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Texas Accent Deemed Nation's Sexiest --
Was there ever any question? Analysts scoured the country, listening intently to how people talked. After this exposure to regional accents, intonations and colloquialisms, Texas came out on top
Texas Lt. Governor calls Beto O'Rourke a 'moron'
San Antonio Express-News Places Its Downtown Building on the Sales Block -- The Houston Chronicle and the Dallas Morning News buildings have been sold and repurposed,
now it's San Antonio's turn, and how long will the American Statesman building south of downtown Austin last?
Some See A Plan To Expand I-35 As A Betrayal Of Austin’s Environmental Values -- For those who want to see a drastic reduction in the number of vehicles on Austin-area roads it's hard to digest the
$500 million voted last week to the Texas Department of Transportation to reduce highway congestion on 35, $400 million of which would go toward building out three new lanes between Round Rock to Buda
The next Bush generation: Pierce Bush considering run for grandfather George H.W. Bush's former Congress seat -- He's the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star, saying in a statement that he's "seriously considering running" in 2020 for the 7th Congressional District, his grandfather George H. W. Bush's old seat from the 1960s
Poll: 30% Of Conservatives, 15% Of GOP Say They Won’t Vote For Trump --
HuffPost says Republican critics of the president are saying this spells big trouble for his reelection bid
Ilhan Omar has been tapped by the Texas Young Democrats to speak at their 2019 state convention in Austin -- The controversial representative will be addressing
Democrats between the ages of 14 and 40 who are all encouraged to attend the free event at the Austin Marriott South in May
Our favorite headline of the month, from the Houston Chronicle: "Residents Seek Answers to Fuel Spill at Town Hall"
Senate backs 2-year wait before ex-legislators can lobby -- A unanimous Texas Senate on Wednesday approved requiring senators and House members to wait two years after retiring to become a paid lobbyist. The
cooling-off period required by
Senate Bill 13 would help Texans “be confident that their elected officials are representing their interests and not those of anyone else,” said the bill’s author, Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe
Is the Dallas Morning News business model working? -- Parent company A.H. Belo Shareholder Takes ‘Activist’ Role,
Suggests Exploring Sale of Dallas Morning News
Decorated veteran MJ Hegar’s candidacy brings heat to 2020 Texas Senate race --Mary Jennings “MJ” Hegar’s candidacy for the Democrats’ 2020 Senate nomination offers the potential of a strong challenge of veteran GOP Sen. John Cornyn in a time of success for women in politics, and adds pressure on San Antonio Rep. Joaquin Castro to decide soon whether he also will seek to become the Democratic candidate. Hegar, 43, of Round Rock, is an
Afghanistan War veteran who nearly unseated longtime Rep. John Carter in a congressional contest last year
Flush With Cash, Senator John Cornyn Is Daring Democrats to Challenge Him -- Drawing a lesson from last year’s near loss by incumbent Senator Ted Cruz to Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke, Texas’s senior senator, John Cornyn, has declared several times that he will not
underestimate any potential opponent to his re-election next year.
He’s certainly been stocking his war chest like a candidate who expects a bruising fight. In the first quarter of 2019, Cornyn
raised more than $2 million, giving him more than $7.5 million cash on hand—the most of any incumbent U.S. senator seeking re-election next year, a spokesman said
How a powerful ex-lawmaker’s move to UBS ranks in the revolving-door game -- Re: Former Texas US Rep. Jeb Hensarling, an analyst says it’s a bit unusual to join a company, rather than a trade group or other enterprise, but that might be getting more popular
State lawmakers are cracking down on drone activity over Texas military installations — amid fears that drones might be
endangering military flights or snooping on sensitive defense facilities
Empower Texans sues GOP legislative foe citing free speech rights -- The conservative political group is suing Rep. Charlie Geren of Ft. Worth, chairman of the Committee on House Administration because the group, which publishes the Texas Scorecard referred to as its official publication, was denied media credentials to cover the House from the floor, which the group calls “unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination”
An Instagram post about a Confederate rally in Houston is cited in special counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted report as the “earliest evidence” of Russian influence in political rallies across the U.S.
Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders will hold a rally in downtown Houston on April 24 -- He was already scheduled to be
part of a forum at Texas Southern University with seven other presidential candidates earlier in the day.
