U.S. State Politics

The Battle for Cupcakes Sales Faces a Looming Deadline at the Legislature

Having déjà vu? Feel like we've been here before? Well, don't pinch yourself. Be calm. You're not crazy. We have been here before. For years the great cupcake bakers of Texas have fought for the freedom to sell their delicate clouds of sugar and butter to a hungry public. With the fierceness of ... More >>

Texas Politicians Use Gosnell Verdict to Remind You How Much They Want to Outlaw Abortion

If there's one thing everyone in America can agree on this morning, it's that Kermit Gosnell is disgusting and belongs in an especially dank and fetid section of some sort of subterranean prison. In a case that millions of talking heads have been shouting at you about from your TV, the Philadelphia ... More >>

Despite Sharp Divisions, Dallas ISD Trustees Vote to Oppose Effort to Ease Testing Standards

Last night, the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees approved a resolution "opposing legislative efforts to diminish graduation standards and academic rigor." Basically, they don't like HB 5, the Texas House of Representatives-approved bill that would reduce the number of tests students take to graduate, an ... More >>

A Year Since Disclosure Law, Fracking Fluid Remains a Mystery

A year ago, a Texas law was supposed to bring the raw ingredients used in hydraulic fracturing out of the shadows and into the sunlight. The process, which involves blasting millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals into shale formations a mile below the surface, isn't subject to the federal ... More >>

Ron Kirk Could Come Home and Teach Texas Dems how to Win, but Don't Bet On It

What will Ron Kirk do when he returns to Dallas after leaving the Obama cabinet next month? If I had to bet, I'd say he won't return to Dallas, which will be a shame. If he did come home, maybe he could do something about these local Democrats. Former Dallas mayor Kirk is getting high marks from bo ... More >>

Parkland's Future CEO Can't Heal Hospital Without Support Missing from Austin and D.C.

Warren Fagadau, a Dallas ophthalmologist who has been involved in health insurance reform efforts in Texas, has a piece on the op-ed page of The Dallas Morning News today about the qualities our public hospital in Dallas should look for in its ongoing search for a new chief executive officer. His vi ... More >>

Jason Villalba, North Dallas' New State Rep, Will File a Bill to Allow More Guns in Schools

Jason Villalba, the newly elected state representative from North Dallas, is starting his legislative career with a splash. Villalba announced today that he will introduce the Protection of Texas Children Act, the innocuous-sounding title of a bill that would allow Texas school districts to designat ... More >>

Texas Wants a Detailed Report on All Abortions and Will Discipline Doctors Who Don't Comply

Last legislative session, Representative Bill Zedler, a Republican from Arlington, wanted to hear about abortions in Texas. All of them. In great detail. Zedler filed a piece of legislation that would have required a woman having an abortion to fill out and submit to the state a detailed question ... More >>

European Election Monitors Find U.S. Elections Are Expensive, "Unduly Politicized," Other Shockingly Obvious Conclusions

At the end of October, highly watchable Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott threatened to press charges against any "U.N. poll watchers" who might "interfere with Texas elections." Not to be outdone, state officials in Pennsylvania and Iowa also started threatening to arrest people. Those "poll wa ... More >>

Texas Lawmakers Beware: The American Federation of Teachers is Coming for You

Last spring on the steps of the State Capitol, it was possible to buy a highly metaphorical cupcake, one that would cost you just $100 million. The "Billion Dollar Bake Sale" was put together by an outfit called Save Texas Schools, and it was meant to draw attention to the $5.4 billion Texas lawmak ... More >>

The Washington Post Sees Striking Similarities Between Greg Abbott and Vladimir Putin

At first blush, it wouldn't seem that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott have much in common. The former is an ex-KGB agent who, through a bizarre combination of dictatorial repression and sheer animal magnetism, has cemented his status as Russia's de facto leade ... More >>

State Senator John Carona is Backpedaling Wildly on His Support for Gay Rights

Republican state senator John Carona got himself into a bit of hot water with fellow conservatives last week, after he told Dallas Voice senior editor John Wright that he would support several LGBT rights bills during the upcoming legislative session. Those bills would ban employment discrimination ... More >>

Texas Will "Immediately" Defund Planned Parenthood After Court Refuses to Hear its Plea

That faint popping sound you heard last night was Governor Rick Perry uncorking a nice bottle of bubbly, after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday refused a request by Planned Parenthood to rehear the case over its ban from the new Texas Women's Health Program (TWHP). Texas, it appears ... More >>

The Rise of the DFW Brew

Free from the hangover of the '90s craft beer bust, Dallas' small brewers cheer another round of growth.

