On behalf of the staff here at LSR, we would like to wish our readers a Happy Thanksgiving. (Please note that we will not be publishing an issue this week, Nov. 27. Our next issue will be Dec. 4.)

The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts "Welcomes the Competition" from Democrats in the race for re-election, and an El Paso House member has chosen not to run for the Senate.

Today one candidate for Texas Governor unveiled an education plan, another unveiled an education funding plan, and the actual Governor told the Commissioner of Education not to change Texas' education standards in hopes of attaining the federal government's stimulus carrot on an stick.

... Bryan Law, that is -- a 26-year-old seminarian looking to unseat longtime Rep. Elliott Naishtat (D-Austin) for the HD 49 seat.

Law announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination this week.

"I just couldn't convince enough people I could win, and I couldn't get the money to convince them ..." said Ambassador Tom Schieffer at a press conference at the Texas Capitol this afternoon regarding his candidacy for governor.

Schieffer, who until 3 p.m. was running for Governor of Texas, said he is endorsing Houston Mayor Bill White. But White, at a 4:15 p.m. press conference, said he would wait until Dec. 4 to make a decision.

We don't normally write about the myriad endorsements that go back and forth between the two candidates in the race for governor. But the State Republican Executive Committee consists of the elected representatives of Texas Republicans. The SREC is elected every two years at the State Republican Convention. It consists of the state chairman, state vice-chairmen, and two delegates [one man and one woman] elected by convention delegates from each of Texas's 31 Senate districts.

We reprint the list of SREC members that have endorsed Perry below:

Looks like Thomas Schieffer, Democratic candidate for Texas Governor, will announce this afternoon at 3 p.m. at the Speaker's Committee Room at the Capitol that he is bowing out of the governor's race.

Now the Houston Chronicle reports that former Houston Mayor Bill White is, according to a reliable source, jumping into the Governor's race.

If true, whoever wins the Republican primary will have a serious general election fight on his or her hands. White could win big margins in Harris County, especially after the role he played in Hurrican Ike recovery.

If not, then the Democratic field of candidates would boast Hank Gilbert as arguably its least eccentric, most mainstream candidate.

According to the Bryan-College Station Eagle (click here for story), a district judge in Conroe ordered pro- and anti-red light camera activists into mediation -- which means that, effectively, the judge did not make a decision on the matter.

A Nov. 3 referendum in College Station, to take away enforcement powers for traffic violations caught on camera, passed 52-48 percent with 7,890 residents voting.

The Eagle reported that 85th District Judge Suzanne Stovall sent both sides into a room at 1:40 p.m. and asked them to come up with a resolution by 3 p.m. By 2 p.m., according to the paper, city officials still were meeting with the city attorney and lawyers.

Moments ago House Speaker Joe Straus released interim charges. The full set can be accessed here.

We will have more comments on the charges in tomorrow's weekly issue of the Lone Star Report.

 The Sunset Advisory Commission met for the first time today. Members approved without objection the review schedule and the proposed meeting schedule. They also made some changes to rules and across the board recommendations.

Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa (D-McAllen) raised the question of whether going forward the Sunset Commission would limit its review of agencies to the structure and process under which they operate. Chairman Glenn Hegar (R-Katy) said that sunset members need to talk to their colleagues in both chambers to try to keep sunset bills focused on the sunset recommendations, rather than allowing the bills to become, as happened in several cases last session, "Christmas Trees."