Austin is tied with Houston as the Texas metropolitan area most prone to natural disasters -- That's
according to a new report from Redfin
Moot Suit Gets Boot -- A Texas court has dismissed the Victoria Advocate newspaper's lawsuit claiming a state port authority broke a public meetings law when it hired former Congressman Blake Farenthold. He left the House of Representatives last year amid sexual harassment allegations, but he's also since left the port job,
rendering the suit irrelevant, the court said
Democrats set up shop in Texas suburbs early for 2020 push -- They plan to open a
regional headquarters in Austin this spring and dispatch organizers to Texas suburbs in an unusual early step to prepare challenges against Republican members of Congress believed to be vulnerable because of rapid demographic change
The U.S. terrorism label for Iran's Revolutionary Guard formally took effect on Monday -- Amid a battle between the Trump administration and some in Congress over
waivers on oil and nuclear sanctions that are due to expire or be extended early next month
Bodies identified in the South Texas "Killing Field" -- Officials have identified two women, one of them killed in 1986, the other in 1991, their bodies dumped
in the Caulder Oil Field, an abandoned area about a mile from Interstate 45 near League City south of Houston. Since the 1970s, more than 30 bodies have been found in the field, mostly young women, most but not all believed by some to have been the work of serial killers
'Robin Hood' Mexican president says to return stolen wealth to the people -- His administration is drawing up a bill to create an independent “Robin Hood” institute “against the corrupt” that would put confiscated goods such as real estate, jewelry and cars into the public’s hands,
the president told reporters
U.S. House Democratic campaign arm to open Austin office, boosting focus on Texas in 2020 -- Their aim is to
flip six Texas seats in the US House next year
Border chaos forces truckers to wait hours, sometimes days -- To deal with a surge of migrating Central American families, the Trump administration has reassigned so many inspectors from U.S.-Mexico border crossings that truckers are
waiting in line for hours and sometimes days to get shipments to the United States from Mexico
125 Best Places to Live in the USA --
US News says Austin is number one
Biography: Barbara Bush saw Trump as a 'symbol of greed' -- The former first lady in the 1990s showed a friend some news clips about Trump's separation from his first wife, Ivana, and noted that allies of the soon-to-be ex-Mrs. Trump were saying a $25 million settlement in the prenuptial agreement she signed wouldn't be enough. "The Trumps are a new word, both of them," Bush wrote. "Trump now means Greed, selfishness and ugly. So sad." --
Dallas Morning News
Alberta Oil Inventories Rise Despite Production Cuts -- Crude oil inventories in Canada’s oil province Alberta
rose in February despite a government-imposed production cut aimed at propping up the price of Canadian crude and reducing excess supply in storage
California’s self-created future energy crisis -- Writer Joel Kotkin says his state is "
lurching toward an anticipated energy shortage that will further exacerbate the state’s already deep geographic and class divisions"
Ocasio-Cortez says Green New Deal critics are making 'fools of themselves' --
Guardian writer goes all in for defense of Green New Deal
The idea of reducing methane released by cattle to curb potential effects of climate change has become somewhat of a punchline -- But researchers at Texas Tech are taking the challenge seriously and have
potentially found an answer that could also increase profits for producers and also use groundwater more efficiently
Gov. Baker Approves Statewide Review of Massachusetts’ Natural Gas Systems -- Allocates $1.5 million for Dynamic Risk Assessment Systems, a
Texas-based consulting firm, to study Massachusetts' gas distribution system and gas companies' operating practices after recent gas line explosions
President Trump Expected to Make April Fundraising Trip to Houston, San Antonio --
April 10 in Houston and San Antonio
Oil economist says demand for U.S. and Canadian shale oil will not ebb any time soon -- "Agriculture is our largest customer. They need
safe, reliable, affordable energy"
A network of pipeline is spreading in Wyoming as energy companies prepare for the next boom -- talk is of
the boom to come, the increase in traffic and the pipe going in the ground
Canada considers 'emergency' warning from scientists that could complicate Trans Mountain pipeline expansion -- The Trudeau government has been weighing scientists' “emergency” warning about an endangered species, the steelhead trout, for more than a year in a case that could have
serious implications for the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion
Pantex announces new round of employee-directed community grants -- Nonprofits in the Texas Panhandle will be better able to expand or continue their missions thanks to
grants from Consolidated Nuclear Security’s (CNS) Pantex Community Investment Fund, administered by the Amarillo Area Foundation
Four months after the death of the former president, George H.W. Bush's office in Houston is to close for the last time at 5 p.m. Friday.3/29 -- The George Bush Presidential Library Foundation will be renamed The George and Barbara Bush Foundation
Jason Villalba—Or a Staffer—Doesn’t Give a Rat’s Back End What You Think, Snowflake -- In some since-deleted Facebook activity, former state Rep. Jason Villalba got into it with a couple commenters who took issue with the tone of his rhetoric,
D Magazine reports ...“With great respect, I don’t give a rats ass about what you think about the way I speak,”
he wrote. “If you don’t like me or what I represent, vote for one off [sic] the 17625 options."
Hillary Clinton to headline Democratic Party fundraiser in Houston -- She'll be part of the Lyndon Johnson-Barbara Jordan-Ann Richards JJR fundraiser May 24th at the Brown Convention Center
Dan Patrick May Have Just Sparked Bathroom Bill 2.0 -- The GOP’s effort to ban local paid sick day ordinances morphed into what advocates see as an attack on LGBTQ protections that cover 6 million Texans
Duke Energy Corp. eliminated 1,900 positions in its latest round of job reductions - Largely through
voluntary buyouts but with some involuntary layoffs included, and it's more than was cut even after Charlotte-based Duke bought Progress Energy Inc. in 2012
