who filed an appeal.

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WATSON PAY AT CAP METRO: UP TO $256,500 IN FIRST YEAR

New Capital Metro chief Linda Watson, the final piece in what community leaders hope will be a team able to right the agency's perennially listing ship, will be paid as much as $256,500 in her first year year under a five-year contract approved unanimously by the board Monday. That includes $228,000 in salary and up to $28,500 in a performance bonus at the end of the first year, subject to the board awarding one to her. She will also get $25,000 in deferred compensation for each of her first two years here, but not until the end of her second year, according to the contract. Watson, 57 , has another few days to serve as the chief executive officer at the transit agency in Orlando, Fla., and will begin work here Aug. 16. Her hiring caps a year of change at the agency, triggered by a state law overhauling the transit board and the resignation last fall of embattled CEO Fred Gilliam.

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TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL SUES EPA TO OVERTURN AIR PERMIT PROGRAM DISAPPROVAL

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Monday filed a legal challenge to preserve the state's control of an air-permitting program. The suit filed with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is the latest move in a struggle between the state and Washington over how Texas regulates air pollution from major industrial facilities. The suit asks the court to overturn the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decision at the end of June to disapprove the state's flexible permitting program, which sets umbrella emission caps for facilities rather than pollution limits for particular units, such as a boiler. The EPA has said the program, which had been in place since 1994, is too lax.

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BIGGER BAMC TAKING SHAPE

The billion-dollar Brooke Army Medical Center expansion project is quickly rising against the Northeast Side skyline and has entered an accelerated phase. The number of construction workers has doubled to 1,000. The expansion will transform BAMC and Wilford Hall Medical Center into San Antonio Military Medical Center North and South. The seven-story BAMC Consolidated Tower will add about 760,000 square feet to the hospital and provide space for 200 additional beds, a Level 1 trauma center, operating rooms, and clinical and administrative facilities.

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TRINITY AQUIFER'S SUPPLY TO BE CURBED

For the first time, parts of the Hill Country will limit pumping to protect the Trinity Aquifer. The Groundwater Management Area 9 board, which controls water use in nine counties, decided Monday to limit depletion of the Trinity Aquifer to no more than 30 feet of the current average water level over the next 50 years. Some permit-holders concerned about maintaining spring and stream flows had advocated for zero drawdown of the aquifer, but concerns about meeting current demand and growth won out. The State Water Development Board will now take that drawdown and use models of the aquifer to determine how much groundwater is left to be pumped from each of groundwater districts in the counties the GMA 9 represents.

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SBOE’S VOTE ON INVESTMENT PLAN INVITES SCRUTINY

Hedge funds and the like are the kind of subject matter that would make just about anyone's head spin. If the investor is government, taxpayers count on public officials to figure it out on our behalf. The public also counts on their elected officials to be on hand for critical decisions. But the absence of two state Board of Education members on Friday set up a 7-6 decision that pushed a questionable investment idea forward. With the narrow vote, the board approved a plan to invest $100 million in facilities that would be rented to charter schools. Board members opposing the plan weren't necessarily opposed to helping charter schools. With the charge to change the way children are educated, and given the liberty to do so with few of the regulatory constraints that bind public schools, charter schools are a worthwhile experiment.

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SAEN: STOP PARTISAN JUDICIAL FRACAS

It took more than 18 months, but President Barack Obama has finally nominated a candidate for a U.S. District Court bench in Texas. The president nominated U.S. Magistrate Diana Saldaña to an open bench in Laredo earlier this month. Texas congressional Democrats and the state's two Republican senators agreed on Saldaña, but they disagree on other potential nominees. The Saldaña breakthrough was due to Laredo Rep. Henry Cuellar's willingness to work with both sides of the aisle. His Democratic colleagues should take note. The state has six open federal district court benches, and the vacancies are a particular problem for courts along the border. The Express-News reported that a nonpartisan research group found that drug prosecutions in the Southern District of Texas, which includes Laredo, increased by 53 percent in fewer than two years. The district has four openings, making Saldaña's nomination important progress.

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STATE FUND COULD PROVIDE WINDFALL TO EX-INMATE IF HE'S RULED INNOCENT

Once facing the prospect of spending his life in prison, 39-year-old Allen Wayne Porter now faces the possibility of spending his remaining years as a wealthy man thanks to a state program that reimburses inmates for time wrongfully spent in prison. Porter's lawyer, Casey Garrett, said Monday that her client, a convicted sexual assailant who last week won the first round of his "actual innocence" case in a Houston courtroom, hasn't given any thought to the money he could receive for the 19 years he spent behind bars. "It's not an issue until everything is final," she said. "He's waiting for the ruling to be official." But the prospect of Porter's possible freedom — and his prospective windfall — has incensed a female victim of the 1990 robbery-rapes that sent Porter to prison. "This would be downright wrong," said the woman, who's not convinced of Porter's innocence. "If the state of Texas gave him that kind of money — whew! I'm a victim, and to think you'd pay a criminal."

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REMEMBER THE TRADEMARK ALAMO'S NEW RALLYING CRY

An ongoing trademark dispute over the phrase "The Alamo" is now in the hands of the federal government. An attorney working for Gov. Rick Perry's office has filed a "notice of opposition" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office stating that Texas — not the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, which operates the historic site — should control the trademark. The two groups have been at odds since April, when state officials said they discovered the DRT had applied for the trademark. But the parties continue to discuss settlement options despite Friday's filing, representatives for both groups said Monday. "We had hoped to reach an agreement by now. But we anticipate we will be able to reach one," said Jim Ewbank, general counsel for the DRT. The trademark would allow the DRT to generate money for upkeep of the monument by selling official Alamo-brand merchandise.

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CHET EDWARDS REFUSES BILL FLORES' CALL TO RETURN RANGEL CONTRIBUTIONS

Waco Rep. Chet Edwards's challenger called on him to return $42,000 received in the last decade from Rep. Charlie Rangel , the New York Democrat accused last week of ethics violations. Edwards refused. Aides noted that he received no Rangel checks for the 2010 campaign and said he would not return donations from prior elections, though some Democratic incumbents have done so. Rangel chaired the powerful Ways & Means tax-writing committee until the ethics allegations were formalized.

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PERRY, WHITE JOUST OVER LAND DEALS, BUT BOTH AGREE THE FEDS ARE MISHANDLING BORDER SECURITY

Texas' gubernatorial candidates agreed Monday that the Texas-Mexico border isn't secure -- and took swipes at each other over a land deal and gun rights -- as they spoke to about 500 Texas law enforcers. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White and Republican Gov. Rick Perry told the Sheriffs Association of Texas of the need for more border security, even though President Barack Obama is sending 1,200 National Guard troops to border states beginning Sunday. Of those, 250 will come to Texas. "We've got 64 percent of the border and we are getting 20 percent of the troops," Perry said during the meeting at the Fort Worth Convention Center. "Even my Aggie math can figure that out. We're getting shorted."

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TEXAS HAS 3RD-HIGHEST TEEN BIRTHRATE AMONG STATES, STUDY SAYS

Texas has the third-highest teen birthrate in the nation, according to an annual study that ranked the state in the overall well-being of children. Sixty-four of 1,000 births were to teenage mothers, far higher than the national rate of 43 births per 1,000, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation's 2010 Kids Count Data Book. The rate puts Texas 48th among the 50 states in teen births, better than only New Mexico and Mississippi. But it is an improvement over last year, when the state was the worst in the country. The report, which also found a rising number of children living in poverty in Texas and a higher infant mortality rate, focuses attention on the need for services at a time when programs are being cut because of budget problems, said Dr. Frances Deviney, Texas Kids Count director.

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FINE-ARTS REQUIREMENTS FOR TEXAS STUDENTS EXPANDING IN COMING SCHOOL YEAR

Reading, writing and ... mariachi? When classes begin next month, students statewide will be required to take at least one fine arts course in the sixth, seventh or eighth grade. The rules also expand high school requirements so that all students in grades nine through 12 must earn at least one fine arts credit in courses such as band, theater, choir, dance or mariachi. Many North Texas school administrators expect minimal changes in the coming school year, noting that most middle school-age students already take fine arts classes. But educators and parents are pleased nonetheless, saying more young people will be able to explore interests and identify artistic talents, eventually boosting enrollment in high school arts programs.

