Speaker Straus: "Assignments ... will draw upon the House's wisdom and experience"

Speaker Joe Straus has (finally) announced his House Committee appointments. The full list can be found here.

Quick hit points:

– Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, replaces Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, as speaker pro tem

– Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, gets to chair the newly beefed-up State Affairs

As for the Travis County Democrats:

– Dawnna Dukes keeps her powerful Appropriations seat

– Donna Howard becomes vice-chair of Culture, Recreation and Tourism

– Mark Strama gets the chairmanship of the new Technology, Economic Development and Workforce committee.

– Eddie Rodriguez joins him there and also sits on Public Safety

– Elliott Naishtat becomes vice-chair of Public Health

– Valinda Bolton gets seats on County Affairs, and Land Resource and Management (a top issue for her.)

Check back for more analysis later.

This article appears in February 6 • 2009.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.