ArklatexPolitics.com

Posted 13 hours 55 minutes 18 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- The state's environmental agency is
taking steps to hold gas drilling companies more accountable in
Texas.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality says it is hiring
six new inspectors for the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It's part of the
two-dozen-county area atop the Barnett Shale, one of the nation's
biggest natural gas fields.
The agency has implemented new standardized protocols for
inspection and enforcement, instead of relying on gas companies to
voluntarily repair problems. The agency says it's received about
150 complaints or inspection requests from residents since
December.
State Sen. Wendy Davis announced the measures Friday. She says
the agency doesn't know the locations of all gas drilling equipment
in Texas -- but is starting to compile an inventory.

Posted 13 hours 57 minutes 48 seconds ago
Posted In: Home, Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The Texas State Board of Education agreed
to new social studies standards on Friday after the far-right
faction wielded its power to shape the lessons that will be taught
to millions of students on American history, the U.S. free
enterprise system, religion and other topics.
In a vote of 10-5, the board preliminarily adopted the new
curriculum after days of charged debate marked by race and
politics. In dozens of smaller votes passed over the three days,
the ultra-conservatives who dominate the board nixed all but a few
efforts to recognize the diversity of race and religion in Texas.
Decisions by the board -- long led by the social conservatives
who have advocated ideas such as teaching more about the weaknesses
of evolutionary theory -- affects textbook content nationwide
because Texas is one of publishers' biggest clients.

Posted 2 days 14 hours 20 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- State sales tax collections were down 8.8
percent in February, compared with the same month a year ago.
Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said Wednesday that the state
collected $1.6 billion in sales tax revenue in February. And even
though that's down 8.8 percent compared to February 2009, she said
sales tax losses have begun to moderate.
Before February there were eight straight months of double-digit
declines.
Combs says sales tax revenue continues to be down in major
sectors such as retail, oil and gas production and construction.
But there's a slight uptick in the manufacturing sector.
She says there may be more declines in the coming months before
a return to sales tax revenue growth later in 2010.

Posted 3 days 14 hours 54 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Democrat Bill White is criticizing
Republican Gov. Rick Perry for pressing state agencies to cut their
budgets by five percent, calling the approach "Soviet-style"
budget management.
With Texas facing a budget shortfall of at least $11 billion,
White says he'd insist on "fiscal discipline" but refuses to rule
out possible tax increases to close the gap. He says he'd first
have to "look under the hood" of state government to identify
possible savings and inefficiencies.
White, who faces Perry in the November elections, spoke Tuesday
at a conference hosted by the Texas Tribune online news site.

Posted 4 days 14 hours 49 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- A key state official says the Texas
Legislature will face a shortfall of at least $11 billion when they
meet to write the next state budget in 2011.
That's the projected difference between available revenue and
the cost of maintaining services at their current levels.
John O'Brien, director of the Legislative Budget Board, told a
legislative committee Monday that the estimate is conservative and
could grow to as much as $15 billion.
The shortfall is a result of several factors, including
lower-than-expected sales tax receipts.
State agencies have submitted proposals to cut their
current-year budgets by 5 percent, as requested by Gov. Rick Perry.
Those savings will only amount to about $1.7 billion, O'Brien said.

Posted 1 week 1 day 15 hours ago
Posted In: Home, Texas

DALLAS (AP) -- U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is criticizing Gov. Rick
Perry's campaign against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Perry's
challenger in the GOP primary for governor.
Perry defeated Hutchison for the Republican nomination on
Tuesday, amassing 50 percent of the vote to Hutchison's 30 percent.
In his campaign, Perry fanned anti-Washington sentiment among
Republican voters, portraying the state's senior senator as part of
a despised Washington political culture.
In a conference call with reporters, Cornyn called those attacks
"unfair." According to The Dallas Morning News, the Republican
junior senator from Texas said Perry "was able to posture this as
a campaign (of), 'Are you for Texas or are you for Washington?'
Sen. Hutchison ended up being painted as someone who represented
Washington, when clearly she has been representing the best
interests of Texas in the United States Senate for a long time."

