Texas Legislature: Looking Back, What’s Next

Lawmakers are setting the stage for the Texas legislative session that will convene Jan. 12, 2009. Hearings and general study are underway, using assignments from Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick to form the basis for most legislation introduced during the spring session. In the 2007 session, lawmakers passed bills that restricted state contracts with private road builders, strengthened handgun self-defense laws and brought back the Texas Tomorrow Fund in a different form. They approved a comprehensive state water policy, Bible classes in public schools and steroid testing for high school athletes. Lawmakers overhauled the Texas Youth Commission, created air quality programs and set aside $3 billion in bonds for cancer research. Lawmakers also approved the death penalty for the worst child sex offenders, but it was later shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Measures that failed included reforms to the top 10 percent rule for high school seniors, photo identification requirements for voters, slot machines at racetracks, shield laws for journalists, stem cell research funding and electronic fingerprint identification systems for monetary transactions or age verification. More

Defects Hit Homes Like a Ton of Bricks

Tina Belcher was mowing the lawn last spring when she noticed her house falling apart. Chunks of muddy brown brick littered the back yard. She called her husband, Scott Belcher, who walked over to the side of their home and nudged a flaking brick. “It crumbled like crackers,” he said. “The whole thing fell off in my hand. I thought, ‘Oh no, this isn’t going to work.’” More

Speaker’s Race: The Tactic is Showing Craddick Can’t Win

Opponents of Speaker Tom Craddick, unable to unite behind one candidate to replace him as House leader, are trying to puncture the perception that Craddick is invincible. Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco, who leads the House Democratic Caucus, insists the Midland Republican is vulnerable to a bipartisan insurrection after Tuesday's election, which left a shaky 76-74 GOP majority. But Dunnam is finding it hard to prove publicly what he and others say they believe fervently. More

North Texas Home Sales Decline

North Texas pre-owned home sales suffered a steep decline in October, falling 17 percent from a year ago. The drop was one of the largest so far this year and coincided with the crash in world financial and credit markets. About 5,500 pre-owned homes were sold in North Texas last month, according to statistics from North Texas Real Estate Information Systems Inc. and Texas A&M University's Real Estate Center. More

Tarrant County Lawmakers Prepare for Legislative Session

With Tuesday’s elections behind them, Texas lawmakers are now turning toward their upcoming legislative session in January, with divided House members braced for a roiling leadership battle and fallout from the nation’s economic plunge threatening state spending priorities. Monday, House and Senate members began pre-filing hundreds of bills for the 81st Legislature, which begins at noon Jan. 13. As always, the 140-day biennial session will have a broad impact on the state’s 24 million residents, shaping the quality of education, healthcare, law enforcement, highways and virtually every other aspect of their day-to-day lives. More

GOP Keeps Control of Texas House After Close Race Decided

Republicans held their one-seat advantage in the Texas House late Monday as incumbent Linda Harper-Brown maintained a victory in the tight District 105 race. However, her already small lead shrank from 34 to 20 votes after a Dallas County ballot board accepted 61 provisional ballots, amid Republican allegations of impropriety. More

FEMA Still Working on Galveston Housing

Finding housing for the thousands of Texans displaced by Hurricane Ike remains the government's top priority, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Friday. "Our top three priorities are housing, housing and housing. We are going to stick with it until we are done," FEMA Administrator David Paulison told reporters after a closed-door meeting with Southeast Texas officials. FEMA has been heavily criticized by local, state and county officials as too slow in its efforts to provide housing, particularly mobile homes, for Southeast Texas residents whose homes and apartments were destroyed or severely damaged after Ike roared ashore near Galveston on Sept. 13. Chambers County Judge Jimmy Sylvia, one of the officials who met with Paulison on Friday, said it had taken seven weeks to get federal approval for an 88-acre site that can accommodate 600 mobile homes in his county. More

Report: Houston a Top Growth Center

Houston is ranked among Top 10 growth centers in a bizjournals study released Monday. The 10 fastest-growing metropolitan areas during the prosperous 1990s have continued expanding in the present decade, despite the erratic nature of the economy, according to the report. All 10 of the markets registered population gains of at least 13 percent between 2000 and 2007, led by Las Vegas’ seven-year increase of 33.5 percent. Houston placed seventh on the list. More