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CONCRETE RECYCLING IS AMONG UNUSUAL FEATURES OF DFW CONNECTOR PROJECT

Mountains of broken concrete are piling up along Texas 114/121, where highway work crews are just a few months into the five-year, $1 billion DFW Connector project. One of the first steps is to remove old pavement and pile the rubble. But the contractor will not haul it away. Instead, it will be crushed on-site by giant machines -- and given a new life as recycled concrete, which can be used as base material when the highways are repaved. "Most people haul it someplace, but look at the trucking costs," said Todd Greenwood, equipment manager for NorthGate Constructors, explaining that there are two crushing machines on-site.

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FWST: TEXAS BOARD'S CHARTER SCHOOL PLAN IS UNWISE

Oh, come on, State Board of Education members. You're kidding, right? With all the trouble that Texas has gone through with charter schools, there is no way you could have decided Friday to hand them more than $100 million of state money. Not in your right minds, anyway. OK, so the stark realities of recent history demonstrate that what passes for being of sound mind is not quite the same for some board members as it is for the rest of the world. A simple Google search on Thomas Jefferson will show plenty of recent commentary about the board when it tried to mess with this Founding Father's place in the Texas public school curriculum. But just because a thin majority of the board has taken another leave from reality by deciding to devote a portion of the Permanent School Fund to provide charter school facilities doesn't make that a good investment.

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BID DELAY KEEPS CAMERAS OUT OF DOZENS OF DALLAS POLICE CARS

Dallas is rolling out new police cars without the dash-cam recorders that have played a pivotal role in holding officers accountable for how they do their jobs. Some officers have been cleared of misconduct because of evidence from the camera systems. Others have been proved to be engaged in criminal wrongdoing. The city isn't putting the recorders into the cars because it doesn't have any to install, officials said. About 60 new cars without cameras have been added to the patrol fleet, which now numbers about 845 cars. The number without cameras is expected to grow quickly because eight to 12 new cars are put into service each week.

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SMU DOCUMENTARY TO DEPICT PLIGHT OF UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS IN NORTH TEXAS

Daniela Balderas and Erik Burgos have seen the struggles that fellow students can go through if they are in the country illegally – and they wanted others to see those hardships, too. So, the two Southern Methodist University seniors decided to make a documentary about those students in North Texas. "Typically, when we think of 'undocumented' we always think of an individual that's doing lawn work, washing dishes," Burgos said. "But rarely does the thought of a college student or college graduate cross our mind. We want to capture that side of a broken immigration policy." Balderas, Burgos, and two other SMU students received a $1,500 grant from the school late last year to make the film. The grant is part of SMU's "Big iDeas" fund, which supports student projects that have an impact on Dallas.

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DALLAS COUNTY JUSTICE OF THE PEACE WHO LOST PRIMARY REQUESTS CRIMINAL PROBE OF RIVAL'S ACTIONS

A Dallas County justice of the peace who failed to win a new election in court after losing in the Democratic primary in March is asking a judge to initiate a criminal investigation into the actions of his opponent and his supporters. Judge Luis Sepulveda said in a motion filed Friday that his opponent, Carlos Medrano, violated the Texas Election Code by coercing people to vote for him when they were not eligible to do so in the primary. He is asking a judge to appoint another judge to initiate a court of inquiry to investigate the matter. Texas law includes a rare and little-known provision that allows a district judge to launch a criminal investigation if he or she believes probable cause shows that a crime was committed.

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TEXAS OPPOSES DRT'S TRADEMARK EFFORTS FOR 'THE ALAMO'

State officials are opposing the Daughters of the Republic of Texas' attempt to trademark the phrase "The Alamo," upending another of the group's plans to expand fundraising for the battle site. As owner of the San Antonio icon, the state argued to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that it has the sole rightful claim to the trademark. The state said the application by the Daughters, the Alamo's volunteer stewards, was likely to cause confusion. The state "will be damaged by the registration by Applicant of the mark THE ALAMO in that it will block registration by the rightful owner of the mark, the State of Texas, and interfere with and disparage the State's claim of ownership," according to a brief filed Friday on behalf of Gov. Rick Perry's office.

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DMN: OFFICIAL 'OOPS' IN THE WILLINGHAM CASE?

The Texas Forensic Science Commission appears to be steering toward a vague zone in the Cameron Todd Willingham case, a direction that would fail to address exactly how wrong arson investigators may have been in making a case that sent him to the death chamber. Clarity, not obfuscation, is what the public deserves in this long-running legal drama. A four-person committee investigating the Willingham case offered draft recommendations last week that would absolve arson investigators of negligence because they used outmoded standards that were common at the time in Texas in probing the fire.

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MCKENZIE: WHAT BILL WHITE SHOULD SAY

My fellow Texans, Our state has changed enormously in the last 20 years, and I'm not talking about Texas becoming solidly Republican. The very face of Texas is changing. You see this shift in restaurants in the Panhandle, on big-city sidewalks and in suburban shopping centers. Texas is home to Latinos in a way that it hasn't been since our earliest days. Some of us may want to reject that change. I understand that. Uprooting old social arrangements is not easy. But whether you live in Dumas, Denton or Dallas, we share a destiny. And our beloved state either transitions or it becomes a lesser place, one where global companies can't find skilled workers, our tax base dwindles and our universities lose their stature.

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AN INTERVIEW WITH THE DEPARTING SUPREME COURT JUSTICE

Last Friday, former Texas Supreme Court justice Harriet O'Neill sat down with the Tribune at her new office in downtown Austin to talk about her 18 years in the judiciary — including 12 on the high court — and what comes next. O’Neill announced last August that her current term, which concluded at the end of this year, would be her last. In June, she stepped down early from the court, and Gov. Rick Perry appointed district judge Debra Lehrmann to the spot. The former justice said she decided to leave before completing her term because she thought that would cause the least disruption to the court’s docket. Since the court recesses in the summer, it would give time to her replacement to get familiar with the docket before the fall term began. Lehrmann won the Republican primary for the seat and still faces Democrat Jim Sharp, who sits on Houston’s 1st Court of Appeals, and Libertarian William Bryan Strange III in November’s general election.

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GAINING GROUND: 4 COUNTIES WITH DISTINCT VOTING PATTERNS KEY TO BOTH PARTIES

It's a tale of four counties. Two of them are the largest Latino-majority and Democratic-leaning counties in the state, and they rank near the bottom when you compare their voting-age population with the actual number of people who show up at the polls. The other two are growing suburban counties with larger Anglo populations that tend to lean Republican and produce some of the highest turnouts of eligible voters anywhere in Texas. The El Paso Times and Texas Tribune ranked the state's 50 largest counties by comparing the number of people who were old enough to vote in 2006 and 2008 with those who actually cast ballots.

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TEXAS OPPOSES DRT TRADEMARKING 'THE ALAMO'

The state of Texas is opposing an attempt by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas to trademark the phrase "The Alamo." The state argued in a brief filed Friday with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that it is the rightful owner of the trademark. The state says the Daughters' application would likely cause confusion. The Dallas Morning News reports that Houston attorney Paul Van Slyke filed the opposition on behalf of Gov. Rick Perry's office.

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TEXAS STAKES CLAIM TO ALAMO TRADEMARK

An ongoing trademark dispute over the phrase “The Alamo” is now in the hands of the federal government. An attorney working for Gov. Rick Perry's office filed a “notice of opposition” on Friday with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office stating that Texas — not the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, which operates the historic site — should control the trademark. The two have been at odds since April, when state officials said they discovered the DRT had applied for the trademark, but they are still discussing settlement options.

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County Stories

TRAVIS COUNTY PROPERTY APPRAISALS FALL 3.5 PERCENT IN FINAL TALLY

Travis County's property values declined over the past year while other Central Texas counties remained largely flat, according to certified tax rolls released by area appraisal districts. The appraised market value for properties in Travis County dropped from $124 billion in 2009 to $119.7 billion this year — about a 3.5 percent decrease. That drop is less than appraisers feared when they initially projected a decline of more than 5 percent. But it still is the first overall decline since 2003. Meanwhile, Williamson County saw a decline of only $200 million, to $41.6 billion. Bastrop and Hays added $100 million and $200 million, respectively, for total values of $6.5 billion and $14.2 billion.

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THE WIT AND WISDOM OF JOE NED DEAN

Joe Ned Dean not only has the quintessential East Texas moniker, but the Trinity County district attorney and retired district judge has the quintessential country boy's perspective on Democratic Party politics. Dean, 65, with a large head and a broad, expressive face that seems to have been hewed from a hackberry stump, was traveling with Bill White on Saturday and had no compunction about sharing his homespun advice between candidate meet-and-greets in Madisonville, Huntsville, Corrigan and Groveton, Dean's hometown. After listening to White in Madisonville, Dean offered this assessment: "He looks like Howdy Doody, but he's a smart son-of-a-bitch."

