By William Lutz on
10/28/2009 1:52 PM
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By William Lutz on
10/26/2009 5:07 PM
LSR has received tributes to the late former Sen. Teel Bivins from current Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo), Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and Sen. Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio). We will add additional tributes to this space as we receive them. We print below:
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By William Lutz on
10/26/2009 5:02 PM
Former Sen. and Ambassador Teel Bivins (R-Amarillo) died today of pneumonia. He was 62.
Teel Bivins was one of those elected officials who reflected positively on the region and district that elected him. He was honest, straightforward, hard-working, and never forgot the folks back home. It was Bivins’ practice to have regular luncheons with the House members whose districts contained counties in Senate District 31.
He was universally respected at the Capitol. But equally important, he was well liked. One Bivins staffer once told me that the Senator came in from a busy day of considering legislation and took his staff to the movies.
When I first started at the Capitol, one role this publication held (and still holds) the role of being a watchdog over the education bureaucracy. As chairman of the Senate Education Committee, part of Bivins’s responsibility was getting the education agenda of Gov. George W. Bush through the Texas Senate and promoting the education accomplishments of Gov. Bush.
Therefore, some of the stories I wrote about what I saw as the shortcomings of either the school system under Bush or some of the legislation Bush signed probably didn’t meet with his approval. But Bivins never held it against me. He was always exceedingly polite and went out of his way to be accessible. His statesmanship was always appreciated by this reporter.
According to the Amarillo Globe-News, services for Bivins will be held Thursday at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Amarillo.
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By William Lutz on
10/24/2009 4:59 PM
Now that Cathie Adams is chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, what’s next?
Adams said recruiting good candidates and raising the money to fund them is her next top priority.
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By William Lutz on
10/24/2009 2:21 PM
Both Gov. Rick Perry and his re-election opponent, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison have issued statements congratulating Cathie Adams on her election as chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. We reprint below.
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By William Lutz on
10/24/2009 2:15 PM
In last week's issue, we printed that Texans for Lawsuit Reform's Sherry Sylvester sent a handwritten note to incoming-Republican Party Chairman Cathie Adams wishing her well in the chairman's race. At today's meeting of the State Republican Executive Committee, Adams told LSR the note was actually from TLR Chairman Richard Weekley and was a handwritten comment at the bottom of a typed thank-you letter for a donation that Adams had sent TLR. LSR regrets the error.
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By William Lutz on
10/24/2009 10:48 AM
The State Republican Executive Committee has elected Cathie Adams as the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. Adams received 36 votes, Melinda Fredricks received 25 votes, and Mary-Yoly Moore of El Paso was nominated but did not receive any votes.
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By William Lutz on
10/23/2009 7:50 PM
In our story this week on the race for chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, Texans for Lawsuit Reform's Sherry Sylvester is incorrectly identified as the organization's executive director. She is the organization's spokesperson. LSR regrets the error.
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By William Lutz on
10/23/2009 4:37 PM
LSR Managing Editor William Lutz will be appearing on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics with Brad Watson this Sunday at 9 am on Channel 8 in North Texas. Lutz will blast the recent decision by Dallas Democratic judge Tena Callahan to grant a same-sex divorce.
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By William Lutz on
10/16/2009 4:41 PM
There's a lot of misinformation circulating on the Internet about Propositions 2, 3, and 5. They do NOT, we repeat DO NOT, create a state property tax.
The Texas constitution's prohibition on a state property tax remains intact, even if all three pass. The propositions simply make the existing property tax system more efficient. Because of the public interest in this issue, we are putting on the public part of our site (the "featured articles" section) our article from this week's issue. You can access it here too.
Our article this week explains, in detail, exactly what each of these ballot items actually do and addresses some inaccurate information on the Internet.
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