State

State Archive

Bill White, Regent-in-Chief?

Attempting to capitalize on the recent rumblings in Texas sports about the realignment of the Big 12 Conference, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill White has revealed either a contempt for the state’s boards of regents, a complete misunderstanding of their job, or...

Battleship Texas metaphoric of Texas’ budget?

“On Thursday, an employee at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site, where the [historic battleship] Texas is moored, noticed the 96-year-old ship was sitting lower in the water than usual when he left the park,” reported the Houston...

Washington Kay Strikes Again?

At time when our nation is facing record deficits and a historic debt load that is projected to exceed our Gross Domestic Product within 2 years, our state’s senior U.S. Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, is looking to spend $100 million in taxpayer’s dollars to urge...

A Birdwell in the hand is worth two Sibleys in a bush

As Republicans have just concluded their biennium convention one thing has become abundantly clear; business as usual is over! When Republicans in Texas are willing to replace their conservative firebrand interim state chairman with a conservative businessman, then...

Filming Favors

Political fool’s gold is the result of good intentions mixed with unwise policy. Texas has political fool’s gold in the form of tax incentives designed to attract the film industry. Texas lawmakers need to take a machete to these film industry favors. The Texas tax...

Big 12 Politics and the Texas House

There has been much intrigue over the past week and half about potential realignments in college sports, particularly designed to attract greater audiences and financial incentives for certain football programs. With the departure of the University of Colorado (to the...

Wall Street & Bill White share a similar problem

The Austin American-Statesman reported it this way: “As the storm was walloping parts of Houston, [Bill] White helped line up private companies to provide goods and services as part of a massive relief effort. One of those companies was Btec Turbines, where White had...

Billl White Provides a Teachable Moment

Bill White and the Sweetheart Hurricane, Michael Quinn Sullivan’s post about how White engaged in crony capitalism to profit from a natural disaster, reminds us of the interplay in American politics between free market capitalism, crony capitalism, and socialism....

Be wary of school TAKS claims

Plenty of school districts have come out in the past few days telling us that TAKS scores improved in their districts this year. If those scores didn’t improve hugely, then the districts have nothing to celebrate. KVUE’ headline put it well: “50% is passing grade for...