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COLLIN COUNTY UNEMPLOYMENT SUFFERS SHARP INCREASE FOR JUNE

It would seem that the U.S. Legislature picked the perfect time to reinstate those unemployment checks. Unemployment rates for Collin County rose by almost one-half of a percentage point for the month of June from 7.5 to 7.9 percent, mirroring the same rate increases for 2009, according to data tabulated by the Texas Force Commission. Collin County also had 8 percent unemployment in June of 2009, but by a much higher increase from May of 7.3 percent, according to tabulated data.

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City Stories

AAS: NEW PATROL CAMERAS NEEDED

It won't be cheap outfitting Austin police patrol cars and motorcycles with digital cameras featuring enhanced automatic-activation features. The price tag is about $15.5 million and worth every dime. The cameras are not only an investment in public safety, as Police Chief Art Acevedo noted, but also a way to resolve disputes about the way police interact with citizens. Reports of police misconduct or excessive force are more easily resolved if the incidents are captured on video. Videos don't exaggerate, embellish or equivocate. But to work, a person has to activate the camera. Failure to activate can be costly.

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MEMO DETAILS COSTLY PERKS AND GIFTS FOR HISD EMPLOYEES

The gifts and offers to Houston ISD employees flowed: fishing on a luxury yacht, tickets to Rockets playoff games, free cell phones. Technology vendors vying for business in the Houston Independent School District peppered staff, including former Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra, with perks over several years, according to a federal investigation. A recently released memo from HISD's outside law firm details for the first time the gift-giving allegations that landed the district in trouble with the U.S. Department of Justice, costing taxpayers an $850,000 fine and students tens of millions of dollars in technology at their schools. The department accused HISD of violating competitive-bidding rules — arguing that the elaborate freebies could influence who got contracts - and in 2006 froze the district's access to federal funding through the so-called E-rate technology program.

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HC: A FAIR SHAKE -- NEW BILL WILL BRING EQUITY TO DRUG FINES AND SENTENCING

The Chronicle's Dane Schiller reported last week on the fascinating saga of a drug lord's helicopter, offering a rare glimpse into the secret world of international narco-trafficking and the back-room deals that powerful criminals make with law enforcement. The chopper, worth $1.3 million, was part of a closed-door deal that Houston prosecutors made with Mexican drug cartel king Osiel Cardenas Guillen, who pleaded guilty, agreed to fork over the vehicle and $50 million, and to spill the beans on his business associates. The history of the helicopter reveals a complex pedigree of owners, registrations, operators — a textbook example of hiding assets. Cardenas, who had never seen the bird, admitted to buying it with drug proceeds, importing it from Japan and operating it under others' names, all while he was in a maximum security Mexican prison.

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Lead Stories

PERRY DENIES IMPROPRIETY IN $1.15 MILLION LAND DEAL

Gov. Rick Perry's investment in a Texas resort property was enhanced by a series of professional courtesies and personal favors from friends, campaign donors and the head of a Texas family with a rich history of political power-brokering, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday. Together they may have enriched the Republican governor by nearly $500,000, according to an independent real estate appraisal commissioned by the newspaper.

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CASEY: SCIENCE DEFEATS DA 8-0

Here's the triumphant score from Friday's Texas Forensic Science Commission: Science 8, District Attorney 0. The battle was for the scientific soul of the commission. Chairman and Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley had distributed a "memorandum on jurisdiction" that concluded the Legislature authorized the commission to investigate only complaints involving crime labs accredited by the Department of Public Safety.

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DEXHEIMER: NEW LEAF FOR ALCOHOL AGENCY

The big news out of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission these days is not all the suspected drunks its officers are arresting, but rather the many suspected drunks they aren't taking into custody. Consider: In 2006, the agency brought 3,100 public intoxication cases, according to its records. By last year, it was down to 764. This year, its public intoxication docket is the lightest it's ever been. In the first nine months of the fiscal year, the beverage commission handled 81 public drunkenness cases. If that rate holds, the year's total number of charges will be less than 5 percent of what it was just four years ago.

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UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: LATINO NUMBERS FORMIDABLE, BUT NOT ALL CAN VOTE

Latinos are the sleeping giants in Texas politics. That phrase is repeated so much it has become cliché. Nearly 37 percent of the state's population of about 24.8 million people is Latino but almost any political expert will tell you that the group does not fully exercise its strength in elections. Pinpointing if and when Latinos will begin wielding their voting power is more challenging.

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National Stories

BP'S HAYWARD WILL BE GETTING HIS 'LIFE BACK'

As the first reports of the Gulf of Mexico oil-rig explosion trickled in to BP's London headquarters in April, BP chief executive Tony Hayward wondered whether to fly immediately to the United States. One veteran of the company advised Hayward to keep his head down, saying, "There's no sense being Napoleon unless you can be certain of victory."

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PAKISTAN AIDS INSURGENCY IN AFGHANISTAN, REPORTS ASSERT

Americans fighting the war in Afghanistan have long harbored strong suspicions that Pakistan’s military spy service has guided the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its help combating the militants, according to a trove of secret military field reports made public Sunday. The documents, made available by an organization called WikiLeaks, suggest that Pakistan, an ostensible ally of the United States, allows representatives of its spy service to meet directly with the Taliban in secret strategy sessions to organize networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders.

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CITIES VIEW HOMESTEADS AS A SOURCE OF INCOME

Give away land to make money? It hardly sounds like a prudent scheme. But in a bit of déjà vu, that is exactly what this small Nebraska city aims to do. Beatrice was a starting point for the Homestead Act of 1862, the federal law that handed land to pioneering farmers. Back then, the goal was to settle the West. The goal of Beatrice’s “Homestead Act of 2010,” is, in part, to replenish city coffers. The calculus is simple, if counterintuitive: hand out city land now to ensure property tax revenues in the future.

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WHEN RACE IS THE ISSUE, MISLEADING COVERAGE SETS OFF AN UPROAR

In the last couple of days, Andrew Breitbart, a conservative Web site operator, has been called a liar, a provocateur, a propagandist — and even a race-baiter. But he says he knows who the true race-baiters are: some Democratic activists. It was one of Mr. Breitbart’s Web sites, BigGovernment, that highlighted the heavily edited video clip of Shirley Sherrod, a black official at the Department of Agriculture, apparently saying that she had been biased against a white farmer she was supposed to help. Ms. Sherrod’s full speech actually demonstrated the opposite, but do not expect Mr. Breitbart to be embarrassed.

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AT THE WHITE HOUSE, LOSING A GAME OF PHONE TAG

The White House switchboard — able to conjure up Santa Claus at a moment’s notice for a young Caroline Kennedy — is famous for its ability to track down anyone, anywhere, anytime. But last week, both the White House and the secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, were unable to muster that switchboard magic to reach Shirley Sherrod, the Department of Agriculture official who was forced to resign based on an edited video clip that made it look as if she had discriminated against a white farmer.

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HOUSE DEMS COUNT DOWN FINAL WEEK

The last week in session will result in either good news or bad news for House Democrats. The party could use the week to cram as many job creating and deficit reduction measures onto the floor schedule as possible so they can tout their work to voters back home during the August recess. Or they could spend the week running through the gauntlet of Rep. Charlie Rangel's (D-N.Y.) ethics troubles, the never-ending stimulus-deficit legislative paradox, and the Senate's virtual inability to act on anything the House manages to pass.

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RANGEL MAY HURT FELLOW DEMS WITH ETHICS TRIAL YET KEEP HIS OWN SEAT

A prominent congressional Democrat having to stand trial before the House ethics committee less than two months before November's election could compound the party's electoral woes in 2010. Yet if Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) does end up making the campaign trail tougher for House Democrats this fall, the irony is that short of him being expelled from the House, observers say he's unlikely to lose his own congressional seat.

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U.S. MAY FACE DEFLATION, A PROBLEM JAPAN UNDERSTANDS TOO WELL

The White House prediction Friday that the deficit would hit a record $1.47 trillion this year poured new fuel on the fiery argument over whether the government should begin cutting back to avoid future inflation or instead keep stimulating the economy to help the still-sputtering recovery. But increasingly, economists and other analysts are expressing concern that the United States could be edging closer to a different problem — the kind of deflationary trap that cost Japan more than a decade of growth and economic progress.

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RED VS. BLUE FAMILY IN BLACK AND WHITE

Young parents Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston may have gotten engaged again recently, but they are still a quintessential "red" family trying to swim against the tide of family change, say two family law professors who have launched a debate about "red" and "blue" American families. The 2004 and 2008 elections showed a divided America — and that division extends even to families, Naomi Cahn and June Carbone write in their book, "Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture."