Posted 1 week 2 days 14 hours ago
Posted In: Home, Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Some Texas legislators won't be returning
to Austin.
Here's a look:
-- GOP Rep. Tommy Merritt of Longview, who chairs the House
Public Safety committee, was defeated by tea party activist David
Simpson in yestserday's primary.
-- Rep. Delwin Jones of Lubbock, one of the longest serving
members of the Legislature, was headed for a runoff with tea party
activist Charles Perry.
-- Conservative Republican Rep. Betty Brown of Terrell lost to
insurance consultant Lance Gooden.
-- Republican Rep. Betty Brown of Terrell (TER'-el) fell to an
attack from the right wing. The 11-year House veteran, who gained
notoriety last year for suggesting Asian-descent voters should
adopt names that are "easier for Americans to deal with," lost to
insurance consultant Lance Gooden.
-- Two Democratic incumbents also lost. Rep. Dora Olivo of
Rosenberg was defeated by attorney Ron Reynolds and Rep. Tara Rios
Ybarra of South Padre Island lost to Kingsville restaurant owner
J.M. Lozano.
Rep. Norma Chavez of El Paso was headed into a runoff with Naomi
Gonzalez.
-- In an inner-city Dallas district, longtime Democratic Rep.
Terri Hodge, who was on the ballot even though she pleaded guilty
to participating in a bribery scheme, lost to attorney Eric
Johnson. Hodge's plea bargain came after the ballot was set.
-- No Texas Senate incumbents lost, but there was a twist: Sen.
Kip Averitt of Waco won his re-election race even though he
announced in January that he was dropping out for health reasons.

Posted 1 week 2 days 14 hours ago
Posted In: Home, Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- A prominent Christian conservative has lost
his seat on the state education board less than a year after he was
ousted as chairman.
Republican Don McLeroy, a Bryan dentist, fell in Tuesday's
Republican primary to Thomas Ratliff on the board that shapes what
millions of students read in textbooks. No Democrats filed to run
in November.
The loss weakens the social conservative bloc of the 15-member
board, which has unusual clout because textbook publishers have few
clients bigger than Texas.
McLeroy had held the seat since 1998 but faced mounting
criticisms that he was too far right. The state Senate narrowly
blocked his reappointment as chairman last year.
Ratliff is the son of former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff.

Posted 1 week 2 days 14 hours ago
Posted In: Home, Texas

DALLAS (AP) -- Labor leader Linda Chavez-Thompson won the
Democratic nomination in the Texas lieutenant governor's race.
The high-ranking official in the AFL-CIO defeated ex-Travis
County District Attorney Ronnie Earl.
Chavez-Thompson will face Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in
November.
In the Democratic race for the agriculture commission
nomination, humorist Kinky Friedman lost to cattle rancher Hank
Gilbert, who will face Republican incumbent Todd Staples in the
general election. Friedman says it's his last election.
Former state Sen. Hector Uribe defeated real estate broker Bill
Burton for the Democratic nomination for land commissioner. Uribe
will face Republican incumbent Jerry Patterson in November.
On the Republican side, accountant David Porter defeated
incumbent Victor Carrillo for a seat on the three-member Texas
Railroad Commission. Carrillo was appointed to the commission in
2003 and later named its chairman. He was elected to a full
six-year term in 2004.
With nearly 19 percent of the vote, Rick Green narrowly led a
group of six Republican candidates vying to replace Justice Harriet
O'Neill, who is not seeking re-election to the Texas Supreme Court.
The race will advance to a runoff between Green and Debra Lehrmann,
who finished with 18 percent of the vote with nearly all precincts
reporting.
Justice Eva Guzman, who became the first Latina on the state's
highest civil court when Gov. Rick Perry appointed her in October,
defeated Corpus Christi's Rose Vela.
-- Republicans overwhelmingly passed five nonbinding resolutions
covering pet conservative issues, such as encouraging the
Legislature to require voters to provide photo identification at
the polls. Another would require government bodies in Texas to
limit annual budget increases to "the combined increase of
population and inflation unless it first gets voter approval to
exceed the allowed annual growth or in the case of an official
emergency."
Also passing on the Republican ballot were resolutions to cut
federal income taxes, permit the use of the word God and the
display of the Ten Commandments at public gatherings and in public
buildings and make women who are about to have abortions view
sonograms.

Posted 1 week 2 days 14 hours ago
Posted In: Home, Texas

HOUSTON (AP) -- Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill White says
his GOP opponent, Gov. Rick Perry, is more interested in promoting
"partisan rhetoric" and "angry headlines" than in improving the
lives of Texans.
White, the former Houston mayor, told a news conference in
Houston on Wednesday that Perry's attacks on Washington during his
campaign have been a way to divert attention from his own poor job
performance as governor.
Perry used the rising wave of anti-Washington ire to help him
easily beat Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the GOP primary. White,
who's portraying himself as a calm consensus-builder, easily
defeated six opponents to win the Democratic party's nomination.