District Judge Gisela Triana-Doyal upheld a recently enacted truth-in-grading law Monday, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The decision was a defeat to 11 school districts in the Houston area, which sued the state on the grounds that districts have the right to determine their own grading policies. They countered that the law only applied to classroom work and not semesterly report cards or district paperwork. Critics of minimum-grading call that practice "grade inflation" while supporters say it helps deter drop-outs and keeps underperforming students in the classroom with their higher-scoring peers.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 this morning to overturn a city of Chicago ban on personal firearms.

If the ruling had been in favor of upholding the ban, it could have had wide-reaching ramifications for states with strong gun rights laws, such as Texas. "The U.S. Supreme Court," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said, "confirmed what Texans have long known: all law abiding Americans have a fundamental right to keep and bear arms -- and cities cannot unconstitutionally limit that right. ..."

Former Texas House member and Governor Dolph Briscoe Jr. died of kindey failure at age 87 on Sunday at his family's ranch house in Uvalde.

Briscoe, a conservative Democrat, became Governor in 1973 and served two terms despite his "Decade of Dolph" campaign slogan and keeping his promise to not raise taxes. His best-known accomplishments were pushing for the farm-to-market highway system and running a balanced budget and clean house following a string of scandals in ther early '70s. Another notable accomplishment was signing the bill which created the Texas Public Utilities Commission.

CORPUS CHRISTI -- Texas Democratic delegates quickly approved a platform that sees government as, in the words of platform committee chairman Rep. Garnet Coleman, "not as a hindrance, but one that gives opportunity."

Delegates, as is the practice in the Democratic state conventions, did not have a printed copy of the platform report to scrutinize. Still, delegates had few questions on the document.

CORPUS CHRISTI -- Statewide candidates addressed the Texas Democratic Party Convention this afternoon, minus one.

Democratic Texas Agriculture Commissioner nominee Hank Gilbert's mother died on the eve of the convention, causing the candidate to skip the convention. Via a partially amended speech delivered by Rep. Senfronia Thompson, Glibert knocked Republican incumbent Todd Staples -- par for the course for the challenger, who began the campaign season in a run for Governor.

CORPUS CHRISTI -- Texas Democratic Party Convention delegates voted against an amendment to the infamous "Texas Two-Step" by a large margin.

The amendent, to make the percentage of popular votes and delegate strength for presidential candidates equal, failed with only two senatorial districts voting for the change -- 5,602 to 1,930 votes.

The floor fight began around 2:30 p.m. after Rose Salas, rules committee chair, moved to accept the report of the committee which leaves the "Texas Two-Step" intact -- along with putting in place other changes to the precinct caucus system inlcuding voter security procedures and a "best practices manual" for conducting the meetings.

CORPUS CHRISTI -- Members of the rules committee of the Texas Democratic Party convention took a short break this morning so that delegates may vote in the chairman's race.

At the time of writing, it doesn't appear that anti-Texas Two-Step forces had enough steam on the committee to affect a change to the method of nominating a presidential candidate. The Two-Step -- the nickname for a system by which 65 percent of delegates are selected by primary voters and 35 percent by after-election caucuses -- created problems for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton supporters last year.

If polls are any indicator, voters in the Lone Star State are fairly split between Republican incumbent Rick Perry and Democratic nominee Bill White in the race for governor, with Perry ahead by a few percentage points in most surveys.

But Texas' largest rival to the two major parties suggests there is a viable alternative. Her name is Kathie Glass.

The Republican Party of Texas responded to a Dallas Morning News story from Thursday in which Rep. Linda Harper-Brown was reported to have accepted perks from a red light camera contractor for whom her husband works -- e.g. a Mercedes SUV owned by the contractor on which she placed state license plates.

Though the response stopped short of sticking up for Harper-Brown's actions, the legislator released a video (linked below) claiming she and her husband were in full compliance with the law.

A bomb threat emptied the Texas Capitol this morning, as well as a nearby building, sources are saying -- the first such evacuation since stricter security measures, DPS troopers at every entrance, and metal detectors were added last month. No one was reportedly injured during the shake-up.

The Austin American-Statesman reports.

Travis County Republican Party Executive Director Michele Samuelson reported via Facebook: "... Everyone is safe but most couldn't get to cars underground to leave."