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GOP HOPEFULS RAISE SUPPORT, FEWER FUNDS

In some key races that may decide control of Capitol Hill this fall, it's coming down to a battle of Democratic money versus Republican momentum. With candidates and party organizations reporting their second-quarter fundraising totals to the Federal Election Commission last week, some top Democratic incumbents have run up big money advantages over their GOP opponents, but the polls suggest that may not be enough to save them in November.

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HEAVY LIABILITY COULD SINK SMALL OIL DRILLERS

One of the biggest of the big oil companies may be responsible for the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, but Washington's response to the BP PLC spill would give an advantage to such major oil companies while threatening to put their small competitors out of business. Energy legislation that Senate leaders said they may take up this week would sharply raise or eliminate a $75 million cap on oil company liability for economic damage from spills — a change that poses no great threat to giants like BP, which is setting aside $10 billion out of its huge profits and assets to pay for claims related to the spill and has already paid out billions.

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20 YEARS OF PROBLEMS AT ARLINGTON CEMETERY

In many cases -- including the plot where former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and a Vietnam War veteran are buried -- two of the VIPs are buried where the map notes just one. Another grave that appears occupied on the map has no headstone. And seven graves that appear empty on the map are filled. Six weeks after the Army ousted Arlington's top two officials in a sweeping probe of the nation's most hallowed cemetery, The Washington Post found problems with more than 130 graves between one of its most high-profile sections and one of its least known.

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PHILLIPS: SHIRLEY SHERROD ROSE ABOVE BIOGTRY, BUT CAN WE?

And if she were alive today that is what Grandma, Queen Easter Harrison, would say about the Shirley Sherrod debacle. Certainly, the tables have been turned. Now Sherrod, just days ago the object of nationwide scorn, character attacks and an electronic lynching that reached all the way up to the White House is now a celebrated American hero. Meanwhile, those who bullied, maligned and denounced her have become the villains. I won't rehash all of the twists, turns and details. You can read stories published in the American-Statesman at statesman.com. What I will talk about is Sherrod, whose story of racial reconciliation speaks to all Americans seeking truth and justice.

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STROUD: IT'S TIME TO CALL A TRUCE ON THE RACE CARD

If we had known the national conversation about race was going to veer off into wackiness, maybe we would've just avoided it. The time has come for a truce. Just as an experiment, let's try for a while to argue issues on their merits and put the race-based chips on our shoulders away. That means the Tea Party crowd, the NAACP, all of us. The race card, even when grievances are legitimate, detracts from public discourse. It's an emotional ploy that's prone to abuse from either end of the political spectrum.

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State Stories

PERRY'S PROPERTY BUYER IN '07 LAND DEAL WAS INFLUENTIAL BUT 'INVISIBLE'

Alan Moffatt has moved in some influential circles, but he has attracted little notice during his time in Texas. "He was like the invisible man," said Jamie Boerner, who lived next door to a house Moffatt once owned in Alamo Heights, a San Antonio suburb. A 60-year-old British national, Moffatt owns a condo in Alamo Heights, where he has lived with his 31-year-old wife. He also spends time in the United Kingdom and Spain, and has done business around the world.

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TEXAS REPUBLICANS WANT MORE NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS ASSIGNED TO BORDER

President Barack Obama's deployment of 250 National Guard troops to the 1,254-mile Texas-Mexico border has intensified a politically charged debate over border security just two weeks before Obama visits the state to raise money for Democratic candidates. Republican Gov. Rick Perry, one of Obama's harshest critics in Texas, has asked to meet with Obama during his Aug. 9 fundraising trip to discuss his concerns about Obama's "grossly insufficient" allocation of Guard troops, Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said. Perry chief of staff Ray Sullivan has "reached out" to the White House to request a meeting between Perry and Obama when the president visits Austin and Houston for fundraisers sponsored by the Democratic National Committee and the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, Cesinger said.

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EXPORTS SEEN AS KEY TO BOOSTING ECONOMY, CREATING JOBS IN TEXAS

Exports produced in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and other major metropolitan areas should play a larger role in the nation's future economic growth because they create higher-paying jobs and can help reduce the U.S. trade deficit in a post-recession era, according to a report to be released today by the Brookings Institution. Jonathan Rothwell, co-author of the report, hopes it helps local leaders identify and grow their top export industries as a way to create jobs and boost competitiveness during economic recovery. Texas is in a strong position, with its two largest cities already ranking among the top five metro areas for exports.

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HIT SQUADS ALLEGEDLY DISPATCHED BY WARDEN

Guards and officials at a prison in northern Mexico allegedly let inmates out, lent them guns and allowed them to use official vehicles to carry out drug-related killings, including the massacre of 17 people last week, prosecutors said on Sunday. After carrying out the killings the inmates would return to their cells, the Attorney General's Office said in a revelation that was shocking even for a country wearied by years of drug violence and corruption.

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IMMIGRATION DIVIDE MAY STALL SESSION

When Texas House Speaker Joe Straus recently invited a group of Gillespie County Republicans to ask him anything, the most passionate questions did not focus on a looming $18 billion budget shortfall or worries over public education, water or high insurance rates. Instead, fired-up "patriots" want action on an Arizona-style get-tough immigration law in Texas. Some worry that a push from a vociferous segment of the GOP for the hot-button issue will ensure a toxic legislative session at a time lawmakers already face daunting challenges maintaining crucial state services.

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100TH AMBER ALERT ENDS WELL

A thief drove off in a Chevrolet Malibu late Thursday morning while 3-month-old Aeliyah Cook was still inside her frantic mother's car. Minutes later, Harris County Precinct 4 deputy constables logged into a website maintained by the Houston Regional Amber Alert System and provided basic details of the case — the child's name, where she was last seen and a description of the missing car. An Amber Alert for Aeliyah was immediately flashed to regional police departments, media outlets and anyone else who signed up to receive the notifications. She was found safe about 30 minutes later and reunited with her mother.

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ADLER: TEXAS DROPOUT RATE ROCK HARD DISASTER

Drop by drop, water on a rock eventually will wear it away. But I doubt the process will work on Texas dropout rate. There seems to be a rock-hard belief that somehow kids will muddle through. Were that true, the dropout rate would be dropping. It isn’t. Too many Texans are ignoring taht and the havoc it will wreak on the state’s economy in a few short years. The facts are enough to curl or uncurl your hair, depending on whether it started out straight or wavy. Each year, 130,000 ninth graders in Texas fail to graduate from high school with their class. What happens then? It’s estimated those kids will cost Texans $377 million every year in Medicaid, prison expenses and lost taxes. Those facts came out in a 2007 report by the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation.

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TB: MAKING THE BEST OF A BAD SITUATION

As the budget cuts for the fiscal year of 2012 become a reality, Texas A&M is appropriately preparing for the worst. Although the Texas Legislature told universities to prepare for budget cuts in five percent increments, statements from administration and legislature indicated the state will cut funding by 10 percent. The cuts may have a larger effect on faculty, because 89 percent of state funds support their salaries. Although cutting faculty while keeping a large freshmen class may not seem like the best option, it is the lesser of two evils to allow students from the state of Texas to attain the best education possible with given Educational and General funds.

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WILLIAMS LOOKS FORWARD TO LEAVING LEGACY

State Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, does not know if Texas will seek an immigration bill similar to Arizona’s during the next legislative session in January, but Williams said he’s pushed for stronger enforcement of immigration laws for years. Williams said the state has been “proactive,” and has spent about $540 million over the last four years on highway patrol, park rangers and information centers. “We’ve already done a lot in this state,” he said. “But the only real solution is for the federal government to apply adequate troops along the border.”

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TOLL ROAD TO IMPROVE TRUCK MOVEMENT NEAR PORT

Construction is scheduled to begin today on a $34 million toll road designed to improve truck movement near the Port of Brownsville. The new State Highway 550 corridor, a project of the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority and the Texas Department of Transportation, will run north of FM 3248 to State Highway 48 in Brownsville. State Highway 550 will eventually connect to U.S. Expressway 77/83.

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VOICES FROM BAYLOR CAMPUS: KEN STARR GETTING RAVE REVIEWS SO FAR

When Ken Starr became Baylor University’s president on June 1, he brought national name recognition to the school’s top office. After one week on the job, Starr found his political mettle tested as he and the Baylor family fought, successfully, to keep the Big 12 Conference intact. Several students and alumni give their impressions of the school’s new president:

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FIKAC: PERRY HAPPIER THAN WHITE AT OBAMA VISIT

The president's coming to town? Oh, no. As plans emerged for President Barack Obama to appear at two Texas fund-raisers Aug. 9, Democrat Bill White immediately said he was otherwise engaged - while GOP Gov. Rick Perry's camp once again sought to tie Obama tightly to White. White said he'd hew to his previously scheduled day, including a stop at the Johnson County Pioneers and Old Settlers Reunion.

