Austin American-Statesman

Randy Travis Really Doesn't Want Anyone to See That Video of His Drunken, Naked Arrest

Randy Travis, the wiry, multi-platinum-selling country crooner with a golden voice that carries enough bass to rattle your silverware, had a tough 2012. In February, he was cited and arrested for public intoxication in front of a Sanger church during the wee morning hours. Later that year, he strode ... More >>

Infighting in the Pro-Life Movement Killed a Bill to Reform End-of-Life Care

A bill aimed to reform end-of-life care in Texas is likely to die in the state House. Although the bill made it through the Texas Senate, Representative Lois Kolkhorst, a Brenham Republican, told the Austin American-Statesman that it won't get a vote due to splits among House Republicans. Currently ... More >>

John Carona's Payday Lending Reform Crashed into a Wall of Lobbyists Today

If you want an idea of the near stranglehold payday lenders have on the Texas Legislature, the Senate floor was the place to be today. That's where Senator John Carona watched as his payday lending bill was picked apart by colleagues, many of whom were taking calls from industry lobbyists as he spok ... More >>

After Family Planning Cuts, More Than 17,000 Dallas County Women Lost Access to Care

In 2011, as we just cannot seem to stop mentioning, your state legislators cut $73 million from the state's family planning budget, instituted a tiered funding system designed to give family planning clinics any federal dollars dead last, and launched a weird war on the Medicaid Women's Health Progr ... More >>

Texas' War on behalf of the Incandescent Light Bulb Dies a Quiet, Predictable Death

In 2011, state lawmakers took a break from slashing school funding, dreaming up new abortion restrictions and fighting against the encroachment of Islamic law to do battle with a new enemy: the compact fluorescent light bulb. More and more, those tightly coiled tubes were replacing Edison's good ol ... More >>

Fiscal Cliff Would Slow Texas' Economy by 1.2 Percent, White House Predicts

Earlier this month, state legislators met in Austin to learn what damage Texas might sustain if the country careens off the fiscal cliff, which is now frighteningly near. The short answer is, quite a bit. As the Austin American-Statesman reported, state agencies stand to lose as much as $1.1 billio ... More >>

Irving Doctor Who Botched Liposuction Also Injected MMA Fighter With Banned Drugs

I wouldn't have known it by watching two over-muscled and under-clothed men pummel each other senseless, in a cage no less, but mixed martial arts has rules. Surprising, too, that one of the rules is that you can't have too much testosterone in your system. I learned these things from an article tha ... More >>

Report: Voter ID Laws Have Caused Thousands of Legal Votes to Get Tossed

What timing. Just as the trial of Texas' voter ID law kicks off in D.C., a new analysis by the Associated Press has found that such laws in other states have led to hundreds of ballots being rejected, both in 2008's general election and in the primaries this year. The Associated Press looked a ... More >>

As Dallas Boarding Homes Struggle, City Hall Sits on its Hands

Texas lawmakers gave cities the power to regulate homes for the mentally ill -- but so far, Dallas hasn't used it.

Why Saturday's Cowboys Game Is the Most Important Game Ever (This Week, Anyway)

Davynin, Via.​[Editor's note: For those who might have forgotten, Michael Corcoran is formerly of the Austin American-Statesman and Dallas Morning News, a one-time Observer contributor and one of my favorite writers in the history of ink. This morning, he dispatches this preview of Saturday night' ... More >>

Catfish Industry Fighting for New Labeling Laws in Texas

​The catfish industry is targeting Texas as the next state to adopt country-of-origin labeling legislation. The Catfish Institute's president Robert Barlow is now in Texas, rallying support for a bill introduced by state Senator Glenn Hegar. The proposed law, modeled after similar legislation ... More >>

For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: The Full-Custom Gospel Sounds of Arizona Dranes

​I've considered retiring this weekly feature many times in recent weeks; we're about out of the good stuff, I fear -- unless you're just dying for a ladies-choice between Linda Ronstadt at Reunion in '82 or Courtney Love and Hole at Deep Ellum Live in '94, which I'd briefly considered last night. ... More >>

A Couple More Adds For Denton's 35 Conferette: Jessica Lea Mayfield, A Place to Bury Stranges, Reading Rainbow and Others...

