The Chronicle is reporting today the results of a straw poll at the Tea Party Patriots’ “national policy summit” in Phoenix this weekend. The voting occurred in two categories, “live” and “online.” The winner of the live poll was pizza magnate Herman Cain with 21.98% of the vote. The
The discussion of what to do about the problems facing the state of Texas shifted from the Capitol to the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library on Wednesday night, when a panel of state legislators gathered for a Future Forum, sponsored by Texas Monthly, on the subject of, “What is the
After U.S. trade representative Ron Kirk spoke to the House yesterday, I had the opportunity to catch up with him for a short interview. Ambassador Kirk, who is naturally gregarious and optimistic, painted a gloomy picture of what it is like to carry an unpopular message to skeptical folks in
I had a brief conversation earlier today with House redistricting chairman Burt Solomons. He agreed with what I wrote yesterday, which was that to pair Democrats in minority districts would violate the Voting Rights Act. Since the six Democrats in Dallas County are all either Hispanic (Anchia, Alonzo) or African-American (Davis,
You’re walking through the east side. In front of you dashes a flannel-clad hipster, carrying recycling on the back of his bike. Suddenly he pulls over, to a food trailer park brimming with trucks featuring quirky names and colorful, kitschy exteriors. You’re in Austin, right? Not so fast.
The previous map, drawn by the Legislative Redistricting Board in 2001, allowed for sixteen seats. It now appears that, due to population loss, Dallas County will qualify for only fourteen seats. Two members are going to lose their seats. The problem for Republicans is this: Four seats belong to African-American Democrats
Walter Lippmann was the foremost pundit of his time, which was the fifties and sixties. In 1955, he published a book called The Public Philosophy. It is a dark and gloomy treatise, more despairing than cynical, about the inherent flaws of democracy and government’s inability to act wisely. I first
Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw testified before Senate Finance today, sharing his concern that crime in Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio is very much connected to Mexican drug cartels, operating though the potent prison gangs Texas Syndicate and Texas Mafia. For most, that’s not particularly “new” news.
The fastest-growing counties in Texas were suburban counties near the big Metro areas: Collin and Rockwall east of Dallas; Williamson and Hays, which bracket Travis County on the top and bottom; and Montgomery and Fort Bend, which bracket Harris County on the north and southwest. These six counties experienced growth
I was sitting in the Senate gallery yesterday, listening to the debate over the sonogram bill, when Dan Patrick said something that got my attention. He said that he had asked Speaker Straus to recommend someone to carry the sonogram bill, and Straus had recommended Geanie Morrison. He repeated this
Hey! Texas didn’t do badly at all in the semifinalists lineup for the Oscars of the culinary world, the James Beard Foundation Awards. The list was announced this morning. There are two more voting rounds to go before the winners are announced at a gala at Lincoln Center in New
Wendy Davis just read a letter from the Texas Medical Association opposing the sonogram bill as a violation of the patient-doctor relationship. Dan Patrick is claiming there is no patient- doctor relationship, based on the testimony of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood employee profiled by Texas Monthly.