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ARMSTRONG COULD NEVER LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE

For all his other outsized traits, that restlessness still defines him. It propelled Armstrong to revolutionize a sport, become its greatest champion and a hero to cancer survivors worldwide. That same impulse is what drove him to get back on his bike barely two years ago and risk it all. Back then, Armstrong was retired with his legacy largely intact, still every bit as powerful and public a figure as he desired. He dated starlets, swapped text messages with Bono, testified before lawmakers and linked arms with Bill Clinton to announce an ambitious global initiative to combat the disease that nearly killed him almost 15 years earlier.

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RICK AND BILL'S SUMMER READING LIST

We asked Gov. Rick Perry and Democratic nominee Bill White for a list of the past several books they have read. Both are into history. Perry, World War II in the Pacific. White, early Texas.

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CENSUS WORKERS RESUME SEARCH FOR EMPLOYMENT

Maricelda Olvera was set to start searching for jobs again when the 2010 Census offered her another reprieve from the employment market. Olvera, 42, harbored no hopes for anything other than a short-term jolt to her pocketbook when she took a job in March to knock on doors for the Census after unsuccessfully searching for work the previous year. But right before Olvera saw her temporary employment at the Edinburg Census office come to an end earlier this month, her supervisors offered her an additional eight weeks of work to close out the office's operations.

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TWO YEARS AFTER PEANUT SCARE, LITTLE REGULATORY CHANGE

Wails from the room of their 5-month-old son startled a young Austin couple on an August night back in 2008. When Megan and Shawn Hunter got to their son, Maxwell, his lower abdomen was swollen, and his diaper was full. Doctors eventually determined that the problem was salmonella. Maxwell was still being breast-fed, so it seemed hard to believe that he had ingested any food, let alone tainted food. But the pathogen was traced to a package of peanut butter crackers, Megan Hunter said. Maxwell was somehow exposed to the crackers' filling, which contained the same strain of salmonella connected to nine deaths across the country, according to Megan Hunter and her lawyer, Ron Simon, who is representing the family in a lawsuit against the Peanut Corp. of America and Kellogg Co.

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POLITIFACT: CNN'S JOHN KING SAYS LATINOS WILL OUTNUMBER ANGLOS IN TEXAS IN FIVE TO 10 YEARS - TRUE

Setting up a question to San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, CNN reporter John King mentioned the changing population of Texas. "Sometime in the next decade, there will be more Latinos in the state of Texas than there are Anglos," King said on the July 13 edition of "John King, USA." "That will happen sometime in the next five to eight to 10 years." So cable news reporters are now demographers?

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POLITEX: TEXAS REPUBLICANS NOT PLANNING WARM WELCOME FOR OBAMA

Texas Republicans are planning a special "welcome" when President Barack Obama comes to the Lone Star State on Aug. 9 to raise money for Democratic candidates. But don't look for red carpets and rousing fanfare. Details are still being worked on, but Texas Republican Party spokesman Bryan Preston said the "welcome" will likely be a rally designed "to send him a message once again -- since he hasn't gotten it yet -- to keep his hands off our state." Republicans, led by Gov. Rick Perry, have pilloried Obama's administration on a litany of issues, from healthcare to environmental policy. Obama failed to carry Texas in his 2008 race against Republican John McCain and fares poorly in Texas public opinion surveys.

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TEEN MOM SEEKS RIGHT FORMULA TO PASS TAKS MATH TEST

When Ebonee Manning looks back on high school, pregnancy seems easy compared to the math tests.A skinny, pretty 18-year-old, she has failed the state exit exam at least six times since her junior year. Four times since she got pregnant. Twice since she was supposed to graduate. Once since she gave birth to her daughter. She took the test yet again this month – along with thousands across the state whose only obstacle to a high school diploma is the dreaded Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. To be fair, most students don't have much trouble with TAKS. Roughly three quarters pass the exit exam on their first try in 11th grade. But for the remainder, it can be a long, hard slog.

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DROPOUT STATISTICS UNDER FIRE

A report about Texas school dropouts from the Texas Education Agency paints a rosy but distorted picture of the real problem, says the leader of an organization that has been studying the issue for 25 years. School dropout experts at two Texas universities agree. The TEA last week touted a dropout rate of 9.4 percent for the high school graduating class of 2009. But the agency's own report shows that class, which started with 392,051 ninth-graders, had dwindled to 280,044 students by the time it graduated three years later, creating a combined dropout and attrition rate of nearly 29 percent.

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LAWMAKERS: FIXES MIGHT NOT SAVE SURCHARGE PROGRAM

Efforts to fix the problem-plagued Driver Responsibility Program ultimately may not shield it from the wrath of lawmakers. The Public Safety Commission this month tentatively approved new rules for the program, a measure lawmakers approved in 2003 that attaches huge annual surcharges to certain traffic citations. The rules, which could be adopted in September, are meant to get more people to pay the fines and to salvage a revenue-generating scheme that many lawmakers have decried as a failure. Although the new rules are a step in the right direction, some lawmakers say the Legislature still may kill the surcharges entirely. “The reality is, this is a tax on a vulnerable population, and if it’s proven not to work, we shouldn’t hesitate in getting rid of it,” says state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston.

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DRIVE FRIENDLY, THE TEXAS WAY: TXDOT URGES SAFETY

The Texas Department of Transportation wants motorists in Amarillo and Lubbock to be more courteous when entering and exiting interstates. This spring TxDOT began a television and radio campaign in the two cities called "Let Them On, Let Them Off," whose intent is to teach drivers they should stay in the center lane, except to pass or exit, when on a freeway with at least three lanes going each way.

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ALBERTO GONZALES ON U.S. ATTORNEY FIRING SCANDAL: 'I FEEL ANGRY THAT I HAD TO GO THROUGH THIS'

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Friday he's angry about being put through a long-running criminal investigation into his role in the firings of U.S. attorneys. "I feel angry that I had to go through this. That my family had to suffer through and what for?" Gonzales said in an interview with CNN. The investigation by career prosecutor Nora Dannehy that began in September 2008 found the Justice Department's actions in the firings of U.S. attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico during the Bush administration were inappropriately political, but not criminal.

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2 AREA TEA PARTY GROUPS RENAME THEMSELVES TO REFLECT WIDER MEMBERSHIP

Two area Tea Party groups have changed names to convey their wider reach, organizers said. The Burleson Tea Party disbanded this month and was replaced by the Johnson County Tea Party. The Weatherford Tea Party has renamed itself the Parker County Tea Party. Angela Cox, founder of the Burleson Tea Party, said the change was to reflect the membership better. The Burleson Tea Party has held several rallies over the last year, attracting local Republican elected officials and candidates as speakers.

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County Stories

CONSTABLES SAY CUTS WILL HINDER LAW ENFORCEMENT

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Department is the primary law enforcement agency in his precinct that is the western edge of the county. It includes Nome, China and LaBelle. In other precincts, city police departments are the first responders. Constables are certified peace officers with the same powers as other Texas law enforcement officers, and can appoint deputies to help execute their duties. The six constables in the county now have a combined 21 deputies in their offices. Nine of those deputies will lose their jobs Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year, as the county compensates for what county officials say could be a $20 million budget shortfall.

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NEW MCLENNAN COUNTY JAIL DOCTOR HELPING COSTS DROP

Costs of providing medical care to county inmates have significantly dropped since March, when a new jail doctor took over. The sheriff’s office is anticipating a savings of more than $775,000 on spending for jail medical services this fiscal year, which ends in September. Officials hope to reinvest those funds to enhance the care provided to inmates.

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WATKINS, PRICE SPAR OVER DALLAS BUDGET AGAIN

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins has suggested a 3 percent pay reduction for his employees – but says he has no other suggestions for cuts because he can't slash his budget any further without jeopardizing public safety. But county commissioners have already said every county employee faces a 3 percent pay cut as it the county tries to close a $25 million budget gap. Commissioner John Wiley Price, a fellow Democrat, said slashing all county salaries by 3 percent will save $9 million, and Watkins will need to do more.

