"...Since 1993, Ellis has been back to the legislature every session to try to pass updated versions of his bill, to no avail. But now, in light of the Jasper killing, he is optimistic that his bill has a chance in 1999..."

"...Mark Friday, May 30 on your end-of-the-month calendar for an ACLU review of the Texas Legislature -- "The Good, the Bad, The Awful." Jay Jacobson, who heads ACLU Texas, will present his findings of the winners and losers among advocacy groups at noon, at Furr's Cafeteria in Northcross Mall. The talk is free, the food isn't..."

"...People outside of Texas wonder how our state government functions with a Legislature that only convenes for four months every two years. (Jealous they might be, but curious nonetheless.) We would be in trouble if we actually had new Legislatures with new issues..."

"...Bradley takes a Wiz on Austin. Austin's $90 million man, Gary Bradley, convinced the Texas Legislature that he needed an independent fiefdom at Circle C, free of any of Austin's regulations..."

"...Wentworth is the Senate sponsor of House Joint Resolution 29, which (if approved by voters) would change the Texas Constitution to allow the Legislature to briefly reconvene after the regular session to consider whether to override the governor’s vetoes...."

"...Instead of divisive debate over particular maps, let the Legislature adopt a bill that would provide the general specifications and whatever map the computer draws to those specifications. Let the software be fully disclosed for anyone to examine, and let the operation of the computer be supervised by the grand jury to guard against any undue intervention...."

"...The system allowed wealthy communities to maintain low tax rates yet spend lavishly on schools, while hundreds of property-poor districts like Edgewood could not raise similar revenues even at much higher rates. The courts eventually ruled the system unconstitutional, forcing the Legislature to design the system now called "Robin Hood" -- in theory, an equalization of revenue to provide the same educational opportunity to every child in Texas..."

"..."It obviously needs further review and extensive study to gauge its impact. If it were proposed it would be an idea that would need to be considered and approved by the Texas Legislature when they re-convene in 2001."..."

"...And all three see the stakes as being higher than the fate of this one field. For the backers of the Triangle Square shopping complex, Austin opposes the project at the city's peril, inviting a nasty backlash from both the Texas Legislature and the real-estate industry, assuming that those are indeed separate entities..."

"...During the just-finished session of the Texas Legislature, an effort was made to limit the amounts that individuals and political action committees can give to candidates. There was also an attempt to modernize the reporting of campaign contributions and expenditures..."

"...Still smarting from last year's whipping by the Texas Legislature, the City of Austin may be setting itself up for another beating. Only this time it could be worse..."

"...The LCRA also has a few lobbyists. According to the Texas Ethics Commission, the agency spent at least $80,000 to hire a dozen lobbyists during the last session of the Texas Legislature, including Mike Toomey, Gordon and Rob Johnson, and Nub Donaldson..."

"...The Republican leadership in our legislature has hung a new slogan on our state capitol building: "Texas – Third World and Proud of It!" They have been so inadequate, so miserly in developing a budget that we rank down at the bottom of the 50 states in terms of providing even the most basic needs of our people, from public education to environmental protection...."

"...Some city insiders, recalling the passage of the repealed pro-developer House Bill 1704 two years ago, say they aren't expecting the 77th Legislature to throw Austin as many punches as it has in sessions past. Still, the city's official legislative program, passed by City Council last Thursday, anticipates an almost-all-defensive battle...."

"...We were also supposed to get water quality controls by Circle C -- adherence to the city's watershed ordinances "as amended from time to time." Because Mr. Bradley was successful in getting the Austin City Council and the State Legislature to prohibit enforcement of that provision, the citizens of Austin have not gotten the control of development that they were promised in exchange for extending utilities to the original Circle C MUDs...."

"...Raging in the courts, that is. If the 1999 session of the Texas Legislature wasn't enough to convince you, and if the recent, um, shift in Statesman editorial policy hasn't given you pause, then consider this: The council's executive session agenda at its most recent meeting contained no fewer than four items pertaining to land development on the aquifer. As it happened, many of the items on the executive session agenda were not even discussed at the last meeting, Oct..."

"...Alliance) and agitate for the Save Our Springs Ordinance. It was around the same time that, in response to all Austin's environmental wrangling, the 1991 Legislature passed HB 4, the granddaddy of the SB 1704 under which we currently chafe..."

