Local
19-Year-Old Teacher’s Aide Arrested for Distributing Homemade Child Porn Via Snapchat
Henrietta ISD elementary school aide Blaine Frost is charged with multiple felony sex crimes against a young child.
Arlington Pride to Host Blatantly Sexual Festival Targeting Children
The event will feature a sexual drag show with several performers from RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Jacksboro ISD Teacher Terminated for ‘Improper Relationship’ With Student
Local police waited seven weeks to notify the public.
Texas Rangers Refuse to Celebrate ‘Pride Month’
The Texas Rangers is the only Major League Baseball team refusing to give into pressure and publicly schedule a “Pride night.”
Local Archive
Texas Hotel Taxes Enough to Make You Lose Sleep
Found this revealing tidbit on the Austin American-Statesman's entertainment pages: Those hotel occupancy taxes in Texas’ big cities are so high they’ll give you a nosebleed. Example: My $279 stay at the lovely Granduca Hotel in Houston a few days ago...
More Taxes, Courtesy of Republican Fred Hill
There was once a time when Republicans were known as the tax-cutters; people who – if nothing else – would work to make sure the taxpayers’ money stayed in the taxpayers’ wallet (as State Rep. Rob Eissler likes to say). That was then, this is now. State Rep....
Pork in the State Budget?
The McAllen Monitor reported that the new $150 billion House budget for the 2008-09 biennium includes some arguably pork barrel expenditures - most of those mentioned are earmarks for projects in the Rio Grande Valley. Among the taxpayer-funded projects mentioned are:...
House Committee Unanimously Hangs Up on Telephone Tax
The Lone Star Report brings us the following good news:The House Regulated Industries committee unanimously voted Feb. 21 to eliminate the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF). The tax on consumers’ phone bill was created in 1995 to help wire schools,...
How much to keep Hollywood away?
The Austin American Statesman is calling on lawmakers to enact a slush fund that would attract more Hollywood liberals to Texas. What's not to love about that? They are particularly appalled by the idea that Friday Night Lights (a low-rated show about Texas high...
Shenandoah Texas May Set Record for Per Capita Cost of Taxpayer-Funded Lobbyists
The Houston Chronicle recently reported that the town of Shenandoah Texas has hired taxpayer-funded lobbyists for $30,000 this session. At first blush, this is not shocking since our friends at Americans for Prosperity-Texas have estimated that governmental entities...
Lubbock Paper Calls for Surplus to be Returned to Taxpayers
Once in a while the mainstream media hits the nail on the head and such is the case with a staff editorial in today's Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. This piece enclosed below in no uncertain terms urges the Legislature to return the surplus to taxpayers. Further, it...
Only in Austin…
Governor Perry had a great line reported in the state's media outlets:Â Â Â Â Â Â "Only in Austin and Washington would returning $8 billion to citizens be considered spending."That's a great point. The state's spending cap was called the...
Dewhurst Questions Existence & Return of Surplus, But More Tax Cuts Now Can Help Avert Future Economic Slowdown
Speaking at a Capitol news conference yesterday, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said "We don't have a 14.3 billion dollar surplus." He asserted that "when you look at promised property tax cuts out to 2011, we're looking at a balanced budget with just...