Dinosaur Daze

Rep. Tuffy Hamilton in dinosaur duds

Photo by Richard Whittaker

ON THE LEGE

• Sniffing Sine Die

  Taking stock of the 81st Lege

  BY MICHAEL KING

• Environment/Energy

  A Few Green Sprouts

  BY LEE NICHOLS

• Buying Time

  The federal stimulus money rides to the state's rescue – until the next session

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

• Drug Laws

  A Mixed Bag

  BY JORDAN SMITH

• SBOE

  Grabbing McLeroy's Chair

  BY LEE NICHOLS

• Criminal Justice Reform

  Slow Train A-Comin'

  BY JORDAN SMITH

• TYC Sees Light at End of Tunnel

  Youth Commission just might catch a break

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

• Voter ID

  The Fight Continues

  BY LEE NICHOLS

• Contradictory Keller Conclusions

  To impeach or not to impeach

  BY JORDAN SMITH

• LegeLines

  Quick hits from the Capitol

  BY THE NEWS STAFF

• Reproductive Rights

  'Choose Life' – and Defund Women's Health Care

  BY JORDAN SMITH

• Dinosaur Daze

  Creatures of the House

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

• County Land Use

  Slow Crawl to Nowhere

  BY LEE NICHOLS

• Redoubling Against Redistricting

  Wentworth trying to avert another DeLay disaster

  BY LEE NICHOLS

• Transportation

  TxDOT's Continuing Troubles

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

• Education

  Lots of Reform, No Money

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

• Media

  We Can Has Shield, Too?

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

Spending 140 days in a state House with only 149 state reps and their staffs for company can do strange things to a lawmaker. So it looked like there was a mass outbreak of chamber fever when there was a sighting of Tuffysaurus rex and Homeradon on the House floor. Actually it was Reps. Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton, R-Maurice­ville, and Mark Homer, D-Paris, dressed in dinosaur costumes in honor of House Concurrent Resolution 16, which names Paluxysaurus jonesi as the official Lone Star State dinosaur. (It had been Brachiosaur Sauropod, Pleurocoelus, but it turns out that the fossil in question had been misidentifed. Easy mistake to make.)