Year 2008 Quarter 2 |
Volume 12, Issue 38 - 5/16/2008
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Alternative education accountability discussed
AROUND TEXAS
Electronic bingo displays get agency staff approval
Interview, Part 2: Rep. Phil King on telecommunications, taxes
ISSUES IN-DEPTH: Analysis: University tuition and fee increases slow to a crawl
OPINION: Could tuition remain stable, for a change?
Volume 12, Issue 37 - 5/9/2008
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AROUND TEXAS
Committee studies eminent domain, Christmas mtns
Concealed-carry licenses mired in bureaucratic backlog
Interview, part 1: Rep. Phil King talks electricity
OPINION: It's time to get creative on immigration reform
The truth behind the House payroll dust-up
Volume 12, Issue 36 - 5/2/2008
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Analysis: Will new commissioners improve TxDOT?
AROUND TEXAS
ISSUES IN-DEPTH: Tort reform good for Texas economy, say Perryman and TLR
OPINION: Reason, common sense guide voter ID decision
Workers’ compensation decision draws fire
Volume 12, Issue 35 - 4/25/2008
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ISSUES IN-DEPTH: Berman to colleagues: Get illegal immigration reform done
AROUND TEXAS
OPINION: English grammar belongs in schools
Perry throws down gauntlet on transportation
Racing PAC fundraising tactics questioned
State, NTTA reach deal on State Highway 161 value
Volume 12, Issue 34 - 4/18/2008
Analysis: General election contests to watch
Now that both primaries are over, a majority of the 81st Legislature has been elected. That’s right. A majority of legislators have no major party opposition in the general election.
Nevertheless, a few interesting races are one the ballot for the general election.
AROUND TEXAS
Committee testimony favors current tax system
Texans are hopping mad about high property taxes.
Not that one would have known that from attending the April 16 meeting of the Local Government Ways and Means Committee.
ISSUES IN-DEPTH: Legislators hope to scrounge up more power for booming state
Last session, the Legislature faced the problem of a booming state population and thus a booming future need for water.
The same challenge looms in the area of electric power. The state needs more of it, sooner rather than later. Talk about an inconvenient truth.
Joint committee examines continued TYC reforms
What to do about the troubled Texas Youth Commission?
Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston) did not talk about abolishing the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) at the Joint Committee on TYC Operation and Management hearing on April 16.
But he did talk about “using a different model.”
OPINION: Perry gives nod to true conservative
Full disclosure: The new chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission is an old friend. Not my fault entirely: his fault as much as anyone else’s. I tend to like people who stay the same through thick and thin, instead of — forgive my quoting Lillian Hellman in this unlikely context — cutting their consciences to fit this year’s fashions.
Volume 12, Issue 33 - 4/11/2008
Analysis: Runoffs favor Craddick, conservatives
Speaker Tom Craddick and conservative Republicans were the winners in the April 8 Republican primary runoffs. There were no Democratic runoffs for state office.
AROUND TEXAS
Committee studies greenhouse gas regulation
The proposed Federal American Climate Security Act from U.S. Sens. Joseph Lieberman (Ind.-CT) and John W. Warner (R-VA) has high aspirations for clearing the air of the free market’s hazardous byproducts. Discussing the hard science, however, seems decidedly not on Washington’s agenda.
That may be why debating the science was also not on the House Select Committee on Electric Generation Capacity’s agenda on April 9 either.
ISSUES IN-DEPTH: Whitmire wants to revamp youth offender corrections
Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire (D-Houston) is dropping hints that he may let the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) expire next session. But Rep. Jerry Madden (R-Richardson), who co-chairs the Joint Committee on TYC’s operations and management with Whitmire, is not ready to go that far.
OPINION: Texas state insurance faces the perfect storm
Texas and Florida are unprepared to cope with the potentially enormous financial losses which would be incurred by category 3, 4, or 5 hurricanes raging along their vulnerable coastlines.
Truce reached in latest telecommunications battle
It’s not often that the various parties to the telecommunications wars cut a deal among themselves.
Volume 12, Issue 32 - 4/4/2008
Analysis: What’s really at stake in the English curriculum debate
The education bureaucracy is very good at obfuscating.
The State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting March 26-28 featured plenty of emotion and jargon. The board passed on first reading a new curriculum for English, Language Arts, and Reading March 28.
AROUND TEXAS
Committee looking to raise, lower higher ed costs
With one hand the House Higher Education Committee is looking for ways to reduce the cost of a college education, and with the other one members are weighing a policy that some say might drive up tuition. As if it weren’t high enough already.
No calm before the storm in these runoffs
As early voting looms, eyebrow-raising events are unfolding in the various House runoffs. It’s nothing if not entertaining. Here’s a look.
OPINION: Dropout rate should serve as impetus for reform
So call it a start: the U.S. education department prescribing uniform national procedures for calculating dropout rates. A stopping place, a final objective, it certainly isn’t. The dropout problem intensifies.
Here in Dallas, we digest the news that our school district has not only the highest dropout rate in Texas but one of the country’s 10 worst: 44 percent by calculation of the Education Research Center. Oh, Lordy!
Runoff races mostly low-dollar contests
As in the primaries, open seat runoffs have remained low-dollar.
The lobby has involved itself slightly more than in the first round while staying largely below the radar screen.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the contribution reports for the runoffs:
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