Lone Star Report Recent Blog Posts

The Lone Star Report does not publish an issue this week, in observance of Christmas day. Our next issue will publish Jan. 7, 2011. We wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy holiday season. Our offices are closed Dec. 24, but will be open next week.

The Travis County District Attorney's office has declined to open an investigation into charges that Rep. Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) engaged in "double-dipping," meaning he took reimbursements from both his state and campaign accounts for the same expense. "the Public Integrity Unit is declining to open formal investigation and will consider this matter closed," wrote Gregg Cox with the Travis County Public Integrity Unit in a letter to Taylor. "We appreciate your cooperation in providing documents that helped lay this issue to rest," Cox continued.

In an earlier interview with LSR, Taylor said his office keeps a detailed spreadsheet of reimbursements and that when expenses first paid by the campaign  are later reimbused by the state, those reimbursements go straight back into the campaign. The Travis County District Attorney has now examined the documents Taylor referenced and declined to prosecute. "I appreciate the Public Integrity Unit's prompt review and response," Taylor said. "They had my full cooperation in their effort. My campaign finance reports are a matter of public record and I followed the ethics laws and guidelines in filling out the reports."

Earlier this year, Taylor asked for financial information on a settlement between the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) and a group of plaintiffs whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Ike. One of the lawyers involved in the settlement -- Texas Trial Lawyers Association President Steve Mostyn -- sought a court order, which has since been dissolved, directing the state-financed insurance organization not to give representative samples of the documents Taylor requested to the Attorney General of Texas as required by law. Around that time a series of left-leaning non-profits began filing open records requests about Taylor's reimbursement practices and his work as an insurance agent. Unlike the plaintiff's attorneys, Taylor fully disclosed the requested information, did not challenge disclosure, and cooperated fully with law enforcement.

Speaker Candidate Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) announced his plans to call for a GOP caucus to discuss leadership of the Texas House.

Chisum, in a press statement released this morning, said he would deliver a letter to Republican Caucus Chairman Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) on Dec. 29 calling for a meeting. The letter would request that the House Republican Caucus discuss the Speaker's race, which right now is a three-way contest between Chisum, Rep. Ken Paxton (R-McKinney) and Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio).

Caucus by-laws require scheduling a meeting within seven days upon the request of 10 Republican House members, and it appears there are enough Republicans wanting a caucus meeting to pull this off.

Texas will gain four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, starting with the 2012 election, according to the official Census count released today by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. A map of states gaining and losing Congressional seats can be found here. In a nutshell, Texas gains four, Florida gains two. Gaining one each are Washington, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Georgia, and South Carolina. Losing one seat each are Louisiana, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. New York and Ohio each lose two congressional seats.

Besides the obvious effect on redistricting, this count also effects the electorial college for the 2012 general election, resulting in a shift of electorial votes from states Barack Obama carried to states John McCain won.

This Sunday, LSR Managing Editor William Lutz appeared on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics. He blasted lawyers for the Plano Independent School District for arguing in federal court that elementary school students don't have First Amendment Rights. Lutz is referring to the infamous "Candy Cane Case," where the Liberty Legal Institute is suing Plano ISD because it wouldn't let an elementary school student pass out a note at the winter party telling his fellow students that a candy cane has a Christian origin or pencils that say "Jesus is the reason for the season." Lutz argues that organizations like the ACLU have created an environment where public schools often inadvertently discriminate against Christian students.

Earlier this year, the elected State Board of Education passed new social studies standards that insist that children learn why America is unique and special among nations. The State Board of Education wants kids to know more about Thomas Jefferson and George Washington than just the fact that they owned slaves.

But that doesn't sit well with the Obama administration. The U.S. Department of Education is mad at Texas because Gov. Rick Perry refuses to hand over the authority to decide what Texans learn in schools to unelected bureaucrats in Washington DC. Specifically, the Texas Education Agency declined to participate in the federal government's "Race to the Top" program that required adopting federal government curriculum standards. ...

The land developer in the Dallas City Hall corruption trial -- Brian Potashnik -- received a sentence of 14 months in prison Friday. Cheryl Potashnik, who offered Rep. Terri Hodge (D-Dallas) free rent, got probation. The full story is available on WFAA.com. We post a clip below:

For our North Texas readers, LSR Managing Editor William Lutz will appear on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics this Sunday at 9. Lutz will be blasting school officials for making it difficult for Christian students to exercise their First Amendment rights. Inside Texas Politics airs every Sunday on WFAA, Channel 8 in North Texas.

Is expanded gambling really dead or are gambling lobbyists just being really, really quiet right now because the gambling crowd doesn't want an anti-gambling legislator to win the Speaker's race?

It's a fair question. Last night, LSR Managing Editor William Lutz received a phone call at his home. It was a robo-dial poll consisting of three questions:

Rep. Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) issued the following statement on Galveston District Judge Susan Criss's decision to dissolve her order (sought by plaintiff's lawyer Steve Mostyn) prohibiting the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association -- a state-financed Coastal insurance company -- from giving financial documents to him: