Texas Senate Adopts Rules Change to Allow Voter ID Vote

After a dramatic display of partisan bloodletting, the Texas Senate on Wednesday adopted a change in its rules that will benefit Republicans by allowing a vote on a voter ID bill. But in an upper chamber long known for its decorum and reluctance to publicly air its dirty laundry, the rancorous day took its toll. Amid the fight, Lt. Gov. David Dew-hurst, a Republican, at one point faced a public challenge to his status as presiding officer. The Republicans aimed the exception at one issue - voter ID - to force a future vote, which Democrats would otherwise have been able to block. The final vote was 18-13, mostly along party lines, just as a series of procedural, 19-12 votes leading up to the last one had been. That stirred some Democrats to label the skirmish as the start of the "War of 19-12," referring to the partisan split in the Senate. More

Dallas Least Likely to See Lower Home Prices in Two Years

Despite some small dips in the last year, homeowners shouldn’t expect large and long-lasting declines in home values in North Texas, a new home study predicts. According to the latest report from PMI Group, the Dallas area is the least likely of any of major U.S. metropolitan market to have home prices lower two years from now than they are today. The risk of lower home prices was evident in many other areas of the country in the U.S. Market Risk Index released Wednesday. The mortgage insurance company found that half of the country’s biggest housing markets face a high probability of having lower home prices in two years. More

Fed: Texas Economy Continues to Weaken

The Texas economy continued to weaken at the end of 2008, and many people in the business community don’t expect conditions to improve until the second half of 2009 or even early 2010, according to a report by the Federal Reserve. Contacts across a broad range of industries noted reduced demand and uncertainty about the outlook, said the so-called "beige book" report for the Fed's Dallas District, which covers Texas and parts of Louisiana and New Mexico. More

Texas, Business Leaders Brainstorm on Economy

Texas is in better shape than the rest of the country, but job losses still are rising, and state leaders face a tough budget challenge as revenue is forecast to fall over the next two years. Later this week, Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and a high-profile list of corporate leaders will gather in Austin to discuss ways to jump-start the Texas economy. "Hopefully, it will get the debate going on what we need to do to get America back to work," said Tom Pauken, chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission, who will open the conference Thursday and Friday at the Omni Austin Hotel at Southpark. More

Perry Has Doubts Hutchison Will Run for Governor

Gov. Rick Perry expressed doubts Tuesday that U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will enter the 2010 Republican primary race against him and said Texans want a leader like him with "big ideas." Perry, after addressing lawmakers on opening day of the Texas Legislature, talked about his record as governor and his ideas for the future in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press. The state's longest-serving governor, Perry said he wants to run next year for a third full term in office. Hutchison has formed an exploratory committee to run for governor in 2010. Perry noted that she hasn't formally jumped into the race and, when asked whether he has doubts that she will, Perry said: "Oh yeah. I mean, there's plenty of time for the senator to think that it's not in her best interest, Texas' best interest or the country's best interest to leave the United States Senate and come run for governor. But that's, again, that's her call." More

Craddick Says He May Run for Re-Election

A relaxed, chipper Tom Craddick reflected Wednesday on a 40-year career in the Texas House and suggested that his love affair with the chamber might not be over. The former speaker, one day removed from handing over the gavel after a tumultuous six years as House leader, said he might seek re-election to his Midland seat after this term. "Yeah, I well might," he said in an interview. "I love the House. It's fun." Reporters lined up Wednesday outside Craddick's new office on the Capitol's first floor, a much more modest affair compared with the speaker's suite, to take turns asking the Midland Republican about the sudden end of his tenure as House leader. More

Early Partisan Bitterness Erupts in Texas Legislature

It didn't take long for partisan bitterness and the simmering battle over voter identification laws to mar what was supposed to be a peaceful start of the 2009 Texas Legislature. Surprisingly, it was the Texas Senate — typically the more stable and calm chamber — that hosted the political bloodletting Wednesday, the second day of the 140-day session. As House members celebrated their new, unanimously chosen speaker, the Senate locked up for hours before voting 18-13 Wednesday night to push through a rules change that gives the Republican majority more sway. More

Sharp Files to Run for Senate

Former state Comptroller John Sharp filed Thursday with the Federal Elections Commission to run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Kay Bailey Hutichison. Sharp, a Democrat, said he would work to halt Wall Street bailouts and focus on using emergency funds to give homeowners mortgage relief. "The challenges we face at home and abroad demand innovative solutions, not politics as usual," Sharp said. "Texans are looking for that kind of leadership." More

Study: Ike Gets Nearly Half of Harris County Homes

Hurricane Ike damaged nearly half the homes in Harris County and left more than 18,000 uninhabitable, according to a new study. The small Galveston Bay community of Shoreacres, located about 30 miles southeast of Houston, was hit the hardest. Nearly 60 percent of the homes there were destroyed or suffered greater than 50 percent damage when Ike came ashore near Galveston on Sept. 13. "It's horrific," Shoreacres resident Nancy Schnell said of the conditions in her town. Her family has been living in a travel trailer parked on their property while contractors rebuild the house. The study, done by the Harris County Housing Authority, was based on inspections of 774,000 of the county's 994,000 residential units from Sept. 23 through Nov. 13, the Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday. More

Foreclosures in U.S. Rose 81 Percent, Topping 2.3 Million in 2008

U.S. foreclosure filings jumped 81 percent last year as falling house prices, tighter mortgage lending and the longest recession in a quarter century battered property owners, RealtyTrac Inc. said. More than 2.3 million properties got a default or auction notice, or were seized by lenders, the Irvine, California-based seller of default data said today. That’s the most RealtyTrac has documented in four years of recordkeeping. Filings rose 41 percent in December from a year earlier to 303,410. More

First Green Building Summit Scheduled in Dallas

Green Built North Texas (GBNT) is holding its First Annual Texas Green Home Summit on Thursday, Jan. 29th at the Dallas Convention Center. The summit is designed for the building industry, including builders of single family and multifamily homes, remodelers, developers, sales staff and Realtors, according to Phil Crone with the GBNT program. Presented in cooperation with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Texas Green Home Summit will focus on the latest developments in the green home-building industry in Texas and bring together the many sectors of the green home-building industry to promote a greater level of green building. More