​The Denton-hosted, pre-South by Southwest festival formerly known as NX35 went and released another round of performers slated to play its festivities in March today -- and, as with the last round of additions, it features a couple of interesting names.Among today's several adds: Ohio-based singe ... More >>

Former Council Member Donna Blumer Defends Cathie Adams; County GOP Chair Neerman Says He's Done Criticizing Her

One month into her tenure as state Republican Party chair, Cathie Adams has caused the party's executive director to resign and took sides in yet another GOP primary race.​Despite the length of our cover story on the GOP gubernatorial primary, my discussion with former city council member Donn ... More >>

Governor Perry Likes the Stimulus Package Now? What Happened to the Tea Party?

Danny FulgencioPerry fields questions from reporters today in Grand Hall at Union Station.The land of opportunity still exists in America, and it's in Texas. At least, that's what Governor Rick Perry told nearly 200 folks gathered this afternoon at Union Station for the Texas Economic Development Su ... More >>

Texas GOP Shifts Even Further Right With New Chair Cathie Adams

Dallas County GOP Chair Jonathan Neerman Says Selection of Cathie Adams as New State Chair "Set the Party Back Five Years"

Searching for a link between President Obama and Hitler? No worries. New state GOP chair Cathie Adams has you covered.If you didn't notice when Texas Republican Party chair Tina Benkiser stepped down last month to join Governor Rick Perry's re-election campaign as a senior adviser, you're forgiven. ... More >>

Hutchison's Press Secretary on Perry's $9 Billion "Rainy Day" Claim: "It's Hypocrisy at Its Finest and Clearly Politically Motivated."

Sam Merten​As mentioned earlier, Governor Rick Perry gave us the Heisman when we tried to get a response to his boasts this afternoon about balancing the state's budget and tucking away $9 billion for a "rainy day," conveniently leaving out that nearly all of that $9 billion and the dough used ... More >>

Says Rick Perry: I'm "Resisting Further Government Intrusion" and Saying No to $500 Mil in Unemployment Insurance

Just arrived in Austin, only to find in my in-box, oh, 'bout a dozen Friends' links to either Governor Rick Perry's speech down in Houston or the Burnt Orange Report's compendium of reactions to said speech. As you may know by now, the governor is saying no to more than $500 million in unemployment ... More >>

Tom Hicks is Forcing Austin's Beloved Ice Bats to Find "A New Cave"

James Dante Kings was Talented, But Other Facts Are More Pressing

Even the Jews Want to Know Why the Feds are Detaining Local Imam

U.S. Government Doesn't Want to Talk About Detaining Plano Imam

Dallas-Born Judge Sharon Keller Is Getting More Popular Every Day

Sad News Travels Fast

Dubya: A Really Cool Dude

The Kids

The dynamic duo of Rock and Hank Jr.

Big Tex

Cowboys icon Schramm left his mark on his team and those who knew him

Lost Youth

A civil suit alleges prosecutorial misconduct in one child's death, another's incarceration

Pass the Pablum

Plus: Rose-smelling Time, Usual Suspects, Cornyn's Cakewalk

Conference for Cynics

SXSW offers up dreamchasers, diatribes and some darn good music, too

Bang to Hype

At SXSW, it's all about the buzz, not the Buzz Band

Innocence Lost

Was the case against Lacresha Murray, the youngest Texan ever tried for capital murder, a rush to judgment or a story of justice denied?

Drug Crazed

Millions in federal tax dollars are being spent by narcotics task forces in Texas to nab low-level users and dealers. Is this any way to wage a drug war?

See By Be Seen

At the annual South by Southwest music festival, it's the singer, not the song

Killing machine

It is 6:07 p.m. John Albert Burks salutes the Oakland Raiders and says goodbye to his friends. Minutes later, he is a dead man. This year's 21st execution.

The Dixie Chicks

What's Not To Like?

More is less

College professors say the Morning News charges an exorbitant price for database that isn't worth it

Tom Waits for no one

Or: Looking for the heart of South by Southwest

Put up a fight

With bands like these, who needs Austin anyway?

The eyes of Texas

An Aggie wonders whether we all should get to see the Longhorn playbook

Buzz

The art of implication

Vince Bell's been dead once, and he's got the record to prove it

A time to listen

Clinton's Austin speech posed a clear-eyed counterpoint to the Million Man March

Fading star

Michael Jackson tells HIStory to whoever is left to listen to it

Farewell from Cracker Eden

Texas journalism loses a great writer and friend in Grover Lewis

Trance-induced state

Austin label showcases some of the best Texas has to offer

Trashed

State examiner recommends rejection of Ferris' controversial landfill-expansion permit

Talking trash

Ferris' landfill stays in limbo--while state regulators fight among themselves

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