One, two, three, four. I declare a food truck war! Spotted: The Coreanos guy grinning sly while saying, “We tried what Chi’Lantro had to offer, and we thought we could do better.” Them’s L.A. fightin’ words! He wasn’t just blowing smoke from the grill,
Here is what really happened [Thanks to the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association for their figures, which come from a soon to be released report]. In the middle of the previous decade, the Legislature faced a mandate from the Texas Supreme Court to reduce its reliance on local property taxes to
Today, House Appropriation’s overflow room was overflowing. Concerned citizens were lining up, some in wheelchairs, to testify about the pain that the proposed budget cuts would inflict. In January, when Chairman Jim Pitts laid out his draconian budget proposal, he called it “a starting point.” But as the days wear
Food & Wine has a new spin on their highly anticipated ten-best-new-chefs awards. They’re doing an additional people’s choice list, and voting has begun. It will be much, much more inclusive, and six Texans have been nominated for the Southwest region. In fact, Texas totally dominates the list of
Education commissioner Robert Scott was on the hot seat yesterday. He testified that if the current level of funding in HB 1 remained the same, the state would get sued. “I don’t know who the plaintiff will be,” Scott said, “but I have a pretty good idea of who the
Last Friday, the Morning News’ Trailblazers blog questioned whether Speaker Straus had stacked the odds in favor of gambling through his appointments to Licensing & Administrati. Straus’s support of gambling had been an issue in the speaker’s race: [O]f the nine House members appointed to the Licensing & Administrative
Over the weekend, Gov. Rick Perry essentially threw fellow Republican Susan Combs under the bus when he second-guessed her decision to try to collect sales taxes from Amazon, which has a big distribution center in Irving. In case you missed the story, here’s one version: Perry disagrees with Combs’ decision
Will Harnett deserves a gold star for his work on the Neil-Howard election contest. His report is suffused with credibility and authority. I live and vote in HD 48. In the last six elections, I voted in the Republican primary four times. I did not receive any election information from Mr. Neil–not
Forget chocolate-covered strawberries, dozens of roses, and the fondu pot. No, all you need to woo your Valentine today is this recipe. Sure, it’s a little labor-intensive, but trust me. It’s worth the time, the effort, and all the pre-baking finger-licking you can handle. And here’s a plus: if you
CNN is reporting that John Cornyn will run for whip, a position that will be vacated when Arizona senator John Kyl’s term expires at the end of 2012. If Republicans were to win control of the Senate in 2012, which political pundits believe is likely due to the large number of vulnerable
He received 30% of the vote at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Mitt Romney finished second with 24%. It is fascinating to watch the race for the Republican presidential nomination. The most interesting thing is that there is no race. Potential candidates abound, but volunteers are few — and tomorrow, February
Sid Miller will be the author of HB 15, with co-authors Callegari, Geren, Kolkhorst, and Dianne Patrick. One might well ask, Why is there another sonogram bill? The answer is that the Straus forces have been through a venomous speaker’s race, and they are not inclined to let their enemies take credit for
Dr. Richard Murray, the University of Houston professor, pollster, and political commentator, accused TEXAS MONTHLY of “journalistic malpractice” in a recent column published on the Web site of KTRK, Channel 13. Here is what he wrote: The February issue of Texas Monthly featured its 2011 list of the twenty-five most powerful
This just in from Will Hartnett’s office: Representative Will Hartnett, Master of Discovery for the Election Contest for Texas House District 48 releases the following statement: “After a thorough review of the numerous challenged ballots, I have concluded that Donna Howard won the House District 48 election by 4 votes.
Two years ago, I took a road trip with two friends and stopped at ten joints in a single day. Our final stop was Kreuz, and it did not disappoint. I was hoping to strike gold on this trip where Kreuz was again the tenth stop on a
[I have recovered some material I lost from the original post] It’s Jim Landtroop. 1. He’s a freshman. 2. He supported Paxton for speaker. 3. He cast one of the fifteen votes against Straus for speaker 4. He represents a part of the state that is hemorrhaging population. 5. He
Senate Finance chairman Steve Ogden announced today he was dividing his committee in two — at least for half a day — to tackle the budget’s biggest challenges: public education and health and human services. The two subcommittees will meet in public, with agendas posted in advance. Sen. Jane Nelson
Gov. Rick Perry may talk about the Texas budget picture with an Aggie yell leader’s positive gusto (all smiles and rah-rah, though we’re down 28 in the fourth quarter), but his appointee to the top position at the Health and Human Services Commission did not dispel the discouraging tone of
The United Kingdom isn’t exactly known for its culinary choices. Toad-in-the-hole, bangers and mash, spotted dick: Foods you might eat for dinner, alternative names for a heart attack, or the titles of the porno flicks your creepy neighbor watched last night? Continuing in that nominal tradition, we have
