The latest Rick Perry news from The Texas Tribune.
The Dallas Morning News has named Rick Perry its 2010 Texan of the Year. In an editorial posted online Saturday afternoon, the newspaper labeled the recently re-elected governor a "peerless political brawler" whose "impact on Texas politics" is beyond dispute. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/b8ed7b2b6cb76ac0a17d5ddb42a03ad8/BD%20INC%20Perry%202010)
Pardoning has become a holiday tradition for governors and the president, who each year choose a fortunate few whose criminal records will get wiped clean. But experts say state and national leaders are granting fewer pardons these days — and doing it in a way that undermines a critical criminal justice process that allows rehabilitated offenders to lead normal lives. Gov. Rick Perry, for example, has granted only about 180 pardons since 2001. By contrast, Bill Clements issued more than 800 pardons during his eight-year tenure, while Mark White issued nearly 500 in four years. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/829ae2b77d704137c3f774bac1c7c5ff/BD%20INC%20Perry%20Points%20Serious%202010)
For our final TribCast taping of 2010, we offer Texas political predictions for 2011. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TT-TribCast-002.png)
Despite its relatively low number of people who walk and bike to work, Texas ranked 10th-highest among states in fatality rates for bicyclists and pedestrians in a recent survey. Lawmakers who worked on a failed 2009 measure to create a buffer zone, giving bicyclists more room on the road, will try again in 2011. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/BicycleMayUseFullLane.jpg)
Gov. Rick Perry today announced pardons for eight Texans who were convicted of relatively minor offenses, most of them decades ago. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2016/05/03/ScalesofJustice.jpg)
Now that state Reps. Allan Ritter of Nederland and Aaron Peña of Edinburg have ditched the Democrats, attention turns to how they'll hold on to their seats. The former is following a time-tested strategy that has worked for others. The latter is challenging political history. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/fd78d7bbbbf4df1ba1dbc00e8ddb1ca3/BD%20INC%20Ritter%20Podium%202010)
British tourist Thomas Reeve's murder in an Amarillo bar last fall shattered his family, which has been unable to claim financial assistance from the state’s Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund because he wasn't a U.S. resident. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/ThomasReeve001.jpg)
Every politician needs a villain. George W. Bush had Saddam Hussein; Barack Obama had George W. Bush. Gov. Rick Perry has the EPA., which has had the audacity to order Texas to do more to clean its air. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/14d5dfc12b0d0169303227c35cc164ec/DONT%20USE%20Perry%20EPA)
If we ever hope to see the change we desire, we have to continue to support our candidates — even after a terrible loss. The alternative is to simply give up, and just as that was not acceptable for Republicans when they found themselves on the losing side, it’s not acceptable for us. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/examiner_pic_001.jpg)
Surrounded by statewide elected officials and a pack of fellow lawmakers, Democrats Aaron Peña of Edinburg and Allan Ritter of Nederland defected to the Republican Party this afternoon. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/b3b9eef3a4bc328d5228c2f4337087aa/BD%20INC%20Pena%202010)
State Rep. Aaron Peña of Edinburg has decided to change parties and will announce the switch at a press conference this afternoon with Gov. Rick Perry and House Speaker Joe Straus, according to Republican sources. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/pena.jpg)
Texas Democrats have become a political version of the Baltimore Orioles. If Ann Richards were alive, she and Earl Weaver would be comparing notes — in salty language — on what went wrong with their old teams. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/FranchiseLost_a.jpg)
The U.S. Border Patrol is restarting its controversial Alien Transfer and Exit Program, in which illegal border-crossers caught in Arizona are transported to Texas and deported to Mexico. Texas officials say the plan makes as little sense to them now as it did last year. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/b9bc3de289fd0d6797b4609285d522e1/BD%20INC%20CBP%20Presidio%20Bus%202010)
As expected, state leaders are asking state agencies to cut their current budgets even more. This time, by 2.5 percent. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/budgetcuts004.jpg)
M. Smith and Butrymowicz of the Hechinger Institute on charter schools and public schools making nice in the Valley, Ramsey's interview with House Speaker candidate Ken Paxton and column on the coming budget carnage, Hu on the Legislature's disappearing white Democratic women, Grissom on the sheriff who busted Willie Nelson, Hamilton talks higher ed accountability with the chair of the Governor's Business Council, Aguilar on the arrest of a cartel kingpin, Ramshaw on the explosive growth in the number of adult Texans with diabetes, Philpott on state incentive funding under fire and Galbraith on the greening of Houston: The best of our best from November 29 to December 3, 2010. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/11_29_10_Tribweek.jpg)
After years of playing one on TV, Chuck Norris is now a Texas Ranger in real life, at least honorarily. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/chuck-norris1.jpg)
Harris County District Judge Kevin Fine is set to hold a hearing Monday in the case of John Edward Green, who is charged with fatally shooting a Houston woman during a robbery in June 2008. Green’s attorneys and capital punishment opponents want Fine to find that prosecutors can’t seek the death penalty because the way we administer it in Texas is unconstitutional. “The current system is profoundly and fundamentally flawed from top to bottom,” says Andrea Keilen, executive director of the Texas Defender Service. Prosecutors counter that the ruling should be made by higher courts, not a trial judge. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/DeathPenaltyCases.jpg)
Gov. Rick Perry’s office has asked a member of the Emerging Technology Fund’s advisory committee to consider resigning over a recent investigation into a stock deal — the latest dustup involving state incentive funds. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/c4226c87ab9b8f79cbbd88cce55e4687/DONT%20USE%20Perry%20Money)
Governor Rick Perry’s office has asked a member of the Emerging Technology Fund’s advisory committee to consider resigning over a recent investigation by the Texas Rangers. This is just the latest dust up over this fund and the Texas Enterprise Fund. Ben Philpott of KUT and The Texas Tribune reports on what could happen to the funds in the next Legislative session. Full Story
One hundred miles from the nearest major city, where there was nothing but flat earth seven months ago, a 145,000-square-foot facility has sprung up on the Texas A&M Health Science Center campus. Starting in January, its cavernous rooms will be filled with racks of tobacco-like plants expected to produce as many influenza vaccines in a single month as a traditional lab does in one year, at a fraction of the cost. Dr. Brett Giroir, the vice chancellor for research at the Texas A&M University System, calls it the most exciting project of its kind in the world, the potential savior of the next pandemic. And, he says, “it’s in Bryan. Go figure.” Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/BioVac.jpg)