By William Lutz on
5/28/2010 5:11 PM
It looks like a 1997 voting rights controversy is coming back to haunt yet another Democrat – this time Bill White, who was party chairman at the time and is running for governor now. Gov. Rick Perry is blasting White for his role in an attempt to deny military voters the right to cast ballots in local elections.
In 1997, Texas Democrats filed an election contest seeking to overturn the results of two local elections in Val Verde County (Del Rio), claiming that soldiers stationed at Laughlin Air Force Base weren’t eligible voters. In two races, Val Verde County voters narrowly elected a Republican sheriff and county commissioner. Democrats argued that military voters could vote in federal elections but not local elections unless they had prior ties to the community.
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By William Lutz on
5/21/2010 10:56 AM
In this week's issue, I wrote an article recounting the panel discussion and forum that the Texas Public Policy Foundation had on health and the 10th Amendment yesterday. As a part of that article, I dicussed the health insurance exchange that the State of Utah set up. In a 1000 word article, it's difficult to give a complete explanation to this interesting and novel concept. One of the speakers at the TPPF event, the Heritage Foundation's Edmund Haislmeier wrote a detailed paper describing and praising Utah's experiment. I have posted a link to the paper and highly recommend it to our readers. Reading this paper dramatically improved my understanding of what was discussed at the TPPF forum.
In the interest of equal time, the Cato Insitute's Michael F. Cannon also appeared at the forum and is also a prolific writer. A selection of his recent writings can be viewed at his bio page on the Cato Institute website.
Time Warner Cable subscribers can view the entire panel discussion with video-on-demand Channel 888.
Also, this week's TPPF Texas Policy Cast features former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz discussing the 10th Amendment and can be downloaded here.
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By William Lutz on
5/20/2010 11:32 AM
At today's health care luncheon, Texas Public Policy Foundation President Brooke Rollins announced the formation of the Foundation's Center for Tenth Amendment Studies. Former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz and former Supreme Court Justice Scott Brister have agreed to serve as senior fellows with TPPF. In announcing the center, Rollins quoted former President Ronald Reagan, "The federal government did not create the states. The states created the federal government." The center will look at the relationship between the state and federal government and what the state can do to preserve freedom and liberty.
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By William Lutz on
5/20/2010 10:01 AM
The Texas Association of Business released a report on higher education yesterday. Improving the state’s system of higher education and its responsiveness to the workforce will be a major priority for the organization during the upcoming legislative session .The entire report can be read here.
The report contains some sobering statistics, demonstrating that Texas lags behind other states and other industrialized nations in the percentage of adults who have attained a postsecondary degree.
The report makes four key recommendations. First, the report says the state needs to take affirmative action to create a culture of college readiness, including changes to K-12 education and an improved continued marketing campaign. Second, the report recommends changing state student financial aid to include a merit component. Third, the report recommends changing the higher education funding formula from one that emphasizes courses attempted to one that emphasizes course completion.
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By William Lutz on
5/19/2010 10:38 PM
At today's State Board of Education meeting, Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) threatened the board, claiming that if the board's history standards were what he considered to be "political propaganda," he wouldn't support buying the books. Later on, Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio) warned that if the board did not delay its decision on the curriculum, the Legislature reserves the right to restructure the board.
The representatives were undoubtedly trying to create an atmosphere of fear amongst board members who have grown weary of the Legislature's non-stop attempts to whittle away at the authority of the elected board.
Only one problem -- the representatives making the threats have never supported the board in the past and are not swing votes.
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By William Lutz on
5/19/2010 7:39 PM
How come whenever students are required to take racial sensitivity training or multiculturalism classes, that's deferring to the "experts," but when conservatives insist on a balanced treatment of America and American values, that's somehow "politicizing" or "hijacking" the curriculum?
At today's State Board of Education meeting Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) accused the board of politicizing the curriculum and called for them to put the facts on the table and let students decide what their political affiliation will be.
Here's my question: Where was Turner when the faculty at the University of Texas and Texas A&M put political indoctrination requirements (which they call multiculturalism) in for bachelor's degrees? No talk of balance then.
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By William Lutz on
5/18/2010 4:19 PM
LSR Managing Editor William Lutz appeared on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics Sunday. He delivered a one-minute commentary praising Arizona's new immigration law and blasting the Texas practice of giving in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. Inside Texas Politics airs every Sunday at 9 am on WFAA, Channel 8 in North Texas. Lutz's commentary starts 7:30 minutes into the program (right after the interview with U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions) or -9:30 to go in the program. We post below:
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By William Lutz on
5/15/2010 8:39 AM
LSR Managing Editor William Lutz will appear on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics this Sunday (May 16). Lutz will be discussing immigration and why goofy policies like in-state tuition caused the frustration that led to Arizona's controversial law. Inside Texas Politics airs every Sunday at 9 am on Channel 8 in North Texas.
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By William Lutz on
5/12/2010 11:12 AM
Saturday, we neglected to post candidate Brian Birdwell's statement on the SD 22 runoff. We regret the error and post it below:
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By William Lutz on
5/11/2010 10:30 AM
The State Republican Executive Committee passed a resolution at its March 27 meeting supporting the Texas Open Meetings Act as written and opposing city officials' lawsuit, trying to gut the open meetings act, in particular, by removing its criminal penalties.
Several city officials are using tax dollars to file a federal lawsuit trying to get portions of the law thrown out as violative of the First Amendment. At issue in the lawsuit is whether an email sent by an elected official to a quorum of the governmental body relating to items on the agenda triggers the open meetings act.
"... RESOLVED, That the Republican Party of Texas supports the Texas Open Meetings Act as currently written and opposes the use of taxpayer dollars for filing lawsuits to weaken open government laws and similar examples of taxpayer-funded lawsuit abuse," the resolution reads. ...
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