"...SB 1046 by Wentworth, which would require the Sunset Advisory Commission to give a report card on how well an agency has encouraged public participation with its rules and decisions, and on what kind of response an agency has had to requests for public information. The Sunset Commission is the state government agency which reviews government bodies every 12 years and forces them to justify their existence, and then recommends to the Legislature that the body in question be continued or abolished..."

"... One of the problems this program would help solve is that 46% of Americans do not have enough money to cover a $400 expense. In 2015, working with Rep. Johnson from Dallas, we were successful with the Texas Legislature approving legislation allowing financial institutions to offer prize-linked savings accounts..."

"...Before this session of the Texas Legislature ends, however, there could be at least 49 people under the Capitol dome wishing very much that such a road trip were an option. That's the number of House Democrats currently serving in the 82nd session of the Lege – an almost completely powerless minority of the 150-member body..."

"...There was one bright spot in the torrent of darkness for Democrats in the Texas Legislature from the Nov. 2 election: With Republicans holding 99 seats, no matter what they do or say, the GOP will be fully accountable for everything that happens under the dome next session...."

"...While Coleman said he is "glad that the Governor has realized the importance of this pressing policy issue," he questions Perry for not acting already, since the Legislative Study Group Committee on State Schools sent him a report demanding urgent action. "The sad fact," he wrote, "is that these issues could have been addressed by administrative action during the interim instead of waiting for the Legislature to change statutes."..."

"...Just about everybody – including the Texas Legislature, which officially killed the exit-level TAKS in May – thinks the high-stakes testing system is bad for the kids. But TAKS is dying a very slow death..."

"...We hope to have this up and running in the near future. Thanks again for your considerate comments, and please know that we're on the job.]Getting the Legislature to WorkEditor:..."

"...(The nickname "Hot Tub Tom" rings a bell.) Elected to Congress in 1984, DeLay has steadily become the ideological dictator of the national Republican Party and, as majority leader, the real power in the House, at the apex of an unprecedented campaign-cash machine. Meanwhile, Tom Craddick, a taciturn man who made his fortune in oil-field drilling supplies, has served in the Texas Legislature since 1968, committed to little else but the goal of making that body a GOP stronghold...."

"...Dozens of Democrats, many who seldom take the floor, proceeded to the front mic to denounce the bill, calling it devastating to rights of minority and rural Texans; an unjustified GOP "power grab" personally directed by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land; a leap toward D.C.-style partisanship in a Legislature that had once been proudly cooperative and moderate, and an offense against the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 -- perhaps even a brazen attempt to ensure that Congress will not re-authorize the VRA in 2006..."

"...From your paper: "On June 17, 2001, Gov. Rick Perry vetoed 78 bills passed during the recently adjourned 77th session of the Texas Legislature..."

"...Chapter 245 (1704) illustrates how hard and how effectively the state Legislature has stepped on Austin, and the water toxic build out of those areas is positive proof. If the Axis is so certain of a legal overturn, why seek City support?..."

"...Amid the noisy euphoria of the Tony ("Scrub the Budget!") Sanchez victory celebration six weeks ago at the Hyatt, I asked Austin state Rep. Elliott Naishtat for some early speculation about the look of next year's Legislature in the wake of redistricting, which had generally gone badly for the Democrats..."

"...Before the Nov. 7 election, conventional wisdom had the agency "assuming the position and waiting for the Legislature" -- unless voters approved light rail..."

"...standards, although the council could have forced developers to do so. The column observed that fear of the Legislature was one of the factors motivating this concession to developers..."

"...The Texas Legislature has spent the past decade crafting draconian abortion restrictions that inevitably prompt prolonged, costly, and controversial legal challenges. Even when the U.S..."

"...LGBTQ communities in Texas, and across the country, have spent the better part of 2017 under attack from state and federal lawmakers looking to strip away rights and protections for sexual orientation and gender identity in the name of conservatism and religious freedom. By the time the Texas Legislature gaveled in back in January, Lt..."

"...The first special session of the Texas Legislature is over and done, with the House and Senate calling sine die on Tuesday, Aug. 15, with a full day still to spare..."

"...No terrorist has ever crossed into the United States over the Rio Grande (or, for that matter, anywhere over the southern border). And, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Budget Board, which advises the Texas Legislature on the efficiency and effectiveness of state agencies, DPS does not provide quantitative measures of border security..."