The Joe Straus who put together these committee assignments was a different Joe Straus from the one who made the appointments in 2009. Straus 2.0 is a much more skilled politician. For those who had labeled him a RINO, he spiked that attack by appointing 27 Republican chairs to only 11
The line up for this year’s Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival (it runs March 31-April 3) is exceptional–more modern, more in touch with what’s going on in Texas culinary circles today. And the public is picking up on that fact; first-day ticket sales hit an all-time high,
This article was researched and written by Texas Monthly legislative intern Katherine Stevens. During his testimony to the Senate Finance Committee this afternoon, Texas Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes detailed the damage cuts to higher education funding will inflict upon Texas families and students, particularly the loss of financial aid. Paredes
I have heard considerable speculation that House committees will be announced tomorrow instead of (the presumed) Thursday. Another story making the rounds is that veteran Democrats have used their seniority to get on Appropriations. This could cause problems when the time comes to vote the bill out of committee. Democrats might
One of the most startling passages in Gov. Rick Perry’s State of the State address was his promise that Texas college students will be able to attain a bachelor’s degree for only $10,000…books included! Right on! thought this parent of a Texas college student. With today’s tuition rates of approximately
When a governor has given five State of the State addresses, chances are that the sixth is going to sound pretty familiar. And so it did. What has changed over the eon that Perry has served as governor is not what he says, but how he says it. He has become a polished,
TAB’s Bill Hammond published an op-ed piece in the Morning News today on how to deal with the budget crisis, which is a $15 billion gap between available revenue and current services–in particular, the proposed cuts in public education. Hammond is one of the few members of the business
Good for RPT chairman Steve Munisteri for putting an end to Rep. Wayne Christian’s nefarious attempt to be the enforcer of conservative orthodoxy on his colleagues. Readers may recall that Christian (who likes to bill himself as “the only Christian in the House”) successfully maneuvered to become chairman of the platform committee at
Just got a note from co-owner Lori Horn at Dough Pizzeria: The Food Network show “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” recently filmed at Dough. Say what??! Dough is the classiest pizzeria I’ve ever been to. Has Diners host Guy Fieri run out of low-life eateries? Or maybe he’s turning over
The challenge for Steve Ogden, Jim Pitts and their lieutenants this session is to produce a budget with real, not imagined, fiscal responsibility. Given the anti-government-spending fervor in the political landscape, it will be very tempting to zero out touchy-feely-sounding things like community mental health services and go home and
I was on my way to Houston on Wednesday to speak to the Greater Houston Partnership when I was caught in the rolling blackout. I made it as far as Elgin on U.S. 290, where the traffic lights were blinking red and cops were standing in the bitter cold, directing
Little Thai Food rocks it old-school. Not in the Old School BBQ & Grill kind of way, with a website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account. Or in the elementary school way, like the Local Yolk, which serves only one type of
The outcome of Special Master Will Hartnett’s mini-recount (of about 250 votes) in the House District 48 election contest favored Donna Howard: it proved the original recount correctly removed four votes from her vote total. Attorneys for Dan Neil hoped to cast doubt on the four votes to further whittle
Questions over four paper ballots in the Dan Neil-Donna Howard squeaker prompted Special Master Will Hartnett to order a recount of about 250 paper ballots in the West Austin state representative race. An official recount in December put Democratic incumbent Howard 12 votes up over Neil, but testimony in a
As Senate Finance members came to terms Tuesday with how the budget shortfall would effect abused and neglected children, it was CASA Day at the state Capitol. Regular Capitol visitors understand that hundreds of special interest and non-profit groups hold what are essentially lobby days to tell the story of
Can it get any more depressing than hearing the word “triage” applied to foster children? That’s what the Senate Finance Committee is hearing this morning about the effects of impending budget cuts on children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse. Yes, the same class of children who,
Last night, Texas lost one of the most provocative and thoughtful journalists ever to walk the halls of the state Capitol. Sam Kinch, a veteran of the Dallas Morning News and founder of Texas Weekly, died last night after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. I met Sam when I was
Full of BeansYou failed to list a restaurant that is not in any way fancy but has the best Tex-Mex food: El Mercado on North Burnet Road in Austin is the place I mean [“Let’s Have Mex-Tex,” December 2010]. The tortilla chips are tasty, the service is excellent,
This issue went to press four days before the start of the most important legislative session of our lifetime, when lawmakers face, in addition to the testy, high-stakes business of redistricting and the supercharged debate over immigration and voter ID, an epic fiscal crisis: a budget shortfall of up to