The North Texas Tea Party Says Voting Machines Are Stealing Republican Votes

There's been a lot of talk this election season about the specter of voter fraud, the idea that the polls will be flooded by illegal immigrants, household pets and dead people (all left-leaning constituencies), thereby cheapening real Americans' votes. There has been relatively little concern expres ... More >>

Meet Dallas Billionaire Harold Simmons, Radioactive Waste Magnate and Mitt Romney's Second-Biggest Donor

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has raised nearly $300 million, and it's largely been with the help of a coterie of extremely wealthy, and extremely prolific donors. The top donor, of course, is Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. But the second bigge ... More >>

"Abortion Affiliates" Banned From the New Texas Women's Health Program, But Doctors Allowed To Talk About Abortion

The new Texas Women's Health Program is really going to be special. And by "special," we mean terrible. But as the Texas Tribune reports , state officials have made one tiny concession in response to complaints from women's advocacy and medical groups: Doctors will now be allowed to discuss the exis ... More >>

Appeals Court Says Texas' Redistricting Maps Are Discriminatory; Texas Vows to Appeal

When the Texas legislature passed new redistricting maps in 2011, it sure seemed that the lines had been drawn to dilute the power of Democratic-leaning Hispanic voters in favor of Republicans. State leaders swore that wasn't the case, but, rather than taking them to an unfriendly Justice Department ... More >>

Texas Wants 'In' on National Immigration Database, But Why It's Necessary Is A Mystery

Yesterday, Texas Secretary of State Esperanza "Hope" Andrade requested access to a federal database of immigration records as a way to ensure that voters are here legally. It's a little like putting border patrol agents at polling stations -- but without the threat of deportation, at least for now. ... More >>

Trial to Determine if Texas' Voter ID Law Is, In Fact, Racist, Begins Today in Federal Court

Last May, Texas joined the growing roster of states with a voter ID law requiring those seeking to exercise their most fundamental civic duty to present a state-issued ID before casting a ballot. Like a driver's license or, this being Texas, a concealed handgun permit. And that was that, at least ... More >>

America's War on Brown People Has Gone Too Far

A hostile Supreme Court. A feckless Obama administration. America's war on Mexicans has gone too far.

The Modern Texas GOP, a Viper's Nest of Mao-Lovin' Commie Bastards

On the one hand, our former mayor and Republican primary candidate for the U.S. Senate, Tom Leppert, wasn't afraid to break GOP ranks and tell us that his fellow Republican opponent Ted Cruz is a known communist sympathizer. Amazing. On the other hand, now we also know that Leppert himself is a fel ... More >>

At Paul Quinn College's Trayvon Martin Rally,
A Cry For Justice

Repercussions from the fatal shooting of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin will be felt in Austin next year, state Senator Royce West told hundreds of demonstrators who gathered at Paul Quinn College today to mourn and demand justice for the 17-year-old. "We've come together today, but what w ... More >>

Rick Perry Vows to Save the Medicaid Women's Health Program from the Evil Feds

Update, March 10: Federal Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced late Friday in Houston that federal funding to the WHP would be cut. She said the program will wind down over the next several months, and that the feds are considering funding Planned Parenthood directly. In r ... More >>

Texas' Biggest Power Supplier Wants to Blame the EPA for Future Blackouts

Arizona Whitewashes American History in Texas

When It Comes to Vaginal Probin', Texas's GOP Men Got the Short Shrift

If I were a male cowboy-boot-wearing Republican in Texas, I might feel pretty chapped right now by all the attention paid over the last week to the Virginia ultrasound bill. Talk about some limp legislation. Yesterday those wimps in Virginia voted up a pared-down version that will allow women under ... More >>

Perry Thinks Loving Tea Party Means You Can Go Home Again. Oh, He'll Go Home, All Right.

​If Rick Perry still considers himself a candidate for president, then I get to consider him one too. I think I'm justified in remarking on the 180-degree turnabout Gov. Perry has made in his basic worldview since beginning this quest. You remember the original Perry line when it started, right? I ... More >>

Rick Perry, Jay Nixon Bet Some Dr Pepper, Bud and Various Meats Over World Series Outcome

Via.​Sam's World Series Game 1 preview-open thread's upcoming any minute now; start polishing your bats. Till then, this: The governor's office sends word that Rick Perry has, but of course, made a wager with Missouri Governor Jay Nixon concerning the outcome of Rangers-Cardinals. And it's not a t ... More >>

Rick Perry Says He's Mr. Grassroots, But His Trans-Texas Flop Suggests Otherwise

Tea Party people say they hate Washington and its top-down style of governance. They're the political version of eat-local. Everything should be grassroots. Here in Texas the Tea Party loves Governor Rick Perry, but if you talk to people who've gone up against Perry on local issues, they will tell ... More >>

Texas' Innocent Prisoners Are Getting Compensated, and Their Lawyers Want in On the Deal

Senator Wendy Davis Draws a Line in the Dirt

At last, a Democrat is willing to stand up to Perrypublicans.

