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Texas lawmakers find $3 billion to pad the budget Houston Chronicle Share     Texas House budget writers voted Monday to free up an additional $3 billion for key state services through such moves as speeding up tax collections, delaying payments and suspending the back-to-school sales tax holiday. The bills next go to the full House, which Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, predicted could be willing to add $4 billion to $5 billion to a bare-bones spending plan it passed earlier this month. More
Obituary: Influential Texas builder James Box Legacy.com Share
James Clarke Box, 80, of Houston, passed away early Thursday morning. Everyone who knew him knew Jim was a family man who was the rock of his family. He is also well known for his tireless work in the development and home building industry. More New-home construction increases 7.2 percent in March The Associated Press via Google News Share
Builders broke ground on more new homes last month, giving the weak housing market a slight boost at the start of the spring buying season. Home construction rose 7.2 percent in March from February to a seasonally adjusted 549,000 units, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Building permits, an indicator of future construction, rose 11.2 percent after hitting a five-decade low in February. More
State consumer offices under fire Austin American-Statesman Share
t's a tough time to be a state-paid advocate for consumers in Texas right now. This legislative session, three state offices that help average Texans in disputes involving corporate giants have been targeted for closure or reduced roles: The Office of Public Insurance Counsel, the Office of Public Utility Counsel and the Office of the Public Interest Counsel at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. More Texas wildfire grows amid hot, windy weather Houston Chronicle Share
A Texas wildfire burning about 70 miles from the Dallas-Fort Worth area is more than twice as big as previous estimates, and firefighters will face difficult conditions Tuesday battling the blaze, officials said. The fire at Possum Kingdom Lake about 70 miles west of Fort Worth has grown to nearly 150,000 acres from estimates a day earlier of about 63,000 acres, according to the Texas Forest Service. More
Senate passes TxDOT sunset, with environmental review process streamlined The Lone Star Report Share
The Texas Senate has passed the Texas Department of Transportation sunset bill, which required TxDOT to take steps to be more transparent in its road construction contracting process and granted more flexibility to pursue those projects. In the process, Ogden attached to the bill an amendment on a 22-6 vote which the Senate had previously passed, to streamline the environmental review process. More Austin officials speak out against expected congressional map Austin American-Statesman Share
Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell and other elected officials stood with U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett on Monday to speak out against what Doggett anticipates are Republican plans to further divide Travis County through congressional redistricting. State lawmakers are scheduled to draw new districts before their regular legislative session ends in six weeks. Republicans in the state's congressional delegation have submitted their suggested redistricting plan to state officials, but that proposal has not been publicly revealed. In fact, state lawmakers have not yet unveiled any proposed map for congressional redistricting. More
TX Supreme Court hears arguments on open beaches The Associated Press via Houston Chronicle Share
The Texas Supreme Court will hear arguments on key provisions of the Open Beaches Act. Texas has long considered beaches to be public property up to the vegetation line, but a Supreme Court ruling put that in doubt. In November, the court cited early Texas history and ruled that Galveston Island's West Beach could be considered private property. More Public comment period set on pipeline Daily Tribune Share
Plenty of energy is being generated by the controversy over Keystone XL pipeline, but nobody's found a way to harness it for fuel. As public passion continues to escalate, the U. S. State Department has issued a supplemental but still preliminary environmental impact statement, which echoed an earlier draft they released, that characterized the $ 7 billion TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline project posing only a "limited" threat to the environment during construction and operation. More
Foreclosure probe talks said to yield some agreements with banks Bloomberg Share
Attorneys general negotiating a settlement of a 50-state investigation of foreclosure practices have reached agreements with lenders on some terms while failing so far to reach an accord on potential monetary payments by the banks, said a person familiar with the talks. More House passes eminent domain bill Austin Business Journal Share
The House tentatively passed legislation Wednesday that would further limit government entities' ability to seize private property — one of Governor Perry's emergency initiatives for the current legislative session. The bill, Senate Bill 18, seeks to further strengthen a property owner's right to defend against eminent domain from government agencies and private entities. Both the United States and Texas constitutions prohibit taking private property without just compensation. More |
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