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City Stories

CITY FUNDING CUTS: STRAIGHT FROM THE ART

Beginning next month, most city arts programs won’t receive money they’ve relied on for years to offset their expenses. But had the arts organizations and the city followed state law, the cuts should affect only the groups’ advertising spending, according to a legal interpretation of how the money can be spent. The City Council passed a budget last week that takes effect Aug. 1 and gives city arts organizations about half of what they historically received from hotel occupancy taxes, as well as cuts special events spending.

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AUSTIN LIVING CENTER STAFF RAISES SAFETY CONCERNS

This was the scene on a recent day at the Cardinal residence, home to the 13 most medically fragile residents at the institution for Texans with mental disabilities. Cardinal, which occupies one wing of a low-slung, red brick building known as "727" that also houses the infirmary and the dental clinic, is home to residents who don't walk or feed themselves. Some current and former employees say that Cardinal is so poorly run that residents who are unable to speak for themselves are at serious risk for harm. A nurse manager who was recently fired had raised concerns that direct care staff members were unknowingly putting residents "at huge medical risks." And one nurse quit this summer because of what she said was improper care of residents.

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PETLAND IN AUSTIN CLOSES AS CITY STEPS UP SCRUTINY OF PET STORES

Austin is at the forefront of efforts by cities around Texas to step up scrutiny of unregulated commercial breeding operations, which activists call "puppy mills." Dallas advocates say they want to research a similar ordinance. El Paso and San Antonio also are considering it. "It was a huge relief to learn that Petland was finally closing its doors," said O'Neil, a school psychologist. "I'd like to think our protest effort contributed toward raising awareness about the connection between pet stores and puppy mills." Petland Inc., which has retail stores all over the U.S., said they only accept animals from breeders licensed by the Agriculture Department and that protesters have targeted them unjustly. The USDA requires a license for commercial breeders selling through pet stores.

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ABILENE COUNCIL TO DISCUSS BUDGET PLAN

Abilene City Councilwoman Kellie Miller said she was curious about public reaction after the unveiling of the city’s proposed budget included a property tax increase of slightly more than a half-cent for every $100 valuation. “I’ve been surprised,” said Miller. Instead of anger or disapproval, she said, most people “haven’t been too concerned about it.”

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Lead Stories

MURKY LAND DEALS MARK GOV. RICK PERRY'S PAST

Three years after Gov. Rick Perry's biggest real estate score, questions persist about whether the governor benefited from favoritism, backroom dealing and influence-buying. The Dallas Morning News found evidence that Perry's investment was enhanced by a series of professional courtesies and personal favors from friends, campaign donors and the head of a Texas family with a rich history of political power-brokering.

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GARCIA: OUTING RACISTS IS OUR FAVORITE GAME -- NO RULES, NO WINNERS

Here's a lesson most of us learn early in life: If someone says, "It's not about the money," it's about the money. Here's a lesson minorities learn even earlier than that: If someone says, "It's not about race," it's about race. I can remember my childish confusion as to which water fountain I was supposed to use in 1950s West Texas. I am not "colored," but I was not considered "white" then by anybody but the Census Bureau. We've come a long way from the days when "whites only" signs adorned shop windows. We've come so far that nobody wants to be accused of being a racist these days. At least we're agreed that racism is a bad thing.

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POLITIFACT: PERRY DEBATED IN 2002 EVEN THOUGH HIS OPPONENT DIDN'T RELEASE HIS COMPLETE INCOME TAX RETURNS PER PERRY'S REQUEST - FULL FLOP

Bill White, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee for governor, issued a press release July 21 calling Gov. Rick Perry's campaign approach to debating "dramatically different from what it was in 2002," when he ran for governor against Laredo businessman Tony Sanchez. "If two debates are good, 12 will be great," Perry said in a Sept. 9, 2002, press release titled "Texans deserve more than two urban debates." "Voters in East and West Texas deserve to have their voices heard and their questions answered at gubernatorial debates," he said. At that point, Sanchez had committed to two debates in October in Dallas and Houston. According to the press release, Perry had accepted a dozen invitations to debate.

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SLATER: DEMOCRAT BILL WHITE MUST WIN VOTES FROM HEAVILY REPUBLICAN EAST TEXAS

Democrat Bill White talked about a lot of things this past week as he campaigned for governor: public education, toll roads, a looming budget deficit, bringing jobs to Texas. And this being East Texas, guns. “You support the Second Amendment?” Wade Emerson asked, approaching White at a Starbucks in Palestine. White asserted his support, citing a B-plus grade from the National Rifle Association. “What about the bill [Louisiana Gov.] Bobby Jindal signed allowing guns in church?” asked Emerson.

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National Stories

WHITE HOUSE DISPATCHES FLORIDA TEAM TO CONTAIN SPILL'S POLITICAL BACKLASH

The White House has quietly launched an effort to confront the political backlash along the Gulf Coast over its handling of the BP oil spill – giving special attention to Florida, the only state in the region President Barack Obama won in 2008 and one he will need again when he runs for re-election in 2012. The White House dispatched political and communications aides to the Gulf Coast states on July 12, with Alabama and Mississippi each receiving one, sources familiar with the effort said. Some aides went to Louisiana. Florida received four.

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NETROOTS NATION: CANDIDATE MEET MARKET

In five years, the annual convention of progressive bloggers known as Netroots Nation has grown to become one of the premier events on the Democratic calendar. It’s also turned into a leading event on the Democratic candidate circuit, a showcase of political talent and a prerequisite for aspiring politicians who are looking to catch the attention of some of the most important and influential voices on the left — and hopefully tap into the vein of Internet fundraising.

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DEMOCRATS' DEAN CALLS FOX NEWS 'RACIST'

Former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean on Sunday lashed out at Fox News, accusing the conservative cable network of racism in reporting about the resignation of Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod and other stories. "Fox News is racist," Mr. Dean, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and Vermont governor, said on "Fox News Sunday." He also said Fox has taken a racist position in reporting on the Justice Department investigation of New Black Panther members outside a Philadelphia voting station during the 2008 elections.

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U.S. CARRIER LEADS DRILLS WITH S. KOREA

A nuclear-powered U.S. supercarrier led an armada of warships in exercises off the Korean peninsula Sunday that North Korea has vowed to physically block and says could escalate into nuclear war. U.S. military officials said the maneuvers, conducted with South Korean ships and Japanese observers, were intended to send a strong signal to the North that aggression in the region will not be tolerated. Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been particularly high since the sinking in March of a South Korean naval vessel. Forty-six Korean sailors were killed in the sinking, which Seoul has called Pyongyang's worst military attack on it since the 1950-53 Korean War.

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BATTLE LOOMS IN WASHINGTON OVER EXPIRING BUSH TAX CUTS

An epic fight is brewing over what Congress and President Obama should do about the expiring Bush tax cuts, with such substantial economic and political consequences that it could shape the fall elections and fiscal policy for years to come. Democratic leaders, including Mr. Obama, say they are intent on letting the tax cuts for the wealthy expire as scheduled at the end of this year. But they have pledged to continue the lower tax rates for individuals earning less than $200,000 and families earning less than $250,000 — what Democrats call the middle class.

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COURT UNDER ROBERTS IS MOST CONSERVATIVE IN DECADES

When Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and his colleagues on the Supreme Court left for their summer break at the end of June, they marked a milestone: the Roberts court had just completed its fifth term. In those five years, the court not only moved to the right but also became the most conservative one in living memory, based on an analysis of four sets of political science data. And for all the public debate about the confirmation of Elena Kagan or the addition last year of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, there is no reason to think they will make a difference in the court’s ideological balance.

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AFTER WAITING SO LONG, RANGEL DROPPED THE PRIZE

Behind the wheel of some big boat of a car, Charles B. Rangel. Talking tirelessly, profanely, directly. He was 66, and had spent the last three or four days in Colorado, Ohio and Texas, trying to pick off Congressional seats held by freshman Republicans in the majority led by Newt Gingrich. By that point, Mr. Rangel, a Democrat from Harlem, had been coasting to re-election in his own seat for decades, though he maintained, as he did again on Friday, that he ran for office “every day of every week of every month that I am in office.”

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DEMOCRATS ARE BETTING THAT ENDING TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH WILL PLAY IN THEIR FAVOR

President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress are setting the stage for a high-stakes battle over taxes in the final weeks before the November congressional elections, betting that their plan to eliminate tax breaks for the wealthy will resonate with voters who have lost houses and jobs to what many see as an era of Wall Street greed. Raising taxes is usually a perilous move. But Democrats, facing the potential loss of their majorities on Capitol Hill, believe that the strategy will both force Republicans to defend tax breaks for a tiny, wealthy minority and expose GOP hypocrisy on budget deficits.