My New Hero, Fort Worth's Wendy Davis, Who Sure as Hell Ain't Scared Of Rick Perry

​Thank the Lord every once in a while the American political system churns out a Wendy Davis, the 48-year-old Senate freshman from Fort Worth who filibustered Rick Perry's legislative session to a soggy grave in the wee small hours of Monday night. The Perrypublican fury over Davis's act isn't me ... More >>

Rick Perry's Compassion and Honesty Deficits

​Talk about a disconnect. On Wednesday night I see Governor Rick Perry on television, with that little cowboy sneer he gets, saying, "The lieutenant governor, the speaker and their colleagues are not going to hire or fire one teacher, as best as I can tell." Kind of like he's saying somethin ... More >>

What's on Those Caraway Tapes? Let's Guess.

As DISD Prepares to "Declare a Financial Exigency," Super Discusses Perry-Doggett Fight

This is this weekend, incidentally.​At last week's budget town hall, Dallas Independent School District trustee Edwin Flores took a thinly veiled shot at U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who he did not name, over the $830 million in federal Education Jobs Fund money presently sitting in D.C. As Flores tol ... More >>

Dallas City Council Member Jerry Allen Goes to Austin to Cash Out Payday Lenders

At its meeting two weeks ago, the Dallas City Council passed a resolution urging the state Legislature to crackdown on payday lenders and "to pass any necessary legislation to protect the citizens of the State of Texas who may find themselves with no alternative but to seek the type of short-term, h ... More >>

Bake Sale Bandits

Local Movement Fights for Cottage Food Bill.

Preservationists Say If Perry Kills Historical Commission, He Could Also Decimate Future

Flickr user: Nicholas Henderson​It hasn't been easy reaching a preservationist in this state in the last couple of hours. Or in D.C., for that matter. Not since Governor Rick Perry announced earlier today that in order to save the state some money, he's proposing the elimination of the Texas Histo ... More >>

Local Prophet Explains Those Dead Birds

​A good Friend of Unfair Park sends along a video presently making the rounds in which Red Oak's own Cindy Jacobs, self-proclaimed "respected prophet," says there's a very good explanation for why those 5,000 birds died in Arkansas on New Year's Eve. And, no, it had nothing to do with a loud noise ... More >>

Tell Me More, Mayor Tom

Sam Merten​A Friend of Unfair Park alerts us: Mayor Tom Leppert is on today's episode of National Public Radio's Tell Me More, along with Utah Governor Gary Herbert. The subject: How Utah and Dallas are leading the economic recovery, per that Brookings Institution report to which we directed y ... More >>

Sarah Palin's Show at the Majestic Next Week Is Turning Into Quite the Texas GOP Jam Session

​A few weeks back we noted that Sarah Palin will be performing her one-woman show at the now-city-of-Dallas-run Majestic Theatre on November 10 on behalf of Austin-based Heroic Media, self-described as using "mass media advertising to help women facing unexpected pregnancies with hopeful alternati ... More >>

Take a Sip of the Early Election Results

​I'm about to head over to the Palomar for the Republicans' cash-bar shindig, while Sam's pulling pay-as-you-go drinking duty at the AAC with the Dallas County Dems, and Ex-Intern Elliot's eating free pizza with Stephen Broden in Uptown. But before the short pour on this long night (at least, for ... More >>

Democrat Governors Association Is Betting Plenty on Bill White to Take Texas

Sam Merten​According to The Washington Post this morning, the Democratic Governors Association has already poured $2 million into Bill White's campaign. Which is just the start: Today the DGA's set to debut an ad in Dallas that attacks Governor Rick Perry on three fronts -- for his 2007 executive ... More >>

Now Objecting to the Sale of Your Texas Rangers: Attorney General Greg Abbott, Comptroller

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott​Once again, the Texas Rangers Baseball Partners Information Site provides us with a wealth of morning must-reads -- chief among them, the 12-page objection filed yesterday in Fort Worth bankruptcy court by the Texas Attorney General's Office and the Texas Comptro ... More >>

School Board Trustee Carla Ranger Says DISD's Minimum Grade Policy Violates State Law

DISD trustee Carla Ranger​Three years ago, or shortly before the Dallas Independent School District introduced its "effort-based" grading policy, the school board reminded teachers: They were not to give students a grade lower than a 50 for any one grading period. As the great Kent Fischer noted, ... More >>

The Texas Attorney General, Not Keen on Putting the "Open" in Open Records Requests

Patrick MichelsTexas Attorney Greg Abbott with two of his fans at the Texas GOP convention downtown over the weekend​Yesterday's mail included a couple of letters from the Texas Attorney General, which I will share, regarding two unrelated matters. The first was an opinion dealing with my letter t ... More >>

State Rep. Debbie Riddle Wins Our Demagogue Sweepstakes By Proposing A Texas Version of Arizona's Controversial Immigration Law

Pump It Up

Bodybuilders grease up Plano