"...With the Legislature's budget arguments almost done, the film, TV, and video-game industries nervously await the fate of the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program (TMIIIP). Many fear that, having already lost TV shows like American Crime and The Leftovers, more productions will quit the state...."

"...Justices Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor highlighted the double standard set by the law: Clinics that perform outpatient procedures with higher complication rates than abortion, such as colonoscopies and liposuction, aren’t forced to adhere to the same ASC requirement. Why, then, would the Texas Legislature seek to regulate a safer procedure? As Ginsburg put it plainly, “What is the legitimate interest in protecting their health? What evidence is there that the prior law was not sufficiently protective of the women's health? … As far as we know, this is among the most safe and the least risk procedures..."

"...But perhaps what's most surprising is the fact that even pro-gun activists slammed Pizgatti and his fellow protesters. The College Republicans at Texas, in their statement condemning the event, wrote that "these tactics only fuel anti-gun rhetoric," adding that, "Staging a protest with fake blood and cardboard guns not only impairs our arguments but discounts the work of countless members of the Texas Legislature and gun rights activists who have worked endlessly to pass the first legislation of this kind in Texas."..."

"..."This decision will mean fewer women will be able to detect and treat their cancer early. The Texas Legislature has, without shame, put the lives of Texas women at risk."..."

"...The Texas Legislature’s agreed-upon budget does what Senate budget writers intended from the outset. "There are many members that feel very strongly that the facilities that receive that funding should not be facilities that are performing abortions, so the answer is: Don't perform abortions and you get the money," chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, Sen..."

"...Abbott found the agency may be so badly malfunctioning that the integration may take years, not months. Last October, the Sunset Com­mis­sion recommended the consolidation, continuing a process begun in 2003 when the Legislature reduced the total number of health departments from 12..."

"...The conventional political wisdom describes Texas as a "low-tax, low-service" state, in part because of the governor and Legislature's institutional objection to higher (state) property taxes and virtually all social services. But public needs don't disappear simply because state officials refuse to budget for them; they're just pushed down onto local jurisdictions with fewer resources..."

"...Many of the same changes have come to Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Fort Worth – meaning those still-dominant Republicans at the Legislature see the political future and now spend much of their time figuring out ways to keep it at bay. Enter Tom DeLay – the one-time exterminator and Katy legislator who ended in disgrace, but not before he had rewritten the Texas congressional map to maintain GOP power for another decade..."

"...After a couple of decades of following the Texas Legislature, I admit I find it increasingly difficult to embrace the return of the biennial circus. Oh, they're entertaining enough, I suppose..."

"...That law will almost certainly have retrogressive effect: it imposes strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor, and racial minorities in Texas are disproportionately likely to live in poverty. And crucially, the Texas legislature defeated several amendments that could have made this a far closer case."..."

"...That court used the old maps passed after the 2001 redistricting, since they were the last precleared maps: That was based on Texas having a population that required 32 congressional seats. Now SCOTUS has said, no, no, you need to use the Legislature's map, which works from a 36-seat population, even thought that is still awaiting preclearance (and, frankly, stands basically no chance of passing.) The one digression in the ruling was from Justice Clarence Thomas, who took the opportunity to argue that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional (even though Chief Justice John Roberts told the rest of the court that the merits of Section 5 were not up for discussion.)..."

"...This afternoon, representatives of the State of Texas and the United States government presented oral arguments to SCOTUS. There was talk about specific districts, like the 'deer and two antlers' plan for El Paso's Congressional district 16, but it all came down to a simple argument: What base plan should the three-judge panel that drew the interim maps have used? The state argues that they should have just tweaked whatever problems they perceived in the legislature's map, approved last session..."

"...A three-judge federal panel released new maps for the state Legislature on Nov. 18 (see "New Map Tweaks Local House Seats," Nov..."

"...Beyond the crippling multibillion-dollar cuts to school funding pending in the state Legislature, Texas AFT and other education advocates are watching two job bills in particular. Senate Education Committee Chair Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, has called her Senate Bill 12 a mandate relief bill, as it would give school districts contract flexibility on issues like unpaid furloughs and salary cuts..."

"...And so it begins: The 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas begins today. We'll be keeping track of events throughout the day, so check back here for regular updates...."