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State Stories

RIO GRANDE FLOOD CALLED UNIQUE IN TIMING, SCALE

A local official said he felt helpless this month while the Rio Grande continued its rapid rise, flooding rural neighborhoods as a dam emptied the equivalent of two Olympic-size swimming pools every three seconds. Judge Eloy Vera, Starr County's highest-ranking official, said a decision by water officials upstream to let more water flow from reservoirs made life difficult for downstream communities such as his. The result was a Rio Grande that hopped its banks and spread to dimensions unrecognizable as a river, much less the lazy boundary between the U.S. and Mexico.

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SHAPIRO: NATIONAL DEMOCRATS RESERVE AIR TIME IN EDWARDS' CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reserved $28 million in TV spots in stations in 40 House districts, to protect incumbents, a sign that Democrats are going on the defensive. Incumbents on the list include several high ranking Democrats including Edwards as well as Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio. And the ads would run in the final weeks of the general election, according to the the reports. (What's not clear — and what I'll try to determine tomorrow — is how much money has been set aside to reserve ads in Edwards' district.)

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SLOWER POPULATION GROWTH MAY REDUCE WACO'S INFLUENCE IN TEXAS HOUSE

When state lawmakers get together next year and start redrawing their districts, population trends dictate that rural Texas will lose influence in the legislatures. As much as some people in Central Texas may see themselves as city slickers, when it comes to new state House district maps, Waco residents will share in the plight of their more rural brethren. That’s because McLennan County has grown by 9.3 percent from 2000-09, which is a little less than half the rate the state grew by as a whole.

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HISPANIC GOP GROUP FACES SIZABLE CHALLENGE

You have to wonder what went through Victor Carrillo's head when his campaign committee handed over a sizable check to the fledgling group Hispanic Republicans of Texas. If it were me, it would have been bitter and profane. Hopefully Carrillo is a better, bigger man. He's the veteran Texas railroad commissioner who lost the Republican primary in March to a little-known candidate lucky enough to be named David Porter. Carrillo blamed the defeat on his surname, saying GOP primary voters harbored a “built-in bias” against Hispanics.

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FOR SWIFT, IT ISN'T EASY BEING GREEN

At the 2008 King William Fair, Kat Swift was easy to spot. Amidst the parade marchers, the food vendors, and the Fiesta revelers who flooded the streets, Swift was the lone person with blond cornrows wearing a Wonder Woman costume and carrying a clipboard. Swift, 37, the San Antonio-based state coordinator for the Green Party of Texas, showed up at the fair to gather signatures for the party's drive to get on the Texas election ballot. The soft-spoken Swift readily acknowledges that her costume choice that day was a gimmick geared to lighten the inherent awkwardness of approaching total strangers and asking them to sign a piece of paper on behalf of a fringe political movement.

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SOME TEXAS FARMERS EAGER FOR TRADE WITH CUBA

Waller County rancher Tom Paben has never sold beef to Cuba, largely because of a half-century-old trade and travel embargo. But Paben is optimistic he will, now that Congress is considering a bill that would allow U.S. tourists to travel to the island nation and would lift restrictions on how Cubans can pay for American agricultural goods. "If Cuba opened up to tourists, they would use higher cuts of chicken and beef," said Paben, a fifth-generation rancher and farmer. "Our country has a rare opportunity over the course of the next few days to begin the process of undoing a complete failure in U.S. foreign policy."

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MOSTYN INJURED IN FOUR-WHEELER WRECK

Houston trial lawyer Steve Mostyn, who with his wife Amber is becoming this year's top Democratic campaign donor, injured himself in a four-wheeler wreck at this ranch and is in a hospital in Alpine. Spokesman Glenn Smith said Mostyn had gone to his ranch house to retrieve a cell phone and lost control of the vehicle on a slick road Wednesday. Smith said Mostyn broke his collar bone and injured his knee.

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BERMAN CHALLENGES ATTORNEY'S STATEMENTS

State Rep. Leo Berman said this week Longview immigration attorney Jose Sanchez's statements about Oklahoma immigrations laws are false, and he challenged Sanchez to a debate. In Thursday's News-Journal, Sanchez said federal courts have overturned immigration legislation from several states and cities, including Oklahoma. Berman, R-Tyler, said he contacted Oklahoma State Rep. Randy Terrell, author of the bill, and learned between 80 and 90 percent of Terrell's law is in effect, and "three small parts" of the bill await hearings in court on their constitutionality.

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CHARTER SCHOOLS COULD GET SLICE OF STATE FUNDS

The State Board of Education has approved using the Permanent School Fund to finance building facilities for charter schools, District 8 representative Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, said Friday. However, the funding is contingent upon receiving either a favorable attorney general opinion or express legislative authority, Cargill said. "I support the charter school program and believe it provides a needed educational alternative for many students," she said.

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TRADITIONAL RIVER OF CONTRIBUTIONS SLOWS TO TRICKLE

What a difference a few years make. Considering the modest amounts of money most Texas Legislature candidates have raised in 2010, the previous election cycles look like the golden years. In 2006 and 2008, for example, there were million and even multi-million dollar races, including the one for what was then an open seat in House District 85. In that contest of four years ago Crosbyton Democrat Joe Heflin and Plainview Republican Jim Landtroop raised a combined $1.2 million. But despite outspending Heflin by nearly three to one, Landtroop narrowly lost the election.

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HANK GILBERT TO DISCUSS STATE AGRICULTURE POLICY IN LUBBOCK

Texas Democratic Party agriculture commissioner nominee, Hank Gilbert, will be in Lubbock next week as part of his statewide tour. Gilbert is doing a series of press conferences in 23 cities regarding his reform and restructuring policy for the Texas Department of Agriculture, according to Gilbert's campaign. He will speak in Lubbock at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Lubbock County Democratic Party Headquarters - located at 2809 74th Street. Gilbert will spend two days in West Texas traveling to Abilene, Big Spring, Midland, Odessa and San Angelo.

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DUKES: CREDIT PROBLEMS STEM FROM POOR ECONOMY, LEGISLATIVE LOAD

Creditors are suing state Rep. Dawnna Dukes to settle unpaid balances on two credit cards, Dukes said Friday. Dukes, an Austin Democrat, said the cards are related to her business, but she was sued personally because she is the sole owner. "My attorneys have been trying to negotiate settlements with them since last year," she said. "It's been a difficult process for them, and although we have gone through the process of requesting information to try to get settlements, they filed the lawsuits anyways."

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KELLER REBUKE RAISES QUESTIONS, POSSIBLE CHALLENGE

Given three options for dealing with charges against Judge Sharon Keller exoneration, censure or removal from office the State Commission on Judicial Conduct threw proceedings into disarray July 16 by choosing a fourth path. For the first time in its 45-year history, commissioners with the investigative agency voted to issue a "public warning," which might sound like a censure but is not.

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BABY TURTLES BEING RELEASED OFF TEXAS COAST DESPITE OIL SPILL

Federal biologists are releasing thousands of endangered baby sea turtles into the western Gulf of Mexico, betting that by the time the silver dollar-size swimmers make it to the oil-fouled waters of the eastern Gulf, BP will have cleaned up its mess. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service are proceeding with the annual release of Kemp's ridley turtle hatchlings off Padre Island National Seashore because Texas has not been significantly impacted by the oil spill. For years, scientists have incubated and hatched the turtles to give the endangered creatures a boost.

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POLITIFACT: WENDY DAVIS SAYS THE TEXAS COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (TCEQ) LIED ABOUT AIR QUALITY TESTS IN THE BARNETT SHALE -- HALF TRUE

Speaking at the Texas Democratic convention last month, Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, lambasted the state agency responsible for approving permits to pollute the air. "The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality — what a joke," she said during a speech to delegates June 26. "In my district, we caught them lying to us about the results of air quality studies in the Barnett Shale. They are playing with the health and safety of our communities, and we are going to tell them that is not acceptable."

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GROUP LISTED WHITE AMONG FOES OF GUN LAW, BUT CAMPAIGN SAYS HE FAVORS IT

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill White’s campaign says he supports the so-called Tiahrt Amendment, a favorite proposal of gun-rights advocates. But when the former Houston mayor was part of a group called Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the group publicly listed him among opponents of the amendment. Now federal law, the Tiahrt Amendment said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives cannot release information from its firearms trace database to anyone other than a law enforcement agency or prosecutor in connection with a criminal investigation, and that information cannot be used in a civil lawsuit.

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TEXAS FRESHMEN NEED VACCINE BEFORE MOVING IN DORMS

Thousands of freshmen and new students flocking to Texas colleges for the start of classes next month must first get the vaccine against often fatal bacterial meningitis before they'll be allowed to move into campus dorms. The state law requiring the vaccine for all new students who live on campus, including those at private universities, went into effect on Jan. 1, but the fall semester will bring the first large wave of new students to campuses since the law went into effect. Texas is among about a dozen states that now require the vaccine.

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AS GOV SEEKS COLLEGE CUTS, A&M APPROVES $3.3B BUDGET

Texas A&M University regents approved a record $3.3 billion budget Friday after hearing a sobering assessment of the future of higher education. More than one-third of that — $1.2 billion - will be spent at the flagship university in College Station, with the rest spread among the system's 10 other universities, its health science center and seven state agencies. The budgets for the fiscal year that begins Sept. 1 reflect a 5 percent cut in state funding, ordered by Gov. Rick Perry to cope with a drop in sales tax and other revenues. That forced a hiring freeze, the elimination of vacant positions and other cuts.

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"FLAWED SCIENCE" HELPED LEAD TO TEXAS MAN'S EXECUTION

Members of the state commission investigating a controversial Corsicana arson case in which three children died — and for which their father was executed — acknowledged on Friday that state and local arson investigators used "flawed science" in determining the blaze had been deliberately set. But the Texas Forensic Science Commission panel heading the inquiry also found insufficient evidence to prove that state Deputy Fire Marshal Manuel Vasquez and Corsicana Assistant Fire Chief Douglas Fogg were negligent or guilty of misconduct in their arson work.

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FAMILY OF EXECUTED TEXAS MAN CALLS REVIEW TOO SLOW

Family members of a Texas man executed in 2004 for killing his three children said Friday they were upset by the "needless delays" in a commission's ongoing probe of the arson finding that lead to his conviction. Cameron Todd Willingham's family members expressed their concerns as the Texas Forensic Science Commission met in Houston to give an update on its review of the original arson finding that concluded Willingham set a 1991 fire at his family's Corsicana home that killed his three young daughters. Willingham, 36, was convicted of capital murder for setting the deadly blaze.

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GILLMAN: REP. CHET EDWARDS VULNERABILITY EXPOSED BY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE'S EARLY LIST FOR AD HELP

Talk about a mixed blessing. Rep. Chet Edwards could see a major infusion of TV ads in October, courtesy of the national party, which has set aside $28 million to help 40 vulnerable incumbents across the country. Safe to say, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wouldn't be spreading around that sort of largesse if it weren't at least a bit worried – about Edwards, Rep. Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio and the others and, more to the point, about fending off the GOP's assault on their 40-seat majority.

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DMN: TOLLWAY AGENCY WORKS TO RESTORE CONFIDENCE

The North Texas Tollway Authority made the right decision by ignoring high-dollar bait dangled its way to choose a Collin County route for a future stretch of the Dallas North Tollway. Property owners near the new roadway will make a bundle after it's built, and the city of Celina wanted the super-heated development inside its boundaries. No problem with that. Celina made the novel pledge that NTTA could have the future bounty of the higher property taxes. No problem with creative thinking, except for where it might lead.

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WITH PAYDAY LOANS, POOR GET THE LOANS, FIRMS GET THE PAYDAY

On July 2, a 74-year-old Dallas widow named Yvonne Sands received her monthly Social Security check of $1,360. Shortly after 7:30 a.m., she withdrew money from the bank and drove off to renew four payday loans with annual percentage rates of about 250 percent to more than 300 percent. Sands can't afford to pay back the loans all at once, and they come due every month. So each month, she takes out new loans to pay for the old ones, shelling out nearly $400 in fees in the process.

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Q&A WITH NEW STATE SEN. BRIAN BIRDWELL

Several hours before taking the stage at Hill College’s Performing Arts Center for a ceremony in his honor (link), new state Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, talked to the Tribune-Herald about his first month on the job, his desire to earn the GOP general election nomination and redistricting. Last month, Birdwell defeated former state Sen. David Sibley, R-Waco, in a special election to represent the 10-county district that stretches from Waco to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex’s southern suburbs. He will finish the term started by Waco Sen. Kip Averitt, which finishes in a little more than five months.

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OFFICIALS: MANDATE WILL BURDEN SCHOOLS

Officials with the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University say a new state law likely will impact their bottom lines. Like other public colleges and universities, UNT and TWU must publish evaluations of faculty members by students, course syllabi and faculty resumes on their websites to comply with a new law that goes into effect this fall. However, with the 2011 Legislature projecting a budget shortfall of up to $18 billion, the extra costs of gathering and disseminating that information could pinch universities’ budgets.

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TEXAS REPUBLICANS WANT MORE NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS ASSIGNED TO BORDER

President Barack Obama's deployment of 250 National Guard troops to the 1,254-mile Texas-Mexico border has intensified a politically charged debate over border security just two weeks before Obama visits the state to raise money for Democratic candidates. Republican Gov. Rick Perry, one of Obama's harshest critics in Texas, has asked to meet with Obama during his Aug. 9 fundraising trip to discuss his concerns about Obama's "grossly insufficient" allocation of Guard troops, Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said.

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KENNEDY: SMALL GOVERNMENT HAS ITS OWN PROBLEMS IN NORTH TEXAS

In small-town Texas, asking City Hall a question is like opening 1990s movie character Forrest Gump's box of chocolates. Depending on the political mood of the City Council and the level of paranoia at City Hall, you never know what you might -- or might not -- get. In Glen Rose, a resident blogger asked to see city spending records. She got them. Then she saw that some employees had spent public money going to Hooters. The employees were in Fort Worth on April 29 on business and stopped for lunch.

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County Stories

AS AGING BABY BOOMERS HEAD TO SUBURBS, COLLIN COUNTY TO FEEL IMPACT

Tim Montgomery built his own retirement home. In a land of McMansions, he limited his Celina house to one story. He widened bathroom doors to fit wheelchairs. He planned a spare bedroom for elderly parents. He designed his kitchen table to hold at least eight hungry grandchildren. An Air Force vet turned teacher, the 54-year-old settled in Frisco a decade ago among other young working parents and their school-age children. Now these empty nesters and retired homeowners are uprooting the suburban stereotype.

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City Stories

GUNBATTLES PARALYZE MEXICAN CITY ACROSS FROM TEXAS; GUNSHOTS ALARM TEXANS ON U.S. SIDE OF THE BORDER

Late-night gunbattles with gangs who forced citizens from their cars and used the vehicles to block streets paralyzed a border city, sound of gunfire alarmed Texans on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande. The Nuevo Laredo city government posted messages on Facebook warning citizens to stay indoors as the battles erupted at several intersections in the city across from Laredo, Texas. Frightened people on the U.S. side of the border called emergency dispatchers after hearing the gunfire, Laredo police spokesman Joe Baeza said Thursday. But he said there was no spillover violence.

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18 ARRESTED IN ICE-LED RAID AT HOUSTON FLEA MARKET

Federal agents on Saturday raided a Houston flea market and arrested 18 suspects wanted in connection with selling fraudulent documents, authorities said. More than 100 federal agents and local police served the federal arrest warrants Saturday afternoon at the Sunny Flea Market, located on Airline Drive near Gulf Bank Road. The members of a multi-agency anti-fraud task force piled out of unmarked trucks and vans around 2 p.m. Witnesses reported that some agents screamed "Don't run!" in Spanish as people fled the flea market.

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CPS ENERGY’S NEW CEO CAME FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Doyle N. Beneby said he doesn’t regret choosing a career in engineering and energy over his first goal: becoming a professional basketball player. Beneby, who on Thursday was named president and CEO of CPS Energy, San Antonio’s city-owned utility, grew up “fairly poor” in inner-city Miami and was offered a four-year scholarship playing basketball at Montana Technical College, thousands of miles from home. Even then, Beneby said his college choice was influenced by a burgeoning interest in math, science and engineering that began in high school.

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FIRMS OWNED BY WHITE MEN GET MORE THAN 80 PERCENT OF ARLINGTON CONTRACTS

Years after pushing the Dallas Cowboys to set goals that would ensure that women- and minority-owned businesses got a fair share of stadium construction contracts, the city has learned that more than 80 percent of its own prime contracts are being awarded to businesses owned by white men. The findings were detailed recently in a two-year, $100,000 study examining the race and gender of business owners awarded city contracts for everything from multimillion-dollar street projects to toilet paper supplies. Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/07/24/2358699/firms-owned-by-white-men-get-more.html#ixzz0uhjWpSRa

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Copyright July 30, 2010, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved